Augusta in the last pu minutes. Hell be here in studio. Futures are suggesting well have a positive open. Dow would open higher by 24 points. Nasdaq would open flat by 2. The corporate story of the morning, shells mega deal. Its the Biggest Energy tie up in more than a decade. Seema mody joins us from london with all the details. Seema. Hey becky. Good morning, its one of the industrys biggest deals in a decade. Shell paying 70 billion which represents a 50 premium to bgs Closing Price yesterday. Now the ceo of shell earlier this morning on cnbc europe explained why this deal makes since and how its not a bet on Lower Oil Prices. This is not a bet on the oil price. This deal works in a whole range of oil and gas prices. Of course we still believe in the longer run in a few years time we will see the longterm fundamentals will assert themselves. We see Higher Oil Prices than what we see at the moment and this deal will look not just very good. It will look fantastic. This deal gives u. K. S Royal Dutch Shell which has been investing heavily in oil and gas reserves access to bgs multibillion dollar projects in east africa australia, brazil among other markets and now the bet on further m and a in the oil and gas space is providing a boost to other european oil names. Its one of the best performing sectors here in the u. S. Total, eni, tullow oil all up in todays trade. Thank you seema. I saw in doing our pretapes i saw that i was saying 70 billion and i thought i better check this. A lot of times theres debt. We want to just talk about the equity value of deals like this and it really is 70 which is surprising because its a 50 premium. Its a huge premium. Thats why the ceo is like yeah its a good idea for him to say yes for shareholders. Maybe its good for royal dutch shareholders as well. Im thinking that you have to do that in order to fend off other bidders if youre thinking that somebody could come in. For the big premium. Say its a big, big premium. Its all fine and well for the ceo to say no no no. This is not a defensive move because oil prices dropped too much. What causes mergers and acquisitions is things are so good or theyre so bad that you need to get together to save money to be able to survive together and thats the environment were in right now but big move this week in oil so far. True but still around 50 so as a ceo you think what do i do . Build or buy . With oil at the price that it is exploration is so expensive you need oil to be at a much higher price if youre going to make money. Boost reserves 25 for royal dutch and boosts production 20 . Okay. Theres crude down today. Some of the other big stories were watching the minutes, we have to know. We havent talked about i havent talked about the fed since, well let me see, what time is it . We got to know what theyre thinking with these minutes because they are the most porn thing in all of our lives, what they do. Not the overall private sector economy. Its really the fed. The march meeting will be released at 2 00 eastern. Well look for more details on discussions it could lead to a quarter point Interest Rate above zero but well see if they do signal a move toward raising rates. We have two guests and im going to talk the same way to them because im sick of hearing people say what they should do or what i think theyre going to do. Why is there a difference . We just assume theyre clueless . So they arent going to do the right thing. Theyre going to be so dovish yeah they should raise in june but i dont think they will. Why dont they think like everybody thinks . Why dont they do what they should do instead of what theyre going to do. I dont feel strongly about it. Tell me what you really think. Weekly Mortgage Applications will be out at 7 00 eastern and alcoa will post Quarterly Results after the bell and it is long viewed as the unofficial kick off season to earnings season and not baseball season. No but it happens we do this four times a year and every single time i say the symbol is aa so like in the, you know phone book its the thats not why they do it though. I also say it should be kicked out of the dow because its so small at this point and its been kicked out for awhile but its a 16 billion company. Its or not to some extent although whether it gives you any insight into the overall Global Economy im not so sure. Youre our international correspondent. I should produce it correctly. If only it had an r in it. Yeah you look for things with rs. Just to do it. S p capital iq reports youre like alec trebec. Everybody has to know he speaks french. Really . Oh every french question its like alex we got it. Youre urban, your witty. Oh god, hes insufferable. The idea that i watch jeopardy. Its good. Me lineals never heard of it. Overall profits will shrink 3 from last year. The bank of japan sticking with its monetary stimulus program. There was some suggestions out there that perhaps they were going to make the program bigger. It didnt happen. In other news out of asia chinese investors use the entire daily investment quota for buying hong kong stocks under the stock connect program. That helped boost the hang seng index. Greece has not asked russia for aid and says athens want to solve its Financial Issues within the euro zone. The greek Prime Minister is in moscow to meet with vladimir putin. Industrial Machinery Company pent air cutting its First Quarter guidance. The company citing the strong dollar and we might hear a lot of that. Kick off to the excuse season is also there. Its going to be strong dollar. Well hear it a lot. Which is better than the weather. There will be a little bit of that too. Lower than expected oil and gas industry demand. Dave and busters with guidance above consensus. Air gas raising its di dend. Look likes positive open. Dow would open higher by 16 points. Well show you what european shares are doing in the wake of the big oil deal. You know thats flat. Ftse is higher by half a percent. France is doing almost nothing and greece isnt worth mentioning half the time. Still below 100. Overnight gentlemanjapan higher. We told you about that with the ability to buy shares. The price of oil was going to be important as we talk about this huge deal. 52. 80 for wti. Brent is lower by. 77. 58 58. 33. We wait for the all important fed minutes. Were back below 1. 9. 1. 88 . We saw huge surge yesterday to 1. 9 . Being mischievous. The dollar is weaker across the board. 1. 0875 is what the euro will cost you. 119. 7 yen for every dollar and the price of gold at the hour. I referenced these two individual doing this on set. Joining us theyre already here. Michelle garrard and the director of global macro. A dutch man. Maybe hes here to talk about the deal. Thats true. Talk about the fed. Ill start with michelle because shes an enabler. Oh come now. Youre an enabler because youre going to say, i know but ill just let you say it. But its like why rush . Just stay low. Joe. Youre being facetious. Do you think they should go in june . They should have gone last june. Im thinking of you. Youre the enabler . Neither one of you are enablers of this walk on egg shells policy. One of the most bullish thing is for the fed to lift rates and the world not come to an end and then all the skeptics that think this is a fed induced bubble will have no choice but no conclude theres something fundamental going on. Youre enabling them in a different way. You think their policies have been successful and not just marking up assets but in conjuring up animal spirits in the economy. What the Central Banks have tun is buy time for the system to heal itself. And then had to go step up this year. I dont know whether youre right. Its so jarring i guess they have been so involved. In justifying the need for this accommodation, we have talked about repeatedly sent the message you need us. We cant back away which made it difficult to convince everybody it will be okay but you said were six years into the expansion. The Unemployment Rate is tenths of a percent. If you cant get off zero now when will you ever get off zero. What about that weak jobs report. Yes but i said to people i didnt believe any more than i believe the trend was close to 300. 300 looked too strong. This 126 is almost so weak its not 100 credible. I think looking through some of the noise youre still growing around 200,000 a month and thats still going to bring the Unemployment Rate down. That level is i dont even think the new trend is 200. The right answer is probably 2 to 250 which is consistent with an economy growing around 2. 5 . What do you think of the deal. I dont ask because youre a dutch man but because a wave of consolidation about to happen in the oil industry or markets . M and a is a good sign for the overall market. It is and also for the market in skren rahal in general usually Earnings Growth is twice as high as Revenue Growth and part of that comes from share buy backs and the other part from cost cutting so a lot of people are asking havent they cut all the costs already and isnt that going to shrink Earnings Growth closer to Revenue Growth which is around 4 and the answer is that companies are going to start buying other companies. Really for cost cutting purposes if not for other reasons and that could actually continue this trend of sort of earnings growing faster than revenues. Doesnt that speak to joes criticism about whats been done through all of this is Financial Engineering . Its not about increasing employment but if its about cost cutting its about reducing employment. Well Financial Engineering has been a consequence of sort of zero Interest Rate policy. Companies are issuing cheap debt. Theyre buying back shares. Theyre buying other companies. Thats definitely been a phenomenon for sure. What does this say about the quality of i was going to say but thats also one of the problems of course is that companies, we talk about the fact that all the fed accommodation isnt getting through to the real economy in the way that you would normally think and to some extent companies are using cash to do things other than increase employment and increase investment. Thats been one of the issues that we faced for the last three or four years when you try to scratch your head about why arent we getting more bang for our buck. The whole idea of the yellen put is not like moral hazard but its not a good signal to be sending when you got no ammo left. No arrows left. No dry powder. I can come up with more anlages. So what im most worried about is that they dont have the we use stones now. Are we allowed to use stones. They dont have the stones. They may be stuck. The minute we have a little slow down they go up a quarter or a half and all of a sudden we have a slow down and they stop raising or cut again or something and the thing that most people are worried about is well never get out of this and that starts kooming throughcoming through. I always thought when you go to zero youre out of ammo but were beyond the zero lower bounds. Central banks are printing money and have negative rates. Thats not a good place to be. A agree but theres no zero lower bound anymore and the fed ultimately is just following the markets as it usually does. No. Thats not their mandate. But theyre trying to overmanage the markets i sympathy the problem. The markets start to jitter and they back off. Its like a parent with a bad child. Who is driving the bus here to some extent. The fed has to have the stones to you are really good. As soon as you decided i wasnt an enabler that put me in a whole different. Im painting you with the same brush of all the people that come in here. Im tired of hearing and the whole left theyre all enablers. But those of us that arent are also dismissed as wackos. Who is is listening to that guy. Hes been wrong about inflation. Anybody thats talked about raising rates looks silly. Its interesting. Everyone is like once they start we can stop talking about this. Thats when the discussion will be getting started. If you look at the funds curve the mashlth isrket is giving the fed the green light to start june or september but they he go 25 in june. 25 in december. Maybe another 50 or 75 in 2016 but really once they start its still going to be the same discussion o of when is the next one. It wont be like greenspan where theres 25 every meeting. Theres a lot of talk about how this will all play out. When they think theyre in charge of both employment and inflation ever since bernake, the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Its not on the ceos or obama, the whole world is resting on the fed. It shouldnt be but it takes a tough man to say were not doing anything more on rates. Or woman. Exactly right and force congress or force the president or whoever to take fiscal action thats been so necessary and for the fed its really relatively easy right now because their dual mandate in the inflation side is not doing anything so they can afford to kind of dismiss that for now and hope that the Unemployment Rate comes down and then eventually so youre. 3 below 2 . Well have plenty of inflation down the world. This is the world we live in. For three decades the mandate was pushing it down and now its bringing it up. Youre asking about the front page article about your boss. Apparently not. Yeah. We got a commercial break. Do love that family though. They start from scratch. Ive been there 20 years. I wouldnt be there. It is. I love it. And johnson, weird. Franklin, you got both johnsons right . Franklin i think, right oh you never heard of them. Sorry. Anyway thank you guys. And lady. All right. Coming up the numbers behind the masters. Were talking rory tiger. Next as we head to break though heres a look back at this date in history. Theres nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. So why pause to take a pill . And why stop what youre doing to find a bathroom . With cialis for daily use, you dont have to plan around either. Its the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be Ready Anytime the moment is right. Plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any symptoms of an allergic reaction stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Why pause the moment . Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use. For a free 30tablet trial go to cialis. Com for 70 billion. The number of other Energy Companies also rising on that news. Primarily european companies. Shouldnt just call it an oil deal. Its also an oil and natural gas deal but as you can see total eni tullow are all high on this deal as well. The head of the masters nike is rolling out an add titled ripple. It features two of golfs biggest names. It opens with what is supposed to be a young rory mcelroy watching tiger woods on television and it goes on to show the young boy practicing and finishes with the older mcllroy teeing off with his rival. We last week had video of the actual young rory mcllroy on with a talk show host over somewhere across the pond and showing he was 8 or 9 years old and we said that rory had written a letter to tiger saying im coming after you. Really. When he was very young and it showed him. He had more talent than probably either one of us have now. At 4 years old. Well, tiger at 3 did. Anyway the masters does start tomorrow. Tiger is back. Rory. Bubba. Some people are picking bubba again. He drives over everything. Dominic is here to tell us who vegas likes. I said the great golfers in the world are all in augusta but youre here. Thats sweet of you to say. Im not even as good a golfer as you are. And i was thinking ill let you get to your report but its hard to do reports when we have so much to talk about. We do. Tiger is playing in the par 3 tournament but if youre going to get a couple of things out of your system down there, i dont want to say what he has because i have it and i dont want to bring it up. It starts with a y sometimes. Something that cause mess to claw my chips or to do left hand low. I thought lefthanded. I thought about getting a lefthanded club to do chips. I think youre thinking too much. You do . Any teacher out there would think that you are way overthinking this. Every teacher ive ever had said you dont need me you need a psychiatrist or drugs. Its that space between the ears. If you think about it the masters is such a great event because it kicks off the golf season. It was a Family Tradition for myself and my father growing up. Wed sit there. Im not a golf fan. Its the flowers its the pageantry. Everything is so gorgeous about augusta national. Bobby jones. The three guys that are going to tee off tomorrow with the chairman there and just lets go through the numbers. Some of the names you may remember, the odds the money is already flown as we start before the masters kicks off. The favorite is rory. Everyone thinks hes the odds on favorite to win. Overnight he is now a 13 to 2. What is Jordan Spieth. 91. He was 81 and bubba was a 101 maybe two days ago. Those are your top three. Dustin johnson in the top five. These are your favorites to win and then a whole log jam of people. Money has been throwing toward tiger woods in the last 48 hours. Theres reports hes starting to get a hot hand. His practice rounds started to look good. Playing in his par 3. Still 251. It is 251. Remember three or four years ago he was tiger against the field. Right. He was the odds on favorite every single time. Right. But remember if you want the Lottery Ticket i threw these in there because i thought it would be fun. Theyre part of the masters mix. The guys are 5,000 to 1 odds you need to go walk by vegas r