this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. stocks stalled. staggering run higher is quickly losing steam and there are reasons why things could start to get rocky. took too much. a number of fed officials are speaking. will that bring clarity or confuse things more. >> all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for monday, march 28th. good evening. welcome. recent rally in stocks appears to have stalled. those double digit gains since the mid-february lows have take an breather and that shift in the market coincides with the winding down of the first quarter.

it also comes against the backdrop of several major speeches by reserve officials this weekend. on friday the government's always important employment report. oh, yeah, there are still those pesky head winds bedevilling stocks. oil price, political risks and more. the path forward for equities could be rocky. >> reporter: overall the stock markets given people a roller coaster ride for the first few months of the year. now that we're trying to close the books on the first quarter we have seen a will the of different warning signs coming up. markets got off to the worth start in history for the u.s. stock market and have rebounded a lot since then. let's take a look at why some traders and investors are a bit worried about what's going to happen in the coming months. there's way too many to put on our wall behind us. i want to show a few of them that are getting a will the of attention. on the currency side of things, it's not something we often talk

about, but corporations will be talking about the strength of the u.s. dollar. that could be a big theme in earning season. we're less than a month away from earning season. the strong dollar is important. it's a lot more expensive to bring profits back home when the dollar is strong. something to keep an eye on. with regard to the currency markets, the commodity markets are a big focus. specifically what's happening with the price of oil. we have seen a sharp move higher off the lows but weakness creeping back in. oil prices and the energy complex are a huge drag on earnings and sales for s&p 500 companies in the past year. we'll see if that continues. perhaps warning sign there. then you have the ipo market, initial public officerings have not been active. does that signal there's not enough risk appetite. that could be warning sign as

well. then you talk about the bank, the financial stocks. they're important. they've been one of the biggest laggers. when the banks don't perform there's a question about whether the market can without the banks. one last one to consider, transportation stocks. you think shippers like u.p.s., fedex, railroad company, trucking companies move goods. overall stock ness could be a market. just warning signs to keep an eye on. nobody knows whether the market will head up or down. they are watching some of these factors to see if they could lead to some more caution down the line. today stocks were mostly higher on low volume as investors sorted through new

economic data. we'll have more on that in a moment. traders were watching chaos at the capitol building. police shot and wounded a suspect in the visitors building. lockdown was lifted and suspect is in custody. the dow rose 19 points. the nasdaq lost 6. the s&p 500 added 1. more now to all that fed speak this week. there's chance it may overshadow the monthly employment report due out friday. that's because several fed poli policymakers last week indicated a rate hike would be appropriate. a view at odds given by fed chair, janet yellen. we'll hear from her tomorrow when she speaks on the economy and takes question in new york city. wednesday is charles evans turn. thursday, bill dudley will speak and on friday we'll hear from cleveland's loretta mester.

they speak too much but does it only cause confusion opinion bill is the chief market strategist. i've known you for years. sorry, i botched your name. good to see you. >> that's okay. good to see you. >> i think you would agree maybe the central bankers are speaking too much. >> yeah, it's like the pendulum has totally swung here. i know tyler and you remember the days back in '70, '80, early '90s when sometimes you didn't know for days whether the fed has eased or tightened. now we have gone, the pendulum swung the other way and seem like you can't shut the people up. the question is how do you deal with that. we advise really just try focus on the market. that gives you a much better sense of what's going to happen

down the road. for instance, if you look at the front end of the u.s. yield curve, treasury bills, they never priced in all these tig tightens that fed was talking about. they priced in one or two tightens. in you focus on the market, i think you can block out a lot of noise and you're in much better shape. >> watch what the market does, not what the fed governor say. how much transparency do you think would be ideal? obviously, these folks get invited to go do conferences and get ind to come on television and talk. sometimes a stray comment can be kept to market. how much is the right sort of goldilocks scenario. i think it's a good yes. it's a mix not only of how much but who. i think all these people go out and speak.

every several days is too much. it's around the time the meeting the chairman or chairwoman speak. that's appropriate. it's something, monthly or something like that. i think when you have the doubles out speaking, sometimes almost day in and day out and sometimes contradicting each other it's too much. the bottom line is that almost always the fed follows the market. that's the important point to keep in mind is you look at what's going on now. the market had no more than one or two priced in. follow the market. the fed follows the market. >> is this market that we all should follow going to be increasingly volatile if we keep getting contradictory comments.

>> that's a good yquestion. the fed is kind of the 800-pound gorilla in the room. they're the ones that really kind of determine what happens there. look, you got to kind of, in my mind, you've got to do your homerk, have your investment kind of appropriately map out your risk and reward and then you've got to stick to it. if you're reacting to every fed statement or every press conference, you're never going to make any money. follow the market and stick to your game plan. >> on that note, thanks so much for joining us tonight. we appreciate it. : consumer spending an important part of economic activity rose just fractionally in february. na edged up .1%. it's the third straight month of gains in personal incomes.

they weren't much stronger either. they saw a modest .2% rise last month. the pending home sales were strong. the number of existingr homes that went under contract in february rose by 3.5%. that's the highest level seen in seven months and better than estimates. pending sales offer clues as to upcoming activity and the experts say this report is encouraging. oil prices settled just under $40 a barrel while $40 still low by recent history. it's higher than where prices stood a few weeks ago. the recent rise is pegged on hopes that something will come of a meeting of oil producers scheduled to be held in april. those hopes may be fleeting. >> reporter: oil prices have risen 20% in the last month on the hope that a producer meeting in the middle east on april 17th, will bring an accord about a production freeze. it's not an emergency opec meeting. the next meeting of the cartel

will be in june. it's a meeting of global producers. who's coming and will it matter? >> i don't think any kind of meeting will boost prices any further than where they have gone now. there's going to need to be a production cut. when you have a meeting without the u.s. which is the third largest producer of crude oil in the world, i don't see how they can achieve their goals. >> reporter: the guest list, some opec members have opted out like libya and iran. it's unclear if that country is going to have a delegate. of the non-opec producers, russia and the united states, they're the largest. the russians have been encouraging a freeze, but the united states hasn't said anything about sending a representative to this meeti in. the market seems skeptical of an accord taking place here. it would be easier to achieve consensus if all the parties got e we can see another leg lower but not necessarily

drastic as the 20s. more realistically like in the upper 30s. still ahead, the hotel battle heats up but would the fight for star wood raise the eyebrows of regulators. . a report late tonight that the white house is expected to withdraw its california legal action against apple. that report, according to usa today which cited a government official. the government had asked to delay a hearing last week when the fbi said it was working a third party to gain access to an iphone used by one of the san bernardino shooters. amon, what do you make of this report, and does it suggest that

the fbi, the justice department has cracked into that phone? >> it does suggest there might be progress behind the scenes. we have been expecting some update from the department of justice on this case by early april. they said that they had been told by an unnamed third party there might be another solution to get into the san bernardino shooter's iphone without the help of apple itself. they had said that was the only way in and they demanded that apple help them. now they said, last week, they thought they could do it without apple's help. the fact we are seeing this news is maybe an indication there's some progress on getting into the phone or the fbi has figured out another solution entirely. we'll have to wait and see when the government briefs us in more detail. it may be an indication that this tension point between the u.s. government and apple, one of the most prominent companies in the united states may be easing a little bit now and may be able to get back to regular business here.

there's been very personal and intense conversations between the department of justice and apple in the past couple of weeks. >> stay with us. there's another story you've been following. china is offering for starwood hotel to about $14 billion. that would be the largest ever by a chinese company in the u.s. it threatens offer for the hotel chain. in statement marriott said it is near the deal with starwood. what do you make of this story and what could those regulatory concerns be? >> i think what they are talking about is an entity here in washington that most people have never heard of. it's the committee on foreign investment in the united states. it reviews large transactions when overseas entities want to

buy american companies. they want to make sure this is an okay thing for that foreign entity to buy. i've been talking to some experts on the process here in washington today about exactly what they might look at in this potential acquisition of starwood. how close are starwood hotels to sense tifr itive installations united states that they want to protect. that might be one to pay close attention to. also, protection of customer data. how much e-mails and credit card numbers would the buyer be getting of americans around the world and how would that data be handled is something they'll want to understand. they'll look at the protection of wi-fi and communications networks within the hotel. they'll want to know does the u.s. government have a deal with this hotel chain in other words to have government events there

and government officials staying there. if they are, how will their communications inside the hotel be connected if it's being bought by a foreign entity? the question is whether the government will let it proceed or not or how they will go forward with this all together. >> we have to leave it there. thank you so much. the out going chief of va a valeant pharmaceuticals is sc lk int drug price increases in the health care system. last week pearson said he would step down as valeant deal with a number of federal investigations into accounting practices. a new injection that presents debilitating headaches met the main goal of a study.

alder is competing with bigger rivals the get this new class of drugs to market. >> it's a problem more than 30 million americans are all too familiar with. migraine laheadaches are not on painful but can be debilitating. options leave a lot of room for improvement. a new group of drugs and development brings hope that may soon change. called cgrp antibodies. they are aimed to prevent migraines before theyy happen. they may produce better results than current therapies. it was new data today that's given support to the whole class. the study results to have shared with a small washington state bio tech company up as much as

50%. defined as 15 days with headaches per month eight of those considered migraines. the medicine reduced migraine base per month by 75% for more than a third of patients on the two highest doses tested meeting the study's goal. that compared to 20% of patients taking placebo reporting a 75% reduction. it's expected to go through another stage of testing before it may hit the market. analyst says each of the four drugs in development is essentially neck and neck with potential approval in 2018. estimates there are about 11 million patients with chronic migraines. >> the question is how many will end up on the drug and how much will the drug costs per patient per year. we're running 5 to $6 billion for the market in total. >> that assumes multiple

medicines make it to market and priced around $10,000 per year per patient. the drug can be administered once every three months versus once a month for competitors be p they are all given by injection through an iv or self-administered shot. the safety looks good. the results of larger clinical studies are needed to confirm. avon comes calling. that's where we begin tonight's market focus. in an effort to avoid a proxy fight avon will allow two independent groups to appoint independent executive. they will take part in selecting the nominee. shares of avon up more than 8% to $4.64. cow main foods saw its profit climb 26% in the latest

quarter thanks to higher egg prices. that helped the results. the fresh egg producer did miss revenue targets. shares of pandora fell on the news that the founder is coming home. he will return as the company's ceo. he previously held the role from 2002 to 2004. shares fell 12%. a former executive at investment bank pjt partners has been arrested after trying to swindle 95 million dollar from investors over the weekend. he was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud. he's been fired an an internal investigation has been initiated. shares fell more than 10% to 23.66. facebook is no longer just about status updates and likes. now it's game on for the social

media company that started shipping its high end virtual reality headset that is expected to be a big player in the fast growing virtual reality market. >> reporter: facebook's wrist is on sale for $60. like this far land virtual world that was created the to show the creative ssibilities. the new types of content expected to be web drive purchases of the headset. >> we're waiting to see what the killer app is whether it's facebook app itself or perhaps a game or experience we haven't imagined yet. >> while there already less expensive devices, today kicks off a competitive high end headset market. the $800 headset is due out april 5th.

sony was delayed until october and we'll see what apple launches. facebook's wrist has a head start but its market is limited by the fact that most pc's won't work with it unless they are fairly new and equipped for hard core gaming. with this pc gaming market was worth $28 billion last year. digit capital projects the total augmented virtual reality market will reach $150 billion by the year 2020. >> we shouldn't get ahead of our expectations and thinking this will be under every christmas tree at the holiday. i don't think it will be that big that fast. three to five years, it's massive. >> they aim to create a new market that goes far beyond gaming. >> facebook and mark's intention is to make the experiences with friends and whether it's game or something else. >> analysts seem optimistic that

facebook willing make the $2 billion acquisition to pay off. the question is how much prices will have to fall before they can become mainstream. coming up, new retirement rules are likely coming soon. they could affect your savings. the governor of georgia vetoed a bill that was denounced by major companies. the bill would have given faith based organizations in that state more leeway to deny services to gay, lesbian,

bisexual and transgender people. apple, comcast, time warner and others also urged the governor to veto the legislation. a controversial law in north carolina has prompted a first of all lawsuit. the american civil liberties union and other advocacy groups filed a suit against the governor and other state officials alleging a new law discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. the legislation was posed by numerous companies including facebook and microsoft, apple, ibm, american airlines among others. a new rule expected to be finalized soon by the department of labor may impact millions of investors with a retirement account. the proposed rule will require financial add vvisors to put th client's interest ahead of their own. it will impact money in a 401k

that could be rolled over into an individual account. sharon, this is a fudiciary standard. it's a very technical term and very controversial one. how would this affect iras and 401(k). >> it is that conflict of interest rule as you laid out. how it works for a retirement account, that's what the labor department is looking at. any ira that includes money that might be rolled over to an ira could be impacted. thiscts significant because so many people when it comes time to retire they switch jobs and move that money to an ira. many financial professionals want you to do that. they want to advise you on that money and some of them are getting hefty commissions. if they are following that suitability standard, they have to recommend something that's suitable and meet your needs. it could result in a conflict of interest that costs you money. >> we're talking about a lot of

money. you listed 25 trillion dollar in retirement in assets out there. is a significant portion ira money? >> $7.3 trillion is ira money. that's more than 401(k) ney. it pails in comparison to those who still have pensions out there. it's a significant amount of money. what's even more significant is how much the money is growing in terms of baby boomers rolling over their money. we have seen the growth of that for nearly 60% since 2010. we're now at about $439 billion. >> some people take their pension payments as lump sum as well. they would put that into an ira. >> could this slow the growth of ira assets? >> it would slow the growth of some of those roleovers is the concern of many of those in the

financial industry who are against this rule. the amount of cost and paper work that they will have to overcome to do this will make them want to stop doing it for the small investor. what many are saying who have researched this, if you're a big firm, you've already dealt with this andw t was coming. if they have a big financial add visor base they are prepared for this and create products more feeased than commission based. >> thanks very much. >> on that note, that's it for "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> i'm mtyler mathisen. have a great evening, everybody. we'll see you tomorrow.

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