this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr. surgeon the street. stocks have their best four-day streak in almost two yeaas the fed chief puts investors in a buying mood. moving forward, the house votes to extend the nation's borrowing limit without the political drama of last year. can investors breathe a sigh of relief? food stocks fried. con-agra and dean foods warn of tough times ahead sending shares tumbling. what's behind the weak outlook

and is it cause for concern? all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for tuesday, february 11th. good evening, everybody. i'm tyler mathisen. >> and i'm sue guererra in for susie gharib. >>he new fed chairman assures that if the economy continues to gain strength -- in order to boost the financial system. traderers certainly liked that. all ten s & p sectors rose sending the major averages to their fourth-day winning streak this year. the dow closed shy of 16,000 again. the nasdaq up 42 and turning positive for the year. the s & p added nearly 20 closing back above the 1800 level again. we have two reports on today's rally. first hampton pearson with more on janet yellen's testimony to

lawmakers and then courtney reagan with reaction on wall street. we begin with hampton. >> reporter: in her first report to congress as chairman of the federal reserve, janet yellen said the u.s. economy would have to take a sharp downturn before monetary policymakers would consider halting the reduction of bond purchases. >> the last two months of disappointing job growth, she said, does not meet that standard. >> i was surprised that the jobs reports in december and january, the creation was running unde what i had anticipated, but we have to be very careful not to jump to conclusions in interpreting what those reports mean. >> reporter: the bond-buying program now at 65 billion per month, is not on a preset course says the new fed chairman.

and -- >> we have been watching close lit reason volatility in global financial markets. our sense is that at this stage these developments do not pose a substantial risk to the u.s. economic outlook. >> reporter: as far as forward guidance on raising key short-term interest rates, the fed's targets of 6.5% unemployment and 2% inflation are not automatic triggers. >> crossing one of these thresholds will not automatically prompt an increase in the federal fund rate. but will instead indicate only that it had become appropriate for the committee to consider whether the broader economic outlook would justify such an increase. >> reporter: during the marathon hearing, house republicans repeatedly challenged the new fed chairman on both the cost, $4 trillion fed balance sheet, of quantitative easing, and what

now looks like a moving target on interest rates. >> but madam chair, if you reach a threshold and then you ignor the threshold, what good is the forward guidance? >> i have always been in favor of a predictable monetary policy that responds in a systematic way to shifts in economic variables. >> reporter: time and again, the new leader of the fed continued to stress her desire to support the policies of her predecessor, ben bernanke. janet yellen was the chief architect of the current game plan and continues to support that strategy. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pearson in washington. federal reserve chair janet yellen held the market's attention for nearly all of tuesday's trading session. the more she answered questions in front of the house services committee on capitol hill, the higher stocks moved. traders liked almost all of what yellen had to say, piling into stocks, pushing the major

averages closing just below session highs with the dow jones industrial average falling just 7 points shy of the 16,000 mark. all s & p large cap sectors closing higher led by energy, telecommunications and material stocks. only a handful of stocks in the s & p 500 posting losses for the session. economically sensitive stocks made particularly strong moves as yellen's comments gave a bit of a safety net for riskier technology, energy and commodity stocks. the market applauded nearly everything yellen had to say, traders took particular interest about plans to taper the bond-buying stimulus program. she said there's no preset course and the fed is closely monitoring the economy and financial markets, suggesting it's possible the fed could taper the taper. >> back here the market's a sigh of relief. the fed will be flexible about this. they are data dependent to get more aggressive if things get

strong or to stay dovish if things go the other way. >> reporter: her comments echo her predecessor, ben bernanke's strategy, the market liked the continuity in the federal reserve's message. turns out it's a fairly powerful thing for equity markets. courtney reagan for "nightly business report" on the floor of the new york stock exchange. not just stocks got a janet yellen bump. after getting beaten down by economic uncertainty and jitters about emerging markets in recent weeks, gold prices rose 1.4% today and even closed at a three-month high following yellen's reassuring comments on the fed stimulus plans. another thing that helped investors breathe a bit of sigh of relief today was the vote on capitol hill tonight. the house did pass a clean debt limit extension after house speaker boehner agreed to bring the bill to the floor without trying to get any concessions from the white house. the move could avert another knockdown draggout ght in washington and clearly has.

john harwood joins us now from the nation's capitol with more. how close was the vote, john, and at what cost to the speaker did it come? >> reporter: the vote was 221-201. that is relatively close, narrow. you had the speaker because dissidents within his party were not willing to go along with the terms that he was proposing, he had to do it with a vast majority of democratic votes, 193 democrats voted yes joined with 28 republicans. so anytime the speaker of the house basically has to act and move forward with the other party rather than his own, that puts him in a weaker position vis-a-vis his caucus. on the other hand, it's something investors will be relieved about and senate expected to take this up and pass it tomorrow. >> what's 9 next battle ground then, john? the speaker did give, in they did pass a clean bill. but in washington there's always that next battle that's looming. and since the speaker did give in a bit, what's he facing next? >> reporter: the next battle

will be on immigration. are we going to get a deal to overhaul the immigration system? we've got mixed signals from the speaker the last couple of days. the most recent signals were he doubteded would happen that. reflects the push back he's getting from the right. i talked to a republican member yesterday who said this story's not over. we're going to have to see how he tries to manage his caucus. he tried to manage it last night on the debt limit and get a vote arrangement that he liked and he didn't get it. so it's not clear that he can make what he wants to happen happen on immigration. and then of course there's the minimum wage where the obama administration is pushing has polls on its side but republicans are resisting that as well. >> is the critical issue for the gop moving into the fall going to be the repeal of the affordable care act or something

beginning to dismantle it? >> they're trying to hold onto the house which is likely, trying to retake the senate which is difficult but possible. they believe that's one of the reasons why this debt limit moved on with minimal amount of rancor even though conservatives didn't go along. they want concentrate on obama care and try to make their political play there. >> john harwood, thank you very much, reporting for us tonight from washington. joining us to talk more now about wall street's relief rally is russ kosterich from black rock. welcome back, russ, nice to see you again. >> thank you. >> ms. yellen seemed to give the market exactly what it wanted it today. it kind of reaffirms what you were saying to us the last time you were on, you expected the fed to once they started to pull back on the stimucks plan to continue to do so. are you still as bullish on stocks as you were before? >> well, i think we're bullish

on stocks compared to the alternatives. it's clearly not been an easy start to the year for stocks, as we've seen the last four days. there's still a strong bid. when you look at the relative value of stocks, improvement in the economy and the fact that bond by most metrics are still expensive, i don't expect the same types of gains we had in 2000123. yes, i still think for this year stocks look like the better alternative. >> so russ, can we see correction shrorrection it's over? >> the volatility is not over. while we expect gains this year it won't be as peaceful as 2013. part of the reason for that is not necessarily the market has become or likely to become so volatile, but last year was unusually quiet. volatility was suppressed by all of the extraordinary liquidity we had in the market. as the fed begins to taper, what we're seeing happen what's likely to continue is a resumption of more normal volatility.

>> so where do you put money to work if indeed your projections of volatility are correct? what areas of the market look either safe or perhaps better bets than others? >> i think it's more the latter than the former. you're going to get volatility no matter where you are. on a relative basis we see some opportunities. in the u.s., larger companies look to be less expensive, particularly those with a cyclical bias. that's where we'd like to be focused in the united states. i also think that 2014, unlike 2013, is a year when you don't want to just be in the united states. we see some good relative value in europe, which has been outperforming year to date. while it has been a more volatile market we still think there's more to be squeezed out of japanese stocks in 2014. that's another place you could consider putting new money to work. >> where in europe, i've heard several analysts that i spoke to today speaking favorably towards europe. where either by country or by sector are you seeing those

compelling values? >> i think there are a couple of places. we do see some good value in northern europe, in places like germany, some of the nordics as well. what i would say in terms of the sectors is looking for companies particularly in the export sector that have been marked down because their domiciles in europe really are global companies that are more geared to the global economy than the local european economy. >> and do you also like municipals. why? >> we do like municipals. fixed income is a tough space right now. it's very hard to find good value. most parts of the bond market are expensive. but in general we found that the tax-exempt part of the market, municipals, which really got beat up quite a bit last year, look to offer better relative value. so i know that's an area that some people are nervous about. line risksen some he and puerto rico and detroit. that's likely to continue. but by and large at the national level we think credit quality is improved, and the taxi equivalent lent yield is very attractive relative to

treasuries. >> russ, thanks a million. global chief vestment strategist at black rock. news about jobs the labor department says advertised jobs openings declined slightly in december, coming in as expected at just under 4 million positions. but that follows a five-year high during the prior month. there were 4.4 million people hired that month. a new survey of small business owners shows there was a little more optimism in january with 12% of respondents planning to add jobs in the next three months. chief economist at the national federation for independent business sees a lot of hope for the overall economy in these latest numbers. >> nice jump in hiring plans. the best numbers we've seen in the hiring plans component since 2007. so this all kind of follows through and if the sales turn out to be as strong as these owners think they're going to be, well maybe we'll finally get going. >> in addition, january's increase in optimism was the

third monthly gain in a row. still ahead, con-agra warns and it's not alone, dean foods one of the largest dairy producers also gives a weak outlook. what's behind the soft guidance? and are food stocks turning sour? how much safer for your heart is the medication naproxen? a fda panel says new research shows that naproxen, the main pain reliever in alleve, motrin and other over the counter pain medications is no safer for the heart than rival drugs like ibuprofen. some of the nation's biggest food companies are warning investors about lower earnings in the year ahead, blaming

weaker demand as americans change the menu on what they're serving at home. sa sara eisen has more. >> reporter: dean foods reported a loss for the quarter and predicted more trouble ahead. conning a remar con-agra slashing its earnings outlook for the year. and annie's, the organic company known for its packaged mack and cheese also lowered its forecast for profits. >> all food companies are experiencing weak volumes owing to consumer spending that's been very constrained. >> reporter: a sluggish consumer is just one problem food companies are dealing with. higher commodities and raw materials costs are also a big headache. dean foods cited higher milk prices which it expects to climb even higher in 2014 and higher organic wheat prices. without big gains in jobs and income these companies are going to have to fight to get grocery

shoppers to buy their food. >> consumers are more focused on value rather than higher value added, premium natural products. but certainly cleaner labels and more natural ingredients are something that the consumer's looking for and manufacturers are increasingly provided more and more of those options. >> reporter: we're seeing that strategy play out every day. kraft foods announcing it's taking an artificial preser tiff out of its singles. subway removed an ingredient the fda says are safe but consumers are now demanding even more safe. it's a trend. big food getting increasingly aware of consumer demands for fresh, healthy ingredients. just one sector citing an overall sluggish environment when it comes to consumer spending on the basics. i'm sara eisen. we begin tonight's market focus with a warning from

proctor & gamble after the closing bell. the world's largest household productsmaker cut its sales and earnings outlook for the year because of unfavorable foreign exchange rates in emerging markets, including the devaluation of the argentina peso, the turkish lira and causing those to be less when they convert to dollars. p & g shares finished at 78.84. cvs caremark sticking by its 2014 sales cast even though it announced it will stop selling cigarettes. cvs also beat fourth quarter earnings estimates helped by increased prescription sales. shares rose nearly 3% to 68.77. sprint lost money in the fourth quarter but not as much as analysts had expected. the third largest u.s. wireless carrier helped narrow its loss by growing subscribers. that surprised investors because

in past quarters the company lost customers due to a massive overhaul of its network which weighed on the quality of its phone calls. shares rose nearly 3% to finish at 7.90. rubbermaid is recalling its graco brand car seats that are defective and can trap children. the buckles on the problem products can jam. graco is not recalling all the seats the government believes it should. regulators want the recall to include another 1.8 million seats designed for infants. we'll see where this ends up. shares were off a fraction to $30.57. charter communications is upping its efforts to buy out time warner cable. charter will nominate 13 directors to time warner's board. the cable company ceo said charmer is trying to pressure the board into accepting a low-ball offer. about a month ago, charter bid 132.50 a share for time warner cable, but that offer was rejected. shares of charter up a fraction

to 137.90. twc fell slightly to 134.90. boeing's ability to churn out 787 dream liners are being called into question by employees. according to reuters, a huge backlog of orders is apparently making it difficult to build ten aircraft a month. this production is crucial to boeing's performance this year as it's relying on the commercial planes to offset weakness in its defense business. still, shares were up more than 2% today in a rising market to $130.16. with so many americans already using amazon to do a lot of their shopping for the kitchen and for their wardrobe, the company is now aiming to be the newest competitor battling for control of your living room. josh lipton has more. >> reporter: consumers smend a lot of time on their smart phones and tablets, but televisions still dominate the living room. right now consumers can stream entertainment from the web to their tvs using a range of set-top boxes and consoles such

as apple tv, roku or microsoft's x-box. now another tech titan could be entering this market. amazon could soon roll out its own set-top box which analysts say could be available as soon as april. >> i think amazon dominated in books, and i think they feel as though they missed out on music and movies. and they're determined not to miss out on games. so i think that they hope to be the download source of choice for all entertainment. >> reporter: he says the set-top box could allow consumers to stream music, movies and games available on android-based phones or tablets. it could also come with a hard drive so users could download content rather than just stream it, another reason why r amazon wants a set-top box in your living room, it could be a new which for the e commerce giant to market goods. >> advertising is the big big moneymaker in the world of

television. and amazon has millions of products to advertise. it really is a big advertising platform. so if it can get in front of you in your television and then advertise the products that it sells and its merchant partners sell, it's a completely new advertising model for television. and amazon could create it. >> reporter: analysts say amazon's success could also mean bad news for some of its rivals. amazon could sell this content and e commerce hub to users and then offer them free membership to their prime service which allows for free shipping and unlimited streaming. that could put pressure on netflix. there are risks for amazon. the company will need to spend a lot of money acquiring and creating content as well as making and distributing the hardware, but the chance to control your living room and make more money from your entertainment is an opportunity that analysts say is a no-brainer for the online retailer, and they think it's worth the risk. josh lipton, "nightly business report," silicon valley. coming up, americans lost pizza, of course. and the cheese on top of it.

but did you know the federal government spends millions of dollars to get us to eat it? and help domino's increase sales in the process? that story is coming up next. a record number of americans are renouncing their u.s. citizenship and moving out of the country. the number is still very small. there were just under 3,000 ex pats in all of 2013 giving up their u.s. passports and green cards. but the previous record was fewer than 1800 back in 2011. now, some move out of the country for family reasons or to go back to their birth countries. and others are reportedly to avoid paying u.s. taxes.

the department of transportation is out with its monthly report card on the nation's biggest airlines. and those freezing temps along with several snow and ice storms back in december forced airlines to cancel nearly 3% of all domestic flights. that's up from 1.5% just a year earlier. ten flights that month were stuck on a tarmac for at least three hours, which is also a violation of federal rules. nine of those flights were during a single snowstorm at chicago's o'hare airport. making a phone call on board one of those airlines may have just gotten a lot tougher. house panel today approved a bill that would ban all in-flight cell phone calls with lawmakers who are frequent fliers saying calls on planes would just be too noisy and would distract fellow passengers. now, the bill has to be passed by the full house and then move on to the senate. and finally tonight, a little-known government program is collecting a fee and spending millions to boost sales of something that americans already love, pizza. so why is the department of

agriculture in the pizza business? eamon jvers explains. >> reporter: on capitol hill you don't have to tell people how important cheese it to their pie they already know. >> cheese makes it. >> reporter: but elsewhere in washington, the u.s. government is collecting millions of dollars from the dairy industry and spending it on ads telling people just how great cheese pizza can be. it's a little-known government effort called the check off program run by the u.s. department of agriculture, which collects a mandatory fee of 15 cents for every 100 weight of milk sold for certain purposes. and $35 million of that milk fund money was used to run an ad campaign designed to boost pizza sales and in turn sell lots of cheese. in recent years, the government has partnered with domino's pizza to promote pizzas like the

chain's wisconsin cheese pizza but the program is getting notice in the media and now some critics ask why the government should be in the pizza business at all. >> there's a term for it. it's crony capitalism, it's when the government and businesses work closely together and they exchange favors in the form of handouts or campaign contributions depending on which way the money flows. >> reporter: the industry says there's no taxpayer money involved here. the program is funded by fees on the industry itself. >> the industry itself runs this program. again, all usd arc does is provide oversight and they get reimbursed for that. >> reporter: the industry says the fees on the people who bought the cheese in this pizza help drive more demand for the product. $3.95 for every dollar spent on the program. for "nightly business report," i'm eamon javers in washington. >> wisconsin six cheese pizza. >> for a girl from wisconsin you like that, right? >> i am. not too much, though. >> no. >> that's it for "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> i'm tyler mathisen.

thanks from me as well. have a great evening, everybody. maybe enjoy a pizza. we'll see you tomorrow. >> "nightly business report" has been brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr.

[ ♪music ] >> that is a macrame of sacajawea? [laughter] >> sometimes the only way to communicate is through humor. >> andrew kleindolph: you know, some people's approach that just to get angry about it. but for me, it's just sort of to blow off steam. >> a sly view on this episode of spark. [ ♪music ] >> major funding for spark is provided by the william and flora hewlett foundation, supporting creativity and innovation in the arts since 1967. and by the kqed campaign for the future program venture fund with additional support from the walter and elise haas fund the george frederick jewett foundation the marin community foundation the koret foundation