Of best buy plummeting in the premarket down 30 after reporting u. S. Comps for the Holiday Season fell 0. 9 percent. Jcpenney cutting Underperforming Stores and cut 2,000 jobs to save 65 million a year. Citi results were short of estimates and goldman beats on earnings and revenue. And United HealthBeat Estimates by one cent a share, increase in enrollments helping there and cms missed by one cent a share. Best buy tumbling after reporting u. S. Comps for the Holiday Season down 0. 9. Citing intense discounting by rivals and supply constraints for key products and significant declines in traffic and what it calls a disappointing mobile phone market. Best buy saying it sees Fourth Quarter operating margin coming in below yearago levels. We know what a high flier it was last year guys, but to lose a 30year value before the market and many millions of shares trading before the bell. This was a case we were joking about it, remember when one after another after another analyst was upgrading it. Going over the notes from the last ten days about what people were predicting, gary bolder one of my absolute favorite analysts at Credit Suisse said the bad news may be in the name. That was wrong. And on january 15th Deutsche Bank came out and said best buy reports a solid lowsingle digit comp and indicate market trades in line with the previous trade s, we think it will be a positive catalyst. This is just a sample of what happens when you get way too bullish ahead of a quarter and shorts cover betting this will be the continuation. I think thats a key point as well, you had a lot of guys short this stock throughout last year who then took the loss at the end of the year. Yes. Now, there is still a large short position in the stock, but a lot of it has been initiated just in the last couple of weeks. Right. Its been interesting to watch a number of these names that were up so strongly in 2013 fall quickly in 2014. Gamestop. Another name exactly. But as for best buy, i guess, jim, its about, what, sort of this idea that theres going to be Permanent Operating margin pressure for this Company Given their inability to grow sales . Yes. And also this is one of those where why do people start liking it versus amazon . Because they cut price dramatically and they offered the lowest price. It turns out when you offer the lowest price, you dont make as much money and one of the things that bothers its kind of an algebraic equation, if you sell 20 under amazon and you sell x number of units, you dont make it up in volume and i think a lot of people are going back and saying, do you know what, the amazon showroom again, and Bed Bath Beyond disappointed, they are an amazon showroom. Its been an amazon quarter and its so discouraging to merchants. I was speaking yesterday at a book conference, showing get rich carefully which is what ill change my name to its much easier. What were people talking about . Amazon. Just amazon and the idea that the ncook is bad for barnes noble and they are losing money on every nook. Amazon killed it. Its important to remember its not just amazon in the sense of amazon buying from manufacturers and selling to you, the consumer. 40 of the units sold on amazon, this is an estimate because, of course, we get so Little Information from the company, are sold by third parties. Many of those are fulfilled by amazon and coming from an Amazon Warehouse and some of it isnt but youve got amazon competes with the third party merchants, but theres a lot going on in that amazon ecosystem and it keeps growing. And by the way, ebay, theres a couple of cautious notes today. U. S. Not doing as well. Remember, ebay has a come pet Competitive Service to amazon. Online was up 23 . Appliances were up 17 . Not even sears could post a positive appliance comp when they had their numbers. So, bright spot or not . Look, they also said the video consoles were doing well. I dont know. Were going to have a reset on best buy. Just a big reset. What really is a shame is that all the analysts kind of got it at the same time, things were better at best buy. Each day one came out and another came out. If theyd all come out at once, the stock wouldnt have been pumped to where it was but it was a serial rollout of positive. This is what happens when you have the expectations for this thing had gotten to the point, yes, they were the last man standing. It did trade at 11 in december. Theres a big difference between last man standing december of 2012 . 2012. Hewlettpackard was another one that traded really low and that one the number they better be careful because there is that same fervor of buying. B of a taking hp to a buy this morning. I do think hps going to be fine because they have a lot of differentiated businesses and i thought dell would have price cutting and thats not the case, dell is claiming they have a lot of share. But best buy is daunting to people because once again what caused the market to be weak at the beginning of the year, you heard retailers doing badly and people extrapolated it to everything. Its not everything. No, its not. The consumer is fine, its retail that right. Certain retail that has issues. Jcpenney cut a couple of stores and many analysts used it to cut price target at jcpenney and there are eight overlaps between jcpenney and macys in the mall and 15 between jcpenney and sears. Some people will say, listen, buy sears off that and i think its the wrong takeaway. I continue to reiterate macys is doing better. Courtney reagan is back at hq, and what do we know . This is a Conference Call that the company decided to add basically last minute. I think once they realized how the street was going to react to their results for the holiday. They decided they better talk to the street directly. So, we heard from the ceo today on the analyst Conference Call. Basically saying, look, were disappointed. This wasnt how wed hoped it would go but hes staying resolute in the companys longterm strategy. Take a listen. We hit a speed bump and we dont want to minimize it because, frankly, we care deeply about our monthtomonth performance. But our sense is that it doesnt change the overall story. It doesnt change the longterm perspective. It doesnt change the priorities and the trajectory. So, of course, as you mentioned, the ceo also noting a couple reasons why the sales were hit a little bit harder than they had hoped including, of course, that aggressive promotional cadence, not just at best buy but really across the entire sector. Unfortunately it did not spur demand. It did not make Consumers Want to buy, thats part of the reason it got hurt. Were seeing the shares take a big, big fall in the premarket and most people think its because of the margins, but we knew margins would be weak across the board for all retailers not just best buy and well see what happens throughout the day. I know David Strausser at says he thinks its an opportunity to buy on the dip here. Best buy is just a victim of a really tough environment but they did gain share. Back to you guys. Courtney, thanks for that. What do you make, really quickly, jim, this notion they dont want investors to extrapolate from this quarter that its a speed bump apparently . Nobody wants to extrapolate from this questiarter, the ques is the secular decline versus cyclical. The momentum that best buy had is over. I dont know if you can recover. Because, remember you mean from a business standpoint or stock standpoint. The speed bump, the selling season in retail, look, my father sells boxes and sold boxes back to a retailer. You got, like, a fourmonth window here, maybe three and then youre just back into the humdrum. We used to come home and my father used to say, all right, christmas is over, we have valentines day, the hallmark theory. Im not going to valentines day and buying anybody a 60inch screen, partner. Hey, what did i get you for valentines day . Chocolates. Really good deal. Im looking forward to something nice from you on valentines day. Just saying. It could happen. Okay, good. It may be a special valentines day between you and me. Of course, people at home are now saying the bromance. What are jim and david up to. That was a joke. Well let them think about it. Now, your wife, on the other hand, shes getting a 70incher from me. Today is my anniversary. Happy anniversary. Wow, i feel like im a am in a french president thing with you . Will she make a choice by the end of february between you and me . Can you imagine . Thats incredible. Thats a highlevel how do you get away with it . Its amazing. They designate a reporter to bring it up in the press conference. Is that what they did . Its your job to ask. Make sure you ask politely. Not the 50 unemployment and the decline in fringe no. High quality thats a distinctly first world problem that gentleman has. I know. Lets move on to Bank Earnings. Goldman sachs reporting Fourth Quarter profits 4. 60 a share ahead of forecasts and revenues also came in above consense sus. Citigroups Fourth Quarter results, though, not so good. Fixed income revenue declining in what the bank calls a challenging trade environment. I always like to look at those quotes. Lloyd blankfein says even in a somewhat challenging environment our work in advancing our client franchise and ensuring continued cost discipline allowed us to provide solid returns. However, although we didnt finish the year as strongly as we would have liked, we made substantial progress. I want to throw in the mix the interest margin went up seven dips. I only throw that in because you just provided all the thick, the fixed income was really bad. Commodities at citi was not really bad. They are saying 2013 was weaker, emerging markets and overseas in 2012 andpecting better in 2014. Return on equity up to 12 . 12. 7 . We were joking that youd never see double digit return on equity again. How about buyback . Lloyd is always lloyd. Hes one of those guys. If lloyd was saying he never knew where to buy back stock. How about this . They retired theyre down to 467 million shares now. Thats up, remember a couple years ago they were over 500, 437 is the number he wants to get back to 2008. But they are buying back their stock hand over fist. 39. 3 million shares, total cost 6. 17 billion. Thats a cap shrink as we say. They issue a lot of shares to employees. And everybody is very happy about the deferral from last year because its gone up so much, article today in the journal pointing that out whether its Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs or even jpmorgan to a certain extent stocks are up. People have to prb at Goldman Sachs theres a window that opens after they report and typically there is some selling and those that want to jump at it might think about it. A couple of things jumped out at me. I went back to 2009, that incredible year that goldman saab sachs had. Do you know what the r. O. E. Was for goldman . 37 . And they are at 13. 39 billion in 2009 with revenues at 23. 3 billion puts it in some perspective. Nonetheless a strong quarter, dont get me wrong, for goldman in many areas particularly in Investment Banking and others. Good underwriting, good for the year and not as strong in the Fourth Quarter and they came in at a comp ratio of 36. 9. Yeah. Which theyve moved a lot lower. 48 was the comp ratio in 2008. Wow. And the lowest theyve ever had is 35. 8. That was 2009. They made so much money that year. This is one of those where the hamptons will notch up a little bit in terms of value for this but not going to soar. One thing that is so interesting about goldman, we felt if they get the volcker rule is really going to hurt them. No. No. It hasnt been completely codified so to speak. No. But you look at their businesses. Theyre finding new ways to make money. Citi did not find new ways to make money. You worried about citi . I would have liked to have i would have liked it better. Put a lot of faith in corbat. Expenses were down 6 . Thats part of the mission. I just thought that there would be more progress. I mean, i think its a continuum, citi had been getting better. I guess if they had reported before bank of america. I used the term blowout last night in a speech that i gave about a talk i did with stephanie link at the y about bank of america and people are, like, there was a guy walking his dog and he stopped me in the street and he said, what is with you and bank of america . It was a really good quarter, blah blah blah. And the guy says, so what . Its awful. You know, the facts are changing here. Bank of americas now best in show from this quarter. And citi is worse in show other than huntington bank, not that good. Pnc was very good. Some people want a theme. Investors say what are they . Theyre a global bank based in the u. S. Under sandy wile you had a theme song. What is theme song . I dont know. We makes lots of money. Its a large world after all. Mexico is a little better. Asia is a little better. They are using a downtick for china. I keep hearing it. 7. 8 down. And Citi Holdings shrunk. Im not saying that its bad. Im just saying that, you know, you got to blow away the numbers if youre a bank. Thats the way it works. Ill tell you one thing we had a 15minute ablock and were not even halfway through. When we come back, yahoo Ceo Marissa Mayer brings down the hammer by firing the coo that she brought from google with her. Did she let him stay until the end of the day in was it a 36hour window he had to clear his desk . Im not sure hell make almost as much as obitz did at disney. Well also talk to former congressman barney frank. Well talk about bernanke as the outgoing fed chairman gets ready to speak later this morning. One more look at futures. We just had the best two days since october. Dow hasnt had three triple digit days up since september. A lot more squawk on the street from post nine in a minute. Covered call strategies to generate income . With fidelitys options platform, weve completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies. 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Oh, you know, i love that guy. Mmhmm. [ male announcer ] these types of plans let you visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. And there are no networks. You do your pushups today . Prepare to be amazed. [ male announcer ] dont wait. Call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan to go the distance with you. Go long. Decastro is out as yahoos chief hospitaling officer. He was the first major hire by Ceo Marissa Mayer, he was brought in to help boost yahoos ad business. In an internal memo to yahoo staffers mayer wrote during my own reflection i made the difficult decision that our coo should leave the company. I appreciate his him, and they lost the number two spot among digital ad sellers to facebook for 2013, all those acquisitions, jim, not moving the needle. Google is such a juggernaut. And i just dont envy anyone who has to compete with goog. Just like i dont envy anyone that has to compete with amazon. When the stock was at 18 this is alibaba and it does not change the alibaba deflection and sum of the parts. The question has been and we posed it many times, can she help turn around the core business of yahoo . But it hasnt mattered because 24 of alibaba, they may sell as much as half that when alibaba goes public. Also we talked a great deal about the fact that theres an idea that they can tax efficiently and sell the remainder at some point down the road and so youre not going to be taking as nearly a big a tax hit on lets call it the other 12 of the company or more that they might sell. That has gotten into the stock the last few months. And dont forget yahoo japan which has also done extraordinarily well. And those two assets and the continued increase in the valuation of the stock. Everyone loves twitter because its made for mobile. Its why i like yelp. But this is so far its not panning out. Heres a question posted by one of our smart viewers. Is she trying to set up the quarter . A scapegoat for the quarter, this way she can come out and if the number disappoints, well, we were already cleaning house, making remedies. I dont know. Shes a heavyweight. She doesnt play in that game. I dont think shes playing that game. I think that she is trying to figure out how to reinvent this company in an environment where every day google comes out with something new. I think that people have to recognize, i do a lot of work on the internet, it is just like when you speak to companies and you do a lot of work with retail. The conversation goes, do you know what, were doing this, were doing that, i hate google. Were doing this, were doing that, i hate amazon. These two Companies Amazon and google, theyre like competing against youre going up a