this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill grfeth. are you done? is this it? you and i are going to be sitting here talking about it two years from now? >> yes, >> ge says more assets. the ceo says it's done swinging wn and we're focused on a fallente conglome crude realities. the state department wants our allies to cut imports from iran and oil prices rise. and shelf life. a startup devises a way to keep produce fresher longer and it could save billions in food waisw e. those stories and more for "nightly business report" for tuesday, june 26th. good evening, everyone. welcome. bill is offni t. general electric's extreme makeover is over. thendiaus iomltr ipa cny health

business and shedding i ownership in the oil company baker hughes. the ceo says the move a year-long strategic review that he hopes will get the one-timeether out of its rough patch. investors seem to agree at better than 7%, its best one-day gain in quite awhile. hrngan brennan has more on ge, thegit. >> reporter: it's simpler, stronger ge. that's the vision unveiled by general electric ceo and chairman john flannery today. >> we laid outka a p of $60 billion of potentiallur sources. 25 goes to the deleveraging. thats lea immense amount of surpl surplus, if you will, to deal with leverage and risk going ourward or --know, so i looked carefully at the balance sheet. it's clear we know how to get to the endoint and how we're going to do it and we have think so, you know, i when we spend some time with

people, they'll see that. >> reporter: the plan,shab eli viation power and renewable energy. that means spinning off ge's health care business as a standalone compan a process expected to take up to a year and a half to complete it also means exiting the majority share o baker hughes. that, too, could take up to three years. flannery believes the moves will unlock shareholder vndue ensure finances for a company that's seen the didends slash. >> i share in every sense the pain, if you will. you know, my -- my fe's savings is in the stock so i have the same sort of connection to the esue. econd thing i would say is we've gone through a tough patch. issues.aced into the we're dealing with the issues. we have a plan. we know where we are. ic're realibout that. we know exactly where we want to go with the portfolila with the e sheet, with how we run the company and we know exactly how to get there t and stayed for the ride here. >> long-term strategy, which

investors have been waiting for esnths, sent ge soaring with the stock having its day in nearly three years. even despite being booted from the dow. so analysts say it's all going to take time. >>ee we've short the stock for 18, 24 months. a couple ofth m ago. they're covering it. i think the story from here is veryca compd, rekwoors a lot of analysis but at least they're taking the bull by the horns and eaying to do something after i would argue of deterioration. >> the devil will be in the ctails. ge isting the corporate foot print and shifting more corporate responsibilities back to the business itself. a movehat will shave off $500 million in costs and bill flannery did not elaborate likely results in more layoffs. also in focus, the dividends which ge said it would maintain today until ge health care, the company, is established. at that time the board will adjust the payoutn to be line

with industrial peers, meaning it is likelyo go lower. for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan at the new york stock exchange. s i the worst over for the stock? it is the question that many long-timeshaer holdersinly want answered. with us now to talk about that is scott davis, ceo of the research firm melius research. welcome. >> thank yo pp o y beyo tur fir m. hashe beenre calling for a tll breakup of ge forsome time now. s good enough? >> i think it's what we're going to get. i mean, i think it's as best as we could have expecte given that a full breakup would have included the power business which i don't tndnk could s alone right now. it's not strong enough. aerospace great business that's left, health care business. it's going to be a good show. >> mr. flannery said ultimately our mission is better return, le cost, less bureaucracy and we're going to see a dramatic change. does this plan,o you think,

achieve less bureaucracy and better returns? >> yes.we i mean, the a is yes, but you didn't have a choice. the company was so big, how do you take costs out and bureaucracy something? it is just so broad. think this gets it down to something manageable where you can identy compensation for, you know, each of the ceos now that, you know is directly tied t ushetosuninnies the aerospace business and do a wonderful job, but if somebody messes up inr, powe you don't get paid for it. >> right. >> morale is terrible for that. >> you have a buy or acculate on t stock. you were out early with a stock price of i think the mid 20s. ye >> . >> now you say 27, but that's a longerri term target, right? >> it's two years. we do think it can get there. i know it sounds crazy from $14 to, you know, 27, 28, but you can get there in two years. gosh, two years ago it was up -- it was at $28 or so. >> that's right. >> it fell, but it can go back.

>> what about morgan's last comment about the dividend. mr. flannery said today on cnbc that they want to maintai the dividend. given what you know and you follow this company so closely, that may be his best of intentions, but a lot of our viewers bought the stock for the dividends. do you think it's safe? >> the answer is yes, but you have to -- have to understand when you spin off health care, health care will i have own dividend policy and t'alth care is a growth year asset so likely to have a payout ratio. they should be growing cash flow so the odds of maintaining most of that dividend is pretty high. bel o r,peld be a couple of suld nnbe bieut i don't think it's g to be material. thank you as always. morganur of , just a orment ago mentioned ge's exit nmha d t afrhe century as part of the blue chip index it's being replaced by

walgreens fell 1% in the dow debu t today.> ften wall street overall stocks bounced back after yesterday's steep selloff. tech stocks rebounded but confusion over trade policy capped some of the gains. the dow jones industrial average was 30 points to 24,283. the nasdaq added 29 and be the s&p 500 was up about 6. ingt wash, president trump took aim at harley-davidson. as we've reported, the iconic american company announced yesterday that it was going to move some factory production out of the u.s. citing tariffs. the president threatened to tax the company like, quote, never before, end quote. harley-davidson is using that as an excuse and i don't like that. tve been very good harley-davidson. they used it as an excuse. think that people that ride harleys are not happy with rley-davidson and i wouldn't be either. mostly companies are coming back. >> shas of harley-davidson finished the day slightly lower. an automotive trade group plans to tell these white h

that a 25% tariff on imported passenger vehics would cost consumers $45 billion annually. the aomiance of aile manufacturers says the tariff would cancel out the befits of e tax cut. new report from the congressional budget officeays rising interest rates will pressure government finances. that couldush interest payments to record levels in the coming decades. currently debt payments are 1.6% of gross domestic product but that could rise to more than 6% by the y 2048, and at that point interest payments would equal spendingocnl security. well, the state department through t threw the energy department for a loop today. they're pressing allies to end all imports of iranian ove by er or risk sanctions. the administration's hard line approach sent the price of domestic crude above $70 a barrel. john kilduf of again capit is here to discuss how all of this might good to see you as always, john.

>> good evening. energy y it threw the market for a loop is perhaps ju downplaying a little bit. no one saw this coming? >> no. whev imd, e uernslyct sio were implementen stages t give the tariffed country the opportunity to correct its behavior and potentially, you know, return to the market. we know the trump adminiotrn i ha by pling outf the nuclear deal, and this to se sever iran's ability to sell to the market was a bold move that was a broad side to the market today. >> whato you think the motivation is for that and what has been theesponse from some of our middle eastern partners, such as saudi arabia? >> well, i iran teetering. their currency have collapsed. there have bn rare protests in the street the past couple of

days because of the influence the currency collapse has brought. you have to believe that the administrati feels that by implementing this, by cutting off really their economic life line that they could over the regime potentially and get regime change in iran. it's something that would be welcom by othersn the middle east like saudi arabia who see iran as interfering and countries like syria and yemen.b they haveome almost mortal enemies, so the saudis have tstepped up today andd us that they're going to be putting t1 million barrels of oil today on the mar starting next month, starting july 1st to help offset the pain and pblems that this iran severing is going to cause. >> now what does this dote near for the price of oil? because obviously now there are a lot morear moving than there were just 24 hours ago. we moved above $70 a bael. is there more up side to oil prices? >> there's more up side.ke he m was already tight going into the recent opec meeting, that's why you had a

response from orc members o the weekend to increase oil consumption. there's a deficit. we're consuming more than is being produced and put out in e market. countries like venezuela for example had a 50 year low. the troubles we've seen in libya keep revisiting themselves. geria is only a pipeline bomb from oil off the market. we are within tiv year average and they're only coming down but wre set up to spike even higher. >> very quickly,if, indeed, we see these higher prices, hows inflationary for the overall economy? >> it's quite inflationary cause itips through to the food sector first because they're constantly delivering . thin it will affect pricing really across merchandising for consumer goods, cruise lines, the gasoline pump will be back to $4, $5 a gallon.

consumer sentiment takes a big hit. >> john, we will be watching. thank you. >> thank suu, >> john kilduff. from n oil toural gas. the u.s. is producing a lot of it, and that is changing the key dynamics of the energy industry. brian sullivan is at the world gas conference in washington. >> reporter: oil may get the headlines, but natural gas is shaking up the geolitical energy game even more than its crude cousin. in just the past fewears united states has become a gas powerhouse, so for the first time in more than 30 years the world gas conference is taking place in america. energy secretary rick perry spoke at the event and highlighted america's gas boom. >> we will set a record this year for dry natural gas production with an average of 81.2 billion cubic feet per day. and we' break tha record next

year. >> reporter: we're now producing so much gas that america is now exporter for the first time ever. the international energy agency believes that liquified natural gas from the u.s. willurge om 4% global market share now to more than 20% in just five years. >>e next five years about 45%, almost half of the global gas produesion growth c from the united states. >> reporter: that's good news for companies likeominion resources w echort american liquified gas around the world but it could also puts on collision course with russia which is building a new $12 billion pipeline to double natural gas capacity to europe. that might explain why they're cat theference and expected to meet with secretary perry. both the united states and asia as their big markets. >> they'll have to learn to play

nicely in the same global gas sand box or risk sparking another fight on thead global front. for "nightly business report," i'm brian sullivan, washington, it is time to take a look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. intel's rating was cut again this time by bernstein which now rates the stock an underperform. they cite structural issues at the company. the price targe is 42. the stock fell to $49.67. siriu xm was downgraded from underweightve to weight. they're entering a more mature phase of growth which presents a new set of targets. the stock is $5. tjx companies was downgraded to neutral from overweight. the analyst citesua von given the stock's gain.

st> still ahead, why renovating your home could coou a lot. strong housing a demand an expanding economy help the nation's largest home builder linar easily beat estimates last quarter. while earnings and revenue grew strongly, the company said average sales prices of their homes jumped morehan 10% to $418,000. the shares rose nearly 5% ohe day and that, in turn, helped lift the rest of the home builders in today's session. hom g pricens surged but slowed ever so slightly a possible sign that the higher

mortgage rates may have been a factor. the s&p kay schiller national home index ros 6.4% in april year over year. that was down a tick from marche national number tracks average prices from metro areas all arod the country. and in today's pricey and competive housingmarket, it is no surprise home remodeling isoaring asore homeowners choose to stay put, but some of the same factors making home buying so expensive are also making hom remodeling more expensive. diana olick has more. >> reporter: with fewer of thesr around, s more of this going on. if you can't find a bette bathroom, rebuild your own. more and more homeowners are doing just that. >> people get frustrated loo ang fo house in the right neighborhood at the right price pond it does generally make more sense to just customize your own home. >> reporter: and while kitchens and bathrooms are always most la po the master bedroom suite has moved up to number

three in most popular remodels according to house, a new website. >> master bedrooms are the third most popular to renovate. the spent is 33%. that's prey consistent with over 40 million unique users. reporter: likely because the homeowners are focused on resale value. >> you will get more bang for the buck and a better return when you go toell to have that full master suite. >> reporter: but getting the best bang for your renovation buck is getting harder because it's harder to find contractors to do the work. the same labor shortage that's keeping more new homes from being built is putting renovation projects on hold. >> homeowners a looking for much longer duration for both the start time and the mpletion of the project. that combined with the rising costs of labor and more recently products and materials. we are looking at rising prices

for home renovations. >> but for they're choosing patience over paying even higher prices to move. for "nightly business report," i'm dianak. olic conagra may gobble up pinnacle foods. they're in advanced talks to get the bird's eye deal. they're trailing nestle, and it would have a combined market value of more than $23 bithion. e has been speculation about a merger between the two for several months now. ares of pinnacle rose more than 2% at 67.86. conagra was off to 38.23. the metal recycler smither steel beat revenue estimates by 6%. the company issued a fourth quarterou ut that was below consensus. the shares fell 3% to 33.65 but

th are up about 60% the last 12 months. riteid sent a letter to the shareholders on the merger with albert son's ahead of a stockholder's vote on august 9th. the company filed theirro today setting the proxy vote into motion. the merger is facing opposition by shareholders who want to get it over and rite aid fell 7% to 1.96ll it's s tough to be a woman on wall street. men don't notice. that is the findingst of the f ever joint gender gap survey by cnbc and linked-in. julia boorstin joins us to discuss the result. julia, good to see you here in new york. we hear a lot about the gender gap o wall street. basically what were some of the details of the survey? is it as dramatic as some people perceive i to be >> there are a lot of rumors

where people say women have a rd time breaking the glass ceiling. women see a lot of bias that men don't see.e' th a lot of talk about equal pay, and one thing that's really interesting is only 40% of women think they believe that men and women are paid equally, whereas, 75% of men say they think that men and women are paid equally atheir companies. so big discrepancy between us and the issue of pay? been promotion issue has a big one on wall street. what did the survey tell uab t whether or not men and women in finance see this issue the same way? >> we asked the question of whether men and women, we asked and of them, whether m women are promoted at an equal weight. less than half the women think ey are promoted in equal weight. 3/4 of men say they see relatively equal promotions. so it's interesting t about 1/4 don't see equal promotions.

men s i the same way that they do a p gap. >> that's the interesting finding to me. yove gone throughll the details of this survey. what was the biggest surprise to you? what stood out? >> you know, the thing that real struck me is we talk about whether women are opting out, they're taking theouelves of the game because they're not a fan of the culture or whatever it is. it turns out thatlmost no one said the reason we aren' taking women to the advanced level because they are opting out. obviously we're still pulling people who are still in the process, still working o wal street. but the people who are in wall street see no reason other than that. the good news is there are easy solutions to this problem, good ways to close the gap which is changing corporate culture and making work life balance a little more flexible. en and women. for >> absolutely. >> julia, great to see you.

>> great to be here. coming up, itching gears. avocado that stays ripe longer and the science behind it could fight food poison. here's a look at what to watch for tomorrow. we get a look at durable goods orders in may and wall street focuses on this number since it is generally a leading indicator of industrial production and spending. and with all of the talk of trade,tomorrow's may trade deficit number will be of interest, of course. with oil breaking 70 today, the markets will likely focus on the weekly inventory report and that's some of what to watch for

tomorrow. j.m. smucker is looking to snnovate. the food company partnering with rev one ventures. it invests inar ps and the move will help smucker's find start zwlau can help out in areas like process and supply technology. once a smartup is ready to tackle that. it is food waste. food waste costs u.s. companies nearly $20on a year. as aditi roy tells us, this startup is tryin to hel us by up ending produ and is teaming upith a big retailer. she's in california for us tonight. >>eporter: the 100 people who work in this sprawling corporate office buildg near santa nrbara, california, are literally givin life to produce. they work for appeal science, a startup that produces a plant based coating that extends the shelf life for weeks and sometimes even doubles it. >> these lemons are now four

month old. these are untreated and these are eptreated. >>ter: james rogers founded appeal when he was still a pc scientist. backe then knew little about polymer. >> reporter: rodgers went ahead with the idea anyway and it proved fruitful. today appeal is backed by many investors including the bill and lelinda gates foundation. now app avocados will be in costco stores. >> that's right. that's right. >> rogers say people who use this can dramatically increase supply and food waist costs people $18 billion a year. this is one of the biggest challenges that retailersheace is amount of shrink.

>> the coating is made of peel of vegetables. it starts out as a powder to be a solution. roge helps it last longer. >> we're slowing down the ratel the cck is ticking. >> reporter: but there are obstacles, while the fda sa appe appeal's tasteless coating is generally recognized as sa, we talked to some people who are skeptical, natural or not. rogers answers them b taking a bite for themselves before making a decision. >> we're not thinking of this as being only a solution in one small area of the world. nd other nking big fees are with us. >> reporter: the company says appeal coated avocados will sell for the same price. the retailer ing pic up the cost of the product.

why? appeal says picking up food waste costs, they say the company they're working with are still going to come out on top. and before we go, let's take a look at the fal numbers on wall street for you. the dow had an up side it rose 30 points. s&p 500 isd 29 and up 6. that will do it for "nightly business report" tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. have a great evening and we'll see you tomorrow.

♪ >> this is "bbc world news" america.f >> fundingis presentation is made possible by pe freeman foundation, kovler foundatiosuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and purepoint financial. >> how do we shape our tomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its idealorm in our n to, and then we be chisel. we strip away everything stands in the way to reveal new possibilities.