Looking at early trading in european equities, in the green. The dax up by 0. 6 . Cac up by 0. 9 . Lets check out the Energy Markets. Yesterday Energy Markets traded higher. Once again as it looked like demand in china might be pushing higher. Some of the opec nations looked like they might be cutting back as they said they would be doing. This morning, wti down about 1 . Steve . Here are the big stories today. Janet yellen says she is upbeat about the shortterm economic outlook. Speaking to a group of educators in washington late yesterday, janet yellen said the labor market is looking strong, but the central bank chief is worried about longerterm issues like growing income inequality and weak growth in labor productivity. Its the busiest day of the week for economic data, retail sales out at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. This is the important december retail sales number. At 8 30, the december Producer Price index. At 10 00 a. M. , january Consumer Sentiment and november business invento inventories. And earnings, reports from blackrock, jpmorgan, wells fargo. And larry fink will join us at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. On todays political docket, just one week to go until president elect trump is inaugurated. No cabinet confirmation hearings today. Theyll resume tuesday. That follows mondays Martin Luther king jr. Holiday. Trump tweeted moments ago, all of my cabinet nominees are looking good and doing a great job. I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine. As he disagrees with as they disagree with him on everything. But the journal this morning, their oped says that is a good thing. It tells americans there are serious people in charge. The journal takes comfort in that. This tweet is something that you might have expected given what we heard through the hearings the last couple of days. Hes saying its okay. Its okay they disagree with me. I think theyll get through. Weve been watching these things. There were some blows landed by the democrats, sort of interesting. I think we could talk long and at length about the whole issue of russia. And we will. And how much that matters. Well talk about that. I have one more thing to read here on capitol hill. The house plans to vote on a measure that would dismantling obamacare that will set the repeal process into motion. Yes. Our guest host this hour is joe t terranova. Yesterday the narrative about the markets was disappointment in president elect Trumps Press Conference yesterday. He didnt deliver upon the expectations that the market might have had in terms of what regulations might be removed, what will the tax reform look like . I think investors and Money Managers need to get comfortable with the fact that over the next four years youre going to have rhetoric from the president , but most importantly as it relates to the markets, we want to hear what his cabinet members, his Economic Team is saying. I think ultimately that will matter more what is gary cohen and Steve Mnuchin saying. I get they have to ask about rus russia, but the big stories are the tax stories. Theres a single reason donald trump was elected, it has to do with the economy. The fact there were only one or two questions about the economy, donald trump needs to call in and talk to us about the economic plans. Theyll wait for the con if i makes to get Steve Mnuchin in and wilbur ross, but a lot of questions to me i watch a lot of science documentaries, its like early planetary development. Things are spinning in weird orbits. Who is on what side of what issue . We dont know that. Business wants that certainty. Can we introduce dan lipman here from politico. Good morning. Since were off the script at this point. And joes idol. We should do the whole thing. The thing i cant figure out. I would think the market and other politicians in washington want to hear united front. I dont get the idea that people have a hundred different opinions and thats okay. I think Business Leaders and people around the world will wonder who is in charge here. Is this a team of rivals or everyone playing on their own team, kicking the soccer ball. We wont know which policies are front and center who is making the decisions. We have not even seen trump inaugurated. Its very early days. Things are moving faster than in previous and Trump Administrations. What is important is next friday. On your view on the markets, everybody is happy as long as theres adults in the room. Steve mnuchin came on this program and told us and theyre going to have a tax plan at a corporate rate of 15 . If youre a wealthy person, you will be paying more and not less. Correct. I will assure you in advance, if you talk to people on the trump team, 15 they know is not a reality, and it will be between 20 and 25 . Okay. Wealthy people will pay less in tacks, not more for the most part. Andrew, thats why the market has paused here. I think there was an initial optimism, now things have come down to reality. A pause for one day. The market got a bonus when Hillary Clinton was not elected. The bonus was Hillary Clinton was planning to raise taxes. That was definitely going to happen. That went away. Thats an immediate boost. I think there was a lot of optimism, joe, and i think some of it was well placed. I think what andrew is saying makes sense. 15 wont happen. 25 is probably realistic. I can tell you how trump will argue this away. Hell say the same thing he said about tariffs, its an opening negotiation. Its not entirely up to us. We have to get it through congress. Where the Capital Markets were in the cycle back in october and november, any wethe in need of fiscal policy. We have elected a president and an administration that has put forth initiatives that suggest you will get that fiscal policy. Ultimately it comes down to one thing, can you get to 3. 5 . Gdp. Yes. You and i might disagree on how to get there, ultimately thats how we will judge this. I think the administration has been clear in the message, this is about jobs, this is about the economy. Everyone walking to trump tower right now, its an economic conversation. But also hesitation among koe corporate executives, and lobbyists, everyone time trump mentions a company or industry, they get pinged by their clients, is he coming after us next . From the white house podium when he takes over next week, Going Forward and for the next couple years, just saying one sentence or tweeting one bad thing against a company, that is also creating some uncertainty. Do you believe that all the appointees make it through the confirmation hearings . Mnuchin seems like he has been stalled. Probably not until february. The most vulnerable cabinet appointees is posner and rex tillerson. You think hes vulnerable . If a bunch of republicans flee. What is rubios game . Was he trying to is he already running for president again . 2020 or 2024. He was out there on tillerson. I think he wanted to inject himself into the headlines, and also he feels like it was a ready shot that he could take. And that tillerson was weak on the russian stuff with his business dealings. I think Mitch Mcconnell will work hard to make sure a person who is the secretary of state po se potentially, that he does not get defeated. As the coauthor of the politico playbook every morning, can you tell us what the rules are inside the white house . Visavis this l. L. Bean endorsement issue . Youre completely taking the thunder away. Im sorry. Go for it. I want to understand what the actual roles are. For those who dont know, donald trump tweeted out buy l. L. Bean because one of the family members supported him very early on, as a result theres another group now telling consumers to try to boycott. I dont want to go on that ll bean founders website and buy those lobsters that you can ship. But i think the rule is, actually, which was put into place by obama, you cant endorse specific companies or products, but trump could roll back the rule. He did not violate it yesterday. Hes only president elect. Can he fire the head of the Ethics Office . Yes, right . I think the senate and the house Jason Chaffetz is going after walter schaub, the governor of ethics guy because he thinks he has gone way antitrump. In a previous world, if you gave out a comment like that, like the kind of comments he gave out, you would have a job for life. Are we supposed to bring joe in on this . Yeah. I want to start off where i began the week. In chicago, i watched ken griffin from citadel talk, he said you guys better get ready for no major Infrastructure Spending and no major tax cuts, that all the pro growth stuff is coming from deregulation because also not enough money. Deficit politics will constrain the stimulus from the Trump Administration. Is that your view . Its a good question. First thing id say, were bullish on earnings, bullish on corporate profits, here we are at the beginning of the reporting season, we can see two, three quarters worth of profits growth here without any stimulus, whether its fiscal stimulus or tax cuts. Theres enough momentum in year over year comps, and enough momentum in Energy Markets and things like that to get earnings, continuing to grow from here for the next couple quarters. After that, we do need something, whether its on the fiscal stimulus side, whether its through actual stimulus policies or tax cuts, but the reality is sometimes we overcomplicate things. Sometimes you know the expression, its chess not checkers. I would reverse that and say its checkers not chess. We have an economy doing well. Profits that are rebounding. Investor sentiment which is turning bullish towards equities. And were discussing do we get fiscal stimulus, infrastructure pack canages packages, either one of those is very bullish. We are talking about gdp getting to 3. 5 , but today we get the financials. Theyve been up 17 since trump was elected. Five will be reporting today, including jpmorgan, blackrock, wells fargo. That should give us an idea of how positive these guys are on Earnings Guidance for the rest of this year. Maybe thats the Tipping Point for a day like today. We should see pretty good earnings. We could see s p 500 earnings up 8 , 10 this quarter. You might step back and say how can you be so bullish on a stock market when earnings are coming up 8 , 10 a quarter. Think about where we have come from. Weve been in a massive earnings recession and only now sort of climbing our way back out above i it. Joe, comment on the other joes idea here, that it doesnt have to be everything. You dont need the whole proposal. You dont need the 50 if you get something, thats good enough. The interesting thing is, if you think about Profit Margins, which peaked in the Third Quarter of 2014, then the markets stalled out all of 2015. The s p, theres a high correlation. The s p did not advance again until this past july, thats when Profit Margins began to accelerate again. People are look at earnings, not really giving them enough respect in terms of momentum they have. You talked about financials. This is the moment of truth. Right. Its on this on this day, friday the 13th. My thought is maybe i still believe the sentiment and talking to Money Managers, they dont believe the move in financials. Maybe it is friday the 13th, where we get the settlement above 20,000 for the dow on the back of some Strong Financial earnings. That might actually happen. But one thing that you mentioned that i think is important. You will hear financial earnings today. Well talk about loan growth. Cni lone growth completely stalling out in the quarter. Why was that . Because of the uncertainty about the election. It comes back to now we have an Administration Training coming in again, are we comfortable now . You have Business Confidence buildin building. Coming back in and lending on infrastructure projects. That could while you hear negative news on that, longer term that could be a good thing. Is this really the quarter that were going to judge the banks in the sense that were looking for the steepness of the yield curve, how long in the quarter were talking about shortterm i know that, but were saying well judge the banks. They have not had a steeper yield curve for very long. Just the end of the quarter. If were going to judge the banks, judge them in a full quart quarter. The three of you, andrew i know you know jamie dimon well. You have ever heard jamie dimon sound as optimistic as he has the last couple of weeks . You have larry fink on at 7 00. Lets understand what he thinks Going Forward. I think you wont see that in the its hard to imagine you will see that in these numbers. I agree with that. Despite the ceo of delta on yesterday who claimed he saw it in his numbers. The real issue on the stocks for the bank so far is what people think will happen in the yield curve and what people think will happen to regulations. Also on the institutional side. The massive underweight that people carried in financials for years. I think whats interesting about ceos, if Hillary Clinton will won in november, you would not be seeing a parade of ceos come visiting her like you do with donald trump. That row assures chief executives that theyll have a voice, a guy. Maybe hes not their first choice, but hell do business with them. Daniel, thank you. Thank you. Your first time on squawk. Hopefully first of many. Coauthor of politicos playbook. Youll be sticking around. Youre taking off. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Among the stories were following today, since we bypassed the headlines, we had some new ones, shares of nintendo has fallen nearly 6 in japan. The company disappointing investors. The price of its new gaming control, the switch s going on sale in the u. S. For march 3rd. The price tag, 299. 99. But heres the issue. The same it has the same as its predecessor, the wiiu, it will cost about 20 more. Its the same product and coasts 20 more here. The switch is a hybrid machine that can be used as a home console or handheld device. Analysts say the price is not justified this time around because there wont be enough games available, just eight games in total when the switch hits stores. Look at shares of renault. They are down sharply in europe today. Reports say that french prosecutors opened a probe into whether the automaker cheateded on emissions tests for diesel vehicles. Sounds similar to the charges levied against volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler. Fiat chrysler shares are rebounding in italy this morning a day after u. S. Regulators accused the automaker for using software to cheat on emissions tests. The government did not go so far as to say this was a default device but it sounds similar to what we heard from volkswagen. Shares down sharply yesterday before recovering some ground after the ceo, sergio marchionne, called the allegations hogwash. He came out sharply, actually speaking to an italian newspaper today saying the epas accusations will not have impact on Fiat Chryslers Business Plans targets. He spoke on power lunch yesterday and has taken huge issue with the way this has been described. And i think hes trying to make sure his company is not carved out of the same sort of likeness as what happened with vw. Its interesting. Not knowing whats happening and negotiations behind the scene, theres been negotiations for months on this you can understand why the epa might bring charges right before a flu administration comes in. Well have to wait and see whats in the papers. Heard a big segment on that yesterday. I couldnt understand why they would have that software in there. Fiat chrysler was defended, but i dont understand it. Thats what i mean. We have to see the paperwork behind some of this stuff. Coming up, ridesharing wars. Leaked data shows just how much money lyft lost last year in its fight against uber for market share. Details coming up next. Ir anything with a screen is a tv. m ves aastnvtovee ad rere e atvestotsts. Gegenddos. Lyepri rir stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. You can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. Only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. Download the xfinity tv app today. Welcome back. Were in chairs looking at some of the stories that caught our attention this morning. One thing i saw this morning was lyft. You know lyft and uber and these highly valued companies had trouble figuring out how profitable theyll be or when they will turn a profit. Some interesting news out from lyft. Its the second largest Ridesharing Service in the United States. It lost about 600 million last year. Yeah. That was up from a loss of 360 million in 2015. Get this, this is how they painted this. They said we did what we said. We promised we wouldnt lose more than 50 million a month and didnt. This is the positive spin on things that cracked me up. We get it. Still a new business, but we did what we told you, we didnt lose more than 50 million a month and we didnt. I would like to predict that uber and lyft will merge. Theres not room for two . Competitively they can. Because of taxes . The reason why theyre losing business and money i mean trade concerns . Monopoly concerns . No the reason why theyre losing money is because of competition. Theres too much competition. Theres a transfer of wealth going on from the investor class, the venture capitalists who have been subsidizing uber and lyft to the consumer for the past five years. To drive the taxis out of business. Thats been the ultimate goal. They have not succeeded at that goal. If this was like the amazon model, which you lose money, lose money, lose money until you can switch it on, thats one thing. This looks like less of a revolutionary model and more of a revolutionary model