rushing to "vanilla stocks"...why investors crave less risk... in today's cover story... tourism and trade align in an effort to re - brand america plus... financial life lessons from iconic actor mickey rooney. nd... if you thought your employer didn't care about your high school years... we have evidence that proves otherwise! first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! i'm angela miles. it's wednesday, april 9th. in today's first look: alcoa stuns wall street. shares rallied more than 2% after the aluminum company reported earnings last night bthat topped expectaitons. the stock market changes course...finally. the gains

were modest but after 3 days of heavy selling all 3 major indices were up yesterday. gold is back above $13-hundres an ounce and oil jumped by $2.06. two companies ipo today. la quinta hotel chain and chinese preventative health care company ikang. cvs will pay $20 million dollars in a settlement with the sec for allegedly concealing its financial losses from investors. and gm reportedly is fined $7,000 per day since april 3rd for failing to answer certain quesitons about its ignition switch recall to the naitonal highway traffic safety administration. larry shover of sfg alternatives joins us now from the trading floor. what's your reaction to the alcoa earnings numbers? >>i was very impressed when yesterday it beat by 4 cents. haven't seen that out of alcoa in a long time. largely due to the alliances they've built with boeing and ford that's really helping the company. going forward it might be

difficultthese aluminum prices continue to dwindle and as we know alcoa depends on a high aluminum price to make money. >>in the overall stock market they were buying the dip but what exactly were traders and investors buying yesterday? >>it looks like they're buying a lot of plain vanilla stocks seeing some big names being purchased especially in financials and materials. most people hedging with the earnings season coming up that some of these banks will start doing very well. >>the ipo market is oh so hot today. we have 2 new stocks debuting. what do you think about these ipo's as buys? >>i'm choosing to stay on the sidelines because the ipo market as of late has been hot but it's due for some type of tragic crash or something like that. i'm not suggesting that will happen today. but it seems like sometimes it's too good to be true and i'd rather let somebody else take that risk. >>thank you for your thoughts larry. >>you're welcome. the oil futures are trading near a 1 month high as the dollar

falls and tensions flare in ukraine. chuck coppola has more. tensions between ukraine and russia are beginning to boil over. russia has threatened civil war unless ukraine pulls back its military in ukraine's eastern region. pro-russian protestors are demonstrating in three ukrainian cities, vowing to form an independent republic. analysts say those protestors may be attempting to destabilize ukraine in order to weaken resistance to further russian annexation of the country. secretary of state john kerry called the situation "deeply disturbing" and threatened greater sanctions against russia. meantime --- oil remains on the agenda. as oil futures continue to rise... some are calling this an "opportunity". "we should do what we have to do to create energy independence for our country and create more business and jobs for our people." that was billionaire businessman john (catz-imm-ah-tee-dus) ceo of the red apple group. he calls this an opportunity to ramp up production of oil and nat gas in the u.s. to supply to europe, which gets its supply from ukraine. opponents

say.....statement? the conflict between russia and ukraine adds to worries about economic growth around the globe. the international monetary fund predicts worldwide economic growth will expand by 3.5% this year. a tad lower than earlier projection of 3.9%. the imf also suggests 2015 could be the strongest year in 4 years. and, despite the wicked winter, u.s. growth should reach a sturdy 2.8%. in our cover story---the push to sell america: it's sights, its goods and services internationally. "made in america" meets "visit america." the two messages met this week in the middle of the country. at the u-s travel association's international pow-wow, tour operators and travel buyers converged this year in chicago, which true to its windy city tradition, promoted itself with very large banners. it's where buyers book roughly 4.2 billion dollars' worth of international travel to places

like philadelphia, whose representatives have mastered rapid-fire recitation of its sights. "the ben franklin parkway, the rodin, the museum, too much for one day, you hve top come for the long-term." travel in the u-s is up and much of it from overseas tourists...targeted in a government-sponsored travel industry advertising partnership called 'brand usa." "brand usa // has been an important part in our ability to reach into markets where we traditionally didn't go because we didn't have the money." increasingly, the u-s is drawing tourists from emerging markets--the growing middle classes in china and india. "travel to the us is aspirational around the world. and with a growing middle- class, we'll benefit from that." the u-s travel association wants to make it easier for international tourists to get here, through shorter wait times for visas, for example. in large part because international tourists bring a lot of money.

"the beauty of the international market is they stay longer and spend more." "when a visitor comes, they spend $4500. it is a massive amount of money." the same day on the other side of chicago, the u-s chamber of commerce pushed to renew presidential authority to close international trade deals and bring them to congress for an up or down vote. "these are groundbreaking trade agreements that will increase business and create jobs here." the presidential deal-making power dubbed the trade promotion authority expired under president george w. bush. until then, every president since franklin roosevelt had it.some labor unions, however are against it. thank you chuck. big pharma will pay a big fine that spans from the u.s. to japan. eli lilly and japanese drug maker takeda pharmaceuticals are ordered to pay $9 billion in punitive damages over the type two diabetes drug actos that is blamed for causing cancer. the drug makers are fighting several lawsuits involving the

drug. and plan to "vigorously challenge" the court's decision. eli lilly closed down slightly yesterday. it could be a tough quarter for citigroup. the bank has notified investors it may miss a key target on it's upcoming earnings report. recently citigroup failed its "stress test" and the federal reserve rejected citigroup's blueprint to increase dividends and stock buybacks. the bank also revealed this week it will pay a billion-dollar settlement to hedge funds for faulty mortgages that it sold prior to the housing crisis. citi reports earnings, monday. chatter regarding high frequency trading is far from over.. scott bauer of trading advantage joins us now. scott there's still fallout and rumblings from the michael lewis book on flash boys and allegations of market rigging. what are you seeing in the options market? >>implied volatility in the options of many of these brokerage stocks is just at an almost all time high. we're seeing volatility up 20-30%

over where it was last week which just makes the options that much more expensive. >>those brokerages were hit hard last week. they broke down. what do you suspect is in the cards now? >>i think we see a short term rebound actually. beyond that i think we're gonna start focusing in on earnings a bit but quite frankly, i think much of this was overblown. you saw many of these stocks break down like you said right down to either 50 or 200 day moving averages and just get some support there. so i think in the short run i think we've seen a bottom. >>how long will it take for this shakeout from these allegations to last in the market? >>i see the next 2-3 months where these stocks get a little bit of rebound, hover a little bit, and then depending on the climate in the marketplace and earnings going forward i can see these things rebounding back to their most recent highs. >>thank you scott. >>thank you. brokerages say mobile trading is exploding. etrade reports the number of investors using mobile phones to trade jumped 8.4%, last year fidelity says mobile trading including tablets jumped 63% from 20-12. traders say mobile apps make it easier to execute trades anywhere, anytime...especially

if there is a sudden shift in the market. traders are curious whether the latest data about jobs could cause an economic policy shift by the federal reserve. new figures show employers posted 4.2 million jobs last month, up almost 8% from january -- and the highest number of postings since january 20-08. fed chair janet yellen recently said the fed is increasingly concerned about the long-term unemployed. the senate is expected to vote today on an equal pay bill that's divided both sides of the aisle. " simply put, the paycheck fairness act gives american women the fair shot they deserve" " what they need right now are real job-creation solutions, not some tone-deaf blame- deflection rally" the vote on the "paycheck fairness act" comes a day after president obama signed an executive order banning federal contractors for punishing employees who talk about compensation. he is also taking action with the labor department to collect data on pay between men and women. the president said employers make "excuses" for paying women less.

"...'well they're child bearing or... they're choosing to do this'...she was doing the same job! probably doing it better." supporters of raising the federal minimum wage will have to wait. the senate's delayed a vote on the bill until after a two week recess. but there's no waiting in maryland. this week, the legislature there voted to raise it to $10.10 an hour. the number of stay-at-home moms is on the rise -- mostly for economic reasons. 29% of moms are at home compared to 23% in 1999 according to a new study by pew research. the women say they can't find work, or jobs that pay enough to cover child care costs. more than a third of those women live below the poverty line. the u-s senate holds a hearing to look into widespread claims of unethical and unsound tax preparers. right now, there are no requirments to becoming a

tax preparer -- this despite handling about a third of all filings. unethical tax preparers often pray on low income filers because of the earned-income tax credit. that credit amounted to 63- billion dollars in refunds last year. tax preparers take their fees out of client refunds. the nation's top law enforcer tells congress that bitcoin can't be fully trusted. attorney general eric holder was testifying before the house judiciary committee when he told lawmakers that the virtual currency is a challenge because it can be used to conceal illegal activity. "those who favor virtual currencies solely for their ability to help mask drug trafficking or other illicit conduct should think twice; the department is committed to innovating alongside this new technology in order to ensure our investigations are not impeded by any improvement in criminals' ability to move funds anonymously," the ceo of the bitcoin start up company circle said at a conference in new york this week, he believes the virtual currency will one day be part of global banking.

governement computers, retail credit card swiping machines, atm's---they are all at risk from hackers, now that microsoft has stopped security updates for its popular windows x-p operating system. it's estimated 95% of bank atm's run on x-p. and banks are scrambling to replace the operating system for their atms. cnn reports overall use of the x-p system should drop to 10% by may first. microsoft warned it was moving to a new system seven years ago. general motors picked up a win this week. chevy equinox and gmc terrain made by gm scored the top ratings in a recent crash test of suvs by the insurance institute for highway safety. the vehicles were followed by the toyota highlander, jeep grand toyota 4runner, ford explorer, kia sorento, mazda cx-9 and honda pilot, which was rated the worst in the pack. procter and gamble takes steps to improve its sustainability model after large protests. at issue is palm oil and de- forestation. the oil is in increasing global demand and it's led producers to clear trees to make room for new plantings. green peace protested

last month at p-and-g headquarters over the issue. still to come: on the lookout for a stockmarket breakout .. a bear gives us some insightful advice ahead of today's session plus the financial lesson great actor mickey rooney leaves behind.. and...score snoops....why more employers are looking at your s-a-t results! that's next with bill moller! real issues they're dealing with

can be awkward and uncomfortable. but when their behavior changes, it's time to act. because if we don't, our families and relationships will suffer. listen to the veterans in your life and show you care. it matters. when you recognize a veteran is in crisis, call the veterans crisis line at 1-800-273-8255 and press "1".

criticized, reviled and again, soon to be revised, the scholastic aptitude test still, is supposed to tell admissions officers if a high school

student is ready for college. while many question that, there is a different use for which the sat is not supposed to have any relevancy whatsoever. a lot of companies use sat scores to judge the quality of job applicants. scott sargis is president of strategic search corporation. you're a headhunter in engineering, science & it jobs - where is this happening? >>i see it across the board. there was an article in the wall street journal that said it's extensiveincluding top management consulting firms like bain and company, mckenzie and company, and boston consulting groupas well as top investment banking firms like goldman sachs are all wrongly using the sat as a predictive score for job hiring. >>it's funny because you're saying it doesn't really tell them what they think it tells them? >>that's correct. the sat was specifically designed by the college board to predict first year collegiate academic success including literacy and writing skills. that's it. >>but literacy and writing

skills are important in a job applicant as well. >>right. but not for first year college writing and literacy skills. that's what specifically it was designed for. in fact, boros which is the leading authority on predicting the use of tests says that most tests have a very low coefficient of reliability and validity. in this case, it does not predict job success. >>is this because there's such a large applicant pool now they're just trying to thin the ranks a little bit? >>correct. with the last numbers from the bureau of labor statistics there was over 20 millio people who were either unemployed or underemployed. so for every open position there's a plethora of candidates. so companies are looking for an edge to screen out candidates. >>you see this all the timewhat do you recommend that companies should be doing to more adequately screen candidates? >>i recommend taking an investigative approach to interviewing and also hiring. that includes 4 key investigative checkscriminal, civil checks like bankruptcies, checking all educational credentialsit's amazing how many people lie about their degrees, and also three thorough

reference checks. >>scott sargisthanks so much. >>thank you. fascinating bill!! coming up...why one trader says don't be fooled by yesterday's rally...that's in chart talk plus...a money manager turns to a hollywood legend for a lesson in money... stay with us!!!

the death of legendary actor-- mickey rooney was followed by a report by radar online that the hollywood star died broke because he did not anticipate living into his 90's. joining us by skype this morning is ed gjertsen of mack investment securities. good morning ed and if this is true, it is so heart

breaking and i'm also hearing about some other misfortunes in his lifebut it's a reminder of the importance to be on top of your financial situation. do you see this often happening? >>i think we underestimate how long we're going to live. medicine is absolutely amazing in regards to longevity. and so at times we think we're going to die prematurely and then all of a sudden we're living like mickey rooney to age 93 and we end up living longer than our money lasts. >>what can someone do if they've already reached their 50's, 60's, or 70's and finances are thin? >>unlike mickey rooney my suggestion is not to be married and divorced 7 times. that's a very costly proposition. in addition to that, he made a lot of money when he was young and went bankrupt in 1962. for those in their older age what i'm strongly encouraging them to do is have a spending plan. not a budgeti don't like the word

budget. understand where your money's coming in and more importantly what you're spending it on. unfortunately it looks like mr. rooney spent more than the money that was coming in. >>what are some saving vehicles that may be a safer play for investors? >>simply cd's. they're payinnothing but you know that money's going to be there. unfortunately what happens is that investors try to reach for yield in order to keep up with their spending and that's the absolute worst strategy that they can employ. >>thank you ed for coming on our show today. >>thanks angie. sound advice from ed gjersten of mack investments. coming up next-- what the nasdag, vix and trading volumes are saying about the stock market's next direction. chart talk is next.

dan deming of stutland equities is here to take us deeper into the charts with the overall

stock market action. good morning dan >>good morning angie. >>what did you think about yesterday's rally? was there any conviction there? anything solid happening? >>at least there's the stemming of the tide right now. we did see some selling early in the morning yesterday but the market was able to bounce back from that and build on the gains later in the afternoon closing closer to the highs than the lows of the day. so short term, some stabilization but i can tell you just from the feeling on the floor it didn't feel like it had a lot of conviction like you mentioned. i feel like there's a lot of new buying coming in so i'm not sure if this is necessarily a bottom yet. >>what are you seeing from the so called smart money? the institutional playersthe people who are the big money managers? >>like is said, we've seen a lot of selling of downside puts in the vix which would indicate that they feel there's a floor on the vix. basically what they're selling are the 14 puts across the line. they don't

think the vix is going much below 14 so that tells me at least over the next month or 2 they feel there's gonna be a little bit more of a feeling of increased volatility potential. >>what about the nasdaq as compared to maybe the s&p 500? how is that performance going? >>those are 2 charts that you can look at. if you look at the s&p right now it's holding above its 50 day moving average although it did test it yesterday. it's still looking a little weak but still able to hold those march lows. if you look at the nasdaq that's a different story. the nasdaq breaking through its 50 day moving average and breaking below its march levels as well. its looking like it migt push down to the february lowas far as the nasdaq composite that would be 4,000. >>thank you for talking charts with us this morning dan. >>thanks angie. we are out of time for today. coming up tomorrow in movies and money...why there's no stopping captain america. from all of us at first business...have a good day!

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