report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. tug of war. google misses. amazon breaks its losing streak and dow component visa split four for one potentially setting the tone for trading tomorrow after a triple digit gain today. flood gates are open on earnings season but things are different this time around and it could change the way you make investment decisions. mixed shame-up. meet the man who has a big task ahead of him and that would be turning around the world's largest restaurant chain. all that and more tonight on "nightly business thursday january 29th. good evening, everyone. another busy day on wall street. the busiest day of the current earnings season and after some upbeat corporate results slight gain in oil prices and good news about jobs, all the major

averages end the day sharply higher but we begin tonight with some big after the bell earnings reports from names like amazon and visa. first, a rare top and bottom line miss from google after a surprise drop in user clicks on online ads. the search company took in $6.88 per share after adjustments, well below the wall street estimate of $7.11 a share. revenues grew 15% and were just shy of $18 billion, but again, that was short of forecast. shares of google one of the highest stocks in mutual funds initially dipped but then higher after hours. bertha coombs joins us with one big takeaway from the firm's results. good evening, bertha. >> good evening, sue. what we see from big tech companies like google is that mobile is really what matters and you need to have engagement with people on their mobile phones and that's where you're going to sell them advertising. although initially lower, shares are getting a bit of a boost as

the executives on the conference call seem to be saying hey, we get it. we know they're talking about engagement on youtube, on mobile and how they are working on trying to get better advertiser engagement with regard to that. that is going to be the key here over the next few months. >> all right. excuse me bertha i appreciate that. stay right where you are. we get your take on amazon's results in just a moment but first, let's move to visa and the news here was very good for the world's largest credit and debit card issuer. it got help from lower gasoline prices and robust job market in the u.s. $2.53 a share and earnings that topped forecast by 4 cents. revenue a slight beat there. $3.38 billion ver vus $3.16 billion. and the dow index, presplit initially higher in late trading as you see on that graphic. mary thompson now with her one big takeaway on visa's numbers.

>> reporter: well the key takeaway is that it's steady as she goes for visa. the payments giant reporting an 11% increase in profits for the quarter thanks to revenue growth in all three of its business segments. service, data and international. service is the revenue it collects from banks for putting their name on the card essentially. data the fee for processing transaction and international as the cross border transactions that it processes as well. all of these good results delivered despite the negative impacts of a stronger dollar. total processed transactions for the company in the quarter, up 10%. that was a little less than expected because cross borders transactions weren't quite as robust as analysts had expected. company confirmed for 2015 and said it's splitting stock for for one. for "nightly business report," i'm mary thompson in new york. also reporting tonight, ecommerce giant amazon which saw a 15% jump in net sales last

quarter and had to spend a bundle on amazon prime video streaming service. a huge top line beat of $3.50 a share and easily topping forecast of 17 cents a share. revenues topped $29 billion, but just missed estimates. shares seeing an initial jump in after hours trading and once again, bertha coombs rejoins us from the nasdaq exchange with her big takeaway from amazon's results. >> reporter: amazon is trying to keep people engaged with them particularly through amazon prime. have to think of them like a costco or b.j.'s where they want you to be a member to keep you in there. the good thing that they did this quarter was to show they can still make money doing that. they don't seem to have anything that's going to be a huge spender outside spending coming up. so investors are much more encouraged that maybe some of all of this activity that seems to be so strong can slow to the bottom line now.

>> all right, bertha thanks again. appreciate it. bertha coombs at the nasdaq market site. let's give you a wall street wrap-up. stocks shook off the early losses and ended sharply higher after the round of strong earnings from consumer related stocks and on news that new claims for jobless benefits fell now to a 15 year low last week. at the close, the dow was higher by 225 points. rising oil prices helped too. nasdaq gaining 45 and the s&p up 19 points. oil did end slightly higher but not before it dipped early in the session, below $44 a barrel for the first time in six years. but it did rebound late in the day. domestic crude up 8 cents today. brent higher by 66 cents. it topped $49 a barrel. as we near the halfway point in the current earnings season we see a real divergence with companies with an upbeat view on the economy and a down beat one. where do things stand so far? dominic chu takes a look. >> reporter: earnings season so

far has been all about a battle between boodn goods news and bad news and more for a shadow over america and the overall economy. today is no exception. take luxury goods retailer coach. shares posted strong gains after the company reported better profitings than analysts anticipated, while certain business trends are still showing signs of weakness some investors are encouraged by better traffic and a higher rate of visitors who actually ended up buying something. perhaps coach is a sign that people are willing to spend on discretionary items like handbags and shoes. then there are things we buy regardless of how the economy is doing, like dish washing soap, tooth paste and hand soap by palmolive, strong after one measure growed and that outweighed a lower profit forecast. it wasn't all good news. continued weakness in the price of crude oil led a number of big companies in the industry to cut

spending in the coming year. among them conoco phillips and oxidental petroleum. spending oil and producing this year. we're currently around 40% of the way through large cap earnings season and according to data from thompson reuters, overall s&p 500 earnings growth for the fourth quarter of last year is slated to be around a little over 5%. but top line or sales growth is only expected to be around 1%. oil giant chevron and exxon mobile report earnings over the next trading days and give investors the read on how much of a drag energy companies will be on overall corporate earnings growth. for "nightly business report," i'm dominic chu. >> so if companies report a mixed bag of earnings and giving weak guidance about future profits, what will drive the stock market higher or can it turn higher? let's get thoughts from steve ma

sew ka chief investment officer. do you think the market can or will go higher this year? >> i think the market will be relatively range bound this year. i see positive and negative indicators out there affecting the market moving forward. we're coming off many years of a very hefty stock market rally. prices in the market are tending to be if not expensive, certainly not cheap. so i'm looking for the market to be rather range bound, maybe slightly higher or slightly lower but certainly not looking for the double digit percentage increases we've seen in prior years. >> how much of that has to do with the mixed earnings picture we've seen so far this quarter? >> well a good deal. i mean i think there are many old parts of the earnings picture or corporate profitability picture in america that are mixed. if you look at the news today, coach, a company that isn't that reliant on international revenues therefore it doesn't have is not susceptible to currency impact and really doesn't have anything to do with

the oil patch does well but when you start looking at companies that are either in the oil patch or provide goods and service to the oil patch, clearly, if not in the fourth quarter, certainly in the first and second quarter you'll see degradation in the income statements. >> sometimes we can look at earnings and say they come in okay and a lot of companies beating the forecast but the guidance has been a little soft or soggy. are a lot of these companies sandbagging? >> well, i don't know if i want to use the term sandbagging but time after time quarter after quarter, it's a reoccu theme on wall street. revenue is good but management said the upcoming quarter to be challenging and we'll put a range out there that would be maybe brackets, 10% or 15% around wall street estimates, maybe the lower end of that and surprise surprise, the next quarter, they beat the numbers once again. so i certainly think corporate america is sort of caught on to a little trick out here and

wants to keep wall street, you know happy with the actual reported number by keeping expectations down. >> how would then in an environment where you think we're range bound, do you stay in the united states or look elsewhere around the globe for value? >> well i think you have to be concerned about currency as you look around the globe. i think there's values and equities in europe and iowaai asia but concern about the u.s. dollar in losing value and in currency in the stock market. in terms of our own market i think there's a lot of value still in the equity income space. i think there's a lot of companies out there with significant dividends that are trading at very reasonable valuations and if you don't get a 10% or 15% move if you get a 4% or 5% yield, you'll be doing pretty well. there are literally hundreds of stocks in the u. yield in excess of 5%. there's actually over 200 stocks

in the u.s. that yield an excess of 8%. >> all right, i want to do a little investment haiku right now. one sector one word you would buy and one would avoid in the u.s. >> i would buy business development companies or bdcs in the u.s. i think they're relatively inexpensive and i would stay away from energy right now. it's too early. >> steve, thanks very much. steve masoka with wet bush equity management. one of the biggest gainers was mcdonald's. shares of the hamburger giant sizzling 5% higher on ceo don thompson replaced by the company's chief brand officer. who is the incoming chief executive and what challenges does he face? sara eisen has more. >> reporter: america's biggest restaurant chain is getting its first. steve easterbrook grew up with watter ford and mcdonald's since 1993. few based pizza express and

wagamama back in 2011. credited with turning around mcdonald's u.k. business and running european arm. recently he's been the chief brand officer focused on marketing, menu innovation and digital initiative. >> they make their bet on steve easterbrook but it will take more than one person. a whole new strategy at the top because they have lost they're not getting the millennials and losing current customer base because the whole market is shifting into healthy foods. >> reporter: mcdonald's is coming off first drop in annual same store sales in ten years. u.s. market is particularly worrisome. investors fear mcdonald's is losing touch with core customers and millennials who choose to fast casual chains like chipotle shake shack, panera and others. that will be the prime of turning around in the performance. >> can't go to jk penny. bring it back. not minor changes, but major

changes. otherwise the millennials won come in. they'll go to chipotle every place else but not mcdonald's. they need to capture the millennials. >> reporter: another challenge it comes to the turnaround this company is massive. 36,000 global chains 1.9 million people working at mcdonald's and franchises. no question it is going to take time but investors do appear optimistic. the stock rising on the news after going absolutely nowhere the last 2.5 years after the don thompson tenure and rally 45%. for "nightly business report," i'm sara eisen. for news about the biggest burger chain to the latest about one that got a lot of people talking and ment sara's report shake shack. its stock begin trading on the new york stock exchange tomorrow and according to dow jones, the always packed purveyor of patties, ipo at $21 a share. that was above expectations. >> i'm so glad you got that.

really am. still ahead, biotech stacks stocks blasting off. is the party nearing an end. with more americans streaming data and video to their smartphones and tablets, carriers and satellite companies are desperate for any available wireless airways and just today, the fcc raised a record $45 billion by auctioning off some

wireless airways far surpassing expectations. now the winners are going to be revealed and the winner will be revealed in coming days but among the bidders, well the usual suspects here. verizon, at&t t mobile and dish network. a big vote in the senate today despite the threat of a veto from president obama. the republican-controlled senate has approved a bill that authorizes final construction of the keystone pipeline. the vote was 62-36. it's been a priority of the congress but today, a few votes shy of the 57 needed to override a presidential veto. in washington president obama is proposing a lot more spending in the 2016 federal budget to be released on monday. the white house is looking for a 7% jump in federal spending next year which amounts to an additional $74 billion worth, that eliminates the automatic spending cuts in the so-called sequester legislation. $561 billion would go towards defense spending and another

$300 billion, $500 billion in non-defense spending. international news central bank of denmark just cut key interest rate for the third time in the last two weeks. the idea here is to weaken the value of its currency the danish crown, which would keep it in a tight range against the euro. and now to russia where that nation's finance minister is discussing the economy and how hard it's been hit by falling oil prices and western sanctions over russia's role in destabilizing ukraine and its relationship with debt-ridden greece. geoff cutmore has more now from moscow. >> reporter: e.u. foreign minister in brussels extended the timeline on existing sanctions. when i spoke to the russian finance minister he said his economy will learn to adapt. we also talked about signs of division with the new greek government suggesting it has not signed up to these new acts

against the russians. when i asked him whether he would be willing to extend finance to the greeks he said they haven't been asked yet but it is something they would consider. >> if such petition is submitted to the russian governments, we will definitely consider it take into account all the factors of our relationships between russia and greece. so that's all i can say. if it is submitted, we will consider it. >> reporter: the finance minister also talked about the state of the economy and how the falling oil price and the economic sanctions had not $200 billion off the economy in 2014. i asked him about the current state of interest rates currently 17% for this economy. he said those rates could do with coming lower, now that there is less volatility surrounding the russian ruble. for "nightly business report,"

i'm geoff cutmore in moscow. shares of alibaba have their worst day since going public and that's where we begin tonight's market focus. the chinese ecommerce giant earnings topped estimates but revenue missed disappointing investors. this is the company that spent more trying to attract customers on mobile phones. the company's executive vice chairman said he believes there's strong growth potential in mobile. >> we take the long view in this transition to mobile because the first thing we focus on is user growth and user engagement. so as long as we see robust growth of monthly users, up to 265 million a month, that's a very large number and net add of 48 million users in just a matter of three months. in the long run, we see that whole mon tieization is going to slope up. >> 9% to $91.81. ford's report similar, earnings

topped estimates but revenue slightly below consensus. the auto maker maintained 2015 profit outlook but the company said the loss in europe would be wider than previously thought for 2015. still, shares 3% higher to $14.85. jet blue's profits soared in fourth quarter as it benefits from lower fuel costs and expenses. investors seem to ignore that with shares up 9%. polty groups. new orders closings slight yes, sir this shares popped 6%. 22.81 at the close. and posted a beat thanks to growth in agricultural science business helped largely by new crop protection projects and hurt results. shares rose more than 4.5% and

finished at $45.01. chocolate maker posted weaker numbers and cut 2015 outlook. the company blamed the stronger dollar and rising cocoa and dairy prices. hershey plans to buy crave-pure foods, a beef jerky maker. so say hello to hershey jerky. stumbled. after the closing bell the drug maker's profits topped estimates while revenue in line with strong demand to grossest drug. a forecast above consensus. shares initially jumped after hours. before the close, up a fraction to 3$353.25. one example of the overall strength in continued growth in biotechnology companies. so what's behind the surge in biotech and what's next for the sector? meg tirrell takes a look. >> reporter: biotech has been on

an incredible run and the question everyone keeps asking is when does it end? the nasdaq biotech index has returned more than triple the s&p 500 in the last three years. 2014 set a record for initial public offerings. blowing out even the big bubble year of 2000 and this year so far, the momentum continues. this week ten health care companies plan to go public on the nasdaq. greece starts trading today and last week biotech companies raised $2.6 billion in secondary offerings, according to rbc capital markets. analysts and investors say at some point, the market won't be able to absorb more deals. >> we've seen a plethora of deals over the last few weeks, the first couple weeks of january and it's sort of been a mixed bag. some of the offerings successful and some haven't. that suggests that maybe either a waning appetite or just a

limit to the capacity of biotech analysts to research companies quickly enough to make investment decisions. >> reporter: but we might not be at the end just yet. biotech bulls point to a couple of things driving momentum. fda approved 42 new drugs last year a record number. mergers and acquisitions been on a tear and technology particularly in genetics have vastly improved. president obama has even invited the heads of research at several drug makers to the white house tomorrow to discuss plans to improve health and treat disease. >> there are a number of areas that quite frankly, where we have brand new cures for things we didn't have before. so that's really fueled the excitement. >> reporter: while there's questions to the end of biotech's run, optimism is winning the day. of the 16 two said we're in a bubble and all expect biotech to

outperform the broader market again in 2015. for "nightly business report," i'm meg tirrell. coming up, not even harley davidson is immune from the strengthening dollar but investn something else. we'll tell you. profits of harley davidson hitting the brakes last quarter, skidding 41%. mostly on the impact of a stronger dollar on overseas sales.

still, sales were higher and earnings topped wall street forecast and revved up nearly 4% higher. what's next for the motorcycle maker? morgan brennan takes a look. >> reporter: for harley davidson head winds add pressure to sales and margins this year. overshad doing a projected increase in motorcycle shipments but despite the woes results better than feared. >> the concern was some of the international markets as the u.s. dollar appreciated, that you would see a dropoff in demand and the good news i think coming out of today is we saw the opposite. >> reporter: harley's been expanding beyond its core ridership. american baby boomer males since the downturn targeting mill lenials, women, african-americans and aggressively pushing into markets overseas. the company gaining ground in europe latin america and asia especially china and india. that's where the line share growth is coming from.

international shipments make a third of the company total and fourth quarter retail sales increased 9% abroad and 2% despite lower gas prices. successfully geared towards these new customers as well. in india three out of four motorcycles ridden are harley street bikes. >> they've been working for years to expand their distribution in those markets and i think it's a key component here of the growth moving forward. >> reporter: but again, that would depend on the dollar because a stronger greenback could make exports more expensive. competitor powe lars industries which reported earlier this week is already forecasting a slower year for the very reason. for harley however, that hasn't yet happened. pushing shares higher as international demand chugs along. for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan. finally tonight, a look at how much we're expected to spend on this sunday's super bowl. national retail federation predicts americans spend record

$14 billion, $89 a person including new hd tvs purchased ahead of the kickoff, chicken, pizzas and beer that will be consumed. >> wow. all right, that does it for "nightly business report" for to thanks for joining us. >> i'm tyler mathisen. thank you from me as well. have a great evening. we'll see you back h

captioning by vitac, underwritten by fireman's fund every single bite, need it to be -- >> twinkies in there. >> it's like a great big hug. >> about as spicy as i can handle it. my parents put chili powder in my baby food. >> just a lot of chillin