400,000. At this point, having a backup plan to make sure that as few american taxpayers are affected by this increase as possible. Now no one expects that the gop bill will pass the democraticcontrolled senate. In fact, harry reid said forget it, theyre not going to be passing any of these things. But this is another option out this. And it does change the dynamics in terms of whos going to be blamed for raising taxes. Well see how this plays out. Among our guests on the topic this morning is dccc chairman steve israel, congressman from new york. Plus, well also be talking more about whats at stake in washington and how the fiscal cliff is likely to effect Investment Decisions. We have Value Investor leon cooperman, hes going to join us on set starting at 7 00 eastern time. Then at 8 00 eastern, we have black op cofounder and ceo Ralph Schlosstein. And Lynn Hutchins will join us. Well talk about what they see playing out and what they think is working when it comes to the markets now. The bill that the president says is in the house that he will sign if thats in the senate the senate. The senate that he will sign if the house passes it is what . That is . That is 250 . 250 . He said 400. He said, i have the pen, lets keep tax rates where they are for everyone at 250 and below. So this one, thats c these guys are pretty clever because that would keep rates where they are for everyone at a million and below. No middleclass taxpayers up to a Million Dollars thats no matter what, isnt it, in either bill . Yon r i think it would be the same in either one. Thats not what reid and i guess pelosi, you saw that, said she opposes the milliondollar thing. A lot of people if back on what they say. The difference would be that one is 250 and below, and the other is a million and below. More taxpayers would not see a tax increase. What does it do with the budget cuts in either one . Does it not deal with them . Either way oh, no. The sequestration budget yeah. In the budget cuts go in for plan b. No, they would be delayed. They would . Yeah. This is a way that, you know, theyre trying to shift the onus now back to where it would be the president and the and the senate thats saying no to keeping rates low for the middle class. So theyre both trying to political maneuvering. A tie ground. Someones trying to be on the high ground. I wonder what would happen if the republicans say they go to 400. I wonder what would happen then. Would reid pass the 400 . Probably. I mean, since its on the table from the president , why wouldnt he . I guess the question becomes, can he get the votes for it. Because at that point there are r some people who think that the white house doesnt really necessarily want a deal that badly. Thats the slow walk and everything else. If you do the 400, that takes well no longer have the taxes to talk b. And all were going to have at that point are entitlements and spending cuts. That would be a discussion that maybe some people, you know, cant deliver on and dont want to have. It is late in the day to be dealing with this stuff, though. December we would pass it, but then the next deadline becomes a debt ceiling. Thats the other thing that, you know, the white house really wants. They want a twoyear i dont know, if they did 400 well see. What if they do five, maybe they come down to 500, kind of a compromise people thought for a long time maybe they end up. Right. I think boehner and at this point it might be in the white houses best interest to maybe do something at 500 instead of having this plan b where they say no to that, then anyway. Yesterday big gains. 115 points for the dow. Yeah. For whatever reason. It kind of that was in the face of what senator corker told us, and it went back to thinking that maybe there is some movement happening here. I wonder if we go up so much in anticipation that when it finally happens, we sell off. That were just relieved, and that you dont get the huge bounce. But europe is also tracking what were doing here. As it should really. Our economy is much more important to the globe than what happens in any of those little economies over there. The shares drifting higher in early trading on expectations that a budget deal is closer. In asia, japans nikkei rising above the 10,000 mark, wow, the first time in more than eight months. Still a ways from 50,000. Among the catalysts, expectations of more aggressive monetary stimulus from the bank of japan. The boj wraps up a twoday meeting with a policy announcement tomorrow. The world bank in the meantime is raising its 2013 Economic Growth forecast for china and for developing east asia. The Organization Says that the region remains resilient despite the lackluster performance of the Global Economy. The World Bank Sees china expanding by 8. 4 next year. Its expecting that it will be fueled by fiscal stimulus and the faster implementation of large investment projects. Todays forecast is higher than an earlier one that was sited in a World Bank Report in october. 8. 4 , not bad both if you can get it. Speaking of china, the United States is moving forward with plans to slap steep antidumping duties on wind turbine towers that are imported from china at prices that are deemed unfairly low. The news from the Commerce Department comes as u. S. Officials welcomed a highlevel chinese delegation for trade and economic talks. The u. S. Trade panel has final approval over the duties and is expected to vote on the case in late january. In corporate news, ubs hit with a 1. 5 million fine today. That will add up, a few more of those. The swiss bank admitting to fraud, it paying bribes to brokers. And pervasive, they call it manipulation of libor by dozens of staff. The penalty was agreed to with u. S. , u. K. , and swiss regulators. It is more than three times the 450 million fine that was levied on barclays in june. The second largest fine ever on a paid paid by a bank. It only was topped by the 1. 9 billion penalty that hsbc agreed to last week to settle that Money Laundering probe. Crazy thing that stocks up. Its leading the exchange there today because people had been expecting maybe a slightly higher fine even than that. Three times the amount. It was supposedly taking place for five to seven years, 30 to 40 traders have left. Pretty pervasive. I wonder how much they they make money or lose money after after all was said and done. 1. 5 billion. Probably lost. They did well. The libor stuff, if you can set rates well, and the crazy thing, it affects so many different instruments and so many people and so many businesses. Right. I dont know that you could ever actually figure out all the implications from it. Right. From everyone. And in a related story this morning, the f. T. Reports that the new york fed was warned as early as mid 2008 that banks might have been misrepresenting their libor borrowing rate. That was to aid their own trading positions. And that date is much earlier than previously known. According to the f. T. , yep, thennew york fed president tim geithner was told by a senior colleague in a may, 2008, email of her concerns about banks deliberate misreporting. The email part of an internal push among some at the new york fed to press the bank of england and British Bankers Association to reform the benchmark lending rate. He did raise some of alarms. He did talk to them, just didnt stay as publicly as some say he should have said. I mean geithner he did kind of warn them about some thing. Right. The sec is outlining potential ways to reduce conflicts of interest at the countrys largest Credit Rating agencies. The Regulatory Agency failed to take a strong stand on specific industry reforms. The sec report abstained on next steps, and it also recommended further discussion of the matter. The report was required by a provision thats known as the franken amendment. In the 2010 doddfrank reform law. The franken provision, yes, you know whos probably named after, required the stoek conduct a review of the feasible of a new system in which a public or private utility or board would assign work to the agencies on structured product ratings. Huh . Tough do you understand any of that . No, but its tough to jump from snl to the Senate Without like the bill Murray Amendment. Fred grande did it. You laugh at the bill Murray Amendment or the Garrett Morris provision. I guess the kidding around is at this point. Or, you know, that shows im pretty lame. I cant remember anyone except pack in the way, way yeah. A lot of how about chris farley . Poor chris. Yeah. Jim blushy john belushi. That would be alcohol for everyone, i think, amendment. Beers for college for everyone. Yeah, college for everyone. No studying, but college. Yes, but college with your college sweatshirt. U. S. Authorities are examining trading by one of sac Capital Advisers most successful portfolio managers. Kate kellys been reporting on the story. Reuters says that the latest manager in question is gabriel platkin. A probe into the 14 Million Investment in Weight Watchers last year. Platkin is a specialist in consumer and retail stocks. He makes Investment Decisions for more than 1. 2 billion worth of assets. And we do have a winner. Getco buying Knight Capital for about 2 billion. It sweetened its offer for the marketmaking firm to beat out a rival. Getco said to have clinched the deal after it increased the amount of cash in its cash and stock offer. The deal is 2 3 cash, and it values knight at 3. 75 a share. Stock as you see in the premarket, well below that at 3. 42. In earnings news, oracle says Software Sales growth will stay strong going into the new year despite the fiscal cliff fears. Quarterly revenues and earnings were better than wall street was looking for. And ford says that a recent spate of safety recalls have not hurt sales. Chief operating officer mark fields told reporters that consumers have a good perception of the quality of ford products, and overall sales are, in his words, doing well. But he declined to offer an estimate of december sales at this point. Lets look at the markets again this morning. We did show you the futures. They are indicated slightly higher after big gains over the last two days. Markets have been up Something Like 2. 5 . Just over the last two trading days. You see the dow future up again, up 35 points is the indication above fair value now. S p up more than four points. Oil futures up 42 currents to see 88. 35. The tenyear note, the yield is wow, 1. 8 today, joe. 1. 801 . Still well above holy smoke. Moving higher all the time. If you leak at the dollar this morning, also youll see that the dollar is down against the you are again, 1. 3274. Wow, weird moves. The dollar is up again the yen, 84. 41. You saw the moves in the nikkei in japan. Huge moves there because of the expectation that theyre going to be doing more to help things out, more stimulus is expected. And the bank of japan expected to get involved. Of course, that hurts the yen. Thats why you see the dollar higher against that. Gold now up about 4. 10 to 1,674. 8 an ounce. Below 1,700. Time for the Global Markets report. Kelly evans is standing by in london. A lot of action over there today. Thank you. There really has been. And in fact, its the greek banks which are leading the way. I cant remember the last time we said that. If you look at trading broadly, its the most beaten down areas where were seeing the strength this morning. Again, here are some of the names to mention whether its the National Bank of greece. We saw these up in the range of better than 8 earlier. Now in the range of 5 to 8 . Again, if you look at the levels, you see were snapping up from low valuations generally speaking. It doesnt take a lot at 63 cents to get an 8 move. Quick look over here if you want to take a shot of the wall behind me. It is green for the most part. And greeces borse is one adding 2 today. Were seeing that reflected across the bond space. Portugal for example seeing tenyear yields falling. Same for spain and italy. The boreses and footy 100, the xetra dax, this has been the outperformer up in the range of 30 . Another. 3 after the ifo out of germany. Came in better than expected. Again, a good sign for growth. Not necessarily, though, for those who would like to see a weaker europe. The ibex 35 adding 1. 3 . And the nikkei, as you mentioned, up above 10,000 for the first time in eight months. Adding 2. 4 . Better hope the moves in the japanese government or bank of japan pan out. Well get the bank of japans decision tomorrow. But this comes on the day when, remember, its on the weakening of the yen which we can show you on hopes that that will help the Japanese Corporate sector. Remember, we saw export figures showing a drop of 20 in exports to the use. 15 to china. Again, theres a lot of expectation built to this. The aussie dollar remains the underperformer as we continue to evaluate chinas internal rebalancing. Now the sterling is stronger, the dollar yen you already mentioned. And the euro dollar to get back to the point about the ifo survey is adding. 3 to 132. 1. 3274. We get a rally in the euro. Our guest this morning suggested it will be the 150 to 160 range before that becomes any real problem for competitiveness. Guys, if we get anything near there, that will certainly be a troublesome development, shall we say, for the rest of the periphery. A lot of cross currents this morning. Back to you. Did you see the berlusconi saying that italy might have to leave the euro i love this guy. And joe, ill tell you, he has a point. A lot of people say if italy wasnt in the eurozone now, if you were to analyze the italian economy, current account surplus or ability to get there, its competitiveness, that actually it would be in a decent position on its own. You know, thats a counter factual that may not be worth exploring. Although berlusconis clearly exploiting that perception. If germany doesnt agree to have to be a real central bank. Hes looking good, 76. Hes going to run again. His hair is jet black. And i think hes still im sure its natural. You want to avoid him if you can. Like keep your distance if you would. No, i dont have to joe, hes engaged now. He has another a new wife. I didnt realize that. Then definitely. Yes. Im devastated the worlds women are safe now. Hes engaged. Now, in february, theres another election. This is what i love hes way behind the leading party which has 30 . The leading party is able to over there, you got to i know. I cant believe you can run a country or yeah . Just keep in mind there may be an ulterior motive for his return to politics. He is looking for immunity from a lot of charges against him that he could get by having some position in the government each if hes not prime minister. Wow, you are up to speed on this. You got to go over and look into this a little closer. That would be a good excuse to go to italy, the greatest country i think, at least that ive been to. Thanks, kelly. Appreciate it. France is pretty good, too. Bye. Coming up, the early read on the trading session from the futures pits in chicago. First, are you expecting a yearend bonus . What is that . You ever heard of no. We have not. A survey by challenger, gray, and christmas finds three out of four three out of four . Will be handing them out. Three out of four. Thanks, nick. Were the bottom four. Were the four. Handing them out, up 53 . We get these buttons. Thats up 53 from a year ago. [ male announcer ] when gloria and her Financial Advisor made a retirement plan, they considered all her assets, even those held elsewhere, giving her the confidence to pursue all her goals. When you want a Financial Advisor who sees the whole picture, turn to us. Wells fargo advisors. [ engine revs ] [ male announcer ] the mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 ml350 for 599 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Dow futures up. S p 500 up. Dow up jed by 15. Big gains. The markets up 2. 4 over the last couple of days. In our headlines, u. S. Cigarette makers have reached a settlement with 17 states in a longrunning dispute over the payments they are required to make under the 1998 landmark antismoking agreement. Under the saidment, states will settlement, states will receive 4 billion in disputed payments. The manufacturers will receive credits against future payments, as well. Time for the National Weather forecast. Todd santos is standing by at the National Weather channel. Good morning. Good morning. Actually were tracking snowfall. At least in the northeast today. Shouldnt be an issue as far as travel is concerned toward boston. A good stretch of maine dealing with the snow. Rain line will be moving closer toward the portland area next few hours. You see that here on the model forecast through this afternoon. Notice all of that remaining well to the north of boston. Pitts field and western mass reporting light snow the last couple of hours. Otherwise into wednesday, much of the action centered well to the north of some of the big transportation hubs. Mostly sunny today toward new york city. D. C. , as well, coming in quiet. Philly, temperatures, getting to the 50s that direction. 45 in new york city. The big story is actually going on to the west. Did want to show some of the snowfall totals to the north. Some of that includes the system that will be getting going the next couple of days. Here it is in the four corners. Flying out of denver, an increasing chance for snow across the area. Also really gusty winds on the back side of the system as it pushes out. Doesnt look like much. Denver to cheyenne, snow. Sweeping east. Not too big of a totals to start with, but tonight and tomorrow, by this afternoon, may get snow going toward omaha, nebraska. Then it picks up, bigtime windmaker. Winds west to the