this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffeth. stockse. su the dow has its third biggest point gain on record as trade tensions ease and investors pour money into the market. where to invest. it is a question a lot of investors are asking lately as they try to navigate the volatility. > disappearing deduction a handful of tax breaks are vanishing, but there are few creds you may be able to grab on to. those stories and much more tonight on "nitly business report" for a monday, march 26. good evening, everybody. and we stocks start the week with a jolt. the dow has its biggest point gain in a decade leaving last week's rout in the rear-view mirror.

coinvestors were aged by the cool of trade tensions and reports the talks were under w to avert a global trade war. let's get you right to the closing numbers. dthe jones industrial average soared, 669 points to 24202. the nasdaq climbed 227 and the s&p 500 rose 70. for the dow and the s&p it was their best one-day percentage gain since mid-2015. bob pisani leads us off tonight from the new york stock exchange. >> stocks surged following reports that the u. and chi are holding quiet talks to ease the trade rift between them recouping almost half of last week's losses. now, there was a modest blip midday right before the european markets closed brought on by news of rising tensions with russia over europe. but once europe closed it was smooth sailing. the s&p spiked more than 2%. why exactly did we get this lly? trade tengs hatensions have eas

much cheaper than the start of the year. the s&p 500 is trading about 15 times forward earnings. that's a lot cheaper than in january. in other words, the correction helped reset an overheated rket. the k leadership is back. that's important. tech and financials led the charge.he remember,re more than 40% of the s&p 500 together. it's hard to keep the down when you have those two sectors this strong. in fact, apple, amazon and microsoft, the three largest stocks in the s&p, they were up 3 to 7% today. that's huge. together these three stocks are % of the whole weight in the s&p 500. all 11 sectors ended higher on the day. for "nightly business report" i'm b pisani at the new york stock exchange. white house trade adviser peter narro today confirmed those reports of trade talks between the u.s. and china. he says he's hopeful the two countries can work together. >> ambassador lighthizer and

seetary mnuchin, at the president's direction andre personal ion, is talking -- they are talking with the chinese, as we've been doing since day one. and we will continue to do that. and i think we're hopef that china will work with us to basically address some t ofse practices. so i see nothing but bullish times ahead. last week as you know, the white house announced plans to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of chineod ts. in beijing this weekend were some very well known and influential american ceos including apple's tim cook and blackstone's steve schwartzman. and they attending the china development forum. as you can imagine, the hot topic was trade. eunice eun has our story. >> fearsf arade war dominatedhe forum as co-chair of the event, apple's tim cook

called for calmer heads and for president trump to support policies that promote free trad >> what i've seen over my lifetime is that countrieshat embrace openness, that embrace trade, that embraceiversity are the countries that do exceptional. and the countries that don't, n't. >> other ceos shared cook's concerns including blackstone's steve schwartzman. en there needs to be negotiated arrangement bethe two countries, and i think it's important to note that most of the types of things that aress being dis from the u.s. side can be delayed in terms of their inplementation and hopefully will be. >> despite the aggressive rhetoric from both sides, there

areeports the two or negotiating behind the scenes. the trump administration hasre rtedly handed the chinese a to-do list that includes a reduction of chinese tariffs on u.s. autos, more cnese purchases of american semiconductors and greater access to the financial sector. i spoke to a source familiar with the discussions who says china's officials seem willing to cooperate on these issues. they're willing to buy more u.s. semiconductors and accelerate the timeline for greater foreign ownership in security. chine officials said that president xi jinping would highlight more financial reforma business forum in mid-april. today the foreign ministry reiterated again that beijing is willing to hold talks to resolve differences withhe united states. tomorrow, a small group of american ceos is going to be eting with the vice president, a very close ally of president xi for "nightly business report" i'm eunice eun in beijing. >> the other b storyn the market, it's still facebook.

a number of developments there. the somial mediany is now the target of an ftc probe. the agency is looking facebook's data and privacy practices. separately, theompany has acknowledged now that it does save extensive call and text data made by android users when those users opt into the feature. and ceo mark h zuckerberg now been asked to testify by the senate judiciary committee. the stocks spent much of the day lower. in fact, it was down 5 or but finally eked out a small gain at the close. the tech sector overall bounced back today, but it's had a hard run of late. as mike santoli reports, it may be time to rethink the way we in st in this group. >> the stock market has almost never been asn reliant the technology sector as it is today. suddenly big tech is espect. industry is under fresh regulatory pressure over misuse of customer data with facebook at the center and tech stocks nare beingewly scrutinized bys

invest who spent the past years paying up aggressively for shares of the most powerful internet company excited for a digital feature that's now looking less clear and bright. facebook's role to enable information to be used as targe ads will rethink the value of internet platforms. facebook,google, amazon and netflix were so popular in recent years, but their natural dominance where the winners take most of the rewards. now that very dominance iski these companies targets. the stock market implications are signhicant. the t sector including amazon and netflix which are technically in t consumer category now makes up about 30% of the s&p 500 inde and big tech over the past year has become valued at a substantial 20% premium to the overall market based on stock ngice to ear multiples. if investors become less willing to accept less risk valuations, the broader market would be held

back or weighed down. this could b a temporary market panic over alarming but fleeting headlines. facebook stock for one thing has never been as cheap based on its expected profits which are still set to grow closeo 20 this year. outside of tech large cap stocks look quite a bit less expensive than they did two months ago before the market pullback. when the clear driver of the market runs into trole as tech has lately rallying around new leadership can be a nervous and messy process. for "nightly business report," i'm mike santol and joining us right now to talk more about the markets where he's finding opportunitiow fog last week's sell-off, barry james back with us, president and portfolio manager at james investment research. good to see you again. >> hi, greatit to be you. >> mike mentioned new leadership. you feel like the smaller capse he new leadership for this market. why? >> well, it'sike what yogi berra said that given directions to his house, when you come to

the fork in the road, take it. i think we've hit that fork in the road rightnow. what we've seen up to this point it's been all large cap all growth, all tech all the time. and we've seen a bit of a change this year. we just look through the end of last week, small cap stocks haven't gone down as much as the large ca as we look at small caps, there's a couple of important things that i think are one is valuation. if i look at really small companies versuseally big companies, they're cheaper by valuation methodologies.il second they're not impacted by all this tariff stuff quite as muchecause they don't necessarily do that much exporting and have those problems. lastly is this tax if you look at the effective tax rates on companies, small companies have hadher effective tax rates, so they'll get more of a benefit. so you got those tee things. and just one other thing i'd add is when we come to these in the road in the past, i look back at 1999 andhen in the year 2000, all the tech stocks

running, the nasdaq fell39 in 2000 while the small cap index was up. angh you're it was up 22%. the value component of the russell 2000. so there are opportunities out rolling maybe we're over into the small area. ou well, speaking of which, we asked for some opportunitie and you gave us a few stocks. western digital, that's a tech place for you. why do you like it? >> well, it is in the tecsp e, but it's not expensive. only running, i think, around 11 times earnings. the earnings are very strong. it's been at new highs earlier this year then recently pulled back. so we' got a little bit of an entry opportunity. it does the steady state and other hard disk types of drives and everybody nds more disk space, that's for sure. >> you got the grraydeon p. they're the largest pmi insurance company.

you like thepo insurance cnt for interest rates and also the mortgage component, huh? >> that's right. not many people pay 20% down and canav d that insurance. so that is something that we think is going to g really well. as you said, they are the largest and last year was a record year, think, for them. we might run into a few problems with the rising interest rates maybe slowing down some purchases, but i think there's a builtup demand there and they've had really solid earnings up to this point. so this little ait of pullback might be a good opportunity. gain cheap company with solid earnings. >> you also like gold, physical gold in particular, a it's been performing quite well. it moved up above what has been idered a key technical level. what they call the 200-day moving average but you also point out it can be hd in i.r.a.s. >> it can. these exchange-traded funds offer you something that's maybe a little harder to do with the physical components and all the headaches and hassles and so

forth thatome with it. of course, you have incredible liquidity with iton as well. of the reasons we like gold is it moves typically the opposite direction of the dollar. and the dollar has been, you kn, that week or so gold has been in an up trend. and when you get these times of turmoil, gold tends to hold up pretty well. it does tend to anticate future inflation and some of this tariff stuff isin ationary. >> barry, always good to see you, thanks. barry >> good to be with you. >> with james investments joining us. time to look at the upgrades and downgrades. morgan stanley is raising its price target on microsoft to $130 a share, the highest level on the street. that price indicates% a rise in the stock price and a $1 trillion valuatio the firm expects microsoft's dominant sha of the cloud rket to grow. the shares rose 7.5% today making it the best performing he stock on dow index. fellow down component intel saw

it rating upgraded from perform to underperform at raymond james. the analysts there doessoave longer term concerns hecluding the return on intel's investments and steady decline of the pc market. but nonetheless, intel was the second best performing stock on the dow index up more than 6%. elsewhere advanced micro devices saw its rating cut to negative from neutral a over susquehanna. the firmes f increased competition from a china.currency chip from price cut. shares fell nearly 2%, $10.44. and dollar tree saw its rating raised to overweight from neutral. the dollar tree is making what it calls sensible investments in its family dollar unit. price target was lifted to $112 share. it rose 3%. still ahead, despite cooling of those trade tension,

some farmers still don't feel any >>better. i'm aditi roy in romney, indiana where somesoybean farmers are getting increasingly nervous about the trade tensions between the u.s. and china. i'll have that story coming up. ♪ ♪ there are reports tonight that san francisco fed president is the top candidate to become the new york fed president. john wilirams must be formally nominated by the new york fed board, then app the board of governors. his views do fall in l the current approach of gradual interest rate increases. the new york president serves as vice chair of the policy making committee and super sing the

big money center banks. it is considered one of the most powerful positions in the financial sector. despite a cooling of trade tensions at lomst today, se farmers are nervous. aditi roy has the story from the heartland. ♪ >> welcome to romney, indiana, here you'll be hard pressed to find a traffic light or anyone out on a sunday afternoon. homes and businesses are ridecorated by amen flags, and the region is blanketed by farm fields which produce soybeans, making this bucolic town an epicenter for therade tensions with china.e red bins stillwater farms on the west side of town. >> when will you start planting? >> we hope to start planting in about twoweeks. >> once the snow recedes and spring gets under way, half these fields will be filled with soybeans. >> essentially this ise one of

bins that we store our soybeans in. >> but he's rethinking h crop plan. amid chatter about china lowering its soybrtn impo from the u.s. to retaliate against u.s. tariffs. >> it's frustrating to think about the govnment can have -- can affect policy that's going to negattely ip pac our price. profit erent between a for the year and a loss for the >> thekes are high for syear. american soybnarmers like him. china is the top importer of u.s. soybeans. buying $14. billion worth of the product which mak up a staggering 61% of all u.s. soybean exports. the war ofas words become increasingly heated. just over the weekend, china' former finance minister reportedly told a public audien, if i run the government, i would hit soybeans first. and u.s. agrultural group like the american farm bureau federation are speaking out, too, saying farming has fallen

by about 50% over theast four years. retaliation in the trade arena makes the outlook evenworse. but some analysts who follow soybean futures aren't as worried, saying china's demand for soybeans is so large itnn ca shut out u.s. supplies in the lon run. that's little consolation for bible who is now closely monitoring events half a world . aw >> what we see is that the ag in tstry, ag economy is very likely going to be the first casualty of the trade war. >> besides soybeans, fruit, wine and pork are some of the other agricultural products mentioned by china as possible retaliation targets. for "nightly business report" i'diti roy, romney, indiana. lowe's ceo is retiring. and that's where we egin tonight's market focus. after a 13-year stretch as chief executive, robert nighblock says he plans to retire from the coany once a successor has

been found. the home improvement retailer has str to keep up with home depot's performance and addedhree new directors to its board after calls by an activist inveor. shares rose to $89.30. hedge fund thirt point which is run by dan loeb has taken a staketen u technologies. earlier this year united tech said it was explores whether to keep the company intact or break it up. shares today rose by 3.5% to $126.64. an construction materials company usg said that it has turned down a nearly $6 billion unsolicited takeoverro offer german rival knauth. they undervalued the company. by the way, knauth is usg's second largest shareholder. she of usg jumped on the news. the r ailer finish line said it will sell itself to britain's jd sports fashion for

more than $500 million. finish line said the merger gives it a stronger position in the athletic apparelspace. shares finishedstron, up 31%. share of general electric fell today hiteang a nine-year low at one point. there was no announcement by the company that prompted the drop, eet a "wall sjournal" article published last night raised questions about risks that could stand in way of the company's turnaround. the report said investors could face stemming from ge's former lending businesses and the company'sxposure to subprime loans. ge shares finished down 1% to $12.89. and campbell's soup has mpleted its $ billion acquisition of the snackmaker's snydance, it will shift campbell's focus away from meals snack products. the company is changing its name to campll's snacks. ampbell's soup rose a fraction today.

w, changing the name. nation's oldest gunmaker remingto has filed for bankruptcy protection. the company's sales have been declininhe since 2016 presidential election. they're thinking apparently being gun control regulations would be less likely under president trump. last year alone remington sales were down me than 30%. remington is facin a heavy debt load and a number of lawsuits. as overall gun sales slow, so does business at america's gun shows. jane wells picks up the s california. ta mesa, >> as many americans marched across the country saturday dema not one protester showed up at california's largest annual gun show. the crossroads of the west show. but in the gun showdo gun show traffic appears down. >> when we drove up today, i

thought, wow, where is everybody? si actually thought it canceled. >> we only hl a 14-minute ticket line, but it's very busy inside. >> inside the show merchandise ran from collectibles to, in one corner, nazi memorabilia. but the most popular attractions were the assault rifles, ar-10s and ar-15s which face the greatest risk of being banned. there's a new law in california which ban magazines. you have to take apart the gun. slows youdown. one of the hottest new products here are these kits that you to take your existing ar-15 and convert them to b compliant under state law. t >> owner of the show says traffic has been down generally as donald trump has become president as gun owns are less fearful about legislation, though some fear is returning. >> we've got quite a few people that are interested in joining because they're interested in protecting their gun sghts. >> thaspecially true in california though some believe compromise might be inevitable.

>> there's common ground and we need to seek that so we can begin aialogue twoen the two sides, but such a polarizing issue. >> y know, california is, in my mind, a little bit overregulated, but my opinion i that ie rest of the country was as regulated ase' this, w have fewer problems. >> that's probably not the most popular opinion here, but one that may signal change could be coming. for "nightly business report," jane wells,osta mesa, california. now that new legislation is in place, severalignificant tax breaks are going to disappear. and yourns017 ret will be the last time you can grab them. coming up, what's going and what's still in play for you to claim. ♪

♪ despi experiencing one of the longest bull markets in recent memory, state a local pension systems are still underfunde investment returns have been uneven and funding levels have not yet recovered as a result. according to reuters which cited analysis by wilshire funding, back in 2007, thele median fund l was 92% for state plans. by 2015, that had fallen to 68%. lower fding level means more money is required to meet future obligations. favorite time of year. the countdown is on for the april 17th tax filing deadline. the final call to claim several tax deductions that will go away after this year. sharon eppson joins us as she always does at this time of year. great to see you, sharon. this is the last time taxpayers can file their federal returns

under the old tax law. so as they do that and theyil co the paperwork, what did they need to remember? >> we know there's been a big overhaul of the code. one of the most important parts, of course, will be the doubling of the standard deduction going forward. that means a lot of folks may decide not to itemize. but on top of that itemized deductions will be less generous past.hey have in the you add to that the personal exemptions that are going away, changes that of people need to be aware of. now is the time to look at these taxreaks and take full advantage of them. >> which breaks go away? exemptions and dependent exemptions. that's 4,050 for you and your spouse or if you're taking care of someone else. that's significant and that's going away. the other is a number of miscellaneous itemized deductions, those that exceed 2% ofour adjusted gross income that you can deduct now. job expenses, tax prep fees, investment related fees, these are things tha people don always consider. hobby expenses, if you actually

get income from a hobby you're doing. those are the ones tt you want to take a look at again. if you've moved for a new job in 2017 at least 50 miles away, that is something that you could also duct and i could be above the line deduction, but going forward you can only do it if you're in the active military,ef you're actuty and doing it because of military orders. >> because theyu, ordered yeah. there are other deductions that we thought were going away and th are eventually, just not this year. >> they're back again f 2017. we have to look at some silver lining here. if you pay mortgage insurance. we have to because those of us axwho haven't finished our returns have to do this. if you had a short sale or loan modification, normally you would have to count that as income. you don't havo do that in this regard. tuition and fees for college expenses, that's u to $4,000 that you could possibly get a tax break on there.ou and if have done some home

improvements and an energy efficient window you put in or door, you can get up to a $500 tax credit, even bter than a deduction. >> can you follow me around? >> can you help mend and re me to do mine? >> you are always the last one. >> i'm always the last one. but i will get it in. >> thanks, sharon. >> take tcare. >> at will do it for us on "nightly business report." for all of us includish on, thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffeth, enjoy your evening. get your taxes together.

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, kovler foundation, pursuingti sos for america's neglected needs,in and purefinancial. >> how do we shape our tomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its ideal form in our mind, and then we begin to chisel. we strip away everytng that stands in the way to reveal new possibilities. at purepoint financial, we have chsigned our modern approa to baing around you -- yourlans, your goals, your