The roadmap begins with the markets looking to rebound as tensions in the ukraine ease at least for the time being. Gold pulling back from that fourmonth high. However, putin still calling the situation in ukraine an unconstitutional coup, well go live to kiev for the latest developments from the region. And shares of radioshack dropping almost 30 in the premarket after the Company Announced its closing 1,100 Underperforming Stores. But well begin with the markets as we said trying to rebound from the selloff yesterday despite the turmoil in ukraine, futures in the u. S. And shares in europe pointing sharply higher following reports that Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to cease military exercises along the border with ukraine. His argument was that those had been in the works for some time. Obviously theres suspicion around everything he said, but for now it looks like an escalation is maybe off the table for today. No need for military action is the i think the standout quote for that and as you said the markets have come back strongly. Yes, it probably was. The whole pont he must have planned the whole thing in advance. You cant mobilize that number of troops so quickly. Thats underlying what weve been witnessing. Theres still the financial aspect of all of this. The white house trying to get some financing for ukraine for all those households that are going to be vulnerable no matter what, and the secretary of state in kiev i think he speaks around 11 00 a. M. Eastern time and well get a sense whether it remains sort of a military crisis or more of your run of the mill emerging market financial crisis. For investors here it seems as though its passing fairly quickly at least in the terms of the nearterm worries and well see if it emerging in a more significant way as it did yesterday, but its interesting how quickly these things can come and go at least in terms of how they overshadow anything else in the minds of investors. But to be clear the main fear was the financial conditions would worsen in russia. The fact that putin has stepped back means you dont have the big sanctions, it means you probably dont have further capital flight. Thats what is important that russia holds together. The big takeaway from Vladimir Putins News Conference is that there is no need for military force in the ukraine. Lets see how that is playing on the streets of kiev now, Cnbcs Steve Sedgwick joins us live from there. Are the tensions notably diminishing, steve . Reporter well, simon, president putin we all watched that speech in kiev and we were all wondering where he was going to go with this one as well, what is the difference between a Russian Force and proRussian Force and i ask it rhetorically and a lot of people dont know, either Russian Forces or proRussian Forces are in the cry mooia, if he is saying theres no need for military force in ukraine who are the guys in the south of the country . It seems from the observers down there from the military plates on their Armored Vehicles that they are very much Russian Forces as opposed to proRussian Forces. Theres a risk today as you were saying as well and the concern about putin reserving the right to use force i think is a veiled threat given the fact that he said force would be a last resort, a lot of contradictions there. Lets give you an update on the avenues as well. Small standoff between ukrainian unarmed troops who tried to retake their air base. They were turned back by russian or proRussian Forces. A couple of warning shots were fired but it was quite a lowkey incident. Elsewhere gazprom saying it will raise prices for the ukraine. Yankovic had negotiated a discount when he turned to russia in november, and now the price is going back up to the previous price and that is tough for this fledgling regime here as well. They are saying over at gazprom because ukraine hasnt paid its bills. Others are saying its another Political Tool being used by the russian government to put pressure on this prowestern Ukrainian Government. Mr. Kerry is in town as well. And officials traveling with mr. Kerry said the administration will work with congress to give a billion dollars in Loan Guarantees plus offer Technical Assistance, assistance making sure that the election coming up on may 25th meets with international standards, plus help in combatting all kinds of issues including crumbation. Plus the imf talks are still ongoing and perhaps early hopes for imf money in ukraine may be dashed. It could last a little bit longer. Goes, ill hand it back to you. Busy day for you, steve, well come back to you later on. Want to look at the markets in light of the situation in ukraine and looking ahead to jobs friday. And chad, good to see you today. Good to see you as well. Obviously you cant take your eye off of that boiling pot as the secretary of state, of course, lands there. But does this give us more room to think about jobs on friday . Yeah. Absolutely indeed. This was basically a the ukrainian crisis is a thunderstorm that just rolled through the markets but we do believe that the economy here in the United States is firm footing. Yes, the First Quarter was gradually decelerated from the past several quarters. But we believe in the second half of the year that youre going to start to see a reacceleration. The jobs numbers on friday, though, will be somewhat more muted than expectations. But we believe that thats more weather related. Yeah. So, what will that look like . Are we talking are we into triple digits . Is it 100 plus, 150. Whats aggressive . Whats not . I think youre going to be in the triple digits. Youre going to be in the mid150 range which bodes well for the economy. Were continuing to improve but nonetheless, i think what will occur here when you get into april, may, and june after the great ice age of 2014, youre going to start to see better numbers. And thats going to really bode well for the broader economy. Were looking for Economic Growth around 3 for 2014. Chad, stay with us. Lets bring in allen, he joins us editors of the lands letter. Whats your view of the markets at the moment . Well, you know, i think its kind of falling in place to what we were thinking at the start of the year, sime beon. The companies that did well, the high fliers in 2013 have really underperformed when you look at companies that tripled last year like best buy, supervalu and Companies Like that. Theyre all double down double digits. I think its an area where the market got ahead of itself the Fourth Quarter last year and were getting more of that backend filling this year. Its time to be a little bit more selective but i still think the upward trend is going to be intact just not as significant as last year. And what will work, allen . What do you increase your exposure to in your view if you believe that the markets still going higher . You avoid the high fliers. I think teslas the only one that, you know, did really well last year thats continuing, so instead of playing that gamble, you know, id be more preservation of capital oriented, simon. I would look at things like bed bath beyond, cocacola, things hitting new lows that are high quality that will go up whether the market goes up or down. Chad, you, too, presumably have been rebalancing. What do you believe will work now . I believe you go up the quality spectrum. You look at blue chip companies. You can look at Companies Like aetna or anheuserbusch or walmart. I would be a little bit more cautious in regard to perhaps the long end of the yield curve. I think well get over that 3 number on the ten year going into the second half of the year. And what we would also do is perhaps lighten up on emerging markets at this Inflection Point due in part because we think that the Federal Reserve will continue to weaned down their asset purchase program. So we want to be a little bit more selective in that vein. And finally, chad, the president will unveil his budget today. Were already seeing all the routine curtain raisers in the newspaper about the collision course hes on with paul ryan. Do you think d. C. Political risk is going to be a factor through the rest of the quarter . No, i dont indeed. Matter of fact, i dont think theres going to be a fiscal drag on the u. S. Economy in 2014 or in 2015. I think both sides of the aisle more or less, i know its unpopular to say, are going to hold hands and sing kumbaya and i think it will bode well for the Financial System and in particular for the equity markets. Well see what happens. Guys, thanks for getting us started this morning. When we come back as we said radioshack tanking in the premarket. Well tell you why and what it means for retail as a whole. And also ahead former senator barney frank will give us his take on the ukraine and how its affecting us at home. It is mardi gras tuesday. And maybe well put back a couple of hurricanes if futures stay this good. Were back in a moment. Tall the building is, or how ornate the halls are. It doesnt matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. When working with an investment firm, whats really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. Introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. If youre not happy with one of our participating Investment Advisory services, well refund your program fee from the previous quarter. Its no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply. Chuck vo standing by your word, thats what matters the most. Radioshack tumbling more than 20 in the premarket after it announced its closing 1,100 underper fortunatelying stores about 20 of its footprint. The struggling retailer also reporting a significantly wider Fourth Quarter loss. The company said it will have 4,000 store locations. Of course, radioshack has been under pressure for years now with the likes of competing with best buy and then, of course, with that category killer amazon. The company has started to try to refurbish and change merchandising at many of those stores. It apparently did not go as well as perhaps hoped for during the Holiday Season and we are seeing the stock down sharply. They refinanced at the end of last year and the suggestion is part of that refinancing might have been the condition that they close down stores, though, arguably the market expectation was half of that, 500 stores and not 1,000. Liquidity is around half a billion and cash on hand is 170 something, cash on hand. My favorite stat was Dennis Berman in 2003 them and amazon had 5 billion in sales and now amazon has 75 billion and radioshack has 3 1 2 billion in 10 years. If you are a hard goods retailer, competing with amazon is very difficult. We saw a great resurgence in best buy that the new ceo at the time did. But it never stops being really hard. For radioshack it continues to be quite difficult. And for the Liquidity Position the added cost of shutting down the stores become significant. Its not the first time this has been on watch for and or liquidity and its concerns about solvency and its ability for being a goingforward entity. It may happen again. Theyll still have 4,000 stores, but if it is 1,100 that they cut, thats a fifth of their foot present. But others say, look, ive been predicting the death of this company for the past five or six years and hasnt happened yet, so maybe the Zombie Companies that treasury secretary summers mentioned not too long ago continue to exist. They can. Im amazed at the different levers that company can pull to survive but not thrive. Look at jcpenney they are continuing as we look at radioshack, jcp are continuing to surge higher when we talk about troubled retailers. Up again. A huge short position in jcp, what are we talking 148 million shares short, but you do have at least this idea that theyre stabilizing. Their financial profile is stabilized if not improving a bit. Youve got youve got that actual actually being said this morning by s p which the ratings outlook was revised to stable from negative on what they are calling that modest Fourth Quarter improvement so your rate of change is actually going the right way on jcp. Seven notches below investment grade. Is that all it is . Seven notches below. Steve sadoff ex of macys is on the show later. Sachs. Theres a suggestion that he might replace the ceo later. Thats why we get the 20 pops when the news is not absolutely horrible but mildly horrible. The volatility in that stock is astonishing at times and it has been over the past couple of days. Were talking about a stock that was five bucks not too long ago and now pushing nine. Well see. Up next should you attempt to ride the market volatility or stay out of the politics. Art cashin will be up next. Yesterday we lost 154 points and well make it up today. More squawk on the street from the nyse straight ahead. 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Lets close new at t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. 11 minutes until we open and it look as though it will be a sharp bounce at the open erasing potentially yesterdays losses. Lets bring in art cashin. Good morning. Good morning. Do you trust what putin says . Temporarily for the next 24 hours, yes. But i think he probably felt betrayed. You know, when they cut the deal back in late february for the demonstrators to sign off and for the ukrainian leader who was essentially a puppet of putin and then the demonstrators went back on it within hours. So, whoever putin thought he had a deal with didnt stand up to it. Meantime does it matter if Russian Troops are in crimea, from a market perspective . Not unless something develops from that, okay . If it becomes a nosetonose, a good deal of what we saw yesterday was when there was reputedly an ultimatum to the ukrainian troops in crimea to put down your arms by 5 00 a. M. Tuesday and thats what helped spook the market. That seems to be a standdown. I dont think all of this is going to go away. I think putin may take to the streets aiding and abetting prorussian demonstrations in the cities. That i dont think will be a market factor. None of it will count. They came very close to what they thought was military and if thats not going to happen theres a sigh of relief. So, whats the fear gauge now . Do you watch the ten year . What takes our temperature . You got to keep watching the ten year. That was clearly there. Youll see at least according to early indications that european markets are not going to regain everything they lost. Nor will gold lose everything it got yesterday. There is i think a certain amount of suspicion and cynicism built into what were seeing. They are saying actually given the run weve had, for example, on the dax this is an appropriate adjustment. Its not a full correction. Its, you know, were still going upwards. You think this would have happened without the ukraine . I think they could correct for any number of reasons. Of course, they can. But i think the fact that you dont regain as much as you lost indicates that there might be some suspicions. Putins probably just cranky he wasnt at the top of the forbes list. If it wasnt that, it was the hockey loss. So much to be angry about. Hes probably the worlds richest man. The feeling on the floor was it is the olympic hockey loss. We shouldnt kid. But obviously his power is great within his own country. But you are not kidding hes at the top of the forbes list. That is talked about a great deal, but very quietly given and particularly in russia. From a policy standpoint, art, where does the white house go . Loan guarantees and let it sit . Well, they have to walk a little bit of a fine line. They can do Loan Guarantees, but if they overreact, if they look like they are taking ukraine into their full embrace, that will reignite things. In all fairness we have a Monroe Doctrine that says no foreign operations on either american continent. And i think putins a little afraid that the country right next door to him might have an undue influence what he sees as still the nato powers. He has certainly demonstrated or reminded people what a nat gas choke hold it is, right . How pivotal it is to his trade union versus eu trade union. Were not done with the story by any means. Theres no way were done with this story. This will continue. It interesting the role that natural gas plays in geopolitics and the export from this country eventually could also play a role and or lessen putins power. But here its liquefied natural gas and western europe is hardwired into it, they just turn the taps off. They cant get it from the mideast its not coming here anymore . And you have the new potential find off israel, so that so hes got to make the most of his oil and natural gas reserves now before prices change. In the meantime, a higher open. Art, thank you very much. Have a great day. All right. The opening bells just a few minutes away. Squawk on the streets coming right back after this. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the m