♪ ♪ this is "nightly business report" with bill griffeth and sue herera. welcome to wall street. pinterest andoom make their trading debuts. both stocks soar, but are vestors in them for the long haul? >> rebound. netail sales posted their biggest g since 2017 and that's lifting the outlook for economic growth. >> behin the eel, the car is fast, it's rare, it's expensive d it's already sold out. >> those stories and much more tonight on "night business report" for this thursday april the 18th. a we do bid you a good evening, everybody, and welcome. sue is off tonigh there was high drama in washington today with the release of the mueller report, but wall street was more focused

on a couple of veryhigh-profile ipos. pinterest and zoom, two fast-growing silicon valley start-ups. they made their trading debuts becoming the latest in a wave oe offerings coming to market. hey operate in very different businesses. pinterest allows you to post images on your digitalrd billb while zoom is a videoconferencing company, but both stocks soared in their debut today. pinterest is listed at the new york stock exchange, both on the nasdaq and both made for a high-energy t morning. here were old-time crowds, anticipation and excitement on the trading floors marking debuts.twi >> it does appear to be imminent here. >> at the nasdaq, zoom opened first. the rare, profitable tech company going i o the ipo. >> zoom has opened now at $65. >> an initial pop of more than 80% gave investors plenty to cheer about.

it wasn't bad for ceo and under eric yuan, either. born in china, his application to enter the united states was turned down eight times over a two-year period. today, though, he became a billionaire,t least on paper. >> this is a very, very exciting time to cover the ipo business. >> less than two minutes later, over at the new york stock exchange, sres of digital image board pinterest began trading. [ cheering ] >> it, too, opened hher, up 25% from its ipo price, giving traders and investors plenty of opportunity f selfies to pin especially for google and facebook alum ben silverman, the founder of the company. >> already 21re million s had changed hands. with at least a half dozen more ipo expected next week and uber likely next month, the might be even more excitement ahead. >> and pinterest, a we mentioned, is not yet profitable despite seeing a 60% rise in

revenue last year. now that it's aublicly traded company, one of its challenges will be to convince investors that it has a plan to increase market share. julia boorstin takes a look at what's next for that c >> pin southwe investors are planning on the ability to invest o internationallyaw investors and to make it easier for customers toake purchases through the platform. the fact that it's a natural place for commerce making it valuable destination for brands. >> the really cool thing of advertising on pinterest is that people are there to geto inspiration things and that often means buying. so over the last couplof years and for the foreseeable future we'll work on bridging that gap eetweeng something inspirational and finding a product from a retailer you trust p at ace point that makes sense. a o ben silverman made it point to distinguish the company around privacy and manipulation pinterest works to be a safe place for brands to advertise, and for consumers to find

inspiration. >> pinterest isn't a social network and it isn't about other people and celebrities. it's about yourself, your dreams and ras pragzs. >> they're evaluating the platform with the sim criteria that they do facebook, twitter and snap looking at revenue growth. while pinterest doe consider itself a social company, giving control to its unders is right in line with both facebook and snap. silverman saying he and his team are focused on rung the company for the long term. we'll see if the after the stock gains today instors also hold on for the long firm. for "nightly business report" i'm julia boorstin los angeles. zoom is actually profitable. its goal is to make video communications frictionless and it's not just earnings that investors care ab they also like to see growth and zoom's ceo said he hagra strategy to the brand. >> i think that first of all, we

started from s&p customers and we are theav ones thata much better cycle. i think to be a publi company brings more responsibility and plus it can really help our company brandnd with that, it would probably takffrom here. >> kathleen smith joins us right now to talk about the ipo market an at the moment she's co-founder and principal at renaissance capital. welcome back. >> thank you. >> if anything, you're concerned about the valuations on some of these ipos, right? >> certainly. i think valuation is very important and investors breathed a sigh of relief to see zoom and afterest trade so well the very disciplined trading that we had with lyft, the largest ipo so far this year. so these two companies tell us thats can be priced right and trade well. >> if anything, pinterest had been conservatively priced i think in light of what happened to lyft, don't

>> that's correct. pinterest was price below its 2017 private round and that gavn stors, and although the price came up a little further after ward, it gave investors, i think, a more attractive price entry point for pinterest. >> what have we learned about lyft? >> lyft is trading now at 20% below its ipo price and it's not been a successful ipo and it tells you thatst ins were concerned about how large the losses were about a billion dollars and that it wasn't sure ecout the business model and what it could e in terms of the profit profilen and w there would be profits and lyft trading is definitely going to get io the psyche ofnvest offers when they look at uber, another very large company that's losing amo larget of money. >> we haven't gotten into the mother lode of the large ipos still to come including uber and some of these other companies. what are your expectations going forward after what we've been

through so far theas couple of months? >> well, we're thinking that if all o these large, billion dollar plus private companies who are targeting2019 and then just your regular number of ipos, we could have an ipo market that has seen more volume than er, an historic amount of dollars raised. so in ordor that the market will have to be very healthy and pricing's going to have ao beractive for investors. >> is profitability as important as it would see i mean, we look back to the dotcom boom of the '90s when many unprofitable companies came public and were so successful. oris that more int today, do you think? >> yes. the ipo market today is more institutional. there's a smarter investor in the market and there is a very big concern aboty profitabi and it may be they're building it into a t model that case of pinterest it's maybe a year and a half down the road, but understanding of the business model and how it can turn profitable. if there's not that

understanding it's going to be difficult to get an ipo done. >> we will see how it goes from here and it should be interesting. kathleen smith with renaissance capital, thanks for jning us tonight. >> thank you. >> by the way, zoom's video communications was wanthe only stock with the word zoom in its name in an apparent ase of mistaken identity shares of zoom as muchgies rallied by as 80% today before settling back at the close. this company is a over-the-counter penny stock for a chinese mobile phone components maker. its ticker symbol is zoom. so the confusion, perhaps, is understandable. elsewhere on wall street today those ipos looked atim set as investors focused on corporate earnings and a handful of economic reports whoh we will get in just a moment, but the market took the release of the mller report we mentioned stride today, and the justice dertment sent the report to congress and released it to the public this morning with portions of it blacked out. the dow industrial average added ten points and we are back to

26,559 and the nasdaq was up about two and the s&p 500 gained four. here's a look at the weekly performance since the markets ed friday holiday. to earnings now, and fir travelers kwh saw its profits rise as catastrophe losses fell and underwriting improved and that offset a decline in net investment income. that sent the stock to a one-year high during today's heading session and there's american express. the card users spent more and that helped theompany beat estimates and american express invested heavily in its rards program which brought in more than a million customers in the past two years. shares got a lift in today's trade, as well. it wasn't too long ago that wall street was concerned about the u.s. economydo slowing , but a new batch of reports appears to alleviate some of those concerns. steve liesman dives into the

data for >> the weak economy that caught so much concern just a few months ago is not looking that weak. a combination of bter trade and retail sales data has wall street economists marking up their forecast for the just-completed first quarterar shy. they're seeing a 2.4%, a long way from the modest 1% forecast in early march and of course, it's not the 3% growths of last ar and it is above what most economists consider to be trend growth. the current quarter is forecast to come in right around the same place, but we don't have the data yet and some remain cautious. >> retail sales i only about 20%, 25% of total consumption and there's a y big piece know a lot about and the momentum looks good for a q2ompared to q1 and consumer spending and perhaps larger inventory drawdown and imports c tur out to be stronger. >> retail sales are up 1.3% among economists and grocery stores and clothing sales.

and it wasn't the only upbeat report. jobless claims fel 192,000 and the lowest level since 1969 when there were a lot fewer workers in the american economy. the fed, unlikely to hike rates because of the newfound economic strength and those who were sure the fed would cut rates are disappointe an economy running at 2.5% is doing just fine and doesn't need any help from the central bank. for "nightly business report," i'm steve liesman. elsewhere, i theemember national trade commission said the trade deal between the u.s., canada and mexico would boost the economy and the commrtsion's re would add 175,000 jobs over a six-year period while increasing u.s. exports, but it found that the deal would reduce vehicle production here in the u.s. and lead to a small increase in prices overall. the agreementust still be approved by congress and the scouting report is it still faces an uphill battle time to tack a look at some of

today's upgrades and downgrades and we began with of morgan stanley and they were upgraded to neutral from buy, and one week after reporting better than expected earnings and theas stock h little room to grow right now and the price .arget $48 and that stock finished at $47. pepsi which also reported earnings yesterday was upgraded neutral from sell at goldman sachs. the analyst cited momentum in the company's snack busins and price target $132 and that stock se a fraction to 127.09. still ahead, the future ofnk g and our market monitor ays now is the time to invest in the rise of digital payments. ♪ ♪

♪ >> sears is suing former ceo eddie lampert and past board members including secretary steve mnuchin. the lawsuit filed on beha of sears creditors allegesd hat lampert he siphoned billions from the retailer over several years before it eventually went bankrupt last october. sears has not turned arot for the past ten years and it closed over 3,000 stores over that time. in january lamperturchased the .2retailers for illion as part of the option and it caused the claims eaming or just flat wrong. >> sen rat majority l mitch mcconnell plans to introduce legislation to raise theinimum age for buying tobacco products to 21 and that includes vapingc de as well and mcconnell said that the bill would be introduced in may and he

orityibed it as a top p right now. some tobacco companies have supported that initiativeoalled toba21, but today's news pressured shares of some of the tobacco stks, as you can wsee. as down more than 3% and bti was down 1 >> the governor of wisconsin wants to renegotiate his state's dealith taiwanese electronics manufacturer fox con and tony ers said he's not convinced that fox con will be able to fulfill his promise o creating 13,000 jobs at a planned factory in that state and the $10 biion facility was agreed to back in 2017 with the state offering $4 billion inax credits and other subsidies over 15 years, but now gernor evers wants to revisit some of those terms. as we reported, weekly jobless claims fell in the most ngcent week hit a fresh 50-year low. that continued labor market tightness is making it each more difficult for some businesses to find worke and as kate rogers

reports,hat's especially true in the solar industry. ♪ ♪ at peters and dean,he solar business is booming and panel installers are in high demand. >> every is different. every house is different. everything islways different, designs so you never really see the same thing every day. >> the boost in business roof and solar installation company is due in par from a mandate from california that requires newly built homes like the one you see behind me htoe ave solar power beginning in the year 2020 and after two years of j losses within the solar industry, the change is welcome. >> we are constantly hiring installers, but that mandate is going to increase our need for installers by rough 300% just based on current install rates today, so translated into literal terms, we will need another t 350 400 installers.

>> industry experts areob projecting growth beyond just the golden state this year with a 7% gain to a total of 260,000 jobs. the trump administration's tariffs on imported solar panels sent a sipple through the solar world. thousands of jobs were lost which advocates blame on implementation. > the vast majority o consumers now do it to save money and the tariffs cut into that savings and so for some people in some places, if it's an escape that has low electricity prices they're not going to have enough savin if solarbecomes more expey'ive. >> the set to decline by 5% y eachr and certain products are exempted from the tax as the first two and a half giga watts of imported cells. that coupled with corporate investment and utility companies strning to solar should prove to be a boo for business. >> nowe companies l peters and

dean are focused on finding skilled workers, sething csx is a challenge industry wide. to compete for talent,ea peters and offers 401(k) plans, health insurance and ongoing training to workers. experience installers cane m up to $50 an hour. beyond just pay and benefits, the butty is in seeing the finished product. >> the end is theo best. just te the work, how it came out,s this theically it's always good work. >> skechers shares slide and that's where we begin tonight's market focus with the casual sneaker makli f after missing analyst expectations for its first quarter earnings and sales. sketchers says profits were affected by a higher income tax rate and the company issued disappointing second-quarter guidance and the stock was down 10.5da in s trade to 31.60. blackstone shares got a lift after the private equity company

said he was goi to change his status in the corporatie from urrently structured partnership. the change will p let moreple buy that company's stock. >> we can sl to 4.5 trillion out of 12, but if we make this change to be a corporation which is like every other corporation, then we can double the number of people. >> and that stock rose 7.5% on that news to 38.62. union pacific reported better than expectedrt qly profits thanks to price increases and cost-cuts. that helped offset the impact from the midwestern floods. the ceo say t company's more efficient systems did help it get thrgh some very challenging weather conditions. >> the average was epic for us. we had our east-west main lin severed for almost two week, 13 days and as far as any of us can tell, that hasn't happened as

far back as we can see, 50 years it was an epic, epic, when issue. >> be that as it may the stock hit an all-time high of 176.66. honeywell posted stronger th expected sales in its first quarter. the products which range from thermostats to jet engines cited demand for it's aerospace the cfo says the company expects little impact from the 737 max production and honeywell also raised its full-year forecast. while it was at it the stock rose 4% today to 169.06. >> e trade topped first quarter ea estimates after posting solid revenue. the online brokerage company said a inc in new users helped offset lower commissions and the stock is off 3.2% today to bbnt reported a slight rise in its profits in the most recent quarter as it recorded merger of

ha related expenses in suntrust. activity is strong and getting stronger. >> our pipeline where we measure the process are at an all-time high? so weir seeing a broad based leveling, and willingnesso man capital, and the stocks fell 1% today to $49.25. he has names that h will benefit as the financial services industry becomes more automated especially when it comes to making payments. this is his first time on our program. welcome the ceo of lake avenue financial. than joinings tonight. thanks, bill. and we start with square, of course, one of the leaders in the electronic payments industry came public a few years ago, but

it has stumbled in the last few months going back to last fall on questbout its earnings growth, but you still like this company, why? >> definitely. as we turn to a cashless society, uare's going to definitely profit from this area and we will see their point of sales and terminals as well as wher productsl keep growing and that's why you noticed the revenue has gone up by 54% year over year. >> a right, but then you've got paypal spun off from ebay y fers ago. there seems to be no stumble in that stock recently and it's want getting too expensive for you? >> ebay, excuse me, pay pal as you know from ebay andhey have lending and a new peer to peer payment app called h venmo grown tremendously. we see the space getting bigger and bigger. right now they're a person to person payments area is at 35 billion and it should be going to 335 billion in the next couple of years and there are

let of growth opportunities there as well. >> and the other pick is not about page, but it's about financial technology. intuit have beena a aroundong time and they've had to change their product offerings over tha years technology changed, right? >> definitely. all of us did our taxes recently py, so for the turn and they're using quick books or they're on their mid software and if you use a professional chances are they'll u into the software, as well. >> and that's why their revenue was increased 10%. >> apple getting into that area, as well and are those two that you like or do you like the whole industry? >> no. we lree different of it, and we try to diversify for clients and these are the top holdings in the area of tech for

us. >> lake avenue financial, thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, it's fast. d out xpensive and it s in just days. ♪ ♪ >> yesrday we told you about the bilge push by automakers to go green over electric vehicles d that's been a big theme at this year's new york auto show, but there's another car that caught our attention. it's called the jesko, it's i fast,t's pricey and very much demand. robert frank got an up-close look for us tonigh

♪ ♪ >> this is the fasteston producar ever built, able to top 300 miles an hour and it sold out in just five days at a price of $3 million. it is called the jesko and it's the latest model from the swedish hypercarmaker. only 525 jeskos will be produced. they will make boone a week starting next year. it's one of the super exclusive hypercar brand known only to the sur rich and c fanatics, as ferrari, lamb borg iny and porsche move into the suv world d make a lot more cars, they're appealing to wealthy buyers who wan truly rare cars that can outrun the competition. itns po increase production to 1,000 by 2022 and for the buyers of a $3 million super car, the threat of tariffs won't likely be a problem. >> you really need a turning

spe, so i'm sure if you look at other parts of the world like china malaysia and other country, that means they have 200%. >> this car generator 600 hse power and at high speeds it generates 3,000 pnds of downforce. most of the buyers are young enheepreneurs from around world who may not drive it at 300 miles an hour, but do like the status. >> knowing that your car is the fastest in the world and that ip yo it in the hands of a really professional driver on the safe space that it can do that, that it canreak records and make'sistory. that cool thing. >> the jesko is named for founder kristen van en's father who left the company his entire life's. savin hopefully he'll get paid back.

>> for "nightly business report" at the new york auto show in manhattan. >> befor we go. a time look at the wall street. >> the nasdaq was up about 2 and the s&p 500 gained four and we're closed to t week and the averages moved slightly. todayte pst and zoom soared. thanks so much for watching and we will see you tomorrow for special edition of. >> reporter: nbr. hope you can join us. ♪

>>his is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman fouation, and judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing solutionsa' wow, that is unbelievable. ♪ >> i'm flying! ♪ >> stay curious. ♪