this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathieson and sue herrera. >> investor disconnect, why optimism is soaring even as the economy appears to be just okay. . new approach, could slashing light treat alzheimer's? radical ideas to tackle one of medicine's biggest challenges. rising fast, how can amazon's jeff bezos become the world's richest person? those and more on the "nightly business report" for march 30th. >> a record day for the nasdaq today. it was a big one. we gin tonight with the american economy, which is meandering along, just so-so. the growth is not where many

want to see, growth domestic product, goods and service, expanded at an annual rate of 2.1% in the final three months of last year. that was a slight improvement from the previous estimate, not enough to change growth for all of last year, which came in at just 1.6%. while gdp and other economic data are meddling along, indicators that measure optimism are soaring, consumer confidence, just the other day, we told you that it stands at the highest level since all the way back in 2000. there's margins, the amount of money borrowed to buy stocks. it's an all time high. >> that means investors are feeling optimistic about the prospects for the market. >> we were wondering, why are investors feeling so good when some of the other economic data like overall gross profit is just okay. here to explain the disconnect and take us inside the investor's psyche is a trading

psychology coach for portfolio managers and hedge funds, the guys who maybe manage some of your money. it's good to see you, doug. >> it's great to be back. thank you very much. >> why is there that disconnect? you have some really interesting theories why the numbers empirically may be saying one thing, but investors are feeling and doing differently. >> investors have a sense of optimism that grows overtime. one thing we noticed in the field of psychology is a new coach transition, so you have a mediocre team, if you bring in a new head coach, if you are beginning a fresh start, everyone naturally thinks about the possibility for the future. we are seeing that in the markets, with the transition of the new administration. >> ken, is the danger in that, that you as an investor, then, become overconfident that the new coach will deliver, sometimes the new coach is great and does, sometimes they're not exactly checked. >> keep it in mind, it's still the same coach. have you the same team. that's the part that people get mistaken with is they have

taught us people are liss torically overconfident in their skills and what we see with the markets is optimism is that investors become overconfident in their skills as investor, they think it's going up, it will keep on going up, i want to be a part of this. i'm feeling great, reading about it. >> how much also has to do with the message that is being put out by the new coach the administration? you you know, we are tackling tax reform, immigration, we will tackle the deficit. all of those things? >> i'll be clear as a jedi mind trick, president trump isn't a political conversation. he's charismatic, engaging, uses great words like fantastic and great and wonderful. those words stick in our minds. we move forward with that analogy in our head. it's the same example if i said to you, whatever you do, don't think of pink elephants, all of a sudden you are thinking of penk elephants. i put that image in your head, president trump has done that

with the economy in the market. >> an effective communicate for for sure. so give me some advice as an investor what to be on guard about not letting my emotions take over and translate that into action. >> so go back to the data and the best thing you can do is recognize you are having this over anxious or over confident feeling, go back to data points and look for pros and cons, break it down to an objective list of pros and cons, look at who you are having conversations with, chat rooms or blogs you are reading. if you are surrounding yourself with right mind people, that itself a red flag you lost objectivity around you. ask yourself about what's the counter argument, the total opposite side. why is this not a great market? what's wrong with the economy? ask yourself those tough questions, you have an equalizer mentality. >> thank you, it's always nice to have you. >> all right. as we mentioned, the nasdaq set a closing high today. >> that makes you feel optimism. >> all right. >> as technology and stocks and

financials led to the broader market higher t. dow jones industrials industrial average up 69 points to 20,728. nasdaq record added 16. s&p 500 was up nearly 7. >> and to the job mark, a number of americans filing for unemployment benefits fell less than expected last week. according to labor department, initial jobless claims dropped 3,000 to 258,000. though the drop was less than expected, claims have been be w be300,000 and the labor market is much smaller. america's federal debt burden will hit a record over the next three decades if current policies are maintained, that according to long-term projections for the non-partisan office. the forecast says the debt held by the public will plan to 150% of economic output by the year 2047. most of the increase is projected to come from those entitlement programs, social

security and medicare. when it comes to trade, a draft memo shows that the trump administration may take a much more conventional approach to negotiations, and not the tough stance the president once called for. elon, the memo may be the first look at the president's plan, so what is the administration hoping to change when it eventually renegotiates nafta? >> reporter: sue, this is really an outline of broad pulse of what the administration wants to accomplish. some of the things in that letter include leveling the playing fell when it comes to tax treatment. it also includes potential tariffs that they could impose on imports from mexico or canada, if those imports start to hurt american businesses. the goal of all of this is to shrink the trade deficit that the u.s. has with mexico. so these are some of the big ideas that are in there. but the negotiations have yet to start and you know the devil is always in the details. >> how does this draft letter,

elon, match up with what the president said or seemed to say on the campaign trail? >> well the president was very clear on the campaign trail. he said he wanted to rip up nafta, rip up this trade deal. this trade deal is not getting ripped up in this letter. it's being renegotiate. so what you are really seeing here is an evolution of america's trade stance rather than the revolution that the president had called for, now if the talks don't go well, we'll see what happens then. right now, it's more of the season than a full scale rejection. >> as you mentioned, the talks haven't started yet, but is there a time line for it? >> so the administration has to send a letter to congress to notify lawmakers that it wants to gin those negotiations. commerce secretary wilbur ross was on cnbc earlier today, he says he hopes to send that letter to congress by the easter recess, once that happens, there will be a 90-day waiting period. secretary ross says he believes the talks could be wrapped up

within a year. we'll see what happens. >> indeed we will. elon, flies to see you agains a always, thanks, for joining us. rumbling just beneath the market is russia, some call eight significant geopolitical risk to global stocks. today jeff can you domore had a chance to talk directly to the leader of that country, vladimir putin, while chairing a panel at the international arctic forum in russia. >> reporter: this russian organized international optic forum is primarily about showcasing energy resources in the arctic and showing russian fans for developing this region whilst taking care of the environment. but while i had the opportunity to question the russian president, i asked him about the ongoing investigation in the

united states as to whether russia interfered with the election process. the president's answer, categorically, we did not. >> we are debating about taxes and icy no. >> reporter: when asked why this process was taking place, the russian president said, there was growing anti-russian sentiment for domestic reasons. he accused those criticizing russia of telling lies. >> well, you can see throughout the united states and a great power with which wants to establish a good partnership relations. there are things that are fictional and illusory, lie, always are used for domestic american political agendas.

>> reporter: up to this point relations between moscow and withdrawing at a low ebb. there is the whole issue of sanctions and continued concerns about militarization. there may be some opportunity, though, to make progress if the two presidents ever meet. at this stage there are no plans for anything to lap ahead of the g-20 meet income germany in july. but president putin used this opportunity to say he would be willing to meet earlier than that in any city. the u.s. administration would choose. this is jeff can you domore in russia for "nightly business report." still ahead, the new radical ways researchers are trying to tackle alzheimer's, our modern medicine series is next.

>> the best performing sector so far this year is tech knowledge. we talked about that yesterday. today with one day left in the quarter, we look at the second best performing sector, health care, we have the beat check. >> reporter: the white house and congress struggled to repeal obamacare. investors didn't shy away from health care. the sector gained more than 8% this quarter, outperforming the overall market. some of the biggest scanners, like ensureer up 27% due to a lot to lose from the gop bill's medicaid cut. >> i think the rollback of coverage and the potential loss of coverage in, obviously, the most vulnerable fragile

population was a very difficult thing to stomach. >> reporter: hospital stocks like community health surged even more, short sellers betted heavily against the shares of the debt ridden opt operator and tenet health care rival. because they could see big losses of gop medicaid's cutback their path. but shortfallers pamped out when the fw op bill failed. as the hot sector rallied. >> for the case of these companies, now the decisions they've made to the capital and to continue along the kind of patient care initiatives that have been innovative, in part, enabled by the aca, all of those things can continue. >> reporter: the president pledged the pursue drug price negotiations, but the sector has seen its best quarterly gain in two years. so is the market betting republican reforms will stall long term? not entirely. part of the health care sectors gains are coming from investors betting that the trump

administration's other priority, tax and regulatory reform will help push more profits to help firm's bottom line. still, obamacare and reform will be a big theme again in the second quarter, when insurers submit 2018 exchange rate plans. they think they may cut their overall participation. >> it is big in that they are the largest license holder out there, but i think the trend is fairly well established. >> reporter: for now work change still up in the air, analysts say it's business as usual for health care and the individual company filed a medal to that count. melissa kuhns, "nightly business report." after years of research, alzheimer's, millions of americans are thought to have that disease. >> that number is expected to triple by 2050. as we reported yesterday, there is a debate within the medical community over the best way to target the disease, tonight as

part of our modern medicine series, meg terrell looks at some new approaches to alzheimer's. >> what goes wrong in the brain, alzheimer's is one of the great mysteries of new medicine. new mystery may shed light on the problem. >> two membranes comparing billions of neurons and other supporting cell types and this neurons make trillions of masses with each other to form an intricate brain circuit or network. much like a computer. but more powerful. >>. rond studying those newing as is making research. >> one productivity in our brain is a large number of connected neurons can fire synchronously together to produce this rippled oscillations or waves of different frequencies. >> one frequency known as gamma

is associated with higher order brain functions, perfection, attention and the formation of memory. researchers showed they are impaired in alzheimer's disease, team led by mit set out to restore those rhythms in mice. they found that exposure to flashing led lights or the gamma frequency restored that brain rhythm. once more, a reduction of the brain plaques associated with alzheimer's. >> unbelievable. one hour of likely exposure. we saw that amyloid level was cut almost in half. >> reporter: the brain was creating less amyliod, it was stimulating cells back into action, clearing the plaque, all due to a simple flickering light. the results need further testing to insure safety before moving into potential human studies, which may be a few years away.

companies are also taking new approaches. they aim to use viruses to vary treatments into the brain. it's an approach known as new therapy to create proteins to correct what's going wrong in disease. >> the cool thing about this approach is that because the vector gets into brain cells, neurons or glia, it sets up shop and with a single injection, we can produce antibody for many, many years. >> reporter: voyageer is still a few years from testing in humans as well, given the great need in alzheimer's for effective treatment. everyone is hopeful for advanced studies will bear fruit. >> clearly, there have been failures and that has caused a number of companies to pause and perhaps invest elsewhere, but there is still a number of big companies and small companies that are willing to take this problem on head-on. and my feeling is that we are just one positive clinical trial away from many, many other

people getting very actively involved. >> reporter: after decades of developments, one success would make a big difference. for "nightly business report," i'm mech terrell. to read more about the new approaches to treating alzheimer's disease, go to our website. conco philips shows most of its canadian assets. that's where we gin the market focus. canada's cenovus energies would buy assets for more than there are then billion. conco philips says the move will allow the company to trim debt and double the share repurchase program to $6 being. they jumped nearly 9% to $50. cenovus fell more than 13% to 1129. apparel and footwear company vs corps unveiled the growth plans. the distributor of brands, including the north face and wrangler said it will reshape

the company's brands portfolio and move towards a consumer and retail centered model. they also expect to return $8 billion to shareholders to 2021. bf shares down more than 3.5% to 5413. dem technologies, which is the holding company for dell said it's fourth quarter pc sales were the best it's had in six years. they still reported a quarterly loss but said overall results were helped by strength in its client's business, shares of dell tech added 9 cents to 6399. health insurer anthem may be dropping a large number of its markets where it serves customers under the affordable care act and analysts report from the investment banking firm jeffreys, says the company is leaning towards exiting a high percentage of the 144 regions it currently participates in. anthem shares up more than 1% on the day to 16708.

at&t has been chosen by the commerce department to build out a national wireless network to help first responders communicate in a time of crisis. an independent arm of the commerce department called first net will provide stick trum and $6.5 billion over the next five years. at&t will spend about 40 billion over the 25-year agreement. this is a model for not just telecommunications and first responder networks, here is a model as i said that's going to attract a lot of private investment. this is a model that can work for air traffic control. it can work for airports, roads, bridges. it seems like a logical mod toll apply, if you want to get infrastructure investment moving in this country. >> the network buildout is expected to gin later this year. coming up, bill gates is the world's richest person, but he better not look over his shoulder. a good spring.

>> emerging markets have been on a tear despite the trade saber rattling. seema moddy, it has been almost all of the emerging markets have been doing quite well. >> that is exactly right, tyler, markets in asia, argentina, broader latin america, china, too, joining the rally, what's very interesting is wall street was not expecting this out performance from emerging markets because of this protectionist view from washington, potentially coverage fans on trade, of course, these kind of policies would impact

emerging markets and their economies. but what we've seen is the exact opposite over the past couple weeks, a softer stance on protectionism, a weaker dollar, which is also very beneficial to these emerging market nations, that are sitting on a high level of dollar denominated debt, so within you have a weaker dollar, that, of course, makes that debt easier to compensate for. >> we've also had a number of an lifts on this program say that they're a little nervous the u.s. market is getting a little frothy, so they're deploying their casts into the emerging markets, almost as a hedge against the u.s. markets. >> that's exactly right. evaluations is a big story as well the recent global fund manager merrill lynch there morning shows valuations in the u.s., highest level since 2000. so that, in itself, is driving investors to look overseas for opportunities, not just in emerging markets, i should say, europe as well. >> europe. >> has been doing quite well. of course, the economic story

there has been a big catalyst for equities in europe the ecb finally potentially looking at stealing back on quantitativeseing. those two factors helping european stocks. >> how much for emerging markets to come online? >> we have. >> mr. were hurt, many are commodity based, right? >> right. especially in latin america they're so relying on oil and coal t. mines are finally coming back. china is playing a pivotal role there, helping latin american economies. obviously, the big question is, is if it can continue? >> you know you mentioned europe, seema, one of the hiccups, potentially, that we're hearing about is, you know,able 50, which triggers the uk starting its negotiations to leave the european union. >> that two-year time table is now under way. >> right. >> what is the possibility that that can create some jitters,

because other countries are talking about leaving the eu. scotland wants to stay in it. >> right. >> but so does great britain. >> exactly. >> there is just a lot of cross-currents going on, on those particular topics. >> it's political uncertainty that will likely be a cloud that sits over the uk for the next two years, to your point, sue, that, of course, is keeping a lot of investors on edge, are simply saying, we will put that to the side and wait for a final confirmation on how this brexit deal plays out, then we'll physical out how to put our money to work in that country the pound, such a great example of the type of weakness, but economists are projecting in the uk, the pound now at 123. i think it's a five-year low. >> that, of course, tells the story. >> that popular threat will be something that we'll be watching, not just in the uk, across europe, france, germany, pivotal elections there. >> well done, seema. well done. well, senators voted to

eliminate and obama era requirement, retirement regulation i should say, that move droves back retirement accounts for private sector workers, whose employers do not offer their own plans t. measure passed by a 50-49 vote. republicans say it was an example of federal overreach. democrats say states need flexibility to help workers save for retirement. north carolina's governor signed the repeal of that controversial so-called bathroom bill, which restricted the ability of transgender people to use the restroom corresponding to therapy gender identity. the bill sparked a big financial backlash. companies pulled expansion plans, sporting events have been moved, concerts can selled. the associated press recently said the law could cost north carolina nearly 4 billion. move over, warren buffer et. amazon founder and ceo jeff bezos is now the second richest person in the world, thanks to a rapidly rising stock price. so what might it take him to

move to the top spot? robert frank takes a look. >> emwith, bill gates better watch his back. gentleman bezos is on his way to becoming the richest man in the world. amazon ceo passed warren buffet to be number two on the list. it has added $2.5 billion to bezos misfortune. here's how they all stack up. gates has 86 become. bezos 76, buffet at 75. these numbers according to bloomberg billionaires index found the past year alone, bezos added 22 billion to his fortune. that worked out to $66 million a day or $42,000 per minute. it's been a bit of a long rides for bezos to get here. he made his debut in 1998 after a net worth of 1.6 become. at 2013, his net worth was $27 become. all right. so what would it take for bezos

to be number one in the world? assuming that microsoft stock remains constant, amazon stock would have to increase 13% for bezos to top gates' 86 billion. bill gates has held the title of the richest man for 18 of the last 23 years. for "nightly business report," i'm robert frank. >> that is it for "nightly business report" i'm sue herrera. >> tyler mathieson, have a great evening, everybody, we'll see you tomorrow. ♪

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