Good morning. Stephanie ruhle is on assignment. You will see her in less than an hour. Lets start with both ends the top business and financial stories around them morning. Carl icahn posted a new open letter to tim cook, calling the apple ceo to buy back more Company Stock and at a faster rate. He owns more than 5 billion of that there of apple shares. He wrote that the market undervalues apple. Apple responded in a statement that it always appreciates hearing from shareholders and will review its Capital Program on an annual basis. Icon has had success putting pressure on cook before. It raised its dividend. We will talk with carl icahn later today and we will see him at three clock p. M. Eastern time. 11 in a single month. Down 13 for the year thus far. Almost 23 billion in assets. Companies involved in events such as spinoffs. Investors not happy with the shakeup at the gap. The gap ceo glenn murphy, the man credited with reviving their chain in the past years is retiring. Cap shar
Mario draghi hinted that largescale quantitative easing may be the way because of the risk of deflation. Bond yields are falling in italy and spain as a result. Former new york governor mario cuomo died yesterday of heart failure. He was 82 years old. He was elected governor three times and he had a memorable speech at the 1984 democratic and that this convention and many thought of him and higher office. Many believe the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the week are left behind by the side of the trail. From that, he was considered a likely president ial candidate twice but decided against running. Once he declined a plane took him to New Hampshire to take into the New Hampshire primary. Bad weather is slowing down the search for wreckage embodies in the air asia crash. Search crews in the java sea are using sonar and ping locators to find the blackbox and flight recorders and 30 bodies have been found so far. For the seco
Security threats, will be deported. Response tot those that accuse him of overreaching. The actions taken by every single republican and democratic president for the past halfcentury. Of congressbers that . Authority to make our immigration system work better, or arch and the wisdom of me acting where congress has failed, i have one answer. Pass a bill. Republican say they will use that power they had to stop the president but they do not say what they will do. Here is john boehner. The president said before he is not king and he is not an emperor, but he is sure acting like it, and he is doing it at a the American People want nothing more than for us to Work Together. Turning to china, surprise move by the countrys central bank to boost the economy. China has cut Interest Rates for the First Time Since 2012. The benchmark lending rate was cut to 5. 6 . China is on track for its slowest growth in two decades. Has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In june, the Supreme Court ag
Apple saying shares are massively undervalued. Recent history repeating futures pointing lower after a big recovery from a dramatic selloff tuesday. Alcoa and pepsi beating the street. Leadership, gap shares down. Murphy announcing he will be retiring. Carl icahn released an open letter to apple ceo tim cook saying the Company Shares are massively undervalued and should be trading at 203 a share now. Icahn expressed support for cooks leadership, urged him to accelerate the share buybacks. He would not tender a share if apple institutes a new Share Repurchase program. Calls cook the ideal ceo. Says this is not a criticism. A long letter about how the market is getting this wrong. I think you are right to say its about how Institutional Investors are underinvested in apple. He also says if you want to get those investors, you cant just keep doing what youre doing. Youve got to really create a short squeeze from the tender offer. Sell 25 million tvs. Its not scathing, but it says, all rig
Sugary drinks that are not selling like the used to. Welcome to Market Makers. Im Stephanie Ruhle. Erik schatzker is out today. Have a special cohost this morning. There is nothing worse than a person sitting next to a person getting their name five euros sample deli bobby o scarlet fu is in the newsroom wholesale inventory data. Wholesale inventories increase at a slower rate in the month of december. Again of 1 10 of 1 . Looking for an increase of 2 10 of 1 . This marks a slowdown from the 8 10 of 1 that we got in the november period on the month over month basis, that was a drop slightly larger than what economists had been anticipating. Carl written on a word warned that this would not generate thats pretty much the case right now when you look it how stocks are performing. They are holding on to their games. Hard to say. Stephanie it is time to take you to topic the stories of the morning top business stories of the morning. Shares of cocacola are trading higher this morning. Coke