Welcome to Market Makers. I seem to have misplaced Stephanie Ruhle. Im terrified all by myself. Im going to kick it off with the top business stories of the morning. Sears is getting smaller and so are its losses. The retailer cut its losses by more than half in the fourth quarter. It has now lost money 11 quarters in a row. Eddie lampert has been shrinking the store base and separating units to generate cash. They want to form a Real Estate Investment trust to leaseback the stores. Firsttime jobless claims rose by the most in more than a year last week. It was well above the estimate. Inflation at the consumer level took a dive last month. Prices fell zero point 7 , probably due to Falling Energy prices. The cpi actually rose. The fcc is headed toward a landmark vote on regulating the internet. Regulators expect to adopt rules on Net Neutrality that would bar broadband providers from charging websites to deliver content more quickly. Large mobile phone carriers say the regulations would discourage them from making billions of dollars in network improvements. They would carry the cost, not Companies Like google and netflix. Sprint and tmobile say they welcomed the measures that would rein in their bigger rivals. Barnes noble is breaking off. The bookseller will spin off its education unit. The result will be to publicly traded companies. Some analysts were expecting them to spin off the nook. Shares are soaring, up as much a 7 . In ukraine, the ceasefire may be taking hold. There were no attacks by prorussian rebels overnight. Ukraine has accused separatists from violating the ceasefire since it went into effect two years ago. The ukrainian currency has been in freefall, losing more than 50 of its value against the dollar this year. The central bank imposed a ban on foreign currency trading earlier this week, but that kind of thing never works. Marijuana is now effectively legal in the district of columbia. Congress is not happy. Anyone who is at least 21 can grow as many as 21 plants and possess two ounces. It is still against the law to sell the drug or smoke it in public. In december, congress attached a provision to block legalization in d. C. City Officials Say it is no fun if it is legal. That is not really what they said. The National Organization for reform of marijuana legalization. Normal. Everybody knows that. Julie hyman is here with me. She is our retailer reporter. Sears reported a narrower loss than expected. Shares are down. Perhaps theyre keeping and i on the cash levels and wondering whether asset sales are in effect of longterm strategy. Jules i know you have been doing a lot of research. Julie we all know that Eddie Lampert did not buy this company to make it a successful retailer. Since he combined sears and kmart a decade ago, the company has only had one quarter of samestore sales growth. This quarter we saw 4. 4 drop. Sears is down 7 . Who still shops that sears . Who is going to care if this thing does go away . Matt miller will care. We will get to this in a second. You are not the typical shopper at sears. I talked to folks who do shopper surveys and they said if you look at the average sears shopper, it is 50. 4 years old. You are a little young. With a Household Income around 58,000. 21 of these people have children and their household, as well. If sears did close you can look at the figures as well for clues. They also shop the jcpenney. 67 shopped at amazon. 82 shopped at walmart. Some of that demand would go to some of these other retailers. I also did a very informal and anecdotal survey on facebook. I am a city dweller. I dont shop at sears. I asked on facebook would you care if sears went away . I got an amazingly high number of responses. It seems like that people go there for craftsman tools. Matt they have a great brand of tools. It is easier to find than snapon. Julie i have one friend on facebook is said that used to have a lifetime war anti, but they no longer have that warranty, but they no longer have that. I have not verify that. Some folks go to sears or appliances. A lot of folks mentioned lands end. The interesting thing is that sears spun off lands end and it is now a separately traded entity. Matt do they still sell it in the stores . Julie they do. They are not collecting as much of the profit from lands end. There are these things in sears that potentially hold value and then there is the real estate which is what is behind Eddie Lamperts move to explore this sale leaseback arrangement to ring some more value out of the company before it perhaps dies as an actual retailer. Matt fascinating story. Thanks very much. Julie hyman, a retailer reporter. Our retail reporter. Ask from the brink. We will look at whether the greek debt crisis is over. The fcc is minutes away from starting a historic meeting. Regulators will vote on new Net Neutrality rules. Stephanie welcome back to Market Makers. I had to go to a kindergarten show. I missed that first show. I had to go to a snailabration. We were celebrating snails. There was no eating of them. It is time to talk about things other than snails. You can see the impact of plunging steel prices. Consumer prices fell 0. 7 slightly more than expected. Once you take out food and energy costs, cpi rose. Firsttime claims for Unemployment Benefits were higher than expected last week. United airlines has sent an unusually blank message to it blunt message to its pilots about mistakes in the cockpit. The memo was prompted by several serious incidents. In one united plan, they had to make a maneuver to avoid crashing. The message said, lets dont think that couldnt happen again at united. Americans are not drinking enough beer. Are you . Matt i drink as much as possible. Stephanie there you go. Fourthquarter earnings missed estimates. The company has been struggling to turn around a week sales of the flagship weak sales of the flagship budweiser brand. It could be that everyone is crazy to go no gluten, wheat free and they are not drinking beer, they are tricking vodka. Matt gluten, sugar free, dairy free. Stephanie people are crazy for that. Have you ever had bud light lime in the summer . On a summer day. Matt no. It is disgusting. Stephanie you know what, i like it. Snails, bud light lime greece. Matt it will ease the cash crunch it faces next week. The government is expected to push to loosen the conditions being pushed on by the rest of europe. Erik schatzker spoke with the finance minister yesterday. He asked what happen if greece fails. Then we need to be content. Matt lets bring in andrew balls. Thanks the much for joining us. Only four months. Stephanie will just be starting her bud light lime at that point. [laughter] are we going to be right back where we were before we know it . Andrew yes, we have a few things coming up. They will need to fill in the details of the provisional agreement they have this week. As you get to the summer as you get to the need for a new program then you could have a lot of noise from greece. Our best guess is that they will come to these agreements, but you get a lot of noise from both sides as they try to agree. Matt both sides have come closer to the middle because they started out at the polls and you have greece coming back in and agreeing to ask for this bailout on the same old terms. Arent greece and germany going to come together and finally make a deal in the end . Andrew that is what we think will happen. If you look at greece since the middle of last year, the shift in the town has been very marked tone has been very marked. They have moved to the center. This concentrates the minds of the government. A lot of the things they are negotiating on do not look that unreasonable. On the german side, you certainly have some rhetoric, but they came to an agreement this time quicker than we expected. I think it will be noisy. That is always inevitable. But there is a high probability neither side wants an uncontrolled greek exit. Stephanie andrew, for those who are shortterm investors, daras a day traders should dare i say day traders, should they be calm . Andrew one thing we have seen in recent months is the ability for greece to spill over into other parts of the european markets that are much diminished now. We have the ecb that will be announcing the details of the qe next week and then starting next month. I think for the broader Asset Classes greece has been pretty contained and will be contained. On greece itself, there are many things you want to be watching if you are involved there, including bank deposits. I think the focus could be away from greece for a bit of time. Matt if greece gets a new contract, if they get better terms, surely other countries are going to ask for the same, right . Stephanie i. E. Slippery slope . Andrew it is not germany versus greece. The spanish are pretty tough, as well. It is precedent. Ireland has made clear that anything greece wants, they want, too. If they can come up with an agreement over this summer and cover the big redemptions, over time, i think it is likely that we will see further debt writedowns for greece from the public sector. I dont think the finance minister is going to be on that watch. Stephanie lets turn our attention to janet yellen. What did you think of her testimony . Andrew i dont think we learned a lot new. She did not go a lot beyond what we have had in the past. There is a march meeting coming up which is going to be an important one. I thought she sounded relatively upbeat on the economy. The questions from the senate and the house were a little bit away from where markets are most focused in terms of the rate cycle. Not a lot new, but broadly positive. It seems pretty likely that the fed will take up the word patience in their march meeting and then they will have the flexibility to start hiking rates in line with the data could be june, could be september. Stephanie did you agree with her overall views on the economy . Andrew i thought it was pretty reasonable. Inflation is low and it is going to come in lower, owing to energy prices. The dynamics look a lot more healthy than those on the european side. One of the things which has been a concern is what i fed rate hike cycle lead to volatility . What janet yellen was essentially doing was laying the ground for the kind of rate hike cycles but no one should be surprised about. Sending the signal that they can be very slow. Hiking rates when they start. Stephanie we talk so much about the risk of hiking rates too soon and it could cause a tantrum in the markets are not ready. What about the unintended consequences of leaving rates too low for too long . Andrew yes, i think that is important. They are going to start hiking rates at a time when inflation is close to zero. There will be a forwardlooking element to what they do. They will start looking through the nearterm inflation rate readings and i think they want to gradually tighten policy so that they do not have to go faster they do not have to traditionally, the fed starts a bit late and goes faster. Matt are they doing that now . Shouldnt they have started a couple of years ago, really, in order to gradually tighten . Wouldnt it have been advantageous in the end of 2011 or 2012 . Andrew look at the growth profile. We dont have growth overheating. Roger will decline in terms of unemployment. Inflation is going to be very low. From pimcos point of view, the timing looks about right. It is going to be shallower compared to history. Given the challenges they have had, from our point of view, the timing looks pretty good judged by the macro data that we see. Matt obviously, the Oil Situation is very different. Andrew balls, thank you so much for joining us. Stephanie Market Makers will be back in just a moment. We have a lot more to cover. Matt Net Neutrality. Stephanie that is hot. That is hot. Stay with us. Stephanie welcome back to Market Makers. Im Stephanie Ruhle with my very special guest matt miller. We are sending you want to scarlet fu where she is taking a look at stocks in the news and on the move. Scarlet i want to look at barnes noble. The bookseller announced a longawaited break up. It is going to cordon off its moneylosing ereader business from its more profitable education business, the College Bookstore business. What will result is to separate publicly traded companies. This will be a taxfree spinoff that will be completed by august. It marks a change from an earlier plan. Barnes noble was planning to spin off the nook business on its own. A box that it bought back microsofts stake in the nook business. The business during the holiday sales season did not do that well and would have trouble being spun off on its own. This is a different twist. It is certainly something that investors like at the moment. If you look at how shares of performed over the past 12 months, they have rallied more than 30 . 31. 3 versus a 3 gain actually, if you include dividend, 8 advance in the smallcap index. A wide differential of 23 percentage points. Matt very good that you are reinvesting your dividend. Very conservative. Scarlet everyone has to. Stephanie keep it real. When was the last time you went in barnes noble . Scarlet i go look at the books and then i go in order them. Matt you were there worst dream. [laughter] Stephanie Barnes noble in tribeca is ground zero to hang out with toddlers and moms and nannies and the only thing people are buying his coffee. Matt i will go to the barnes noble in union square and drop a c note on magazines. Stephanie a c note did you just say a c note . A c note matt a benjamin. Stephanie raining money. Hes out there. Theres a guy out there whose making a name for himself in a sport where your name and maybe a number are what define you. Somewhere in that pack is a driver that can intimidate the intimidator. A guy that can take the king 7 and make it 8. Heck. Maybe even 9. Make no mistake about it. Theyre out there. I guarantee it. Welcome to the Nascar Xfinity series. Live from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers. Stephanie welcome back to Market Makers. Matt erik is on his way back from athens, so i am filling in for him. Stephanie happy birthday adrian toscano. Adrienne toscano. Matt happy birthday. The fcc is about to begin its meeting on Net Neutrality. They will approve on a partyline vote. Internet regulations would prevent broadband providers from charging websites to deliver their content more quickly so you will have to pay for it. Big internet providers are opposed. They say the regulations would stop them from making billions of dollars worth of network improvements. The winners include Video Services like netflix, that can use the whole highway without paying any more than anyone else. Shares of sears rising this morning. The retailer posted a fourthquarter loss that was less than half of last years. Lampert has been shrinking this years store base and has been separating units like lands end to get cash. It is the biggest management shakeup ever at the British Bank Standard chartered. The new ceo will be bill winters. He is the former coceo at jpmorgans investment bank. The banks chairman and head of asia also announced plans to step down. Shares of Standard Chartered fell last year. Something old and something new at royal bank of scotland. Rbs posted the seventh yearly loss in a row and it named a new chairman former regulator howard davies. He was once chairman of the British Financial Services authority. Rbs posted a 5. 4 billion loss in 2014. Rbs also forecasted higher restructuring costs as it shrinks its investment bank. Dunkin donuts is shifting gears on its losing coffee strategy. It will start selling cake up k cup coffee to franchises and in stores. K cup sales in Dunkin Donuts stores fell by almost 30 last quarter. Jeb bush would not hesitate to start a war in the middle east, like his father and brother before him. He said his familys history would not be an issue if the safety of the American People was at risk. He is expected to run for the republican nomination for president and made those comments on a radio show. Stephanie do you like doughnuts . Matt well, yes. Stephanie on a scale of junk you love to eat . Matt the krispy kremes, yes. Stephanie i feel that way about farm doughnuts. Matt i dont know what that is. Stephanie we can talk about that during break. Matt talked about the historic meeting of the federal Communications Committee voting on Net Neutrality in the next couple of hours. The proposals would bar broadband providers from charging websites for access to if it an internet fast lane. The ceo of ustream, is following this very closely. Peter cook is covering the story out of d. C. Peter, i want to start with you. Peter from alledge state of standpoint legislative standpoint, congress is watching this play out. Congress democrats are very optimistic about the vote about to take place. This is not happening in congress. This is happening at an independent agency where the president has pushed the chairman of the fcc to move forward with the rulemaking arguably the most important rulemaking at the fcc in years. They will vote later this morning. It is happening down the street from us here in washington. 32 is the likely outcome. They will back this proposal that will bar the idea of fast lanes of allowing any sort of paid prioritization on the internet. The two republicans adamantly oppose it. We will hear strong statements today at the fcc. Stephanie brad, why is this so important to you. Brad the internet is the bridges for our society. Think of the internet as a new country or a new democracy. To me, this is the first start in a bill of rights for the internet. We need to protect the openness of the internet. When he to make sure that all websites are created equal. We had no resources when we started our company. Had we not had th