December 2007. The best gauge for fear in the motorcycles, the cbo volatility index plummeted last week. If you look this morning to see where things stand, youll see u. S. Equity futures are indicated just slightly lower. Right now, dow futures down about 35 points. Same story in europe. If you look at the early trading there, youll see a slight pullback across most of these markets. The cac is off. 3. 5 . Major asian markets overnight, things barely budged with the hang seng and shanghai was slightly higher and the nikkei was down by about. 8 . Andrew. And werings season officially begins after the bell tomorrow. Thats when alcoa will be posting First Quarter results. Earnings are expected to rise. Lets get a quick check on the weeks economic calendar. A quiet start today. Tomorrow, well be getting the Nfib Small Business sentiment survey. Were going to get the Consumer Credit and on thursday, weekly jobless claims and wholesale trade and finally on friday, International Trade and import price pes. Becky mentioned overnight trade in europe. Banking stocks have been rallying there and thats in large part as a result of news from Global Regulators over the weekend. Basel giving banks four more years to meet global rules on minute mull holdings to businesses and cob assumers and you can feel like youre on the front page of the wall street journal. Because talk about this as some of the i think the good news, though, is that youre not tied to sovereign debt, which we know is not as safe as had been heralded. But i think a lot of people are feeling a lot better. This is going help the banks, potentially help the economy. Right. And mind you, it wasnt clear that the u. S. Banks were going to be involved in any of this. Theyre already there, right . What is the super competitiveness . Oh, no. The u. S. Banks have not followed. And its unclear whether they ever will. Jamie dimon came out and said basel three is unamerican. There is still question about what to do. But our banks are in much better shape. Yes. The swiss banks, though, ooubs and krit swiss already went to basel iii. And theyre at a disadvantage . Theyre at a huge disadvantage. They expected this to happen. I dont know how far they were all focussing on 2015. Well see. And wouven my resolutions was i was going to start stepping out a little fashionwise. So i put this on today. Its not white. Its not blue. Its pink. And i am trying to set some new ground for myself and then i mean, i look at that thing that why are you on me . Why are you on me . Who is directing . Go to andrew. Thank you. Its a gray shirt. Can you get any closer on that . It looks better you have to see the pattern. And then the collar itself, thats one of four different collars you can have on that shirt,ite . That comes off, right . No. Thats one of those detachable. I think it does look better on camera. Its okay. When i look at it on camera, take another shot from andrews head on. Does it steal my thunder, sort of . It looks better on camera. It really does. Thats a backhanded compliment. No, but we talk about that all the time. It looks better on camera. That looks good on camera. It looks good . It does. Take another look at the shot. There it is. Were having a debate about is it crying im young, i can do what i what is it saying . I dont know what its saying. I just know that i may be crying later. Youre so nice. No, im not being nice. By the way, happy birthday yesterday. Thank you. Stepping out, and here i am and then you come in and i cant hang. I just cant. In other financial news, a 10 billion, with a b, settlement to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses. Ite im not going to call it necessarily a shakedown, really. But its 10 billion and it mainly is covering things like flawed paperwork and botched loan modifications. Not even necessarily anything done with malice of forethought to try to make money. Just really some botched paperwork. However, a house joet Sight Committee would like to look at any settlements. The xt on oversight and government reform wrote a letter to fed chairman ben bernanke in the office of the controller, the currency on friday. The committee was more information on how a settlement amount is to be determined. Both parties talking to the sunday talk shows. Their positions ahead of the debt ceiling sight, this is going to be ugly. I think tax reform ought to be revenue neutral as it was during the reagan years. Weve resolved this issue. We dont have that problem because we tax too little. We have it because we spend way, way too much. So weve settled the tax issue. The question is now can we address the single biggest threat to americas future . And thats our excessive spending. Were talking about looking at the tax code, putting everything on the table from the standpoint of closing loopholes and we know we can do that. We will talk more about the budget battle at 7 30 eastern time with former governor ed rendell. But, obviously, the two sides are far apart at this point. In our d. C. News today, president obama is expected to nominate former republican senator chuck hagel as defense secretary. Republicans call him a controversial in your face pick. He criticized the iraq troops that opposed unilateral sanctions as iran and he once said that being gay impended effectiveness. There have been people on both sides of the aisle who have been mad about this. So whats the point . Its so weird, isnt it . That theyve chosen him . Yeah. Both sides, neither side. Sometimes you pick a republican that is bipartisan, but this is the one republican that most republicans he likes him for some reason. And its going to be a battle. Why do you like him . I dont like him. I dont know if i like him or dont like him. With all the act money and everything, why do we need a controversial pick for this . When neither the democrats nor the republicans seem to want him. Its going to be a protracted battle. I dont think you want to get in the middle of that. He served with valor in vietnam. Thats part of why hes standing by him. But you would initially think they would have gone against after some of the initial blow backs. Theyve made the decision. He was floated and then when the issue was floated, it was met with lots of on both sides, it was met with i dont know. Lets check on the markets this morning. The as we say, they are down about 33 points after a trading at medium term highs last week. And the vix is low. We talked about how you need a wall of worry and when fear gets low, you wonder where is the wall of worry . But we are up near the high end of the recent trading rage. Chick out crude which had a good week, as well. The tenyear definitely responded to everything thats happening, 1. 9 . We have been once again a big percentage move up from 1. 6. But still below 2 . The dollar has been something to watch in terms of the euro. But even more against the yen and finally gold was after the fed comments about maybe not, you know, being accommodative forever. Hit the gold markets pretty hard last week. Its time now for the Global Markets report. Ross westgate standing by in london across the pond. Mr. Westgate. Hey, andrew. Thank you very much for that. You can see after the gains we had last week, softer this morning. Decliners outpacing advancers by a ratio of around 6 to 3, somewhere around that margin. The ftse 100, when youre a stock in general up at 22month highs, friday, up. 5 . Right now, the if it is sfts is down. 25 . Were not far away from the alltime highs on the xetra dax 7740. 78 is up near the all time high. The cac 40 is down. 5 . Ibex up. 1 . No doubt about the standouts, that is indeed the banks after the Basel Committee that supervisors bank regulation, says the liquidity cover ratio, which is the thing that forces banks to hold enough cash and easy to sell assets, theyre changing that in terms of what they need to hold and theyre extending the time schedule for which it will be brought in. Theyre also going to change equities, corporate tet, residential mortgagebacked securities. So what they can hold is going to be and theres, its not going to come in now. They were going to come in in two years on january the 1st, 2015 and and have extended that by four years. They now have until january 19th to meet. Unicredit up 4 in italy. Credit agricole, up 4. 4 . This sector by and large, the standout gainer today as a result of that. And as far as the debt markets are concerned, peripheral yields, just over the 5 mark. Gilt, also up at eightmonth highs, 2. 10 . We have a bank of england meeting this week. Near not expected to change their asset buying program or Interest Rates, either. We start off the debt sales. Thats why we stand ahead of the u. S. Open. Ill hand it back to you guys. Thank you, ross. Appreciate that very much. Coming up, you cant afford to wait until 9 30 to see how the markets will open. Well head to the future pits. But first, a 489 pound bluefin tuna was sold for a whooping 1. 7 million. Its the first fish auction of the year in tokyo this weekend. Thats about 3,600 a pound. It was purchased by a major japanese sushi trade. Bluefin tuna is the highest grade of tuna, known for its tasty and tender flesh. Tdd 18003452550 after that, its on to germany. Tdd 18003452550 then tonight, im trading 9500 miles away in japan. Tdd 18003452550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd 18003452550 i hunt down opportunities around the world tdd 18003452550 as if im right there. 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The s p 500 off about 5 points and the nasdaq off about 8 points. S p 500 up 4. 6 , up at a fiveyear high after the financial crisis. Making headlines this morning, citigroups new ceo michael koshette is expected to name his new ceo. The bank is due to submit its plan for such things as buying back shares and increasing dividends as required under the banks stress test. And were going to be hearing a lot more this week about whats going on with citigroup. Health Insurance Companies across the country are seeking and winning duj double digit increaser for some customer necessary some situations. These increases are particularly noteworthy, because one of the biggest operatives open obama aps labor calls is worrying. Anthem blue cross 26 and blue cross of california is 20 for some policyholders. This is a situation where some people who do not have employer provided insurance have to buy it on their own. They are particularly vulnerable to higher rates. This is a big, big story for people who dont have a big company who are paying the way. And nba pay is dropping. The wall street journal reports a survey by the graduate management Admin Council finds that for graduates with experience of three years or less, median pay was 53,900 in 2012. It was actually down 4. 6 from the level in 2007 and 2008. Now to todays National Weather forecast. Mike seidel joins us from the weather channel. Good morning, mike. Anyway, good morning. It will be seasonally cold in new england, but the not bad. 38 in new york this morning. Thats your average high. A lot of sunshine out there. Washington, its 46. And no big storms in the immediate future. Down south, sunny, dry weather. Frosty from atlanta to nashville. Temperatures running at or above average. Back to 60. New orleans with showers across central and florida. Ft. Myers, miami, and those areas will stay around 80 degrees of the front of the week. No major issues with this. Minneapolis, st. Paul after being in the frigid weather today. Was the big story . A big travel day coast to coast. National rarity not showing a whole lot right now. In the pacific northwest, we have a little rain and snow today. The cascades may get a foot or snow, so watch travel on interstate 90. Temperatures in seattle will once again be in the mid to upper 40s. Southwest and the desert, its cool for the season in phoenix. Now, looking ahead, well show you the storm coming out of the southwest. Its going to pick up steam. This will be more of a storm. Houston, maybe as far as norlt on the golf coast air. But there is so much warm air going into january and february, everybody gets rain. Chicago, nashville, rain. Joe, this coming week, that big snowpack that covers twothirds of the country about a week ago will be eating away by warmer temperatures and rain. No big snowstorms in the forecast, at least for this week into next weekend. Back to you. Yeah. They got all our cold weather over in china, apparently. Coldest winter in 30 years. 4 degrees colder than normal and we dont have any snow. We need some snow. You just mentioned seattle. Speaking of seattle, make, have you look at the drudge report, rarely do you see these types of headlines. The seahawks won their first playoff road game since 1983. Did you see the chairman of the seahawks coming walking out at the end . No. Beating washington, 2414. Redskins looked incredible for the First Quarter, raced out to an early 140 lead. Before it became clear that rg3s knee was not feeling too well. The seahawks rallied by knocking Robert Griffin iii out of the ga game. It was wa about the center, though . They didnt knock him out. But watching that, the seahawks are going to play atlanta next sunday. They showed i mean, i was sick to my stomach. And the picture thats because it looked like i had a flashback to Joe Theismann right there. It wasnt a broken leg, but the way that it twisted looked so hideous, knowing that it was already sprained and hurt. Theyre awaiting mri results today. But i have to hand it to seattle. What a great i didnt realize that i had not watched him very much. Hes not tall and he can run. He was calm, cool and collected. Do we have a shot of paul allen . I switched over about four minutes before the end of the game because i figured it was over at that point. Did you, really . Yeah, it was pretty much over. And yesterdays other game, the ravens used a suffocating defense to hold indianapolis to just three field goals. It was 249 win over the colts and ray lewis and company will go to denver. Ray lewis is from rutgers. Ray lewis or ray rice . No, ray rice. Im sorry. Ray rice. I can talk about good game for about 30 seconds. Then i talk a little too long. If you dont really follow it, you should just not talk. The top seeded look at me. Like somebody else we know. In hockey news, after 113 mostly bitter days in the nhl labor lockout, the league and its players forged a new tenyear collective Bargaining Agreement following a 16hour marathon bargaining session. The shortened season is expected now finally to start within a couple of weeks. Now lets get to the markets. Scout bower joins us from the cme. For starters, can you explain, we like sometimes to see a wall of worry. A lot of sometimes, the mblth goes up with theres a lot of concerns. Now we see the vix trading lower. Is that showing that were getting near the high end of a range because people are too complacent or can this rally continue . No. I think its going to continue. And what the vix is showing right now is there is that 90 of what happens was based on the fiscal cliff. With the exception of some Economic News and, really, the start of earnings season, the next big worry or concern out there is the debt ceiling. So you see the current vix number at 14. But vix futures really are trading a bit higher than that. If you go out to march, april, youre seeing them trade a bit higher. So there is some bit of concern, some sentiment maybe to the down side going out. But for right now, the current here and now, this bullish trend is really not going to stop. Earnings coming out, you know, the last earnings price that we saw, negative to positive guidance. I think it was like 357 to 1. We havent seen that in about ten years. So i think that guidance number res so low coming into this quart quarter, were going to see some pretty positive numbers. Not only positive numbers, but i think with all the great Economic News, and i say great because im comparing it to the last five yearsing on so, all this news coming out, i think were going to see great earn g earnings, were going to see positive guidance. Vix is going to stay in a fairly level range here. Im not saying its dipping below 14, but i wouldnt be surprised if we see it trade 14 to 16 over the next month or so. And i think now that weve reached, you know, the 1465, 1466 level, i think it is higher from here. The sentiment is really bullish out there, and i know that the vix has this opposite sentiment and people feel that when the vix gets really low, that is the time for concern and vice versa. But in the current stance that we are right now, it looks like were going higher. And we should be able to get an idea not only from the last three quarters im sorry, last three months when companies report, but they should be able to give us some clarity on the First Quarter and whether the fiscal cliff impacted some of their decisions. Well see whether thats an unfounded fear. A lot of economic numbers dont seem to fair out whether people were rejected prematurely. I totally agree with that. The one thing im going to be focused on is we saw so Many Companies that prepared for the worse with the fiscal cliff and really based their hiring and their unemployment or employment numbers based on the fiscal cliff. Well, now that that is behind us and now that that is hopefully a foregone conclusion, lets see if those employment numbers now start to pick up a little bit. Lets see if some of these fortune 500 companies, some of the big s p 500 Companies Start hiring again. That is what im really going