One of the worlds biggest crypto markets may ban trading altogether we are all over it power lunch begins, right now. And welcome to power lunch. Im melissa lee. We are around session highs now. The dow, nasdaq, s p 500, across the board, green, nasdaq seeing the biggest gain up 0. 7 of 1 . Transportens hitting new record highs. And hitting 70 first time in three years. Crude just under 65 a barrel. Movers, delta higher on earnings, raising 2018 outlook thanks to the effect of tax reform dfc systems a pop. Software provider bought by a Technologies Company for about 5. 5 billion and xerox up by 4. 5 on reports its in talks to strike a major deal with japans fujifilm melissa, thank you. What else is happening at the house. Epa says fuel economy in new cars in the u. S. Expected to hit 25. 2 mimes per gallon in 2017 vehicles the Senate Banking Committee Votes next week, second time on the nomination of jerome powell. To be your next Federal Reserve chairman. More on the deadly mudslides in california. Rescuers frantically serving for survivors. Mud and stones crushing the community in montecito at least 17 dead 8 more missing live on the scene ahead in power lunch. Reporter im Michelle Carusocabrera in wenatchee, washington three hours east of seattle. A very small town turned into a mecca for bitcoin minors here in the United States. This is one of 12 bitcoin mines in this it area. Why are they all coming to wenatchee . I 0 explain, coming up later here on power lunch. Guys, back to you. All right thanks michelle. The bulls are in charge this hour stocks sitting around session highs as we mentioned. Get straight to the access bob pisani, new york stock exchange. Hello three to one advancing in declining stocks more than 250 new highs. The Dow Jones Industrial average, we passed ignites buying at that point saw etf traffic pick up, hitting 25,500 and the mexican finance minute sister, nafta talks advancing in an orderly monanner. Inflation trade. Economies expanding around the world arnold see it again today. Materials industrials, Consumer Discretionary, energy and transport, forkelks, ratthats e reflation trade. And energy names moving up look at the dow laggards Consumer Staples and health care proctor, mcdonalds, coke, lagging behindpfizer lagging. And delta, positive things yes about tax reform what else they said, outlook for Corporate Travel spending, the best in three years. Thats exactly a reflation trade comment. Right now just off the highs of the day. Back to you. Bok, thank you. See you in a bit meantime, higher Interest Rates becoming the story of the markets this year. There are a lot of questions out there how rates may affect inflation and the fed, not a lot of dont about one group of stocks you can make money off higher rates in. Brad mcmillan, chief Investment Officer Commonwealth Financial Network and bruce bittals, chief strategist with baer they dont agree with everything, based on my notes, seems you both agree that banks and financials are going to be a good place to make money this year how come all a rate story i dont think its just a rate story the rate story is what people are talking about and its real. A real story, but the big story is deregulation. Banks, the financial companies, able to do things they havent been able to do for years because of the regulations, theyre dialed back. Whole new areas of businesses opening up to them thats the real story here. Whats the risk, though, from higher rates brad, we know financials will do well, because of this other stu well be talking about theres got to be some down side from a macro perspective to higher rates minimum, bonds become a little more attractive. Do they not . Bonds do become more attractive but the question you have to ask yourself is, why are rates rising, and the answer is, things are growing faster. Well see the upside effects on stocks outweigh the negative effects. You get to a break point when rates hit probably 3 or 4 . Were nowhere near there right now, still in the sweet spot. Bruce, optimism is high practically everybody is saying sort of. What brad just said. The path of least resistance is up what do you think . Yeah, one area, technical analysis, that is a fly in the oirntme me ointment here. A lot of optimism. Certainly supported. The markets have been supported by an economy thats been underestimated in terms of its strength, potential and potential for earnings going forward. Thats really the Important News right now. Sounds almost, bruce, like youre a reluctance optimist what you see in the charts, krish contradicting what you feel is a fundamental base for stocks. You said the up trend is there you note 80 of s p 500 stocks above the moving interday averages a lot of people consider that overbought is there a conflict there . I dont think so. Look at the market on a longerterm perspective than that a healthy bull market, everything is going in the same direction. Big stocks, small stocks, value stocks, Growth Stocks and foreign stocks sthats what were experiencing today. Not only in the stocks in the indices as well. Almost an indices are making new highs today. Brad, where would you put incremental money this year . Would it be into those financials or what i would put incremental money in International Markets staying in the u. S. , look at financials, industrials, at energy also look abroad, because the valuations and the growth are actually as strong or stronger as they are in the u. S. World is a big place. Where abroad any particular region or just a diversified, you know, World Index Fund i like japan. I like india those are the two best opportunities right now. I would be cautious about europe i dont think the Political Risk is fully priced in, but i think the merging markets and japan, the places to you. Bruce, you overlap with brad liking financials as well as energy in terms of Consumer Discretionary, another favorite area of bruce. Whats the bull case there some say at least for retailers, we saw a Short Covering rally given momentum theres more to it than that. Retailers benefit in two areas one, they typically pay the full toll in terms of taxes the new tax legislation will benefit them enormously, and number two, their clients. Their customers are having much more disposable income because of the tax ut. I think theres a real case for the Consumer Discretionary secretarier this year. Brad and bruce, thank you very much. Thank you, brian. Thank you all right. Go to michelle in wenatchee, washington michelle actually, rick santelli. Rick santelli i apologize but correct in the general direction. Chicago is west of here as is wenatchee, washington. Yeah, yeah. Its a few miles, whats that among friends . Aminus and a for tenure and a for 30year demand even though its a reopening originally auctioned off, two auction cycles ago 30 year bonds bought in a big way by investors look at the intraday chart dropped two basis points on 10s and 30s. Go through it. 12 billion, 2. 867, the yield at the dutch auction. That was below the low of today in the one issued market, lower yield, market price. Bid to cover amazing. 11year history on 30year bonds and have no number closest the highest i have 71. 5 sorry. 2. 74 is best since january 13th. 71. 5 on indirects blows the b e doors off. Verse 8 on direct 8 the 10 auction average. The only minor fly wing in the ointment solid auction. This addresses that even though rates have gone up and its a big story, investors like the concession and barreled in to do some buying. Back to you. All righty. Thank you very much, rick. Walmart is the latest company to give out bonuses and raise wages while crediting the new tax law. Courtney reagan has details. This is what people said might well happen. Right. As a result of this and it seems to be happening. Yeah. Walmarts a Pretty Big Company the one to step on in. The Worlds Largest retailer and the Worlds Largest private employer given 1 million plus of u. S. Employees a bonus, wage increase and enhanced parental benefits thanks to the new tax reform bill. Eligible Hourly Associates get somewhere between 200 to a 1,000 bonus based on tenure at the company. Increasing starting wage to 11 up from 10 currently. Once that goes into effect, hourly pay ranges from 11 to 24. 70 beyond the onetime bonus and pay increase, fulltime associate eligible for ten weeks paid maternity leaves, six weeks paid parental leave. Increase from six to eight maternity leave, half or 60 pay and no parental leave putting the fulltime Hourly Associates and salaried employees at parity for the benefits walmart offering to pay 5,000 for its adoption expenses. The coo, further assessing further opportunities the tax reform might create for the retailer that announcement comes out february 20th. Doesnt sound like its the end for walmart, only the beginning. This is not nearly, you point out, a onetime bonus. This is ongoing races and benefits much more expansive. Exactly right look, walmart didnt have to do this no companies have to do this but many of the retailers came out and said we need tax reform. Really crippled and so it looks like theyve turned around said, hey, thanks. Were going to do this for employees and might just spend the money in stores. Right . If you can avoid it, do you think other retailers now have to follow . Makes competition from employees that much harder. Yes very possible. Thats what happened when they start raising wages. Walmart wasnt first fairness, began was first to raise minimum wages. Took walmart a while, but theyre so big, created others to raise wage es. Target did this, and walmart back when they reported in november raise guidance for 2018 i dont know if all taxed. Any disappointment on the part of analysts they didnt do that with this announcement not as far as we can tell and laid out clearly what the financials, the new impacts will be of both the onetime bonus and this new increase in wage. Its not nearly as much as it was when they did the increase from the 9 and 10, because so many employees were below that so many frankly are at 11 and above, just bringing everybody up to that. And guidance again on tax impact right no as far as we can tell, notty appointment from analysts because they did not do that. Thank you courtney reagan. The other big story of the day. Global crackdown, bitcoin, down about 7 or so on coin base now. South korea preparing a bill banning all crypto surcurrently trading. One of the biggest and the wall street journal reports chinas ordering the closure of Bitcoin Mining operations tightening a clamp down already shut down exchanges that trade cryptocurrencies and here in the u. S. , the senate panel is holding a hearing next month with top market regulators topic, bitcoin and the risks cryptocurrencies pose to the Financial System head back to michelle in wenatchee, washington, meg kaw of the Bitcoin Mining here in the United States. Michelle reporter melissa, yeah more than a Dozen Companies here in wenatchee, washington three hours east of seattle. Mining cryptocurrencies. This is one mine it has 1,800 servers, part of the Salcido Group with three Mining Operations minting five to seven bitcoins per day. Multiply six times the average 30 days in a month times the current price around 14,000, doing 2. 5 million worth of bitcoin every month, and the owner of this group is hoping that theyre going to get up to 50 bitcoins per day by july if they can secure enough power they are using 7. 5 megawatts in just this group, enormous amount of power, enough to power 11,000 homes. The head of the local utility says that they have been inundated with requests. Spoke with him, steve wright, thinking a lot about bitcoin issues, ever since the price surged in degs thcember, they h requested, flooded, for more miners. Gone from a few people out there, knocking on our door and all of the sudden people banging on the door loudly we dont want people to come here to make a quick buck off of our low cost of electricity and leave town and leave us holding the bag and the people of this Community Holding the bag. Reporter to do a build out of infrastructure for a Cryptocurrency Miner is very expensive. Say youll lay a mile of cable in order to get to a mine and then from a substation it can cost as much as 3 million. So they dont want to do that unless they know the company is going to stay in business. Right . Listen to this theyve gotten four requests for 100 megawatts of power their current capacity is only 200 megawatts of power so enormous requests that would require enormous investments so thats why theyre also wondering is this bitcoin thing real or not . Because theres a lot of Big Decisions to be made at the county level coming up, well talk to malachi salcido, the founder of the group. One of the big miners here not a code or computer guy hes a master electrician, and once you understand the issues of power it makes so much sense that a 34569er leelectrician wol get into bitcoin money back to you. Michelle, quick question, because weve heard a lot about all of the Processing Power generating heat. I know people that are literally heating their homes. How hot is it in there is that a real concern you probably have to crank the ac as well reporter right thats why wenatchee is also good right temperatures are cooler. Couldnt do this in the southern part of the country. Interesting about this room, master electricians. You cant see them two massive fans and a snowstorm. Its pretty cool on the back side of these, more than 100 degrees, because theyre generating so much heat. Theres the cooling system running to try to keep the temperature as consistent as possible to make the servers work at peak capacity 24 7, because that equals more revenue. All right, michelle, see you in a few minutes interesting stuff. Thank you. All right. Well, maybe to say its been a bad start to flu season is an understatement well talk about why everybody seems to be sick, and whether or not its going to get worse. Plus are we headed for another possible Government Shutdown next week . Yep. The budget deal back upon us will Congress Make a deal . If so, more than two wksee at a time power lunch will be right back day. Weve been preparing for s over the years, paul and i have met regularly with our ameriprise advisor. We plan for everything from retirement to college savings. Giving us the ability to add on for an important member of our family. Welcome home mom. With the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Kayla tausche has breaking news in d. C. Senator jeff flake, a republican from arizona, one of the senators leading the Small Bipartisan Group of senators trying to broker a deal on immigration just told reporters that they have a deal in place now, he was short on the substance exactly what it is he said it could be released by the end of the week. Possibly as soon as today. Interestingly, he said it could be voted on in bill form if the white house supports it by the end of the month, but doubted it would come together by january 19th thats a key date, because thats the next date by which they have to fund the government, and democrats want any immigration priorities to be part of that bill. So well see exactly what the contents of it are notably, what theyve reached as a definition for Border Security in which measures are included in the bill. Senator jeff flake says they have a deal and it could be released in bill form as early as the end of this week. Back to you. Kayla, thank you. Bring in rost costa, National Political reporter at the washington post. Robert, you heard what kayla just said. Unpack this one hate to use that cliche phrase, but unpack this for me. What is this signaling in termses of daca . A more complete agreement on immigration, and the possibility its all linked into a continuing resolution that might extend a government funding for a day or two theres movement on capitol hill today you see Republican Leadership signaling they will keep the government open. That they will have some kind of shortterm continuing resolution in the coming weeks should a deal not be done by then leadership sources continue to tell me there wont be a shutdown when it comes to immigration, the president delegated much of the negotiations to congress, even though he had a meeting at the white house earlier in the week they believe they can have some kind of Border Security measure democrats can buy into not a full concrete wall along the border but enough to get the vote. Can you explain what the president means when he said on the one hand, ill take whatever sign whatever immigration bill you guys send up here, and on the other hand, he says, well, there has to be a wall in it last night i was watching another network, and representative charlie dent, leaving congress, get to the number of gop members in a moment it was amazing to watch him try and explain what wall meant. What does it mean . Depends how you want to define it and depends on the sale thats what the president is looking for. Something he can sell to his base as the beginning of the wall project when it comes down to the nittygritty of the legislation it could include drones along the border, bolstered Border Guards looking at the u. S. mexico border fencing either, the democrats supported as a provision in the past all of that could come together and be something that has bipartisan agreement democrats can sell it at not a wall and republicans can say, its a start of a wall. A wall to be a drone, could be a person. Okay i got it lets move on to Something Else here that is intriguing to me. There have been a lot of gop members of the house and of the senate who have announced that they are not going to run in the fall of 2018 whether its charlie dent, darrell issa, orrin hatch. Some are leaving because of tenure and age others, clearly, because they face either primary or stiff election tests others because theyre just freaking fed up. Whats happening here and how how much risk is the gop in of losing the house not just the senate. Nonpartisan election observers say that the gop house, majority, definitely at risk republicans i talk to every day at the capitol say, look, even though theyve got a tax bill through it may not be enough for me to sell that to a suburban voter in my district voters are increasingly concerned about president trumps conduct and behavior not all bought in on the trump agenda and the worrying signs for republicans. What happened in virginia and out in alabama democrats got a foothold in the south of all places and that was a worryi ining sign to republic. Bob, Brian Sullivan donald trump doing that 55minute visualized press conference saying hes go to davos. Now this maybe donald trump can support is this a preview of what Joe Scarborough and i have called season two of the reality president . In other words, the postbannon era . Read fire and fury. You realize how much of the fiery rhetoric coming from the president was likely either directly scripted by steve bannon or at least had his influence. What changes can we expect now that bannon is gone . A softening . You see in the president , a lifelong democrat before he became a republican, returning in part to his desire to be a winner, seen as someone getting a political victory and will change season two, change how we look at 2018 here in washington and have a cost, perhaps, to republicans. Hard core republicans in the house, freedom caucus, dont like when the president dances towards the center politically wary of spending increases part of a fiscal deal and wary of an immigration deal. Because he cares more about popularity than partisanism . Everyone says thats the case. Millions losing access to stars and other networks but lt says their customers are better pays on their own. Plus, how effective is a flu shot this year in for an even worse season than weve already seen power lunch will be right back pretty big day for the markets yet again. Fair sow say anytime we go up, record high. Where we are now Dow Jones Industrial up another 140 points nasdaq, s p, russell 2000, lifetime highs by the way you might be able to thank ge best performing stock in the dow this year and baker hughes, of which it owns a big subsidiary also doing very well this year a couple whammy on a good size for ge big story, both of those stocks, oil. Crude and after the big leveling of 2014. Sle, anadarko, apache, big winners. Dow winners outside of ge, chevron, intel, caterpillar and boeing. And flu season is off to a rough start and could get worse. Joining us from San Francisco to tell us why its happening and what we can expect reporter hey, mel. Flu season looking dramatic in the last two weeks of 2017 putting stress on emergency departments. We talked with an e. R. Doctor in california what hes seeing so far. This is a tough flu season. It harkens back to probably the toughest one ive seen before, this was 2009 and 2010, and we see some every year, but this is were getting clobbered. Reporter of course, we remember that tough swine flu season back in 2009. A big reason this one is looking so bad, because the flu shot doesnt appear to be as effective this year. Dr. Anthony fauci telling us, looking about 30 effective. At its best, 60 effective still, flu is big business for the drug industry. About 59 of kids get vaccinated you can see here about 43 of adults in the United States as of last flu season not as high as Public Officials would like but a huge number still of people. In terms of the biggest suppliers of the flu shot, three major ones santa fe, csl, and glaxosmithkline. Santa fe supplying the most, 70 million doses estimated this season csl next, 50 million gl glaxo, 40 million. And how much they cost, between 15 and 20 a dose, you can see here this is a several hundred Million Dollar a year business for each of these Companies Just in the United States alone guys,even though the flu shot isnt expected to be as effective, Public Health officials tell us all to get them to try to protect ourselves as best we can back to you. These companies that produce flu shots, incentive to invest in the technology to make it a quicker turn around to determine which strains of the prevalent in any flu season as opposed to determining that months and months beforehand . Reporter a hugely important question one. Reasons the flu shot doesnt look, manufacturing it in eggs companies are looking at technologies to speed that up. Of course, a business where people are saying everyone should get a flu shot every year this is a big potential commercial market here also work going on for a universal flu vakzene that potentially wouldnt need taken every year because it could protect against multiple strains. Still in the early days of that. Its several years away. Thanks. Thank you. Coming up, the latest in the battle over the future of television and your eyeballs not literally. That would be gross. Speaking to the Vice President of lions gate, his channel, stars pulled by a major company. And bitcoin, one of the largest mining factories in the country. How much power are they really using . Power lunch will be right back its not theirs. Its mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. The new lexus rx 350l with three rows for seven passengers. Are you excited about your baby sister coming . Experience space for the unexpected with the rx l, part of the rx family. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Im sue herera heres your cnbc news update for the hour by a 266164 vote, the house deciding to extend the Surveillance Program targeting overseas terrorists overcoming privacy issues allowing monitoring phone calls of suspected terrorists operating abroad. This strikes the balance we must have between honoring and protecting privacy rights of u. S. Citizens. Honoring Civil Liberties and making sure that we have the tools we need in this day and age of 21st century terrorism to keep our people safe pregnant women who take antacids may be more likely to have children who go on to develop asthma that those who dont according to new research. Up to four in five women siffer from heartburn or acid indigestion. According to discovery, millennials are pretty good managing money 81 are currently saving in some way compared to 74 of generation xers and 77 of baby boomers. So you are uptodate. Thats the news update this hour guys, back to you, ty . Sue, thanks. And pulling stars movie channel from its systems saying cheaper for customers to sub describe to stars streaming service. Could be a key battle in the larger and increasingly looming fight over the future of media and Julia Boorstin has the story today from l. A hi, julia. Reporter hi, tyler this is an 11day blackout speaking to the biggest questions facing the tv bundle negotiations at a standstill, blacked out starz and outlander, roughly 1 million subscribers paying for starz starz included in all of the bundle now they want to offer starz a la carte for an extra fee. A cease and desist letter alleging false statements to customers and starz saying they lied about offering to extend the agreement when, in fact, starz says they were unwilling to pay rates from the prior deal disappointed that starz continues to engage in unproductive public spin to mislead consumers after they spent the last few months insisting on terms that would force the majority of our customers to pay for programming that they dont watch. And altice is saying subscribe directly. For more, bring in lions gate vice chairman michael burns. Great to have you with us. Nice to see you. And you at the heart of this, julia mentioned, notion of the bundsal. Altice wants greater flexibility in choice in their video bundles and will continue to advocate for customers interest and change the current model imposed by programmers and say your viewership of starz is declining overall. Essentially saying, people arent watching and we want to change the bundle. What are do you say to that . Well, starz has never been stronger look at the hit shows they have. Thousands of movies they offer to consumers everywhere, and so whats happening here is its a little hide the football again, i would say that altice is being disingenuous at best and lying at worst very simple. They want to keep, say to consumers hey, look over here. You guys are going to be paying this big price for this bundle and going to have a lot of great channels in there, but guess what happened, guys . In the dead of night we took out starz with thousands of movies, billions of dollars between lions gate in our content and gave you the cowboy channel and charge you the same. Ridiculous have you seen an uptick in demand for the ott service if consumers really want to watch starz, they might pay for it, right . If i were an altice shareholder, well, yes youre looking at, we just renewed our deal with verizon right smack dab in the middle of the altice footprint amazon is a giant player and a lot of people also carry starz in the footprint of altice whats happening is, when they say, again, being disingenuous, i didnt say that. Lying, maybe easier. Go ahead, we recommend youings and buy starz over the top, well, okay but wheres the rebate to the consumer where is, where are they saying, hey, well give you, for example, showtime did when they came off the air with time warner cable, wheres the 12 rebate to our consumers . Saying, no, no, no pay the extra money if you want it over the top and were still going to keep charging you as if its still in the bundle. Let me back up a little bit to where you were negotiating with altice. How much was altice charging survibers to receive your channel . Or how much were they paying you . What did you want to get paid . And what were they offering you . How far apart are you . These things always get settled by money dont they i think altice is a unique position look what theyve done theyre levered up dramatically. I saw a billion and a half dividend separating the companies and they want to get their cake and eat it, too what happened is, i think, effectively somebody said to the accounting department, go find us tens of millions of dollars and sharpen your pencil. They took a pencil like this and basically jabbed it in the eye of their customer. And their surviber, said, okay maybe they wont notice. New yorkers are way too smart to not notice, way too sophisticated. It was a bad call. How does this get resolved at this point basically saying altice is lying, ceo of starz said they are lying. How does this mend itself . I think what happens is, i think sanity has to prevail. Im happy to take a call from dexter today, simple which is, guys, lets create a winwin. You were making plenty of money. On the starz bundle. Putting it in your package we were doing fine and your consumers, customers, were getting great value with thousands of movies, hit Television Shows across the board. Figure out a way to create a winwin. Theyre not interested trying to figure, how can we save the money and still charge the consumer the same price . Sorry the same price . The same price as if its in there, and, yes. Its not in there. And by the way, the cowboy channel is. Michael, off that topic, Brian Sullivan two things can you bring back black sales, number one i miss that show on starz. Nothing better than pirates, but on a serious note. You have been thrown in the basket of potential buyers of the weinstein company. Do you believe that company will eventually be sold or does the weinstein name now scar the company to the point where whatever their assets, it becomes unownable . I dont think that consumers are going to ultimately say, well, thats a movie i dont want to watch because it was produced by the weinstein company. So we think theres great assets there. We think the library is interesting. Lionsgate not known for overpaying hanging around the basket like we do bp a deal good for our shareholders, sure, take them both on. Actively in talks to buy it again, were always under mdas and i know that in the press it said we are one of the, next round players that shouldnt be shocking to anyone if that were true. Starz get back on to altice Cable Systems by the end of the year, michael . You know, i hope so i hope, again, sanity prevails here and i think what should happen is they should call up call up lionsgate starz. Call them up, starz, say lets really negotiate and not go through the rigmarole last time where we basically were pretending to negotiate. Lets give the consumers what they want. Which is, again, starz in a bundle and, remember, its not just starz. Its encore, its 15 channels. Again, i think theyll find their Customer Base is not thrilled with the fact with the bait and switch, what its been. Michael, leave it there thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Nice to talk to you. Michael burns, vice chairman of lionsgate back to michelle in wenatch wenatchee, washington. Reporter this is the founder of this bitcoin mine runs a big Bitcoin Mining operation here in wenatchee, Washington State right after this break, well ask him why. How did he get into the business why he believes in it and thinks about the Regulatory News coming out of asia overnight. Nmove interview with malachi coming up right after this break on power lunch. Welcome back to cnbc power lunch. Im in wenatchee, washington, here with the founder of the business coin Mining Operation here one of a dozen welcome to power lunch. Thank you glad to be here. Reporter power is extremely cheap and youre not cheap explain to me. We understand intuitively whymatters but why is cheap power so important when it comes to mining crypto because elevating the block chain networks, specifically the bitcoin network, requires vast amounts of cheap, reliable power, which are uniquely abundant here in central Washington State. Because of the Columbia River and the dams tell me about that. Correct a string of dams along the Columbia River provides thousands of megawatts to not only this area but the entire western United States. Right now youre using 7. 5 megawatts to produce 5 to 7 bitcoins a day hoping to get up to 50 bitcoin a day by july using 50 megawatts of power what will the bill be . Between 1 million and 1. 5 million. A lot of money. When people do the math, still profitable at these levels. Correct what happens if theres a big nosedive in the price of bitcoin . A very good question. We didnt just get into this base, as you know. Weve been here four years our cost structure is uniquely low. We have survived profitably through past dips, and we will survive profitably through future bdips because of our low cost perbitcoin. Overnight south korea and china both had Regulatory News south korea says in will ban trading in crypto. China says theyre shutting down miners what do you make of all that worried about that no. Not especially i dont know if youve noticed but news tends to be sensational in the Bitcoin Space so in both china and south korea, what they are doing is bringing operations both exchanges and mines, into regulatory compliance. Theyre not shutting everything down theyre shutting people down that are skirting the system, regulatory come complianpliance. Theyre not shutting everything down tax evading and the things they should be doing. The industry is growing up Regulatory Reform and clienss as apart of that process. Maybe you would not mind exclusively of bitcoin thats correct. We understand there is going to be thousands of cryptocurrencies why is bitcoin is the one . Why should i not wait for the model t . It is a great question. There is over 1300 cryptocurrencies lodging is like software. With software you have different types created different use cases and different scenarios and krcrypto is the same way it was designed to be a payment and it has first mover advantage. Every discuss i call it the my microsoft of country t cryptocurrency there are so many minors that want to come here. There are four requests of 100 megawatts of power which is each of those will be 50 what do you make of all these people wanting to come here. What do you say to all those people who think mining is awful because it uses so much electricity and damaging we are at the power source literally. Power is wasted and you cannot out source it. We are set up near the source and we are actually more fuelly utilizing highly electric dams then they are able to utilized at this point in time. Thank you very much for joining us we appreciate it we have been here all day. Thank you for your hospitality michelle, i look forward for your next live shot. Michelle, thank you very much. From one Washington Company to slightly a bigger one, boeing is the biggest driver of the dallas record run. It is has doubled in the past year ldouell it or going up more one analyst talks about boeing, coming up on street talk. Help you with that. Ut jjn jj, will you break it down for this gentleman . Hey, ian. You know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Thats taking options trading from wall st. To main st. Hey guys, wanna play some pool . Eh, im not really a pool guy. Whats the hesitation . Its just complicated. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade i love you, basement but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love can stink. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Time for street talk. Tax reform will result in a 14 boost to earnings. The analysts is bringing in a modest increase of 2018. Citing global traffic growth above the historical trend new aircraft supplies are well above historical ladder. Second stock is another down component, chevron boosting the target from 140 to 120. Chevron, in the harvesting mode. Higher oil prices lately also, tax reform and theyre ramping up some big projects that are harvesting returns. New 140 target not that much upside to give todays mood third stock is fedex, jp morgan pricing down to 315 it represents 20 of revenues the segment poised to benefit. The price target is 17 upside final stock, this one is not too small. Dollar tree. They call it one of the best position Growth Prospect in value tale a broad process assortment guggenheim is see a growth now to the tl, tyler. Thank you, guys, stocks start rallying again today new records across the board how many times have we said that the earning season is coming up it is going to be full of interesting stories. Will stock go higher or will the earning seasons diminished is it the start of a healthcare, a robot that reminds you to take your pills well be right back i am Brian Sullivan. Welcome back to power lunch. We begin with breaking news. Lets go to ylan mui with more. Reporter the Trump Administration has taken a critical step of turning the tax plan into real money in your pocket the irs department have put out new guidance telling employees how much money they should be holding in your paychecks in taxes. Mnuchin expects 90 of workers to see a pay increase under this new tax plan and as far as these bonuses that all these companies announcing, the Treasure Department issued a guidance saying employees should see a 22 tax rate on those bonuses. Companies are being urged to comply with this right away and the deadline to do it is february 15. Take advantage of those changes this year. The irs is working on a new w4 form by the end of the year of a significant amount of workers will have to submit in 2019 in order to see the benefits of the new tax plan guys, you can start checking your paycheck to see if there is anything back over to you ylan, thank you very much you mark the number of exceptions you are going to take as i understand it there there are not exceptions anymore. So you probably dont need to mark your exceptions you want to get you caught up in the market right now on another record day all at lifetime highs. Why am i clapping . Energy names leading as oil hits a 2018 highs kb soaring on the back of earnings and xerox is soaring. Ge is on the rear, it is up 10 for the cigna leads there. Now lets head back to michelle reporter this is one of the largest Bitcoin Mining facilities in the United States. Well explain why they are coming to wenatchee and talk to one o f the local developments to see if the cost on the power system are worth the tax revenue that all these minors bring in rya brian, back to you we are counting down in the heart of earning seasons if you think earnings are just numbers and they are boring, think again. This could be the most important earning quarter in years dom chu, i set you up, buddy thats a fastball down the middle it is a fastball down the middle theyre going to have to hit the fastball down the middle if they have any chance of continuing the record rally, here is the reason why in order to justify those record levels down the stocks, analysts are expecting a healthy earning season according to thompson reuter, we only had less than 10 ip reporting. With everybody else reporting, if everybody else comes in as expected, we could see double digit Earnings Growth. We can see 7 Earnings Growth if we do get all of those Earnings Report coming in as expected where is the strength going to be . Thats going to be a big part of the story. The s p 500 Energy Stocks could grow by 138 material stocks, 25 in terms of earnings overall and the Technology Sector a big part of the story, 16 as well certainly sectors watched as we talk about earnings season thanks so much for dom chu. Delta is moving high today. Phil lebeau joins us with the details. Lets take a look at the outlook for 2018 on the top of the bottom line, earning in the Fourth Quarter at 96 cents a share passenger revenue of a 4. 2 and they were positive in every region of the world. First time it happens for delta in five years. In terms of the guidance, they have raised it by one full dollar per share and now arranging at 6. 35 to 6. 70 per year the consensus was 5. 94 per share. Here is the ceo of delta talking about what they are seeing as they head into 2018. The demand environment is the healthiest that we have seen in years. Well see how that plays out. It seems like the market has gotten over heated and well see if it settles out. We feel confident that it is roughly 20 to 30 year over year it is our best look. As you take a look at shares of delta which you are getting a nice pop today theyre operating cash flow in the Fourth Quarter, 1. 7 billion thats an impressive number. Phil, thank you very much lets stick with earnings, big banks, jp morgan and wells fargo is set to report before the bell tomorrow those stocks are been on a tear over the past year jp morgan at 26 wells fargo less of a tear of 14 . They have their own issues to deal with. For a look ahead on what to expect, lets bring in Jason Goldberg and analyst at barkley. It is good to have you with us why dont we take wells fargo first, what are you expecting here and this is a bank that has had a lot of extraneous issues to deal with shall we say . Are those issues behind it theyre a lot closer than a year ago i would say theyre not fully out of the woods yet kind of improving the culture and kind of leading out and changing over some of the executive teams and really started kind of reengaging customers and marking eting to customers early this year. It is going to be a noisy quart fore them and all the banks and they sold their Insurance Business and i think importantly theyre going to come out with new expense guidance over the last year or so, their expenses have been a lot higher. Now with those issues closer to rear mview mirror, they got to waive those costs. Crick thougquick thoughts hen freshman economics when you tactic about those tax expense liability, what do they arise from and are they a one of and you move on and you got a beautiful road in front of you certainly a lot of moving pieces the Fourth Quarter, most of the big banks have these deferred tax assets you have to revalue those lower so you see pretty significant charges out of city group and goldman sachs. You also have tim pact of earnings getting reprepatriated back so you have to write it off during the quarter beyond all the noise this quarter and as you think of 2018, all these banks are going to benefit and a lot of their earnings are u. S. Domicile some of them are increasing minimum wages or some banks talking to one time bonuses but you are looking at the bottom line is going to help support dividends buy back and Customer Growth and long growth should these measures turn for the economy. About 75 a share you got a price target of 132 on jp morgan. Thats a nice move up. What do you expect there we think we are going get another good quarter i think every quarter in the last two years if you back out some of the noises, we think this quarter is no difference on a relative bases they continue to take market share across both Retail Businesses and theyre buying paramedic stocks and they seem to have al good line on the cost side and the credit climate across the industry is seasonally higher before we think that consumers and the corporate have a good shape. They have a ceo who knows what they are doing. Thank you you bet expectations this season is pretty high. Where is the strengths and weakness joining us is a leader in middle market lending with 20 billion of capital management. Lawrence, it is great to see you. Great to see you melissa. There is some thinking that because analyst haves been ratcheting their expectations, there is going to be disappointment when the earnings actually come. What are you seeing . We are seeing in real companies, their first two months earnings of q 4 earnings are keeping up. We got the strongest Earnings Growth year over year and the history of our index well into the double digits. We are seeing that strengths almost across the board that we invest in. Earnings in the u. S. Market is keeping up with expectations and keeping up with the stock market we have been talking many quarters when you guys publish this index every quarter of healthcare is a weak spot. This time it is showingexpansios the Margin Expansion is really strong. The idea of Technology Center and media and easterning growth 30 . What dom was talking about earlier in terms of overall s p forecast and the state is bullish for that and he was pointing out strong earnings and energy this growth rate that we are showing is even before you take into account the aksccelerationf energy all of this before tax cut hits or take home pay goes up of 100 to 200 a month. Accelerated of depreciation is going to push capital expenditu expenditure. What we saw is real dry up in demands for commercial loans are you seeing any sort of signs of a pick up at this point and how do you anticipate the effects of tax the changes in the tax bill are very good for the middle Market Companies most u. S. Middle Market Companies pay the headline tax rates which is around for 35 . They dont have the sophistication to use the various gimmicks and avoiding techniques to keep a lot of easte earnings offshore. It will translate itself into faster growth and even before you take into account of accelerated depreciation there is a lot of talks about 30 and productivity and interest expenses. If they reach it they go over just a little bit and their total tax dollars every year will be down significantly for those companies that do badly under perform, you lost the carry bags which allow companies to get a refund and a tough time the 30 Interest Deduction limit could have more of an impact in a weeks period. Lawrence golub. Thank you we are going to take you inside of one of americas biggest operations and you maybe surprise of what you see watch out for gas prices because if oil continue to surge higher, it looks bullish but are oil stocks telling a different story . Using Artificial Intelligence te urder people reminding you toakyo medicines, all that and more on power lunch. Nobodys putting their money into equities. Theyre not investing in commodities or fixed income. What people areally putting their money into is what they hope to get out of life. But helping them get there requires a real refusal to settle for average. Because when you approach investing with a tireless desire to beat the status quo, Something Wonderful can happen. Those people might just get what they wanted out of life. Or maybe even more. For sale a multi Million Dollars malibu home. The seller wants for the home to be paid in, wait for it, bitcoin. Reporter it is a super high price tag and clearly a super unique architecture. For this seller, it is not just about bitcoin, it is about a smart Sales Strategy for this type of house and this type of amount, i think it will attract more International Buyer than our country i am not saying it is safe i just want to take a risk for investment just like everybody else now there are not a ton of 45 million buyer out there. The booming crypto currency created new ones buying with so far unregulated cryptocurrency helps them under the radar. That expands for potential buyers thats our job for marketing property especially Luxury Real Estate is never assumed where the buyers are coming from make sure we get this property out there to say that we are opened to all currencies and crypto is being one of them. He does not want all the Purchase Price in bitcoin and just some of it, you got to have your bets, right guys . Thank you very much, spectacular home i read thats his second home. It is a weekend retreat. What does his first home look like part of the problem that many people have with trading bitcoin is they dont understand how Technology Works and how they are created and hearing mining and visions of West Virginia coal company it is maybe processing a better term Michelle Carusocabrera wentmin. Reporter yeah, i think so. You are not going to get anything black here. This is a room full of servers, i got one on the shelve so you can see it it is much smaller thats because theyre slightly different and their purpose is to do only Bitcoin Mining. They dont have any cpu in here and they dont store anything and all it does is it has a special integrated chip that does nothing except solve these complicated occasions. When you do that, you do it correctly and fast enough, you are rewarded bitcoin, Digital Currency that we have been talking about over the last couple of years. All right. You are talking to malachi and asking him of a decline in bitcoin, it is estimated that the break is 6900 u. S. Dollars or so . So it would be quite a fall. His coast base is lower reporter yes, he would not tell me. He was very unconcerned of a large price drop because he felt that he had worked so hard to get his average cost for bitcoin far enough that he could withstand. He expects to do a lot of oscillating so to speak. Why is this processing or mining takes so much power reporter so it is running and very intensive and the actual process of whats happening here and it is also running 24 7 all the time. If you think of peek low at sto historically at your house and everybody is home and you are running the oven and in the evening thats when everybody is on television or on their computers. Why the utilities get so nervous about it because utilities are not meant to work like that. Theyre meant to deal with shifts and weather and people coming home and this is a start. To answer the question of why so much because the processing thats happening here, it is so intense. How many people worked there michelle imaging it is not much servers. Reporter hes got 50 employees. He sub contracts a lot quite a lot within the area to help with cables and etcetera, it is a capital intensive business more than one thats got a lot of employees. All right, michelle, well check in with you a little later on fascinating stuff. First responders swarming Santa Barbara county after a series of devastating mudslides. Ot the death toll, destruction when we return power lunch will be right back following a series of deadly mudslides, rescue crews are coming Santa Barbara for the hunt of survivors. Live in montecito california for the latest scotty reporter we understand ther are still people outstanding this is a 101 freeway, as difficult it is, this is one of the main highway for california. There are two people in rescue gear theyre in the back in if actual scoop and theyre going through. We watched them probing the waters they have not been able to drain the water just yet we know there are still eight people that are missing. Those rescue crews are going through this area and trying to see if they can find anybody here we do know there was a boy that was found here that was alive shortly after the mudslides happen those mudslides came all the way from the mountains right there thats the burn scar from the thomas fire and so much debris and boulders and cars were swept up from that mudslide. Much of it is spilling done to the 101. More of it crossing the bridge and ending up all the way to the pacific ocean. Back to you guys thank you very much for that report, horrible to see. News about the super bowl and olympic advertising spending, all details are coming up there will you see comcast is up 3 mom and dad got a new car. With the extra third row of seats. They think its theirs. Look at them, they have no idea its not theirs. Its mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. The new lexus rx 350l with three rows for seven passengers. Are you excited about your baby sister coming . 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Senior living has never been better. And theres never been an easier way to get great advice. Call today. A place for mom. You know your family. We know Senior Living. A place for mom. You know your family. We know Senior Living. Together well make the right choice. Lets go to the White House Briefing room where treasury mnuchin is live. This is just the first step in a threestep process. Next, the irs will be releasing a new withholding calculator thatll be available on irs. Gov by the end of february it will help provide individuals of certainty so whether they are over withheld or under withheld. We have reviewed this carefully. Approximately 76 taxpayers were withheld so they have refunds at the end of the year. We expect based on the new tables, there will be no materials changed in this number well encourage taxpayers to use the calculator and well launch a marking effort to make sure that people understand that. Finally, i would like to say the treasury and the irs will Work Together to release a new w4 for 2019 well meet with employees and payroll providers to determine how to best to design the form to reflect the new laws. The irs will focus on simple process. These new tables will help deliver the tax cuts as soon as possible to as Many Americans as possible with little destruction as possible. This will continue to focus and fill optimism or economics into this country i want to highlight the announcement from walmart this morning, we want to thank them, theyll be increasing their minimum wages and issuing bonuses and expanding family men fi benefits for over a million employees. They join over 130 other Companies Across the nation who have already given such a relief we are now up to over 2 million workers who have seen special bonuses or additional wages. With that, i am happy to answer any questions. I have to start with you because you have the hat in regards to walmart and minimum wage, does that mean we can expect movement of the federal governments perhaps to increase the federal minimum wage for everyone . The most important issue is for companies to increase their wages and walmarts number is above the minimum age. It is an issue for state the real focus which is what the tax cuts and there is been more money that we settled along. I believe 70 of this will return to workers. You believe they should raise the minimum wage mr. Secretary, on february 1st, will these withholding tables go into effect and thats when the american taxpayers will first see a change in the withholding of their paychecks it will be in february, some companies will have it set up for february 1st, and some Companies May have it the next pie cyc pay cycle. We are Encouraging Companies to do this as quickly as possible we are ahead of schedule and we are expecting at any event it will be in february. What mattis the strum Trump Administration is going to replace hang out for globalists. The idea of Economic Team is going to go over and talk about the americas first Economic Strategy we are thrilled that the president is coming. The economy is good for the u. S. Is good for the rest of the world. We just talked about walmart, thats a big deal. What has been the efforts with walmart with this administration for them to raise their wages. Again, the whole purpose of the tax cut act was to put more money in companies so that they can compete competitively with International Companies and i think you know we have one of the highest tax rate in the world and we taxed on worldwide income and we changed that it is a revolutionary process, we thought it will be great for the economy. We are thrilled of the number of companies we see reacting. How long are we talking about . We have been talking with a lot of companies for a long time we are thrilled how people are responding there secretary you are using an out dated or w4 form for this year you will encourage people to go onto a calculator on the irs website, maybe try to figure things out, taxes are messy to begin with, how is this not going to lead to in one way or another some sort of implementation mess . I give an enormous amount of credit for the team at treasure and the team at irs thats been working around the clock for the holidays we had an existing form and technology we have to figure out how to fit this in this format. The fact that we have been able to keep the same percentage of people we ran a lot of models to run this thats phase one and phase two, as soon as the calculator comes out. The calculator will work with the new tax system, Child Tax Credit and 10,000 deduction a taxpayer can see do i have the right number of exemptions filed or i am going to adjust that we are going to try to do that and i want to make sure we get a lot of feedback as we design that and update this there are three steps implementation process of a massive tax system there is no way it was rushed to get it out there for paychecks we update the withholding tables every year there is more work our objective is to get people money as quickly as they can 90 of the people will see changes. Yes, in the back. I want to be clear. It sounds to me that you are saying the Administration Policies are responsible for the walmart wage rise. But the layoffs had nothing to do with you, am i understanding that correctly what i am saying is the Administration Economic policies are a function of what we see growth in investment Different Companies will do Different Things some companies will invest in capitals and some companies will return money to workers and a lot of things are going on in the economy, we appreciate what walmart is doing last year xi jinping made a speech and we talked about ice isolatism. Is the president going to respond to that line of argument, what is he going to say . I think you heard a lot of the president s messages i expect it will be consistent i expect the president will talk about trade, reciprocal, free, and fair trade we obviously have been very clear with the chinese on the issue that we have with the trade deficit and making sure that u. S. Companies can compete fairly and the president will talk a lot about his Economic Program and the impact on the Global Economy thank you, mr. Secretary. At the sate, ctate, can you givn update over nafta. How concern over this administration that canada have made a complaint over, mexico is concerned of this administration will in short order withdraw from that. I will get an update this morning on trades, hes pleased on where things are going. The ambassador is doing an amazing job of renegotiating nafta and we expect for it to be renegotiated or well pull out. Can you give us an update on the treasures progress that congress has asked for i believe we were expecting sometimes in january we are working on it as we speak. It should be released in the near future. Something we are very focused on mr. Secretary, you are protecting there wont be a great decrease in the number of America American taxpayers, basically the same number thats been expected to get a refund all along, is that correct thats correct. Can you then address the democrats charge that you guys are reducing this in. This is another ridiculous charge thats why i want to make clear there wont be a change in that number. We have people working very carefully on this. Our objective is not to have taxpayers over withheld so they owe money at the end of the year as i said, we have a system, 90 of the people will get money kind of the same number of people will get refund and well actively encourage and make sure that taxpayers understand how to go on the calculator once it is up and running, well work with payroll providers and companies. Are you expecting we continue to look at them and roll them out, you can expect it to be more sanctions coming. Thank you, mr. Secretary, leaders in some state, connecticut and new york and new jersey are talking about ways to limit the impact such as letting people paying the property as a way causing deductibles, is the administration is going to halt any of that efforts and how are you responding to that i dont want to speculate on what people will do. I think it is one of the more ridiculous comments to think that you can take a Real Estate Tax that you are required to make and dress it up as a charitable contribution. I hope the state is more focused on cutting their budget and giving tax cuts to their people and their states than they are trying to evade the law. Is this something that the administration concern about thats gone from 10 trillion. We are focused on the debt and Economic Growth. It will create more revenues for the economy. What can we realistically expect, by the end of the president s first term i dont have a projection for that right now but thank you thank you talk about the tax being flatter and 90 of the tax will benefit from it yes, it would seem under those circumstances that well eliminate a lot of deductions which so many Small Businesses and self employee people depend on is there a major cut in deductions and how do you expect that will play with the Small Business community this is about tax simply occasion and getting rid of deductions on Small Businesses, one of the best features of the tax plan are all the, there are tremendous incentives whether it is discount for pass throughs. I mean we heard more good news from Small Business than even from walmarts of the world mr. President mr. President i am sorry, mr. Secretary mr. Secretary, in talking about the impact and the benefit that most American Workers will see under the tax cut plan, will this be a good day for the president to release his tax returns so we can see how he benefit f benefits from the tax cut bill have you recommended that . I have this question before when i have been up here i will give you the same answer that i give you last time. I think there is a ton of Financial Disclosure that the americans have give with the american people. The president will decide what he wants to do what does the Administration Hope to achieve on the additional sanctions on . The president have been very clear that many aspects of the iran deal needs to be changed and that there are many activiti activities outside of the iran deal whether it is Ballistic Missile or other issues that we continue to sanction and we could not be more focused. We have as many sanctions on iran today as we have on any other country in the process and well continue to look at it just two quick follow up. Of the issues that could come up next year. Are you at all or are there any considerations in midterms and giving more time to sort it all out. Let me just explain the irs issues tables every january. We knew we were changing the tax bill so it obviously made sense to wait from january to february so that we give people time to institute this any claims that we are doing as for political issues are ridiculous, okay and i will make a comment of the democrats made a bunch of noise about our numbers and tax policies, the Inspector General just came out with a report that made it clear. There is no political interference in this and how reran these numbers. I hope the democrats are doing things good for the economy and the american people. You talk about the message being consistent and the president will deliver in switzerland and one of his big messages have been aimed on middle class americans i am hoping you can explain how it is consistent to take members of his cabinet who are very wealthy to rub elbows among other people in wiswitzerland. I can assure you the members of his cabinet have no interests over there in rubbing elbows with anybody this is about meeting our counter parts and all about creating jobs and Economic Growth for the u. S there is tremendous investment in the u. S. There is tremendous trade deals going on the president has delivered and is delivering for the American Workers. I can assure you it had nothing to do with that. People are worried of the new tax code and the high deductions could limit given to charities do you share that concern . I dont share that concern at all. We raised the limits that rich people can give to charity will the president decide on the iran deal . I am not going to make any specific comments on that. It is still under discussion and i know the president is contemplating his recommendations. Thank you very much everybody. That was treasure secretary Steven Mnuchin and discussing among other things, the fact that new withholding tables will be be or have been he commented on the news that walmart will be raising its minimum wage for workers and throwing in bonuses ranging from 250 to 1,000 and a bunch of benefits there he talked about additional sanctions coming in the way of iran over the next days or weeks. So well be talking about that and more when we return. Two,that was awful. Why are you so good at this . Had a coach in high school. Really helped me up my game. I had a coach. Math. Ooh. So, why dont traders have coaches . Who says they dont . Coach mcadoo you know, at Td Ameritrade, we offer free access to coaches and a full education curriculum just to help you improve your skills. Boom thats lesson one. Education to take your trading to the next level. Only with Td Ameritrade. Lets get to julia with the news alert jewel ja reporter comcast shares trading higher 3 on better than expected very, very strong advertising numbers. Stronger than last year. From nbc universal, which is, of course, nbcs parent company, about the super bowl and also the olympics the Company Announcing that its nearly sold out ads for the super bowl, which is, of course, coming up on february 4th, with less than 10 ad units left ads are averaging around 5 million per 30second spot thats right in line with last year as well as the year before. Nbc universal saying preand postgame ads are well sold as are ads for the this is us special airing after the game and saying february 4th will set a singleday record for ad revenue set by a Media Company also announcing that Winter Olympics ad sales are pacing ahead of sochi on track to exceed 900 Million National ad sales, which would be a winter games first. All in over 22 days in february, the company saying nbcu krwill deliver close to 1. 4 billion in ad sales between the super bowl, pregame, postgame and Winter Olympics one interesting nugget from the Conference Call held by , he sai at the super bowl this year were going to be seeing more longer ads rather than shorting ads so a lot of brands are looking to 60 seconds and beyond interesting trend considering some of the shorter ad pods were seeing in the regular nfl season, just the end of last year comcast shares now trading up over 3 . Thats fascinating. Longer ads julia, thanks very much. What a month it will be in sport and for nbc. Lets get back to michelle in winitchi, washington, the bitcoin mecca in the United States michelle reporter yes, we are live in one of the Bitcoin Mining operations here and joining us is ron, he is in charge of Economic Development for the local Port Authority called the port of douglas. Ron, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Reporter what do you think of all these bitcoin miners coming to wenatchee, is that good for bad for the region . Its good for the region. Were seeing it really diversify our economy. Theres millions of dollars being invested into the community. Its going to help our tax base bring in highwage jobs into the area, so the businesses are becoming invested. And working in our Innovation Partnership zone so its a good thing for the economy. Reporter how much tax revenue does it bring in, and how does it bring it in . It brings it in in a lot of different ways we have the sales and use tax that is paid on all the materials and building and services and then theres real and personal property taxes that are paid into the county and the state on an annual basis reporter the county also has very fast interprnet service. Correct . Correct we have some of the Fastest Internet service that youre going to find. Reporter a gig bit yes, we can thank our puds for building the infrastructure out for us. Reporter that is the local utility, the two things that bring the bitcoin miners here. It is, the low power rates and the internet. Reporter so do you think bitcoin is real, are you worried that its not . Have you thought about this . The cryptocurrencies part of this isnt really what excites me as much as the underlying technology, the Blockchain Technology i think is going to be revolutionary as we move forward, connecting the internet of things, scientific uses, i just its really going to its really exciting, i guess. Reporter to remind our viewers, weve been telling them this, but electricity here is extremely cheap, 2. 50 to 3 cents per kilowatt hour, perhaps the cheapest in the entire country how much bitcoin miners can you take in wenatchee, you want to welcome them all, or actually in Douglas County just on the other side of the Columbia River, our infrastructure is actually being put to the test. Were full currently. We have 100 megawatts of infrastructure being built out right now, just in data center development. So, its going to take some time to catch up because the growth has been so quick. Reporter so if you wanted to add more capacity, the Columbia River could put out more megawatts of power, right . Its the infrastructure to deliver it that correct. Reporter that is lacking at the moment. How much would that cost, do you think . Millions of dollars reporter yep got it thanks so much for joining us here on power lunch today to talk about Bitcoin Mining in wenatchee. Thank you, been my pleasure. Ow reporter all right per lunch returns right after this with check please. They came out of nowhere, sir how many of em . We dont know. Dozens. All right lets teach these freaks some manners good luck out there, captain thanks but i dont need luck, i have skills. I dont have my keys. on intercom all hands. We are looking for the captains keys again. They are on a silver carabiner. Oh, this is bad. As long as people misplace their keys, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. And another company raising its minimum wage lets head to dom chu. Reporter tyler, this is Capital One Financial which just confirmed to cnbc they will raise the minimum wage for all u. S. H f baplaced employees at capital one to 15 an hour its unclear whether this is directly tied to the tax cut and jobs act but still joins a host of other companies who have already waged minimum wages or given out bonuses citing specifically the tax cut and jobs act, guys back over to you all right thank you very much, dominic chu. All right. Time now for check please. Walmart announcing bonuses and raises thats a good thing. Then they on the same day, sams club subsidiary announced its going to close a bunch of stores each store employs 175 people. Thats a couple thousand layoffs. Walmart, youre generating good will and then saying people are going to get laid off. Pr departments need to coordinate. Its odd theyd see it on the same day. Positive outcome of the tax policy that i think not a lot of people were anticipating or factoring thats a good news story. Then people getting laid off. Absolutely. Michelle reporter hey there, guys my check please today, being live from Bitcoin Mining operation has been incredibly interesting. Covering blockchain is the most interesting thing ive done since the greek financial crisis really, really a food for thought to use a very bad cliche, but thanks for watching today and let me know on twitter what you think about it all. Apparently google maps says you need to go upriver to levinworth, washington, a village designed to look at christmas all year if you have free time tonight. Reporter i saw that. I should go. Yes. Send us a picture michelle, good work out there. Thanks for watching power lunch. Closing bell begins right now. Zblnk hi, everybody, welcome to the closing bell. Im kelly evans a the new york stock exchange. Im Bill Griffeth the dow, the s p, the russell. Look at the transports everybody is back in record territory. The dow transports are up 2 1 3 with the airlines and others doing very well today. How about the small cap rustles lagging to start the year up, up as you see that rally playing out across market. Were going to have more on that in a few minutes including whether Bank Earnings tomorrow will