>> announcer: this is "nightly business report" with b brexit delay. british lawmakers hit the pause tton on leaving the eu. so what's next? 2020 vision. general electric hits the reset button on 2019 and says it's all about next year. and navigating financial aid. nearly all parents say aid is a where ning factor on their child goes to college. but what if the aid is still not enough? those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for this thursday, march the 1 and we do bid you ag,ood eveneverybody, and welcome. sue is off tonight. we begin tonight with the latest developments in the already complicated brexit process in the uk. the house of commons today voted

overwhelmly to ask for a three-month extension to its departure from the european union, but there is still mucho mok to be done before that can happen. marx has more for us >> reporter: it was the third day of votes in the house of commons as the british government and parliament wugk th what has been a month-long political deadlock lawmakers hoped to rule out the uk could leave then europ union without a deal and as a rt of a step to avoid the no-deal, they tried to delay brexit beyond its original deadline. a resounding majority of mps seized that opportunity. >> the ayes to e right 412, the nay is the left 202. so the ayes have it. >> reporter: the mps voted

agnst a second referendum and against the house of commons itself rather than the prbrexitprocess.e control of in theory theresa may must travel to brussels to request that her 27 european counterparts give britain more time. s no guarantee ty will grant that extension, though few of them wanting to see britain leave without a deal either. may and her allies are hoping they can use the threat of a much longer extension to persuade rebellious members of the conservative party to back her original deal. if that happens next iweek, could only require a short technical extension. the europeae might be m than happy to lige. may's used arcane parliamently language. but these are uncharted waters for british leaders and the government and jeremy corbyn know it. >> mr. speaker, after the last few days o government chaos and

some defeats, all of uav now the opportunity and the responsibility to work together to find solution to the crisis facing this country, where the svernment has dramatically failed to do so. >> reporter: the question now is will parliament find an alternative to may's deal that will give the europeans good reason to extend beyond late june. r "nightly business report," i'm willem marx in london. back herest on wall et, stocks were flat today as investors wrestled with news t thatde talks between president trump an his chinese counterpart coulde pushed back until next month. add to that data showing that new hne sales january fell by nearly 7%. and stock gainspe were c as a result today. the dow rose just 7 points. the nasdaq was down by 12 and the s&put gave back a 2. but asls bob pisani tel us now, .he market is in a critical >> reporter: this is an alportant moment for the market. we're f breaching this

2800 level in the suspect&p 500e have a shot at getting at the 2820 level. you might recall this is the have where five rallies failed in the last six months and a break above 2820 may drag in more itinvestors. de the ongoing worries about boeing, the volatility index, the vix, has dropped to its lowest levels of the year. one thing might be happening. friday is a quadruple witching day. that's the quarterly expiration of the futures and options, theyine all expirg at the same time. so why is that important? there's been a historically slight upward bias in this ek particular the s&p has been up 24 times this week since 1993. 's been down just 12 times. but what will it take to really pu the market higher? i think the key is the global growth story here. we had solid data with the economic news on durable goods and producer prices and that may help bulls argue thats earni may not actually turn negative for the first and second quarters. that's been a big worry.

meanins no earni recession in the cards. to keep the rally going, we ore meat od a lot the bones here, after the weak china industrial production numbers we saw overnight. we can expect a lot more stimulus out of china, that's sure. what traders need is more visibility. facts that recently pointed out the companies with earnings outside the united states predominantly have much lower earnings expectations now than companies who rely primarily on earnings inside the united states. what does it mean? it means that chi and europe need to stabilize to get better visibility on earnings for companies here in the united states. brexit is anoth mess. the british pound is nearing a two-year high b what the street really wants for this whole thing, they want the deadline to be extended and the they want another referendum that will result in the uk remaining in the eu. that's still a long shot,th gh. for "nightly business report," i'm bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. and treasury secretary steven mnuchin today did confirm that the trade negotiations with china will not be wrapped up by

the end of this a month had been hoped for. it turns out while the protracted talks continue, our trade deficit with chinaas ballooned. exports to china fell by 25% last year while imports have skyrocketed. jane wells is at the port of los anles for us >> reporter: you're looking at the largest ship ever to dockt a north american port, capable of holding 19,000 standard containers. it's a giant symbol of how out of whack trade is between the u.s. and china since the tariff war began last year. >> with 1.8 billion square feet of warehousing we have in southern califocyia, 1% vacrate. >> reporter: imports from china surged last year, up $34 billion rom the year before, while exports of u.s. goods plunged 10 billion. so muchraffic has been coming in from china as companies front load ahead of potential tariffs.

it's been gat for the por but gummed up the works. >> trucks are waiting longer, railros are repositioning equipment. cargo owners are carrying a lot of costs with e advance of inventories. having all these imports come in and then sit,e've got thousands of containers of brake pads, k boards justwaiting. >> reporter: the institute of international finance estimates u.s. companies are losing $40 billion a yr because of the tariffs, and the ripple effects extend far beyond china.e, for exam last month at the world ag expo in california, alfalfa farmer complained his hay from utah couldn't get to saudi arabia. >> we had contracts sigd in june and the hay still hasn't moved. a lot of it has been paidor but they're still sitting in t barns because the ship movement is pretty slow a >> reporter:ther reason exports are down is because of china's new environmental policies which of slashed hinese demanor things like recyclable plastic and paper.

which brings us back to this huge ship. one reason it's here is to help clear the port of empty contars next boatload of goods from china. jane wells at the port of los angeles. in otherbenews, the nof americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to a four-week high last week. while claims remain near all-time lows, some analyst beec ned that a recent rise could signal a cooling of the labor market. last friday the labor department said the economy created just 20,000 jobs last month. that was wel below expectations. one area that is hiring is oos. there are more cars on the road than ever and drivers are hangin on to them more than ever. skilled auto repair technicians are indemand by one estimate some 46,000 wl needed in the next four s. year kate rogers takes a flooaclook hackensack, new jersey. >> reporter: michael gerhart,

pep boys master auto technician has been on the job for decades, constantly worng to stay on top of advances in technology. >> it definitely doesn't get boring. it's always changing. as long as you can keep up with the technology that's out there, you're given a chance to use, it can be a very rewarding career. >> reporter: finding qualified technicians is a challenge as workers age out of the industry and the pool of talent shrinks in the face o a tig labor market. there's also a focus on obtaining bachelor's degrees when those with trade skills are eded more than ever. a recent report said a blue collar worker shortage is expected to continue this year. >> in the u.s. as well as most otr advanced economies, the american dream is to go to a four-year college and not have a manual job. so i think thiss -- for a while it was not a problem because there was noshortage, but now there is a big

and people with a b.a. are just notnterested in those jobs. >> reporter: icon automotive with brands like pep boys and amco ishe leading charge, partnering with trade schools and offering apprenticeships. >> as demand has grown, supply has not kept up. a lot is driven by o a lack investment in schools and a de-emphasis on the technical programs reall all the way back to the high school level. as the employee base ages out and retires, we'reli not f that gap with the latest technician >> reporter: but executives say this isn't the blue collar work of days past and they're trying to shed that image. >>hi i there's a stigma around this type of work and your dirty old get your hands greasy job. this is more a house of technology. students today should be thinking about that role as a s.t.e.m. career. >> repter: with more drivers

on the road, filling this gap is imperative. for "nightly business report," i'm kate rogers inhackensack, new jersey. time to take a look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. cowen initiated coverage of apple as a outperform. it was based on increasing contributions to earnings fromp s services business. the price target now $220. apple closed at $183.73 today, up 1%. btig is upgrading snap to a bul. from neut this is the analyst's first buy eting since snap c public two years ago. he cited snapchat's move to mor premium produced content. the price target is noun $15. snap got 12% closer to that today, up to microsoft is getting a buy rating. the firm sees the company's cloud business c tinuing to drive strong overall growth. the price target $135.of micr rose nearly a dime to

close at $114.fi59. boeing's max fleet is grounded, airlines are scrambling to reok flyers and keep routes open. passengers are letting their feelings be known about the jet at the center of the whole controversy. frank holland is at new york's o lagard a for us tonight. >> reporter: boeing's 737 max jets are now grounded, but passengers like john de are letting their theories fly about why they waited for a presidential order. >> the profit motive is apo rful one. i'm quite sure that they wanted to wait until thein laste until somebody else made that decision. when you think about it, y should shut it down immediately. >> reporter: if cancellations and disruptions are experienced all around the country, passengers here at laguardia airporre in new york city expressing a mix of concern, confusion and even confidence. >> i fly every day. i'm aware of it, b i ifs

american made, i'm going to fly it. >> i've flown from the soviet union in the '70s and '80s that rattled when it flew. if it's made by boeing, i'm going to trust it. >> reporter: a flight attendant says passengers have asked a lot ef questions about the 737 maxes but the t changed dramatically in the days after the fatal ethpian airline crash before the jets or grounded. >> a i whiling awhas getting them, it was just curiosity. but now it's tned tofear, you know. people don't want to be on one of those. if they are on one of those, they want to switch their flights. >> reporter: united, american er and southweste the only u.s. carriers flying the 737 mas. united does not fly the max 8 but does use the slightly larger max 9. both united and american say it willt about 1% of their flights. southwest says about 4%. >> i think it' great that all of the max 8s are now grounded.

hopefully they're able to figure so what's been causing this that no more lives are lost. >> i really hope they find the black boxes and get to the root of the problem. if they're goi to keep sending the maxes out, they should really know what they're sending out and getting people into. >> reporter: the black boxes from the ethiopian airlines flight have been vered, but many questions remain. what caused this deadly crash and are the 737 maxes in the u.s. safe toag fly n? for "nightly business report," frank holland, in new y>>k city. coming up, we'll show you what happened to real estate in one area when amazon came calling. one week after telling investors that the company would have negative cash flow this

year, general electric today warned of lower profits and called 2019 ase year. but the numbers may not have been as bad as wall street was fearing. shares today rose almost 3%. morgan brennan has more. >> reporter: ge's vision is 2020. this year investors can expect lower profi and weak cash flow as the company continues to cut costs and debt. cash is a key focus for the company and for investors trying to value stock in the midst of theturn-around. ge expects industrial free cash flow to be down as much as $2 billion in2019. but on a call wit investors, culp did sound hopeful about the long term. >> if we get the returns that we can a should on restructuring, let alone the underlying operating improvements that we're making, we think we get cash flow back to positive territory. in '20, we improve upon that in a and in longer term are in position where this portfolio

should yield on a cash flow basis numbers far in excess of what we did last year. >> reporter: power ctinues to the biggest pain point, culp telling me we'll have a g oater leve negative cash flow in business this year. it was negative $2.7 billion last year. it will be worse this year ando here get significantly better in 2020. we expect positive free cash flow in 2021. ge says heah care renewables will face some pressure due to restructuringnd other e-time costs. that cash flow for aviation is likely to be flat, as ge ramps production of its newest jet engine. fil arm ge capital requires more cash this year and likely next but could stop losing money by 2021. to continue paying down debt, the company plans to sell its stakes in two companies, now home to former ge units. oil fie services firm baker hughes and the locomotive maker. all of this means ge is forecasting adjusted earnings to

decline in 2019. but the hard-hit industrial does expect growth to return as soon as next year. for "nightly business report," i'm morgan bren oracle getselp from the cloud. that's where we begin tonight's market focus. after the bellnight, the enterprise software company's results topped expectations, even though overall revenue fell by 1%. oracle's cloud business, which is its largest segment, gre by about 1%he and t company increased its dividend by 26% to 24 cents a share. shares were volate in the extended hours after losing a penny during the regular session to close at $53.05, just shy of an all-time high. tonight after the bell adobe reported a 25% rise in quarterly revenue as its earnings did beat wall street expectations. the quarter was driven by growth in adobe's digital media

business. share initially fell after closing the regular session up 1% to $267.69. shares of tailored brands came undone after posting results that fell short of ns expectat last night they reported the parent of joseph a. bank and men's warehouse gave weaker than expected current quarterin guidance s that same-store sales had dropped during the fourth quarter and that the trend had continued in the early months of 2019. their lost a quarter of value today, closing at $8.75.ok face data sharing deals are reportedly the subject of a criminal investigation now by federal prosecutors. "the new york times" says a d jury has subpoenaed records from at least two well-known makers of smartphones and other devhat seportedly had access to facebook data. facebook today said it had resolved aut widespreade that affected its facebook, instagram and whatsapp

platforms. the company said it was a technical issue, not an attack. facebook lost nearly 2% in today's trade at $170.17. when amazon announced its plans for a new headquarters in northern virginia last ,novemb online searches for homes in that area spiked by700%. that according to trulia. asna d olickells us, those searches are now turning into >> reporter: this tiny old home in arlington, virginia,s about to go on the market for around $800,000. >> not surprising to you at all? >> no. >> reporter: and investor lisa layton thinks it's a steal. layton owns r fourental homes in the area and would le to buy more, but competition is steep, thanks to the amazon effect on northern ia. >> they go quickly, like within three or four days, and they go for about 5% more than they would have six months ago.

>> reporter: home s in arlington where amazon announced its putting its new headquarters jumped 28% annually in december, according to the northern virginia association ofal rs. speculators were already swarming the markete even bef the official announcement. sales were up over 7% j inuary but fell almost as much in february. not for lack of demand, rethoug. >> w in a market now where we just don't have as many houses to sell as we have buyers that want to b them. with amazon coming, it's getting worse. so many people wanting to invest and we don't have enough inventory for them. >> repter: inventory isown 20% now compared with a year ago and that is pushing prices in the area higher as well, up over 6% annually. not only are homealues going up, but rents are rising as investorsthat has even hungrier to get in. >> perhaps i would have filled in five years. i think for me it's ten years because of amazon and that would be their full hiring of a

ten-year period. >> reporter: because the potential to profiil continue, as long as new amazon employees continue to move in. for "nightly business report," i'm diana olick in arlington, virginia. up next, it's time for your kid to decide which college to go to. what if you don't have the money and the financial aid offered is >> lost in all the clamor this week about the college admission scandal,any students right now are receiving their college acceptance letters. so what happens if you get in but you don't have the money to go? for many family, the financial aid offer from a school does become tin dec factor. and if it's not enough, what can you do? our senior personal finance correspondent sharon epperson is

here with some answers tonight. can you actually negotiate for more money? and what's the likelihood you get it? >> you can negotiate and you should princeton review came out with a study just in the last couple of weeks showing that99% of the parents and the students that they surveyed said that financial aid would be the deciding factor. s an if you are able to negotiate and have an appeal, then you need to take that opportunity and you nee t find out how best to do that with the particular school that you're going to, because in a third of the cases you could get more money. >> how do you do? what are the steps you should take? >> the first thing you do is make sure you know what the school's process is. you don't want to run up there an get to the financial aid office. you want to make sure you know what the appcels p is. gather all the evidence you can to support your case, whyaihe financiapackage doesn' meet the mark. you're thankful to get an offer, you're grateful tbe accepted and very seriously considering

going, but you have a case that you need toat >> and what should you say in that case? any doss and don on what to put in that letter? >> one of the most powerfu statements that you can make in this is this does not accurately reflect by financial aid package because,nd then explain what that because is. justify that with specific reasons. don't just ask for a specific number because they want to see a breakdown of where the tfall is. you want to be able to explain that. may actually get more than you anticipated withoutr askin at specific number, so don't try to box them into a corner there. m alsoe sure that you keep it short, to the point, but you want to have the evidence that you can to support your claim. for merit-based aid,e make s they know of all the awards the student has gotten, perhaps since that made that application so they can get the merit-based aid as well. so need-based, merit-based, kwhw to talk to and make sure you make that appeal. >> got it. sharon epperson, thank you as alwa tonight. finally tonight, today is

march 14th, otherwise known as pi da pis mathmatical number. a newecord was set pie calculating the number o to the 31.4 trillionth digit. that was set by g agle employee, of course. that's "nightly business report" for tonight. thanks for watching. i want to remind you this is the time of year w your public television station seeks your support and we do thank you f your support. have a great evening, everybody. we'll see yo.

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