Its numbers were not necessarily going to be up to snuff. It said it would be doing some reorganizing. Out withit is coming the actual numbers, they are ahead of estimates. 217 is what analysts had been anticipating. In the fourth quarter. The estimate was for a gain of 2. 5 . Heres what seems to have gone on at macys. During the Holiday Season, the retailer was stronger than many of its competitors at time when most retailers were struggling. Because of the still struggling consumer and because of the weather. That weather affecting in january. Macys appears to have had a stronger Holiday Season but the fact that those same store sales are missing estimates is likely because of the weaker january. I january that most retailers had. That weather affect really hitting many of these companies. If its snowing outside and the roads are bad, people were simply staying home. How is macys holding up compared to its competitors . It has been doing better here. This earnings per share number means that it is able to ring in more profits out of the sales it does do than many of its competitors. Part of that has to do with macys size as the Biggest Department store retailer in the country. It has agreements with suppliers and it has to be more promotional. Offer more sales. It can have some sort of pushback and its agreements with suppliers so they may have to eat some of the added cost of offering things at a discount. It also has a larger private label business. Things under various macys brand. That can be a higher margin business as well. Leverage,e operating if you will, than some of the other Department Store companies. Online business for macys. That is growing pretty well. It is growing pretty well also. It is 11 of the companys business according to scott galloway, a marketing professor at nyu. He says that there is a relatively high level of engagement with the consumer. This is something that i heard from person after person i spoke to head of this report when there was analysis that macys Online Business across multiple channels, internet, and, etc. , that it is stronger than other competitors. Thank you so much. Moving and shaking this hour in tec is the google chairman, eric schmidt. He is telling consumers to sit back and enjoy this battle between apples iphone and the device is powered by google. Schmidt spoke to charlie rose. In the fight between apple and google over the operating systems, it is producing enormous reductions in the prices of phones. If google were not there, those iphones would be a lot more expensive. If apple were not there, all those android phones would be more expensive. Consumer valley was enhanced by this. Consumer value is enhanced by this. You can watch the interview at 8 00 tonight on Bloomberg Television. Neither apple nor google is at the mobile world conference in barcelona this week. Every other big name is in the game, including the ceo of blackberry, john chen. He turned some heads this morning when he mentioned potential plans for the new messaging service. What is there . What is the deal with the blackberry messenger . What is he going to be doing with that unit . I put a question to them. Sitting down with john chen, there is so much talk about messaging at the moment. Whatsapp going for 19 billion. Are we seeing a new valuation of blackberry . They have 85 million users of bbm. That adds value. Could he spend this entire unit on bbm . Running a public company, anything to help her our shareholders, have to take a look at it. We need to build up that base and deal with the engagement model. No immediate plan for john chen. He says, look, i am having to assess this. It could be beneficial to my shareholders. Is a big issue for these tech companies. Blackberry, given its own sort of credibility and the security blea, are they going to be a to cash in on this . It is is wind in their sails. He says it is like living in san francisco, nobody is prepared for an earthquake. Nobody is prepared for the expense of the nsa looking at our data. Everyone is getting interested in protecting their own data and privacy. He says, yeah, they are looking front and center at security. Messaging a secure messaging infrastructure. We are the only one who has it. It is important that we showcase and use that as a differentiator into the thousands of enterprise customers. Up the again, bringing messaging capability. We have the most secure messaging capabilities. Notays, look, as our time yet to spend 19 million. Letpriority is to shareholders judge. They are unleashing new products come april. All focus on emerging markets. On the ground in barcelona at the mobile world conference. We have a Great Program ahead. We will talk to the veteran california lawmaker about putting america back to work. Getting congress on track when it comes to the budget and much more. Plus, bieber fever may have passed. s legaldian pop star problems will not get into portage. Stay in the loop. Were just Getting Started on this tuesday morning. Oureres a look at Bloomberg Top headlines this morning. The Bitcoin Exchange has gone offline. Directing users to a blank, white page on its website. Immediately did not respond to messages seeking comment. It operates bitcoin wallet. It wants to reassure owners of the Virtual Currency that bitcoin is still safe. Home depot topped fourthquarter estimates this morning, getting a bottom line news from a rebound in housing thats bird renovation. Home depot returning some of that extra cash to investors, boosting its quarterly dividends 21 . Jpmorgan also making headlines this morning. The Bank Forecasting a cut of 8000 jobs in its consumer and mortgage banking business. Is saving about 2 billion in the face of slower economic recovery. Speaking about the economy, the pentagon plans to reduce personal by 13 with the army taking the biggest cut. The number of soldiers on duty will shrink to its lowest level in 15 years. How is this going to affect the economy and the job market . I want to turn to mike mckee, who has been going through those details. Critics have come out and said that we cannot afford to not have a big army. We can. We have in the past. Take a look at where we were before the iraq and afghanistan wars. If you look at the buildup up of the activeduty army over the last 1015 years come you can see in the 1990s, the peace dividend allowed us to cut our forces tremendously. The huge buildup of the wars that followed since the peak two years ago. We have been coming down and we are getting back to a more rational level to the threat level we face today. Take a look now at what secretary hagel is suggesting. The reductions will go from 522,000 to 490,000 by 2015. By 2019, 450,000. Not huge impact on the economy overall. Military personnel are not counted in the establishment or the household surveys. They dont affect the data that we see on a regular basis. They will not affect the number of people who are having or not having jobs. To the extent that some of them leave the service and dont find other jobs, they could show up in the unemployment figures. Were talking 30,000 over the next year. Its not going to move the dial. He plans on cutting spending. That will have some impact . Were getting back to the only in washington would you find it an increase if it were not a big cut. Were talking cutting personnel over the next five years. The budget is going to be rising. Total spending will rise but on different things. Take account of inflation and because these things are already in the pipeline. A certain amount of what the pentagon spends is already baked into the economy. We may not see as big a boost. We have not been seen that for a number of years from government spending. As sequester has an impact well. Because of these wars winding down, we are now having to spend less money. You are seeing a lot less spending overall. The total impact on gdp Going Forward is likely going to be limited. Thank you so much. Mike mckee. In lobbyists are all buzzing washington as well on something else. They are preparing to pour over the details of the first major republican tax overhaul lannon years. They are nervous about the details. Peter cook has more on plan. Ssman daves this is the most soughtafter document in d. C. Right now. If you could only understand the phone calls ive been getting in the last few days from lobbyists. Other players here in washington. They want to know what dave camp wants to do with the tax code because they are worried about what might happen to their individual companies and industries. They want to know how hard they are Going Forward. Be camp plan is said to unveiled tomorrow. It remains topsecret. He has been keeping a close to the vest. Nobody expects this plan to Pass Congress and its Midterm Election year. This proposal is a very big deal here in d. C. Because it is the most detailed effort to overhaul the tax code in years. It will become the standard by hich other tax proposals are measured. It is a chance for him to carve out a legacy before he asked to give up his gapless chairman of the house ways and Means Committee next year. A big moment for dave camp and a big moment in washington for anybody that wants to see an overhaul of the tax code. Give us a sense of what it will say. Been a tightlys ret. Sec they will not make it public until tomorrow. A lot of rumors. Some big picture things. He has said this publicly. He says that he wants to cut the individual tax rate and reduce it to 25 . He wants to cut the Corporate Tax rate to 25 . Any plan he puts forward will be revenue neutral and will not affect the deficit. He has said that he will not increase the Capital Gains tax. He will not make changes to the estate tax as well. The sand some lines in that he has put down. The question is, how does he keep it revenue neutral . What does change in order for him to lower those rates. That is what everybody wants to find out. What is out there for dave camp to target . The most controversial ideas . A couple out there. Some of these have been reported in other places. Take it with a grain of salt. Changing the tax treatment of health care benefits, particularly for wealthy americans. That is been a controversial issue for a long time. It could be based on your income level. That would be a significant change. The rumor out there the most, people up and talking about it, the possibility they will tax large bank similar to what the president proposed out of the financial crisis. That is getting a lot of attention from Bank Lobbyists and wall street analysts. Define some revenue, perhaps dave camp would target very large banks. Well have to wait and see with the details are when they come out tomorrow. Everybody is waiting for this document. We will have it for u. S. And as we get it. Thank you so much. Peter cook. Someone who knows washington very well, we can see him as part of washington. Is here. Enas he represents a mostly hispanic district in california. He is here in new york, joining us in the studio. Thank you so much for joining us. Good to be here. Were listening to the reports peter cook, discussing what is one of the most Important Documents to come out. This whole overhaul of the tax code. What do you want to see in this overhaul . I would like to see is to make sure that we can be honest with the American Public and collect enough tax revenue so that we can address our infrastructure issues and the needs of america. Reducing taxes while at the same time having enough its very hard. If you cut anywhere, there is going to be winners and losers. That is the biggest problem. Politicians, all we have to do is be honest with america and let them know why we need to do what we do. Lower it here and raised over there. People will be ok. When people talk about half of the apple and not talk about the entire apple, that is when america gets upset when they hear, that second half, you will raise this or that. Of thising about half or half of that, the same can be applied when youre talking about budgets. Here you have this defense sides and there is both something for both sides to fight about. Earlier,congressman on a republican from ohio, this was his take before this budget was released. Not going to be a safer place. This is not the time for us to begin to retreat and not the time to cut our military. You would were not agree with that . I dont agree with that. We can trim the budget when it comes to military. We have to be responsible with it. World is costly changing constantly changing every single day. At the same time, we can do the jobs we promise for the world and still do the job to protect democracy in america. It is unfortunate when people threaten to say that any cuts whatsoever are going to threaten our military balance. You can say that because your district is not heavily reliant on defense spending. We have a lot of companies in my district who feed the Larger Companies when it comes to the products that go into the defense industry. It affects the labor force in my district as well. We have to do what is responsible and what is right. Anytime we make changes, it is going to hurt somewhere. I think you have to be honest with the American Public and let them know what we are doing, why we are doing it and what theyre getting for it. Tell me about this bill that you have proposed a couple of weeks ago about offering stipends for people to allow them to relocate. I reached across the aisle and im working with the congressman from south carolina. A tea party congressman. Imagine that. Were working to make sure we can help mobility of america. Mobility so that people can go get a job. If somebody identifies a job and that job is waiting for them, in advance. It an what do you mean . They can get up to 10,000 in order to get that change, that move. Everybody knows, last months rent, you have to move across the state or across the country. Is allowre going to do people to go ahead and get that job and they can get back to work. Mobility by many of the economists in this country among both conservative and liberal are saying that mobility is one of the reasons why so many people are unable to get back to work. How is it revenue neutral . It is within the department of labor already. That money is already set aside. When summary files for their Unemployment Insurance benefits, we already say, this person is unemployed for the maximum amount of time and that money is already set aside. They take the 10,000 from what we already would have given them in the long run if they stay unemployed. Is revenue neutral edi are would agree that there some anecdotes of people who have not been able to move because they have been stuck in their jobs. Isnt this a bottomline problem . There are no jobs out there. There are 3. 5 million jobs opening around the country. We have about 3. 5 Million People who are chronically unemployed. There are jobs out there. The thing is, if you are sitting in los angeles and you have a certain skill set, maybe you need to move to illinois to get the job. How is somebody going to take on that expense if they are only getting the little bits to survive . It did not taken mincing so much as just the idea of saying, hey, there is opportunity for us to have a revenue neutral proposal in which we can increase mobility and put people back to work. Were are not having to increase taxes. Anytime i can talk to a Tea Party Republican about not increasing taxes, putting people back to work within the same envelope, we are together on that. On you benefiting the arent you benefiting republicans . It does not matter as long as we do the right thing. Are their economic policies on the tea party site you agree with . Is a tea party person who wants to have a proposal that is revenue neutral, we can work together. You have spent many years in california. You literally have written dozens of budgets in your lifetime. There has been big debate about californias economy. We are top six. One of your fellow General Assembly colleagues has written an editorial about the state of californias economy, comparing it to texas and singh californias economy lags because it is such a high tax state. Said, 12 of californias workforce is either in bureaucratic overhead or working as regulators. Telling fellow californians what to do and how to do it. Texas has half the percentage. This is chuck devore. What do you say to that . Isthing got our economy strong in california and coming back very strong. What people need to understand is that in texas, we need to regulators for Certain Industries to make sure those things dont happen. That is one of the nice things about california. You can raise a family regulation at any level of government, they are intertwined. When you have federal funds, they push it down to a local state safety. You will pay for your bodies to regulate this industry or what have you. California has a higher on up limit rate than the rest of the country. Everybody knew that california was going to lag, but we are coming back strong. The Unemployment Rate is going down. Revenue rates is extremely strong. We have had a tremendous job and will be reinvesting back in education. Because the economy is much stronger today. The revenues for the state is much higher. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. Covering a lot of ground here. Tony cardenas of california, right here in our new york studio. Television is on the markets. You have s p futures a bit lower, racing some of those gains. Yesterday, we are raced the loss for the entire year. Morning,llowing this home depot and tmobile. 8000gan expected to cut more jobs in mortgage and Consumer Banking this year. Those are some of the stocks you want to keep your eye on. On the markets again in 30 minutes. Ebay has been in the crosshairs four months now. Member yesterday we learned that icon published an open letter to ebay stockholders, criticizing Board Members. Trish regan spoke with icon yesterday at on her program. She joins us now with some of the highlights