days away from a government shutdown....why the level of anxiety on trading floors is relatively low.. in today's cover story....pushing for diplomacy. the next steps as president obama calls for resolutions with iran and syria. and.... find out what's on tap for the restaurant industry as owners prep for health care reform. plus.....the bank with big troubles.. that could be a "buy?" first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas good morning! it's wednesday, september 25th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: the losing streak continues

for the dow-. the blue chips slid 66 points yesterday. making it 4 in a row of down days.. the nasdaq gained 3 points and the s&p fell 4-- gold and oil both pulled back. jp morgan's problems pile on. the bank is reportedly in talks with the justice department about a $3 billion dollar settlment deal -- but.. the goverment is said to be holding out for more money. jpm faces 6 cases of fraud. and mcdonald's cheif marketing officer will step down early next year... according to the chicago tribune. larry shover of sfg alternatives joins us now, and larry, what do you expect as far as buying and selling in the market today? > > well i think it's going to be more of the same. i mean-- the market-- even though we've had tight ranges, it's been very volatile and i think at the end of the day, traders right now tend to be apathetic, bored as opposed to being necessarily negative. so i think it's just more consolidation and digestion of what's happened over the last couple weeks. > > there's volatility in the

market, and yet, the vix which measures anxiety in the market hasn't popped. in fact, it's been dropping. > > yeah that's a great point. it has dropped and i think it's due to the fact that people aren't concerned so much with that big gap down that they were with the fed tapering news or whatever was going to happen last week. so people are less concerned with that and just not buying downside protection. > > and they're not worried obviously about the government shutdown either, let's move into that news about chicago traders allegedly trading on the fed news ahead of time. what do you think is likely to be the fallout? > > you know, i just-- devil's advocate-- it would be great if something could happen if this is all true, but who knows and at the end of the day it's really hard for me to believe that a couple of chicago traders, or any traders, got news before hand. i don't think anything is going to come of it. > > thanks for your time today, larry. have a good trader day. > > you're welcome. in a speech before the united nations general assembly,

president obama says "the diplomatic path with iran must be tested." that door opening a little wider is partly the result of the election of hassan rouhani, as iran's new president. our cover story looks at a busy day at the u.n. on a variety of hot spots. president obama said recent changes in iran have made diplomacy regarding iran's nuclear program, if not more likely, less doomed to end in stalemate. "we are encouraged by the election of a more moderate and will send secretary of state kerry to meet with the government." but the hoped-for photo-op of iran's hassan rouhani shaking hands with president obama as rouhani did with french president hollande, did not materialze. later, rouhani denied iran was building nuclear weapons. "nuclear weapons have no place in either the security or defense doctrine." a meeting with rouhani's predecessor would have been unimaginable. mahmoud

ahmadinejad's anti-american, holocause denying speeches led u-n diplomats to walk out. mr. obama also challenged the u.n. to impose consequences if syria does not turn over its stockpile of chemical weapons blamed for the death of 14- hundred civilians two months ago in a section of damascus known for government opposition. "if we cannot agree on this, it will show that the un is incapable of enforcing the most basic international law." others, such as secretary general ban ki-moon of south korea also denounced syria's use of chemical weapons on its citizens. "bring them to justice and verify with a un investigative mission." mr. obama also met with palestinian president abbas as well as the president of lebanon, whose country has received palestinian and syrian refugees, caught in regional conflict. mr. obama also announced that the u-s would pledge 340-million dollars in humanitarian aid to refugees from syria. just a few days are left for

congress to produce a budget that saves the government from a partial shutdown. the current fiscal year ends at midnight monday-- and today senate majority leader harry reid plans to get voting started on a new budget. the senate bill would fund the government until november 15th. last week the house approved a version that keeps the government operating through mid-december but does not fund the new health care law. late tuesday, treasury secretary jack lew warned reporters congress also has a lot of work to do on keeping the u.s. from hitting the debt ceiling... and there's not enough activity going on. higher interst rates seem to finally be impacting the rise in home prices. according to the latest case shiller numbers -- july saw home prices rise 1.8%, that's down from 2.2% in june. of the 20 cities that case shiller tracks, 15 of them saw slower growth. home builders also offer clues to the health of the housing recovery and those numbers are stronger. kb home shares were up 4% yesterday as were lennar shares.

wells fargo lost its fight to have mortgage fraud case dismissed. it reportedly paves the way for the department of justice to pursue all federal claims against the bank. wells is the largest mortgage lender in the nation and is accused of lying to the government about the quality of its home loans. the bank did not comment. meanwhile-- bank of america, jpmorgan chase and wells fargo topped the pledge to help struggling home owners in california. the la times reports-- the banks reduced the amount owed on mortgages to 18.4 billion versus the expected 12 billion. bp is making its third attempt to suspend settlement payments to victims of the 20-10 oil spill in the gulf. it follows allegations in a report by ex-fbi director louis freeh that claims administrators had conflicts of interest, with law firms accused padded their fees and used their alleged influence to move to the head of the line. an internal probe by the settlement office found what it called "an isolated situation." bp wants the settlement program corrected before more payments are made.

shareholders approved the sale smithfield foods. the pork producer will be sold to china's sheng-way international. 96% of shareholders voted in favor of the deal. earlier this month, regulators all said yes to the sale despite lawmakers concerns over food safety. sheng-way will pay 34 dollars per share or 4.7 billion dollars. its expected the deal will close tomorrow. two industry leaders in computer chip manufacturing are moving toward a mega merger. applied materials has aquired tokyo electron in a deal valued at 29 billion dollars. the industry is tackling new obstacles, as consumers move away from pc computers and toward smartphones and tablets. applied materials jumped 7% on the news. south korea's government is nixing plans to buy 60 war jets from boeing. the deal was worth around $8 billion to the jet maker. a spokesman from south korea's defense minstry called boeing's f-15 silent eagle: not stealth enough. instead... the government is said to be considering lockheed martin's

f-35a. it's more expensive, but is viewed as more advanced and better able to evade radar. it's also the same war jet ordered by the u.s., japan and israel. carnival cruise is sending out a bit of a finanical sos. following several mishaps at sea that stranded passengers and damaged the company's reputation-- carnival is reporting a drop in passengers booking trips. the company is lowering its 4th quarter earnings prediction. in a statement the company said fourth quarter results will be between a 3-cent loss per share and a 3-cent profit. analysts had predicted a profit of 9- cents per share according to bloomberg carnival shares fell nearly $3 tuesday. in a statement the company said fourth quarter results will be between a 3-cent loss per share and a 3-cent profit. analysts had predicted a profit of 9- cents per share according to bloomberg more business travelers are checking into hostels. the new york times reports the budget friendly option used by backpackers and students, is

gaining popularity with people who travel for work. the times reports hostels are becoming more upscale, by adding ammenities such as wifi and private bathrooms. reports are surfacing twitter will launch its initial public offering at the new york stock exchange. the street-dot-com reports---the social media stock will likely - price around $29. twitter appears to be choosing nyse over the nasdaq to avoid a possible trading glitch similar to what happened with facbook's ipo, last year. the companies offer to improve online reputations -- but 19 of them have been busted for false advertising and deceptive business practices. the companies will pay a collective $350,000 fine. a year-long investigation by the new york state attorney general's office found that many search optimization firms created phoney profiles and then paid freelance writers -- typically in foreign countries -- to post as many fake reviews as possible. new york's attorney general says consumers should approach all online reviews with caution. bank of america is getting hit with fines in a hiring discrimination case. the bank will pay 2.2 million dollars in restitution to 11-hundred

african american job applicants who allege race bias prevented them from getting hired at the bank. bofa tells first business "we are currently reviewing this recommended decision and order, which arises from a 1995 review." this year, b-of-a unit merrill lynch agreed to pay 39- million dollars and 160-million dollars, in two separate discrimination cases. toys r us is the latest major retailer out with its hiring plans for the holidays... starting this week toys r us is bringing on 45,000 seasonal workers--equal to last year. here's the running check on holiday hiring. walmart is adding 55,000 workers a 10% increase from last year. target is seeking 70,000 employees for christmas, a 20 percent drop from 2012 and khols will up its staff by 53,000. khols is decreasing hires per store but pumping up worker at its distribution and credit centers. at last-- there's a way to have less guilt about eating french fries. burger king is out with 'satisfries'. at 270 calories the crinkle-cut

fried potatoes have fewer calories than bk's regular fries--about 20% and beats mcdonalds by 30%. still to come are advertisers missing the boat on a key audience? plus...how an industry known for a lack of insured workers is planning for health care reform. and ... the obama adminstration is enlisting the help of famous faces to spread the word about healthcare reform. we'll be right back. the white house enlists all the heavyweights it has to introduce the american public to obamacare.yesterday, the president himself, along with

former president clinton held what was called a public conversation about the rollout of the new law. insurance exchanges open october first and the administration has a big challenge in getting the word out -- chipping in will be the first lady, the vice president and most of the cabinet secretaries, as well as partnerships with media outlets. restaurant owners are bracing for the affordable care act. according to the new law-- workers averaging 30 hours is considered full time. and by 2015 a company with 50 employees is mandated to offer health benefits. david henkes-- of restaurant consulting firm technomic joins us on set. good morning. > > good morning angie. > > restaurants tend to have fewer people. they could be hurt by this. will it eat into margins? > > well it's absolutely going to eat into margins. when you look at a typical restaurant, they're operating on about a 3 to 5 percent profit margin and so, you know, there's a lot of back and forth in the industry about whether restaurants can

afford to offer this, can't afford to offer it. but, you know, at the end of the day, margins are very thin for restaurants and there's no question that any kind of cost increase is going to have a negative impact on their profitability. > > how do you think it will change the industry, david? > > well i think there's a couple things that we're already starting to see happen. anecdotally we're seeing a lot more restaurants hiring more people at fewer hours-- trying to get under that 30 hour a week threshold-- even though they don't have to by law yet, but they are certainly preparing for that. we also think longer term we are going to see a lot more franchising. so when you look at the big restaurant chains as an example, they're not responsible for health care costs for a lot of their franchisees. so we think that longer term, franchising's going to be a more attractive way to grow a business. so i think we're going to see a lot more of that as well. > > as restaurants maneuver around, do you think there will be backlash to what they're trying to do here? or do you think as we go along, restaurants will just go with the game plan and start to move

forward and do the things that you're suggesting? > > yeah, i think that restaurants-- because they are such a central part of consumers' lives and how they eat and they are a relatively easy target for people-- there's a lot of talk of how living wages and health care can be basically provided to a lot of the employers. at the end of the day, people are still going to have to eat and, you know, the restaurants that are going to win are going to be the ones that are differentiating and offering value to the consumer. i'm not sure that there's going to be any full scale backlash against any type of restaurant. > > we americans love to dine out. > > we do. > > thanks so much for coming on the show this morning. > > thanks angie. coming up.... sheryl sandberg is back in the headlines. find out what the facebook executive had to say about women at work. and next...measuring your buying behavior. the changing face of advertising. stay with us.

allow me to impress you. imagine this, having the ability to measure 400 billion individual retail transactions every year in more than 600- thousand stores. wow. well the

company that does that is better know for television ratings. now it's certainly a leader there, but nielsen is also a leader in all kinds of audience and consumer research. it just marked its 90th year in business. cheryl pearson-mcneil is senior vice president of public affairs and government relations for nielsen. why don't you trace the arc from what what era it was that art nielsen himself was first measuring there in 1923. > > arthur c. nielsen founded the company in 1923 in the chicago area, believe it or not, and he actually started with a $45,000 loan. he wanted to measure conveyor belts. > > wow. > > there wasn't a big business in that and so he turned over to the retail outlet and started measuring how items were moving off of the store shelves and the rest, as they say, is history. so we did that in '23, and in '42 we started measuring radio and in '50, television came along. > > now, it's all about technology. the consumer uses

new, different technology to entertain himself, to buy things, and you've got to develop technology to measure all that. > > absolutely bill, you know we have to be ahead of the curve because our clients who purchase this information-- they want to know what consumers are thinking, where they are buying items and why they are buying items and so we have to be able to measure that. so we've got scanning devices that you have at home when you are buying groceries that you can scan so we know exactly what demographic group is buying what-- and that's how they come up with the marketing campaigns that say 18-34 year olds are more likely to buy new things and people in the 45-64 year old range may not. > > so are we fickle as consumers? as customers? > > no, i think fickle is as age does. so a younger person may be more likely to try new things and those of us that are a little more set in our ways might like to try things to keep them safe. > > and where is all this leading? i mean now media is so fragmented and you're in all these different areas and platforms.

> > the global world is getting smaller and smaller and so we're measuring everything that we can in more than 100 countries and so yes-- keeping track of what your cell phone devices are, your smart phones, your ipads, all of the items-- we're measuring and keeping track of it so our customers or our clients know what their customers-- people like you-- are doing. > > that's what we're doing now. who knows what what we'll be doing in ten years. > > who knows? > > cheryl, thank you so much. > > thanks bill for having me. thanks chuck.. just ahead-- jpmorgan chase is facing a slew of legal battles.. and yet-- the chart is pointing toward a possible win for the stock. stick around.. chart talk is next jp morgan may have a mountain of legal problems but alan

knuckman says this is the stock we should be watching. good morning alan. > > good morning angie. it's follow the money here. jp morgan obviously had a lot of bad public relations over the past few weeks and months but if

you look at the stock it's come back to that 50 level. 50 was the breakout area that we saw in may and that's been the pivot since earlier this year and right now-- we've come right close to it. it's a good area to lean on as far as a support point if you're a chart follower. > > if 50 is the floor, where is the ceiling? > > well 56. we've been trading between 54 and 56 now for the last couple of months so what i want to look at-- to see if that 50 holds and on a weekly basis is what's important not the day-to-day action but you want to see 50 hold on a weekly closing basis. that's a level to lean on from a risk-reward. what i'm looking at is the march option-- a march call-- an in the money call. a 45 call right now is $5.50 in the money and it's going for about $6.50. so my break even's only a dollar higher with six months of time looking for this market to make it to the push if it gets back up to 56, then we can see 62 in jpm. > > what's the downside risk here, though? because there's

lots of risk to this stock. > > well there are, but you've got to look at the sector. xlf and the financial sector-- it led the way last year and if you put it in perspective-- even though the stock market's come all the way back-- xlf is not even at the half-way point of the 2008 highs and 2009 lows. so we haven't even gotten to 22. so there's still a lot more upside here. we have earnings that start again for the quarter-- october 8th. so look for these bank stocks to kind of lead the way and that's what i'm counting on with j.p. morgan. they know how to make money. > > thanks very much alan. > > thank you coming up tomorrow... it's all about comedy's at the box office this weekend, will film studios laugh all the way to the bank.. plus-- how to get better customer service by posting your problem on twitter or facebook. that's it for now.. from all of us at first business have a wonderful day!

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