back at work. the latest trends that are emerging as hiring picks up. in today's cover story... push back from the tarmac. why new rules allowing pocket knives is causing some flight attendants to panic. renters at risk. why so many don't bother with insurance. and market talk. are stocks headed for boom or doom? find out right here.. first business starts now.. you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas good morning.it's monday, march 11th.i'm angela miles. in today's first look:is this a runaway stock market? stocks raced higher friday.. with the dow setting a record high.the s&p 500 is now within striking distance of a record close of 1566 almost there.gold tacked on 3 dollars as oil

closed only slightly higher. blueprint budget battle. house republicans and senate democrats both reveal budget plans for the nation this week. macy's, martha and mediation.a new york judge is ordering macy's, jc penney and marth stewart living ominmedia into mediation over martha's merchandise... by april 8th.. when the trial resumes. mark sebastian of option pit mentoring joins us on this monday morning for a look at the market. good morning to you. > >good morning angela. > >what is the stock market telling us about the economy, mark? > >i think we saw on friday what the stock market is telling us. its expecting good numbers. that 236 number seems like a huge surprise but the s &p only rallied about 7 handles on that. and that shows you that the market was actually expecting good numbers. so, going forward we're gonna need good numers out of economic data

in order to continue this rally. > >there's a line going around called gloom, boom, and doom. what do you think about that? it's basically saying we had some gloom, now we have a boom, next is doom. what do you think? > >the market is cyclical but its really easy to call the market going down all the way up when you don't have a position on. these guys have been calling it go south since 12 thousand, 13 thousand, 14 thousand in the dow. sometime in the next two years we'll get some sort of selloff and they're gonna claim brilliance. i don't buy it at all. > >what is on your buy list mark? > >a lot of things. i like tech. i think we had some weakness in the financials on friday. i think that's a good opportunity to hop in. still like the payment processors. there's a lot of good stocks. i think you have to stay away from some of these internet companies. i'm not buying into pandora or groupon or zynga quite yet.

> >oh, the big short squeeze stories. > >yeah, i'm staying away from those. > >thanks a lot. mark. mark sebastian of option pit mentoring. uplifting data proves that the job market is finally reaching a breaking point in its recovery. the unemployment rate ticked down, as the workforce added jobs. however, it is not all good news.part time employment is a booming trend right now. 16 percent of the workforce was considered part time in 2007. that has increased to 19.2% today. "one thing we are seeing is certainly an increase in part time and temp workers. especially for people who are long term unemployed. meaning they've been unemployed for over a year. " "those folks in many cases have given up looking for full time jobs because we're just not adding enough. " that was ro-han mathew of the intersect fund. he notes that a fast growing sector for part time workers is the restaurant industry. meanwhile -- the financial times reports a growing number of companies are bringing in "third party recruiters" to help search for qualified candidates. a trip to capitol hill is on the agenda for president obama this week. he'll visit with senate and

house republicans as well as democrates with hopes of breaking the gridlock a meeting with gop senators is scheduled for thursday. the president and congressional leaders have failed to reach a deal to stop $85 billion dollars in automatic budget cuts from happening. so the president is reaching out to rank and file members. a white house aide says the president will also cover the subjects of immigration reform and gun control while on the hill. in our cover story---there's a lot of carrying on about what you may carry on airline flights beginning a month and a half from now.the t-s-a will soon allow small knives and sports equipment to be brought into the cabin.flight attendants and some passengers are not happy. the t-s-a says small folding knives pose little threat to armed pilots locked behind cockpit doors. instead, the tsa says it will focus on searching for explosives that could bring down an airliner. "i think that's a great idea if that's what they're going to do but i still don't think they should relax it that much.""i think that's great that they protect

the cockpit but i think they should protect passengers as well." several airline employee groups claim they were not consulted about the change. the head of the association representing air marshalls says of tsa officials "they act like everybody on the back side of that cockpit door is disposable." "i don't agree with the knife part. sports equipment is ok." the list of what will be allowed includes: small folding pocket knives 2.36 inches long, corkscrews, small novelty bats shorter than 24 inches, ski poles, hockey and lacrosse sticks, billiard cues and two golf clubs. "i think tsa is trying to increase profiling and moving away from nickel and dime things but knives--that's surprising how quick this came." a coalition of 90-thousand flight attendants

want the white house to intervene. but there are supporters of the t-s-a's decision and they include the airline pilots association and airline consultant bob herbst,"the tsa is more of a 'dog-and-pony show' than real security." "the tsa's job is to protect the cockpit and the aircraft." a spokeswoman for the t-s-a said there are no plans to review easing carry-on restrictions. meanwhile, razor blades, box cutters and full-size baseball bats must still be checked. corporate america is handing out a record amount of money to investors from its pile up of cash. according to the wall street journal..companies in the s&p 500 are on target to pay at least $300 billion dollars -- or more-- in dividends this year, topping $282 billion last year. the report also suggests several banks could boost dividends after passes the fed's stress tests.at the same time,

u.s. corporations have plans to buy back $117 billion in company shares. the highest amount since 1985. 5 half and a half years later.. the $16 trillion dollars in wealth "lost" in the great recession... is back! the roaring stock market and rising home prices are leading to the gains. a report from the fed shows.. net worth reached $66 trillion dollars in the 4th quarter. the highest since the financial crisis. helped by the dow, which is up 119% since 2009. 80% of stocks are held by the top 10% of wealthy americans. most of middle america sold stocks and missed the rally. but home values for the majority of americans returned. many renters have misconceptions when it comes to rental insurance. a study by insurance quotes dot com finds most renters drastically overestimate the cost. many believe renters insurance costs upwards of $1000 a year.while on

average -- renters pay 185. laura adams of insurance quotes dot com offers the benefits of insurance protection.. bargain-hunters may still find deals on distressed homes in the u.s. foreclosures and short sales made up nearly half of residential sales last year, and the sales keep surging. the biggest discounts are in santa barbara, california, phoenix, las vegas, cleveland, and charlotte, north carolina, according to research by realtytrac.as the housing market improves, banks are more willing to unload homes as short

sales than in previous years. and the deep discounts lure in buyers. the sec is taking the side of goldman sachs' shareholders. a letter on the sec website says goldman cannot ignore requests by shareholders to vote on a proposal that would separate the chairman and ceo roles. currentely, lloyd blankfein is chairman and ceo of the financial firm.the letter is from ctw investment group. the group works with union pension funds and wants an indedpendent chairmain to remove any conflicts of interest. goldman attempted to drop ctw's proposal from its 2013 proxy. mcdonald's fish mcbites turned out to be a mcdud. the mega fast food chain expected the lenten season to boost sales in fish.however, february sales fell .5% , which was less than the 1.6% expected.the ceo of mcdonalds don thompson who took over last summer says he's confident in the companies long term growth.

mcdonald's will need to remain competitive as burger king, taco bell and wendy's make over menus and spend more on advertising. a dye used in a kraft's brand of macaroni and cheese is cooking up controversy. two blogger moms launched an online petition against the company for its use of food coloring. the blogger seen here -- argue that the product is harmful. especially to children. "they're made in a labratory with chemicals derived from petroleum, the same type of ingrediants as gasoline, asphalt and tar. they require warning labels across the globe. they are banned in countries like norway and austria." the women contend the chemical can cause hyperactivity and migranes in children. kraft removed the dye from its product in england. a spokesperson for the company responded to our request for comment, stating: we carefully follow the laws and regulations in the countries where our products are sold. so in the u.s., we only use colors that

are approved and deemed safe for food use by the food and drug administration. kraft also said it offers an array of organic mac and cheese products, with all natural food colors. here's one to chew on...wrigley is launching gum with a jolt. it's called "alert" and has the same amount of caffeine as a half cup of coffee or 16-ounce soda. the gum is aimed at the 25-49 year old age bracket and will be available in some markets starting next month. the package will carry a warning label, about the level of caffeine in the gum. still to come 401k flop....is it time for an overhaul of one of america's savings plans.. . thats later. but first... back on track....how the latest jobs data is bringing some much needed optimism to the markets. that's next with bill moller after this in the know message

well this is more like it. a 1- month's report does not a trend make but you can't deny, employment - that ol' lagging indicator suddenly is moving in the right direction. here are the numbers again. the economy created 236- thousand jobs and the rate of unemployment dropped to 7.7% - it hasn't been that low in more than 4 years. brian battle is director of trading at performance trust capital partners. brian, break it down for us.

> >overall good numbers. it beats the alternative. it's going in the right direction. so directionally, it's positive we're adding more jobs. but the devil's in the details. so, we've added more part time jobs and we had a big correction in last month's numbers so a pretty good number but looking within---the trend is great, details a little soft. we need more full-time, full-pay engineering type jobs. > > as you look into these numbers do you see any hint that that migh be---those more substantive jobs---might be picking up as well? > >it will. we're gonna find out in the longer term. as you said earlier, you gotta watch the trend. the one number in there that was positive to me was governmental jobs went down ten thousand. so all these jobs that were created were mostly private sector and that's a great signal for the economy. like i said, it's not an all clear signal, but good news in a place that we need it and that's unemployment. > >we've been taking a look at what small business owners

think and month after month and there is this big factor of uncertainty. they're worried about sequestration, the debt ceiling, taxes. some of that uncertainty has been taken off the table. is that having a broader impact in the economy? > >absolutely. 100 percent. the election's over. taxes are set and we've raised them. remember we were making tax policy in six month increments. so we have good news there. sequestration is over. the world didn't end. so all of these things are affirming a positive economic cycle. we have some more things to go through though. we've got the continuing resolution to finish the budget at the end of this month and then we have to get through the debt ceiling at the end of next month. but there seems to be some cooperation in washington and really that's what's been killing us lately. if there's progress there you should see it in the economy. > >what typically happens in springtime? things warm up, the economy starts adjusting accordingly. do you look forward to something happening that might tweak the numbers even more? > > so in springtime what you get is people traveling around more, you get more shopping because the weather is better and you get construction season. that's where you get the big surge is guys can get out and start putting things together again. we've had good housing numbers. prices have been going up. houses have been changing

hands. and the most important thing is they've stopped depreciating. so that's a good signal for housing and we might get more turnover. > >brian battle, thank you so much. still ahead kick those 401k concerns. how to be prepared for the roadblocks in retirement ...thats next.

401k plans are being called a failure. dr. alicia munnell, professor of managment sciences at boston college is with us this morning. good morning to you and you are here to talk about 401k's. is it an experiment that has failed? > >it certainly is an experiment that needs a lot of help. the balances in those plans are tiny and those are to be the only amount of money

people are going to have to live on once they stop working. > >what would you prefer? > >what would i prefer? i guess my first choice is they are here to stay so we should make them work as well as possible. there's lots of changes that would make them more effective. i think in the end, even when they're operating full tilt, they're not going to be adequate and we're going to need another tier of retirement savings. > > there's some comments coming out from judy miller, she is director of retirement research at asppa, and she says, "60 million americans are covered by 401k's. 80 percent make less than $100,000. it's the only way middle americans save out of their paycheck." and 8- percent of people aren't actually taking loans from their 401k plans? do you agree with everything she has to say? > >i certainly agree that we're really doing away with the old- fashioned defined benefit plan. i agree that this is the only

way that people will be saving. i think that the money in there is just not enough to support themselves in retirement and there are lots of things we could do to change it. my sense is that only a small fraction of people take loans. although the people who need the loans are the people who also need the money the most. > >as far as any future plans, what would you like to see happen with 401k's? > >i would like to see a lot of things happen with 401k's. i think the law should be changed so that if you want to offer a 401k it has to have automatic enrollment. it has to have automatic escalation in the default contribution rate. i personally would like to see the elimination of actively managed funds from 401k's. there's lots of academic evidence that the higher fees do not produce higher returns. so we simplify down the products that people can buy. i'm also

extremely concerned about money being rolled over from 401k plans to individual retirement accounts. they're really leaving a relatively protected world where fiduciary standards hold and there's a focus on fees and going into one where those standards aren't applicable and fees are higher generally. so there's lots we could do to make these plans work better. industry has put an enormous amount of money into creating the infrastructure for this type of savings arrangement. it doesn't make any sense to me to rip it apart. i think we need to make it work better and then we need to build on it to create some kind of structure so that people have security once they stop working. > > well, we're all out of time right now but i'm sure this conversation will continue. that's dr. alicia munnell. she is with boston college. thank you for your time this morning. > >my pleasure. straight ahead.. is the vix telling traders it's time to get out of the market.. or all in.a look at the charts is coming up! i wanted to be in the military since i was a kid.

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time now for chart talk with trader dan deming of stutland equities. he joins us from the floor of the chicago board options exchange. good morning

dan. > >good morning angie. > >what kind of signals is the volatility index, the vix, throwing off to traders? > >after last week it's indicating that the market has weathered another kind of storm that we saw a couple weeks ago. bernanke gave the all clear moving into 2013 and the market took volatility out of it really quickly as we kind of push now toward the highs. we're pushing up toward those 2007 highs in the spx of 1562. we closed friday at 1551 so we're just less than 1 percent away. i can tell you know as far as the activity in the vix. in the front month we're still seeing the front month future help maintain a pretty hefty premium over the cash levels. so even though you've seen the vix cash levels down around that 1260 area the futures are trading closer to 14 so still at least in the minds of many market participants that the vix is a little cheap here. > >that sounds like there's some soft caution but not a lot out there. do you feel like its smooth sailing for the market in an upward way for a while?

> >here's what i've been talking about the last week when i've been kicking around this market. if you look over the last 3 years---2010,2011,2012 and now we're rolling into 2013---there was on thing that appears to be a cyclical situation. we saw the market run up all three of those years into may and then basically the old adage kicked in--sell in may and go away. at least for the summer and i think we might be setting up for that again. there might be another month or so but ultimately i still think that there is a correction coming and i think its coming sooner rather than later. > > very ominous. thank you. that't dan deming of stutland equities. have a good trading day dan. > >thanks angie. that wraps up this monday. coming up this week.... -- costly cable. why your cable bill may soon double. from all of us at first business. have a great day!