this is "nightly business with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> word games, investors are ready and waiting for fed chair yellen's testimony on capitol hill tomorrow. and there are certain words you need to pay close attention to. up and running, the west coast sports are back to full force, after both sides reached a temporary deal. but it will be months before things are back to normal. retirement rules. president obama backs tougher regulations for brokers. a topic we discussed last week and tonight we'll have more details. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for this monday february the 23rd. and good evening, everybody. welcome. i'm bill griffin in for tyler mathisen ma and i'm sue herera. investors were watching and

waiting, watching oil prices and developments in greece. but they're waiting to hear what federal reserve chair yellen giving her report on the economy tuesday. she'll face the senate banking committee. the house financial services committee on wednesday. investors will be looking for clarity and any hints of when the central bank will hike interest rates, the first hike since 2006. every phrase will be sliced and dissected. as steve liesman tells us there are key words we'll be watching for. >> reporter: washington is playing a game of words with feds tomorrow when janet yellen heads to the senate for semiannual testimony. the first word that we'll be listening for it patience. the word the fed said will be two meetings before it raises rates. if she doesn't use it. markets will believe that rate hikes could come sooner.

that's what makes the next word or phrase so important. does yellen say mid year to connote when the feds might be thinking about rate hikes. >> committee participants have indicated that in their view conditions could be appropriate by the middle of next year. >> reporter: all of that is de pen dent not on whether yellen plays the inflation word she will but how she plays it. a word in december shows inflation was by far the most used worth. but yellen used it two ways. first to say it was running below the feds' 2% target and second to say it's expected to move back towards the target. if yellen says she's not worried about inflation below the target that would get the market's attention. >> yellen comes out tomorrow and more hawkish, you will start to see expectations that the feds will hike rates sooner it will affect equities. >> reporter: like words with

friends, words with feds goes on and on. yellen will talk to the house, then there's copious speak in a monetary policy conference. all of this in which we'll go back to square one and find out if the fed plays the word patience drops it or uses the considerable stockpile of tiles to come up with another word. for "nightly business report," i'm steve liesman. william lee joins us now to talk more about the fed and what he would like to hear from fed chair yellen tomorrow. so good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> what do you think we'll hear tomorrow? >> the key word i'll be listening for is data dependent. that means the fed will change its policy stance away from the calendar. we'll be counting the data. what are the data telling us. that's something the fed's already told us about. the minutes have confirmed that the one place they're not sure

about is where is inflation, and how long will it take to build to the point where inflation projections are rising. i'm looking for how strong is the economy, and how de pependent are the data or are we far away from an inflation increase. >> you know how the markets work. although we should be looking at the data they tend to look at the calendar more than the data. they want to know how many meetings before she moves. over at citi what are your expectations on the calendar side of things? >> i'm telling our clients that it's better in this world of uncertainty that the fed moves later. so for me it's probably late in the year probably december is my best guess. i'm later than the consensus, because the fed has one firmed in their minutes they're not sure where the inflation is. they're not sure how strong the economy is. there's a lot of debate not only where the inflation is but the

underlying model with the inflation. a lot of commentary was the links between wage pressure and inflation are really quite weak in the data. >> i was just going to ask you, inflation is one thing, but the job growth is very key for them as well. is job growth where you think it should be and where you think janet yellen wants it to be right now? >> i think the word full employment is not the same as reaching 5% or 5.5% unemployment not reaching 300,000 play roll employment. full employment is a much more complex set of circumstances. if you look at gross employment the amount of job openings and amount of turnover in the market we're barely back to pre-crisis levels. the dynamism of the market is not there, and that's why the fed is not sure we're anywhere near full employment. >> yellen has a concern on the participation rate.

it was almost at record lows. is it a concern to you, and how does it influence her view of the employment situation? >> it's absolutely concerted. the one model is inflation forecast the for instance phillips curve. the unemployment rate is a broken indicator. the participation rate has changed over time. >> nothing happens in a vacuum. we're mindful of what's happening in europe and asia right now, where they're not getting ready to raise rates, they're lowering rates. they're going through what we went through five or six years ago by adding more liquidity to the market through their own quantitative easing. how does that affect what janet yellen tells congress? >> that's the key piece of information about the fed decision-making we've had since the beginning of the year when they told they put the international developments on their watch list. what it means is the strong dollar is contributing to the

deflationary forces but not the same way oil is. oil is just a trans a tory thing that hit the headlines in inflation. the dollar is getting to the core inflation, because holding down the import prices it gets to the core inflation. so it's different between the u.s. and the rest of the world. it will continue to put downward pressure on inflation. >> good to see you tonight. appreciate it. >> tha and now to an important pillar of the economy. and it is housing. sales of previously owned homes slowed in january to the slowest pace in nine months. the national association of realtors says sales of existing homes dropped nearly 5% from the month before. the northeast and the west on the largest decrease that decline being attributed to the rise in home prices and tight supplies. meantime stocks fell back from the record highs of friday way down today by a drop in oil prices and shares of energy companies. investors were also reluctant to

make big bets ahead of that testimony by the feds by janet yellen tomorrow. the nasdaq actually finished higher for the ninth consecutive day, this time with a gain of five points. the s&p 500 fell less than one point to close at 2,109. >> the crude prices went on a bit of a wild ride today. prices were lower most of the session, and then spiked mid-afternoon on a financial "times" report that opec might call for an extraordinary meeting if the commodity fell further. but those gains were fleeting. by session's end, west texas intermediate dropped $1.36 to just below $50 a barrel. brent also fell more than $1. the oil prices fall back below $50 a barrel gas prices are going in the other direction. jackie deangelis explained why. >> reporter: crude prices are back under $50.

but retail gas prices are on the rise. up 26 cents in one month to $2.30 according to aaa. it's true crude prices and prices at the pump generally move together. take for instance what we've seen over the last year crude falling 50% and gas prices down $1.11. but the two don't always go hand in hand. several factors can cause oil and gas to decouple. >> you've got the driving season coming up. the price of the product and the crude diverge from one another. basically for the seasonal turnover. >> this is the time of year refineries go offline for maintenance what it means is that crude inventories will build, because refineries use oil to make their products. in addition while it's difficult to imagine at this point spring is around the corner so time for the switch from winter to summer blends of gas, which tend to be more ex

add to this the fact that the refinery strikes are becoming more pervasive, and there have been some accidents like the one at the exxon facility last week. the perfect storm to send gas prices higher. >> i think you'll see summer gas prices between $2.65 to the $2.80 range. but it's anybody's guess. depending where the cracks are, it could go higher. >> many are waiting for a gallon of regular to dip under $2 a gallon. it never happened. although it's still relatively low in some parts of the country. consumers are also saying that the prices are inching back up. while low crude prices are thought to be good for the economy, and they will be for corporations it could be that the party's over for consumers who could be paying close to $3 for gas this summer. for "nightly business report," i'm jackie deangelis. to the developments in greece. the indebted country will present its economic reform plan to the eurozone tomorrow missing today's deadline. the list of reforms was demanded

by greece's creditors in exchange for continuing to fund the country for a few months . julia chatterly is in athens for a look at what might be included in those proposals. >> we're waiting where greece is concerned. today's been no different. we're waiting for the government and the europeans to put together a proposal that this country needs to do in order to get the green light to see an extension of the bailout deal. but what will be contained in they'll talk tax evasion, smuggling, fuel cigarettes too, and taxing the wealthiest greeks. the question is will the prime minister be able to include some of the more popular reforms he talked about in the last week. what we're hearing here in greece is greece and angela merkel does not want to sign off on that.

it could even get pushed back more days. a delicate balancing act between keeping the european leaders happy, but also keeping the greek voters happy right now. the negative forces are within their own party. what we heard over the weekend that those pushing back saying that based on this field, they're not going to be able to fulfill the promises made during the election time. it's creating problems. but what we haven't seen is pushback from the greek people. all the conversations that i've had is the greeks achieved what they could under very difficult circumstances this weekend, overwhelmingly supportive of the the question is will they continue to do so. and can the greek government come up with the reforms that are going to keep both the people and european leaders we wait for that later. for "nightly business report"." back here in the u.s. the

west coast ports back up and running after dock workers and shipping workers resolved the nine-month labor standoff. even though cargo ships are being loaded and unloaded again, a very big backlog remains. >> back to full force, but not yet back to normal here at the ports of los angeles and long beach and all up and down the west coast. they started unloading ships at 8:00 a.m. local today. take a look at what it's like out on the water. you'll still see what's like an armada out off the shore. one person compared the view to "d" day. if you line up the ships, it would stretch 579 miles. stack them up and they would reach the international space station. but trucks were moving finally. employers say it could take six weeks to three months to unclog the ports, and it could take until april for all the union locals and employers to ratify the proposed five-year deal for a situation which the labor secretary said was causing too

much collateral damage. >> it was being felt by farmers in the midwest, by small business owners large business owners retailers and others with whom i spoke, who were trying to do their jobs. and take advantage of this tailwind that is the u.s. economy. >> reporter: the gps map shows the work ahead. the green squares are container ships. this is what it looked like at the long beach port last wednesday. more ships appeared. but the work will now proceed even as rank and file voting takes place. secretary perez is confident of approval since all 25 people in the negotiating room unanimously gave thumbs up to a deal after nine months of deadlock. >> i have all the confidence in the world that when the rank and file take a look at this they will see that this is a good package for them and that they should move forward. >> reporter: this new package replaces the lone arbitrator with an arbitration panel. it also raises wages which employers say now average about

$50 an hour so those are going to go up. it also raises the pension, and it continues to provide dock workers with health care that costs them nothing. assuming this deal is approved unions on both coasts now have contracts which provide some stability through at least 2018. for "nightly business report," jane wel still ahead, president obama wants to hold brokers who manage your retirement savings to a higher standard. but some are wary of the proposal. details, next. the white house today wants tougher restrictions on brokers

who manage retirement accounts. it's an issue we discussed here on "nightly business report" last week. today the president gave a bit more detail. >> there are a lot of very fine financial advisers out there, but there are also financial advisers who receive back door payments. or hidden fees. for steering people in the bad retirement investments that have high fees and low returns. so what happens is these payments these inducements incentivize the broker to make recommendations that generate the best rirnsushes for them but not ne best returns for you. >> it would seek to reduce the conflicts of interest. john harwood joins us with more. what does the president want financial advisers to be required to do john? >> well in some sue, he wants them to meet the standard of fiduciary duty to their clients, not just putting them in

investments that are considered suitable. that's a legal term for investment advice. but rather meet the highest fiduciary obligations to the clients. we don't know all the details, because this was a proposed deal that the department of lane said to the budget office we'll find out in a couple of months exactly what all of the details are, and then there's going to be a comment period. we're a ways until this gets fully implemented. >> john is this a new initiative or have we seen this before? >> 2010 bill the administration tried to do something similar. there was a lot of blowback from wall street. they've dropped the idea. now they've refined it with some distinctions in the previous effort in a conference call yesterday, administration officials said we're not going to ban commissions, we're also going to provide certain exceptions that wall street may find less restrictive. >> what are we hearing, if anything yet, from wall street? >> well wall street is varied of course.

john vogel of vanguard one of the titans in the mutual fund industry was on the call with the administration yesterday, and said i applaud this effort. he said it's not about fraud or corruption by salesmen but there's a culture of salesmanship and financial advice that we have to push back against that. others say it could restrict the range of advice that investors could get. there's going to be a big fight, and the question is can this get implemented before president obama leaves office. >> this is designed to turn people away from necessarily higher fee investments that they might be steered toward by these brokers, but the performance may not be that much better? >> exactly. there's no guarantee, of course on anybody's performance. but the argument from the administration is that these fees develop a long tail over time and end up costing thousands of dollars. they came up with an estimate that's $17 billion is what is

cost investors by what what they call conflicted advice. >> john harwood, thanks so much. >> you bet. a new survey is painting a rather sobering picture of americans' finances right now. according to bank rate nearly one-quarter of all americans owe more money on their credit cards than they have in emergency funds. and a study also shows that 13% of americans have no emergency savings, despite having no credit card debt. the group in the worst financial shape right now is the 30 to 49-year-old period those raising families paying down mortgages and car payments all at the same time. shares of boeing dragged down the dow. the airplane manufacturer was downgraded by goldman sachs from sell to neutral. the firm said the company is the most exposed to aircraft demand risk. the shares fell 2% to finish at $154.74.

valiant will buy a pharmaceutical. it's known for its irritable bowel syndrome drug. >> the gi rates are attractive. the business is performing very well. if you look at the script trends we'll continue to do what's right for shareholders continue to focus on creating value for them. and we'll continue to grow. >> shares of valiant popped almost 15% to $198.75. falix was off to $155.80. the happiest place on earth got a little more expensive. they're hiking their theme park prices. they've continued to see strong attendance growth at its parks. shares were up a fraction to $104.99. executive changes to tell

you about at dish network. the ceo is retiring at the end of march. shares fell more than 1% to $77.39. aqua financial agreed to sell about $10 billion in servicing rights to nation star mortgage holdings. this comes as the mortgage servicing company is trying to overhaul its business because of recent regulatory shares. express scripts reported revenue after the close tonight that beat wall street estimates. the manager gave earnings guidance for the first quarter that was a little bit light. that caused some volatility initially in after-hours trade. but before the close, the stock was up a fraction to $86.72. meanwhile, hospital operator tenet health care swung to a profit helped by higher admissions and revenue earnings did fall of estimates, while

overall revenue was better than expected. shares were volatile after hours before the close, up more than 1.5% to $45.58. and steeples financial announced after the bell it's going to buy rival firm stern ag. it will combine two of the largest u.s. brokerages located outside of new before the close it was up 1% to $52.09. coming up shareholders are agitating for change at some of the nation's biggest companies. and some of the battles with the boards are already becoming very.

goldman sachs could face a lawsuit related to the sale of mortgage bonds. in a regulatory finding, federal lit gaters informed the firm in december it may face a civil suit. the bonds in question were sold during the period leading up to the financial crisis. and as a result goldman sachs listed the top end of its legal losses range to about $3 billion. over the next several months public companies will be holding their annual shareholders meetings to elect directors, vote on govern nance issues and hear from shareholders. the issues slg that will be front and center this time are currently being hashed out behind the scenes and in the headlines. >> a public event, the annual meeting can provide a flash point or turning point for shareholders. this year three issues seem dominating proxy season.

campaigns by activist investors like nelson are shaking up current proxy access which would give certain shareholders not just a company a chance to nominate directors. >> this is our right. >> it's big shareholders that are grabbing early headlines. it's part of a trend by activists that proxy adviser iss called merge or purge. where the activists push firms to look for a buyer, or to sell or spin off assets. at gm an activist wants a seat on the board and wants the automaker to buy bam stock, and another activist is bidding hard to get the auction house sotheby's to buy back shares as well. small investors will vote on proxy access at over 100 meetings this ye >> a number of public pension funds including new york city want the companies they own to allow investors who owned a combined 3% of the company stock for three years to have the

chance to nominate up to a quarter of the directors to the board. new york city comptroller filed 25 proxy access proposals, saying a seat on the board will give investors a bigger voice on three key issues. >> concerned about energy companies that are not focusing on climate change. we're very concerned about ceo compensation excess ceo compensation. we're also concerned about corporate diversity. >> behind closed doors, a quiet movement to shake up boards is taking place. talking with firms to replace long-serving directors, feeling their tenure increases their independence while replacing them gives them the opportunity to create more diversity on the board. private talks looking to avoid a public fight in a season that's marked pi them. for "nightly business report," i'm mary thompson. finally tonight, kids are benefiting from the economic according to a new survey from delta dental losing baby teeth

has gotten more lucrative. the tooth fairy paid about $150 million for lost teeth last year that's a record high. the average gift was over 4 bucks a pop, up 25% from 2013. >> wow. >> i got a quarter. >> me, too. that's exactly what i got back in the day. >> good to be a kid today. >> 4 bucks. that does it for "nightly business report." i'm sue herera thanks for joining us. >> i still have all my teeth, by the way. have a good evening. >> so do i.

>> welcome to "film school shorts," a showcase of the most exciting new talent from across the country. experience the future of film, next on "film school shorts." >> "film school shorts" is made possible by a grant from maurice kanbar, celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image. and by the members of kqed. >> [ man coughs ] >> woman: 10 more different tables, then uncle tim's table's like a mile away from the bar. but then they're both so far away from the bridal party. i just don't want to offend anybody, you know? [ cell phone rin