traders awaiting a breakthrough from lawmakers. what's ahead for today's session. in today's cover story...a moveable feast... following the food truck industry's expansion. plus... dissolved in 90 days. we go inside the firm that went down with enron. and... how ecuador is making inroads to the u.s. that's all ahead on today's first business! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's monday october 14th. i'm bill moller. angela miles is off today. in today's first look: going into the weekend the markets continued to ride the wave of hope and optimism that a

washington deal on the debt limit was near. wall street opens this morning after another strong run on friday. the dow closed at its high 111 points higher nasdaq 31 higher, s&p 10 up. gold continued its fall. down 27 dollars for a weekly loss of more than 3 percent. oil ended down around a dollar. caused by the prediction that next year the united states will overtake russia as the world's 2nd largest oil producer behind the opec nations. the prediction comes from the international energy agency. the 2 largest mortgage banks say rising interest rates pushed 4th quarter loan originations to nearly half of what they were a year ago. wells fargo and jp morgan say home loan applications have been on the downward slide for nearly 6 months.

a lot of talk and a lot of hope over the weekend, but as of yet no clear breakthrough in terms of the government shutdown or what to do to resolve the debt ceiling crisis. republicans have been backing down from their earlier demands for large concessions from the president and the two sides are continuing to work on a compromise. "there have been constructive talks. and when it comes to the house republicans in particular, there is an

indication, anyway, of a recognition that we need to remove default as a weapon in budget negotiations, that the threat of default should not be used, and certainly default itself is never an option." the president also signaled flexibility in giving republicans something on their policy wish list. in utah...national parks are open for business. the state's government paid over 1 million dollars to reopen its national park service this past weekend. on friday-- utah governor gary herbert wired 1.6 million dollars to the department of the interior. saturday-- zion and four other parks re-opened. october is a critical month for tourism in the state. governor herbert said in a statement that the national parks are the backbone of a many rural economies. toyota has been cleared in a 2009 wrongful death lawsuit. a california woman was killed when her 2006 camry accelerated.

she was hit by another car that ran a stop sign. her family sought $20 million in damages from toyota...but the jury instead says the elderly driver who ran the stop sign should pay 10 million dollars. toyota recalled millions of vehicles worldwide after drivers reported some vehicles were surging ahead unexpectedly. the company also agreed to pay 1 billion dollars in lawsuits. major legal woes put pressure on profits from jpmorgan. the nation's largest bank says its third quarter revenue loss is "far beyond" what investors expected and includes $9 billion in legal fees for trades related to the "london whale" scandal. it's jp morgan's first loss since jamie dimon took the ceo post in 2005. the stock fell slightly to $52 at friday's close. meanwhile,wells fargo had higher profits in the 3rd quarter, but weak revenue. the bank blames stalling mortgage lending and speculation about fed tapering on its bond- buying program. wells fargo closed down 12% at $41. if our postal service is seen as a dying dinosaur, britain's mail service is a dynamic

diamond in the rough. the royal mail on friday opened on the london stock exchange and shares were quickly gobbled up. the opening share price off 330 pence, or about 5 dollars 27 cents was bid up for a nearly 40 percent gain for the day. shares closed at 455 pence, or 7 dollars 27 cents. opposition politicians accuse the government of setting too low a price for the inconic institution. it was the country's largest privitization in years. other former state owned companies are british telecom, british airways and bp. retail sales grew modestly in september, but missed estimates. same-store sales were up 4 percent, slightly lower than expected. unseasonably warm weather, the threat of a government shutdown, and the looming debt default are to blame for slow sales. drugstores and discount chains had higher sales, with walgreen sales up more than 7 percent and steinmart showing a 5 percent rise. analysts say spending on big ticket items, such as cars and household appliances, is strong - but

could leave wallets lighter heading into the holiday season. damaging publicity of brutal working conditions and multiple deaths from industrial accidents hasn't dampened clothing exports from bangladesh. between july and september clothing exports rose 24- percent. in the past year there were a number of fatal fires in garment factories. last april more than a thousand workers died in a building collapse. a study my mckinsey and company predicts that for years to come bangladesh and its low priced labor will remain a top source for clothes worn round the world. some colleges are slashing tuition prices in an effort to attract students. administrators at a handful of smaller schools are trying to lure new students due to falling enrollments. sky-high education prices have some families considering other options when it comes to getting a degree. schools including converse college in south carolina, ashland university in ohio, and

ave maria university in fla., will cut tuition rates by more than 20% next fall. shifts in the housing market are making homes less affordable for middle class americans. the real estate site trulia finds that in the 14 largest metro areas - more than half of homes for sale were too expensive for the average buyer. last year -- homes in the top 8 markets were priced too high. trulia's cheif economist is jed kolko. he says the housing market recovery is making house hunting harder for the middle class. "alot of the income gains in the recovery have gone to top earners. that means that median household incomes havent gone up that much. the typical american household hasn't done that well in the recovery. that means they cant afford much more house than they did a year or two ago. but home prices, and mortgage rates have both risen." kolko notes price gains in california markets -- have been particularly sharp. meanwhile, some sellers are saying goodbye to brokers. more homeowners are selling

their homes without the help of brokers. websites such as zillow and for sale by owner have made it easier for owners to navigate the market solo. on average -- sellers can expect to save a big chunk of cash. broker commissions range from 5% to 6% of the sale price. del monte. you think of canned peaches and corn right? think of it now as a pet food company. del monte is selling its canned goods consumer products divison for 1.68 billion dollars. the buyer is an asian company that already sells food under the del monte label. del monte will now rename itself to reflect is concentration on pet foods which include such brands as meow mix and kibbles 'n bits. you can count on a few things with food trucks. you'll never be asked, "is it for here or to go?" and getting started in the business will likely take more than you'd expect, as our cover story explains. dan salls says most people will need about 60-thousand dollars..for the truck, outfitting it for cooking and all of the permits. not everyone can find an ice cream truck for 45-hundred dollars and convert it into a red salsa truck. but not everyone who does this began as a chef, either.

"i was a financial advisor. i was 24, but i wanted to give this a go." jay and carrie sebastian got started for about 30-thousand. partly because the work of converting their small, electric truck into the bridgeport pasty pie wagon was kept in the family. "i have a brother-in-law who's a machinist and put in the oven. we did it over a long period of time." new food trucks can cost 75- thousand. equipment and plumbing if you're converting one--up to 15-thousand. insurance can be 3-thousand. paint--a thousand or vinyl wrap ads to brand your truck--5- thousand. not counting food storage and prep facilities, you're talking serious money. but think of all that business, not to mention the "coolness factor." "i think they're cool. they're different."

"it's cool that you can try these different trucks and follow them on twitter if you like them and keep following them." "this is a a very good business. i love working with my wife. this is the best be-your- own-boss work, i've ever been in." mobile cuisine magazine estimates there are about three million food trucks in the u-s. they face a variety of municipal regulations. but most flourish in large cities where there is a concentration of people but few choices to eat nearby. warner brothers is accused of stealing the screenplay for its 2012 baseball movie "trouble with the curve". a lawsuit claims that the original author knew little about baseball and

was a false front. they say the script was written by a third party and eventually "stolen" by warner brothers. in its defense the studio says the script was written more than 15 years ago by its credited author and called the accusations "reckless and false". neither party has backed down. still to come: in chart talk why one trader says google is a better buy than apple. also, why little ecuador - a source for artichokes and roses is becoming known as a big investment center for biotechnology. and how the world's largest accounting firm went out of business in 90-days. a former insider's account on the desmise of arthur anderson, that's next after this in the know message.

arthur andersen. remember that name? it was once the gold standard for integrity and innovation in accounting. then came enron. anderson did enron's books and in 2002, both companies went down in flames. a man who rose and fell with the firm's fortunes wrote about the experience. the book is, "and you thought accountants were boring - my life inside arthur andersen." larry katzen this is your story in your 35 years at the firm. and you essentially say anderson's collapse was not the result of standard government prosecution but persecution. > >that is correct. if you would ask most people what they thought about arthur andersen during that enron situation, to this day they would say, we screwed up the audit. when in fact, there has not been one bit of evidence that shows there was anything wrong with the audit performed at enron. > >the guilty verdict that the government won was in fact

overturned by the u.s. supreme court. but that image though of shredding papers, of concealing e-mails, of sloppy auditing. that's the impression. > >right. and in fact we did shred papers but these were all to-do's and drafts and documents that didn't support the audit. and that is required by every auditing firm---to do that. so, yes we did shred it and if we thought they were doing something devious we certainly didn't do it in a devious way as we were right in the middle of enron's accounting department. > >so, why do we have this impression? is it because the government controlled the information that was coming out on that story? > >they are the ones that prosecuted us on destroying of evidence. we were found guilty in the initial jury verdict. but as history shows, the supreme court overruled it in a 9-0 decision and they made that decision in a few weeks. > >i wasn't that much later and yet that's the impression--- that the company was guilty. that's why it's not around anymore. > >that is correct, but we weren't guilty and as history shows, the government has

subpoenaed millions of records, looked at millions of documents. and yet today there is not one bit of evidence that they showed that the audit was defect. > >so, government overreach? > >in this case, yes. > >sounds like it would be a great screenplay. > >it would be because this is something that should have never happened. the largest accounting firm in the world in 90 days was put out of business. 85 thousand people lost their jobs. they had to get different careers. and that should never happen. > >well, it's a fascinating read. larry katzen, thanks so much for joining us. > >thank you for having me. coming up...in chart talk our trader is going to tell us why he's looking for an opportunity to short apple shares. first, ecuador, south america's fast growing economy. i'll talk with the country's first ever foreign trade minister.

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the united states is the number one trading partner with really much of the world. countries large and small, including the country of ecuador. which has just created a brand new cabinet post of foreign trade minister---and that person is making his first trip across the united states. mr. minister, welcome very much. francisco rivadeneira. > >hello bill. > >your president rafael correa, what did he say was your main mission in coming here? > >basically the main mission and his instruction was to trade---to reinforce strengthening our relationship with the united states. to be able to obtain more foreign direct investment from american companies. > >so, you want investment, more trade. why are we a good trading partner with a country like yours? > >first of all, we have a long history of trading with each other. we know that you have the type of firms and investments that ecuador wants for its development. > >what will you be getting for ecuador in this country? what kinds of things have we been importing from ecuador?

> >a lot of commodities. a lot of our exports are basically agricultural. tropical agricultural products such as bananas, coffee, cocoa, also fishery products such as shrimp, tuna. > >and artichokes. and roses as well. > >yes. the best flowers in the world. > >your country is growing. it's stable as you say. what kind of investment opportunities are there for americans to buy into? > >many. at this moment we are privatizing many sectors in the country. for example, we want to develop the petrochemical industry. we want to develop shipyards. we are also going into high tech areas such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, software and hardware development. also services such as tourism. ecuador has enormous tourist potential. we have the galapagos islands which is unique so we're looking for investment in those sectors. but of course the traditional ones such as agriculture and the production of food. > >are there some barriers you

wish are removed? > >yes, hopefully in both sectors we are ready to dialogue with the united states and help trade go. > >well, mr. minister rivadeneira, thank you very much. > >you're welcome bill. thank you. chart talk is next.

in chart talk for monday morning, let's talk with andrew keene. he's the man behind keeneonthemarket dot com. andrew, you have your eye on a couple of venerable and competing tech giants. let's start with apple. you're looking for an opportunity to sell it short. > >if you look at apple and how it has performed on earnings, they have earnings october 28th. the stock has sold of four of the last five quarters. they did have a blockbuster number when the iphone 5s came out. they had 9 million sales the first week, including worldwide. however, i'm looking for an opportunity to short apple. i'm not doing it just yet. i might have to wait until after earnings. it seems like it has a carl icahn put in it right now which means there's support underneath. so if it gets up to 505-510 on earnings i would look to put an opportunity to get short on the stock. > >so you don't think icahn is gonna be turning into an opportunity to buy? > >the thing is that he's got huge money and he can always add to his position. apple is a pretty big position for him.

however, i don't like what the company is doing. i'm on the show a lot talking about their innovation. we haven't seen anything innovative. i have the iphone 5s and there's really nothing different about. the apple tv is supposed to come out by this time already. they haven't bought twitter. they're not doing acquisitions. i don't really think they're doing the right innovative things to make the stock go higher. but they do have big money pushing the stock high right now. > >the other company, google. you do have some optimism there. > >google reports earnings later this week. if you look at the way the chart looks, it has kind of consolidated here around that 870 level. i think it can push through 900 on later this week. i will put on a options position for earnings to the bullish side. i think the short term low is in on thursday. just like the stock market---the short term low is in. i think google could not go under 850, but i'll be looking to trade through options. most likely i think it's gonna get to 900 possibly up to that 920 level. > >wow. and then time to start selling? > >i don't know about that. my options trade is gonna be specifically for the earnings catalyst. i think they will report good earnings. they

actually disappointed last time on earnings. i like them being innovative even though apple is not. i can't wait to get the google glasses, i think that's gonna be a very cool product. they seem to be doing everything right. they're monetizing mobile as well. they know what to do that apple's not doing properly. so i think google will report good earnings and the stock will go higher. > >andrew keene, you have a good day out there. thanks. > >thank you. that's first businsess for monday morning. tomorrow we'll talk with a member of congress about washington machinations over immigration reform. we hope you'll be watching. from all of us here, i'm bill moller. thank you and have a great monday.

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