Two if by sea. Jane wells covering the problems out at the ports. She is live between the ports of l. A. And long beach, and, diana olich is on the land. Surf and turf here. Shes on the land in washington. Interest rates rising. Home Sales Numbers not. Diana, youre first. Well tyler, look spring housing is not getting off to the best start. Higher Interest Rates in a pitful supply of homes for sale are squeezing potential buyers. Now, Weekly Mortgage applications showed just how sensitive todays buyers are. Rates rose to their highest levels since early january. 30year fixed at 3. 93 . Its still under 4 . Even at that historically low level, applications to purchase a home dropped 7 for the week. They are barely 1 higher than one year ago. Rates moved even higher where heed. Does that mean real cash money . Well a borrower taking out a 200,000 mortgage today would have to pay just 42 more a month than they would have if they had bought on january 1st. Now, that might seem like chump change, but it gets higher the bigger the loan, and the homes are still getting ever priceyer. Why . Because theres no supply. Pitful supply of homes for salinationwide, and builders are not helping. Take a look. Single Family Housing starts fell in january monthtomonth. Theyre running at about half the level of 2000. Thats prehousing boom. Thats not even adjusting for population growth. One more interesting note. While the bump in Interest Rates doesnt translate into a lot of cash, one source tells me the absence of increasingly lower rates takes a lot of the fuel out of buyer confidence. More online at cnbc. Com. Back to you. Lets get to the surf then in the west coast. Dozens of ships anchored off shore unable to deliver their cargo. Jane wells is in los angeles. Just off the ports there. Whats the very latest . Jane. Well not much. We have seen supply ships running back and forth today. Mostly bringing crude. These guys arent stuck out here all this time. This ship left china last month. It has been sitting here since february 12th. The one behind it the same way. We got one out here in the hayes, China Shipping line. This has been here since february 13th. Were near one that has been out here since february 9th. That is nine days. You know imports are one thing. Exports are another. Basically nothing is leaving. This is hurting u. S. Exports. Were talking recyclers, beef pork california produce. Labor secretary tom perez will meet with both sides again today in san francisco. Now, both sides are reportedly close on pay, but the big hitch is that the union wants to distance the arbitrator that settles disputes in the long beach area because the union says he favors management. Take a look at the map of the l. A. Long beach port. The green squares are container ships. There are about 30 of them outside the port waiting for space to open up. We have all the maps waiting outside the port of seattle. Same problem. In seattle we have a photo from someone who lives out on windby island who for the first time is seeing boats with nowhere to go parking out there. Theres been a 200 jump in cargo going from china to the east coast since this has started, but rates to the east coast, which were already expensive, are up now 60 from a year ago. Tyler. Thank you very much, jane. So with no agreement seemingly in sight, how do we get around this port problem . Conveniently, little known fact alan wassler, cnbc. Com managing editor right here. He is a former port reporter. Not a court reporter. A port reporter. Little known trivia. Actually, its coming in hand where i here because the alternatives, well if you are an agricultural exporter very limited. Your best shot maybe is to go down to the center of the United States by rail and then out through the panama canal to try to reach asia. Thats very hard for a timesensitive commodity. Importers, you are talking retailers, manufacturers. They can try to loop it up to either canada or down through mexico. All right . But were already getting reports those ports are beginning to fill up a little bit. What do you do . Well, you can go from asia to the east coast. As janing pointed out, a lot of traffic is going that way. Costs a little bit more. You bet it does. You talked about how much it was. About 4,000 to get into the west coast. Talk about 6,000 7,000 to get to the east coast. These are the east coast ports that would be getting that spillover effect. Exactly. I was talking to a couple of sources this morning, theyre saying that savannah and norfolk are actually turning out to be the big winners in this. Big rail connections always key. You have to get it to the interior. Who owns these ports, or who operates them many. The ports themselves are public facilities but they lease out terminals. You get terminal operators. Theyre a standalone company, or the ship lines open the terminals outright. Heres the trick, tyler. All foreignbased. Theyre not u. S. Companies. Auto a lot of them hong kong singapore. International shipping is all foreignbased. We have some domestic ship lines. Smaller operators. For the most part and this is key the ship line is still going to get your money, whether you go by west coast or east coast. Its the same ship line serving both sides. Who is in theory here most affected . Smaller companies, i would guess, would be the ones that dont have the padding or the logistical sort of backstop. Exactly. This is where if you are an investor, you should Pay Attention. This is what the company youre invested in is it big enough to be multichannel, multisourced . A big outfit can easily say, hey, i already got shipments coming asia to east coast via suez. Ill just transfer more that way. Little guys that dont have those alternates in play theyre the ones i suspect that the west coast port strike is going to be this quarters version of last years it was a brutal winter. Thats going to be the excuse here. Basically have your b. S. Detector very good. The west ports could be the dog ate my homework for the retail. B. S. Means best sales. All right, alan. Thank you very much. Susan, over to you. Thats a new interpretation of that acronym. Lets check in on the markets right now because they are sliding and coming off those record highs on tuesday. This is just hfd the release of the fed minutes in just under ab hours time. Lets go to bob pasani who is standing by at the big board with the latest action. Hello. We have been moving in a narrow range range. We have the whole month of january. Thats kind of flattened out in the last couple of weeks. We do have moves in oil. Dom was telling you about that incident at the exxon refinery in torrence california. Oil did move down a little bit, but its been weak all morning, and all the big oil names. Dow is having trouble because exxon and chevron has been week. All the big names have been done. Moved a little lower late in the day. Banks have had a fantastic month. They really have been a marked leader but today theyre slipping. Big names like bank of america, zions, wells fargo, some of the regional names are to the down side. We have the fomc minutes coming up. We asked our partners what typically happens to stocks and bonds on a day like this and its very interesting. The Movement Really is in the treasury area. Tenyear yields trade up higher. 77 of the time. Thats since may 2013 when the fed first started talking about raising rates. The average return 1. 2 . Thats a few basis points in the tenyear. Unfortunately, the s p 500 and most of the stock market kind of indeterminate. Its only up 53 of the time on these days. The average return only 0. 15 . I dont think thats very statistically significant. However, guys i do think its interesting that the tenyear yield is up most of the time. Guys back to you. All right. Okay. Bob, you mentioned lets get to dominik chew for more on that exxonmobil refinery. Dom. Weve got new information here with regard to whats happening. First of all exxonmobil has acknowledged that there was an incident at their torrence california, refinery earlier today at approximately 8 50 a. M. Pacific time. They do also go on to say that their main concern is for the safety of their employees and their neighbors. We are accounting for all personnel and still eve waiting the cause of the incident or the occurrence or amount of any damages. More information, again, to come as soon as it becomes available here. What you are seeing right now are the latest live shots that we have from this torrence refinery in Southern California. As you can see there, it looks and appears as though there are hoses, fire hoses, going off in the distance here and smoking coming out of various structures around the refinery. This is a separate refinery than we showed you earlier, which is what appeared to be some kind of a burnoff, controlled or not, was happening. There is what you saw before. Now, that is still going on right now. What we just showed you was in another part of the refinery. Again, were monitoring the situation very closely. We will now say, though that Torrence Police department, the Torrence Police officials have closed off some roads because of this incident. We also have information that there is no need to shelter in place air quality. Its not yet an issue. Thats what we understand right now. There are still a lot of details that we dont know but for right now what you are seeing again, a structure that is the Exxonmobil Oil refinery in torrence california with various parts that appear perhaps to be damaged and appear to be smoking with a fire hose or what looks like fire hoses going off in the distance. Again, well bring in more details as they become available, but for right now the Torrence Police department has said there is no air quality issue at this time. No need to shelter in place. The police have cordoned off and closed off certain roads in and around the area. Again, tyler, susan, a very obviously not good situation, a bad situation happening in torrence california but well bring up to speed as soon as more details become available. Developing story there in the state of california. Dom, thank you so much. Now, were going to go to break, but its been a strong were for indias stock market. Its up about 42 . Thats right. 42 . Well take a look at that market through the prism of the etf. Plus, one 36yearold professor, just 36 years old, could be the next leader of spain. The rest of the euro zone thinks he could be their next nightmare. Power lunch is back right after this. The road. It can bring out the worst in people. But the mclass scans for danger. Corrects for lane drifting. And if necessary, it will even brake all by itself. It is a luxury suv engineered to get you there and back safely. For tomorrow is another fight. The 2015 mclass. See your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. Hey, girl. Is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now . It kinda is. Its as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. Cue the horns. Just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrades rollover consultants. Theyll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. And theyll even call your old provider. Its easy. Even she could do it. Whatever, janet. For all the confidence you need td ameritrade. You got this. Welcome back to power lunch. Heres a Boston Scientific leading the way in the s p 500 today. Currently up about 11 . This following news that the medical device maker will pay Johnson Johnson 600 million to settle a lawsuit over bostons acquisition of fellow device maker guidant. That was back in 2005. Now, with the settlement j j will permanently dismiss its legal challenge, so again, shares up 11 , tyler, on that bit of news. Back to you. Dom, thank you very much. Activists beating street earnings estimates and iz raising its forecast on sales growth. The drugmaker taking on the allergen corporate name once the acquisition is completed. There will be no more activists. We wont trip and call it actevist. Also disclosing a 5 stake in deere and company. A mixed picture for hotel earnings. Hilton missing forecasts by 1 cent, although revenue beat estimates. Opposite, though for hyatt. It topped estimates by 9 cents despite revenue falling below expectations. Susan. Let me show you one of the worlds best performing stock markets in the past year. India. It looks like the ascent continues. Check out the performance over the past one year. Up 42 . How does an investor get into this right now . We have a look at the etfs. Seema. Despite the runup some traders are telling me this rally could continue. Heres why. The economy starting to show signs of improvement. Were seeing a rebound in growth and narrowing of its current account deficit, and inflation moving lower. Remember india is a net oil importer, so it has been benefitting from Lower Oil Prices. All those helping to push investors into indian stocks. With that said the country is still facing a lot of challenges. Especially when it comes to tackling corruption and port. With that said some analysts say taking a step back and looking at india, in comparison to piers like china, which is dealing with sluggish growth. Brazil suffering from Lower Oil Prices and a depreciation in its currency. Russia also dealing with declining oil prices and western sanctions. India, in comparison, is being seen as a much more attractive bet. Investors like what Prime Minister the probusiness leader has to say and has promised to revive the economy going forward. Now, if you are looking to get exposure to india, there are some etfs. There, of course is the msci that houses many multinational names. Theres a more indianspecific etf like the wisdom tree earnings fund, and the power share india etf all up. If you are also wanting to bet on the rupi which has been strengthening against the u. S. Dollar, theres the wisdom tree fund also up so far in 2015. Susan. Seema, thank you so much. India would be one of the contributeors to the recordsetting year for the markets. Power lunch will reveal Institutional Investors best and worst hedge funds in 2014. How are they performing right now . The report card is coming your way next. Also up next power pitch. A budding marijuana startup creates a tinder for pot lovers. This app gets those cannabis consumers to connect with each other. Will the panel swipe right on this big whered . As someone who is also single and actively looking for husband number three or will it go up in smoke . Is there room on peoples phones for a what appears to be a tinder clone . Stay tuned to find out. Claims legend has it these hills are full of em. It can take months for an Insurance Claim to surface. Claimin takes patience. Aflac paid my claim in one day. They got some newfangled kinda one day payin machine . Hehehehe yea, i got aflac at work. Aflac. In just one day, we approve and pay. One day pay, only from aflac. Aflac. [ female announcer ] who are we . We are the thinkers. The job jugglers. The up allnighters. And the ones who turn ideas into action. Weve made our passions our lifes work. We strive for the moments where we can say, i did it we are entrepreneurs who started it all. With a signature. Legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into Business Owners. And were here to help start yours. Time for our weekly power bit where we give an entrepreneur 60 seconds to pitch his startup to a panel of experts. Hi there. My name is todd mitchham ceo of high there. Cannabis is legal in 23 states but there still exists a bit of a stigmatization around the cannabis consumer, and there certainly does not exist a way for these cannabis consumers to thoughtfully and meaningfully connect with each other. We created high there. Its an app, and through a few simple on boarding questions, this app gets those cannabis consumers to connect with each other to share different types of experiences in a likeminded, nonjudgmental environment. We call it high there, and it solves the problem of how these people can connect with each other. High there in phase two is going to have an amazing monday tiesation strategy and all new dynamic ways that groups of people will come together to share these experiences. We call it high there, and as we say around here you have more friends than you think. Well welcome to todays power pitch. Im mandy drury. Hi there. You just saw the 3i67 now. Lets meet the panel. On set with us is an Angel Investor fascinated by all the budding Investment Opportunities in the cannabis space. Alicia syret. Also a board member of the new york angels. Joining us is patrick rea, cofounder of canopy boulder. He also works with arkview group, a private equity form focussing on marijuana. And in las vegas, the Martha Stewart of marijuana, cheryl shuman. Founded the Beverly HillsCannabis Club and invests in the marijuana space and fun fact she holds a trademark on the phrase stilletto stoners. Its great to have you all with us. You obviously have a whole lot more experience in this space than i do, but, todd youre in the hot seat here. Patrick, question to you. Is there room on peoples phones for what appears to be a tinder clone . Are you talking about the tinder weed probably which im not really fond of that. I think there is room for it. I think, again, you know my own personal experience is im a single guy, i have been dating i have used tinder and other apps for dating, and im not afraid to admit, and i have had dates that are disasters. The minute i say, by the way, im in the industry, and i consume cannabis and its like there it is. Dates over. Ill pay for dinner. Have a great night. Yet, here we are at this time where consumers like me want to connect with other People Like Us in a way thats safe and a way we can count on. I think theres plenty of room for it. Todd i have heard studies upwards of 70 of cannabis users are male. How do you run a dating app and not have a bunch of guys log in only to find another bunch of guys . I think a lot more women are entering into the space openly and a lot more before were not as open about it. I think whats happening here is were seeing a shift in the culture. We have to be dynamic, and its a social connection. Its