About three points going lower here, and the nasdaq were keeping an eye on that one. Its going to be all about the nasdaq this week. Eerily similar to the exact same time of near 15 years ago the nasdaq closed at alltime highs. Its closing in on 5,000. It just turned negative on the session. Were off five points. 4,963 is the level. Were talking about 35 points away from crossing 5,000. Well have lots of numbers coming up on this. Obviously on an inflation adjusted basis you would have to of that index at 6,800 to have it equivalent you could argue. You have that number just right at your fingertips. We were just looking at it but a lot fewer companies as well. In the nasdaq this time around you have Something Like 2,500 companies versus 4,700 last time. Janet yellen getting grilled by the house on the feds independence. They were pretty feisty. Well get reaction from House Financial ServicesCommittee ChairJeb Hensarling coming up later today. They were really going after her. Oh, yeah. On a few issues there. Lets talk about the big picture in our Closing Bell Exchange. With us a Keith Fitzgerald from money morning. Com. Jack bouroudjian from index financial partners. Kenny polcari from oneil securities with us. So is christine short from he is at this myself and look who is joining us mr. Dennis gartman from the gartman letter. Thank you for joining us. Kenny p. Day two, yes, some fireworks, more than you saw in the senate yesterday, but what do you make when all is said and done of Janet Yellens tyme and its impact on our thoughts about the market. There hasnt been explosive volume, people are listening and watching and almost entertained by whats going on in washington. Were not seeing any real reaction. Theres no directional driver coming out of it forcing traders to go one way or the other. Quite honestly i think were hitting our heads on resistance at the moment. The path of least resistance feels a little lower. Not that its going to fall a little lower. It just feels like its a little tired and it needs to churn and catch up. Theyre going to tease us on nasdaq 5,000, is that it . I think they are. Keith, im trying to figure out what the market signal is for you . Is it from money map to money morning . Its just a change of name. Were the same great group and doing the same type of analysis. Whats that analysis telling you about this market . To the point of earlier guests, we are hitting resistance. The market is stretching its legs a little bit and taking a pause. I think yell sentence doing exactly what she should be doing and this is one of the few cases where i agree with her being feisty and taking a stand. So i like what shes doing here. Meeting by meeting, look at the data. Thats what we need to see. Christine, if i remember the notes right, youre the one who is saying we are in danger of being so overly obsessed with the fed were going to forget about fundamentals like earnings and the important things that influence this market right now. I mean when have we never obsessed over the fed, right . No. Absolutely. Like you said, what the fed says really drives the markets but in the past couple years weve really seen less of an emphasis on earnings so a great earnings number will come out and it may or may not move the market as much as it once did. I think you saw a little more of that this earnings season. Great earnings numbers that were unexpected caused a rise in stocks along the lines of a facebook or twitter, but today weve gotten some mixed retail results, and the good results really havent been rewarded because were more or less flat at this point, but i think it is because of that. The results were so mixed, and im not sure investors know what to make of the retail earnings weve seen out today. Meanwhile, theres also questions still about oil, the direction that may be heading, what it means for consumers. Are we forming a bottom here around 50 or no . Well ill have to tell you, kelly, im a little surprised by its ability to hold well today. The term structure has been very bearish, but today we had a relatively bearish number that came out for inventories following on the api number last night, and the market took it very well. One of the oldest rules that traders learn is a market that wont go down on bearish news is not going down anymore. This was bearish news. Crude oil didnt go down. You have to be impressed by that. Were starting to break some trend lines. Im rather impressed. Im surprised and impressed. Youre also watching strength in coal so i mean id heard the strong dollar was going to keep these commodities depressed for a while, but, you know, how do you reconcile that when you have a strong dollar still . Well i mean weve had a strong dollar were going to continue to have a strong dollar. I think the world has to get used to that fact. Youve beaten the crude oil market and the coal market down into submission but the strong dollar is having probably a greater impact on the grain market than anyplace else bill. I think thats where we have to Pay Attention to whats going on. Look at coal prices. Coal stocks are down 90 , 95 from their highs and crude oil is down what 65 from its high . These are very, very cheap prices at this point. Coal is extraordinarily inexpensive. Last night hewlettpackard reporting earnings a big miss lowered guidance. A lot of that from the impact of the stronger dollar. What kind of impact on the market jently lygenerally should we anticipate moving through the market . Is this to me . Jo Jack Bouroudjian . As far as im concerned, i think the major corporations out there have been absolutely wonderful in hedging out that currency exposure. Look weve had a series of Companies Come out. Those that have warned ahead of time telling us their exposure to the World Markets was not what they thought it was are those that did not hedge out their exposure properly. So were starting to see those numbers come out but the reality is that and i wrote this in my notes this is the yes market. This is the yellen Energy Stability market. A couple months ago i said that you dont get a hangover from drinking. You get a hangover when youre done drinking. Janet yellen is telling us the party is still on. Whats the stability, jack . I get the first two . The stability is whats happening around the world. Dont only look at europe. People are so fixed on what is happening in greece, what is happening in the ukraine, they fail to see whats happening in india. They fail to see whats happening this china. We are starting to see some real progress, and something that goes back to what you were just asking dennis gartman, one of the reasons that were starting to see some upward pressure in these commodities even with the strong dollar is because demand is picking up. That is the Global Growth story. And if that continues, watch out. Were going to what were you going to say, keith . I was going to say im totally with jack. There are a lot of things people have taken their eye off the ball because theyre trying to concentrate on whats happening in the greek holiday, if you will. And theyre forgetting Global Growth is not going to stop. It may slow down but its not going to stop. The other thing is the big guys are no longer growth companies, and i think thats symptomatic of what happened with hp microsoft, and intel this time. Its the smaller guys you want to look at for investment. You know christine, last few days folks have been coming through here saying, you know to temper or expectations for First Quarter earnings because of that strong dollar. We havent had any warnings coming out, but you can imagine that there will be Companies Like hp that will come out and have to confess or maybe use it as an excuse that that strong dollar is hurting their earnings. Thats been the theme of this entire earnings season. About a fifth of s p 500 companies that have reported up to this point have mentioned negative impact of the stronger dollar and many have guided forward to the First Quarter and said thats going to continue happening throughout the first half of 2015. So i think that theme is going to continue into next year. You see Large Companies saying this is unprecedented and its going to impact retailers. We have elle brands out tonight and that operates in 60 countries. You will see walmart. Its the more domestically companies, home depot and lowes blowing their numbers out of the water. Theyre domestically focused and they zrontdont have to deal with currency headwinds. Well have little more on home depot and whats happening there in a moment. First though our dominic chu joins us with a quick market flash. Whats going on . Aruba network shares are surging by 20 this on the heels of a bloomberg report that hewlettpackard is probably in talks to buy the Computer Network and Enterprise Network provider. Again Aruba Networks surging by 22 on this particular report. At focus says the report is the mobile at least enterprise infrastructure ewe situnit along the lines of what its wifi capabilities of and what it provides in terms of wifi infrastructure. Hewlettpackard said to be in talks to acquire Aruba Networks. A deal announcement could come as soon as next week. Thats a bloomberg report. Hp just reported earnings and its set to split into two separate companies later this year. An Interesting Development to watch. Thats why the shares are on the move. Back over to you. Thanks, dom. It occurs to me this is one way to deflect people away from the lower guidance they gave. Suddenly have word get out about a possible acquisition here. And it brings us back to this question about old tech as we look at the nasdaq generally moving towards the 5,000 mark. Today its a little under pressure. Its now down about nine points. Kenny, curious for your thoughts and this hp possible deal news here. Listen i think, first of all, that were teasing with the 5,000 and like we said yesterday, i think once it breaks through, its going to end up being a net net positive but to go back one quick second about your earnings about the guidance, were just getting through with Fourth Quarter earnings. First quarter is going to start in april. I think youre going to see some of the adjustments coming in or warnings or guidances coming in midmarch as they prepare once again to come to the confessional with earnings in april. That was true to my point. We need to be mindful at the very least theyre probably going to use the strong dollar as an excuse for whatever weakness they may show up with. And theyre going to do that probably starting in march as we get closer to the next reporting season. Yeah. Let me ask dont forget thats also when were going to start to see the effects of the lower oil, too. Usually takes about six to eight months, so remember factor that in also. Okay. And dennis to this point about stronger demand that was coming up a little bit, does that have you turning more bullish on commodity softs, hards, metals, industrials, et cetera, and where does that leave gold . I think the point about india being stronger is very important. Not enough people are paying attention to whats going on there. New change in government. Mr. Modi is going to change that country completely and i think well be surprised by how much demand comes from there. Everybody wants to talk about the weakness in china. I just think thats wrong. China continues to be strong and i think well be surprised next year how Strong Demand for many commodities will be after the smoke clears. Who agreed . I agree. Me keith. So did jack. Everybody does. China is totally underrated. Everybody is very upset about exports, exports, exports, but people forget they import 97 to 99 cents on the dollar. Its all about the imports and domestic demant. It hasnt been an exportdriven economy for a decade. All right. And it will be more and more consumers driven as we move through the next several years. Thats what the government wants to do and thats what they will continue to do. Trying to create that consumer driven economy. Thank you all for joining us. Appreciate your thoughts on todays market action. Thats our Closing Bell Exchange exchange. Weve seen markets turn negative. The dow is off a point. Nasdaq is off seven and the s p is off four. We had ten consecutive up days or was it nine . Ten, i believe. Were trying to make it 11. Now it will be a tougher climb. Things looking for negative with 45 minutes to go. Up next House Financial Services member french hill will give us his take on jeanette yell Janet Yellens testimony. Also coming up, American Express raising rates on more than a million credit card customers. The hike following a rough couple weeks marred by an antitrust setback and the end of its partnership with costco. The proingss debate if now is a good time to own am ex shares when the closing bell continues. Help join a continent with nearly 3 million rugged square miles with a single broadband connection. When emerson takes up the challenge its never been done before simply becomes consider it solved. Emerson. Barbara just bought a bike. She wrote a tweet about it. You cant learn much from that. But take data from millions of tweets combine that with your companys supply chain and sales data. Apply ibm analytics and expertise, and all of a sudden, you can learn which bikes to build what to make them from, where to sell them. Because barbara and the world just told you how to build a better bike. Theres a new way to work and its made with ibm. Our next guest was front and center for fed chair Janet Yellens testimony in congress today. Hes keen on hearing what she had to say about Community Banks. Thats right. Joining us now in an exclusive interview, representative french hill a republican from arkansas and member of the House Committee on Financial Services and founder and former ceo of a Community Bank. Representative Maxine Waters lets begin here asked yellen about lessening the Regulatory Burden on Community Banks. Take a quick listen. The chair and i have met on more than i think one occasion to talk about Community Banks and whether or not there was steps that could be taken that would ensure that the Community Banks are not overly burdened with regulations and to separate out the Community Banks from regionals and big banks, and so it is not that mr. Barney frank or i or others believe that there never, ever ever can be any modifications, any changes. We have always said that we are open to technical changes. So congressman, i guess the question is, is there some sort of quid pro quo negotiation going on for overall changes to dodd frank . Let me say this by saying that every member of Congress Democrat and republican has great Community Banks in their hometown. Theyre all hearing about the negative impact of dodd frank on their ability to serve customers at competitive prices. Specifically where, on Capital Requirements . Are you guys when you were running the Community Bank did you feel it was an onerous requirement to maintain similar Capital Requirements that the big banks were having to do at the same time . No. Small banks across the country have significantly more capital than the largest banks. Theyve always had excellent capital ratios. It wasnt capital. Its the rules that make lending more difficult for creditworthy borrowers. It raises the cost and curtails the sleuth availability of that credit. You know i keep mentioning that weve asked barney frank about that very issue, and he said, and i remember this distinctly, he said let me get this straight banks are reluctant to lend if they dont think theyre going to get their money back . He said thats precisely the point of dodd frank. What douse to you say to that . Here is the reality. The qm rules combined with other regulations have made it difficult for small banks to offer a competitive mortgage product or a competitive consumer loan. A lot of banks are exiting that business. Thats their bread and butter. Thats what a Community Bank should be doing in the Loan Portfolio and its been made very difficult, not just dodd frank, but 20 years of increasing Regulatory Burden on small locally owned financial institutions. Representative were you satisfied with the testimony you heard from the chair this morning . It was pretty contentious in there. Well chair yellen made a comment that i have complete agreement with. She says Community Banks face a substantial Regulatory Burden and its far and away bigger for a small bank than it is for a large bank and thats i think what the Ranking Member is talking about, its what all members are talking about. We are systematically putting out of business our small, locally owned, entrepreneurial geared Community Banks across this country reducing their franchise value, making them infective. As some have said too small too you can seed instead of too big to fail. Right. And i can imagine the