this is"nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffeth. >> amazon challenge. ceo jeff bezos calls on his rivals toraise woray and the biggest retailer of them all strikes>> back. surprising winner, as fast-growing start-ups go blic, there's one company that appears to be coming out on top. target big business. a trillion dollar tax proposal is taking aim at some of the biggestompaniesn ie nation. those stories and much more tonight on "nightly business report" for thursday, april 11th. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome. we begin tonight with the world's richestan amazon's ceo jeff bezos and the dare that he lay down to rival retailers. in his annual letter to

shareholders, bezos challenged amazon's competitors to top its $15 an hour minimum wage saying that they' coun boeing, will benefit if retailers compete on pay. his invitation stands in stark contrast to his usual shareholder letters t have historically outlined amazon's long-term strategy, but as what solomon reports, that wasn't tht cas year. >> amazon's jeff bezos did not hold back. today i challenge the top retail competitors, you know who you are, to match oure emplo benefits and our $15 minimum wage. do it, better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back. the kind of competition that will benefit everyone. amazon's top,competit walmart responding quickly with their n jab tweeting a story claiming that amazon had paid no income taxes for the last two ddyears,g retail competitors out there, you know who you are, how about paying your taxes?

walmart's president and ceo doug mcmillan explained that while their minimum wage is $11 an hour, their average employee makes $17.50 plus benefits. >> we have great health carefe . we have changed our lead polic a birth mom can now get up to 16 weeks paid leave. it's not just starting wage, it's the whole thing and when you get the balance right and the whole system that you have the tension will go up. >> so when it comes to wag or benefit, what's important to the american worker? >> that's a good one. i think the benefits. >> starting wage is so important because it's easier for me to budget. >> i wou off. you should be able to leave and not worry about it. >> mey is great, because i think we have bills to may, but there are other thing more important than that. >> the starting salary kind is more important, but the benefits. >> the move to raise wages has reverberated rcross theail

industac. todays ceo jeff ganet discussed his employeewochl ation plan. we created path to growth and every single colleue all 130,000 get a quarterly bonus as a result of the production of the store, the cal center. >> last week target announced it is raising its minimum wage to $13 an hour and the goal of $15 by 2020. the wage increases speak to the state of the labor market with retailers spending more to e to. for "nightly business report." >> investors get ready for the start of earnings season and the release of quarterly results from some of the big banks that are coming out tomorrow, but today it was a mixed finish. the dow fell by 14 points to 26,143. the nasdaq was down 16. the s&p 500 was up just1 cents. to the economy now key gauge of inflation that posted its biggest increase in five months. the producer price index

rose .6% in march lifted by a rise in gasoline prices, but despite the gain, undlying wholesale inflation remains tame. a separate report shows w jobless claims fell 8,000 to below 200,000. that's the first time that has happened since 1969. and the strong labor market is just one of the reasons why the vice chair of the federal reserve said today the u.s. economy is doing well. >> we had a really strong year la year with 3% growth and i think growth may slow a bit this year, but the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low and inflation is at our goal or slightly below economy is in a good place. >> and that sentiment was shared by thewbrand- president of the world bank who said concerns about slower growth are not coming from the u.s., but rather from europe. >> we are seeing slower growth, but as far as the u.s. and china, not so much of the slowdown is coming out of them. it's more coming out of europe and that's something that

can work on. the uncertainty coming out of brexit is a challenge for growth in europe d it's very, very important thathat growth begin to pick up. >> and speaking of brexit,pe eu stocks closed higher after the uk was given more time to figure out its exit from the european union. the decision averts a disruptive global ecot mic eventast for now. late last night european leaders at the end of a six-hour summit said the new deadline would be october 31s this is the second time uk prime minister theresa may has been anted an extension. the president of the european council urged may not to waste this time. >> another coury in thelobal spotlight right now is india. it's one of the world's fastest-growing economies and it is hosting the world's largest election. polls opened today and as see modi explains, global investors will be paying very close attention. >> it is an eleion like no

other, 900 million eligible to vote makingndia's national election the world's largest democratic exercise. the decision for v cerses down to this. nallow prime ministerendra modi to continue as leader of the country for the next fiveiv years or rahu gandhi head of the congress party a shot. the stakes are high. india i one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the stock market up 70% in the past five years and with over 500 million indians connected to the internet, netflix amazon pouring millions into generating indian content. facebook and twitter working around the c to get more indians online while also combatting fakedi news. has given birth to a number of tech unicorn, ola, flip cart mook recalls and backed by major b investo softbank, tiger global and sequoia capital. it has outlined vision and strategy for additional india

catching a business model change, a social model change and an economic change a a technology change in one and he's positioned his country for the future in that. >> while modi is largely seen an pro bs experts say smfr his actions suggest otherwise. >> the modi governmentov has further on increasing fdi caps in a number of different sectors and it has also moved backwards on increasing tariffs to some extent. >> and eerts caution more protectionist modi might make economic policy a bigger concern for both citizens and foreign investors. seema modi, nightly business report. >> and here in the u.s. senator elizabeth warren unveiled a plan to tax the largest and mostpa profitable ces and it's a plan she says will raise $1 trillion over the next decade. john harwood is with us tonight from washington so, john wha exactly is senator warren proposing? she's pro ssing what call,

sue, the real corporate tax that would be 7% that would be levied on corporate profits in excess of $100 million. if the company makes less than 100 million and small business and medium sized business wouldn't touch them at all and 7% is the amount. >> why not increase the existing corporate tax. >> elizabeth warren is arguing theporate tax doesn't work. it doesn't capture a lot of corporatth income because o deductions and loopholes that corporations could use. amazonsshich you dis earlier in the program made $10 billion profi in2018, didn't pay any federal income tax. whattsarren wo do is to apply the tax to the amount of srofit that's reported on this financial stateme to shareholders where corporations don't have the incentive to reduce their reported profits and that's what she wants to capture and this would be on top of the corporate tax. >> it sounds like that wouldte affect q a few companies and by how much? >> elizabethre w says it

would hit about 1200 companies. that's b aed on anlysis from economists at berkeley. 1200 companies and raise $1 trillion over ten when you combine that with the wealth tax that she's proposing as well as the increase in the estate tax she'sroposing altogether $4 trillion in higher taxes over ten years. that's $400 billion a year. >> john harwood in washington. thanks, john. >> and given the deadline to file your taxes is just days away, a bill that was passed earlier this week by the house the taxpayer first act and and the intention of the es bipartisan sur to update the bipartisan systems and one of the provision would bar the irs from filing a free tax service to ubec. if this bill becomes law it would be a big win for an h & r block or intuit, the maker of turbotax and not to mention the

ax prep raise services in the countr this provision w an intense lobbying effort by the tax service industry and a companion bill has been introduced by the senate. that got us thinking about corporate influence and lobbying in washington, the national association of realtors, pharmaceutical research andnu cturers of america as well as the american hospital association were among some of the top spendet year. sheila crumbholtz from the nter of responsive politics joins us to talk about that. welcome, sheila. nice to >> thank you. >> we have other companies that we want to talk about, but the story thatill just brought us is just one example of how lobbyists cannfluence the outcome of legislation, but is it always at one person's advantage over another or one industry's advantage over another or sometimes does it really benefit the consumer? >> oh, certainly, there are bills th are lobbied on

intensively that do benefit the consumer. in some ys maybe they are at a disadvantage in other ways and companies there are and industries pitted against each other and there may be winners and losers and it's impossible to say it's good or bad for the consumer. >> we have a list of the top corporations and what they spend as well and you have a google and an alphabet google and an at&t and an amazon. they have various issues wh the government and what do they get for their money that theyn spend there some of these issues necessarily? >> you know, the lobbying money is where they cash in on their campaign contributions by access and then their lobbyists and in some cases or dozens of lobbyists can march up to capitol hill and have their client's perspective heard and it's the opportunity to plead their case and t s tope policy coming out of congress.

does it get an at&t/time warner merger through. does it keep amazon from paying more, wha about the privacy issues that alphabet and google face or the anti-trusts. iss is that what they're going here? >> absolutely. theyo guarantef course, that they're going to be successful in their lobbying campaign, but they hope they will be and they're willing to spend in the case o lobbying billions of dollars every year to have that opportunity to shape policy and regulations. >> that's -- that's an example how it's working for the corporations. what's an example where it's working for the consumer. >> well, there may be different opinions on bthis, there certainly were people lobbying for health care ndreform for financial reforms and reforms that were not popular among many health companies and wall street

firm, but some consumers may view those as successes and there areonmers on each site. the question is wheth the policy and driven by the merits of the argument. >> on that note, sheila crumbholtz with the center of po responsive litics, thank you. >> time to take a look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades and we begin with shares of lil lilnd they were downgraded from neutral to buy from guggenheim securities and the analyst sees limited stockings and even though it has the best long-termrowth prospects in the industry and the firm removed to a $134 price target and it fell to $125.15. u.s. steel was downgraded to underperform from buy atank of america merrill lynch and the analyst cited market conditions ha the u.s. and price target at >>8 andres were down 3% to

$16.69. chipotle was downgraded to hold from buy and the analystci s a valuation after a 65% gain in the first quarter and the price target is $700 and it fell to $7.53. dr pepperas downgraded to morgan stanley. the analyst cites concern r abot growthes for the single-serve coffee business. the price target was $24 and the shares were off 4 hers to $26.87. >> still ahead, boeing faces a number of questions about its plane that's considered a cash cow for that com t' been almost a month

since the governments around the world grounding boeing 737 max and since then boeing says it has made progress, iy,hould on a fix for the plane's flight control system, but how long until the max is back in the a and will passengers be okay flying in it? phil lebeau takes a look. >> outside boeing's plant in renton, washington, 737 max jets parked waiting to be cleared for takeoff. at an event in dallas dennis mullenberg sai the company i making progress fixing the plane's flight control systemsp ted of causing two max crashes. ? overall our team has made96 flights totaling a little over 159 hours of air time with this updated software. they wl conduct additional test and production flights in the coming weeks and we continue to demonstrate that we've identified and met all certification requirements. >> sources say boeing will submit a plan to fix the max within aekouple of but

experts doubt the planes will be flying sn. >> i expect that the airplane is still several weeks away from getting a -- the final gold seal of approval to be flown again and not so much because the software fix is a problem, but just from an optics standpoint. >> the faa, already underre pr on capitol hill will need toth convinceer regulators around the world that the max is safeo take off again and that may take a while since the faa stood behind the plane while other countries grounded it. the three u.s. airlines with the x are not planning to fly it again until late may or early june and some think those plans are too optimistic. >>ight now we look at the month of september as the earlieib poss, practical date for return to serviceer an the are a lot of unknowns there. >> the big question, will travelers balk at flying the max?

>> i honestly wouldn't feel safe. >> would feel safe flying a 737 max if they have a fix for the software, i would. >> they rushed into production in the first place, you know? now they're trying to rush it back into the - they've got some work to do. >> that work includesin convi regulator, airlines and the public that the 737 max is safe. all have skeptics who will be scrutinizing boeing's plan to get the plane back in e air. phil lebeau, nightly business report, chicagoas uber officially filed to go public in what could be the biggest ipo in years. in documents released late this afternoon uber revealed it operates in more than 700 cities around the world and its revenue rose more than 40% last year, but operating losses totaled just under $2 billion. the company did not disclose the market valuation it wants to this offering, but it did say is plan to sell around $10 billion

in stock. and a all of these ipos come to mark there's one well known established company tt's a surprising winner. josh lipton has more. >> big start-ups are taking the public market plunge and deep in their financial statement, one s name kee popping up. ebaws. amazon w services and the company's cloud computing platform. there's pinterest which is expected to price its shares next week. e photo sharing, sociane ork plans to purchase at least $750 million worth of cloud services from aws through july 2023. lyft will spend at least $300 million on amazon's cloud between this year and 2021, and there are other ride-hailing companies looking to aws, too, like uber, ula, and grab. start-ups like many compani are shifting to the cloud and technology that lets them

offload their storage and computing needs and access their data from anywhere. in that market, investors say aws boasts key strengths. it was the first to market back in 2006 so the company and many of the start-ups now going public grew up together. now aft 13 years amazon has the longest list of services ane data and stories and logging analytics and incrsingly, they're becoming more global. so if you're a start-up that's growing fast a if you expand from europe and go to asia, amazon now can serve your needs anywhere aroundhe world. >> but amazon also has plenty of competition and microsoft has been selling into the enterprise for years and so cpanies may just stick with it. microsoft's cloud customer has airbus and honeywell just to name a few and then there's google and investors praised the company's products and says it needs a stronrales force and

they understand that challenge announcing plans just this wee to ramp up his sales team. as for amazon, its investors care a lot about aws because it's the company's pfit center. last year, nearly 60% of azon's operating income came from its cloud business. for "nightly business port," i'm josh lipton,nc san fco. it makes its debut on wall street and t where we begin tonight's market focus and the first notable software ipo of the year. it helps technical teams spot problems quicklyes andnd to consumer complaints. the offering price at $24 a share and they soared on their first day of tradingp nearly 60% to $38.25. meanwhile, marriott and travel site expedia have reportedly signed a new multi-year agreement according to cnbcns negotiatere tense and in the end marriott was able to negotiate a commission rate around the 10% range compared to

the previous 12% range. shar of the company went to $123.25. expedia was at $124.59. >> tesla and panasonic have pout hold plans to expand the gigafactory. the two companies joint me make the battery packs and some investors have expressed concerns for tesla's vehicles and demand for its energy sells and continues to outpace supply. the stockell 2% to $68.42. there arets tonight that the owner of the golden nugget ti tito furtita and according to cnbc caesar's has not deced to put i up for sale and caesar's closed at 940 and el dorado at 48.97. >> health care reform has been

front and center in washington for years ow, butcourse, re-working the system has prove to be an incredibly complex undertaking and while that topic was in focus again today at the nnual democratic retreat in leesburg, virginia and that's where we find elonmui tonight. >> they tackle the cost of prescription drugs and access to care in the coming months calling it one of their top priorities. >> i want to focus so much on health care because that goes right to the kitchen table and financial security of america's rorking families? lawmakers heard kaiser permanente ceo at the retreat. his message -- >> stay focused on theaf rdability issue and remember it's not just one or the other, it's both. it's thea, fordabilit of coverage and the aford ability of care and that's what thepl american p are suffering from. onhe fielded questions community health and how it

compares to the rest of the world. as for big, newroposals like medicare for all. tyson says congress d to go that far. >> we have commercial, we have medicare medicaid and aca and other programs. i would argue that we have enough in the tool k already to get to universal coverage. >> replicans have rallied against the idea criticizing it as government-run health care and 17 senate republica introduced a bill this week to protect pre-existing conditions. these are, of course, better campaign slogans than serious lutions to the problems facing americans on the personal level, i have found that most people would rather have control over their own health car rather than have the government make those decisions for them. >> one thing both parties do agree on is that prescription drug prices need to come down. eady al discussions are a under way between democrats and the white house.

for "nightly business report"m elan mui in leesburg, verge virnl. coming up, why a proposed tax in new york is being called a triple ♪bogey. ♪ morgan rates ticked higher according to freddie mac, and that was up from 4.08% the previous ,week. it al maed the first time in seven months that it rose two weeks in a row. >> finally tonight, states with big budget deficits are always searching for new sources of revenue. well, new york state is the latest to come up with one, but avidolfers are not going to be happy about it. robert frank explains. >> a bill making its way through

albany would more than quadruple the property taxes pai by gol clubs. it would allow towns to tax gol courses at their highest and best use. that means thatr than taxing them as golf courses they will be increased for developable land four to te times the highest, and development property is scarce. the new york golf association estimates that to one-third of all of the clubs in new york state would close if the bill is passed, costing jobs and a lot of economic activity. the state has about 250 private golf clubs and about 500 public courses. the bill grew out of a dispute with trump national golf club in westchester county. in his financial des closure forms during his campaign, course rump valued the in briar cliff manor at more than $50 million, but his f lawyered papers with the

state declaring the value for tax purpes at only $1.4 million. assembly woman sandry have -- tooge many clubart feshlly low exceptions and when you have these clibs not paying their fare share, everyone picks up the cost. foy in nightly business report. >> i'm sue herera and on i'm bill griffeth. see you tomorrow.

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