>> announcer: this is "nightly business report" with bill griffeth and sue h the case for raising rates has weakened somewhat. >> hikes on hold. that's how some are interpreting the federal serve's pledge to be patient when it comes to raising interest rates, and the dow reclaims ,0. blowout quarter. boeing reports strong results and books $100 billion in annual sales for the first time in it's 102-year history. house hunters hibernate. a new measure of sales falls to a five-year low sending a shiver through the real estate market. tothose ses and more tonight on "nightly business report" for this wednesday, january 30. and we do bid you a good evening, everybody, and welco.

yes, the fed pledged patience, earnings were solid, and those two thingsombined were a recipe for a rally on wall street today. it started with apple's rthults we told you about last night. then came a strong report this morning from boeing, which was followed then by the fed, which suddly seems to be speaking wall street's language. and when all was said and done, the dow was up a strong 434 points today, back above 25,000. the nasdaq aed 154, and the s&p was up 41. bob pisani has mor on this big day on the market from the new york stock exchange. >> stocks roared higher on a handfulf positive news and earnings beats. the dow jumped more than 500 poinon at ses highs to cross back over 25,000 and apple and boeing alone adding more than day.points now, the federal reserve wrapped up its first meeting of the year, and the language used in today's fed statement showed a change in tone, saying t fed

remains patient when it comes to rate hikes and that balance sheet policy is entirely flexible. those are the two things the market wanted to hear. while bond yields sunk on the heels of those comments, overall traders were happy. never mind that th fed did not change its economic outlook. the change in tone alone was good for more than 20 points in the s&p 500. that happened right after their announcement was . now, this is the good news. here's the bad news. the market is looking very pricey right now. the s&p 500 has punched through its recent trading range. it's now trading at its highest lel since december 6th. it's pricing in an awful lot of good , not just a patient and dovish fed, but optimism over trade talks and the continuation of what i call slowing, but stilliv pos earnings growth. here's the bottom line. in an environment with a lot of positives priced in and very limited earnings growth, the higher t market goes, the

tougher it's going to be to be really bullish. for "nightly business report," i'm p bani at the new york stock exchange. the statement by the fed, which dropped its ndlong-sg reference to future rate hikes, was embraced by investors and seemed to alleviate a lot of xi ety. steve liesman reports tonight fromhe c. >> the federal reserve in a sweeping policy change from i december rate hike gave the doves almost everything they were looking for at the conclusion of their january meeting. the fed in its policy statement kept rates unchanged, said it would be, quote, patient in considering further hikes and removed from its statement language that telegraphed further rate increases ahead. e fed even saits plans to reduce its $4 trillion balance shee described just last month as on auto pilot were up for consideration now if the economy weakens. >> growth has slowed in some major foreign economies,ul partly china and europe. there is elevated uncertainty around several unresolved

government policy issues, including brexit, ongoing trade negotiations, and the effects from the partial government shutdown in the united states. financial conditions tightened considerably late in 2018, and remain less supportive of growth than they were earliern 2018. while most of the incoming domestic economic data have been solid, some s oveys business and consumer sentiment have moved lower, giving reason for caution. >> analysts took the new policy pronouncements to mean the fed was on hold for at least six months, pending more clarity in the economic outlook. an economist at rsm called it a strategic retreat for the fed. another said it was about asdo sh a statement as possible unless it was a rate cut, which it wasn't. powellaid the fed could take its time in figuring out its next move because inflation is muted and lower oil prices should keep it that way. what's unclear is if the fears of weaker growth that gripped

markets prove transitory, will the fed double bac or is it paused for more permanent patience. i'm steve liesman in washington. now t all those earnings started with boeing, which helped lead the dowerhi they reported record earnings for the fourth quarter and said it ef ects moree same this year. shareholders certainly enjoyed the flight today as the stock rose more than 6%. uphil lebea has more on boeing's big earnings beat. >> pardon the pun, boeing is aring right now, delivering record earnings, revenue and cash flow in the fourth quarter. boeing's ceo says it's proof the company is performing at a higher level. >> i think what you see reflected here is a strong growth in the aerospace industrd the marketplace. in a way we're leveraging that growth as we ramp up commercial airplane production. we're driving bottom line profitability nd cash flow while we're doing that. >> boeing's earnings are surging thanks in largeart to the company's most popular plane,

the 737, where monthly production has steadily dliecli higher, pushing airplane deliveries to a record high. >> deliveries are in place and the fe cash flow is there so we view any pullback as an opportunity on the stock. >> supporting the heoutlook, fact more people around the world are flying somewhere. in recent years roughly 4 billion people have taken to the skies, so airlines around the world are ordering more planes. >> the world needs 43,000 new airplanes over the next 20 years, abo 7700 o those are in china. so china needs the airplanes to continue to grow economically and to fuel their broader economic growth across multiple sectors. >> right now boeing has enough orders tohe cover next seven years of production. 5900lanes worth nearly a half trillion dollars, a backlog that should reassure investors who

wonder could boeing continue to fly high. phil lebeau, chicago. fellow dow component mcdonald's reported strong gled tosales but str attract more u.s. diners and that is a critical market for the fast food chain. mcdonald's raised menu prices, but that did not resonate with customers, especially when it comes to breakfast. the company says the chain has been losing breakfast traffic at a gre ier rate than would like. that sent the stock slightly lower in trading today. and the parade of big cap earnings continued late today with results from microsoft which said that sales from its cloud computingusiness rose. that offset a slowdown in demand in others. un these are numbers from the world's largest software company. they earned $1.10 a share but revenue was a little short ofma ess at about $32 billion. the stock fell in initial after-hours trading. josh lipton has the one key takeaway on microsoft'quarter. >> $9

that was a big number in microsoft's latest results, referring to the company's commercial cloud revenue in the quarter, up 48% yea over year. evercore's kirk maturn, a microsoft bull, says that's important because that's really the growth driver for microsoft long term. it's all abo the commercial business and that's firing on all cylinders, he says. he also says there may have een sodisappointment in other areas, notably windows revenue declined 5%. that's what device makers pay microsoft for license the windows operating system. i'm josh lipton, san francisco. visa reported ado le-digit rise in quarterly profit. the payments network processed more transactions, thanks to strong consumer spending and a robust economy. both earnings and revenue came in better than expected. visa also reaffirmed its guidance for the full year, and the stock moved higher and tfen in initial after-hours

trading. jack haveli t joins us talk about the market day, the earnings, the fed. he's chief investment officer at crescent wealth advisers. what a day, jack, welcome. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> let's start with the earnings. wall street liked these corporate earnings that beat pe ations, but let's be clear, a lot of those expectations had been sharply reduced ahead of time, hadn't they? >> yeah, eecially apple. and remember tim cook came out in december with some very disappointing outlook news, talking down profits, talking down revenues. sohen the news finally hit, it was actually not as bad ass investad thought. the company did come back with plans to impro their service business, expand some other revenue sources,hi and i certainly investors took a liking to that. >> so what do these enings ll you, jack, overall about the economy and the health of it? >> sure. so we're tracking roughly

between 11.5% and 12% earnings growth, which sounds great in isolation. that's down over the last several weeks, as analysts have brought their forecasts down. but i think we have to look later into 2019 and know that g earninwth is expected to rise roughly low single digits in q2, q3, likely q4 because we've got masve comparisons. remember, q2 of 2018, we were up 26% year over year. so those are tough numbers to beat. now, keep in mind that slower growth does not necsarily mean contraction. and i think that's what investors are trying to reconcile >>now. nd that brings us to the fed, which, as we said, was very dovish with its comments today. no rate increaseaybe for the next six months, maybe for the rest of the year. is that green light necessarily for wall street just

to continue highe then? >> yeah. it's really, you know, an interesting conundr between what interest rates should be, given the economic vironment, d what the market can handle. and what it sounds like, that accommodation is the new neutral. as long as we don't see inflation, which we haven't, then perhaps the natural rate of interest is lower -- it is now than it has been in history. tso if i wer take a snapshot back, you know,dd 20 some years, 30 years, and say where should the 10-year treasury be i'king at a rate of probably 4% to 4.5%. we're at 2.75, and anything pushing it higher is really making market participants upset, so we'll have to see. i think as long as we have no inflation, ratesan stay where they are and everyone is happy.

>>s all right, tha again, jack. we'll see you again. >> thank you, bill. it is time to take a look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. coverage of united continental was initiated with a buy rating at argus research. the analyst cites improved operating efficiency and strong cost econtrols. price target is $101. the stock rose 2% to $87.47. allergen was downgraded from equal weight to overweight at morgan stanley. they cite emerging botox competition and less confidence in the company's the price target is $156. the stock fell a fraction to $143.89. whirlpool was addown to underperform from sector perform at rbc capital with thenalyst citing industry uncertainty. thatstock's recent rally made it a little too expensive. the price target is $111. the stock fell 3% to $132.15. juniper was downgraded to underperform from buy at bank of americall merlynch.

the call follows the company's disappointing fourth quarter results and guidance which pointed to weak demd and pricing trends. pre target $25. that stock fell 5% today on this big rally day to $25.83. coming up, facebook shares take off. we'll tell

the labor market started 2019 where it left off in 2018, on a strong note. private payrolls have grown at a much faster pace than expected in january. according to adp, employers added 213,000 jobs as businesses continue to aggressively expand their ranks where they can. biges compa added 66,000 of those jobs. midsize firms added 84,000. small businesses gained and the government releases its own monthly employment report friday morning. investors are watching hose trade talks between the u.s. and china, which got under way today. the stakes are high, since both sides he just over a month to reach an agreement or risk escalating the trade we have two reports tonight. eunice eun is in beijing, but we begin with kayla tausche i washington. >> for the third time in two months, teams from the u.s. and china are mting to hash out a

trade deal as higher tariffs loom on march 1st if sufficient progress is not made.th talks have lasted all day today and throughout thursday afternoon, with president trump sitting down with t vice premier. the white house has laid out its case. it'spen to china's offer to buy more natural gas and soybeans, but china must stop stealing u.s. intellectua property a technology and allow u.s. companies freer access to its markets. white house economic official larry kudlow said the talks themselves are positive. >> we've never t had anythins comprehensive. i regard that as a big plus.ho these are worked out we'll have to wait and see. the president has expressed some, isa would guarded optimism with the talks. >> treasury sectary steven mnuchin has been trying to manage expectations. >> let me just remind people, wv do another 30 days after this, so my expectation is that we'll mak significant progress at these meetings. but i would just emphasize, these are complicated issues.

we have a timeline of how we've mapped out the 90 days. >> overshadow mg thetings are criminal charges of the u.s. filed on monday against china's huawei and a push to extradite its cfo. the commerce and justice department says that situation iseparate from trade, but the president has said he's willing to intervene in the huawei case if it means a better trade deal. for "nightly buness report," i'm kayla tausch now to euniceeun in beijing for a look at how china is approaching the talks. >> u.s. a chi negotiators are hoping to reach an agreement to avoid greater tariffs by the march deline. the chinese will reportedly offer a major increase in purchases of u.s. agriculture and energyproducts, a crackdown on i.t. theft and play up a new law, which is expected to be i pass march and meant to address u.s. concerns about , for trade practices example, banning forced technology transfers. however, the wording is vague

enough most are concepecal this is more than a cosmetic move. many expect ph back hard. likelynese will also be less than enthusiastic about the u.s.' proposal for an enforcement mechanism that woulu allow t. to ensure that beijing is accountable. the talks will also be overshadowed by the justice department's indictments against chineseech titan huawei. steven mnuchin attempted to separate the talks from the cdictment. thnese see the targeting of huawei as political. the cfo's extradition hearing has been postponed to march 6th. the vice premier will directly send a message from president xi to president trump and could potentially influence the outcome of any deal on tde or huawei. for "nightly business report," i'm eunice eun in >beijing. customer growth slows at

at&t and that's where we begin tonight's market focus. the company added far fewer wireless subscribers than expected as it tries to keep pace with verizon and t-mobile. it also lost more pay tv customers in the fourthar r. at&t has pulled back on promotional pricing for phone and television plans, as it focuses on paying down debt i following $85 billion purchase of time warner. the shares fell 4% to $29.37. anthem is speeding up the lach of its pharmacy benefits management business. that move will allow anthem to accelerate itshole person health strategy which it believes will reduce the total cost of care. anthem easily beat fourth es and earnings estim said profit for 2019 will be stronger than expected. shares rose 9% to 297.56 and touched a 52-week high. royal caribbean reported a rise in profit in the fourth quarter and issued upbeat guidance. the companyit strong consumer demand, even in china,

slows. economy >> even though the economy may not be doing as well as people hoped, the middle classco inues to grow. one hypothesis is that it's just growing faster than the economy slowdown, s tha of course helps our business. >> royal caribbean was up today to 120.98. oshkosh reported first quarter earnings that topped expectations and it raiseanits sales gu for the year as well. the defense contractor said that its bottom line has helped by higher sales in its fire and emergency unit. oshkosh sales closed 2.5% higher to 72.78. they do not expect margins on business jets to improve until that overshadowed a strong perfmance and earnings that topped analysts' forecasts. generas dynamell 3% to

170.91. cavon isting 10% of its global workforce. the direct seller of beaut products said the layoffs are partf a strategy to streamline its business and reduce product line complexity. shares of avon, which is a small cap ock, wereolatile in the after-hours session, down 2 cents at 1.89. and it was a mixed quarter r tesla. they posted stronger than expected sales along with its second consecutive quarterly profit, but that profit did miss estimates. assult, shares initially fell biting into a wo 4% gai saw where it closed at 308.77. facebook out with strong fourth quarter numbers. the social media company posting earnings of $2.38 a share. vethat was 20 cents a estimates. revenue came in just under $17 billion for the quarter, and w that too ahead of estimates.

investors liked what they saw, sending shares initially higher in after-hours trading, adding to a better than 4% gain during the regulario n. julia boorstin has more on facebook's quarter from its headquarters in menlo park, califo >> facebook is earning a lot morem revenue fts users. the company delivering much stronger top and bottom line results than expected. the company's earnings per share soaring 65%ev andue dpgaining 30% from the year ago quarter. this despite the fact facebook's daily andonthly user numbers inched up, coming in right in line with expectations. suboth with conrs and advertisers, the company seems to have shaken off concerns about a slew of negative headlines about data privacy and manipulation on the platform. mark zuckerberg saying, quote, we fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues and we're investing more to build new and inspiringays for people to connect. facebook hass increased its hea

count by 42% to improve security. i'm julia boorsn in menlo park, california. coming up, the big chill in the ho here's a look at what to watch tomorrow. a handful of key companies are out with earnings, including amazon, general electric and

u.p.s. as we reported, the second day of trade talks between the u.s. and china will be takin place, and a judge has scheduled a bankruptcy hearing for pg&e, california's largest utility. that's what to watch for on th meantime, foxconn is reconsidering its plan to make a type of tv display at a plant in wisconsin. you may recall that the company's $10 billion campus w supposed to be a manufacturing jobs,r that created 13,000 but the new plan now calls for it to be a researchb. foxconn does say it remains committe to that facility and its long-term investment in wisconsin. foxconn is ar major supplo apple and is the world's largest contract maker of electronics. the u.s. postal service is making the rare decision to suspend mail delivery in parts of the untry. regions within ten states are affected because of the extreme cold that's bringing record low temperatures to the midwest. the postal service says the decision was made for the safety of its employees.>

nd that winter chill may be settling over the housing amarket. afte very slow fall, most analysts were expected to see a lile bump in december sales. but as diana olick reports, that's not what happened. >> there was good news for home buyers out shopping in december, a big drop i mortgage rates. but that did not help sales at all. signed contracts to buy existing homes dropped nearly 10% comped with a year ago, marking 12 straight months of annual declineso accordinge national association of realtors. it was also the lowest december sales reading since 2013. this, even as the average rate on t30-year fixed, fell from just over 5% in tmid-novemb 4.61% by the end of december. >> i think consumers were impacted by all the discussion of utdowns, of theolatility in markets, whether it was interest rates, which were actually falhang at time.

partly it's a recognition thing that the realtors or t builders or whoever is talking to the consumers about buying a house, it probabl takes them a little time to get consumers to recognize that there's an opportunity. >> rltors blamed the big drop in the,tock ma hitting consumer confidence. but affordabili continues to be a probm. the median price of a home sold in december hit the highest leveer. even though the gains in prices are slowing, it's mostly happeng on the higher end, not at the entry level where demand from younger buyers is strongest. even slightly lower interest tes are apparently not impressing millenials. >> recent millenial buyers have been very conservative. the percentage of them spending more than 30% of their disposable income onuyg a house is veryow compared to, say, ten years ago. >> if mortgage rates do stay this low for while, it could help bring more buyers back to the market this

but for now anyway it looks like a long, cold winter ahead for housing. r "nightly business report," i'm diana olick in washington. before we go, let's take a final look at the day on wall . stre the dow gained 434 points to close back above the nasdaq added 154 and the s&p 500 was up 41. that does it for us tonight on "nightly bi'iness report." sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffeth. have a great evening. rest up, it's ausy day tomorrow. >> and stay warm. >> is

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