one of the most admired and successful investors remains optimistic over america's future. this country's productivity and magic remains alive and well. he talked about business at berkshire and his time at ibm and defended his relationship with private equity firm 3g. this morning in an interview with cnbc he made his optimism on the stock market clear. >> there's never been a time in my life, i know what market will do over a long period of time. they will go up. in terms of what's going to happen in day or a week or month or year even, i never felt i knew and i never felt it was important. i will say that in 10 or 20 or 30 years, i think stocks will be a lot higher than now. if you own a piece of it, if you don't beat yourself, the only person that can cause you to get a bad result in stocks is yourself. >> susie, special correspondent at fortune follows mr. buffet closely and joins us now high pressure his optimism not only for the economy but for the stock market is always very strong, unwaving and yet today in light of really tepid growth. how does he square the two? >> he is truly a long term investor. as he said whether it's 10 years or 20 years r and he advises investor not to think for this month or next month or this year and really think long term. these down markets that are so painful while they're going through them are just a blip in the scheme of things. he says he's buy and hold. >> i'll say this, 85-year-old man is a long term investor is by definition an optimist. >> absolutely true. ibm is one of its big holdings. the stock has not done well at all. in the interview on cnbc he didn't give it one of his usual resounding endorsements. take a listen. >> a stock going down is a good thing unless the company is losing value. sometimes that's the case. sometimes it isn't. i don't think that's the case with ibm, but i could be wrong. >> what do you make of that? >> it's more of what he didn't say. he didn't say anything about ibm's ceo. in the past he's praised her profusely. no minention of her or her strategy. nothing about the market share or the transformation into artificial intelligence. i think that was very revealing he said i don't think we made a mistake buying ibm. i would be wrong. in i am wrong, we'll accept it. >> he finished that as we sit here and try to do -- one area he's come in for criticism about is his relationship and his business dealings with a brazilian business operator called 3g. a known and very aggressive cost cutter. take us through that. >> at the last annual meeting, tyler, there were a lot of questions about 3g's tactics. buffet has been partners with them in a number of deals, most notably kraft hines. the strategies are different. 3g, like you said, they go in and make drastic cuts and layoffs and put in new management. buffet style is by a well run company with good management and let them do it. buffet is in a tough situation. berkshire is huge. they have billions of dollars of cash. it's getting harder and harder to find companies. >> he also weighed in on apple and the security versus privacy issue. what do you think? >> he made the case if you live in a dangerous world, worried about cyber threats and if you get credible information there's going to be a threat and it is important to national security, you've got to cooperate. he doesn't know tim cook. he admires he. he said that if apple really knew there was a targeted threat and important to national security, this is where what he says security trumps privacy. you can't also say national security is national security, national security has it. >> thanks very much. special correspondent with fortune. another powerful letter to shareholders was issued this morning. this one from general electric ceo. he took on the government, political correctness and activists. mary thompson has more on the surprising blunt message the shareholders. >> reporter: almost 16 years into his bid as ceo, he has a no holds barred letter to shareholders. >> i think it's something he's tired of. if business has a voice, they should exercise the voice. >> reporter: following ge's most transformative year, started shrinking its once mighty finance arm and struggled. the ge of the future won't be so friendly. noting the most important culture change ahead of us is to be completely intolerant of being nice for the sake of getting along. the relationship with business and government is toxic and blames government for hindering global growth. most government policy is anti-growth. we want exports but hate trade and exporters. they want small business but regulate them to death. strategist greg says he's not alone. >> what he said reflects the thinking of a lot of business people. they can get by and make profits. to really grow they need a friend in washington. a friend among the politicians rather than adversaries. also taking on a culture of political correctness which mires companies and processes that fail to produce good outcomes. while he says he welcomes the focus, activists bring to a firm, he said it's challenging for management to balance what activists want now and what activist regulation prevents the company from doing. he says it would be wrong to read the letter as a venting of frustration. he said it reflects his pride in what ge has accomplished. >> this is somebody that wants to scream from the mountain tops, we're getting there. we're doing there. we're getting it done. >> reporter: his work is far from being done. he's predicting ge will be a top ten software firm by 2020. it will become a power house, one unafraid to say what's on its mind. i'm mary thompson from new york. a judge says apple cannot be forced to give the fbi access to a locked iphone. the u.s. magistrates decision could bolster apple's case against a california judge's ruling that the company help the government hack an iphone used by one of san bernardino shooters who killed 14 people in december. stocks end the month of february on a bit of down note despite gains in oil spriprices today. the decline is contributed to late day, end of month sell orders. disappointing economic data and sharp losses didn't help. by the close the dow jones fell 123 points to 16,516. nasdaq was off by 32. the major averages for mostly flat for the month of february with the s&p and nasdaq posting three-month losing streak. flat february not necessarily though. a bad omen for march. we look to the past to see what the future may hold. >> reporter: winter may not be over but there's signs of spring in the air. for the market there's indication that this year's early freeze may be thawing as well. markets have managed to claw back losses from earlier in the month and end on a relatively flat note. >> we expect stocks to appreciate between now and the end of the year. the difficulty in the short term is the unexpected. the economic numbers are firming up pretty nicely. employment confirmed and wages are fnow beginning to rise. >> reporter: the comeback could continue. march has been a good month to be long stocks. the s&p 500, the dow jones industrial halve and nasdaq have been higher. the real winner has been the small benchmark. it's traded positive in march every year but once since 2006. the results are even better when stocks finished february flat as they did this year. since 2002, all indexes have been positive the following march and even bigger gains returning nearly 4.5% on average. some analysts are getting on energy in march. >> we like energy here. it's been beaten up for a long time. the large oil companies have begun to trade. they disconnected from the price of oil. exxon mobile is 5% year to date. we have just overweighted the energy sector. >> history also suggests the sector could be due for a comeback. after flat februarys, energy has been the best performing sector in march. no such luck for two of the most beaten down sectors this year. technology and financial. they performed no better than a coin toss in march trading negative about half the time. as always, past performance is no guarantee of future results but for investorsi looking to shake off a cold winter, they may find warmth in market returns next month. gold is shining. the medal had its best month in four years and the top performing asset of 2016 so far. prices extended their gains settling above $1200 announced. why is this sector on a hot strike for being so cold. bryan sullivan has big answers from a mining conference in hollywood, florida. >> reporter: 2016 has been a disappointing year from inves r investo investors. the yellow medal has been red hot. here at the conference, ceo told us why. >> fundamentals from the medium to long term are good for cold. on the supply side people haven't finished investing. you expect new mine suppliers to drop by about 17% over the next five years. demand is still strong. >> reporter: like any commodity, supply and demand is major part of the equation but currencies have also played a role. currency markets have started to move. as currencies move, they look at gold as a hedge. they explain the relationship between currency and the medal. >> people are turning to gold in those uncertain times. >> reporter: it's the fallen price of another major commodity that's helped the company, oil. most of the mines operate in remote locations. it's expensive to bring in the fuel needed for the mining vehicles. as the cost of oil has gone down, profitability has gone up. >> for every $10 change in the price of oil, it's about $40 million to our free cash flow per year. >> reporter: many people love gold because of jewelry. it has been a valuable asset for thousands of years. know it's more than about beauty. you need to follow the currency market and the oil market as well. i'm bring yawn sullivan. why there's heavy demand for dividends paying stocks these days. valient pharmaceuticals is under investigation by the sec. it comes on top of an investing probe. a company spokeswoman declined to comment on the content of the new inquiry. the chief executive is back in the corner office following a severe case of pneumonia. michael pearson's first order of business was to withdraw the company's financial guidance and delay reporting fourth quarter earnings. the company says it updated outlook and its quarterly financial report will come some time in the near term. shares fell more than 18% on the news to 65.80. it's been one year since lumber liquidators began battle claims about formaldehyde in its products. scott has more on the company's steep losses and why the company, one year later, is still doing damage control. >> reporter: lumber liquidators has lost more than three quarters of its market value since cbs said they knowingly sold the tainted flooring from china. the company is not only losing value but money. $56 million last year compared to a profit of 63 million the year before the controversy. sales for the year plunged nearly 7%, including a nearly 14% drop in the fourth quarter. the company has replaced its ceo, hired a chief compliance officer and pulled the floor in question. earlier this month the centers for disease control reported the cancer risk was minimal but that, three days later, the agency said it made a math error and while the risk was still low, it was three times higher than previously thought. now it's back to damage control including this full page newspaper ad saying lumber liquidators does not sell any products mentioned by the cdc report. not mentioning they did sell the products until last may. here is the ceo on a conference call. >> it did not speak to any products they currently sell and more importantly the cdc has not recommended that customers replace this flooring. >> reporter: the recommendations aren't final yet and yet to weigh in, regulators here in california who have been investigating for more than a year. today lumber liquidators set aside another $1.5 million for potential fines, money it can't exactly afford. carl icon makes a bid for federal mogul. icon enterprises owned by the billionaire. it said it would like to buy the remaining shares. the company issued a better than earnings report. shares of federal mogul soared more than 45% to $7.26. tribune medial topped anl sists. despite the beat, the television station owner saw a nearly $400 million loss and said it will explore sale or separation of select lines of business. shares up to 35.90. nrg energy said it will cut its annual dividend nearly 80%. the company said it suffered a nearly $6 billion loss. the company reaffirmed plans to spin off in the home, solar and charging businesses. shares fell almost 3% to 10.76. console energy saw its shares surge after the coal and natural gas producer said it would sell its virginia coal mine. they said they will suspend quarterly dividend once it takes affect. taser issued better than expected earnings and revenue in its latest quarter. results were driven by strong sales in the body camera equipment segment. shares were up nearly 11% to 19.38. united natural food saw its shares fall after the company warned its revenue and target profits will miss expectations. united natural said it would have a rival organic food distri distributor. shared plunged 21% to 30.86. signet jeweler said same store sales rose nearly 5% after a strong holiday shopping season. that helps its preliminary profit top forecast. the company also raised its quarter dividends to 18% and said it approved a $750 million share buy back program. shares sparkled today gaining more than 9% to 108.40. investors are turning to companies that pay hefty dividends and dumping fast growing industry. the s&p 500 high end deal aristocrats index is made up of companies that increased dividends every year for 20 years. it's up this year compared to the decline in the s&p 500. the trend was highlighted today. the roeporter on that story is greg zuckerman. what's got investors attention? >> part of it is nervousness. the stock markets are rock y. the solid dividends look more attractive. we're less convinced the federal reserve will be raising rates this year and will be a series of rates. if they aren't rising, then these yields that the dividends stocks pay are much more attributive. . >> are investors remiss if they don't look at the stocks and dividends. a lot of people buy thinking it's a bond e kwquivalent, whic it's not. o than before. that's the danger. if you look at things like utilities that are up this year and everything else is down. they are up a good 6, 7%. it's pretty expensive relative to history drop 17 to 15. yur paying up to get this kind of safety. you have to remember that. >> you look at some of these energy companies like nrg. sometimes the dividends aren't as secure as we think they are. it occurs to me that in part, what is being reflected here is the idea that growth may not be there. you need to go with where you can get total return and more of the total return may come from the dividend pay out relatively than it has been historically coming from the growth side. >> that's exactly right. we talked about the dangers of these stocks. people don't spend enough time focusing on the total return. that includes the price but also the dividend. you want to buy some fast growers, tech companies and others when the company is advancing. maybe we get 2, 3% growth then those that can give you a good 3, 4% dividend return look mump more valuable. >> thank you so much for the insights. coming up, leaping towards your financial goals. how you can use today, leap day to jump start your financial planning. here's what to look at tomorrow. auto makers report their sales figures for february, historically the slowest month of the year. super tuesday, the biggest day of the year for the 2016 primary season. on capitol hill, apple's legal chief and director of the fbi are scheduled to testify on encryption and security. that's a must watch. we have come up with one you might not have considered. why not do a four-year check up of your money from your retirement to your career. there's plenty to think about and see if yoir on track for different milestones. sharon joins us with more. >> you should be monitoring your career but there's some specific things to consider in this case. >> you also keeping tabs on what your goals are. here's a good time to check in if you're meeting the goals that you want. have things changed? are you managing people? how are you competing against your peers and how are you in meeting those goals in terms of trying to get a bonus. think about your goals of where you are today and where you want to be. >> i love any list where i only have to think about it once every four years. this is beautiful for me. insurance, most, especially something i would like to think about every four years. >> whether it's your auto insurance or life insurance. if you're someone like me who keeps car for a long term, after a certain number of years you don't need to think about all these things that you're paying for. keep that in mind. when it comes to homeowners insurance, what things have you done differently. have you built a new bathroom. have you upgraded certain things. do you need to change your coverage in that regard. in terms of life insurance, what things have changed. have you gotten married or divorce. who is the benbeneficiary? as your parents age, what do you know about what they have in terms of life insurance. >> let's talk about retirement. the milestones to be examined. obviously it depends your age. >> you have someone helping you with your finances, now is a good time to evaluate that financial advisor. you don't want to base it on one month's performance or one year. four years, good time to check in and see how that's going for you. look at your risk column and how you're going with that and see how much you're putting away for retirement. here is something where leap year can make a big difference. just a bit of an increase in what you're putting away can make a huge difference when you retire. say you're 25 years old right now, and for the next five years, you increase your contributions to your 401(k) by 1%, you could have an extra $739 in retirement income when you retire. >> 739 a month. that's a big difference. >> what about 45 and i add another 1%, you can do it. >> that's just 1%. >> that's just 1%. try to add more but we're saying just small increments. >> always good advice. thank you so much. >> see you in four years. >> well before that. that does it for us on "nightly business report". i'm sue herera. >> i'm tyler mathisen. th thanks for joining us. see you back here tomorrow. "although the council may have its political differences, i know that we are united in our contrition--" conviction. "that in order to tackle the issues laid out in the--" "beverage" sounds a bit pompous. can't i just say "drink"? you could, if you weren't talking about the economist william beveridge and the report which inspired the welfare state. so what do you think? do i look the part? it looked better on mummy. have you finished your chores? found this under your bed. silly me. i've been looking everywhere for that. you only ever wear pearls. it's a leaving present.