A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day
STOCKS/ECONOMY
-Stock futures are lower right now even though crude oil is up so far today. Investors seem to be waiting on the Fed.
-Investors also seem jittery about the ECB's expected move to push a key interest rate further into negative territory.
-The latest NABE survey shows that 80% of the economists surveyed expect at leas tone more Fed rate hike this year.
-High end art prices, even for Picsssos, are falling.
OIL/ENERGY
-Crude prices are up again with WTI now at the $36/barrel level.
-Gasoline also continues to rebound. We're now at $1.81/gallon, national average. That's up 7 cents from just a week ago today.
-The major oil producers are now talking about hitting a new "equilibrium price" of $50/barrel crude.
ELECTION
-In a Democrat debate held in Flint, MI last night in order to capitalize on efforts to blame Republicans for that city's water contamination, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continued to blame Republicans and vowed to fix the problem if elected president.
-But the debate was feistier than previous debates this year among the Democrats. Sanders turned up the heat on Clinton several times, while Clinton hit Sanders for voting against the auto bailout.
-In an interview with CNBC's John Harwood, Hillary Clinton says she's not against businesses but bad business behavior. She also says she's the most transparent candidate in the race.
DEFENSE
-N. Korea is now threatening to "reduce the US to ashes" in retaliation for joint military exercises with S.Korea.
-The Navy SEALS say they don't have enough combat rifles.
YAHOO SAGA
-Starboard Value LP, the activist hedge fund leading an investor revolt against Yahoo's management team, will push for control of the company's board in talks scheduled for next week, according to people familiar with the matter. (Reuters)
APPLE vs. FBI
-A senior VP at Apple has written a Washington Post editorial saying the FBI is trying to take away the security consumers need.
CEO RETURNING
-United CEO Oscar Munoz will return to full-time work on March 14th, just about two months after his heart transplant
VW SCANDAL
-VW's executive board was briefed on the company's emissions cheating issues two weeks before the story went public. Now the question is how this will effect the shareholder lawsuits.
HACK ATTACK
-A major hack attack on Seagate Technology has revealed its employees' personal financial info and more.
BOX OFFICE WINNER
"Zootopia" had the best-ever weekend opening numbers in the history of Disney Animation Studios.