this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffin. >> strong quarter, american express surprises investors with a big profit. adding to the number of major companies blowing past earnings expectations. >> rampant robo calling. lawmakers grill an alleged robo call king pin about phone scams that cost consumers billion smile, you're being watched, your face is beingnd analyzed a it's happening while you're watching your favorite sports team play. those stories and much more tonight for "nightly business report" on wednesday, april 18th. wall street gains were capped today as investors sent shares of ibm m downe than 7%. the script was flipped.

american express surprised shareholders with a blowout quarter. the company reported a moreri tn 30 in profits. thanks to a surge in consumer spending. the ceo said he's pleased with how the company has performed so far this year, in the face of mounti competition. shares of american express popped in initi after hours trading. >> american express's results rading et the tone for tomorrow, just as ibm did today, althgh maybe to the other side. the dow finished lower, down 38 points at 24,748. the nasdaq added 14. the s&p 500 was up jtwt today's small moves notwithstanding, volatility hass returned to thck market and the ceo of goldman sachs said today, that meansar thets are behaving more normally. >>onditions where interest rates are zero, yield curves are flat, there's no risk premium, where central banks all aroun

the world are buying all the risky assets. which then trefore put a damper on volatile if i and the opportunitiesoro pe that's not a natural state. we have not reversed all of at but we're walking that back and walking to, so at the first indications of a withdrawal from again what is an unnatural state, guess what, the market becomes a bit more volatility. people get paid for the risks ey're taking. our clients are doing better, and we're doing better wh them. >> as volatility increases, soms investre looking for calm in the form of dividends and buy backs. an ability to deliver cash is f importan many shareholders. christina hooper joins us now to discuss. i guess christina, it just makes sense. if you can't stomach the volatility, go where there's less volatily and more certainty, right? >> ablutely. historically what we've seen is

significant lower volatility from lower paying stocks than the overl stock rket. >> i know you look to a sector like technology for increasing dividends. there's been a lot of criticism of a lot of tech companies, they should find a different use for all that cash they have. plowing ito back i the company and inniovating. rather than putting it backn the company? >> you have to do both. the companies that pay a dividend tend to be more careful and thoughtful about their capital investments, because they have less to spend. there's a happy medium where you can pay back some of yourin ea to your shareholders, and then invest wisely that other portion. > a number of big blue chip companies offered dividends. as earnings come in, so far anyway. on the strong side, do you anticipate that some companies that have not previously paid

dividends might begin to do so, and do you have certain sectors that you're targeting? >> well, i expect companies that currently pay dividends toin ease their dividend payouts. i think that's going to be the bigger trend.ul we s see some companies start to pay dividends as well. theeaty is that baby boomers are retiring, and they're looking out on extremely long retirement periods. the sweet spot for them, in termsf investing is income plus capital appreciation, that's dividend paying stocks. i imagi that companies from a wide variety of sectors want to eattract that m long term investor. and so they're going to be much more inclined to pay out higher dividends and in some cases, initiate dividends. they certainly are seeing improved earnings so they can d. th >> on that note, christina, thanks so much. bill? >> elsewhere, the federal reserve reported modest to moderate economic activity across thent c in its latest

beige book. that is an anecdotal look at the economy. the central bank also noted some widespread concerns. elan mouey is in washington for us tonight. >> the federal reserve its beige book today, with trade and tariff talks showing up2 n nearly allderal districts. the manufacturing,griculture and transportation industries were particularly concerned about trade, several districts reported rising prices for steel and aluminum due to the new tariffs. in philadelphia, 7 of 22 manufacturing companies brought up the tariffs in their comments. and businesses in cleveland and virginia said thahey're stockpiling materials to guard against higher prices in the future. one architecture firm in dallas said its clients are worried about moving forward on construction. because they're concerned about the costs. in kansas city and chicago, there are trade concerns, particularly strong in the agriculture industry. on the flip si, however, two districts reported seeing at

from thesebenefit new tariffs. steel and aluminum manufacturers are reopening plants and recalling workers. and in minneapolis, the mining sector is doing particularly well. outside of trade, the fed found conomic activity is continuing to expand at a modest to moderat pace. labor markets are still tight, wage growth remains generally modest, ands inflation still moderate, despite those spikes in steel prices overall, the fed found the outlook remains positive. >> trade is a big issue for the economy,nd also the stock market. today that was the focus of a l workingch between president trump and shinzo abe. >> typical is the word i think we have totart using with a lot of nations. so when we say free, that's good, fair, that's good but i like to say free, fair and

recipro kohl. the word reciprocal is that when you have a car come in we charge you a tax. when we have a cargo to japan, which aren't allowed to go there, we have to take down the ba. >> and the president added that japan is ordering a large numbe of airplanes fs. companies. a landmark antitrust case is entering a r critical phasht now, the ceo of time warner took tice tand today in the j department's case to block at&t's $85 billion acquisition of time wrarner. and wall street analysts are weighing in. julia borsstyn has details for us. >> the lawsuit is nearing its culmination, today, jeff buckus took the stand. the highest profile executive to testify yet. he rejected the claims that the merger would be bad for consumers, saying the government's claim that the combined company would gain in oeased leverager distribution rivals is

ridiculous. as to concerns that time warner would use the long blackouts for leverage, they were dismissed as not in the best interest. going a blackout makes no sense to us, because they're costly and would hurt their bottom line. he explained the need for the newer, because of competition from internet streaming and targeted digital advertising. ying the changeso the business are really bad for tv ivmpanies. this combination us a good chance to compete effectively in digital d advertising andect to consumer distribution. up next, at&t's ceo randall stevenson, is expected toif te tomorrow. rounding out the core of the media giants defense. the doj relied on the testimony of two economists, who rich green feld said fail to prove theorys.nment new street analyst said before time warner rolled out its most high profile witnesses, unless they made a major error, it would be difficult for the government to win.

fors nightly busin report,'m julia borstyn in los angeles. ebayer shares upgraded from overweight to underweight at morgan stanley. ebay's shift toward its own payment system and move away from pay pal. the stock rose nearly 3%. norwegian cruise lines saw its rating raised to buy from holdo deutche bank. the anticipated appointment of a new cfo. the price target, $66. the stock was up nearly 3% to 55.43. coverage of u.s. steel was initiated with a sell rating over ubs. a possible fall in prices and a structurli d in steel demand. the price target is $30. the stock closed at 37.50. coming up, investigators zero in on what may have caused

that assuming west airline engine to blow abart. if you couldn't pay your taxes yesterday, because the irs website went down, you can now. the website is back up and running. anecause of the glitch yesterday the deadline to file was extended to midnight tonigh the house i scheduled to vote on a bipartisan bill today, making major changes dhat agency, including giving taxpayers new rights and protectis. >> as we reported yesterday, starbucks is going to close its 8,000tores here in the u.s. for one afternoon in may to conduct employee anti-racial bias training. one estimate puts the cost of that for the company at about $12 million in lost revenue.

that's about 20 of their daily reven revenue. investigators are now zeroing in on what caused a deadly engine failure on a southwest flight that had to make an emergency landing in ia philadel the focus is on whether a fan blade in that engine due to metal fat. more now on the engine and the questions about whether others should be inspected again before they take off. >> just hours after a southwest airlines plane was forced to land investigators quickly figured out what went wrong. >> one of the fan blades, the number 13 fan blade was separated and >>missing. the engine fan blade may have suffered from metal fatigue, allowing it ton snap off i flight, creatg shrapnel that shot out of the engine and blew out a window. jennifer reardon died after a frantic flight by otherss

gers to keep her from being suckedut of the plane. >> somebody saw the lady out the window, so just tried to get hea in. >> a wonderful man, the em and passenger managed to get her back inside the plane, and we laidnder down started cpr. >> the plane plunged almost,0 feet as the pilot stabilized it after depressu depressurization. >> i want to thank and commend our flight crew for their swift action and for safely lthding aircraft. >> the engine built by ge and a partner firm out of france. is thet world's m popular airplane engin. fly more than 300 airlines. two years ago, another southwest flht had a similar engine failure. which now raises the question,i here a systemic issue with the cm 56 engine? following this most recent incident, southwest is accelerating engine inspections.

other as are also stepping up their plans to inspect their cfm 56 engines many 3450e7b while, investigators and aregulators in washingto increasingly facing the question. is this engine safe? phil le report, chicago.ness market volatility helps results at morgan stanley. the wall street firm reaped what we he been hearing from other banks this quarter, namely that investors made changes t their portfolios more often and that helped send trading revenue higher. overall results topped expectations, m sgannley did say the bher form answer for the rest of the year may lose steam if geo political tensions and conflicts remain at the forefront of investor concern. shares were up a tick to $53.26. texron said they toppe expectations. they reaffirmed its outlook for

the year and said it plans to sell its tools and test equipment toon imer electric for $800 million. shares rose 6% today. a day after tesla said it was going to ouspend productio its model 3 vehicle for a week,i to fix manufac bottle nets. they're aiming to make 6,000 model three's a week by the end ofjune. tesla said its assembly plant will soon be running 24/7. shares were higher by nearly 2%. wynn resorts has added two new faces to its board. elaine wynn and the ex-wife of steve win has been pushing to add new directors in an effort to restore the company's reputation a they investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against her former husband woha. the settled a six-year legal fight earlier this week.

shares of wynn finished up 1%. after the bell, aluminum products maker alcoa said it's seeing deman strengthen following the trump administration's tariff on meta. the compa also raised its profit forecast for the year. the shares were initially higher in after hours, they ended the regular session of 4% to59.40. >> amazon revealed for the first time the number of primeme ers. the company said it has 100 million paid prime members globally. the news sent shares higher. >> robo calls,et we all them, and we seem to be getting a lot more of them.e senate commerce committee is looking into this issue. ey heard testimony from a florida man who made almost 100 million robo calls over a 3 month period. he denied y wrongdoing.

>> the extent of my activities have been significantly erstated. i'm not the king pin of robo lling that is alleged. >> the fcc called rian, the perpetrator of one of the largest and most dangerous illegal rob calling campaigns ever investigated. he was fined $120 milli a as result. it is a fine that he is gh ng. why are there so many robo calls and what is being done to reign them in. herb, thanks for joining us tonight 37. >> very welcome. my question is, they wouldn't make these calls if they weren't making money doing it. how much money are we talking about, do you think? >> absolutely, there are two reasons why robo calls happen, they work and make a lot of money. no oneras reallying the losses, i called the federal communications commission. and the federal trade commission today, they don't have the best number i can give you is one put together by

consumer's ion, they say people in america lost $350 million last ar,nd every var to telemarketing telephone scams. t majority that is starting with a robo .ca we're talking about probably hundreds of millions of dollars a year. most people don't report the scam, so it'bl pro significantly higher than that. >> it seems, correct m if i'm wrong, to follow up on what bill was saying, they're making money on it, and is that why it seems we're getting more robo calls? >> there's a number -- every robo call is not bad, and every robo is not illegal. about 60% are perfectly legal. sometime w things wet. i want to know if my plane is delayed. i want to know if my prescription is ready at the. pharma there are a lot of political robo calls. and charitableobo calls are all legal to land line telephones. the reason we're getting so many, the technology makes it so easy for the bad guys to use these ings, the scammers or

companies that aren't following the rules.es big compa recently have been fined for this, and they work. people respond to eythem. et a call that says it's the irs calling, you owe us money. and they pay the money when the irs doesne telephone calls. yeah, we have to get a lot arter and not fall for these things. >> what is the irs trying to do about all of this?>> e can block the calls, but why can't they stop the calls from coming? >> we can't even block the calls in every case. just today, a bill was introduced in congress, called the robo cop act which would try to help the situation. the phone company started out by saying they couldn't block these calls at all. the ftc said yes, you can. they fought doing it, and now their technology to do it, i have a service cl nomorobo. it blocks all the robo calls on nmy voip, my cell phone, there's nothing for land line phones. the land line companies made it

very clear to me, they're not going to do what is necessary to block these calls because they're switching over to computer technology and don't want to invest in the o copper lines. someone is going to have to force them to do something. >> that issu for . thanks for joining us tonight again. >> herb weissbaum. time is money, and so is data. especially data about your face. p rto rico has suffered another island wide power outage, this blackout comes near sev months after hurricane maria destroyed much of the island's electrical grid and infrastructure. the outage is bei attributed largeste failure at its

power plant. the army corps of engineers have spent more than $2 restoring power since the hurricane. >> 1123 years ago today, the great quake hit san francisco devastating that city. technological advances have made the city's buildings stronger, some experts worry the n skyscrapers may not hold up in the event of another catastrophic earthquake. aditi roy has more. >> reporter: san francisco's skyline is moving up. seven out of the 10 tallest buildings in s francisco were ilt in the last decade. because real estate in the city is limited, so it's tech companies like s es force expand they're building vertically. with eight fault lines cutting rough the bay area, some earthquake experts worry the buildings f tall could make the city more unsafe during a catastrophic quake. >> there are a number of

credible studies that suggest that the collapse of a high rise building is not -- is possible. >> earthquake exper say big quake in the bay area will likely happen during our lifetime. that rattles the nerves of people like justin pratt. >> it's a sry concept. i mean, it doesn't necessarily keep me up at night, but it's something that's always in the back of your mind. >> it's happened before. the great quake of 19 kled more than 3 now, people and destroyed 28,000 buildings. this newly discovered footage of the devastation following the quake shows markets lining the arteries. >> it's a costly solution, there are unknowns. we don't rlly know precisely the probability of collapseor new buildings, it's very difficult to estimate without an awful lot of data p. >> older buildings are those

built before 1994, the year of southern california's north ridge quake are more insecure. he adds, it is possible to make them safer. but that wou make them more expensive. >> with a fairly modest inve investment in liar cost o construction. we can make them safer, stronger, better ableis to r earthquakes. >> it allows for a remote chance that a building c ld collapse during a catastrophic quake. while porter says it is possible to make the city's current skyscrapers more earthquake safe. it's impossible to make them completely earthquake proof. >> officials with the city's building inspection tell us engineering is not a perfect science. and that these buildings are being built as well as modern engineering permits. for nightly business report, i'm aditi roy, san francisco. facebook is bringing its n controversial facial technology

to europe now. it's not just facebook that'snt getting this type of data. it's happening everywhere, even in sporting events. data collection for advertising isn't just happening on the in wrnet, it's happenin you walk into your favorite sporting event. the next time you walk-through that turnstile, it's likely your photo will be taken and used to sell an ad back to you. it's all fair game. there's a disclaimer saying they have the right to use your photo. theyow snapping away, capturing shots of every person in every ryseat, nearly eve minute. it starts with technology advancements, hh resolution cameras, facial resolution software. almost unlimited store. all these factors have let several data companies get into business. the main goal, how much data can they extract from your face.

fam cam is one of the tools. much of the photo analysis has morphed into making moneig they cane out who is sitting in which seat. the algorits request give demographics for an entire stadium offans. >> gender of their fans, the age of their fans. how do differef dayse week or start times affect those numbers. and then being able to go back and say, how do we optimize and create a better fan experience. that's really what we're all about right now on the data side. it's about being problem solvers. >> they sell this data to teams who use that to sell mor effective sponsorships. >> we're taking a number of pictures that aren't published. some of those are to help teams solve problems. they have problems in many differentct rs. and some of those are just being able to tell an accurate credible narrative to isi ness partners.

>> they may have more women coming to games on tuesday nights. that may affect what mus gets played between innings. >> the data i being used for these big picture decisions. individual privacy is a sensitive subject. there's always notion of privacy. legally, we can absolutely take images. the purposes of those images are again, for anonymized data. >> the nex time you're at a game, don't forget to smile. >>no here'ser look at the day on wall street. the nasdaq added 14 points, the s&p 0 rose 2. we leave you tonight with a look a the life of first lady barbara bush. as you know,he passed away yesterday at the age of 92. the matriarch was known as being tough a. lovi and for having a sense of humor. her husband of 73 years was at

her side when she passed. her son called it the end of a beautiful life. and granddaughter jenna bush hager wrote, hermo graer taught her to use her voice, but also to value the opinions of others. she, of course, was the second istory to merican have a husband and a son elected president of the united states. what a great lady. >> she will be fondly remembered oi absolutely. >> thank you forng us. >> see you tomorrow.

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