Good morning, a very warm welcome to Worldwide Exchange on cnbc. Im will fred frost along with Courtney Reagan whos in for sara. Lets get straight to the Global Action for record highs. All three of the major indices plus the russell as well. We had about 0. 4 of gains for the s p. The nasdaq a little behind that. The dow a little ahead of that. And a record in today share price not market cap high for apple, but the rally was really clearly led by financials. We had the bank of america up around 3 . The broader financials index up 1. 25. The spark was janet yellen being a little more hawkish than expected and that pushed yields higher which benefitted banks. Futures expected to open higher once again to new records. The dow higher by shy of 50 points. The tenyear treasury note, as i said, that move in yields that fed chair janet yellen sparked did help the bank stocks in particular. We crossed 2. 5 as march seemed to be back on the table with some of the comments, albeit investors really moving the expectations of may more than they did with march but yields certainly moved higher as did the dollar. 2. 475 on the ten year. A little below the highs of yesterday. Spike was so, so clear right at 10 00 a. M. Fed chair janet yellen returns to capitol hill this time to testify before the House Financial Services committee. Yesterday she told a senate panel waiting too long to raise Interest Rates would be unwise. We have eight meetings a year and it means that at some meetings we would if things remain on course, increase our target for the federal funds rate and not act at others and precisely when we would take an action, whether its march or may or june i think i know people are focused on that. I cant tell you exactly. They are. They are. Just so you know, they are. Which meeting it would be. I would say that every meeting is live. The s p hitting its 15th record close since the u. S. Election yesterday. As will fred mentioned, financials leading the way. We saw a nice rise higher. We saw the group gain more than a percent yesterday. Well see if that continues today with yellens second day of testimony. Yeah. Yesterdays rally clearly significant across all three indices, including the russell. Four indices. It wasnt quite as broad as weve seen recently. Yes, eight out of the 11 s p sectors were positive. Four of them only just so. It was really that strong from financials that flattered the rest of the market and the bond were quite sharply down. Thats right. Yes, another record day. Closes for the sixth day in a row for the s p and the fifth day in a row for the dow. It was pretty much financials that flattened the performance. Lets have a look at performers overnight in asia. Some declines in shanghai. The nikkei and hong kong both over 1 . Chinas performance a little soft when it comes as lending data once again showed a very fast expansion of credit. Yes, weve been seeing ongoing better fundamental data in china, but always a reminder that that is largely fueled by credit growth. A little talk of possibility they may need to tighten a little bit more. Were back to growth if that does come through. Now to data coming out of europe. Employment declining. The number of jobless fell 7,000 in the Fourth Quarter. That puts unemployment at 4. 8 which is continuing to hold at the level it was, which is the lowest in a decade. The important thing to note in terms of that data was that wage growth was a little soft. It came in at 2. 6 . It was meant to be at 2. 7 so thats not as high as the cpi and ppi. Sterling has dipped a little bit off the back of that. Meantime euros trade surface coming in at 28. 1 billion euros. Thats up and ahead of consensus. What does this mean for european markets. They are higher today. Yesterday the broad stock 600 was just in positive territory. Essentially european markets were flat or slightly down. They didnt enjoy the yellen bounce which started to come late in the days trade in europe and, thus, theyre playing a little bit of catchup this morning, the european markets. Despite some concern about the continued political uncertainty. Yeah, absolutely. I think that manifested a little bit more in the bond markets. It has equity markets over the last five or six days similar to u. S. Markets. Weve seen more risk on. Decent rally in the last week. Quick check on the broader markets and lets start first with oil. Youre seeing oil prices pressured a little for wti and brent crude. There are some concerns about whether or not opecs production cuts will hold up Going Forward. Iraq a little bit behind and that is the worlds second largest producer when it comes to that agreement. So the other countries are going to have to play some catch up to get to the goals, but more than a Million Barrels per day of crude has been cut. So we have seen those Oil Prices Stay within a range around between 50 and 55 or now more than a couple months here. So under a little bit of pressure today but still within that range. Natural gas higher by about 2 . If we can move on and take a look at currencies. The dollar continues its strong hold against the other major currencies. The euro is a little bit weaker than against the dollar. The dollar is stronger against the yen. And the pound is weaker against the u. S. Dollar. Yeah. The dollar kind of rallying yesterday with yields going up. Interesting to note though that despite yesterdays commentary from janet yellen being dollar friendly, it didnt do enough to deter what has otherwise been a risk on sentiment for the last week or so. Yes, we did see equities rally in light of that. Also, quite a lot of bm currencies are the strongest currencies. The dollar was strongest but the best performers for the week as a whole are the likes of a ruble and the rand and turkish lyra. Janet yellen struck that tone and brought back the idea that march or may could be on the table for rate hike. She didnt derail the positive risk on sentiment that weve seen on markets. Lets wrap things up with gold prices which were pretty much flat yesterday. Pretty much flat again at 12. 27. Today is the busiest day of Economic Data. Retail sales and cpi out and followed by nahb survey. As for earnings, results reported before the opening bell. After the close look for numbers from cisco, cbs, kraft, heinz and marriott. Japans softbank is buying fortress for 3. 3 billion in cash. Fortress which manages about 70 billion in assets will operate within softbank as an independent business headquartered in new york. In december President Trump met with softbanks ceo who said he plans to invest 50 billion in the u. S. Economy. Its not clear whether that was part of the discussion. I think the take away is were talking about how the environments improving around the world. The outlook in japan, softbank is a great story. They go on a massive acquisition spree to buy growth. Thats a great example of this and sort of a reminder to me that, yeah, perhaps things are picking up in a relative since to whe sense, but a company like softbank buys their growth. Very different types of assets as well in places like the surprise position here. A slew of filings were released late yesterday offering insight into what they bought last december. Buffets firm made it raised its stake in appleby 42 million shares now reporting owning 57. 7 million shares. Also reported a 9. 3 billionaire line stake with investments in american, delta, southwest and united continental. They reported new stakes in sirius xm and monsanto. Meanwhile George Soross notable moves, new stake in Goldman Sachs and cut its stake in bank of america. Other filings including david tepper increased his bets in the pharma state. Bought new stakes in pfizer and mylan and upped allergen and cut apple. Nelson peltzs fund has taken stake in procter gamble. Its roughly 3. 5 billion. The move is a sign that theyre taking aim at the Consumer Product giants increase in sales and gets rid of the unprofitable brands. Trian makes it another month to trying to invest. P g reacted well to the news yesterday, up 2. 7 . Thats right. Csx wants shareholders to vote on the demands an activist investor is making there as it tries to install the former ceo of Canadian Pacific of the head of the railroads. Csx will call a meeting. They say they hold a nearly 5 stake in csx and wants to introduce the model Harrison Hunter used. They want excessive compensation and enough board seats to effectively control the company. Thats an interesting fight thats going on at that company. Meantime, President Trump will meet with the ceos of eight large u. S. Retailers this morning. Theyre expected to discuss tax reform and making improvements to infrastructure. The group will include target ceo and gap ceo and jcpenney ceo. The retailers oppose the border adjustment tax and cut Corporate Tax reform from 35 to 20 . A lot of focus on this meeting. A lot of the retail ceos say were all in favor of tax reform, but this border adjustment tax could really derail our profits, move us in fact from profits to losses and cause us have to have increase the prices on the consumer by 20 . Thats the point i imagine that they would hit home with the lawmakers and President Trump. Look forward to that meeting starting today. American Airlines Pilots are blasting the ceo doug parker. They say hes failed to implement the contract. The vote against parker follows his decision last week to skip an industry meeting with President Trump. American flight attendants picketed outside the companys headquarters in fort worth, texas, yesterday which marked the fouryear anniversary of its merger. Apple cfos are rejecting the idea of a u. S. Border tax. They said the tax could have a potentially detrimental income tax to u. S. Competitiveness and jobs. Its not good for the u. S. Economy. It is going to end up burdening the end consumer and because the fact that the dollar would go up significantly which it did today. Apples cfo says apple will return more capital to shareholders if u. S. Tax rules are relaxed but hes discounting apple will use the cash to create new jobs. Of course, apple yesterday hitting an interday share price high, albeit not a market cap high based on the various stock splits. Hoping to lift all of the averaging. Coming up, twitter Ceo Jack Dorsey getting into the valentines day spirit. Well tell you what he did and why its giving the company a lift. Stay tuned, youre watching cnbc. Welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Good morning to you. Yesterday three record highs for the major indices and a fourth one if you include the russell. Markets are driven higher by financials which moved higher because we saw yields go up after a slightly more hawkish and expectant janet yellen put it on the table. Investors moving it to a may hike. The ten year note went above 2. 5 when janet yellen was speaking. We slipped a little bit. Yields falling today a bit to 2. 47 . That move in yields spurred banks higher up 1 1 4 . Seven year note for you there as well. 2. 29 . Dont usually look at that one. Futures this morning are expected to continue that positive. As you can see, more slightly were looking at the s p, the dow slightly in positive territory. All three turning green. The dow higher by 29 points, courtney. Number of individual corporate stories. Aig reporting a bigger than expected loss for its Fourth Quarter in part due to a 5. 6 billion reserve charge to cover possible future claims. The insurer also raising its Share Buy Back program by up to 3. 5 billion. Peter hancock on closing bell last night. Ten years ago we were doing about 15 billion in revenue in this business. Today thats down to about 3 billion. So weve been reducing it and quite dramatically over the last 18 months as we really realized that these trends were going the wrong way. Put in the context of a more balanced set of lines of business with multiline clients. We think the quality of earnings Going Forward will be a lot more stable. Take a look at shares of aig this morning, they are down by more than 4 point be point 5 as investors digest the loss. Express scripts seeing a fall. Shares down by about a percent premarket. Lending club issuing a weaker than expected outlook for the Current Quarter and upcoming fiscal year. Theyre looking to bounce back from a scandal. They fell sharply lower by almost 7 . More stocks to watch. Humana watching it will pull out of obamacare in 2018. The news comes after the insurer and rival aetna says they will walk away from the planned 34 billion merger. Humana shares up 1 this morning. Fossil reporting disappointing results citing a stronger dollar and declines in the traditional watch category. The companys ceo says the accessories maker will look to, quote, build upon the early success to combat sales. Shares down 17 . Merck halting a study. It was a Data Monitoring Committee said there was virtually no chance of finding a positive clinical effect for the drug. Merck shares down nearly 2 this morning. In other Corporate News jack dorsey giving twitter shares a bit of a bump. Hes upg his stake in the Company Buying nearly 7 million worth of shares. Purchasing 426,000 shares priced from between 15. 84 to 16. 60. Dorsey treating it adding lovetwitter. Isnt that cute . Very cute. Still coming up, top stories out of washington including new details emerging overnight about the departure of President Trumps National Security adviser. First, as we head to break, heres todays National Forecast from the weather channels reynolds wolf. Lets take a look at the forecast. A chance of showers or a few storms across parts of the deep south. Places that need rain will get it. Higher elevations will be a bit of a story. One of the spots, we make our way down to dallas, 61 degrees. Mild conditions in denver. Mile high city at 64. 44 in bismarck with a mix of sun and clouds. Showers in seattle. Some high elevations may get some snow fall but it will be rainstorms going into parts of northern california. Los angeles, 79 degrees. Relatively mild conditions for you in chicago. Temperatures mainly into the mid 30s. Could see some lakeeffect snowfall across the u. P. And northern michigan. A question, it has been an easy winter in that part of the world. We have more coming up after this commercial break. Back to more Worldwide Exchange. Rthueagt char emprs wuch iche ng art uha ur reiin. Te mdoow. Ng art uha welcome back to Worldwide Exchange. Now to politics. The fallout of the president s National Security adviser. Edward lawrence joins us. Reporter good morning, will fred. This was an erosion of trust that led to the resignation while others just dont buy it. Who knew what when . Familiar questions now being asked of the Trump Administration following the resignation of National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Congressional investigations are pending. I think its likely that general anybody will be at some point asked to come and talk to the committee about both post election activities and any other activities that he would be aware of. There needs to be an independent and transparent investigation because the white house knew for weeks that general flynn misled the Vice President. Reporter the official explanation from white house Spokesman Sean Spicer is their Legal Counsel went through a deliberate review process to determine if flynn broke the law. Spicer says he didnt. 2 1 2 weeks after learning flynn misled the administration including Vice President mike pence about the nature of his phone call with the russian ambassador, the president decided he couldnt trust flynn. Whether or not he actually misled the Vice President was the issue. That was what ultimately led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation. President trump and i see eye to eye on the dangers emanating from the region. Reporter as the president meets benjamin netanyahu. And the Vice President only learned 11 days after others knew. Now on to sports and high tech in the nba. Starting february 23rd you can stream live games and Virtual Reality ala cart. Theyre working with next vr. Previously you would have to pay for season long subscription but now you can watch individual matchups for just 7 a game. Theyre offering free on demand highlights from the nba allstar game including the three point and slam dunk contest. Ive not seen that. I like this idea of, you know, choice vr games. Much less expensive and youre right in the action. Much less expensive and it could be a big extra money earner for sports teams. I think theyre all hoping. I agree. This mornings top stories and roundup of the Global Market action. Plus todays top stories and mattels toy maker shaking it up. What theyre doing with the American Girl doll tapping a demographic. Good morning. A yellen bounce. Stocks bouncing after a fed chair. Asset manager softbank is buying fortress. Too quickly there. My bad. Plus, todays top trending stories including rumor has it. The German Shepherd pulls off a shocking comeback