total online holiday sales and all of that shopping showed up in the can's quarterly results. here's the numbers. amazon earned a 1.54 a share. that was $0.19 better than expectations and translates into a 55% rise in profit making for its seventh straight profitable quarter. sales rose too. they were up 22% from a year ago to $43 billion but that figure was below estimates as was the revenue outlook for the current quarter and that pressured the stock initially in after-hours trading as you see there. deidre bosa has the one key takeaway from amazon's quarter. >> investors may have been extra disappointed that amazon's revenue in the last quarter fell below expectations because q4 has been the strongest quarter thanks to holiday sales. the company even saying it saw it's best holiday season ever. however eps beat the streets estimates and that makes it

seventh straight quarters that amazon has been in the black. deidre bosa, san francisco. >> despite amazon's pull back in late day trading today the stock is up more than 7% this year similar to other tech stocks. in fact, the tech focus nasdaq 100 has risen more than 5.5% since the 2015 easily outperforming both the dow and s&p 500. >> but there are some headwinds and additionally some tailwinds but those headwinds could derail the rally that has been going on in the tech sector since the beginning of the year. scott tesler head of technology equity search as cfra search and he joins us now to discuss. scott, technologies off to a good start. can it keep it up? >> to some extent we think so, tyler. it's basically tied for first as the best performing s&p 500 sector at least through january up 4.2% and we think that really

reflects a couple of realities. one is these stocks were not, let's say, loved post election. a lot of people were gravitating too sectors and names that people thought would benefit disproportionately as a result of the election of now president trump and a republican congress. but what we seen at least in 2017 thus far is people are realizing that there could be benefits as a result of the political changes as well as some other catalyst for the sector going forward. >> there are some negatives that you've given us for the tech sector and one is the strong dollar. >> yes. so when we think about the technology sector, we think about a group of large companies that has a very international focus and so if you think about for 2015, the sector generated a

large percentage actually the second highest percentage of any sectors revenues outside the u.s. so we think a stronger or even increasing dollar against major currencies like the euro, british pounds, japanese yen that's a negative for a lot of these companies. >> two other areas that could be headwinds that you enumerate are trade restrictions. obviously a lot of tech companies import a lot of product they could be caught by that border adjustment tax and the other one is h1b visa concerns about the ability to attract the tech workers they say they need. >> yeah. i think the first item of the two you mentioned, tyler, i think it's pretty self-explanatory but it's probably most significant for a lot of the companies that are responsible for producing goods that are under say a u.s. brand umbrella like an apple, for

example, but a lot of the sourcing and manufacturing actually occurs outside the u.s. and h1b 1 visa situation. the president a year or so ago was talking about the need to reform the h1b 1 visa program because a lot of entry level workers were making use of that worker and i think a lot of people now want to see that reformed. we saw legislation introduced just last week to make some significant changes. interestingly from a democratic representative from silicon valley. >> right. thank you very much for that summary of the pluses and minuses on tech. scott kessler. >> on wall street stocks finished the day mostly flat as investors analyze the day's earnings. look ahead to tomorrow's job report and kept watch on the growing attentions around the globe. it dropped 6 points to 19,884. the nasdaq was off six and the

s&p 500 rose one. >> more than half way through earnings seasons and it is clear now the new administration is having an impact on business. according to the "the washington post" of the more than 40 s&p 500 companies that hosted conference calls in january, one half mentioned new president trump either directly or indirectly and most of the companies urged patients and optimism despite some of the policy uncertainty issuing from washington. >> and that uncertainty is also been felt by investors who are trying to figure out what they should do with their money in this fast changing environment. so mike essential tolly went to san diego to see what investors are doing in this new trump era. >> reporter: nearly three months after election day investment advisors are convinced that it has shifted dramatically under president trump. they were still sorting out how

these shifts will play out. surveys of these advisors found 83% trump policies will be a major factor affecting the client port foerlios. >> with more business friendly and market friendly policies that seem to be on the table. we're seeing advisors excited about maybe more of a pro business environment reduced regulation or reduced complexity in the raegt tri environment i would say. >> reporter: at least initially the net impact will be positive. almost 70% came into the year optimistic the most upbeat result in eight years and 53% or bullish on stocks while 70% bonds will lose value as rates climb. they're steering clients out of the conservative dividend rich sectors that benefit from slow growth and low rates. they like financials and industrials. embracing a consensus that has been become known as the trump trade. some advisors are concerned about the way the president's erratic messages on trade,

corporate behavior could spook markets. >> really think things through i think that he needs to have that when we sometimes put a child whose not behafrg we got to put them in a timeout. i think what he needs is a timeout. >> for now markets remain quite calm with stocks hovering near all time highs. perhaps this means investors are willing to look through the daily noise toward the prospect of business friendly tax cuts. as the markets adjust with to a new president investment advisors might have to work extra hard at a key part of their job, keeping clients focused on the long-term. for "nightly business report" in san diego. >> president trump's comments on iran got the attention of investors today. the president said that, quote, nothing is off the table following that country's test

launch of a ballistic missile. house speaker paul ryan said the u.s. should stop apiecing rooirn and many republicans would be in favor of additional sanctions. other presidents have echoed mr. trump's statement. former president obama said that military options were not off the table to prevent the country from getting a nuclear weapon. >> so with growing tensions between iran and the u.s. where are some other places around the world that you should be watching more closely? jeff kline tock joins us he's the chief global investment strategy as charles schwab and he's here to fill us in on that. >> good to see you. >> what are you watching? obviously iran was front and center in today's trading session and probably will be for some time now, but it's a big world and there are a lot of different events ta are scheduled to happen such as brexit and that. what are you watching most clesly? >> there's certainly elections

in europe but those are on the calendar. it's the unscheduled surprise events that could really have a big chance of moving the market. iran and sanctions there, but looking overseas, the leader of north korea announced this year that he's planning on testing and intercontinental capable of reaching the u.s. anything that could involve a military conflict with the u.s. is going to get the markets attention right away. so if they do test that missile will there be a response from the trump administration. other areas maybe in the south chooin sea. escalation there would certainly get the market's attention as well. remember, we're trying to figure out what the trump doctrine is on foreign policy and so the market's going to extrapolate even small interactions into much bigger thing. >> syria is a sort of nonfunctioning state some would say and iraq may be the same and there is the announced intention of the trump administration to

move the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem that could destablize the situation in the middle east, couldn't it? >> it certainly could. jerusalem the palestinians would like that to be the head of their state. also in the trump administration were to pull back as he's mentioned on support for rebels in syria, turkey and saudi arabia may step up in support for sun noois and you've got a proxy war there between them and iran. all of that could inflame intentions. russia has renewal of their z-angss coming up this summer and they could look to stir up trouble. maybe in romania we're seeing protests right now over some changes to policy on anticorruption reforms that sought to limit russian interactions. there's a lot of areas in the middle east and in eastern europe where we could see some of these things show up and have some effects on the markets. >> jeff, thank you very much.

appreciate it. >> and still ahead why harley-davidson the all american brand is once again getting a lot of buzz. more earnings news. mercks profits came in as expected in the most recent quarter but revenues dipped just a bit. the dow correspondent was hurt by generic competition.

bright spots included growths in his drugs. drug maker also said profits for 2017 be roughly in line with wall street expectations. investors found that outlook reassuring considering the increase in drug development cost and shares moved about 3% higher. >> fellow dow component visa reported better than expected quarterly profit revenue thanks to higher payment volume growth. the world's largest everyoned $0.84 a share. revenues were up 25% to more than $4 billion. and that sent shares initially higher in after hours trading. kayla tausche has the one key take way on visa's results. >> advice ais a global company that facilitates transactions and payments all across the world in the trillions of dollars. so what investors were looking for was the sense of how the global volatility in the market was potentially effecting the company and it's volume. well, the short answer is not that much. payment volume grew 47% in the

company's first quarter. that was exactly what wall street was expecting and the company ceo says we're seeing good momentum in the business driven by domestic and cross border volumes. that being said the company did reaffirm its guidance for the year but said that currency volatility or the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuation will take a little bit of a bigger bite out of its bottom line. for "nightly business report," i'm kayla tausche. >> well, macy's may be open to selling itself and that is where we begin tonight's mashlgt focus. the new york post is willing to hear board shake up that could dent departing ceo's reputation among other things. the record added one of the share horlders star board value is unhappy with the company's financial results and may look to advocate for management changes. shares of macy's up 5% at 30.72. ralph lauren said it's ceo is going to step down from the

clothing retailer on may 1 following a disagreement with founder ralph lauren regarding creative strategy. never a good career move to disagree with the founder. it was mutually agreed upon. ralph lauren reported earnings above expectation and reaffirmed it's 2017 guidance. shares down 12% though, 76.61. the media company has reached an agreement to sell its radio business to the broadcasting company enterkom. the merger will result in an outfit that operates more than 200 stations around the world. cbs shares fraction alley to 64.14. enterkom surged nearly 11% to 50.70. immediate johnson may shoon be taken over by the british company. the owner of the lie sol and wool light brand said yesterday it was in advanced talks to my

mead johnson for neil $17 billion. don't mix the wool light with the baby farmla. mead johnson shares soared 21%. >> despite posting lower profit and revenue the "the new york times" beat street expectations thanks to a surge in digital subscriptions. ceo mark thompson doesn't tell the entire story the decline in earnings. >> they're also growing at the moment. for the first time in many quarters we've got more people coming to get the physical print newspaper. digital business is going very well. you'll see where he got very strong growth in digital advertising and spectacular growth in digital consumer. >> "the new york times" were unchanged on the day at $13.55. chee pot lay said an increase in wages and higher prices for after cad doughs caused prices to fall. the ber rito change posted revenue in line with forecast but saw it's same store sales

fall. it expects those sales to improve and rise by high single digits this year. finished the regular session up a fraction to 423.30. and go prosaw it's loss widen. the wearable camera makers said slower demand during the holiday season caused sales to fall and miss estimates. the company gave gadance for the current forecast that was below street forecast. go proshares initially plunged more than 10% giving back nearly 4% gain in the regular session where they closed at $10.97. >> president trump met with executives today from a company that's really apart from the fabric of america, harley-davidson. the executives drove up to the white house on what else, harleys putting this iconic brand back in the spotlight. landon doubty has more. >> with more than 100 years of manufacturing experience

harley-davidson is known as riding high on its made in america strategy. the motorcycles makers allowed a dominant position in the u.s. motorcycle market. >> i think the reason that it's so iconic because it remains an american manufacturing powerhouse. they've never used outside of the country. they've never tried to manufacturer in places like mexico unless there's been a country with real tariff consequences maybe like brazil or india, they've stayed really loyal to remaining an american brand. >> but lately harley-davidson is all revved up with nowhere to go which begs the question is the american iconic slipping. earlier this week harley reported disappointing fourth quarter results as motorcycle shipments fell 12% year over year and are not forecast to grow in 2017. harley's problem, the 2016 models aren't selling as we will as they hoped. and there's a limited supply of the 2017 models. unfavorable foreign exchange rates and heavy discounts by

competitors are further complicating the picture. the result? flat sales in the u.s. mirroring an industry wide trend seen for the past three quarters. today harley executives rolled up to the white house where the president focused on american production. >> and this administration our allegiance will be to the american workers and american businesses like harley-davidson. >> this isn't the first president to meet with the american iconic, three of the last five presidents including ronald reagan, george w bush and bill clinton have met with harley-davidson at their milwaukee headquarters. while today's meeting put the focus on manufacturing and jobs in the u.s., harley's challenge remains find consumering consumers to hop on those motorcycles. >> it reportedly outsor sourced part of its information technology unit a report on cnbc.com said in 2012 signed an

agreement an indian tech staffing company to take over a portion of its i.t. department. >> while the president and harley-davidson executives met about job the labor department for unemployment benefits. it's the latest positive piece of data that show a tightening job market ahead of tomorrow's monthly employment report. what investors can expect tomorrow? >> reporter: ahead of friday's jobs report from the labor department, we learned that fewer americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. continuing a dramatic decline over the last year. just over two million americans are receiving unemployment benefits down 8% from a year ago. experts say low claims are a proxy for layoffs with employers reluctant to let workers go in a tight labor market and earlier this week in a closely watched survey of private sector job growth employers hired some 246,000 new workers last month far above the overall consensus

forecast of 174,000 jobs with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.7%. >> we could see an upside surprise most notably because in the retail sector we didn't hire up a lot in the holiday season and even though we're seeing that restructuring from bricks to clicks that's not going to happen until the february through april period. >> reporter: at the first federal reserve meeting of the year monetary policy makers predicted further tightening of the labor market. leading economist will look for signs of morning wage growth even which sectors are leading the way. >> looking to see continued gains in the health care sector. uncertainty about the extension of the affordable care act could cause some consternation and some hesitancy to hire going forward. >> reporter: in the coming months, the trump administration policies on trade, immigration, taxes and infrastructure are expected to impact the outlook for jobs. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pierceson in

washington. >> coming up calling the right plays is the nfl scoring a touchdown with fans. >> ceo is stepping down from the president travis kalnick that his participation has been construed as an endorsement of the new administration's policy. the announcement follows criticism of his decision to work with the white house, the president is convening the first meeting of this advisory council tomorrow made up of ceos from the biggest company. >> the disappearing message service snapchat has officially filed for an initial public offering. snap seeks to raise up to

$3 billion even though in its filing the company may never achieve or maintain profitability. the highly anticipated ipo is expected to be one of the largest since alibaba went public back in 2014. >> oso we know what we'll be doing on sunday. what will you be doing on sunday? chances are that you'll be one of the millions watching the super bowl but the business of football has seen better days and it's hoping that super bowl li will deliver a touchdown. >> reporter: the biggest game in america has descended on its fourth largest city and houston couldn't be happier. >> it's fantastic for the city. it's not just the economy wise but i think overall, you know, for the country, it really is means something. >> reporter: but the super bowl is coming to texas at a time when nfl ratings have disappointed, something the commissioner is well aware of and the league is looking at

ways to speed up the game. >> what we're trying to do is to make our product as exciting, our games as exciting and action packed as possible, so it comes on various different levels for us and we have not dismissed any theories about how we can continue to engage our fans more extensively either on television or in the stadium. >> reporter: the matchup between the new england patriots and atlanta falcons is also seeing a drop in prices on the resale market for tickets the average price of around $4,400 is down 12% from a year ago. it's the biggest game in town betting on the super bowl this year could reach $4.7 billion. that's a half billion dollars more than a year ago and the companies are using the game to brand themselves in a new way. >> reporter: for example, with the trump's administration emphasizes on manufacturing party city is making super bowl napkins, cups and other goods in the u.s. with plans to expand.

>> being in the united states being close to manufacturing helps our supply chain. >> reporter: then there's the company that has the name on the stadium houston based energy giant nrg. >> we're excited to have you introducing the nrg brand to people. >> me too. i have spent weeks reaching nrg and it is fascinating stuff. >> reporter: the company hired actor tony hail explaining exactly what nrg is. >> reporter: finally sunday's a chance for houston to reintroduce itself as the world as it starts to recover from the boston oil prices. security is tight and expectations are high. the last time the super bowl was here was 2004 when janet jackson had her wardrobe fal mungs. this year lady gaga will foreman at halftime but the odds favor a repeat performance in one respect. 13 years ago the patriots won and tom brady was mvp.

the for "nightly business report" jane wells houston, texas. >> i just hope takes good game. >> could be. could be high scoring. these are two good offenses. >> on that note that does it for "nightly business report" tonight. i'm sue herera thanks for joining us. >> i'm tyler mathisen. thanks from me as well. have a great evening and we'll see you back here tomorrow night.

>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here in aruba. families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the