Why Saudi Arabia would have been bankrupt by 2017

Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC, ^RUT) are trading sideways to down midday on very low volume with health care (XLV) leading and utilities (XLU) lagging. Stephen Guilfoyle joins us live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the markets.

Joining Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous to discuss some of the other big stories of the day are Kevin Mahn, CIO, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management and Jeff Taylor, co-founder of Digital Risk.

Cleaning up the House of Saud's balance sheet

As Obama wraps up his historic visit to the Middle East, fundamental change is underway in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the leadership of the 31-year-old Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Gulf state is restructuring to reduce its dependency on oil. It’s also reigning in wasteful spending. According to Bloomberg, the numbers are staggering—some $100 billion per year was being wasted. And it gets worse. The Saudi’s realized last year that they’d be effectively broke by early 2017. What changes are they making to stem the cash hemorrhaging?

Comcast fires back at Obama

Comcast is firing back at the FCC and Obama. Last week, the Obama administration and the FCC made a push to force cable operators to decouple TV service from the proprietary set-top boxes. Now Comcast is making its full cable lineup available on Roku and Samsung smart TVs without forcing customers to lease its set-top box. Could this be considered a win for Obama?

Uber triumphs over rental cars

Finally, the road warrior set seems to have a new habit: Uber. According to data from expense management software firm Certify, Uber now accounts for 43% of ground transportation expenses last quarter, with rental cars now at 40%. This trend began in the fourth quarter last year and has only widened. Should it be a surprise that ride hailing services are now replacing rental car usage too?