>> announcer: this is "nightly s tallying the votes. senate leaders are confident they have the support to pass the most sweeping tax overhaul . >> guilty plea. the president's former national security adviser heads to court, admits to lying to the fbi, and says he's cooperating with the special counsel. dizzying day. wall street whipsawed by washington. what might happen next, and what investors need to be aware of. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business repor f good evening, everyone, welcome. i'm tyler mathisen. sue herera is off tonight. we begin with history in the

making. republican senate leaders say they have the votes now to pass their massive tax cut bill. the day was spent deal making to convince uncommitment lawmakers to support the measure. it appears enough have fallen into line to pass historic legislation that will affect virtually every household and business in america. that prospect, and the likelihood of sharply lower tax rates especially on businesses, pleased investors, and they watched as stocks mostly recovered from sharp intraday losses. ylan mui covers the story for us tonight from capitol hill. ylan, what's the latest? >> reporter: tyler, it looks like republicans have the votes to pass their tax bill through the senate 51-49. the only republican holdout appears to be senator bob corker of tennessee. he said that he's disappointed, this is a very tough vote for him, but at the end of the day, he could not cast aside his fiscal concerns over how this

bill might impact the national debt. now, gop leadership has had to make several concessions to win over the other members of their caucus. those include increasing the deduction for passthrough businesses from 17.4% to 23%. they also restored the property tax deduction up to $10,000. those concessions, however, do come with tradeoffs as well. and one of those is that they're going to be keeping the alternative minimum tax for both individuals and corporations. i spoke to republican senator james lankford, and he said this is all part of >> there was really a tradeoff, you have to be able to get to lower rates to be able to make sure you're revenue neutral. no one wants to be revenue negative. we have to to be able to compensate for bringing down the rates. >> reporter: a final vote on this tax bill is still expected to come tonight. assuming it passes, republicans

will be on track to get this bill to the president's desk by christmas, tyler. >> ylan mui, thanks, ylan, on capitol hill tonight. the great tax debate wasn't the only thing investors watched and reacted to out of washington today. former national security adviser michael flynn pleaded guilty to charges he lied to federal investigators. and as first reported by abc news, was expected to testify that president trump and transition officials directed him to make contact with the russians on a variety of matters. eamon javers is at the white house tonight. >> reporter: dramatic scenes at the federal courthouse in washington, d.c. today as michael flynn, former national security adviser to president trump, appeared to plead guilty to a single count of lying to the fbi. a bit of a media scrum on the scene there. here's what we know about the case today. in a development that moved the stock market, flynn pled guilty

to lying with the fbi about talks with the russian ambassador before president took office. remember, there was t period after the election but before the inauguration. prosecutors say he spoke with russian officials on instruction from the trump transition team, including jared kushner. the president's lawyer says this guilty plea doesn't implicate anyone other than flynn himself, and that the false statements mirrored the false statements which resulted in his resignation. vice president of fired for the united states. the significant developme here is that mike flynn is cooperating with the special counsel's office. that could be ominous news for the white house. it's not clear what information flynn may have that could be of value to robert mueller. that cooperation could go on for some time.

eamon javers at the white house for "nightly business repor" late today, additional reports that former deputy national security adviser k.t. mcfarland spoke to michael flynn about his contacts with russian officials. those two events out of washington created a tug-of-war on walking street today big time, resulting in a turbulent day for investors. when all was said and done, the dow jones industri d 40 points to 24,231 after being down more than 300 points midday. the nasdaq ended off 26. the s&p 500 fell five. bob pisani was in the middle of the wild action at the new york stock exchange. >> reporter: talk about a turbulent day for the markets. we haven't seen this in quite a while. the markets have been fix a lotted on global growth, record earnings, and the prospects for tax cuts. traders have spent almost no time thinking about the risk in the market for president trump's potential legal troubles. we dropped 350 points today when abc reported that mike flynn was

prepared to testify against president trump and that trump directed him to contact the russians. originally reports said it had been about the fight with isis. the dow plummeted 300 points on reports that a memo from former fbi director james comey surfaced, saying trump asked him to stop the investigation into michael flynn. stocks sold off and rose again when senator jeff flake announced he was supporting the tax bill and mitch mcconnell said he had enough votes to pass the bill. the bottom line, the markets are in a tug-of-war between tax cuts and president trump's potential legal troubles. but tax cuts have proven today that they still have a lot of juice in them. for "nightly business repor i'm bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. so how might today's developments in washington continue to impact markets? here to discuss that with us is ed mills, washington policy analyst at raymond james, and mike jones, chairman of

riverfront investment group. ed, does bob have it right that for today at least and probably going forward, taxe >> absolutely. i think what a lot of folks are looking at is that the fight over tax reform is very much influenced by a political crisis that congressional republicans are facing, that they don't have any accomplishments yet to truly run on in the election next year. so what a lot of republicans are looking at on the hill is that anything that adds to that political trouble adds to the pressure to get tax reform done. so today's news on michael flynn in a way actually adds to the likelihood we get a tax bill. >> mike, let me turn to the assumption now that this tax bill, i call it a tax cut, not tax reform, i don't see much in here that simplifies anything, but that's just me, maybe. if it passes the senate, there

is still the matter of reconciling their bill with the house. this senate bill is very different in certain key particulars from the house bill. how tough is that r >> well, i think that one of the biggest obstacles to the reconciliation was actually solved today. because i think that $10,000 in deductibility of state property taxes, if that was not in the senate bill, that would be a very difficult pill for republicans from blue states with high taxes, that would be a very difficult pill for them to swallow, because essentially they wou be saying to their middle class voters that your taxes are going to be going up, not down, in our tax reform. so i think by putting in that $10,000 deductibility for property taxes, the senate has really smoothed the path for getting a reconciliation done. >> so back to you, if i might, ed, on the question of where

this tax cut is most important. it seems to me that it is much less material for individuals than it will be for corporations and businesses. >> absolutely. i think what you're looking at here is that there is a lot of controversy about individual provisions on the individual side of the code. i view that as a lot of lobby bait, attracting all of the attention, all of the fight. we've almost seen no fight whatsoever on the corporate side of this code. and moving the statutory rate from 35% to 20% without a lot of reforms, that's a significant change that almost gets no debate. and so kind of to the extent that congressional leaders can keep that debate quiet and have all of the fight on the personal side of the code, they keep the eye on the prize, getting this tax bill done, especially the corporate side of the bill. >> mike jones, let's turn back to the matter of michael flynn and his guilty plea today. the indication that he is he

cooperatg now with special counsel mueller. how big or potentially catalyzing or maybe even paralyzing a problem do you see this as being, and what do you see as the market impact, if any? >> well, i think the market got it pretty well right. after the initial panic and the selloff, essentially the market decided to sort of just toss it out. and i think the reason for that is threefold. first of all, we do not know that flynn is going to testify against the president. that is a rumor that has not yet been confirmed. second of all, trump's core supporters are never going to believe flynn when he says i was lying then but i'm telling the truth now against the president. they will stick by the president. we've seen that over and over again. and the key to surviving scandal historically has always been a core set of supporters that never abandon you. that's how clinton survived his scandals. that's how trump s the

"hollywood access" tape. that's what would allow him to ride through this as well. >> final thought, ed. we've got another big event this week, that is a vote on a budget matter that could not lead to a government shutdown, debt ceiling, and more. where are you on that? >> we don't shut down. i think we have a short term extension th give us to right before christmas. the house and senate try to get this bill conferenced and ready and the whole package is a christmas present for the republican party. >> thank you very much, gentlemen. still ahead, shifting gears, americans went shopping over the thanksgivingay

manufacturing activity expanded last month on an increase in production and rising orders. steady consumer spending, improving overseas markets, helped lift the industry. a report also showed that factory inventories shrank at the fastest pace in a year. america's appetite for new cars and trucks remains strong. in fact november sales came in at a robust clip, thanks to strong sales over thanksgiving. but as phil lebeau reports, early estimates for 2018 suggest that auto sales may slow dow >> reporter: black friday was lined with green for automakers, as buyers took advantage of greater incentives. as a result, november sales were relatively strong, despite

results that were mixed. ford did better than expected with sales up more than 6%, while business for gm and fiat chrysler was down slightly. trucks and suvs are in demand. ford had its best november sales of the f series pickup since 2001. while the average price consumers paid for a new gm model hit an all-time high of $37,000. overall, 2017 is on track to be one of the five best years ever for the auto industry. on pace for a third straight year with sales topping 17 million vehicles. but the head of the national auto dealers association says sales will cool off next year. >> we're expecting over 17.1 million car sales this year in '17. and for '18, we're expecting about 16.7 million. so it's still a great robust

market for automobile dealers as well as for the consumer. >> reporter: for buyers, the best news is that year-end deals will be fairly rich. and with consumer confidence at its highest level in years, even those who don't buy a new car or truck this month are likely to continue looking as we head into the new year. phil lebeau, "nightly business chicago. profits disappointed at clothing retailer genesco. the company said weaker demand for nfl-themed merchandise pressured sales at its sports apparel store lids. despite revenue and same-store sales that edged past estimates, genesco is cutting earnings guidance for the full year. shares fell 18% to $25.55. the discount retailer big lots said stronger demand for furniture helped the company report better than expected profits. the company also raised its

earnings guida q and the full year but same-store sales came up short, causing big lots shares to slip a percent to $58.21. disney suing red box for copyright infringement, alleging the company is selling codes that let users download digital copies of disney movies. privately run red box began offering the feature last month. red box doesn't have a distribution agreement with disney. disney shares up fractionally at $105.25. holiday shoppi off to a robust start. the retailer said it would hire an additional 7,000 workers to keep up with foot traffic. macy's initially said it would hire 80,000 employees for the period, down from last year's 83,000. macy's shares up more than 1.5% at $24.19. this week's market monitor has three picks durable in the face of changing tax policies.

cisco up 21%, you like that. johnson & johnson, 17%. northrop grumman, 22% higher. eddie kapran, welcome back, nice performance there. let's talk about broadly about what we expect tonight is going to be a tax reform bill passed by -- a tax cut bill passed by the senate. let's say it happens. how much are lower corporate tax rates going to boost american corporate profits. >> i think in a big way. but i think the more important question is who is it going to benefit more. what we've seen is the dow jones industris have done much better than the more tech-heavy nasdaq. that has everything to do with who benefits. industrials tend to have capital expensing costs, they tend to tax rates.raditional business tech companies pay lower taxes, tax reform doesn't give them a boost, it might actually hurt. >> smaller companies, it might help them as well. >> that's right.

>> interesting picks. we've got a beer, a package delivery company and a gas company or oil company. let's start with the beer company first. >> sure. so the company i'm recommending is molson coors, an interesting one. beverages itself is a hard industry. why metabol coors? it's merging and pivoting towards more niche beer brands. blue moon, for example, is one of their brands that's growing as opposed to stagnating. >> i like that one, it's actually a good one. >> it is a good one. >> if you want beer, you have to have it delivered. fedex. >> that's right. fedex describes itself as an e-commerce company on steroids. that's really what they are. they benefit from a lot of the trends in consumer shopping, which is we want to have it delivered to our door, we don't want to go to the store anymore.

they can do it profitably. amazon doesn't make money off of delivering packages to your door. fedex does. that's an important difference and makes people bullish on them. >> if you hav lots of trucks and planes, you need fuel to run them. >> i like european oil giants better than american ones. >> why? >> you don't have to worry about what tax reform does. tax reform could be good, it coul bad. the other reason is they're cheaper. after a number of difficult years in europe and abroad generally, they've gotten materially cheaper than the chevrons of the world. >> andy, continued good luck to you. coming up, are business school students choosing bitcoin ?

here's a look at what to watch next week. on tuesday we find out if the trade deficit continued to widen last month. any bets on that? on friday, investors will focus on the nov reports. and also friday we get new data on how consumers feel about their financial health and the economy. that is what to watch next week. regulators will allow the world's largest futures exchange to list bitcoin futures contracts. the cme and the cboe will become the first traditional regulated exchanges where bitcoin related financial contracts can trade. that could open the door to added regulation. but some say it could also lead to more mainstream adoption of

the controversial crypto currency. graduate students at some of the country's most well-known business schools also have a growing interest in bitcoin. and it's impacting their career decisions, steering them away in some cases from traditional wall street. seema mody is at the wharton sc. >> reporter: a growing number of students are saying no to traditional finance roles and are increasingly looking to blockchain and crypto currencies for opportunity. >> quite a large number of students in the class who i've seen come from private equity, hedge fund, consulting, those traditional backgrounds, and have foregone the chance to go back to that traditional path and instead are looking at how best to immerse themselves in the blockchain and crypto currency world. >> reporter: earlier this year, stanford mba student robbie michnick along with other

classmates wrote a letter to stanford faculty requesting a class to be taught on blockchain. stanford was quick to respond. the first class will be taught in the spring of 2018. a similar story is playing out across the country at harvard business school. finance, entrepreneurship, strategy, technology operations, all thinking about, you know, how do we think about the blockchain and the set of questions it raises in our disciplines and the demand from the students i think surpasses that. >> reporter: as students prepare to enter the corporate world, data shows that employers' interest in blockchain experience is rising. global freelancing firm upworks says blockchain was the second fastest growing skill in the third quarter out of 5,000 skills on the platform. in fact upworks saw a 26% jump in billings related to blockchain compared to this time

last year. as demand grows, students are launching blockchain clubs to learn, collaborate, and connect with like minded individuals. students are now approaching the critical recruiting season which kicks off in early january. it will serve as a real world indicator as to whether students can land a job that utilizes blockchain technologies. some say this field offers more promise long term than a traditional role in finance. >> the goal is to follow a blockchain incubator or venture fund investing in blockchain companies. >> i'm looking to the technology space, and blockchain is something i'm looking at keenly. mostly because i see it as a disruption. >> there's going to be a whole host of applications in the next 20 years that we can't dream of today. >> reporter: some students are skeptical of bitcoin's rise and the hype surrounding blockchain. they say the lack of regulation and central bank oversight is a

major concern. >> everybody is looking for the popular trends. i've heard of people who want to sort of go to more blockchain/bitcoin type because it's a sort of, you know, it's a different risk/return profile, a higher upside. i'm still a stocks guy. i look more at the fundamentals. >> r this professor says over time this technology will i think of blockchain very much like the internet 20 years ago. we'll look back 20 years from now and it's going to be hard to talk about any company of any size, and maybe really any company at all, that doesn't have some application of blockchain technology. >> reporter: for "nightly business r >> fascinating stuff. read more about bitcoin and blockchain at business schools on our website, before we go, let's take another look at the dow's crazy day. word late morning that national security adviser, formerly, michael flynn pleaded guilty to

charges that he lied to federal investigators, and an abc news report that he was expected to testify that president trump directed him to make contact with the russians, that sent stocks into a tailspin. the dow falling at one point more than 300 points. but stocks then regained most of their losses when senate republicans said they have the votes to pass their tax bill, closing slightly lower at the end of the day. that's "nightly business for a very busy friday. i'm tyler mathisen. thanks for joinius. we want to remind you, this is the time of year that your public tv station seeks your support. we thank you for watching. thank you for your support. and have a great weeken

steves: belfast, just a couple hours north of dublin, straddles the lagan river. it was only a village in the 17th century. but with the influx of scottish and english settlers and the industrial revolution, which took root with a vengeance here, belfast boomed. while the rest of ireland remained rural and agricultural, belfast was nicknamed "old smoke." shipbuilding was huge. this slipway was the birthplace of the titanic and many ships that didn't sink. the neighboring dry dock is where that ill-fated ship, the biggest manmade moving object of its day, was outfitted. nearby, two huge cranes, once the biggest in the world, nicknamed samson and goliath, rise like skyscrapers above the harbor, another reminder of this town's former shipbuilding might. in 1888, queen victoria granted city status

to this boomtown of 300,000, and soon after, its citizens built belfast's centerpiece, city hall. with its statue of queen victoria scowling down belfast's main drag and the union jack flapping behind her, it's a stirring sight. queen's university is also from the illustrious reign of victoria. its backyard is an inviting public park, particularly relaxing on a sunny summer afternoon. the palm house, an early example of an iron-and-glass greenhouse dating from the mid-1800s, gives you a lush and humid jungle experience right in belfast. also in the garden is the ulster museum, the city's one major museum. you'll find a fascinating made-in-belfast exhibit under an arch proclaiming, "trade is the golden girdle of the globe." exhibits explain how belfast thrived in its glory days. the linen industry employed thousands. belfast workers made products from flax, like canvas and rope, which contributed mightily to maritime commerce.

massive ships made in belfast were commonplace from seattle to shanghai. it feels like a new morning in belfast. it's hard to imagine that this bright and bustling commercial center was once a tense and subdued security zone. today there's no hint of security checks, not long ago a tiresome daily routine.

>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> 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 crystal blue caribbean sea.