The s p, dow, and nasdaq all healthfully in the green. N europe, the major markets up asian stocks closed higher, as well. Vladimir putin is trying to reassure russians about their struggling economy. At his annual press conference, he predicted the current prices will last two years. He criticized the central bank for not moving faster. Pretend lanes outside factors Vladimir Putin blames outside factors. This is caused by external factors, first and foremost. But we believe that a lot has not been done by us of which we planned for our economy. You would expect him to say that you he accused the u. S. And European Union for trying to undermine russia with the sanctions. He says it is response will for 25 to 30 of russias problems. Toece is one step closer early elections. The greek Prime Minister failed to get enough support in parliament for his choice for president. There will be two or chances. If he cannot get support, the parliament will be dissolved. Opening the doors to cuba could be a bonanza for u. S. Businesses be a obama says he will normalize relations with cuba, easing restrictions on trade and travel. American companies would be allowed to export telik on commodities, and building materials. The president told abc news he knows his decision when the completely popular. If you are a cuban exile and you saw, you know, your families driven from a country that you feel you are going to strongly about it and emotional about it. There are people who are friends of mine who feel that way. Is what i have said to them we have the same objective. We want to seek greater freedom, greater prosperity, greater opportunity for ordinary people. The president is faking facing opposition in congress. Senator marco rubio says he could hold up the ambassador or block funding of the embassies. Andrew cuomo has banned hydraulic fracking for oil and natural gas after the States HealthDepartment Said fracking cannot be done safely. Fracking is now allowed in it least 32 states. Back to our top story this morning for investors, interestrate increases are coming but do not count on any lift off until after april. That was the big news from fed chair janet yellen in her latest news conference. Peter cook was one of the reporters who got the chance to question yellen and joins us with more on her press conference in the results. Teacher, even on the message seemed to be loud and clear on Interest Rates and not anytime soon, the markets took it well. Overall, economists said her messaging itself was kind of messy and clumsy. It took a little time to get to the real news of the day, which is that there will not be an Interest Rate increase until april at the earliest. This is important because you saw that statement, out, first of all, and then the fed was committing to be patient, but at the same time it was not dropping the considerable time language. There was confusion with the statement. It may have been clumsy, but to her credit, janet yellen did provide clarity. It took a while it she said it will be a couple meetings until they raise rates. Then she said a couple meetings means, you know, two. Why they cannot have said that in the statement itself will be one of the lingering questions from this press conference. But she did provide parity, the fed will raise Interest Rates in 2015 here at everyone better be ready for that. , asill depend on inflation well, and how low it gets. Whacks i know you also pressed her on what happened after Interest Rates i know you also pressed her on what happens after Interest Rates rise. How quicklyoking at rates will move after they go up or that is one of the Big Questions here it i tried to get her to weigh in on the measured pace from the last tightening cycle. The 25 basis point increases we saw under the greenspan fed. There have been questions about whether or not the head can move in a similar fashion or whether she feels strongly about the pretty clear she is not a fan of a major pace. I have seen quite a few people looking back on the use of that language in the i cannot remember if it was 12 or 16 meetings where there were 25 basis point moves. We would probably not like to repeat a sequence in which there was a measured pace in 25 basis point moves at every meeting. I certainly do not want to encourage you to think that there will be a repeat of that. That means less addictive bill of the less predictability arguably. They could sit on their hands to see how inks shake out. That is the message she wanted to convey. She wants flexibility to the fed. I think she probably got it after the news conference. Thank you so much, peter cook. Lets return overseas to Vladimir Putins speech. It just ended a few moments ago. It was carried live on tv around the world. Putin voiced confidence that the plummeting wrubel r uble will recover. As he spoke, it did that. His marathon speech just wrapped up. Yan chilcote joins us now this was a wide ranging press conference. Putinexpected, vladimir blamed outside forces for russias internal problems. It isaking of the ruble, interesting that it strengthened almost despite the russian president s comments. It is important to keep in mind that this was the first time that Vladimir Putin really weighed in on his countrys currency crisis since it went into hyper drive earlier this week or so it was important to hear what he would save your to that end, he really said absolutely nothing that was supportive of the ruble. He said it was important for the budget to pay people that needed to get paid. But nothing that would drive up the ruble on its own. Have a listen. We will is no doubt distract all our social undertakings based on reserves we have to the central bank reserves, 419 billion u. S. , the central bank is not going to waste those reserves. He sort of criticized the central bank of russia for not stopping spending its reserves earlier. He also said there has been a little bit of talk over the past couple days that the government should compel the big exporters, the Companies Selling nickel and oil and gas, when they repatriate the dollars that they sell it for, that they should have to convert that into rubles. Uickly to support the ruble he said he was not a very big fan of that. It is clear that Vladimir Putin is pretty much fine with where the ruble is right now, i think. Part of the reason for that is, and he said this before, a weak ruble helps russia meet its budgetary requirements. There is this first russian billionaire to be arrested. It raised some eyebrows. Yes, it is an interesting story. He was the owner of the Big Oil Company in russia. He was arrested a few months back on charges of Money Laundering. Then he was put under house arrest. A lot of people saw this as a raid on his possessions by people close to the russian president. Yesterday, he was unexpectedly released. The timing was just before the president s press conference, and that was lost on no one today, when the russian president was asked about it, he even said he was going to invite him to a meeting and that he is not been Proven Guilty of any Money Laundering. These shares in mr. Evtushenkov 100 lding company went up at one point that he did lose his oil company and he was a doubledigit billion air at the gaining of the year. He has about 1 billion now. All right, thank you so much. He takes on a lot of topics, including his love life, during this press conference. Ryan chilcote, thank you so much. Moving and shaking this hour overseas, north korea as leader kim jong in. Sony has decided not to release the interview, a comedy about a tv crew sent to kill the korean leader. Sony backed off after hackers threaten violence against any theater showing this movie. The film will have cost sony and fortune. 80 million to make and market the interview, and that does not include the money the committee will spend to redo the Computer Networks. U. S. Officials planned to announce this week that north korea was behind that cyber attack on sony. While tensions may be heating up with north korea, they are cooling down with cuba. President obama announcing yesterday that he will listen the more than half a century old trade and travel embargoes against cuba come effectively wiping away one of the last political traces of the cold war. White house correspondent Phil Mattingly joins us with more. The administration is making a number of changes here. Does the White House Point to any of those as most important or are they all important right now . The establishment of relations, the establishment of a bigcy and havana is deal. On the policy side, the Telecommunications Part of this, u. S. Companies selling telecom, and them opening up the internet a little bit, that is a key component of the broader u. S. Foreignpolicy under this administration. They want to reach people, particularly younger generations, and they feel like this is a key issue. If they can figure out a way to expanded within the country and also work to capitalize on it, younger cuban generations will be more inclined to be supportive of the u. S. It is a longterm project that one Administration Officials have been pointing to is one of the biggest pieces of this. Not too long ago, i remember gonzalez case in florida. It shows how the u. S. Feels about cuba. But there are critics to this decision by the president. Strong could experience there at two part spirit one is the prisoner swap at three cuban agents were swapped for one u. S. Intelligence as that in the country. And there is the broader foreign policy, yediot of capitulation to cuba. What has the castro regime done to deserve this . There will be a lot of pressure from congress and the administration. Keep point, with the president did is within his executive authority. Congress would have to pulled on the broader trade embargo. What the president did yesterday, very Little Congress can do to stop it. Thank you very much at staying with cuba, it was the first thing a lot of people started talking about after the president s announcement you got it, cuban cigars. You may now get some good but investors agree, when it comes to the fed, patience is a virtue. This was the word they got the markets moving, the word of the day patience to janet yellen used it to describe interestrate spirit she said the Committee Judges that it can be patient in the beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy. I want to bring in Carl Tannenbaum who study financial risk at the chicago fed and the Federal Reserve system in washington. Good to have you back on the program. I was saying to peter cook earlier, the initial take on wasen was that her message clumsy, kind of messy, before she got to the real point. Did you feel the same way . She does not have the polish that perhaps other central bankers do, but i think she got her point across. Let the Economic Outlook evolve in a proper manner, patience with what is going on in the Financial Markets and with russia, and also patience with her own committee in which there seems to be a diversions of opinion. I think the fed did a nice job of saying it remains focused on longterm fundamentals for both inflation and employment here in the United States or by those metrics, the choice to begin making a small step towards tightening Interest Rates was the right one. Before she does that, it sounded by the time she does that, it sounded as if it was not going to be until june. Would you agree . She went out of her way to say would not occur in the next couple of meetings. Others on the committee have sort of centered their expectations around the middle of the year. Of course, there is a lot that can go on between now and then. She took care to note, as always, that their decisions are datadependent. In our view, having some of the uncertainties in the outlook him a likely the latter half of the year will be the jumping off point. That markets should perhaps not focus so much on the first step but how the rest of the progression will look. I thought she did a nice job of suggesting that it would not be the stair step that we saw 10 years ago and that they would be very cautious and review the consequences of their actions. You say, a lot can change in the next several mens including what else . Oil. Change in the next several months. Lets talk about oil prices. The decline we have seen in a netices is likely to be positive. It is something that is certainly good for families, for households. It is putting more money in their pockets, having to spend less on gas and energy. So in that sense, it is like a tax cut. It boosts their spending power. , would you agree that perhaps, oil is a net positive, and it is not also going to lower Inflation Expectations . On the first front, certainly, it is a net positive for the United States to while we have a burgeoning Energy Industry of our own, we still do import oil. To the average consumer, this has been a nice benefit here at the holiday season. It should boost Consumer Spending going forward. It is also fair to say, and the data show it, that Falling Energy prices are correlated, at least, with marketbased expectations of lower inflation. But some of the survey data of professional forecasters or consumers have not shown such a big shift in Inflation Expectations. The feds economic rejections show their longterm Inflation Expectations have not changed all that much projections show their longterm Inflation Expectations have not changed all that much. It will find a new equilibrium, and then price increases should be more normal. There are critics, and among them is bill gross. Awares the fed is not as as they should be of some of the macro factors. He was tweeting out several times during and after her press conference. One of those tweets i will read to you he said yellen and her fed seem fixated on historical models and less sensitive to current leverage, oil, and global imbalances. Oil prices, historically, can be very volatile. In addition, some of the fundamentals that have brought europe to the brink of deflation are not present here. We have much lower levels of unemployment. Raises are starting to rise wages are starting to rise between should be con this end of the global forces, but i do not think the fed should be overwhelmed by them. What about russias influence question at what if russia continues to implode . Great question. Chair yellen took care to note the limited nature of our trade and Financial Relationships with russia. The thing we should be concerned the second order types of affect spirit europe is very exposed to russia in some spots. If the contagion begins that way, it could get closer to our shores and attentively affect financial stability, something to watch out for. Thank you so much for joining us. Carl tannenbaum, chief economist on the fed. Much more on the fed. Vladimir putin wrapping up his marathon speech. Some western automakers say they have had enough of those wild swings in the ruble. We are going to tell you how they are responding. And amazon raises the stakes in delivery war spirit customers in manhattan will now get a onehour delivery service. In one hour, you will get your goods. I will bring you the details. You are watching in the loop live on Bloomberg Television and streaming on mobile and bloomberg. Com. I am betty liu. General motors and jack wire on to avoid becoming burned by the ruble is collapsed General Motors and jaguar. Russians have been snapping up foreignmade cars so they can convert the ruble savings to something tangible, something they can hold onto. Amazon is now offering onehour delivery for some products in manhattan. Amazon plans to roll out the prime now service to others it is next year. Among the products included, toys, books, and what amazon calls daily essentials. More questions about the way uber screens its drivers. A boston man who works as an uber driver is accused of raping a woman waiting for her ride. Uber has had lots of questions about its background check policies. 26 minutes past the hour, so Bloomberg Television is on the markets. Equity Futures Holding onto gains but coming off a little bit from the highs of the session after the fed meeting yesterday in which policymakers said, yes, they are going to raise Interest Rates, but they becauseng for patience it does not seem like rates will rise any time soon, at least the next six months. S p futures up over 1 . On the markets again in 30 minutes. Russian president Vladimir Putin addressing the nation and world in an annual press conference this morning. He pointed outside factors and also admitted russia was responsible for solving its own problems. This has been provoked by external factors, first and foremost him a but we believe that a lot has not been done by inof which we planned diversifying our economy. With me now is paul saunders, coo at the center for natural interests where he heads the u. S. Russian relations program, as well as projects on energy. , we hearderesting what we thought we were going to hear, which is that he is blaming the west for what is going on in russia.