The buyback of greek debt will in fact work. Were seeing just fractions of a percent in terms of changes there. Our road map this morning starts with the latest in the fiscal cliff negotiations. The white house promptly rebuffs the gop counterproposal which calls for 800 billion in new tax revenue but without tax rate increases for the wealthy. Could this tax issue deadlock the talks . Bank of america ceo warns the cliff must get stalled or the economy could be stifled well into 2014. Even more dividends pushed into 2012. Coach, American Eagle moving up and oracle will play out threequarters of dividends this year. More strength in housing this morning. Toll brothers earnings top expectations. Well begin with the fiscal cliff. Governors are set to meet today with the president and congressional leaders. Governors are concerned about the impact of deficit reduction measures on their state budgebu. The latest gop offer would overhaul the tax code, raise 800 billion in new revenue but seek 600 billion in health savings, net savings add up to about 2. 2 trillion over ten years. Boehner called the white houses original offer la la land and it does appear that even though at one point bowles endorsed a blueprint like this, hes trying to distance himself from it right now. The president got reelected. Hes claiming he got reelected in part because he wants to tax that 2 . He cannot go back on that. In the meantime, congress most of the republicans signed the Grover Norquist pledge which says you cannot tax that 2 more than anybody else. You cant increase the taxes. So were at a stalemate and someone has to give and i dont see anyone giving right now. Bank of America Today commented on the lets jump crowd. The bungee jump crowd for which they think is a scenario. You wonder how much of that is in negotiating position. Embraced early on by senator schumer, new york states senior senator. Well see. You know, there are those who believe if you want deficit reduction and are serious about it, we have one way to get there and its called the fiscal cliff and will send us into recession but we may get deficit reduction but others believe we wont get spending cuts that we need. More will take place in defense which many argue does need to happen perhaps though not in the same way it does. We shall see. Whats todays date . The fourth now. Were not too far. People say the 18th. We need to at least see something for the 21st. Theyre going on vacation with legislation. Is that right . Should they be able to take off . We should sequester their vacation. A great tweet this morning, jim. If you had a big project due at work, would you be going on vacation a week from tomorrow . Lets say our bosses said we need you to finish this by year end. Pal, man, i got a trip to st. Bartz. What would they say . They would say stay down there. I dont like one of the defensive line guys that gets fired by the eagles. Does he get to fly back from texas . We would fire these guys where they are, when they are on vacation. No. They get to take vacation without finishing their project. A couple good poll numbers out today. Abc the Washington Post if we went off people would blame gop by two to one margin and then the pew poll. 49 do not believe a deal will be reached. 40 say a deal will be reached. I just know that if youre a republican, theres a primary. If you are going to run in that primary going forward, youll have no problem provided you pledge to norquist not to raise taxes and you dont. These guys dont worry about primaries. They dont care about what the republicans they dont even think themselves as republicans. They think of themselves as antitax people. And they feel they pledged to their constituents that theyre wont be any tax. Thats all they care about. Theyre 800 billion plus into a deal. I guess the gap has been right. Its been narrowed. Every offer is something. Both of the offers were exactly what both sides promised during the campaign. Theyre still not willing to get off the stump. I think they believe were no closer than where we were last year. Didnt it take your breath away that the democrats had rejected it . Im looking i stepped away to get a diet coke. My last soda that im ever going to have. As of yesterday . Swore off soda. While i went to get my diet coke, i came back and democrats had rejected a proposal that they hadnt even read it yet and they rejected it. Thats why i said thats the last time im getting a soda. It does not meet the test of balance. You dont think they gave it a test. It is about revenues. Its about loopholes closing. Its an impure thought. Dont be seduced by the democrats. Grover norquist, dont have impure thoughts. Didnt jimmy carter once talk about lust . If it ever got to your brain, youre going to lose the primary. Just pointing that out. The head of a banking giant has said about the fiscal cliff in an exclusive interview telling becky quick that the impact of the fiscal cliff is already being felt in Business Planning for next year and 2014. Even leading up to that, people becoming more conservative. Thats had an impact on what the growth will be in 13 all things being equal and were in danger if this strings out into 13 that you could have problems of what 14 would look like. By 2013 if negotiations get strung out, it will impact Decision Making and whether or not to build a plant or hire people or expand a division or not. Which we have heard time and again from many of the leaders and many corporations whether they be financial or otherwise. It comes back to this world. Certainty. Lack of it. And we dont have a lot of certainty at this point. They still have to do business. Not as though they wont come in on january 1st and go to work. They are. I was thinking, david, could there possibly be any m a between now and year end . No. Maybe a little. There will be some. Youre less likely to make the big move. Less likely to make the big move for a variety of reasons. One of them being you dont know how youre going to be taxed and how youre going to be fully regulated. You want to know the future. Were seeing our calculators on the web in which you can plug in your income and based on various scenarios do we go off or not go off and how will it affect you. Its seeping into mainstream culture. I like that. Accelerate dividend. Look, i want to pay lower taxes. Im going to move into the 52 bracket, which is a lot. That means that i have to go to labor day before i start making money myself. Im not in favor of that. Cramer loves higher taxes. Im not into higher taxes. Its obvious that the president is going to stick by this position because he thpgs inks was elected for it and moynihan, i found his comments chilling. Pnc thinks that they are saying they dont think well go over the cliff. As between pnc and bank of america, i think bank of america has a better handle on things. The cliff continuing to affect companies dividend strategies. We have coach, dsw this morning, and now American Eagle moving dividend payable dates to this year after oracle announced it will accelerate its fiscal 13 Dividend Payments into this month. The payout for Larry Ellison will exceed 1 198 million. When you consider potential tax rates difference, thats serious money. Real money there where you go up as high as 41 , yeah. From where we are right now, absolutely. The most tax efficient way to deal with dividends is not to have them at all. And actually run real Growth Companies that dont return anything to shareholders and power everything back into your business. A lot of companies have more cash than they need. Im just saying. Youre a purist. Warren buffett wants you to hold your stock. Last night on fast saying most individuals we deal with do not have taxable accounts. So what. He says that, listen, were making far too much of this. Jim, directly against me on this. Its very important issue that dividends will be highly taxed. Thats a deal breaker not to have it. Thats another tim geithner heres the way it has to be go over the cliff or else stance. So last night on mad you did have a Shopping List of sorts if in fact the smoke clears. Amazon, visa, mastercard, sherwin williams. Look at Toll Brothers today. Holy cow. You have to paint a loss of houses. Household formation coming back. Amazon is just a winner here particularly in sandy. I regard google as making a comeback. I think that when you look at what apple fears google. Google is going to do better going forward. Look at facebook by the way. They figured out things. Im not going to be im looking at stocks that once we go over the cliff bounce back and if we dont go over the cliff are where a lot of money is going. Where does ulta, are these tier 2 names . Ulta is david and i joke about this. Its the growth stock key to this market. Gilliad has been great. Same with ulta. You may laugh at ulta. I wont finish my sentence. I may. This double the store thing is what whole foods says. Any time you can double stores, growth guys just love it. Were told theres no concern if we go over the fiscal cliff that that will result in some sort of a chill in the housing recovery offer the Housing Market. This harvard study that bob toll cited, 1. 8 to 2. 8 million households fewer since 2007 were formed and thats playing catchup. We should have the formation of those households unrolling now. I thought it was amazing. Saying the optimism has to do with demographics and not the fiscal cliff. Kimberly clarke talkeded abo ee decline in birth rates. I dont shop for diapers. I did. Not long ago. Are you out of it . Tail end. Such a nice thing. Amazing statement by them saying, listen, not a lot of people are having kids. What about Adult Diapers . There is some household formation in the u. K. Well get at least one new baby in the u. K. Right . Shes a smart person. I wasnt going sexist there. I know better than that. Im not going over the sex cliff. Shes fashionable. Yes, she is. Even i know shes fashionable. Whatever she wears maternity wear, it will be a boost. Does she go to gsw . I said that was discount. Its designer. And youve got to go there. Theres one on 79th street. Gorgeous store. You can go to whole foods and you can buy shoes. May i suggest you do this on saturday . Just be part of american culture. What do you think the chances are that i would ever do that . Dont you shop for holidays even . No. Online . No. Who buys presents for your children . My wife. Are you an american . Yes. Why arent you shopping . I question your patriotism. I bought enough stuff from china and thrown it away already. Right now for valentines day shopping we have to solve that long beach strike. Clerical workers. You cant get things i want to start shopping for for valentines day the moment christmas and hanukkah is over. You have to start shopping for the next day. That will be constrained because of the port strike. When we come back, House Majority whip Kevin Mccarthy did sign this offer from the gop. Can he convince the white house to back the republican solution to the fiscal cliff . One more look at futures on a Tuesday Morning as melissa said. Not a lot of data today. Just wait until the next three days. It all starts with adp, jobs coming up later this week. More squawk on the street back in a minute. Bob, these projections. Theyre. Optimistic. Productivity up, costs down, time to market reduced. Those are good things. Upstairs, they will see fantasy. Not fantasy. Logistics. Ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems. Ups . Ups. Not fantasy . Who would have thought . I did. We did, bob. We did. Got it. Shares of Toll Brothers are rising beating estimates helped by a jump in signed contracts and a drop in cancellation rates. Every metric in this report came out gangbusters and the ceo cited this upswing in momentum that began in the First Quarter of this year. They say next signed contracts increased quarter by quarter. 45 , 51 , 66 and 75 . Now thats a case for momentum sustained here. The question is auto. Obviously tremendous demand. Home tremendous demand. Can these do well even if we go over the cliff. Momentum here was so amazing. We all know if they go over the cliff, payroll tax, youll see less in your check. This Toll Brothers, you buy 500,000 houses. People are buying them like they havent in five years, six years. A comment on five weeks into their First Quarter, net signed contracts up 34 . For the previous quarter, a quarter over quarter, up 60 . At some point these numbers are going to flatten out, right . Yes. We had a tremendous contraction in this industry. We were building as many homes as we were building in 1950, 1960. Im impressed by this quarter. I know bob toll was bearish when it was right to be bearish and hes bullish. I dont think hell pull it in just because of what could happen january 3rd when they return. We do have twists going on thats supposed to end. That being the long end coming down. 30year mortgage is down. I think maybe 20 in rates since april or Something Like that. Incredible. The fed chief was pointed out in this tremendous press release. This is a very powerful story. They talked about financial strength giving them the ability to buy land. They are building and acquiring land in this low Interest Rate environment which bodes well for this upswing in momentum. The question as you mentioned at what point do comparisons get so tough. First quarter 2012 was First Quarter where they started to see the upswing. 45 increase in signed contracts. Were lapping that now. Can we beat increases as we move on . It could be tough. To the extent that were building, any momentum at the bottom here, were still building off a small base as you know. So you could have Significant Growth for some time. Everything that goes into a house. A lot of spending goes into a house. Definitely. Cramer has stocks on his list that are worthy of your attention. What does he think about them . His mad dash is coming up next. Later, shares of gamestop surging from summer lows hoping to score big this Holiday Season. Well talk with the ceo. Lets take another look at futures as we head into this Tuesday Morning session. Were looking about flat. More squawk on the street straight ahead. This is america. We dont let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. So if youre one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day. 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Their discounting did not resonate with stretched consumers. Its not resonated when things are good. Maybe just not resonating. The difficult is that my olive garden jams constantly. This is one of those problems where you say when i go its crowded. How can i not buy an airline. I cant get a ticket. I would say buy it tomorrow. Thats whats been happening over and over again. Starbucks . Big meeting coming up. Howard schultz doing starbucks day. They also like dunken. Coffee stocks have held well. Starbucks will be a tea story too and also they are going to make breakout with india. More news today regarding yum and mcdonalds and discounted whoppers. This Restaurant Group has been awful. The only one that has risen up to use the rise above theory is panera. I think panera offers a better value. This is all about value. Who offers the best value for the price and people think that panera does. Panera is exciting. It has a costco feel to it. You never know what will be on the menu. I like the 4. 17 chicken caesar which comes in low in terms of calories. Very few calories. You dont need to wore kry at that. Trust me. Dr. Lewis said im way too fat. He needs his eyes examined. Economic news out of china is Getting Better. Ceo of dow chemical has seen signs of a pickup. Is the worst over . Well talk to jpmorgans chief equity strategist and what a year no Home Builders. Can they rally after toll results . Well follow many sectors when the opening bell rings in about 4 1 2 minutes. If you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. Fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from ch having you ship my gifts couldnt be easier. Well, having a ton of locations doesnt hurt. And a santa to boot [ chuckles ] right, baby. Oh, sir. That is a customer. Oh. Sorry about that. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Fedex office. He loves risk. But whether hes climbing everest, scuba diving the Great Barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesnt nickel and dime him with hidden fees. So he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens, which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense, from td ameritrade. Financial capital of the world. Were counting down the opening bell on a Tuesday Morning. We should note the move in the