this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. just because we removed the word patience from the statement doesn't mean we're going to be impatient. >> the federal reserve chair may have dropped the word patient, but janet yellin added something else that sent stocks soaring. results delivered. shares of fedex fall on a disappointing outlook. we'll take you behind the words and why they're not so bad after all. what's brewing? starbucks launches a campaign to get people talking about race relations, but does it come at a cost? all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for wednesday, march 18th. >> good evening, everyone. and welcome. janet yellin took the stage and stocks took off. the federal reserve dropped the

words investors obsessing over patient, from its so-called policy statement. that's the explanation and outlook the fed gives at the end of its monetary meeting. will the fed become impatient? you heard her say no not so in deciding when to raise interest rates, quite the contrary said chair yellin. said the fed will remain cautious and focused on economic data and some of that data said the fed indicates the pace of economic growth in the u.s. has moderated lately and that launched stocks like an f-18 off a carrier deck. rose 227 points. close above 18,000 trading in a 1400 point range. nasdaq gained 45. s&p 500 tacked on 25. the yield on the 10-year bond fell back below 2%. and one of the biggest moves was in the currency market as the

dollar slumped and the euro jumped. two reports tonight. bob pisani on the markets. sharp reaction from the new york stock exchange but first, hampton pearson has more on what some are calling the federal reserve's most important policy decision in years. >> reporter: federal reserve chair janet yellin and fellow monetary policy makers appear ready to open the door to a rate increase later this year. but they also appear to be in no rush to do so. >> just because we remove the word patient from the statement doesn't mean we're going to be impatient. >> reporter: the fed chair rules out a rate hike at the end of the april meeting. economic data tracking further improvement of the job market and higher inflation appr to be the most sensitive rate hike triggers but the fed chair acknowledged slower economic growth and downward pressure from the strong makes a strong case for waiting. >> just as we don't want to be

pre in tightening policy and aborting a recovery that we have worked long and hard to proceed as far as it has, we also don't want to be behind t curve and beginning to tighten given those. >> reporter: markets rally based on the notion of late increase they use further off in what many traders had assumed. >> we can debate june or september, but it's this year. remember rates are zero. our economy got to a zero fed funds because we had an emergency, the emergency is long since passed. the fed needs to get rates where they belong. >> reporter: what we got today was a small step towards what will eventually be the new normal for interest rates. but the exact timing as to when liftoff returns remains anyone's guess. for "nightly businesn the fed did it again. the markets were terrifying at

the prospect the fed would remove this patient phrase. the fed did exactly that and yet, stocks fa of the year. dow industrial down 150 points going into the fed meeting at 2 p.m. eastern but the next hour and a half it raled at about 400 points. in the bond market 10 year bond yields saw one of the biggest declines of the year roughly from 1.03% to 1.9%. that's huge. interest rates for yields rally dramatically with gains in utilities and telecoms and home builders.m not done. lower rates caused the dollar to drop dramatically particularly against the euro. commodities like oil and gold rally as did commodity stocks like energy and metals. what happened? despite yellin's comments that the fed could raise at any time believe the fed is once again pushing the day of rate hikes

farther down the road. >> looks like the markets read the dovishness and heard, no rate hikes this year. we heard what you said but no rate hikes. >> reporter: it's not good for banks by making money by short and long. bank of america and key corps ended down on the day. i'm bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. >> randy crawford joining us. a former fed governor and now professor of economics at the university of chicago's booth school of business. welcome back randy. nice to have you here. >> great to be here. >> let's start first of all with something i found kind of in the statement and the q and a session. the fed feels as though the economies has kind of backtracked a little bit. no inflation and still worried about the labor market and those who want to work more but can't find those jobs. did that surprise you as well or not? >> it didn't surprise me because

the, i think the chair isn't really clear we made progress in the labor market but if you look at the broader labor market indicators not just the unemployment rate and they kind of took out the emphasis on the unemployment rate a while ago from the statement, it doesn't look quite as robust. if you look at the number of people who would prefer to be full-time and are only part-time employed that's over 6 million. if you look at the number of people who haven't looked for a job recently but have looked sometime in the last year or would like to be employed that's another 2 million. there's still a lot of slack in the labor market as far as the fed is concerned. >> "the wall street journal" today said the fed opened doors but reluctant to walk through it. why do you think that? >> well i think exactly as you had in the quotation from janet yellin when i was at the fed and when janet was at the fed, we were working long and hard and certainly, they have boricworked very hard since i left the fed in 2009 to make sure i didn't

have a repeat of the recession. cut off the green chutes before they take root. >> there were those who said maybe the fed lost credibility because the last news conferen that mhz yellin held she seemed to indicate the rates would go up in the next few meetings. has she lost credibility? it seems like she's backtracking. >> i didn't take that from the previous press conference. i took that it was going to be data-dependent. they'll see where inflation and growth are. and one of the developments that we've seen is a little bit slower growth or robustness in the economy. and certainly, the inflation rate has been moving downwards rather than upwards. and the fed doesn't want deflation to come back. >> no they do not. and so the question then becomes, you have the dollar until today moving higher against the euro.

you're effectively sort of importing this inflation or deflation, if you want to take it to that. how do you spark inflation randy? >> so they want some inflation but not too much. gold locks. >> try to get the balance just right. we start to see inflation kind of moving downwards. certainly, we don't want to see slip into deflation territory. so they want to see a bit more robustness in the job market. that would likely to be leading to greater wage growth. you don't want that to go too far. janet yellin talked about that. she doesn't want to be behind the curve. inflation hasn't moved. they try to get the balance right but it's really about data and not about particular dates. >> there are those who think the dollar did have a big influence on the fed but central banks around the world are actually easing and the fed is standing pat, how does that weaken the

dollar? doesn't seem to. many think it will continue on its upward path. >> it depends on these countries. now they're facing deflation. sort of take some leaves of the fed's play book in 2008 and 2009 to cut rates close to zero or in some cases, make them negative to undertake quantitative easing and the fed realizes the rest of the world may need the kind of support now that the fed had given to the u.s. economy in 2008/2009. >> randy, thank you very much. pleasure to see you again. randy with chicago's booth school of business. >> a case in point of what randy was talking about, in europe sweden's central bank slashed interest rate deeper into negative territory. expanded the bond buying program to stem the rise in currencies. swooed and central bank just one of several in europe measured to fit low inflation.

the organization for economic cooperation and development is warning global economies from relying too much on monetary policy to support growth. the oecd's chief economist said overreliance on central banks could exacerbate risk taking and endanger the stability of the financial system. >> i think there has been an overreliance on monetary policy. we understand why the central banks have moved the way they have or the way they're going to to but that can't be the only policy we're looking for. a sense of certainty about what the fiscal path is going to be. there's been uncertainty about that. >> said the outlooks for the world economy improved especially in europe as the euro depreciates. >> mario draghi authorized the ecb building in germany today but the ceremony was met with protests that he rupterupted into

riots, the measures imposed by the ecb. annette. >> reporter: in frankfurt on the streets. [ chanting ] >> reporter: more than 10,000 people took to streets here and had clashes with the police. they were protecting of course against the austerity policy of the e krrk bcb many live in poverty because of the policies of the ecb advocating. bottom line from the day is that we had more than 80 people injured from the police. many burning across town and there is part of the town where essentially blocked by the police. people living and working in frankfurt were actually asked to stay at home and not to go to

their workplace because it w for "nightly business report," annette avisa in frankfurt. >> the u.s. reserve policy statement. the commodity was lower when inventory showed another massive build-up with record highs for the tenth week in a row. with the dollar tumbling after the policy statement, oil prices rallied with crude settling up almost 3%. brent settled up by 4.5%. >> and in mexico that country's finance minister said sees the same slump in oil prices and the country's public finances will face hurdles in the year ahead. revenue from state oil company, p mac, accounts for a third of the federal budget. drop in crude pushed the currency to record lows. still ahead, fedex delivers a disappointing outlook but therre to the company's earnings report than m

target is reportedly raising the minimum wage for all of its workers to $9 an hour. the move matches similar moves by walmart, tjx companies as well. as first reported by dow jones, the new wages go into effect next month. fedex, the world's largest cargo airline trims the top range of the first year profit forecast citing the strong dollar. the company often considered a barometer of economic data because the better the economy, the more goods shipped. shares dropped more than 1% on the week outlook. but as morgan brennan tells us the report may be better than it looks. >> reporter: santa was good to fedex. the parcel carrier's earnings

for the peak holiday season soared more than 50%. trumping analysts' expectations. mild weather in ongoing restructuring in the air express segment contributed to the strong results but analysts said the biggest takeaway is package volumes continued to grow. >> ecommerce, worldwide as far as domestic air freight started to grow. a very positive outlook on the overall economy. >> reporter: 4% more packages via express shipping. grond volumes jumped 7%. this was likely the best christmas peak ever in terms of service for customers. but it wasn't all good news for the shipping giant. revenue fell short of expectations and fuel surcharges for customer were lower and the strong dollar created a head wind. sending shares lower, tightened full year guidance to a forecast that fell short of wall street

expectations. still, analysts remain bullish on the stocks. especially in light of strong profit growth. >> we continue to be positive about fedex despite the drop in price today. it's just a minor adjustment. it's a company on pace to earnings by 30 plus percent this year. should be able to grow 20 something percent next year. it's selling for slightly below market multiple. i don't know where else i could 20% earnings growth on top of 30% earnings growth. >> reporter: translates into more freight coming across the pacific into the united states via fedex. experts keep an eye on oil, whether it will continue to boost earnings. also the success of dimensional weight pricing. a new size plus weight that rules out in january. for "nightly business report," i'm mo a legal victory for herbalife is where we begin tonight's market focus.

herbalife won the dismissal of a lawsuit related to claims that the company is in an illegal pyramid scheme. shareholders did not show the makers of the weight loss and nutritional products did not misframe by representing itself as a legitimate company. $76.76. general mills, earnings did fall on restructuring charges and as the stronger dollar hurt revenue, the maker of cheerios saying it completed the previously announced plan for positions. shares 1.5% higher. investors reacting to news that kraft is recalling about 6.5 million boxes of kraft mack and cheese 6 in my kitchen because some packages possibly contain pieces of metal. the food company has received customer complaints.

no injuries happily reported. for more information on the recall, head to nbr.com. microsemi, the test conduct tr for407 million. this and other chip makers have merged. driving consolidation in the industry. micro semi soared almos 40% but worth noting it is a small cap stock. william sonoma, in line with consensus bu the retailer gave weak guidance partly to blame on the west coast ports. hiked to 35 cents a share. shares lower initially in after hours trading. before the close, the stock was off about 3.5% to $80.96. and javl circuit that makes phone casings for apple, a 20% rise in rev nuf helped by strong

iphone sales. the stock popped initially. before the close, up a penny to $22.65. coming up starbucks takes a bold step into race relations, tying its brand directly to that hot button issue. we'll discuss the risks to business and brand with a top market a quick look at what to watch tomorrow as janet yellin said today, the fed's policy needs to be data-dependent and thursday will bring a fresh read on the jobs market with a weekly jobless claims report.

retail giant nike will announce its earnings after the market closes and investors will get a chance to se its first day trading as a do starbucks is going more than brewing up coffee. at its annual meeting today, the ceo announced a 2 for 1 stock split and test delivery service but the initiative that has everybody talking about is the race together campaign. the coffee chain is encouraging baristas to get customers talking about race relations. shares at starbucks up 1.5%. race together is to stimulate conversation but is it smart business? jane wells reports fro >> reporter: starbucks always puts on a good show for its investors but this year's annual meeting seemed to show the company less about coffee more about change. >> this meeting is going to be a little bit different because we

are going to tackle a subject that is making its rounds throughout america and tearing up so many lives and so many people and so many families. >> reporter: the subject is race and starbucks hopes to get people talking about it by encouraging baristas to write, race together on coffee cups. the social media backlash was brulgt with tweets like breaking all will serve atop a high horse but shareholders began lining up before dawn like the concept. >> starbucks seems to promote, you know socially progressive things and i think that's a terrific thing. >> i'm mixed on that. i don't know how baristas are going to have time to have conversations. >> reporte customers outside the very first starbucks in seattle were also supportive. mostly. >> i think it's a good idea. >> i don't know how much you can have in a short period of time while waiting to get coffee. >> reporter: would it make you uncomfortable for someone to engage in a conversation about

it? >> not really. depends on if i have the time to engage. >> religion race don't talk. just walk out. >> reporter: two for one stock split, new delivery e in new york and seattle later this year. a salute to veterans but a good portion set aside to discuss the rates initiative which is voluntary. workers do not have to do it. but many want to. >> it puts into words how i feel. >> reporter: a new kind of coffee talk while whipping up lattes. >> there's always time to make that extra effort and have those conversations. multitasking. the bottom half of your body that's doing all this stuff and then your head is thinking. so i mean -- >> reporter: solving the world's problems. >> yes, making coffee and solving problems. day in the life right? >> reporter: starbucks will soon find out if starbucks customers drink it up.

jane wells, seattle. >> our guest, dean kruch field, said the campaign is a positive for the brand. he's senior vice president at sterling brand. the brand consul tan si in new york city. welcome. good to see you. it's positive for the brand, i'd love you to explain why and what do you see the risks inherent in spurring conversation in their cafe cafe? >> i think the successful brands are about clarity and a true difference in how they position and communicate themselves to the market and customers and starbucks has done an amazing thing today. and they knew they would get a lot of negativity initially but it's important to put best foot forward. government and institutions potentially failed why not can they actively target this conversation? >> what about the risks though? as tyler mentioned, there are risks. i suppose if this is successful and he does get the conversation going, i mean that's a huge leap forward.

but what if that doesn't happen? >> i think, you know do or don't do. there is no try. this is a very big subject starbucks has taken on. let's think about it. it was one of the first to talk about gay rights and marriage. why not talk aboutou race? i think that it's very do and why i should believe in you. this is very perfect or bang on starbucks brand. you get a real sense of the personality. products relevd extra reas to buy the coffee but believe in starbucks just as a brand. >> it might give you an extra reason to buy the coffee but i can well imagine it might give some people pause who don't want to be engaged or evangelized or choose your descriptor there, when they're going to buy a latte and get out. >> not everybody is going to be talked to by the barista. they're obviously going to kind of see whether there's a

potential for a conversation. i don't think it's going to be constant or consistent. it's going to be happening during the course of the day but not every customer will be asked. not every customer involved. they might just want to get their coffee and go. but we're better to have a discussion about a hot topic. >> he said in his statement that he doesn't want to point fingers or place blame. because staying silent is not who we are. and it struck me when we had our afternoon evening, maybe he's partly succeeded because it's what everybody is talking about already today. >> any publicity is good publicity. for a subject like this who could really defend someone not tackling this subject? such a big issue in america right now. i think you would be foolish to pew it. you might not be into having a conversation but i can't see why you'd say don't do it. that's my take. >> are there legal risks here at

all, dean that you can see that people might feel harassed or singled out because of their race for conversation or engagement? >> well, litigation is a $258 billion market in america. this is a country that will go after something if there's that opportunity, if someone feels discriminated against or embarrassed, these situations might occur or might be movers from some baristas who don't want to be involved. who knows but this is a business that's very sophisticated, it knows what it's doing. it has powerful agency partners. it must have discussed with the pr. they knew they would get a lot of negativity. failing to prepare is failing to prepare and this is a case where i believe starbucks is prepared has organized itself and i believe this will be a major impact for their brand and bids. >> thank you very much dean. dean kruchfield with sterling brand. an update in seattle on a

story we told you about last night. decided not to block part of the minimum wage law. raises seattle minimum wage to $15 per hour. more quickly for big companies than smaller ones. international franchise association said it should be considered a small business not a large one, even though it is part of a bigger network. that does it for us on "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> and i'm tyler mathisen. thank you from me as well. have a great evening everybody. we'll see yo

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