how a widespread recall is beginning to chip away at general motors stock. in today's cover story....waiting it out...restaurants are anticipating rapid growth along with better weather.... plus... a new technology aims to remove eye doctors from the picture.... and.... in traders unplugged....will the "candy crush" hype translate to delicious profits. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's friday, march 14th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: stocks take the low road. the blue chips fell 231 points, the nasdaq 63 and the s&p dips below 18-50.gold rallied 3 dollars and oil 22 cents. jp morgan's chief strategist

thomas lee-- reportedly has exited the firm. seaworld shares were sinking in after hour trading. the theme park reported a drop in attendance. while ulta shares beautify..after topping earnings estimates. senators reach a deal on unemployment benefits. the bi-partison measure extends benefits by 5 months and makes payments retroactive. michael gurka of chicago-based spectrum asset management joins us this morning. happy friday michael. >>thank you. >>it looks like we're headed for a losing week. but sometimes pullbacks are positive for marketscorrect? >>history shows usat least in the last couple of yearsevery one of these 200 plus days lower in the dow or 20 or more in the s&p have been pure opportunity. but i think the market clearly has a little bit of a different flavor to it from yesterday's trading and more important technically for

the week, it looks as though it's gonna start settling in on some bearish territory which actually could get a lot worse. >>the euro is showing strength. what is that telling you? >>it's a little perplexing only because of the uncertainty the euro is starting to feel from the overflow of the ukraine and losing one of its partners or maybe gaining it back. but right now at least resistance in the euro was at around 138.30 and as you saw from yesterday's trading we actually made a trade and violated all the way up to 140. it's starting to look as though it could be in breakout ranges. with that being said, late here in the day you're starting to see dollar strength show up again and the big currency plays were british pound and euro much lower from those intra-day highs. i think right now we're entrenching into a level where we might have placed those highs in for quite a while. these are very steep prices in the currency fx markets. >>would you be a buyer of copper at these levels? >>yes, i like copper a lot. i think it's been completely

oversold. i think industrial metals because of china have been getting the brunt of the move as precious rallies higher. a lot of value in copper herei think you'll see that all spring. >>thank you michael. >>thank you. now on to the jet that slipped out of sight.as families grieve. there is speculation of the long-term effect to the airline. malaysian airlines stock price is falling, analysts predict a management shakeup on top of fewer bookings. shares of boeing-- the jet's maker-- continue to slip -- down 2% yesterday. the missing 7-7-7, had received a warning of a possible cracking and corrosion problem from the f-a-a. however -- the f-a-a says there is no indication it had anything to do with the incident. officials are expanding the search for the missing jet to the indian ocean. abc news reports the flight continued to send pings to a satellite, even after dropping its radar connection. chuck coppola steps in this morning with a report on a developing story closer to home.

chuck coppola steps in this morning with a report on fast food workers who are not going to take any more! angie, mcdonalds workers are demanding pay back. workers in 3 states have filed class action lawsuits against the fast food giant, alleging mcdonalds forced employees to work while off the clock, and denied them overtime in an effort to drive down labor costs. mcdonalds is reviewing the lawsuits. meantime, president obama has signed an executive order, for the labor department to update overtime rules. we've got middle-class workers who rely on overtime pay. we've got business owners who believe in treating their employees right, both because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's good business. house speaker john boehner says the plan will make it difficult for employers to hire more workers. gm's stock is stalling. the stock dropped 2% yesterday. as investors reacted to news that gm was aware of faulty ignition switches as early as 2001. 12 deaths are linked to the defect. the problem was only recently reported. now, the justice department is

launching an investigation and gm may face criminal charges and fines. "right now, i'm not changing my valuation of gm. now if you get something like a multi-billion dollar fine, it may change but even then, the burden is shared among so many investors that it's nothing severe," gm is recalling 1.6 million older model compact cars it admits-- bumps to the ignition or heavy key rings can cause the engine to shut down. delphi automaker is replacing the part. the replacement ignition switch will cost $2 - $5 dollars to produce and take only minutes to swap out. in another recall...graco is adding 403-thousand more child seats to its earlier recall of 3.8 million of them. the seats are being recalled for faulty harness buckles. the company admits the buckles can become sticky from food or drink spills--making it a challenge to remove children in an emergency.

target is slammed with disturbing accusations that its massavie data breach could have been prevented. bloomberg news reports the retailer ignored warnings sent by its software protection system when the hack attack occured back in november. target reponds: "we don't believe it's constructive to engage in speculation without the benefit of full analysis." the breach effected millions of customers, hurt store traffic and dented earnings. target's chief information officer recently resigned. shares fell 2 % on thursday. the first day of a new start at jc penney did not go over well with investors... the stock fell 1% thursday. the retailer just re-launched home goods. it will carry more furniture and small appliances along with its usual lines of apparel. j-c penney is attempting to re-build its brand by offering more low cost items. the company claims its close to reversing course from when ron johnson ran j-c-p. "if they had not hired ron johnson or fired him earlier, i

think they could have turned it around, but i don't think anything at this point is going to fix jcpenney, unfortunately." that was margaret bogenrief of a-c-m partners she adds that his attempt to rehab locations cost the company billions of dollars in revenue and lost customers. retailers are shaking off the winter chill. retails sales rebounded in february. up .3%. the first gain in 3 months and slightly better than the .2% forecast by economists. top sellers for the month included cars, home construction materials and furniture. netflix is going on a euro trip. in a letter to shareholders, ceo reed hastings revealed that the video streaming company will expand in european markets, later this year. netflix is in about 40 countries now, including several in europe. amazon shares are bucking the downward trend in the market. yesterday, the e-tailer made the move to raise its "prime" annual membership to $99 a year, up from $79. it includes free, 2-day shipping on 19 million items, up from 1 million a year ago. the company blames the rising costs of fuel

and shipping. amazon stock gained 87 cents thursday. general electric is casting off its credit card unit in an ipo later this year. ge hopes to raise $20 to $25 billion. details of the number of shares and share price are unavailable. the company wants to exit retail finance and reduce ge capital's share of the company's profit to 30 percent.ge stock closed near the day's low at $25.34. foreclosure filings are back to normal levels. according to realty trac, filings fell 27% in february to a 7-year low. however, so called "zombie" homes that have been abandoned by owners are still creating a drag on home prices in some states. a new survey --by zillow finds that millions of americans are finding it hard to buy houses..because of the limited supply homes and soaring prices. mortgage rates are inching higher. and that could also become a factor. the average for a 30-year fixed increased to 4.37%. the 15 year

to 3.38%. in today's cover story--- restaurant sales made modest gains last month, but for the most part, it's been three relatively soft months for restaurant operators...many of whom are hoping americans' appetite for dining out returns with warmer weather. this winter has chilled business for retailers, car dealers and now the national restaurant association says after november's record high, the months since have slower than usual, and just now might be ready to climb. in cities across the u-s, restaurants are sponsoring promotions. this month. in chicago, it's called "chef week." "oh, it's absolutely a launching period. this gets people out and leads to easter and then summer when cafe's open their patios--chicago's huge on patios." though much of the country hasn't quite reached patio season, yet, mauro is hoping his specialties will lure you in anyway with---a malted custard french toast with macerated cherries and lime- infused whip cream. ing restaurant is sponsoring a book signing and q and a with guest chefs. and special tasting

dinners are planned. ing restraurant's tim havidic came up with something for beer lovers--ten courses. "paired with local craft beer and cooked with beer. every course has beer, in some way, implimented into it." in short, "chef week" which begins next thursday is intended to jump start restaurant business on the first day of spring. "it was made to entice customers to try, say a four- course tasting menu for a low price." and a final marketing note--- nearly all of this is posted on social media. "you have to learn to use social media. people tell others and you get a lot of business." and as for chain restaurants, i-p-o-fever has caught two more---papa murphy's, the

nation's fifth largest pizza chain filed plans for a 70- million dollar initial public offering. and zoe's kitchen, a mediterranean-style restaurant filed plans for 81-million dollar deal. americans are dishing out more money than ever on their pets. a record $55 billion was spent last year. and the number is likely to creep closer to $60 billion this year. the american pet products association reports spending has never dipped. not even during the recession. plenty of tails are wagging because most of the money goes for pet food. the united states mint is throwing a "curve ball". it is releasing its first ever baseball themed curved coin, in honor of the baseball hall of fame, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. the currency will come in 5 dollar, 1 dollar and half dollar denominations still to come: will candy crush be a "game

changer" for tech ipos? plus...earnings are on the horizon for oracle...what one trader sees in the charts. and next-- far-sighted. bill moller talks to the man trying to change the way we get our eyes checked. that's next!

now this is just cool. it's a start up business that could change - make that revolutionize how you take an eye exam - for glasses. you could do it in your home and online! the company opternative inc proposes to do that. it's won a million dollars in funding. aaron dallek is one of the founders. let me ask you-- does it work? >>it does work. we've been working on this technology for 16 months and this is our 6th version of the software and we're excited to get the

studies done to prove that it works. >>i've gone online and it says coming in the summer of 2014. are you still on track? >>yes. we're on track for mid to late summer to launch with our retail partners. >>now are you going to have fda clearance first? is that what's holding it up? >>no. we are going through the appropriate fda channels and legal channels so that we can launch our technology. >>in a nutshell, why don't you explain to us how it works? it doesn't use the camera on a computer but what does it do? >>it gets you to the correct distance from the screen and then using your phone as a remote it asks you some very simple multiple choice questions based on what you see. you are looking through one eye and the results of that are sent to an opthalmologist and they review it and sign a prescription based on those results. >>is it as accurate as the process we typically go through at the opthalmologist store? >>we believe it will be as accurate. >>you believeyou do not have testing to confirm that.

>>we do not have the data to prove that. we are working on doing those studies through nih and irb that will make it so it's appropriately studied. >>how did this come to you? >>i was at a party with dr. steven leemy co-founderand he brought up the idea of online eye exams and i said that's a great idea. that's where it started about 16 months ago. >>that's a classic american entrepreneurial story. >>i said revolutionizethe potential is pretty big here. is it competitive to what opthamologists do or will they embrace it? >>it is a very large potential market. it could help millions of people around the world. 50 million people in the u.s. don't have access to eye care or corrective vision2.5 billion around the world. and our tests can make it much more accessible. no is it comparative to an in office visit? partially. it does the refractive part of the eye exam. >>well you can get your prescription with that. we

didn't mention that one of the key selling features is that it is very inexpensive. >>yes. it is inexpensive. it will be about $30 per exam. > >aaron dallekthanks so much. >>thank you. fascinating story bill...coming up in chart talk....cool it! why one trader is not sweating the worrysome signals in this market. plus ... will it be game on for investors with the candy crush ipo that's next in traders unplugged!

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friday is the one day of the week our traders let-loose. joining us from the floor of cme group--alan knuckman and scott shellady are you ready to take a few jabs in today's traders unplugged? alan: yes ma'am. angie: round number onedebt score. there's a $100 trillion global debt. is debt though protection against a stock

downturn? alan: my theory on this was that you were obviously going to say that debt is bad. at record low interest rates it's not as bad as it could be. but my corollary to that is that corporations have a record amount of cash so that's anti- debt. so isn't that protection from a stock selloff. there's 2 trillion dollars overseas being held out because they don't want to bring it back here and get taxed. scott: we need to introduce you to the branch davidians after that rant. here's the dealthe debt is bad when you can't pay it back. that's simple math. we can't pay back what we borrowed. alan: today. tomorrow? scott: today. well not even after 5 years we can't pay it back. so as long as we can't pay it back it's a bad thing. you can pay your mortgage back but we can't pay this world debt back. it's ballooned to such a level that we need an innovation to come rescue us. the reason why it has balooned is that the governments don't know the reason why we're in that problems that we're in. so it's just a delay tactic. alan: let's put the government

away and let's talk about the stock market. that's the business we're in. but if all these companies have all that cash isn't that insurance regardless of what happens with governments that corporations are going to do well? scott: that's great. you've just told everybody the stock market can't crash. thanks. angie: topic number twogold melting. recently pawn stars misplaced some gold coins that ended up at the smelter. is it better to own gold bars or gold coins? scott: there's two answers to that questionyes it's nice to own gold bullion outright but you know what coins can have more value than the actualbut ultimately i think you own gold for another $20 or $30 then i think it sells of for 1400. alan: i still think there's more upside. the wild card is the dollar. the dollar is at 3 month lows right now. if you go below 79 in the dollar we're looking for gold to go back to 1500. nobody believes in this rally 1500 is the midpoint of the 1800 in 2012 high down to this recent low at 1200. topic number threesweet game. there's a new ipo coming to market. it is called candy crush. it's valued at $7 billion. is this a sweet deal or a sour one for investors? alan: is this another twitter or facebook or a zyngathat's the question. zynga is a game company that went from 16 down to 2 but it has bounced back up

to 5. these gaming companiesi don't know. technology is changing so fast and this is all going to the cloud. i'm not a believer. scott: it's only what it's worth right now today and if that's the valuation and they're able to raise cash on that numberthat's what it is. me for the long termi wouldn't touch it. alan: are you a gamer? scott: i wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. i agree with youthey change in a heartbeat. i'd stay away. what's going to be the next one? i don't know. alan: is it like a tesla or is it something like a momentum stock? i don't know but a lot of danger, danger. angie: here's a fun gamethe bonus round for st. patty's day. how much will americans spend celebrating? 2 billion, 3 billion, or 5 billion? alan: it's got to be the highest number. does that include beer? angie: it does. alan: 5. angie: it is. it's actually 5 billion. good job alan. first business continues right after this.

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joining us now for chart talk is joe kinahan of td ameritrade. good morning joe. >>hey angela. good to see you today. >>it was starting to feel like the sky was falling yesterday but what do you think about the overall market conditions? i think you hear that the dow is down 200 or that the s&p is down over 22 and its like let's stand back and take a breath. overall we're coming off record highs. the one thing that might be slightly concerning about the s&p is that it closed under 1848 so we do want to watch that a little bit. but overall there was not a ton of news yesterday. we had some retail sales. the night before we had some news about china but it was nothing to get really excited about. really it's all about the ukraine situation and that's going to be an ongoing developing situation. with that, really i think it was more of a day of people just taking profitskind of directionless in terms of numbers to trade off. >>coming up on tuesday we have

earnings coming out from oracle. what's your expectation? >>i will tell you it's been very interesting watching the options market on this. oracle has done very well recently but the march 38 putswhich expire a week from friday. we've seen a lot of buyers in there over the last couple of sessions. that definitely is something to keep your eye on. one of the things we've seen about earnings recently is that although firms may beat those statements by the ceoso listen to mr. ellison afterwards. those are really what's going to cause the stock to move one way or the other. >>we will be listening. thank you and have a good friday. >>always a pleasure angie. coming up on monday. we are packing our bags for a quick trip to ireland for saint patricks day to find out how the irish celebrate and the costs involved in flying to the land of leprechauns. from all of us at first business, have a great weekend.

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