It is jobs friday, the bulls are betting that this mornings employment report will add fuel to the markets report run. But theres always that risk that the numbers could rerail the rally. We want to talk about this. Plus, cash back. U. S. Companies are showing investors are love with the windfall of dividendes and Share Buybacks. Plus, stress tests. The major banks get a passing grade. I think 18 out of 19 from the Federal Reserve. Still, critics say questions about the health of the Financial System remain. Its friday, march 8th, 2013 and squawk box begins right now. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. Im barack obama along with joe kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Happy jobs friday, everybody. Double whamny today, not only is it friday, its also a jobs friday. The full forecast says 160,000 jobs were added last month. I cant believe the which is fer numbers arent higher than that. Ive looked at a lot of numbers that say its above 200,000. The Unemployment Rate is expected to fall to 7. 8 . Average Hourly Earnings are expected to rise by 0. 2 . Thats always a good indicator of whether or not youre going to see highing down the road. As we look at all this, u. S. Equity futures are higher this morning. Indicated up by about 60 points, ahead of this after gaining yesterday, after gaining the day before that, after hit ago record high the day before that. So it has been a steady increase. Stocks have been marching deeper into record territory. The major asian markets overnight actually looked like at least the nikkei was up by about 2. 6 . The hang seng was higher by 1 is. 4 , as well. In europe in the early trade there, you can see that there are some green arrows, as well. The biggest gains come in france where the cac is up by 0. 9 . Were assembled this morning for a great lineup of strat gives to get us ready for this mornings 8 30 eastern report. Were going to start that gain in just few minutes. Citigroups u. S. Economist Steven Whiting is going to be joining us. Lets get you through some of the Corporate News this morning. The fed saying that the biggest u. S. Banks have enough capital to with stand a severe economic downturn. Get this, only allied financial didnt pass this round of stress tests. The lender didnt mean the minimum hurdle of a 5 capital buffer. Next week, regulators are going to announce whether banks can start returning mope to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. Kayla tausche will join us with more on the details of the stress tests in just a couple of minutes. Ally criticized the fed. How do you criticize your regulator . You dont understand how that works. They feel like they have to tas Say Something. This is allied, which is the old gm. Its all the ads. Youve seen the ads with the kids saying were the brand new one. Where they dont treat the kids fairly. One gets an ice cream and the other doesnt. Cdw has reportedly hired banks for an ipo later this year. The company was taken private by Equity Partners for 7. 3 billion in 2007 been were going to see how that ipo is openly valid. And finally, Texas Instruments has good news this morning. Its raising its q1 target to the upper ranges of its sighting forecast. Shares of at this have risen 5 since january 22nd as investors have been betting on improvement in demand. Im going to talk about google and motorola and all that. But today, do you think about things in the shower . Youre in the dark in the shower, right . In the dark. Do you have a place where you can go where the light doesnt bother you . Oh, thats right. Its in that dish forgot. Its in that other wing. Where youve knocked down the wall. Usually im talking to the footman. Exactly. Do you let him i mean, you walk right out of the shower into a robe that hes are you comfortable with . Thats a valet. Here is what im thinking. Here is what i was thinking this morning. Big jobs number and all of a sudden its like 240 or something and the market takes off again and all the people that said, would be, it just cant hitting new highs, thats the perfect scenario. But then i can argue from the other side. The devil on my other shoulder says, what if the market doesnt know what its doing and it usually the market i think we do think it has this mystical sense of looking ahead and discounting things into the future and its the efficient market and it knows it takes all the stuff into account and it moves where it should. But sometimes it doesnt. But the claims numbers have been better and Everything Else but, you know, the thing i will say is that i think the expectations are for a better than expected 160 done census. So do i. If i was much better but i also think that the expectation is theres already a lot riding on this. There is. Now that the adp reports have been updated with its methodology and that was better. The last four years, bls has been better than the adp indicator for this month. But i think because everything is setting up the new guy, januaridy is closer to the people making up the numbers. So hes indicating the whisper number. Im going to give him some credit. He is doing well. And i think it doesnt have to be way above 200, it just has to justify even 210 says, wow, it is. But it has to be above 200. But the momentum in the market is already there. And as long as its not something awful but it could be something awful. But that gets back to the idea that this is an important number. But the market because i still think the market could recover from that because its a lagging, its the last month. But then again, we are worried about sequester and payroll taxes. He was one of the great 36 i think he was interviewing with Ross Westgate this morning. In that great insider piece, they call them buffoons and idiots they call the rally the idiotmaker. And i said why dont we do that and go back and get the archives of all the people that have been wrong here . And i said, because we would have no more guests. It will be the three of us talking for three hours a day. Did you see the names on that list . I did. But you one that you just mentioned, he was at 6. 66. Were going much neither down on the s p. Its 15,4 44. Think about being negative. Why would anyone listen to anything he says at this point . Its sad. And throw the other 35 in there, too. If you havent seen it, business insider. Its a list of idiots. Its a list of people the rally has made look like idiots that have been wrong. What did i say . You said its a list of idiots. And what did you say . I said a list of people who have been made to look like idiots so they may not be, but theyre made to look like they look like idiots until next time. If youre going to Say Something on tv to try to get it out there, cant you say a list of idiots . Chk it out, though. Youll see some people, people that we know and love. In our news this morning, google says its Motorola Mobility unit will shed another 1200 jobs or 10 of its workforce. The move comes as the smartphonemaker tries to return the profitability. The company says the cuts are a continuation of cuts made last summer. And ubs quit the Panel Last Month in the wake of a libor rate rigging scandal and a hefty libor fine. And Fidelity Investments is facing more accusations it improperly used socalled float income to pay its own operating expenses. Who has experience with this . Ef hutton. With the whole check cutting thing. We need so much money with checks. We had like 2,000 counts of fraud. That really messes up. Hi, this is joe kernen from e. F. Hutton. Youre the company with the 2,000 counts of fraud just for keeping it are a float, andrew. Bob fullman lost his job. Bob briterizer came back in. Anyway, customer money earned an overnight account and three Massachusetts Companies accused the Company Using income generated from retirement asset toes offset fidelitys own operating expenses. They filed a lawsuit seeking class action expenses. Think of the cash balances. A little bit of float overnight. What has fidelity got under management . It starts with a t, probably. Its all money. Starts with a t. So a basis point of float if you keep it is a lot of money. In our headlines this morning, pandora peat ya ceo Joseph Kennedy is stepping down. This comes as a surprise to investors. A search for replacement has begun. The Internet Service reported stronger than expected results before the close and stronger and upbeat forecast. July ya boorstin will be joining us with that conversation is in the next hour. Jcpenney is going to hold off with its plan to sell certain Martha Stewart products in its stores at least until an april 8th court date. A New York State Supreme Court judge adjourned the trial until april because of attorney scheduling conflicts. He ordered the companies to try and resolve their differences in the meantime. Jcpenney will hold off on some of those sales. Take a look at the markets this morning because futures are indicated sharply higher, up about 6 4 points. Yesterday was another Record Number for the dow. And the nasdaq was down. It was its first decline in four days. The dow, s p and fass dak have had fourday winning streaks. Take a look at where things stand at least in items of the Energy Markets fairly budging. We did see gains yesterday in crude oil. Back up at 91. 57. Its up another penny this morning. The tenyear note ahead of the jobs report is yielding back 2. 009 . And the dollar, which was stronger against the euro yesterday is a little lower at 1. 3119, dollar is up gerns the yen. Gold prices, if we take a quick look, theyre up, but just barely. Its now time for the Global Markets report. Kelly evans is standing by in london. Good morning, kelly. Andrew, good morning. Im here in london, but once again, the story is happening in tokyo overnight. Look at the nikkei adding 2. 6 . The yen is now at a 3 1 2 year low against the dollar. We were talking to Dennis Gartman earlier who pointed out in gold terms in yen terms, actually, gold is at a nominal high. Well put on twitter practically everything is at a nominal high because of the weakness weve seen. The positive move is carrying over into the u. S. Session and into the futures. The ftse 100 is rallying up almost 10 this year. Were up 0. 3 building on that rally. The cac 40 in paris is up 0. 9 . The strongest performers, frankly, have been utley and spain up is . Italy and spanish debt continues to rally. Fascinating because of what weve seen in italy where theres still no sense of a government forming, where theres still questions about a new election being called in a kump months time, maintaining that spread that we saw over there. Were going on 2 1 2 year lows for the yield on spanish debts. Despite the macro concerns there, not much of a response. I mentioned the dollar yen, 3 1 2 lows for the yen against the u. S. Dollar. 95. 6 in trade this morning. Elsewhere, the euro is firmer, back above the 1. 231 level. Staple with sterling, back above 1. 50 level. It is the bank of japan today making the big waves on speculation about more moves coming ahead. We talked to richard koo this morning. Hes among those that think kite work. Gartman said he sees us going to 1. 25 in the next couple of years. So on that note, back over to you. Okay. Kelly, thank you very much. Now back to the latest rouvend of fed stress tests. Kayla touchy joins us now with more. Weve got you in here early almost every day. And i thank you for that. Youre young, youre eager. We thank you for that. What have you got . Yesterday was the third annual dodd frank act stress tests. 17 out of 18 banks passed, which is a pretty good number. They were placed into hypothetical economic crisis. All bun one made it through and as well capitalized as the fed standard mandated. Citigroup, the best position of the big six banks, which is interesting and quite a role reversal there. Citigroup hosting 8. 3 tier one common capital ratio. Thats the highest of any of the big banks. Wells fargo is the next closest with 7 and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs towards the bottom with 5. 7 and 5. 8 respectively. Remember, the fed has basically put up a bar of 5 here. Each bank has to clear that 5 bar and you can see citigroup is well above it there. The interesting thing about citigroup is that last year the bank was one of the only banks to protest the way that these tests were carried out because they were in one part. You had to pass the stress test with the capital levels, but you also had to submit a plan to return capital to shareholders. While citi was well enough capitalized, st citi wasnt comfortable enough with its plan. Categorically, it failed citigroup this year with one of the banks that was basically asking the fed to do this in two parts. Next week were supposed to get the capital levels. Last night, citigroup disclosed in one of the filings that it had requested a 1. 2 billion Share Buyback. The only bank to make such a disclosure, we can imply that they will have that request accepted this year, but definitely stepping out ahead of the pack where that number is concerned. You guys mentioned allied financial a little earlier, which is interesting because, obviously, the former financing arm of gmac came out with a harsh statement criticizing the way the fed kaert out these tests. They believed that ally would be sufficiently capitalized because of the way some of these auto financing securities and instruments would convert to actual equity in the kies of a crisis. I just want to show you quickly, if we have this graphic, what this hypothetical crisis would look like. A senior fed official told me this is worse than any twoyear period in u. S. History except for the great depression. It would factor in a u. S. Gdp drop of 5 . Stock prices falling by 50 and home prices down by 20 . Among other things, but thats the biggest situations that they place these banks under. And so Pretty Amazing giving given those conditions that at this point three years after these tests were introduced that all but one here is passing. Kayla, thank you very much and we appreciate you getting up early for us, too. When we come back, the game of expectations. Today weve got stocks at record highs. The stakes are even higher. Were going to turn to two well known economists for guidance. Welcome back, everybody. U. S. Equity futures are indicated up higher this morning. Dow futures up about 62 points above fair value. Chinas exports surging nearly 22 in february, that was more than expected. This could be a sign of stronger global demand. Imports fell by 15 during the month. Chinas draid trade growth has been rebounding in recent months. Right now, lets get the National Forecast from the weather channels jen carfagno. All that snow we expected yesterday, well, its coming down this morning. Its such an interesting system. Its spinning around out here and snowing back all the moisture today. Its retrograding. Its moving from east to west, the opposite of what you would specd. Today really happens to be the worst day now from whats happening in new england, anyway, from that perspective from this winter storm. Now, we go into boston where weve had now 5 inches of snow. Weve had more than a foot of snow in mansfield which is near foxborough. You can see the brighter colors indicating more snow falling. Juflt saw a report that the power is out on the tobin bridge up in boston. Thats causing major issues for the commute this morning. I cant imagine that the commute is good, either, for new york city. You can see snow coming in from connecticut, long island and new jersey, all a light to moderate snowfall. Not heavy snow. The temperatures right about 32, the 3 33 degrees. If the roads issed and clear, theyre fine. But you could get accumulation on the roadways, which could cause havoc this morning. On top of what we have, well get 3 to 5 inches of snow in new haven, boston, northern jersey about 1 to 3, southeast new york about 1 to 3. So the wind will be a big factor all across the area. Winds are going to be gusty today. I love this graphic to show how strong the winds are going to be this afternoon. Power outages, becky, a real concern right through this evening all across this region. Back to you. Jen, thank you very much. All right. We are welcome. Were counting down to the jobs report. Joining us is dickcoy ask Steven Whiting, managing director and u. S. Economist at citi investment research. Steven, i want you to get a chance to Say Something, so im going to start with you. Was that directed to anybody in particular . No, no, im not saying anything, but, steven, use your time well. Pretend youre not going to get another chance. Okay. Even though were going to 7 00 a. M. What do you youre one of our oldest guests. Thank you. And i dont think im on that list you cited this morning. No, youre not. But youve been coming on for over 20 years and we love you. So do you expect this number to confirm what weve been seeing in most hoof the markets or cou it throw us, do a ted head fake on us . Employment data always can. You try to apply that to any other statistic, and youve had a hard time with employment data. People dont realize its lost and just think of what happened in the Fourth Quarter. We had 11 151,000 jobs. Those were just the annual revisions, not the monthly revisions or the multiple annual revisions that you accumulate over time. Employment is strengthening and this is in a period where growth hasnt fully accelerated yet. So we think well see stronger employment over time. The claims number, thats got to go under your thinking, right . Absolutely. 4, 5 or 6. Absolutely. And adp and private payrolls and the bos data, the Government Data are a bit different. Theres more weather impact in the government ta data. So today, if we get 150,000 w, e other stronger expect ages, we still expect ac