this is nightly business report with tyler mathison and suesy gharib. >> our rating service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4300 stocks. learn more at the street.com/npr. >> not too hot, not too cold. the market is looking for a goldilocks employment report tomorrow that's just right. >> that means what's good for job creation on main street may not be so good for investors on wall street. hefty fine. alcoa settles bribery charges with government regulators and misses earnings estimates. but the nation's largest aluminum producer has a strategy to turn things around. fiscally fit. why some credit card companies

are sending you your credit score along with your monthly bill. >> all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for thursday, january 9. good evening, everyone. so how is the job market these days? out of work americans as well as investors and economists everywhere would like an answer to that question. they'll find out tomorrow morning when the labor department reports how many new jobs were added to the month of december. now, expectations are high that american businesses were busy hiring. an upbeat jobs report could have huge implications for the markets, consumer and business confidence, and federal reserve polic policy. sara eisen has a preview. >> strong hopes for tomorrow's monthly jobs report. in the last 48 hours economists have been upping their forecasts for december from 191,000 to 200,000. the unemployment rate is set to stay steady at 7%. fuelling the optimism, a surprise positive read on private sector hiring.

the highest since november 2012. and today's report showing the number of americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to fewer layoffs. >> even though health care cut jobs, we know that's a long-term job creator in this country. jobs are consistently created there month after month. professional and business services has been taking off. there are many sectors of the economy right now that are adding jobs. >> the reports on consumer confidence, spending, industrial production and employment all point to an economy gaining steam. in an interview with "time" magazine, incoming federal reserve chairman janet yellinsays she's hopeful. the fed makes trading the jobs report more complicated. why? if friday's number is too strong, the stock market may not like it. seeing better job growth as a

sign the federal reserve may pull back more on its qe. in other words, more aggressively taper. >> we do think the market's vulnerable to a pullback related to tighter financial conditions. so a strong report tomorrow, long-winded way of saying that good is going to be bad tomorrow. >> that said, anything better than 200,000 could cause that negative reaction. of course, everybody has their own idea of what a good number is. >> i think a good number for jobs is going to be plus anything above 235. >> 225 or above. >> 213. >> for "nightly business report" i'm sara eisen. >> with anticipation building about that friday jobs report, volatility was sort of low on wall street today and the markets ended the session mixed, little changed. the dow closed 18 points lower, the nasdaq touched a fresh 13-year high before retreating and finishing the day nine points lower. the s & p bucked the trend, closing fractionally higher on

the day. >> joining us mario gabelli, chairman of gabelli firm. >> 215,000 jobs, 230,000 jobs. what's your number and how important is it for you about your investing strategy? >> we don't think about it. because it's not an important element to focus on. what's important is the flow of the economy, the private sector is doing better, the consumer balance sheets good. jobs are getting better. psychology is better. the investment sector which is important, is improving, capital expenditures are coming in. housing i think even with interest rates going up will continue to do well, particularly single family. then finally, federal government has slowed down but state and local is vibrant. receipts are good and exports are good. the economy is going to do well in 2014. >> are you going to kbif give us a number on jobs? >> i don't do that. >> some people are worried when they look at the first six or seven and stumbles. >> it's the january effect.

you sell the winners in early january, you stop buying the ones that you wanted to window dress. the losers of last year become the winners in the first two or three days. that's background noise. i think the market for the year will have a decent year up 3 or 4 or 5%. that is very good. i was wrong last year i said it would be up 5 to 10 and swoosh it was up 30. >> let you be that wrong again this year. >> i have no problem in being that wrong on that side of the equation. >> mario, you're a value investor. how hard is it for you to find value in this market? >> we look at lots of companies where we have intellectual analysts look at small and large cap, and there are so many yummies out there. we can find good ideas. sectors we liked the last five years. commercial aviation, that is going to continue to be bright. conditions in that area including curtis wright, crane, precision cast, so on. energy is very vibrant. good for jobs in the united

states, good for competitive advantage, good for our balance of payments, good for political stability. and companies in that area like national fuel and gas, weatherford are two of those that i have culled through. weatherford is still bumbling on the bottom. management's not done a good job of convincing the world they got a turnover. wonderful assets. >> last time we were together you were talking similarly enthusiastically about the energy sector. you really see it as a transformative industry in this country over the next 30 to 40 years, don't you? >> tyler, i read things like the inland waterway trend. the number of places that are creating jobs on the rivers, like catalytic converters, fracking and technology, american technology is at work. it is a major game changer. >> all right. you're known for doing a lot of media investing. tell us anything in the media area that you're interested in. what are you watching? >> there's a whole bunch. it's content and distribution. content is those companies that produce films, that produce -- and there are more windows particularly with regards to the

mobile devices. susie, 7 million mobile devices. they want content. if you're fox or viacom or somewhere else on a global basis you take it there, sell is here, this is terrific. absolutely a game -- so viacom, discovery channel two i like among others. i own most of them. and they've done extremely well. but distribution companies are also in favor. right now there's kind of a love making in the works between john malone with regards to what he's done with sirius to merge it into liberty media and use that to help him figure out what to do through charter with time warner. and cablevision's kind of the perennial attractive company in that regard. >> do you see those large integrated cable companies, some of which are both content creators, like comcast or time warner -- but some of which are content creators as well as distributors as well as telecom

companies, do you see that business model enduring or will eventually some of those companies break up? >> you know, 1973 it was called the primetime axis rule. the broadcasters controlled the programming on primetime. they had to spin them off. that's how viacom got created, okay? time warner went -- jeff buchus spun off his cable, they're spinning off the publishing business. comcast buying from g.e. the balance of nbc. >> the answer is in the free market, in the free market that we have in this country, managements could make mistakes, they can structure the balance sheet and they can make opportunities. so far, both time warner and comcast have been winners. >> you've been saying that this could be a very good year for acquisitions. besides this whole time warner love fest that you're talking about, what other tips can you give our viewers? >> i don't like to give tips. but within the context of what i like, financial engineering, companies spinning off

companies. time warner finishing off the publishing business. national fuel and gas has a model out there spinning off the utility business. nfg sells at $70, susie. if gas stays at $4, this stock would make up 50%. it's a utility with wonderful assets in the marcellus area and in the utica area. other companies like that would be mergers of pet boys in the auto parts area, federal motor an example which split up into two parts eventually. they will split. icon and everything i talk about our clients own. >> i hope everybody was taking notes on all this. a lot of good information as usual. thank you so much, mario, for coming on the program. >> great to be here with tyler and yourself, susie. >> that's mario gabelli. alcoa aluminum made big news about settling civil and criminal bribery charges. more on that in just a moment.

for the just completed quarter alcoa recorded a loss. writing down the value of smelting operations. alcoa two cents shy of estimates even though revenues did boat wall street forecasts. shares initially lower as you see there in late trading. morgan brennan now on alcoa's fine and the company's new strategy in a changing industry. >>al koe what making headlines today not just because the aluminum giant reported its company earnings. settling with the s.e.c. and d.o.j. after a subsidiary was charged with bribing officials in bahrain. the resulting $384 million deal becoming the fourth largest setment under the foreforeign corrupt practices act. >> we have been able to negotiate it in a way it puts less financial stress on the company while getting paid over four years. that's good. we can put this behind us. >> reporter: significant certainly but it may be overshadowing an even bigger story for alcoa and the aluminum

industry as a whole. business diversification. experts say alcoa has been on the forefront of this trend. >> it's simply no longer appropriate to think of alcoa as simply an aluminum pure play. >> reporter: the price of aluminum has tumbled, down about 37% from its 2011 peak. and it's taken shares of aluminum producers down with it. but companies like alcoa have been expanding into operations less vulnerable to those lower prices, cutting down smelting operations and focusing on aluminum product manufacturing. companies that used to be pure aluminum plays now build things like truck wheels, industrial gas turbines and auto body panels. they've even been looking beyond aluminum into nickel and titanium products for use in aircraft. that shift has helped the bottom line with alcoa beating analysts recent earnings expectations because of those new revenue streams. in fact, the company's

diversification accounted 57% of total revenues and 79% of after-tax operating income through the first three quarters of 2013. and analysts expect other alum number players will follow alcoa's lead. >> given the success they've had diversifying i think they're providing a blueprint that some of their peers will follow. so i would expect a lot of their peers to follow suit and make efforts to diversify as well. >> reporter: that diversification as well as the fact that some producers have been closing down or selling off aluminum-related assets is powering what some experts believe will be a massive industry consolidation. and with an economy that's continuing to improve, analysts think the new trend could lead to even more competition in the aluminum space. for "nightly business report" i'm morgan brennan. still ahead, want to know your credit score? why more credit card companies are offering to give it to you for free.

energy prices are falling again. crude oil down 61 cents a barrel to $91.66. oil wasn't alone. natural gas prices fell more than 4% today on forecasts for above normal temperatures across much of the country over the next week. meanwhile, an encouraging outlook today about u.s. energy independence from someone who really knows. ex on mobile ceo rex chillsen says by the year 2020 the u.s. may not need any imports to meet its energy needs. >> we're already the world's largest natural gas producer. we're producing last year our crude oil production surpassed levels not seen since the 1980s. and it's expected that we'll

continue to add to crude oil production capacity over the next two or three years. so i think it is realistic that the u.s. could be energy self-sufficient, energy secure by the end of this decade. >> he also said that china's gas shale reserves could actually be bigger than those in the u.s., but the gas is burned much deeper there and it's located in remote areas where there's just not enough water available to extract it efficiently. a lot of investors here at home are looking to strike it rich, but not in oil. instead they're looking for big growth and big returns in technology start-ups. and some of those start-ups are saying their valuations strike it big. josh lipton has more now. >> reporter: investors are always looking for the next big thing. facebook and twitter shot higher after going public. those stocks are up 50 and 110% respectively. venture capitalists are now piling into private silicon valley companies, starting their

valuations well above $1 billion. the "wall street journal" reports the valuation of -- has ballooned to $9 billion. box is at 2 billion. pinterest is at 4 billion. facebook was willing to pay $3 billion for snap chat. where do these numbers come from? >> it's a little bit of a -- >> dylan sweeney who covers venture capital says investors are willing to pay more because they're worried about missing out on potentially huge returns. >> it's not like there's a formula you can apply or a computation you can do that comes out with the number. i think a lot of what we're seeing right now is a product of just a lot of enthusiasm for technology start-ups. a lot to invest in. a lot of companies doing really interesting things. and investors don't want to miss out so they're willing to pay a higher price. >> and dreessen horowitz say a lot of companies are staying private longer. start-ups are bulking up their

revenues which also sends their valuations higher. companies in the public markets play a role in the valuation game as well. professional investors try and model out what a private company could be worth based on the performance of a successful public company with similar financial characteristics. >> another reason for the run-up in valuation, competition among vcs chasing fewer good ideas. >> there are vc funds that have raised enormous war chiefs, like an dreessen horowitz in particular. with that much capital in the market, chasing so few opportunities to invest it, that's going to tend to drive prices up. >> reporter: academics and those working in silicon valley say there isn't another bubble brewing here per se but there's no question the prior p.o. valuations are based on hype not fundamentals, josh lipton, nightly business report, silicon

valley. drugmaker intercept pharmaceuticals today almost qaudrupled in a matter of seconds. one of intercept's drugs which treats a type of liver disease was found effective in a mid stage trial. this paves the way for it to become the first approved treatment for that condition. the stock rose 281% to 275.87. now, to put that move into perspective, the stock gained 203 points today. the dow jones industrial average, an entire index, has gained that many points only three times in the past three months. meanwhile, shares of ford are on the move today after the automaker raised its quarterly dividend by 25%. this is the second time in two years that ford has increased its dividend thanks it says to its strong financial condition. shares rose almost 2% to 15.84. now slew of retailers had bad news for investors. sears reported a major loss after today's market close. sales fell a sharp 9% during the

holiday season, continuing the company's long period of decline. sears warned investors of losses in the fourth quarter as well. shares plunged in after-hours trading during the regular session sears fell 3% to 42.57. and shares of olive brands tumbling the parent company of victoria secret and bath and body works it reported sluggish december sales. the stock fell 4% to 57.75. it was the same story at pier one. home furnishing retailer cut its full year forecast after what it called extremely disappointing december sales. the company says winter weather was partly behind that weakness. the stock plunged 12% today to $20.44. costco, on the other hand, broke the weak holiday mold. the wholesale club saw same store sales jump 3% in december.

garden, apparel and home furnishings were leaders. shares up nearly 4% today to 118.51. struggling teen retailer abercromb abercrombie and fitch said holiday sales are higher than expected and expects ongoing cost reduction efforts to help results. shares surged after hours as you see on that dramatic chart. through the regular session the stock was slightly higher, finishing at $33.21. and reports of strong december traffic helped lift shares of american airlines and united continental. both airline operators benefitted from a late thanksgiving which meant more passengers traveling for the holiday were flying in december when the weekend ended on december 1. united was surprisingly helped by canceled flights in december. that's because they squeezed the same number of passengers on fewer aircraft. united also said they expect fourth quarter traffic and capacity to increase. shares of american airlines up 6.5%. $29.42 to close there. shares of united continental

rose more than 6.5% to $43.80. now that the holidays are over, some credit card customers are getting their bills and they're seeing something new on those monthly statements. something that could help them better manage their spending and saving. sharon eppersen explains. >> consumers often resolve at the start of the new year to do a better job managing their finances. some credit card companies say they're aiming to help by including a key piece of information on their customer's monthly bill. their credit score. >> it's like knowing your cholesterol level. once you know it, then you can figure out how it stands. and we provide information so people can see is it a good score, is it a not so good score. and then we also provide them with information on what they can do to improve their score. >> your credit score can determine whether you get a credit card, car loan, mortgage, and at what rate. utilities, mobile phone carriers, insurance companies, even your landlord can have access to it.

discover is the first major credit card issuer to provide free fico credit scores on monthly statements, making it available to each of its 10 million card members by the end of february. it hopes to build customer loyalty and attracting new customers. fico is the credit scoring formula most widely used by lenders. more card issuers could do the same. >> the program is open to all lenders, whether it's a mortgage company, a bank, or auto financing company. so anybody that's supplying credit and purchasing an fico score can now make that score available to their consumers directly. >> reporter: fico charges $19.95 for a single score. there are a few web sites including creditsesame.com and creditkarma.com offer free credit scores. knowing that number can make a difference. >> the rationale is if you're actually taking the time and

effort to look up your score, then on the average you're going to be slightly better consumer all else equal. >> reporter: will putting the credit score directly on the credit card bill significantly improve consumer behavior reducing late payments and defaults? discover says it's too early to tell. other card issuers may wait for the answer before following suit. for "nightly buzz report" i'm sharon epersen. and coming up next, seeing green now that recreational marijuana use is legal in colorado. will it translate into big bucks for the state?

. officials in colorado are hoping to count big tax revenues from pot one week after legalizing recreational marijuana, business there is hitting a rocky mountain high. so what will that mean for the state's coffers. our jane wells reports. >> reporter: a tour ofarijuana grow houses in colorado. this is now a thing. one tourist is texas finance major philip rouget who's contemplating a career here post graduation. >> i would become a consultant and see if you could take a little more efficiency from growing to protection to brick and mortar store. >> reporter: colorado is throwing out the welcome mat to tourists in its new joint venture, charging taxes on recreational pot well over 25%. the industry estimates $5 million worth of adult use marijuana was sold in the first five days which means well over

1 million bucks in taxes. but that could hit a roadblock. >> colorado is running out of pot. that might be the headline to the story. as you see around us, there's a lot more behind it. >> reporter: demand has turned out to be much higher than expected. with legalized recreational growing still getting up to speed, pot searles have been allowed to use some of their medical marijuana supplies in a one-time transfer but it hasn't been enough. >> is this place going to run out of pot in the short term? >> in the short term we will. >>eporter: david martinez saw long lines new year's day but this place had to shut down two days this week to restock. >> we hope by the end of summer we could be caught up. it could be a year or two years. >> how much are prices going up because of scarity? >> about 200%. >> reporter: norton arbella sells medical marijuana but he won't sell recreational pot for another month as he tries to build up inventory. and he needs money to expand. >> we don't have access to traditional banking. finding the financing to capitalize businesses and increase infrastructure has been very difficult.

we have to go to private equity, venture capital. >> reporter: in the end, though, it could mean big bucks for the state. tax revenues which may be more addictive than any drug. >> i don't think that anybody has any idea how big this is. >> reporter: for "nightly business report" jane wells, denver. and finally tonight, a new study shows that for the first time in history, more than half the members of congress are millionair millionaires. the center for responsible politics says of the 534 members currently in the house and senate, at least 268 of them had an average net worth of $1 million or more. that's just over 50%. now, topping the list, the richest member of congress, republican congressman darrel issa of california chairman of the house oversight committee. he made a fortune in the car alarm business and is worth $464 million. >> that's amazing. more than half are millionaires now. >> and the senate richer than the house. republicans richer than democrats. just saying. >> all right. >> no political commentary.

that's "nightly buzz report" for tonight. i'm susie gaharib. thanks for watching. >> we'll hope to see you back here tomorrow night. "nightly business report" has been brought to you in part by the street.com. up to the minute stock market news and in-depth analysis. our rating service provides objective, independent ratings daily on over 4300 stocks. learn more at the street.com/npr.

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