traders keep their eyes on the prize as corporate earnings start rolling in. in todays cover story...why "temping" is becoming a way of life. plus... one year after the worst garment factory disaster ever.. what's being done to protect workers? and... why top tech talent is being locked out of the u.s and what's that's doing to our competativeness. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's tuesday april 22nd, i'm bill moller in for angela miles. in today's first look: investing in hopes and dreams.look at the surge in sarepta therapeuticals.the stock price exploded on investor's hopes that the fda will side with the dreams of families who

want to use the company's experimental drug for myscular dystrophy patients. there are signs the fda will give it fast track priority.the main indexes all advanced for a 5th day. that close for the s&p puts it on its longest winning streak for the year. oil settled at a 7 week high.gold opens at a more than 2 week low.there are reports ford will name its coo, mark fields to be its new ceo.current ceo alan mulally has said he will retire before the end of the year. and on the 44th annual earth day, comes the question - how earth friendly are you?eco- america did a poll. 71 percent of americans say they're concerned about climate change. a higher percentage say humans can reverse the damage.but would you pay more for environmentally friendly products to help do that? in asia 58 percent say yes. only 32 percent in the us and russia would buy such products. things have been hopping and popping in the bond markets. let's talk with glenn schultz with performance trust about

this. let's start off with the yield curve. seems like it's kind of down. what is this telling traders? >>it's telling traders that the risk off trade is now back on. treasury yields are beginning to rally. this is due to 2 factors. first, the federal reserve has taken a more dovish approach to tapering and the timing of interest rate increases. on top of that we have increasing hostility in the ukraine. that has fueled the flight to quality trade and that's brought treasury yields down. >>we're going to be talking later in the program about earnings reports. how is that affecting the bond markets now? >>it has been somewhat positive for the bond market. in terms of the earnings reports coming out, we have a couple of things going for us. profits are continuing to move upwards in the corporate sector, earnings continue to improve, and we are now looking at an economic

expansion as anemic as it isis becoming one of the longest expansions on record in a very short period of time. what you would expect to see is actually yields begin to climb up but that has been antithetical to what we are seeing. really, it's been an issue of tapering and risk and you see the bond market pricing that in. most people thought yields would be much higher at this point in the year and they're getting lower. >>how about the ukraine? has that affected the market at all? >>absolutely. what we have seen is a somewhat yawn approach when it first started. we saw the annexation of the crimean peninsula. everybody yawned. we talked about sanctions. the sanctions we placed on russia. everybody yawned. then we saw russian troops mounting along the eastern border of the ukraine. everybody yawned. but now hostility is picking up and the flight to quality trade is on. there's no more yawning in the markets. we're paying attention to what's happening now. >>glennthanks so much. checking now on some critical corporate earnings... chuck coppola joins us with some of the key numbers. bill-- it's a big week for the heavy hitters on wall street. netflix stock popped last night

after the company said it added 2 million subscribers last quarter.it will hike new membership prices by a dollar or two. the stock rose 6% in after hours trading -- more on that stock later in chart talk. halliburton hits an all time high.the drilling contractor saw earnings surge past expectations. the company has returned to profitability -- after a lawsuit over the 20-10 deepwater horizon explosion hurt profits a year ago. the company reports strong growth in the middle east and asia. and, toy company hasbro lands on profits after sales of girls toys increased 21%. a new study finds investors are still skittish over stocks. despite the hot streak in the stock market...bankrate reports individual investors are more inclined to stay on the sidelines. " for individual investors the wounds of the 2008 financial crisis are still pretty fresh. individual investors are still very risk averse when it comes to the stock market. 73% say they are not more inclined to invest in the stock market despite record low interest rates on cash and fixed income alternatives, and record highs in the stock market " that was greg mcbride, who says short term volatility tends to scare off investors.he says investor hesitation is putting retirement savings in danger as americans switch to less risky

but lower yielding investments. british bank barclay's says it will jettison large parts of its commodities business. according to the financial times, barclays is planning an exit from precious metals as well as its agricultural and energy businesses. barclays joins a growing list of banks exiting commodities -- j- p morgan, deutsche bank and morgan stanley have all made similar moves. every few years, technology advances just enough to shake up the status quo. in the 80's consumers who recorded shows at on their d-v-rs worried they might be breaking the law. now, it's the two-year-old start-up aereo which provides tiny antennas for subscribers to watch broadcast programs on their smart-phones or tablets. today the company makes its case before the supreme court. the abc broadcast network accuses aereo of theft because it doesn't pay for the programs it snatches. if it's successful broadcasters could lose the billions they get from cable companies for programs. "this could be a significant loss for broadcast because the

programs are free on the air but if they are accessed from comcast, they are paid money for that. so if they lose, broadcast could experience some losses." aereo contends that it uses the same principles as consumers using their televisions.it's currently available in 11-u-s cities.a ruling in the case is expected this summer. mutual funds are sinking more money into silicon valley. 2014 is currently on track to be the biggest year ever for funds investing in startups. big firms such as blackrock and fidelity, t-p-g and janus-- have already closed 13 deals so far this year.that's up from 16 total in 2013. tpg just made vacation rental site air-b-n-b one of the world's most valuable startups, with 450 million dollars in funding. the site is now valued at 10 billion dollars, topping major hotel chains such as wyndham worldwide and hyatt.

it's "game on" between google and apple to woo game developers. each company is fighting for each hot new game to arrive first on devices that run their repsective operating systems. the wall street journal says apple and google woo developers with promotional assistance and perks in exchange for exclusivity. neither company commented on the reported practice. workers at a chinese factory that produce shoes for nike and adidas strike for a seventh day. at issue are pay and benefits as well as workers' rights to elect union leaders. a chinese monitoring group says 10- thousand of the plant's 40- thousand workers have walked off the job. adidas and nike have both said they are encouraging dialogue between the workers and plant owner, yue yuen. the united auto workers union has given up the fight to force a second vote to unionize volkswagen's plant in chattanooga tennessee. the announcement came 1 hour before the uaw was to have gone before the national labor relations board to plead for a new election. assembly workers rejected the

union in a vote in february.instead, the union says it will work to create more jobs at the plant which currently employs more than 2- thousand.in china, the world's largest & fastest growing car market vw is in expansion competition with gm which just announced a 12- billion dollar investment. in today's cover story, the growing class of employees who are neither temporary nor permanent.they are the perma- temp---on the job for months at a time.but few of them---ever put on staff.it saves employers the expense of benfits.but at what cost to the workforce? temping used to be a foot in the door. work for awhile without health benefits or paid sick leave and soon, it would be followed by an offer to work full-time. but that's not happening. "employers don't have the budgets anymore, so they're going for a perma-temp workforce." temps who didn't want to go on camera told us it may give the company flexibility but temping gives them insecurity.

the bureau of labor statistics says about 2.8 million americans work as temps. in march, the temp industry added 28-thousand, 500 more temp workers. now, the bureau says 40% of temp jobs are in manufacturing. at taz wilson's temp placement firm, about one out of six temp jobs are for registered nurse case managers at 72-thousand a year. "you see it more and more with large employers who also think the aca gives them support on that side." health care reform has helped wilson's temp agency in another way; a board on the wall shows you enrollment centers still need 60-people and couple of outreach specialists...along with three telesales positions at 30-thousand a year--all of them--temps. "we are enablers but then, without us, they probably wouldn't hire these employees anyway." but temp workers who talked with us but didn't want to go on camera told us, temping gives them insecurity. and boston college economist kevin cahill, says temps also have a hard time saving for retirement. there's also the hit to social security benefits. they're compiled based on how much your earned during your

working years.if you have gaps or took low-paying temp jobs that didn't turn into full-time staff positions, the combination can reduce your payments when you retire. fannie and freddie have cut housing start expectations for 20-14. construction is now expected to begin on about 1.05 million homes - 50-thousand fewer than what was expected earlier this year. the federally-controlled mortgage finance giants, fannie mae and freddie mac blame strained credit and labor markets for the lowered expectations. and when it comes to renters the picture is even less rosy --rapidly rising costs, coupled with slow wage growth is spelling trouble for the middle class. to be considered afffordable rent shouldn't exceed more than 30% of a household's income -- and that doesn't include utilities. but that rule of thumb is being surpassed in many metro areas

including new york, los angeles, chicago, miami and boston -- among others trulia economist jed kolko confirms it is a trend that started during the recession. rents are rising faster than wages and income have been. and even during the recession and the housing bust, rents continued to rise in many cities across the country. that means that even though buying became much more affordable after prices fell and mortgage rates got very low, but we didn't see the same improvement on affordability on the rental side. nationally, rents now require a higher percentage of income than they have in the past 30 years, according to zillow real estate resarch. healthier convenience is behind 2 just announced acquisitions. hillshire brands of chicago says it will buy van's natural foods from a private equity firm. and treehouse foods, a suburban chicago - based company is picking up pro-tenergy natural foods of canada.healthy eating and convenience foods have driven several acquisitions in the food category - a trend analysts say will likely

continue. general mills chews over a decision before spittng it out completely. new fine print on the food company's website seemed to take away consumers' rights to sue. specifically, the language said all disputes related to any general mills product would have to be resolved through arbitration only. needless to say this did not sit well with consumers and general mills has retracted the language. in a statement general mills says its intentions were widely misread. still to come: a wave of earnings reports is about to crest. we'll look at what the numbers from netflex & other bellwethers portend for earnings season. one businessman's view on why america's immigration policy is hurting american competativeness. first, one year after more than a thousand garment workers died in

bangladesh, are conditions any better?

one year ago this week an 8- story building in bangladesh collapsed. more than a thousand people were crushed to death - mostly garment workers who made cheap clothes for us and european companies. in the weeks that followed there was a lot of talk and promises from clothing companies that they would hold garment factories to higher safety standards. has that happened? judy gearheart is with the international labor rights forum that works for the humane treatment of workers around the world. it's been one year, are workers in garment factories safer? >>i don't think we can say that they are safer yet. i think there's a lot more work to be done. we're very encouraged though because the accord for fire and building safety in bangladesh now has 150 global brands that have signed on and made a binding commitment to

work with unions internationally and nationally to improve the industry. inspections going forward in a way that involves workers and there's a very robust change. >>what are some of the brands that are signed on to that? >>it includes american eagle outfitters, van heusen, h&m. a lot of european brands but increasingly we have been having u.s. brands sign on. >>what about the workers themselves? any compensation or help from them, the families, and survivors? >>the international labor organzation is facilitating a fund and they have set a goal to raise 40 million to help finance the needs of the survivors as well as the families who survived and lost sole income earners. a lot of those families are living in very serious poverty right now. children have been sent out to work because their parents no longer earn the money they made and some families are homeless. we've got a serious problem there. we're trying to get global corporations to

contribute to that fund. walmart and childrens place recently made contributions of $1 million and $500 thousand respectively. that's a very small portion of what we're asking them to contribute. it's a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed. only two thirds of the $40 million has been raised so far. those are two large brands that have had long relationships with different factories in rana plaza that we are pushing hard through a pay up campaign to get them to contribute more. >>judy gearheartthanks for the update. >>thank you bill. coming up...it's earnings season. might there be a surprise or two in the numbers? we'll find out one trader's thinking later in chart talk.and next - the visa trap. why limiting high skilled high tech workers coming to the u-s is not good for business.

you've heard the reports -

american businesses large & small are desperate to hire high skilled high tech workers. but they can't. the people they want to hire are not american citizens and each year the government allows in, through a lottery, only 85- thousand of these professionals. this is through the h-1b visa program. nihal advani co- wrote the op- ed piece in crain's - american businesses losing out in antiquated immigration lottery. the demand for those visas as well as the number of jobs waiting for these workers is much higher than 85 thousand. >>absolutely. in fact, this year alone there was 172 thousand applicants for this h1- b. >>7 years ago you were working for microsoft. they loved you and wanted to keep you so you were faced with this same problem. >>yes. i've actually been unlucky and on the wrong side of that lottery and i had to move to canada for a year. fortunately, microsoft was great about it and they helped me work remotely. i had to be out of the country for 365 days before i was eligible. once i was they got me back. >>now here you are 7 years later, you are the ceo of a

company you co-founded-- georama, an interactive travel discovery platform. but you are frustrated once more because you have people you want to hire yourself now and you can't. >>absolutely. in fact, i have one employee right now who is anxiously awaiting the results of this lottery. he is a very key employee and we would like to retain him. we would like to keep growing our team without having to worry. >>what do you say to people who like the fact that we are limited in the number of people we are bringing into the country? they think these jobs should be protected for americans. >>there is actually a real shortage. there is a big problem in having these immigrants come out and go back to their home countries because america loses out on its competitive advantage. right now we have to fix this problem. >>so you are saying they are still going to be using their intellectual property. they're still going to be doing good because someone in another country will hire them. >>that's what happens. i have friends who actually move back home to indiathat's where i'm from originallyand they have opened businesses and created tons of jobs. that could have happened here if they were permitted to stay. that happens all the time. it's a matter of

staying competitive. a separate issue is actually fixing the fact that there should be more kids pushed into science and math so that over time there are more americans able to get those jobs. >>that's a longer term solution. alright, nihal advanithanks so much. >>thank you very much. what do numbers from netflix, ibm and jpm morgan chase tell us about the current earnings season? chart talk is next.

we're getting into the deep part of earnings season. let's talk chart talk here with matt shapiro from mws capital. let's talk first about netflix. their numbers came in after yesterday's close i guess pretty much in line with what was expected. >>thank god. a lot of investors

went through a really big correction in netflix and the numbers last night were about in line. we'll have to see what today's trading brings for the stock. i think investors today and through this week are going to really see where this earnings season's gonna set up because for the first time in a few years, earnings growth for the s&p 500 is expected to be about flat. >>a lot of expectations were for that modest result too. do you think there might be by the end of earnings season some surprises? >>i'm hoping bill because companies tend to be able to manage those expectations down so they can beat just a little bit. so far over last week, we've had just a couple guideposts. google kind of disappointed but then people saw that google is its own thing. jp morgan and some of the financials definitely disappointed. however, general electric came through with what a lot of analysts thought was a pretty good number. so we're really going to have to wait and see what happens tonight, tomorrow and next week to see

if in my opinion, the companies can squeeze out maybe just a couple percentage and earnings growth for the s&p 500 for this quarter. >>did ibm and jp morgan give you any guidance? >>ibm had reasonably good guidance last week. just however, another quarter of revenue declined even though they tend to make that earnings number . jp morgan suffering from a decline in mortgage originiations. all of these sectors have some mixed results. i think we're just gonna have to see what happens after all earnings season is weighed out. >>matt shapiroyou have a good day out there. >>thanks bill. and with that, you are up to date. tomorrow, are companies going too far to limit lawsuits? why corporate america's "fine print" is under fire from consumer groups. i'm bill moller. from all of us at first business... have a great tuesday.

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