what wall street is really focused on this earnings season. in today's cover story...controversy on the docket as the supreme court begins its new term. plus... why buying a house might not be as good as it gets when it comes to investing.... and.... advertisers take a "pass" ... the companies that are saying no to superbowl sunday. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas good morning! it's tuesday, october 8th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: debt limit disturbance. investors and traders are selling -- in part on uncertainty over whether

congress will raise the debt ceiling by the october 17th deadline. monday the dow fell 137 points the nasdaq lost 38 and the s&p 15. gold added $13 dollars and oil lost 71 cents. treasury secretary jack lew is scheduled to testify on capitol hill thursday about the dangers of failing to increase the debt limit so the nation can pay its bills. and the madoff 5 go on trial today.the are 5 employees who worked in the bernie madoff's inner circle but are pleading not guilty-- some claim they were unaware of the multi billion dollar ponzi scheme. jim richter of performance trust has his eyes on the bond market for us today. good morning. is the bond market on edge over this government shutdown? or is it not that big of a deal. > >good morning angie. i would say it's not that big of a deal. over the last week or so since the shutdown, bonds have rallied a little bit over the course of the last week but for the most part there has not been a whole lot of volatility in the bond market.

> >what would you say about bond inflows and outflows. are people seeking any kind of safe haven with the bond market? > >i would say yes and no. since the beginning of 2013, we have seen a pretty significant exodus in municipal bond funds this year and a lot of that coming in august and september. but overall, fixed income bond funds have only had a little bit of withdrawals when you add in the taxable bonds how well they've done. > >we start off a new round of earnings today. are you set for that with trading? how will it effect the bond market and the stock market? > >that's an interesting question angie. if you take a look at the beginning of this year, earnings are up 6-7%, somewhere in that range. and yet the s &p is up closer to 18 or 19 percent on the year. there's really two questions you need to ask when you're looking at the equity markets---where do

you think earnings are going and where are risky assets going to price? clearly right now there is an appetite for risky assets because the market's paying a significant premium for every dollar worth of earnings relative to what they were paying earlier in the year. > >thank you and have a good trading day. the congressional clash continues. the government shutdown is now in its 8th day. and the stakes are rising. the wall street journal reports the social security administration warns if the government does not reach an agreement on the increasing the debt ceiling -- there will be a limit on the number of americans receiving social security benefit checks. on capitol hill, democrats are pushing for a clean spending bill that would extend the debt ceiling for one year. house speaker john boehner contends that a clean bill cannot pass the house, and slammed the president for not negotiating. "the president's refusal to negotiate is hurting our economy and putting our country at risk."

but the president says he "is" willing to negotiate--even on his signature healthcare plan "if" congress ends the shutdown and raises the debt ceiling. monday- president obama thanked workers at the federal emergency management agency and urged the house to vote on a spending bill. "just vote. let every member of congress vote their conscience. they can determine whether or not they want to shut the government down." corporate america is chiming in. at&t ceo randall stephenson says the mere discussion of default poses great risk to the economy. also, thousands of tourists from china. who traveled to the u.s. for the chinese holiday known as golden week, are being greeted with closed parks and monuments closed due to the government shutdown. almost all of the 350-thousand furloughed department of defense workers will return to their jobs this week. defense secretary chuck hagel

said over the weekend that the recently passed pay our military act allows him to recall employees who provide direct support to the military. the move prompted lockheed martin to reduce the number of emplyoees it planned to lay-off to 2-thousand from aroud 4,000. sikorsky, the maker of blackhawk helicopters has canceled temporary layoffs for 2-thousand of its workers. meanwhile-- 400-thousand civilian government workers are now in their second week of furloughs. banks are making preparations for when the economy recovers and people start pulling money out of safe, low-paying accounts. since the financial crisis, cash has poured into banks as safe haven. but, as the economy recovers, interest rates will rise and investors will want to move their money to places where they can get a better return on their investment. regulators are urging banks to have plans in place to cover withdrawals that could come all at once.

the economy in greece is set to grow next year. the government predicts .6 percent growth in 2014. it's the first upside forecast since 2007 and the global financial meltdown. the deputy finance minister of greece notes a rise in investments, exports and even the possiblity of jobs. for this year however, the economy is expected to shrink 4%. the supreme court began it's new term and of the 47 cases the justices have agreeed to hear, 28 of them involve or affect business interests, according to the u-s chamber of commerce. our cover story has a look at some of those decisions that may affect your workplace. the court will consider more limits on union activity in private and public sector jobs. "as we've seen in recent years, public sector unions are under attack and this would be another blow to public sector unions." the court will also determine whether president obama's appointment of three out of five national labor relations board members without senate confirmation was consitutional. the n-l-r b enforces federal labor laws. "this could significantly reduce presidential power when the senate refuses to confirm presidential nominees." and justices will hear the case of shaun mccutcheon, an

alambama businessman who gave to 16-federal candidates, wanted to give to 12-more and give 25- thousand dollars to three different political committees--exceeding federal limits in a two-year period. mccutcheon argues the limits go against his freedom of speech and his case is supported by senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, who is scheduled to address the court, this morning. "they could go as far as throwing out all contribution limits as unconstitutional." and in an extension of 20-10's citizens united ruling which granted corporations free speech rights as individuals, the justices will soon decide whether to hear a challenge to obamacare's requirement that

employers provide insurance coverage for contraception. corporations object saying the requirment violates their right to religious freedom. chaos and confusion--that's the way the first mate describes the night the costa concordia cruise ship ran aground in january 20-12. yesterday in court-- the ship's first mate said the captain confused and seemed "completely lost". captain francesco schettino, is on trial for the deaths of the 32 passengers. he is also charged with abandoning ship. the next phase of the civil trial against b-p oil is underway and the company is facing billions more in penalties. one key question in the trial is how much oil spilled into the gulf following the horrific drilling accident in april 2010. the oil giant claims 2.45 million barrels spewed into the gulf. the government says 4.2 million. the fine would be around $3 billion if bp is right, however the penalty could reach $18 billion if the government's figure is correct. the insider trading trial continues for dallas mavericks owner mark cuban. yesterday in court cuban testified he said on multiple occasions he planned to sell his stake in internet search firm mamma.com. cuban is accused by the sec of

unloading 600,000 shares worth $7.9 million dollars to avoid a $750,000 loss. cuban insists he did nothing wrong. a british court says it will hold an inquest into the death of bank of america intern moritz erhardt. 21-year-old erhardt was found dead in his london apartment in august. an autopsy determined he died of epilepsy but he had also apparently worked several all- nighters in a row. the inquest is set for the morning of november 22. bank of america says it is reviewing working practices for junior employees. an activist investment firm is taking a large stake in the owner of redbox. redbox rents movies at kiosks and is owned by outerwall. jana partners reports taking a 13.5% stake in outerwall. the activist investment group considers the stock undervalued-- and is exploring options including possibly selling the company. in twitter chatter investors are apparently confusing "twitter" which is not yet available for

trading with "tweeter"-- as in tweeter home entertainment group. the penny stock jumped 1,800% friday and 684% monday. tweeter shares trade under ticker twtr-q. twitter's ticker will be twtr. talk of potential tech companies making a bid for blackberry is giving a lift to the stock. shares popped around 4% monday on a report. the smartphone is in discussions with cisco, google, sap along with cerberus. sources also tell reuters blackberry is reaching out to intel, lg and samsung. fairfaix financial holdings already has a bid in for $9 per share. boeings loss, is a big gain for

airbus. airbus scored a 9 billion dollar order this week with japan airlines. boeing and airbus -- locked in a rivalry, are closing in on a critical time for sales. currently airbus is beating out boeing for the first time in more than a decade. gas prices are plunging at the pump. the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.34 down a nickle from a week ago and 23 cents from a month ago. the most since november 2012. the lundberg report cites refiners passing along lower costs for crude. crude futures have ben dropping during the past month. however, analysts do not expect the decline to continue. two superbowl regulars are sidelined this season. subway and cars dot com, seen here in last year's ads, do not plan to advertise during the superbowl broadcast this year. cars dot com says it will spend more, on more ads throughout the year. while subway cited cost concerns. a 30 second ad costs a record 4 million dollars this year.

university of chicago economist allen sanderson predicts mostly rivals and newbies will pay up for the air time. "the likely contenders bidding for superbowl ads, down the road will be new companies. a new company or startup coming on the market. whether its monster dot com or whatever it may be, as well as some other market where there is a close rivalry. a pepsi -coca cola, a miller / budweiser." sanderson notes that the nfl is running a risk by holding the game in new jersey's metlife stadium this february. he says those opting out of advertising may fear bad weather, and fewer viewers. fifth and pacific -- the parent company of trendy clothing label juicy couture, is selling the label's intellectual property rights for $195-million to brand-licensing firm authentic brands group. fifth

and pacific also owns lucky brand jeans but wants to focus on its number one brand -- kate spade. still to come: the shockers that could come out of this seasons new round of corporate earnings. plus...what carries more clout on wall street: washington politics or company profits. could buying a home hurt your investment goals in the long run? bill moller gets into that after the break. i'm going to pass chemistry, and i'll take it from there. i'm going to do what makes me happy. i'm going to work hard. be independent. live large. make the most of every opportunity. i knew i wanted to go to college. but figuring out how to pay for it? i didn't have a clue. the u.s. department of education has over $100 billion.

and that's a lot of money. to help students pay for college. and the free application? you mean the fafsa. i did it online. it was easy. i'm never giving up on my goals. i will make a difference. i'm going to find out how to pay for college. i'm going to college.gov.

we take for granted the one of life's greatest investments, that maybe our most important asset is the home we own. the american dream of wealth building right? or is that the case? heather wagenhals is a columnist, speaker broadcaster and author on matters of finance - you're also a licensed real estate broker yet you say home ownership is a huge economic scam? > >it can be and it's a shame because i grew up here in arizona and we saw the boom of all of the development. and with what happened, we have kind of created this myth about homeownership that everybody was entitled to it and it kind of started in the 90's. after we got the rtc cleaning up our real estate market after our first banking debacle---we saw unprecedented growth. but the growth that we saw at the turn of the century had nothing to do with home ownership or value. it started simply with scarcity in our marketplace and then with the advent of all of these loans, we got people into homeownership who weren't ready and prepared for that investment.

> >heather, is this a problem right now or will this always be the case? is this because of the recession we just came through? will it once again be the best asset and the best investment we can make? > >it could be but it depends on what your goals are. the average person moves every 3-5 years now. so we are a much more transient society than what we were. if we're not putting big money down into our properties and we're not servicing them as an investment---because investments have returns---and unless you're charging your dog and your kids for rent, you're not cash- flowing that property. without putting money down, it doesn't make it the great investment that it once was. > >how about someone who is thinking about buying a home for the first time? how should they think about this investment? should they consider

renting perhaps? > >they need to think about what they want to do ultimately with themselves. are they wanting to travel? or do they want to drop some roots and raise kids and a family? because with the way mortgage rates are and with the way the real estate markets are, if you're not in that property very long, liquidating it, when you got to move on to the next property because of a job transfer or family reasons you're going to wind up getting stuck with it or maybe losing money on it. > >heather wagenhals, thanks so much. coming up, what matters more to the market? the government shutdown, raising the debt limit or corporate earnings. and has alcoa lost its appeal as the leader of the pack of this earnings season...? we'll be right back.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

the corporate earnings parade kicks off today with alcoa and yum brands reporting in. but will the shutdown overshadow that? joining us now is sheraz mian of zacks.com. thanks for coming on the show. > >sure. thanks for having me. > >what do you think here? > >yes it is. so, if we don't

resolve this matter, if we don't put this behind us and it continues for the rest of this week and next week then we are on to the debt ceiling deadline. the market wasn't too concerned about the government shutdown, but the debt ceiling is a big deal and then nobody will talk about corporate earnings. > >estimates on corporate earnings have been ratcheted down considerably. why is that? > >we have seen that angie consistently over the last six quarters that management teams have steadily been guiding lower. it's not a new phenomenon. at the time when q3 got underway in july, the expectation was for earning growth of about 5%. now it's close to about 1%. we are seeing that repeatedly the same thing happened with q2, q1. so it's not a new phenomenon we are seeing in q3. i think the more interesting issue is what

happens to expectations with q4 because everybody has been pinning their hopes that the eventual turnaround in growth arrives in q4. > >the banks have been key to earnings for the past couple of seasons. where do you peg the banks? > >they're still instrumental. the overall growth rate is relatively lower after what we saw in q2. but if you strip out the bank earnings growth--- which is about five or six percent in q3----then we have flat earnings. now growth outside of the banks. so banks are still the biggest driver of keeping overall earnings growth in the positive territory. > >among all the sectors, do you see any possibility of some surprises lurking out there? > >i would say consumer discretionary is overall had less negative revisions in the recent past compared to others. finance i would say could surprise positively too because the overall sentiment has been kind of down on the sector with all the mortgage refinancing

behind us. so finance could surprise. consumer discretionary could surprise. expectations for tech remain low and the sector has been underperrforming for the last few quarters, so maybe we see something positive from that sector as well. > >sheraz mian of zacks.com, thanks for stopping by today. > >sure. thanks for having me. just ahead-- more on what traders see in the charts for alcoa and yum brands after the break in chart talk.

>> now, a paid presentation for the amazing new sheer cover studio mineral makeup, giving you radiant, flawless-looking skin in seconds. hosted by brooke burke-charvet, with special appearances by stars of "csi: miami," "scrubs" and "hall pass," "the young and the restless," and "the bachelorette." brought to you by guthy renker. imagine if you could make any flaw on your skin instantly disappear. what if you could have that beautiful, air-brushed glow that the celebrities have? and what if you could do it all in seconds, with just the touch of a brush? sound like magic?