this is "nightly business report." with tyler mythson and sue herera. funded in part by -- >> all it takes is a spark. one idea to take flight. the courage to seek the unknown. to innovate. disrupt. to move us all forward. to explore a different perspective. at nasdaq we connect the world. this idea is capital. it's businesses. the people that drive global economies. the future isn't tomorrow. it's right now. all it takes is a spark. nasdaq. surprise offer. kraft heinz proposed bid for unilever would create one of the biggest corporate acquisitions in history. but it's also raising a lot of questions. >> big order. president trump suggests the

government could buy more boeing planes and the stock hits a new high. coal country celebrates. the president follows through on his promise to roll back regulations. but is it enough to get the ailing industry back on its feet? those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for friday, february 17th. good evening, everybody. kraft heinz is hungry for a deal, a big one. one worth more than $140 billion. the food conglomerate, backed by billionaire warren buffett and the brazilian private equity ferm 3g made a takeover offer for unilever in what would be one of the biggest deals ever. but unilever said hold the mayo and kraft heinz may not take no for an answer. that may be why shares of both companies soared double digits in trading today. sarah ieisen explains why this may just be the beginning of a consumer food saga. >> kraft heinz, which itself was born out of an acquisition put

together by brazilian private equity giant 3g and warren buffett is trying to combine itself with the mega british-dutch company unilever. unilever owns dove soap, axe deodorant, hellmann's mayo and ben and jerry's. and while it rejected this current proposal, kraft says it still looks forward to reaching an agreement on the terms of a transaction. >> the real key is just the willingness of unilever, clearly stated that they don't think there's a financial or strategic merit to the offer as it stands at the right price. there's something that looks like it might be likely to happen. >> what's particularly interesting here. everyone expected kraft heinz and 3g to pursue a new deal in food. unilever is both a food, and household products company. about half and half. and what the common thread in both of those industries is? lack of growth. big food and household product companies have struggled to keep up with changing consumer tastes. and habits. eating healthy.

change in the way they buy basics. they're going now online and to their mobile phones. coupled with a slowdown in emerging markets, which accounts for about 60% of unilever's sales, the going has been tough for these big companies. so 3g's playbook, swoop in, buy up the companies, and cut costs. we're talking major slashing of costs that boost profit, and often include job cuts. what happens next? some analysts say that the price of this offer will go up, kraft hat until march 17th to announce a firm intention to make a specific offer or walk away under british law. 3g is pretty quiet about its strategy. >> maybe all they want is the food. the speculation, which i think makes sense is they probably don't want dove soap and all the personal care products. >> either way investors are certainly excited about the prospect. for "nightly business report," i'm sarah eisen. and as sarah just explained, 3g is known for its harddriving management and deep cost cuts.

what's happens when the brazilian private equity firm swoopes in? what happens to workers and jobs? fortune magazine wrote about exactly that. the writer of that article, senior editor at large, and he joins us tonight from fortune. good to see you. >> thank you. >> you said you anticipated that they would be making an acquisition that was large but this one even surprised you. >> that's exactly right. this was totally predictable, because it was clear they had to make another acquisition. that's how 3g companies grow. they don't grow organically, they grow by acquisitions. so they had to make a buy. what was astounding was that no one on wall street nor i imagined they would ever go after a target as big as unilever. >> do they really want, i think you sort of referenced this, do they really want everything that comes with unilever? from axe deodorant to soaps and other things, or do they just want the food brand? >> well, they -- first of all, they never announce stuff like

this and they don't talk much to the press. but i find it hard to believe that they really would want anything other than the food. the whole history of 3g is food and beverage. beer, burger king, tim horton, kraft, heinz. it's all food and beverage. >> you know, jeff, it's the political climate for job cuts and things like that is not favorable for 3g. now granted it is a brazilian private equity firm, but what about the way they might have to do this because their m.o. is to kind of come in, close plants, slash jobs, cut costs? >> that's exactly right. and i'm sure that that's the playbook they would be following this time. it's going to be a real problem. because they've done it in the united states, and mostly without trouble. the environment in europe is very different. worker protections are far greater. unions are far stronger. they could have a problem trying to run their playbook in europe.

>> so kraft heinz is 3g on the one hand, it is also warren buffett on the other. right? >> oh, yes. in fact, he owns more of kraft heinz than 3g does. >> how active a driver do you think he would be in this kind of acquisition? and as you point out, they have to do this because they're not growing otherwise. >> that's exactly right. buffett is an important source of financing. but he has made clear that he doesn't want to run these companies, and, in fact, he has said that 3g runs them far better than he ever would. so i think his role will probably be in the background as a financier. >> do you think that they can pull this off, jeff? i mean they did it, certainly, with beer. but the food business, as sarah pointed out in her piece, is very different and consumer tastes are changing. fairly rapidly, as well. >> well, they are. i mean, the first question is, will they actually be able to do the deal? it seems no one has ever stopped them from getting what they wanted. they are formidable.

how they can manage in the food business, as tastes are changing, well that's what they're trying to adapt to. >> all right. thanks so much for spending time with us. >> you bet. >> jeff colvin with "fortune" magazine. >> softbank is reportedly making a new attempt to merge sprint and t-mobile. according to a reuters report sprint's majority owner softbank plans to approach t-mobile's majority owner deutsche telekom about a gettogether. softbank has to wait until the end of the fcc spectrum auction in april. the japanese multinational company first tried to merge sprint and t-mobile back in 2014 but abandoned the pursuit on regulatory concerns. the report sent shares of both t-mobile and sprint higher, as you see there. on wall street, the dow inched higher just minutes before the bell to extend its win streak to seven straight record closes. the upbeat merger news and a climb in boeing shares ultimately helped offset a decline in the energy sector.

we'll have more on that in a moment. the dow jones added four points to 20,624. the nasdaq was up 23, and the s&p 500 rose 3. for the week, the three major indexes all reported gains that exceeded 1%. boeing was one of the top performi ining dow stocks today after the president praised the company at its south carolina plant and suggested the government could buy more planes from the corporation. it is the same plant where just days ago workers rejected joining the machinists union. phil lebeau has the story from charleston, south carolina. >> here in south carolina, president trump spent more than an hour touring the boeing plant, drusing the new dreamliner the 787-10 and talking in front of about 6,000 boeing workers about their future. about manufacturing in america, and about his pledge to bring even more jobs into this country. >> we want products made by our

workers, in our factories, stamped with those four magnificent words, made in the usa. >> the 6,000 boeing workers who were here listening to president trump gave him several rousing applauses, as he was talking about the importance of manufacturing in america. and when he ended his speech, he said god bless the united states of america, and god bless boeing. music to the ears of these workers. >> it was really neat experience being able to hear what he thinks about aircraft. it's been a long time coming, and it's just been incredible. >> i think it represents what south carolina is looking, especially with the union vote that didn't go through. we're working for south carolina, and for boeing. we're here to stay. >> i love the fact that he's looking out for america. >> for boeing ceo dennis mullenberg this is the third time that he has met with donald trump. once at trump tower in new york, once at mar-a-lago in florida and today here in south carolina, as boeing rolled out its newest dreamliner.

the 787-10. phil lebeau, "nightly business report," north charleston, south carolina. energy shares weighed on the market today. it tends to be a sector that stocks follow pretty closely. and as bob fasani reports it's not clear if the bulls are in control or the bears. >> the markets may be at new highs but one sector is showing signs and that's big oil. the broad markets drifting higher since the beginning of the year, but oil stocks have been drifting lower. it's not a one-day affair. it's a trend. the evidence is everywhere. chevron's at a new low for the year. exxon mobil is down nearly 10%. the oil and gas exploration and production etf was weighted towards u.s. producers down 5% for the year. what's happening? a reasonable conclusion is that there's a valuation problem for energy stocks. the markets are still discounting a significantly higher price for oil and a lot of people doubt that that's happening. how much higher? i don't know. but a lot of people at the end of last year were talking about

oil in the $60 or even $70 in 2017. the oil bulls insist demand is improving, opec's agreement to cut production is holding and all that's true. but look at the supply side. traders have noted that more than 200 additional drilling rings have been added this year. u.s. production is back up to 9 million barrels a day and oil it's $53. it's exactly where it was two years ago. that's right. oil is $53 on this day two years ago. it touched $60 briefly in june of 2015. hasn't come close since. what needs to happen? in the short run we certainly need to see inventory levels come down and that doesn't look like it's going to happen either any time soon. you can see why the energy bulls are having a tougher time of it recently. for "nightly business report" i'm bob fasani at the new york stock exchange. still ahead, kraft may want to buy unilever but there's another consumer products company on market monitor says investors may want to consider.

wells fargo says it retail operations were, quote, relatively stable in january. the bank has been reporting monthly customer activity in its branch banking unit ever since its fake accounts scandal was unearthed last fall. 30% fewer checking accounts were opened in january as compared with a year ago. but the number was up from december. at&t has expanded its unlimited data plan offering. earlier in the week verizon did the same. analysts say the move to unlimited plans reflect an intensifying price war within the wireless industry that could put pressure on companies to cut costs. >> the government backed mortgage companies fannie mae and freddie mac are paying $10 billion in dividends to you and me, to the treasury.

both companies earned billions of dollars of profit in the fourth quarter. now, new treasury secretary steve mnuchin said at his confirmation hearing that fannie and freddie should not be left under government control without a fix. but he also says he does not want to limit housing finance. the consumer financial protection bureau was established in the aftermath of the financial crisis. and pretty much ever since, the banking industry has been pushing for changes at the wa h watchdog agency. but not everybody agrees on how that should be altered. eli has the story from washington. good to see you. what does the cfbp actually do and why do the banks want to change it? >> the cfbp is america's consumer watchdog agency. an independent agency established during the financial crisis, and most importantly, it's run by a single investor, and the president has limited power to remove that director. of course, banks don't like that. they've been arguing for a long

time that the cfbp should be run by a five-member, bipartisan commission. they say that will provide them more stability so that the rules and regulations coming out of the cfbp don't change according to the whims of whoever might be the director of the agency. so they are looking for big changes to the structure of the cfbp. >> how about lawmakers? what kind of changes to that structure are they proposing? what would the gop like to see happen? >> well, one bill that we've heard about from representative jeb henner is link who is chairman of the house financial services committee would make the cfbp's single director removable at will by the president. essentially the president would have the ability to fire this person whenever the president decided was appropriate. other legislation out there that we've seen, dr. david per due has a rule out there that would allow the cfbp to be in -- to be funded through congress. right now the cfbp is funded through the federal reserve so the congress would have control of the purse strings and senator ted cruz has a bill that would

eliminate the cfbp altogether. just do away with the agency. >> that was what i was going to ask, is it possible that that might happen? does mr. cruz's proposal have legs? >> well it would take a legislative action for the cfbp to be entirely eliminated. and you better believe that democrats are not going to let that happen without a fight. this is a signature piece of president obama's financial reform changes that he made after the recession, and this is also the brainchild of senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts. so, she is not going to let this agency be killed quietly. >> thanks. have a great weekend. >> you, too. and to read more about america's consumer watchdog, you can head to our website, nbr.com. general mills slashes its full year guidance. that's where we include tonight's market focus. weak demand for yogurt and soup products in the u.s. would cause sales to come at the lower end of the company's previous guidance. the miker of honey nut cheerios

and betty crocker reduced its profit expectations. shares off more than 3% to 59.23. campbell's soup saw profit and sales fall more than expected as higher promotional spending and weakness in the company's fresh food business hurt results. the world's largest soup company did reaffirm its outlook for the year, though. that wasn't enough. shares fell 6.5% to $58.48. more food to talk about. smucker said weak demand for folger's coffee and pet food products hurt results in the latest quarter. the maker of jif peanut butter missed expectations. shares down 1 % to 135.95. despite facing soft market conditions, farming equipmentmaker deere said it saw sales improve in the latest quarter. the company said it's beginning to see signs of stabilization in key agricultural markets. the company also raised its outlook for 2017, so shares were

up 1% to 1 10.27. the justice department has joined a whistle-blower lawsuit from 2011 that alleges that the health insurer united health group overbilled the government's medicare program by hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even billions of dollars. united health group said it rejects the claim, and plans to contest them vigorously. shares were off more than 3.5% to $157.62. and health insurance -- insurer aetna said it is doubling its quarterly dividend to 50 cents per share. the annual yield is now more than 1.5%. the company also said it would add $4 billion to its existing share buyback program. aetna shares were down 3% to $1 25.27. and now to our market monitor who has names of stocks she says could grow 15% over the next year or so and also provide some nice dividend income and get this, the last time she was on in july, she recommended the following stocks. and they have all risen double

digits. some 58%. marianne montaine. welcome. let's say we do it just like last time. >> i'm a tough act to follow. >> follow yourself here. let's start with british american tobacco. why do you like it? right. this is a company that is acquiring reynold's american. and they can leverage off of reynold's' portfolio around the world with products like newport, and the vapor e-cigarette. it yields 3.5%. it's valued far lower than any other consumer staple stock, and particularly the other tobaccos. >> next on the list invesco. you say it's not like some of the other banks that are out there. why? >> yeah, when you look at the financial sectors, the banks have done extremely well since the election. and here's a financials aim that's not a bank, it's an asset manager and perhaps you know the

exchange traded funds that they offer, power shares. so with the gains in the stock market they gain assets under management, and their fees grow, and along with the explosion, and exchange traded funds, we expect them to continue to do very well. again, nice dividend yields, about 3.2%. and a multiple of 12 where the market is more like 17 times. >> you know the food business, marianne, much in the news today. with that proposed merger of kraft and unilever. your third pick, probably benefiting one way or another, from these discussions, is nestle. why do you like it? >> well nestle offers a 3.5% field. so, again, we're looking forward 15% total return from these three names over the next year or so. so that's a nice start with 3.5% yield. but their focus has been on wellness and for the first time in about 100 years, they've actually gone outside their own

ranks to bring in a new ceo who happens to be from the health care side of things, who we expect to change the portfolio toward a faster growing wellness type product, and those happen to be higher margin products. at the same time they've embarked on a nice, substantial, three-year cost reduction program. so, i think, you know, being where they are, global, around the world, in europe, it's already i think they stand a better chance at cutting costs than unilever might when 3g encounters the european commissions, and they try to take out the head count. i think they're up for a big battle in europe. >> very quickly, do you like the u.s. markets? or it seems as though you are favoring the international markets, maybe a little bit more. >> yeah, the international market has underperformed the u.s.-backed market on a one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year basis. so we think valuations are

better overseas than in the u.s. we think the u.s. is fairly valued, not fully valued. still upside in the u.s. but still upside overseas. >> marianne, thank you again for being with us. congratulations on your very good picks last time. may you do it again. >> all righty. >> coming up, did coal country just get a shot in the arm? >> i'm contessa brewer in ohio. this is coal country and coal country gives president trump a big thumb's up for taking a first big step towards fulfilling his campaign promise. that's ahead on "nightly business repor here's a look at what to watch next week on tuesday, dow components home depot and

walmart report their earnings. macy's done as well and it has seen seven straight quarters of falling sales. wednesday the federal reserve releases the minutes of its latest meeting. investors will be looking for any hint on the timing of the next rate hike. and on friday we'll find out how many new homes were sold in january and that's what to watch next week. the senate today confirmed the president's pick to head the environmental protection agency. the votes for scott pruitt were mostly down party lines. he is expected to waste little time when it comes to scaling back high profile environmental regulations. pruitt was one of about two dozen mostly republican state attorneys general who sued the obama administration over many of its environment rules. coal country cheering today as president trump takes a step toward fulfilling a major campaign promise to bring back a declining industry. as we told you yesterday, the president signed a law that removes an environmental rule that coal miners saw as too broad, too burdensome and illogical.

contessa brewer reports from powhatton point, ohio. >> along this stretch of the ohio river, the coal comes pouring in around the clock. and yet in this county the unemployment rate is higher than the national average, and families have been hurting with coal's decline. >> this town is nothing kard to what it used to be. this used to be all stores. groepsry stores, clothing stores, everything. >> retirees like marianne anderson are helping keep the riverside restaurant afloat. its customers used to be mainly coal miners. >> the public part of my job is having to sit across from a grown man and watch him crying balls i had to tell him he was laid off. >> as harbor master at the ohio valley loading company, he has seen his share of layoffs. 30,000 coal jobs have disappeared in the last five years. and the industry was predicting many more. it claims the stream protection rule finalized in december would cost 281,000 jobs in a worst

case scenario. the nonpartisan congressional research service estimated it would cost 260 jobs per year. but would create roughly as many. >> a major threat to your jobs, and we're going to get rid of that threat immediately. >> president trump signed a law overturning the government's regulation fulfilling a campaign promise he made to bring back coal. environmentalists are furious about what the new law means for habitat and ground water. the epa, department of the interior and army corps of engineers had worked for years to structure this stream protection rule to prevent mining related pollution and environmental damage. that's not the way coal leaders saw it. >> it was a deliberate attempt by the radical people in the obama administration to eliminate underground coal mining. >> experts say regulation is not the only challenge facing coal's revival. they say automation is among the biggest job killers. and coal's struggling to compete

with cheap, natural gas. >> i don't believe there's anything wrong with, you know, more forms of energy. just don't destroy a industry to make room for another one. it doesn't make sense. and quite frankly, this country cannot survive without coal. >> this county certainly can't. and they're looking to president trump to tip away at a mountain of regulatory roadblocks, they see barring the path to coal's future success. for "nightly business report" i'm contessa brewer, ohio. and that does it for "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> and i'm tyler mathisen. thanks from me, as well. have a great weekend, everybody, it's a long one. see you on monday. >> "nightly business report" has been funded in part by -- >> all it takes is a spark. one idea to take flight. the courage to seek the unknown. to innovate. disrupt. to move us all forward.

to explore a different perspective. at nasdaq we connect the world. this idea is capital. it's businesses. the people that drive global economies. the future isn't tomorrow, it's right now. all it takes is a spark. nasdaq.

>> 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