Back toward its longer run objective, the committee will likely reduce the peace of asset purchases in further measured steps at future meetings. There isnt a big move to the markets this morning, but after those gains, youll take a look at u. S. Equity futures this morning and see green arrows once again. Dow futures up by about 16 points. S p futures up by just over 1 points and the nasdaq futures up by about 3 points. More on the markets still to come. But first, the south is in the middle of snow and ice once again. The weather channels alex wallace has the forecast for this mega storm that will be at our front door this time tomorrow morning. Alex. Weve got wide reaching impacts. Right now, weve got the cold air rushing into northern sections of georgia, the carolina and the moisture all meeting up. Thats not a happy marriage for us. Were seeing the reports for us here across north georgia into the carolinas. Freezing rain out there. Weve got several more hours to go of this. This is going to be an event, no doubt about it. Well be talking about for quite some time. Snowfall also something that well be watching for through tomorrow. You get into the north georgia mountains, there will be some spots picking up, 5208 inches getting into the carolinas. A foot to a foot and a half. Wow. And again, on top of that, weve got the icing potential out there, significant icing threat from atlanta to augusta, georgia, into the raleigh area. Were talking about crippling ice situation. Thats going to mean travel could be very difficult and Power Outages. That is also the other concern for us across these areas, as well. It doesnt stop in the south. Were going to be watching this activity spread its way up into the northeast. You can see the zone of purple, generally 5 to 8 inches. Places like d. C. Into the atlanta area. The western suburb of these spots will be getting close to a foot in some of these locals. This is not a storm to mess with. If you dont have to be out there, stay inside. Joe, back to you. And i hear maybe next week we dont know for on sure, but is there something brewing for next tuesday, too . Are you serious . You know, its a winter that just wont end. Well be watching that, too. I wonder. Thank you, alex. But i wonder, guys, whether im so done with it. Its nice. Im dreaming of a white february its great, people love snow. But im wondering, in atlanta now and places like that, now youve got fair warning, will it be a little better this time . Will they get a few things ready to go . Maybe a little bit prosecute. Part of the problem they had the last time was they released everybody at 3 00 so it created a giant traffic jam. But they dont have enough plows and salt. What do we think this is going to do to the economy, though . At some point, its got to three months in a row, youre talking about a quarter the law throw away. It will have an impact, but it will be like a onetime everybody will say onetime. But by the end of the year when you but when you look at the numbers of flights that have been canceling, thousands. At the end of the year, whenever you think the gdp has to be but even if there was an actual slowdown going on, you can say no, its and you can always say its the weather and have an excuse to say no, its not me. Ive been managing through it. In corporate headlines, Procter Gamble is cutting its full year sales and earnings outlook. The change reflects Unfavorable Foreign Exchange rates in venezuela, so among places and the devaluation of currencies in some of the developing markets that we talked about, which was taper induced for a while. Multi nationals, including ford, whirlpool and diageo all cited weakness in a more sober outlook in those once roaring emerging markets. And the earnings reports that they issued last month, its not the first time theyve heard that. And a rare sale of a stake in alibaba values that Chinese Ecommerce Company at around yep, you saw that right. 128 billion. Whoa. The company is expected to go public later this year. It will likely be the worlds biggest listing since facebooks debut. Update me on yahoo and hali ba ba. Yahoo has a huge stake in alibaba. Any gains that weve seen, we know now where it came from . Well, if you look love marissa, it was marissa. If you are less than enamored with marissa, it was alibaba. But yahoo is only a 39 billion company. How much stake do they own. Alibaba . I think its 20 . Do the math. I dont know no, it was much less. Let me give you the exact. I think i might be way over, then. People have suggested that, you know, 20 billion like half of the value of yahoo is alibaba. The other half is the deal they have with cnbc for sharing content, right . The content sharing. Is that worth thats worth close. Close to the same amount. And workers at volkswagens plan youre right, its 24 stake. The stock is under valued. You remember in the internet days, ill trade you 200,000 cash for a 200,000 dog. The other piece of it is you have to remember they probably wont be able to sell their shares immediately. Nobody knows how this is going to work out. But its 128 billion and they get a quarter of it. Yeah. Its a big deal. Volkswagen, theyre kicking off a threeday election in tennessee about whether they want to become union. Phil lebeau is going to have more on this story later in the show. A lot going on in washington today. We should talk about. News from the white house, today is president is signing an executive order to 10. 10 for federal contract workers. He signaled his plans last weekend. Also today, theyre going to release a new analysis laying out an argument for raising the minimum wage. John harwood joins us now. What were you hanging out with the president last night and the president of the france by any chance . Did this who will minimum wage thing, is that how we got here . No steak dinner for me, pal. I was but i was paying attention to the house of representatives, what was raising the debt limits that the markets rb happy about today. Thats a huge piece. I think well be focused more on that ultimately than we will be the minimum wage or is it the other way . Everybody is making the jokes, too, john, that there was a meeting between the capitalist and a socialist in washington, d. C. And then they always make the capitalist hollande and you know, youve heard that one, right . Youve heard hollande is going to head to silicone valley today. Is it . Yeah. But his Approval Rating makes that the president s Approval Rating is probably double what hollandes is. Hollande has a bump with the new girlfriend, right . Not yet. Hes got some problems. Which one . Well, they both have problems. Take it away. Sorry. John, lets go back on the debt limit and what that ultimately what that means to the party and what the republicans have decided to do in all this. Well, its a positive for the Republican Party that john boehner made the decision to simply cut out the game playing and the effort to find some accompaniment. It was simply too complicated. This is something they know they have to do. This is one area where president obama has made a big victory. Its a unique case because its something that Everybody Knows congress has to do. But he said for three years, since 2011 debacle, hes not going to negotiate over that. He hasnt. Hes made it stick and republicans finally went along. And its smart for the Republican Point of view because they want to focus on other issues as john boehner said yesterday we dont want to make ourselves the story this year. This is the year they want to make obamacare the story. You know, the slow economy, the difficult unemployment situation, theyre going to link those two, of course, because of that cbo report. So theres a lot of things that they want to talk about, the debt limit and jittery markets are not one of them. What happens to bring tensions down, john . Because we didnt hear any of the rhetoric going into this from either side. How did that come about . Well, i think the dye was cast on that since last fall. You know, we had the shutdown. That was damaging to republicans. It obscured a story that was going to help republicans, which was the difficulty with the health care rollout. And they just realized that that was counterproductive. So you then had paul ryan striking a deal with patti murray that was an incremental deal. But the idea of calming the fights over money in washington in the near term freed them to make a longer term argument in washington. And the other near term factor was that republicans were not able to pass their own pending bills. What happens was they had dialed the deficit reduction on the discretionary part of the budget so aggressively that their own members werent willing to vote for the bills because they didnt have enough money for them. There was a theoretical determination to cut shortterm spending from that part of the budget, but when it got down to the actual bills that were going to pay for it, like the transportation bill, they werent willing to vote for it. So they had to find a new way of Going Forward and now they found it. Politico is demanding this story that Congress Come up with more money to raise the debt ceiling. What does that mean . The question for senators now, theyre going to pass the debt limit. Do they do it fast or do it slow . They can do it fast if they ever unanimous consent for everybody. Senate rules give people a lot of ability to string things out. Cruz is saying hes going to string things out. Well see whether that sticks. Theres a strong desire by members of the senate to get out of town just like the house is getting out of town. I would expect that its going to pass today and that cruz will make noise and then ultimately back down. But if he chooses to get, he can string it out. You know, theyve got to get 60 votes to bring up the debt limit and then theyve got to get 60 votes to move to final passage. Its a matter of peer pressure, really. Fellow republicans say, hey, you know, knock it off. And cruz has been fairley impervious to peer pressure in the past. Quick question. Where do they come up with the 110, the 1010 is number . I think it has to do with getting inflation adjusted some benchmark. I think it may have been when Ronald Reagan came to town. Because the value of the minimum wage has eroded with inflation, even though its been raised a couple of times in the interim. But i think its to get to a benchmark from a couple decades ago. That would make sense, just the nostalgia of trying to get back to the type of economy we had under reagan. I think thats a good symbolic number. Yeah. You know, they just want to bring back the carter happy days. We many people have said welcome back carter or is it welcome back cotter . Its carteresque. Youre baiting someone again. No, im not baiting anyone. Youre talking about executive orders and this is a serious question. Was welcome back cotter in the 70s or the 80s . I think that was the 80s. Yeah, it was, but theres shirts they put out that say welcome back carter that have a picture of president obama. Its kind of a joke. I was thinking about oh youre missing John Travolta in that role. But you can do whatever you want. The president watt at monta monticello. It was the 70s. Horshack is dead. Recently. Travolta became a huge star like six times back and forth. Who else was in there . Is there anybody else in that show that became super famous . Who . No, didnt and dave caplan. Right. No, but a lot of people still bring it up. Its weird. Its not a bad theme song. No, a pretty good theme song. It was the guy from who, the theme song . Yeah. The theme song is a famous guy. John, while we deal with 70s pop culture yeah, john sebastian. We will thank you with the report from washington. We will talk to you soon. Lets get a check on the markets in the meantime. Were now looking at four days in a row of change. John sebastian. S p futures up by 1. 5. This is coming after major gains the day before. The dow was up 192 points yesterday. Strongest fourday winning streak. Since december 2011 for the s p 500 and the nasdaq. Here is something that weve talked about a lot in the past. If you believe that the bull market is still intact and will be higher at some point in the future, the market doesnt really go on sale. Weve got 16 off on this merchandise. Then it goes to 5. 8 and people are like, im going to wait for 10 and now all of a sudden we were down 2. 8 yesterday. Now were probably down one and change. And im kicking myself. I put money in the kids college funds, but i didnt fully max them out. So now it could go back down ten. But suddenly, you know, the s p is back to 18, 19, 1850 is the high. You had a chance at 1750 and no one did. That was my appointment, a lot of times before you known it, the stock if you try and time the market, remember, the study that said if you try and time the market, its a big change. I thought about what becky is doing which was putting money into the kids you remember last year, you put it all in at the beginning of the year. And i thought, oh, i wish i had done that. You have so much compounding that you can do, you can have millions of dollars. But i just missed out on the 5. 8 . Youve got like 30 years of impounding. Fl very powerful. Im still stuck in the mutual funds world. Time for the Global Markets report where Ross Westgate is standing by in london. Its dif lent to how much main or snow you get. Wait a second. Why are you wearing glasses. Because i had an eye issue this morning. Oh, you do. Yeah. Just to take that precaution, you know. Weve had the wettest winter, joe. In the last 150 years. Interesting. Since 250 years. Oh, 250 years. Which means its been very, very wet. Yes. California is a very dry situation. Last week when we went. And we got 16 degrees and sochi has 60 degrees. Its weird. Its like the climate is different all around the world. Its weird. And snow in atlanta right now. And weve got five foot drifts. Nothing has melted, either. Amazing. Thats why its called winter, i think. And the ice boats are still suck in antarctica. Actually, theyre not. Thanks for that, joe. Look, we are higher on the ftse by around 81 points. The big focus right now has been the bank of england anticipates quarterly inflation report. Theyve had Forward Guidance similar to the fed with an unemployment threshold of around 7 . Were only just a little bit above that. Theyd to change their tune a little bit this morning. Downgraded the inflation forecast, as well. Earl 2017, 2 is their 2 to 3 target range. Base of stronger growth, there is a chance rates could go up in 2014. As a result, sterling picked up quite a bit against the dollar, up well over to 1. 65 on that. But hes gone out of his way to say wait, maybe the equilibrium rate for the unemployment is between 6 and 6. 5 . So this is an example of what happens when a Central Bank Issued a Forward Guidance and gets to the target earlier than it thought. Theyve also said they will keep hold of the stocks until they raise rates. Essentially, growth is better, inflation lower than we thought. A quick mode about italy and spain, by the way, theyre at the lowest yields since weve had since 2006. No one is really worried about any kind of peripheral risk at the moment. Thats where we stand here in europe. Back to you. Thank you for that. Coming up, we have highlights from sochi this morning and then a major favorite doesnt make it to the podium. You can guess who that is. You see him right there. Were going to have the updated medal count in the next half hour. But first, find out what happens with hedge funds ray dalio, dr. Oz and chef mary burtalio. What do they do . Meditation. No, they mediate. They can mediate their meditation. Also, we should say there is a sales tax on lap dances if you did not know. One well known club has found out the hard way and we will talk about that when we return, as well. Where you think youre gonna go when your times all gone . [ male announcer ] live a full life. The new lexus ct hybrid with an epa estimated 42 mpg. The further you go, the more interesting it gets. Lease the 2014 ct 200h for 299 a month for 27 months. See your lexus dealer. Welcome back, everybody opinion it is time to pay up for backs taxes on lap dances. The judge says the club aloveng the citys west point highway owes over 2 million. She argues the state lap dances dont qualify on dramatic musical performances. She says this is a sexual fantasy, not a musical performance. Who . A judge who is ruling that they have to go ahead and why is that a choreographic dance . She says its sexual in nature. Do you know how hard it is to learn how to do that on a pole . Have you ever tried it . No. Have you . A little bit. Not the fancy moves, but its really hard to i would imagine. Why would this be different if you were a performer in the lion king. Were not showing a lap dance here . No. Because im not familiar with the term. Never heard of that . What . They dont let cameras in the champagne room. What is a stripper . Whats a girl . You wouldnt know about that. Whats an attorney . Well, the clubs attorney counters that the state anticipas tax is unconstitutional. Its a hustler clup club. There arent any magazines left, are there . And isnt everything free you tell me everything is free on the internet. I dont know what youre talking about. I just think it would be hard to run a girly mag at this point. Im going to have to meditate after this segment. Or mediate. The big question this morning, i dont know if it is but well say it is, what do ray dalio, dr. Oz and mary batelli all have in common . You i caught up with all three to talk about something impacting their business, which is the art of meditation. The stress is a actually, it comes from the animal part of your brain. If you calm and realize thats what reality brings you, it brings you things you want and things you dont want the and you have to deal with that reality. The acceptance of reality is something thats much easier with meditation. If you just sit down for a while and be quiet, it really does work. Prayer, it probably works if you can get into that centered place. I have always found permanently that dm helps guidemy in a direction thats more reproducible. Like most people, i struggle with it. I struggle to get into the mindset to do it and then i struggle to do it. Its not like, oh, man, i need a stiff shot of on meditation. It puts you in the place where you dont necessarily theres still a shot, a time in the day when i need a stiff shot of gin or vodka. But i would say its because as bob was saying, its cumulative. And the more you do it, the more you feel different and not different like oh, my god, im interior. Its like, im more in charge of my destiny right now. Im less likely to feel disappoint object anger or ang