this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffeth. >> crude climbs, oil prices rise to their highest level in years as tensions escalate in the middle east. running hot. federal reserve officials see the economy strengthening, and that could mean hiking interest rates even faste last-minute tax tips. in a rush to meet the deadline,t you don't wantoverlook some money-saving mov. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for wednesday, ail 11th. good evening, everyone and welcome. i'm sue llherera. griffeth is off tonight. we begin with oil. the price of domestic crudeng climo a three-year high as tensions rise in the middle east. feeding concerns over potential supplyisruptions in the region. midday there were reports that

saudi arabia intercepted rebel missiles over riyadh. one missile reportedly targeted the saudi defense ministry, the other was heade to narjan, home of saudi aramcoci ty. so oil prices were also lifted by the potential for u.s. air strikes on syria after the president criticized moscow for standing by the syrian presesident. on twitter, president trump wrote, quote, get ssready, . because they will be coming nice and newnd smart. referring to missiles. the white house says air strikes are one option. crude rose 2%tl to s above $66 a barrel. while the broader market came under som pressure. the dow jones industrial average fell 218 points to 24,189, the nasdaq was off 25 and the s&p 500 declined by 14.t so w will those rising oil prices and rising tensions in the mdle eastean for the stock market? joining us to discuss that is

the founding partner at again capital and chief global market strategist at charles schwab. gentlemen, welcome to both of you. john, i'm going to start with you because there'sate word from the uk that the prime minister the may call an emergency cabinet meeting and that she has moved somebm ines into position in case there is an air strike. what is that going to do to oil? >> the winds of war, sue, are clearly blowing here. you saw the price rise tod on the president's tweet, on those missiles that were fired, as you mentioned by iran-backed houthi rebels in yemen. just lining up the players here. you can see that the whole play. is in the crux or the epicenter is syria. an this time it's going down big. the french are also in the process of being involved in this. it's going to happen. it's a matter of when and not if. what i'm hearing is it come as early as tomorrow. >> so jeff, there are two schools of thought on this.

one is that if that type of military action did take place, that the stock market would movo smartly the down side. the other is that the.s. is a safe haven play when there is turmoil in other parts of the world. how do you see it playing out? >> you suknow, unfortunately, we have many, many years of history to look at when we look at uoalition a. missile strikes. while the human toll is me urable, historically the market reaction is very brief. whether it's u.s. or oversek strkets, they all tend to pull back that day of the strike but witen f days more often than not have usually recovered thosess . what tends to go up are oil and gold. we saw that reaction, of course, in the markets today. but i think the stock market reaction may be brief and short lived. >> so if you're a longer term in wstor and do see some sort of military action and we do see oil pricesmove, from what i'm hearing from you is you

shouldn't change your ovall game plan. >> yeah, unfortunately, these types of events are an ever-present part of investing.s hy we diversify and why it is so important to have a diversifie portfolio to buffer the type of short-term volatility that comes along with these types of events. >> so john, if indeed this scenario plays out as many people are forecasting it to, how much more up side is there to oil, do you think? >> potentially quite a bit. here's my and jeff's one of the best on the street. it's a privilege to be on with him tonight. i just have to caution that the earlier instances of this we have mostly are attacking on saddam hussein's iraq. alone, withce overwhelming f really both times. and those were episodic. he just had no. defens he lied about having anything in his power to fight back with. in i you have a very determined russia, an iran that has a point to prove and on the rise, you also have saudi arabia and israel teaming up who want to go

after iran especially in syria. there's the potential this one doesn't come and go with a few bombs and missile strikes within syria. it could last, it could be retaliation. oil goes easily over 70 80, 85. it depends how the narrative plays out. i can'te sure this time that it will be a pinprick operation. >> it feels different to you than others? >> because there's just too many other players involved, too many substantial players on bothf sidese issue, if you will. >> mm-hmm. so jeff, if we see that ype of a scenario play out, would you, if you're a lerger investor, try to hedge your portfolio a little bit by maybe moving inte commodity plays or not? >> that may be one of the more effective ways to think about hedging some of the risk here, if indeed this is a very different typ of event and we see global supply chains disrupted for extended periods of time. cally sensitive to production may be hit, but there are areas, gold, for

example, oth cmodities that may benefit from this type of thing. so if you don't have any exposure to those types the of assets in your portfolio, again, diversification is probably youe best >> john, very quickly, i have under 30th seconds. comes amid risingfo demand gasoline, we're going into eae drivingn and consumer prices overall higher from this? >> there's a risk in energy prices right now. the demand story can't be ignored. here in thehe u.s. refiners have been cranking out record amounts of products, exports it en well, we're a big supplier to mexico all of a suecause they've been having problems. port s underlying s overall for energy price. the situation with syria is juicing those prices prematurely. >> john killdu and jeff klinetop, thank you as well. officials plan to continue hiking interest

rates. according to the minutes of the last meeting, there a chance that those increases could come at a slightly p steepere since the central bank views the economy as strengthening and inflation as firming. we have me from washington. >> reporter: a debate within the over whether officials will need to change their language showing the central bank moving from an accommodative monetary policy stance to one that is neutral or perhaps even restraining economic growth. the fed minutes show that some participants argued the fed will shoon have to change its statement some time in the ture. it didn't say when. but in light of stronger economic growth and more solid inflation da. severaluggested the fed might also have to set the fed funds rate above the long-run estimate at least for a littlewhile. but all participants agree s a the outlook for the economy is strengthening and that thewi fe hit its 2% inflation target. a few participants brought up

th idea of modestly overshooting that goal in order to anchor inflation expectations. this idea of the fed switchi iig gears came amid arbust debate over fiscal policy. the tax bill are likelyst to b economic growth but it's unusual for the economy to receive such a big fiscal stimulus at a time when it's already operating at or near its potential. inorried that bigger deficits could pose a down side risk to the economy. another down side risk is tariffs. ials say they're hearing from businesses in their districts that they're worried about the impact of these tariffs. the tariffs alone are likely to rt the economy, but a strong majority of fed officials said that the possibility of tra retaliation and general uncertainty over the policy could wind up being damaging.al ov however, fed officials appeared bullish on the economy and talk ofightening is at least on the table.

for "nightly business report" in washington. the latest report on consumer prices supports the firming.t inflation is prices compared to a year ago are up nearly 2.5%. that's the largest annual gain in a year and it comes despite monthly decline in the consumer price index. according to the labor e department the cpi slipped last month, its first decline in ten months. the head of the international monetaryun is urging policymakers to avoid protectionism. christine lagarde said tradeio restri hurt everyone. >> remember, the multilatter tt systt transformed our world over the past generation has created millions new jobs with higher wages. but thatysm of open trade based on rules and shared responsibility is now in danger

of being torn apart. and this would, in our view, be an inexcusabl collective policy failure. >> she did not mentionhe u.s. and china by name. trade, geopolitics, rate hikes, those are just some of the stresses being placed on this market resulting in severe volatility and now some investors are wondering if more choppiness is needed for the continuket to mike santoli takes a look. >> at a quick glance it mig seem the markets haven't done much since stocks began to struggle nine weeks ago. the s&p 500 sitng at almost exactly the same level it did on february 5th. the ten-year treasury yield and value of the u.s. dollar are both, likewise, nearly unchanged om that time. yet stocks have been extremely jumpy even as they've made no net progress, as swirling hard to read issue on trade, tech regulation and a federal prosecutor's investigation provide constant nois the s&p 500 has gained or lost

at least e1% on n of the past 13 trading days, an unusual cluster of big moves. the choppy action has imparted plenty of pain to the average stock withe s&p 500 about 800% below its january record or high, than a fifth of the stocks within the index have dropped at least 20% and two-thirds are off more than 10% from their high s theere volatility has also frayed investors' nerves even thougharhe broadt index was where they were nine weeks ago. surveysf investor opinion show steep a declineng individuals an professionals alike. more subdued investor optimism can be positive in forming a base for the market assuming the isndamentals haven't changed much. eems to be the case at the moment. corporate earnings forecast have continued to climb since the start of the year which have made stocks an aggregate quite less expensive than they were in late january. this is an interesting

they get rolling. stocks trading under the highs where profits are seen rising more than 15%. the next few weeks will be a crucial test of whether a market that's feeling plenty of pain can turn goodundamental news into gains for investors. for "nightly business report," i'm mike santoli. >> time to take a look at the upgrades and downgrades. the biggest bear on mattel is raising it from hold to perform. much of it is bakedth int share price. the stock rose 6.5% to 41$1 the iphone supplier synaptics saw its rating change from buy to hold. analysts there say more of amle's newes iph will use the older d technology. te price target was raised

$55. the shares gains 8% to 47.68. ae aeroviro mrment was upgraded fr hold to buy. the shares were up t17%o 54.28. still ahead investment advisory fees. they are changing and it could hit your wallet. ♪ facebook's ceo marker zurg testified on capitol hill for a second day. and it appeared as if today's session was a bit more diffilt th yesterday's. julia boorstin is covering the story for us tonight. >> reporter: mark zuckerberg fielding questions from 55 members of the house committee

on energy and commerce over a five-hour hearing that was far moreus content than yesterday with today a number interrupting him and demanding yes or no answers lik this exchange with es conan that captures many of the concerns about facebook data policy. >> is it possible for facebook to exist without collecting and selling our data? is it possible to exist? >> congressman, we don't sell people's data. so i think that's an impthtant g to chafe up front. and then in terms of collecting data, the whole purpose of the service is so that you can share the thingst you want with the people around you, and your friends. >> questions weren't as limited to issues as dat andrivacy with a number of committee members pressing zuckerberg on concernst of contcensorship, fake shoes and till legal sale of opioids on the platform. zuckerberg saying betterel artificial igence is key to addressing these issues.

>> when are you going to stop -- to te down these posts that are done with illegal digital pharmacies? when are you going to take them down? >> congressman, right now when people report the posts to us, we will takedo them . >> why do they have to -- if you've got all these 20,000 people, you know they're up there. where is yr requirement -- where is your accountability to ccurringis to be ravaging this country? >> congressman, i agree that this is a terrible issueand, respectfully, when there are tens of billions or 100 billion pieces of content shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it can't look at . everythi what we need to do is build more a.i. tools. >> investors seemed satisfied with zuckerberg's responses. based on tha the stock moved up today after gaining 4.5% yesterday. julia boorstin, washington. a dow component hikes its dividend. procter & gamble is raising its

quarterly dividend by 4% to almost 72 cents a share. the secondear the consumer giant has increased its payout to shareholders. the sharesere off ten cents to finish at day at 78.27. karnivele a cruise line increased its dividend by 11% to 50 cents a share. in addition the company said i was launching a $1 billion share buyback program. shares rose nearly 1% to 63.64. jetblue proreported improved operating metrics for the month of march. it reported an upbeat first quarter. shares fell fractionally to $19.33. and aer the bell, bed, bath & beyond reported a smaller than expected drop in same-store sales. they alsoer del an earnings be and those results were overshadowed by the company's

weak 20 earnings guidance. shares fell in after hours but finished the regular dayp more than 1% to 21.50. well, fidelity is overhauling the way that it charges you for financial advice. according to "the wall street journa" the company is simplifying its fee structure. t that could result in some people paying more and others paying less. we're joined by sara kraus who authored that article. good to see you again. welcome back. >> nice to see you. thank you for having me. >> fidelity joins a number of large wall street firms and small firms for that matter that are try to rejiggru their fee ure. why are they doing that? >> a number of firms have mad changes to their fee structure in part of fiduciary rule this was a rule crafted by the obama administration and came into effect last april. the trumpinistration has challenged it. st may be repealed in the end, but i already triggered a

number of fee changes across the industry. that rule was targeted at retirement accountseq andred broker to act in their clients' best interests rather than their own. but the impact of that rule has brought greater changes across wall street. and it goes across all types of accountsot just retirement accounts. >> in fi,lity's ca how does the fee structure change? i assume it matters how much money a person h invested. >> new customers won't pay more. they'll beai grantedrs to receive that lower cost. but new customers coming in the it would be based solely on their assets under management, whereas before it was based on assets und management, their tax needs.

now we're shifting from an a la carte menu to a more type structure. >> does it matter what type of investment us have fidelity deploying your cash into? i >> no, won't at this point. that's one of the things that the new fee structure sort of simplifies, where previously it did matterwe if yo holding all fidelity funds and index funds now with regardless of what you invest in, you come in conversation a about your long-term goals and a wealth manager sort of puts you in the funds tt they deem appropriate for you. >> all right. sara, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sara kraus with "the wall street journal." hate to tell you, but it's nsx time. and that m hackers are out in force and they have a new t.rget. we'll tell you abo ♪

♪ well, the deadline to file your taxes is quickly approaching. you have untilpril 1th to submit that return. and if you've been t procrastinatint would be me, we have some last-minute tips that could help you avoid costly mistakes. we're joined by sharon epperson. it's always good to see you. both you and i are always working. we're always the last ones to file our taxes. >> i know. we are. w but can still tell people what they should do. >> what are the biggestmistakes people make when they procrastinate? hey missing? >> one of the reasons people procrastinate is they're afraid. it's scary time for a lot of people. one of the biggest tax day fears accord to a new sury is making a math mistake on their return. 40% of people say o it's of the biggest fears.

and it's one of the most common problems. but putting in a misspelled ne or wrong social security number or wrong filing status. there are mistakes that people are makin out. >> there i see from your graphic there that a lot of people may owe, buthey can't afford to pay. and that's the big issue. i what their recourse? >> well, the recourse is you have to understand that you can file for an extension if you cannot prepare your return in but is not an extension to time. pay. and that every moment that you wait you are going to likely suffer a penalty ops per have to pay something in terms of interest for your debt. so t kt's important top in mind. the other thing to keep in mind is that you can set up a payment agreement with the irs. contact them, try to negotiate something. if you can pay it within 120 days you can set up a payment agreent. if it's bigger sum and it will take more than 120 days look at an installmeplan. as a last resort, you know i hate credit card debt. >> but you hate the irs more.

>> but know that fees will apply and it could be 2% or more of the balance due. >> you know, if you're waiting to the last minute sometimes you may not hav the time or you may not know where to look for some things really could put you at an advantage rather than the disadvantagetl >> ex >> what should they look for? >> keep in mind you kind of do do-over. you can do an amended return. you have until three years after the tax filing deadline, the original one, to file that amended return. what you have to keep in mind, 1040h, it's not another that you're submitting. it's called 1040-x and you have to mail that amended 'tturn. you ce-file that. make sure to go to irs.gov to know whereo mailhat exactly. know this, your 2014 return, if thatind something there you should have changed or done something so you can get that tax break, you only have until april 17th to get that one. you still have time, though. >> now i'm under pressure again. bu thank you, sharon.

we really appreciate it. >> sure. >> sharon epperson. speaking of the irs, it has been working to make it more difficult for cyber criminals to file fraudulent tut returns the criminals have upped their game. stind of justteing your personal data they're now targeting tax professionals. andrea day has morhi on new form of tax fraud. >> here we have an individual who is looking for tax i.d.s. >> reporter: this iskhe d web where cyber criminals go to buy and sell loads of stolen data. here we have another individual selling tax i.d.s. >> reporter: one of the hottest tickets right now your tax preparer's i.d.number. >> the tax prep professionals are the new vecto of an attack. >> reporter: he said the i.d. numbers are a virtual crime kit for thieves where they can file fake returns by the thousands. how easy is it for the criminals to get this information? >> it's quite easy. there are thousands probably hundreds of thousands of

services that areng selhis information on the deep and dark web. >> reporter: and using that trusted number could make return seem legit to the irs. that according to ibm security's kayla barlow. >> it's an ip address that we've seen before. a signature of a computer we've seen before. t know that's a tax professional, soy're going to be submitting lots of returns. >> reporter: at ibm security they've beenos watching y as these new attacks unfold. >> remember, this is a $445 billion annual industry of organized cme and tax fraud is one of the primary areas they focus. >> reporter: so how do they steal pro i.d.s inpl first e? according to experts, usually by sending-m maliciousl links and attachments that someone clicks on by mistake. >> once we' clicked on it, the thief is inside. ry >> reporter: lray is a cpa and with the national association of tax pros or natp. >> kind of like breaking into the bank. it's a gold mine.

>> reporter: he says with new tax laws in place his fellow cpas are searching for info. >> this perfect storm is created by a more sophisticated adversary and an environmente where we h lots of confusion and lots of questions. >> reporter: what does thator spell f tax season 2018? >> i think there's going to be some chaos. >> reporter: and the tax pro? >> they may have absolutelyo idea that their computer has been compromised and a criminal is actively hvesting that information. >> reporter: the irs now warning accountants. >> we had about 75 tax professionals eport that they had been victims of some sort of a taxpayer breach. so that, unfortunately, is a 60% increase for the same period of time last year. >> reporter: and experts say the best tip for prostes to edu everyone in the firm to never, ever open an attachment they didn't request. and for the rest of us u.s. taxpayers only use seone you ust and ask them how they

store and protect your data. because once the pro's computer is compromised your private info is also at risk. for "nightly business report," aim andrea day. >> beforehi we goevening here's another look at the dow. the dow fell 218, nasdaq was off >5 and the s&p 500 declined by 14. nd on that note, that is "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks so much for joining us. have a great evening, everybody, and we'll see you reght back heomorrow.

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