And wendys. All of them reporting before the bell. After the bell, we get gap, monster beverage, salesforce. Com, splunk, and deckers. Lets get over to andrew with more of todays top stories. And andrew, good morning. Good morning, becky. Were watching shares of jcpenney. The stock spiking afterhours. The trouble retailer reported a loss of 68 Cents Per Share for the Fourth Quarter. That was smaller than expected. Revenue also missing, but heres the good news. The retailer is upping its samestore sales and Gross Profit Margin forecast for the year and youll want to keep your eyes on that. Jcp shares are down more than 30 so far this year. Well be talking more about jcpenney with dana telsey at 7 30 eastern time. Tesla raising cash to expand into the future. The company will be rolling out plans to build a factory and develop what its calling its gen3 mass market vehicle. It plans to build its gigafactory in arizona or texas. The Company Expects the company to run at about full capacity in 2020, employing 65 hukz people and producing about 500,000 cars. Shares of tesla flying high topping about 55 a share. And another Security Breach to talk about. Verizon said to be investigating two possible Security Breaches. The wall street journal reporting that two unnamed retailers appear to be the victim of similar intrusions suffered by other retailers. Late last year, now the retailer involved in these newly discovered breaches has yet to disclose them publicly. So we dont know who they are. Joe, over to you. And andrew, the giga is in quotation marks. Giga. Its that big factory for i know what it is, but why do they call it a giga factory. It has nothing to do with thats a good question. Just because it sounds it doesnt really mean theres anything giga bites going on there. But the fascinating part, some analysts talking about how tesla is potentially turning itself from a car company into a battery company. Well, you know given the capacity remember boeing . He weighed in with boeing when he had those problems with for electric cars, that is the issue. Thats 99 of the problems you need to surmount. And once you do solve them and get that done, then it works. Charge it fast, hold a charge, make it go longer, all of those i think its a tieback make it not start on fire. Batteries for them, too. Weve got to talk about china. Did you read this story . Which story, the china . Yeah. Theyve got to manipulate it now because theyre thinking about not manipulating it. So theyve got to lower theyre going to widen the band, so before they widen the band with these reforms to let it float, theyve got to drive it down on purpose to get it to a level where they can then same story, though. Oh, what a tangled web we weave yeah, theyre not currency manipulators. You read this, and i just wonder if the person writing it for the journal, it didnt occur to them how absurd this sounds. They need to do all this hardcore manipulation to then allow it to be more like the dollar, where it floats on its own. Because they want it to be very strange. Well, i think that were currency manipulators. Because of the fed. But like so many things, the east and the west, its inscrutable. Its i dont understand it. And i need to, you know, i need you can teach me to meditate . I can try, yeah. Id be happy to. I need a word, though. Ill get you a word. I think im going to do, andrew. Like that . Just say it repeatedly. Andrew. Its a calming force. It is that felt good right now andrew. Its a very good name for that, for whats it called . A good mantra name. Do you have one . I cant supposedly youre not supposed to say. I cant use it now because i told people what it is. Because its just your special its my special mantra. I dont know. Its been assigned to me. You dont get to pick it. No, you dont pick it, they give it to you. Is yours kernan. Among the stocks were going to be watching in todays trading i feel so much more relaxed now. Restaurant chain noodles and company. Let me start this again. Theres a restaurant chain called noodles and company and it reported Fourth Quarter profit of 11 cents a share, missing estimates by a penny. Is it a pasta place . I guess. Revenue also fell you dont know about it either . Must be a west coast thing or something . Revenue also fell below consensus, despite a 17 increase over a year earlier. The company was founded just in 1995. It just went public, though in june of last year. Not know it. Its probably not an east Coast Company or around here. What is it . An asian noodle place. Cool. All right. Warren buffett has increased his holding in davida. He added about 1. 1 million shares, bringing his total to 37. 6 million. That represents the take of about 17. 7. I have heard him talk about that company. It might actually be him. I have heard him talk about that company. Yeah . Yeah. To add more to it. He didnt say he was adding more, ive just heard him mention it, that it was one of the ones hes watching. And that governor in arizona, shes republican, she vetoed the bill that set off that National Debate over gay rights, religion, and discrimination. After weighing all of the arguments, i have vetoed senate bill 1062 moments ago. To the supporters of this legislation, i want you to know that i understand that longheld norms about marriage and family are being challenged as never before. Our society is undergoing many dramatic changes. However, i sincerely believe that senate bill 1062 has the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve. And you know, its kind of a its not really a defense no, the decision was met with cheers outside the capitol building. She was met with major corporations and the thing i dont like about twitter. To me, maybe i didnt know every nuance and detail about it, but just the idea that a lunch counter that someone would say, no, youre not being served here, somebody that was enough for me. I didnt realize how many different situations twitter people could come up with to show me that there was some time when this might make sense. Its like, i dont want to know all your splitting hair opinions about why personal freedom, its like, okay, lets say youre a florist. Someone comes in. They want you to do this at this. You dont like the way you know, all these Different Things about, if its junior business, why cant you decide whether or not this is somewhere where youre going to you tie it right back to civil rights. The Immediate Reaction is, we dont serve your kind here. You cant say that. We decided that 50, 60 years ago. You cant do that. But i was like reading these where these convoluted situations that these people come up, where i start to wonder, well, maybe i didnt read it closely. Why do i have to be forced to be a part of a religious ceremony that i find offensive . Thats what people were writing in about these things. But youre right, these are small examples we said that long ago when eric was in here, cantor talking about, you know, you need to be tolerant. And i said, no ones asking you to get married to a man, eric. What, youve got to enforce, youve got to go outside yourself to put your morality on other people. Thats the thing i dont know of any religion that says, you need to make sure other people are actually, thats a part of a lot of religions was converting others. Converting others, but its not a good idea to sit in judgment. But there are some religions that advocate for that. The only one i thought was interesting was someone who said a priest could here you go. Youre going with one of the minute said a priest could tell a jewish couple he cant marry them, and i thought, of course but thats i think a priest could marry a jewish couple but a priest absolutely can say no, and they say theyre not going to marry a man and woman im on the other side of this, anyway, but i was reading but a priest isnt a business. Again, a priest is situation where you are protected by religion. You can choose who you marry in your church. You cant as a business say, i serve you, but not you. I was doing all of this disparage twitter again, because i dont care about all of your opinions. Yet you read them all. You know what they say about opinions, dont you . Everyones got one and theyre all shiny. All the cos yesterday, mark bennyoff and others from sales salesforce went on twitter and said, were pulling all our business if twitter if that happens. All these hotels that would be in trouble. Very interesting to see how it erupted online. And governor, her defense was not exactly a strident one it was more apologetic shes in a very red state and shes a republican and she did it, at least, and then she just sort of but there was real business to be lost by that decision. Had they not decided that. Agreed. Lets talk about the markets. We did see the markets close a little bit higher yesterday. Joe, you were looking for that s p 500 crossing that level. Were not going were going to make it to march. Closed yesterday at 1845. It was above 1850 for most of the day. Closed below a new high for the s p 500, but within a striking distance. You could get there today, potentially. Right now, why dont we take a look at where the futures are this morning. Again, yesterday, we saw the s p down slightly. The tenyear yield fell below 6. 7 yesterday to a threeweek low. Futures arent looking strong today. You saw that number. Gold snapped a threeday winning streak after falling 1. 1 . That was the worst day this month. Right now its time for the Global Markets report. Ross westgate is standing by in london. Good morning. Good morning, you join us at the low point for the session here in european trade, nearly 9to1, decline is outpacing advances at the moment on the Dow Jones Stock 600, and certainly worries in ukraine not helping sentiment this morning either as we see russian things put on full alert and events south of the ukraine. It was guinn over to the ukraine in the 1950s, having proven to be a big russian contingent there. Just those issues just rambling around this morning, just weighing on sentiment in the emerging markets and while there might be some systemic spillover as a result. Were 1. 5 for the xetra dax. Inflation might be a little bit weaker than expected. Under pressure because of deflationary fears. The cac 40 down, the ftse down 1 . Quite a few stocks were looking at. Well start off with rbs, it did up its bonus pool, but the stock off 8. 6 today. The ceo says restructure will mean its more difficult, it will have to make more difficult choices on jobs in the years ahead. Theyre also saying, were going to have to offload systems. Some of that may be coming through ipo, but systems, the u. S. Business, will be going. Wpp, down 5 today. Sales were up in the last quarter of 2013, but investors arent impressed by warning or margins. The ceo saying he should have done a lot more to get businesses out of emerging markets. And alliac, the owner of pimco today, roughing meeting expectations dividends, but they had a Strong Performance from the property division, life and Health Insurance missed forecast, and theyre blaming pimco for the weaker expectations for 2014 as well. Props with pimco weighing on allia allianz. Ahold up 4 . The dutch retailer has a big retail presence. The Fourth Quarter numbers came in a notch above market expectations. Thats highlights of some of where were trading, but sentiment down a little. Thank you, ross. Well get over to capetown now, one of my favorite cities and to bronwa nielson. She tells us about her exclusive with the president of south africa, jacob zuma and joins us now with more. Reporter emerging markets are out of favor and their currencies are underappreciated across the board. South africa has one of the most volatile currencies in the emerging markets space, fallen some 17 against the u. S. Dollar since 2013. Many economists here at home say corruption allegations against the ruling party and the Mining Sector are further fueling this weakness. In a cnbc africa exclusive win sat down with president jacob zuma and asked him what he thought was behind the fall. Once the dollar is in problems, many currencies are in problems. So its difficult to say we cannot move this direction or that one. You know for a fact that you have the economy down because of the dollar. Reporter that was president jacob zuma of south africa, in a cnbc africa exclusive, talking about what he thinks is behind the weakness. Back to you. Very good, bronwyn. We appreciate that. Coming up, do companies that lobby the u. S. Government perform better than the s p 500 . And we have some stats that you have to see to believe. And boeing makes jets and rockets, but now its into some james bond stuff. How about a spy phone . Thats coming up in todays executive edge. Es es means advanced technology. We learned that Technology Allows us to be craft oriented. No ones losing their job. Theres no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. The technology is actually creating new jobs. Siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. Welcome back, everybody. Right now its time for the executive edge. American airlines has ended its policy of extended special fares to passengers who have to book a lastminute flight because of a relatives death. Its called a bereavement fare, traditionally. But this move bringing americans in line with the policy at merger partner us airways, which has not been offering bereavement fares. Walkup prices the tend to be the highest on any airline, putting family members in a real bind, if they have a relative who dies far away. American didnt have a specific discount for bereavement travel, but did have a different fare class that could produce a lower price than the traveler might otherwise find. Guys, im not a huge fan of this. If youre stuck in a situation like that, the airlines in the past, you would always be able to call and explain, as long as you could give the hospital, the doctor, and make sure they understood it. This is going to put a lot of people i love doug parker, i think hes done a great job for his company but they cant be making this much money on this and the goodwill you get my guess is they would say people abuse it. But if thats the case, get better with your controls. Make sure youre only allowing people with a legitimate excuse. It sounds like a lousy pr move. The sky miles move from delta was even worse. And the sad part is all of these guys who come on our show and say when they were going to do these mergers, it was going to be better for consumers. And here we are. But, yeah, still, its been 40 years where were lucky to have anything left of the airline industry, because it was so cutthroat, and we always had gordon on saying, were only as good as our stupidest competitor. So the writings are on the wall. Youve got to charge for peanuts. Charged 6 million in excess fees last year. So maybe its viable. If youre talking about Something Like getting rid of bereavement fares. Its not that much money. I dont understand what the but i also dont know what the other airlines do. It shouldnt come as a surprise, given how theyre watching every penny. What does united do . What does jetblue do . I dont know if theyre matching other people or if its new. You have to buy a sandwich now in coach. I just did it the other week. I had to buy i bought a sandwich and bought peanuts. Are you in coach . Yes. It was a short flight with no first class. No, he was traveling for himself, not for work. I flew by myself and i sat i call it poor mans first class, because i got an exit row. I did pay the 49 extra for the seats joe, i flew coach last week too, coming back from florida. From florida, theres no first class. Were not all flying in the front of the plane. From florida, theres no first class. There was first class, i was not sitting in it. Was it sold out . I fly coach all the time with family. You know, like the story about the bereavement, theres more to this thing with sorkin i know. I guarantee you theres some extenuating circumstances here. There was a problem with net jets that day, and i was waiting on the tarmac, it didnt work out. I had to get on the united. Now, that it was the only seat left on the plane. Last seen left on the plane. Let me tell you about another story. Investors spend boat loads of money to try to beat the s p 500. One way you may not have heard of is tracking what we call the lobbying index. This is a proprietary index based on research by extstrateg. The three biggest are 3m, act censure, and alexion. Its gained more than 80 , crushing the s p. The more you spend in washington, the better your stock does. Thats your lesson. You know, ive seen a lot of Different Things. Obviously, crony capitalism doesnt help anybody. It makes it worse, its as bad as the stuff they complain about. But then again, lobbying is the right of it is like covered by free speech. Youre allowed to do this. And the competitors are going to do it as well. And could you look at it, that the company is smart enough to do this, so that it must be wellmanaged in other areas. Whats disappointing is the amount of influence that they have over lawmakers. And the reason we have such a complicated tax code, for instance, is because of these lobbying organizations. If you really wanted to get a fair tax code how do you offset the influence that unions have and leftwing organizations that soros have . Why is it only big unions or big organizations that have a say in these things . No one is pooling their money together to i want to raise a question about, at some level, of the voracity of the index. At some level, theres shadow lobbying going on. And not even total lobbying numbers have come down. But you can clearly tell theres the official lobbying that we can all track, that theyre tracking, but then all this stuff on the side. What if you hire a congressman and bring him under your wing. I thought the same thing too. It was interesting that two Tobacco Companies made the top of the list. You take this to its worst level of lobbying and how does that compare to ukraine with theically other countries, where its pure out and out bribery. Theres not a reason to not constantly try to be vigilant to make it a better system. Theres no golf course at the white house, but ill bet you, theres i bet hes played more rounds than yanukovych than the last couple of years. Prorussian forces, these are militia in krimea took over a building, raised the russian flag over some of those government buildings there. The closer you are to russia, its like the countrys half and half, it seems like, to some extent. But we said that was a good thing, because