The third in four years. Well have more details in squawk sports a little later this hour. But notre dame didnt show up at the beginning of this game. No. Alabama was the superior team. I didnt see a single inning. A single inning . You didnt make it to the ninth . Those rednecks spanked those catholic boys. Thats i watched the first half and then went to bed. I think a Rutgers Notre Dame game might have been better for the viewing audience. It was a bad, bad first half. The s. E. C. , you know, theyre looking for somebody to come in that can give them a decent game. Im telling you, they were the only team that showed up. Alabama, they deserved this national title. Yeah, but they got beat. Johnny manziel beat them. But they looked so good. Weve seen other teams, lsu has played them tough. Im telling you, alabama is lsu played them tough. People say notre dame didnt play anyone. Notre dame beat michigan, michigan state, stanford, oklahoma, usc. There were some squeakers in there, though. I think i could have picked theres some people that i could have picked that might have given the viewing audience is a better show. The 1973 situation where these two played each other in the rose bowl and if you were going to see this, the same thing, last time around alabama had a tenyear favor. We could have played the linebacker and played i dont know. It was bad. I really went to bed. If i didnt stay up the previous night i know. You didnt stay up for it . I did not. And if i didnt stay up to that, im not staying up for some Football Game, ill tell you that. My soap opera boys who are here. I was thinking about you watching the because we hadnt seen the actual end of season two. And i was thinking about what youre missing. Theres no way you should not be watching it. Eventually i will watch it. There are. I can watch the one thats on. I need to watch it when i its like the new way people view. When you can, when you get a chance. Did you see that Michelle Caruso cabrera has the third season on dvd . She gave me my soap. She did . She did. She came over the other day. You werent there at the time, but she was going to show them off. Yeah. Lets start with the markets this morning, as well. The s p retreating from a fiveyear high yesterday. The stocks finished the session off their lows. U. S. Equities are indicated a little weaker. Dow futures down by about nine points. As for a gauge of fear in the markets, it extended losses. Now its at 13. 79. European stocks in early trading this morning, youll see are indicated just a little higher. Nos a lot of strength there, although the cac is up by almost. 5 . Major asian markets overnight closing at well, the hang seng was down by almost 1 . The nikkei in japan you was off a little over. 8 . Shanghai composite a little weaker. We will have more from our colleagues overseas in just a few minutes. Now to the corporate story of the morning and its the buzz you want. Aig reportedly considering whether to sue uncle sam over the terms of the insurers bailout. The New York Times supporting that the companys board is going to be meeting tomorrow to consider joining a 25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government. The suit deals with the nature of the rescue, what became of a 92 stake in the company. Deals with high Interest Rates and the funneling of billions to the insurers that wall street clients. The lawsuit says these terms deprive shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the fifth amendment which profits the taking of private property for public uses out compensation. This is ridiculous. This is former ceo Hank Greenberg is pitching aig to join the suit. Greenberg was ousted by the company in 2005. The company is running thank you ad campaigns right now. Hes the one who brought the suit. Hes trying to get them to sign on to it. By the way, to put some context around it, i think there was maybe a 1 or 2 chance before this article came out that the board was ever even now i think theres a zero percent chance. But i think the chances before the article, after the article were next to nothing, anyway. And you could say that they have to do this because of fiduciary reasons or of all things. The worst thing that could happen is that Hank Greenberg pursues the lawsuit on his own and Hank Greenberg actually wins. Didnt a judge already throw out this lawsuit . It was thrown out in new york. So it creates this backwards bizarre situation. Having said that, i think running the ads saying thank you, america, and trying to move ahead with a suit, i think its crazy. Just the idea that you would say thank you or were back on our feet and moving along, theres a Public Relations nightmare from this. The smart readers in the paper today, when you read the statement from aig basically says we have to consider it as part of our fiduciary issue. Man, talk about bad pr. Anyway, the federal governments consumer watchdog is set to unveil new home lending rules. The move could potentially reshape the Mortgage Market by ushering in more standardization and preventing the return of the exotic loans. The cfpb will define standards that all mortgage lenders are likely to follow when originating home loans. The new rules are expected to be contentious because they will determine the type of loans that banks will offer as well as to whom and on what terms. There had been concerns that new regulations would restrict credit and make get ago mortgage too hard. In our real estate news, apartment rent continues to rise as vacancies are falling. A Quarterly Report is set to be unveiled today by rias. The average nationwide monthly apartment rent was 1,048 in the forty quarter, up. 6 from the third quarter. Year over year, its up about 3. 8 . Meantime, the vacancy rate is at its lowest cincinnati 2001. Chesapeakes ceo will be the receive a bonus for 2012. The oil and gas company is battling a financial crisis and a regulatory strain. Other actions taken include cuts to incentive pay and mistakens to increase shareholder influence. And in some other corporate news, yum brands warnings earnings will fall below companys expectations. Sales in its two china divisions shrank deeply in the Fourth Quarter. Yum is blaming adverse publicity about the poultry supply. A guy made a joke about the poultry supply and this is what happened. It wasnt you, necessarily, but you did make a completely unfair characterization. Unfounded. Apparently the Chinese Government did, too. I dont know, the Chinese Government didnt say it wasnt real chick. What did you say . You said it was a cat or something. I like all animals. You might not have been here. It was terrible i couldnt m didnt like it and they shouldnt have liked it. They did . And yum is still sensitive from that frivolous, ridiculous suit that went nowhere about the taco meat that wasnt taco. Wasnt meat. Wasnt taco . Wasnt meat. But anyway, this Chinese Government had some bad publicity and it did impacted sales. What did china say about the meat . I dont know. Thats what i wanted to look up. Late last month, the chicken was expected to contain large omts of antibiotics. This is the only tweet ive seen. You all look very nice today. Lets forget yesterday ever happened. Youre referring to the shirt . Someone is. Someone is. Wait, you guys did this again. This is a new its like a uniform today. This is an uncle sam. The last kick the can was a i like that one. Why did you get that one from . Same place. Since the fiscal cliff, this is uncle sam kicking the can. I heard Ross Westgate earlier this morning saying that they have banned that phrase, kicking the can. I said it yesterday and i cringed as i said it. We overuse it completely. I think hes probably right. I like your tie. Probably a year ago we tried to change it to something else. But i did cringe as i said it. Eddie lamp ard is saying the ceo is stepping down next month citing Family Health reasons. Chairman Eddie Lampert is going to be assuming the role. He had a 31. 1 stake in sears holding. Shares of sears during the last year, take a look at this. Its like going nowhere fast. Pretty much has been the story of sears. Can we take a look at that . I dont know if we can take what look was lampert never the ceo . There was a period where he was the this eo, but it has been minimal. This is a better look at whats going on in this Company Opinion you can see there in 08, there are 100 dollar stocks. It looks like lampert was really going to get it going. This is a better look at things. And i think if he did this i have to go back and look at when that transaction happened. Back in 03 or 04. Here we are, 42. 92. Another question, how long is he going to be the ceo for . Is he a retailer, is it not . A lot of questions about whats happened this year during his tenure. Having said that, you know, your year on year ibetas retailing is hard work. Through there is a basis that year on year, its better. Did you see the terry l u u n lungrens piece on electric . Oh, yeah. It was a great piece. More importantly, i didnt realize he had been on the dating game. How did the date go . I was going to ask him. But back in the 70s, could you expect things to work out successfully . I dont think so, right . Unless Jennifer Granholm oh, my gosh. He is like got a sense of passing. Daddy called him, he looks look 007. I went to the jets game, we were sitting next to each other. Its freezing, everyone else is wearing hats. He looks perfect. Absolutely his hair is perfect. He would freeze before he would look bad. They say he looks like pierce. I think he looks like a super hero before hes change. Superman, but not super nerds. Lets get to the Global Markets report. Kelly, we did hear you stand by this morning to hear about that kick the can phrase. Not allowed to be said any more. We agree. He wouldnt even let me ask if that was the phrase we were talking about. As you say, the struggle is coming up with something to replace it. I feel a feeling were going to use that one quite a bit. Lets take a look at whats happening overseas this morning. For the most part, european equities are higher, shaking off the news that the eurozones Unemployment Rate rose to 11. 18 in november. That is a euro area high. If you move forward into decent, you can see the aumt of prices. Theyre prizing in some easing from the central bank down the road. Quick look at what is happening at the bond curve. 5. 1, just under 5. 1 . The spanish treasury outlining the funds you will need for 2013. You can expect theyre going to take as many advantage of these conditions as possible. Italy, 4. 3 on the tenyear. The gilt yield, above 2 . We will explore whats happening with growth Going Forward. Slipping over now to currencies, here is what weve seen some interesting moves. May not look like much this morning. The euro dollar is roughly flat. But the dollar yen moving down by about. 3 . It was really actually some support from the euro that came from comments out of japan. Japan will be investing, bonds buying in the esm. That is an order to indicate some level of support for the eurozone project. But it also works to help, yes, weaken the yen. On that note, back over to you. Its always about the yen. Kelly evans in london. The can. Thank you. Were not going to forget that one. Coming up, why electric cars may soon make more money. And well be welcoming drew mattes to the table to find out what he says will draw todays trading session. Stay tuned for that and a lot more. Welcome back to squawk box there morning. Take a look at how u. S. Equity futures are opening the day. The s p would be off about 1. 5 points, dow jones off about 9 noints and nasdaq off 3 points. The government wants all hybrid and electric vehicle toes make noise when traveling under 18 miles per hour. The national Highway SafetyAdministration Says the vehicles dont make enough speed to warn pedestrians. You hear this all the time. Did you ever see a hybrid car . Theyre so quiet. They are quiet. You dont want to step out in front of it. Theres no sound there. Is it the same thing with the camera, some of them dont have a shutter noise . I like the ones that put the fake shutter sound back in. The sound would be very cool, i think. If youve ever discuss add loaf of just purchased bread that has mold, microzap claims its Technology Allows bread to stay mold free for about 60 days. This process, by the way, could eliminate baker eps a needs for conservatives and ingredients used to preserve flavors. I like the idea of getting more of those preservatives out. Mike seidel is now joining us from the weather channel. Good morning. Another great day in the northeast. Things are warping up. It doesnt feel like january. New york city, sunny and 47. Waudz, 53. Back in charleston, west virginia, down to 53 degrees. Now another story developing, rainfall is beginning to hit parts of texas. Some areas could get 5 to 7 inches of rain over the next couple of days. If youre flying out of houstons airport or dallas, there may be delays tonight and tomorrow. Some of these storms could produce severe weather. Theres a chance of a tornado tonight or tomorrow. Not a huge chance, but there will be some severe storms. Florida looks terrific for the foreseeable future. Highs, upper 70s and low 80s. Even in miami, 82 is above average. Your average high now is about 76 or 77 degrees. Sunny and mild, midwest. Chicago looks terrific. A little clipper system with some light snows north of minneapolis. Better chance of snow there by friday night and saturday. The west is quiet now, but a storm coming in will reintroduce fresh powder for all the west beginning today for the next couple of days. In the meantime, sunny skies in l. A. , wind and rain in seattle. As far as the form goes thats tracking out of texas, this will be the big weather story for the next couple of days. Also the big weather story is the fact that theres rain. Even up into chicago and the midwest, some of these areas under flat flash flood watches for 5 to 7 inches of rain. Here comes an area towards chicago. That rain eventually will head to the east coast which brings us to the wrap up here. New york citys fiveday forecast, and you wouldnt think it was january by these numbers. Thursday, 44. A little rain with a front than behind the front. Look at the weekend numbers. Lows in the mid 40s and highs in the 50s. Very mild weather. Late next week, it will get colder. But, again, a lot of us, thank you in the east and in the west. Lets talk markets now. Joining us now from ubs, senior economi economist. Weve been talking about the debt ceiling and one issue weve not talked about on this show yet is what i think is a crazy idea, but i think you know where im going with this about this platinum coin that everybody is talk about. About whether the treasuries get over the debt ceiling, can actually mint a platinum coin worth 1 trillion and call it a day. But i feel like its getting transaction in weird places. Well, among politicians, so theres your point. Look, here is a couple problems i have with it. One is that the fed is not allowed to buy platinum. So how does the money get created . The government can print whatever it wants on any coin it wants. Its a clever idea. Gold coins work and the amount of gold is more than ta face value so you never sell it at face value. So you would have to have a coin that would be worth more than 1 trillion after you melt et down and but would that convince anybody that we have any situation on whats going on and weve managed it . Absolutely not. And the person who came up with this idea would be the first to say that. Who came up with it . I dont know. I forget the exact name. But the 14th amendment the white house is the 14th amendment is that the president can do whatever it takes in order to maintain the u. S. Debt. So basically to avoid default. The problem with that, though, is that who is guy to buy the u. S. Treasury securities if the president went ahead and said the debt ceiling doesnt matter and they issued this debt . As an investor wes i dont want to own a piece of debt that might be illegal three months into the future. So these are interesting ideas, but i think there was a congressman yesterday who is putting together a bill to stop this from happening. Yeah. I dont think the fed would take it, right . First of all, the fed cannot buy it because its not gold. They cant buy mratd numb. That rules out the idea of the fed monetizing it. And if youre not going to deal with Federal Reserve notes, which is what you and i have in our wallet, its trying to get somebody to take it as payment for something is a whole other matter. Lets talk about things that are more realistic. Earnings season begins today. Alcoa were going to get after the bell, right . Your sense on where we are . I mean, it will probably be okay. Firms have been very aggressive, imagine their cost structures. One of the reasons why we think terms are going up is because shares are moving towards appear ex and labor is more variable. You could still end up with a decent earnings season despite relatively weak growth in the Fourth Quarter. And your chance on fomc . Mountain out of a mole hill. This is the same fomc that gave us the doubling of the fed Balance Sheet. Were supposed to believe theyre hawkish in some way. The idea that theyre going to have to stop buying a mess of securities sounds great until you get a negative equity market reaction. My experience with ben bernanke, just watching how it works out, is that when the equity market sells off, ben bernanke gives the equity market whatever it wants in order to keep it up. He is worried about the wealth effect and hes going to do whatever it takes to keep that wealth effect. And you dont think theres going to be a pullback at the end of year . There could be a small pullback at the end of the year, but were not talking about the complete elimination of purchasing. Were talking about maybe going from 45 to 35. Were not talking about anything thats going the lead the u. S. Treasuries not filling a massive amount of debt, especially for the Federal Reserve. I learned a lot. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Co