Well have the numbers the moment they cross and the best analysis in Business News. Of course we are waiting for president obama during this hour to speak at the white house. Set to speak about his request for congress to authorize money and power to fight isis abroad before they infiltrate the United States. Well bring you, of course his comments live as soon as he takes the podium. Lets have a look at exactly where we are on the markets right now. The dow at its lows was down 109 points. Its quite a strong comeback although i guess for your Broader Market the s p still negative for now the third time in four sessions. We keep trying to make a hit at 2,068 and keep failing on that. Were five points higher than our recent range. The nasdaq is higher. This is the third decline in four sessions for the dow and the s p 500. Okay. Lets bring in our contributing panelists today. They include Keith Fitzgerald from money map press, Jack Bouroudjian with us from index Financial Partners jeff reeves of investor place. Com, meg green from Meg Green Associates and, of course our very own rick san tale santelli. Jeff, you really like the markets. Yes i think which jeff . I think the numbers were strong from the jobs number. Weve seen an uptick in oil. The pessimism over greece is a little overblown. I think investors have a short memory. I think were pretty good right now if you look at the grander scheme of things. Earnings have been okay. The blended growth rate is 3 . Im pretty optimistic. In the meantime we keep coming up on the s p 500 against this 2,068 level. We approach it and fall back and thats been very much kind of the situation for most of the year. Why do you think were unable to make further gains at the moment . Well, i think its partly just investor sentiment. I think investors are kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but i do think, again, long term investors dont have a lot to look beyond the volatility of january. I think we have to have a catalyst to get us out of this funk but earnings have been pretty strong. The blended growth rate is 3 . In some subsectors of energy were negative 20 yearoveryear earnings growth. I think to put q4 numbers up that are modestly okay and a lot of people have beat expectations considering the big head winds weve seen i think all well need is a little more good news and some more reassurance from the fed and i think were going to see a strong finish to 2015. Jack with all this hand wringing over greece and whether they will finally be able to strike a deal or answer oon extensionex an extension, here are some refreshing thoughts greece an exit doesnt really matter. Can you say that with confidence . Sara look and simon, weve talked about this two or three years ago i remember because we were talking about an implosion in europe at the time. All of us know that the economy in greece doesnt really matter in the overall grand scheme of things. Its more of a structural issue. Its adding into the greek bonds. Its the structural issue that is are the problem. If we were sitting here talking about germany leaving the eurozone, then we would have a serious issue on our hands, but the reality is if greece leaves guess what . Its not going to be that big a deal. And if it was going to be a bigger deal, we would see a lot more volatile in the markets. The fact is the subdued trade were seeing and it is subdued, tells us the market doesnt think its a big deal. Meg, where are you on munis . A lot of people say perhaps the taxfree. Where were you suggesting clients go . We love the muni market right now. People are looking for yield. We also like the stock market dont get me wrong, and worldwide theres a good market coming, but munis are basically funding 75 of our infrastructure. States are doing much better. Remember a lot of them can raise taxes themselves. So if people are looking for yield and theyre afraid to go too far out, although i dont happen to think Interest Rates will be going up so fast not by the fed anyway but i think if you really are looking for some yield and youre looking to save a few taxes and youre going to the intermediate muni area and youre careful about it i think you can really have a nice safe return there. Thats not the exciting bit thats in the market. Right. Well no. Speaking of yields rick santelli, had a pretty decent bond auction. Above 2 on the 10year. Was that notable . I think its notable because its a psychological level but, trust me i think at least in my opinion, theres very very great chance were going to be spending a lot more time in the next few sessions above 2 than below even though it might not be big, but what is big is the fact we settled here at 2. 17 . With regard to greece, obviously that meeting is going on now and i agree with jack it isnt about greece but greece is super important. Anybody who is a parent understands why. If you let greece get by with a couple things here and a couple things there portugal is going to want it spain is going to want it france is going to want it. Thats why they need to draw the line. Its not about the size of the economy, its about the size of their notable demands for more for less. Maybe they should start collecting some taxes. Spoken like a true german rick. Now youre talking. Who said that . To me guys greece is like a bug in search of a windshield. They have a lot of obligations, they lied to get in thee u, they mismanaged themselves for year, now they want to renege on their obligations and then some. The question is not like greece itself. Its like letting montana go out of business. Its a dizaisy chain of collateral traders hang on hackng on. Youre really confusing me. Most of the greek debt is held by governments or Public Institutions like the ecb. I think for most people i dont want to dwell on greece forever, but weve got to do it its in the news and its merckingaking headlines. Its more about the run on the banks. Whether the greece people pull their money out of the banks. Thats the fire isnt it, that might not be contained here . Well i would take issue with that. I think thats certainly an issue if youre local and if youre in greece. I think the other issue is much broader than that. I think its the derivative traders who have offset the risk. The worldwide Financial System has rehypothecated eight or nine times. Nobody knows who has got it. If theres a run on the banks, everybody will be looking for that buck and thats going to be what the shortterm disruption is to the market. If greece debt settles, if they get a deal there will be a sigh of relief. If greek debt gunt go look whats happening. Traders are subdued because nobody knows where the risks lie until everybody comes out of that meeting. Jeff what also happened but argentina defoughtfaulted and it wasnt the end of the world. They didnt have all the eu backing it. Right. It wasnt that cascading effect it could happen to others. Jeff, i want to turn it back to u. S. Markets right now. Were seeing utilities lagging again, tech and health care outperforming and Energy Continues to swing around here with what were seeing in terms of crude oil. Do you see that as a big factor as a big drag on the overall equity market or have we gotten past that point . Is it really only going to move the Energy Stocks . There are Energy Stocks that have actually kind of bounced back a little bit lately. So again i think it depends what time frame youre looking at whether its the last week versus yeartodate. But if you want to get forward looking about this one sector i think is coming into vogue right now amongst tactics its pretty important to talk about is Cyber Security with all the stuff we saw with aetna or im sorry not aetna, i want to say athena anthem. Yes, with anthem. And on the heels of sony and on the heels of target on the heels of Everything Else i think Cyber Security is kind of getting in fashion right now. If investors want to look at a segment of Technology Stocks i think Cyber Security offers a lot. Meg, what do you like in the stock market . We covered the munis. You say you still like stocks. Which part of the market . I like the broad market. I really do. Im always a small cap girl and sometimes i lag behind, but i like the small caps, but techs did not do that well except for apple flying so were looking at a really good tech rally and they keep knocking things down for Interest Rates. I dont think this market is being volatile about greece. I think its all about Interest Rates. I remember a year and a half ago when we were worried about the taper and everybody was fearful what was going to happen when the fed tapered and it kept everybody off balance. Right. Well thats done and now theyre saying when are the rates going to raise. Every time you think a rate is going to go up the utilities get knocked. They were great last year. Utilities are getting hammered again. Down 2 . Utilities are not just about income. There are a lot of utilities that have a lot going on thats far above and beyond just the yield. People look at utilities and say Interest Rates are going up, knock down the utilities, knock down the preferred stocks. I think you have to look beyond that. Theres an awful lot going on in the utility world. A lot that has to do with new energy looking for different places to so you cant just take utilities and put it in a broad brush. But thats why i say that the Interest Rate scare of raising the Interest Rates, and i dont see the reason for them a couple reasons but, you know, i think that thats whats spooking the market. I remember that taper was the big spook. So, you know, take a look and say utilities are still utilities. You cant ever deny yield if you are a longterm investor and you want to have utilities in the portfolio, you want to have yield, and with these Interest Rates being the way they are, look at microsoft. Went out 40 years on a bond. Microsoft is borrowing money. Apple is borrowing money. What is that telling you . Theyre going to be buying back their stock so you love the stock market and you love the economy but Interest Rates have to remain at zero for you to keep that love going. Well rick youre talking about corporations that are making money. Look at the earnings that are coming out rick. How can you then the fed should have no problem. They should have raise rates like three seconds ago. This has become the inspite of stock market rally. In spite of the fact that people are scared we the economy has improved in spite of all it. I think its more like a country dance, one step forward and two steps back. Were going to leave it there. A fiery discussion. Thank you for your time. Have a great evening. That was exciting. Less than 50 minutes to go before the closing bell and were looking at the dow now down less than 40 points. The nasdaq remaining in positive territory as apple makes new highs up another 2 today. The s p 500 is pretty much flat. Up next a big guest, howard lu lutnick speaking exclusively with cnbc. When he thinks the fed will raise rates. Plus the earnings parade continues. Cisco, metlife, tesla, and whole foods among those companies reporting. We will bring you the numbers as soon as they hit the tape. Were awaiting president obamas statement on the authorization for military force against Islamic State. The president expected any minute now. Stay with us. Female announcer through president s day, get 36 months interestfree financing, and save up to 300 on beautyrest and posturepedic. Even get three years interestfree financing on tempurpedic. Plus, free delivery, set up and removal of your old set. And sleep trains 100day money back guarantee. Keep more president s in your wallet. This special financing offer ends president s day at sleep train. Guaranteed sleep train your ticket to a better nights sleep a live shot of the white house where we are expecting president obama to address the nation make a statement on his request from the u. S. Congress where he sent a letter today to authorize military force to, quote, degrade and defeat the Islamic State forces in the middle east without sustained largescale u. S. Ground combat operations. Of course, this is stirring a lot of debate within congress and lawmakers, and, of course it will put them on a path to a vote. Lets take a look at how the markets are doing as we head into the closing bell a little less than 45 minutes to go. Were still seeing declines with the dow down 45 points. The nasdaq has remained in positive territory. If we close lower third day in four sessions of declines for the s p. Okay. Threequarters of an hour until we shut up shop. Lets see whats moving with dom chu. Lets start with apple. Another record high in trading today. Activist investor carl icahn is tweeting he thinks apple is worth 216 a share in todays mark and even more if they introduce a Television Product in 2016 or 2017. He anticipates a Capital Program will include a large increase to shares. Pepsico reported better than expected earnings. The pipeline of new products is perhaps the strongest in its history. Bgc partners reported earnings slightly better than estimates. Shares are negative. The interdealer brokerage and Real Estate Company says it expects fiscal First Quarter pretax earnings to be between 68 million to 80 million. The Fiscal Services business improved and the real estate business continues to benefit from positive trends. Back over to you guys. Thanks. Were going to pick it up right there. Break down those results with the man in charge. Joining us now exclusively is bgc partners chairman and ceo howard lutnick. Its good to see you again, howard. Great to see you guys. You posted an 18 million loss in the Fourth Quarter despite better revenues increased volatility which you like. What do you attribute the loss to . Look we settled a longrunning lawsuit. That was just our gap earnings. If you look at the operating earnings of the company, we had our second record in a row, and were guiding for our third record in a row. Revenues were up 20 . Profits were up 50 on the quarter. So we just had one settlement to try to wash out the past and just resolve this stuff, but the company is really hitting on all cylinders. Its really doing great. So its a great opportunity. We also announced we expect to raise our dividend next quarter which usually your viewers kind of like to hear. Theres no doubt about that mr. Lu tnick. Where are we on gfi group, the new york brokerage that youre trying to get your hands on for just shy of 800 million. Have you got enough people signed up for that because i see that your sixth deadline looms. So close, so close. So last week we need 45 , 45 at 6. 10. Last week we got 43. 3 . So we said, okay this thursday thursday in a week february 19th we expect enough shareholders to come and we will cross the 45 line. So were very excited about it very optimistic. We were up from 30 about a month ago to 43. 3 , so come on. Its so close. Yeah. Howard are you going to have to push the extension farther than next thursday if you cant get to that number . Look right now from my opinion, i cant imagine that the shareholders dont come across the line. You know i dont know that people expected us to get so close. You know they had a deal management had a deal with the cme. That was voted down. Were the only deal. Its 25 cents higher than theirs was anyway. Its all cash. I think next thursday is going to be a good day for the company. Were going to cross the 45 and off we go. I guess you might not have got enough acceptances yet because there are these reports that mickey gooch, who you know extremely well clearly doesnt want to get it go and he may be working with icap or other people to try and get some sort of counteroffer again on the table. Why would people kind of sell out now if there are those sorts of reports around that hes doing his best . I like the way the New York Times took it. They put a space and they wrote, seriously, put another space and big question marks. This has been going on for six months. If anybody else had any interest they would have come a long time ago. The difference between bgc and all these other guys we have the money. We have liquidity of 820 million. We have 20 of the Nasdaq Stock Market which is worth 625 million. We are a really really rich Strong Company capable of buyingg fbuying gfi for cash. Its a good transition for everybody. I think the management will come around to it. I think the shareholders are coming around. So i would expect that we should cross the 45 and move onto the next level. Company is hitting on all cylinders. Real estate business loves the low Interest Rates. With the company raising its dividend, i think were in great shape. Our yield was 5. 5 today. Next quarter off it goes higher. Why is your cfo stepping down . We learned Graham Sadler who has been with the company for a yew ears is going to be leaving. Does this have anything to do with the takeover battle you have been dealing with . I think it has to do with his 59th birthday. Hes retiring. He was the cfo of bear stearns europe. Hes a great guy, and, you know, hes 59 years of age, and he said, look ill stay as long as youd like. Id like to find my replacement. Hes involved in the search. This is a lovely retirement with a retirement party. Anything to the contrary is just silly. Hey howard what do you think of the markets . Well look low Interest Rates are great for a whole variety of categories. The u. S. Economy is growing much faster than people think. 3. 5 to 4 . But the end of tapering, right, with the tapering means we have the easiest Monetary Policy in t