this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib brought to you by -- >> the street.com. our dividend stock adviser guides and helps generate income during a period of low-interest rates. real money helps you think through ideas for investing and trading stocks. action alerts plus is a charitable trust portfolio, that provides trade-by-trade strategies, online, mobile, social media, we are thestreet.com. company at a crossroads, what microsoft has to do to compete in a world dominated by tablets. a secret meeting in a parking lot, an envelope that reportedly contained thousands in cash. we have the details of two

friends at the center of an alleged insider trading scandal. >> the future of your money. really a need for your corner bank branch? >> all that and more on "nightly business report" for thursday, april 11th. >> good evening, everyone. tyler, don't know if you are keeping score, but stocks really on a roll. >> here we go again. keep reading the same story. stop me if you heard this before, folks. more records broken on wall street. stocks edged higher, pushing the dow and s & p 500 to fresh all-time highs yet again, this after jobless claims tumbled by 42,000 last week. a few retailers, notably costco and l brands, former limited, scored nice gains in march, in an otherwise lackluster month. the blue chips closed at 14,865. nasdaq up three, another 12-year high for that one. and s & p added five to finish

15,193. and during the session, disney, home depot, 3m and proctor & gamble reached highs. >> the biggest decliners were big tech names. hewlett-packard fell 6 1/2%. intel down nearly 2% and microsoft tumbled about 5% and here is why. new data showing a sharp decline in personal computer sales in the first three months of the year and that along with two analyst downgrades on microsoft is hitting the software giant especially hard. john ford has more on microsoft and what is next for the one-time darling of wall street. >> for the pc business, the outlook just went from bad to really, really bad. more expected a strong start to computer sales. things always slow down for hp, dell and apple after the holiday season. but these days they have to

contend with smartphones and tablets stealing away customer attention and dollars. analysts were expecting pc units to be down, less than 8% from the first quarter last year. research firm idc dropped this bombshell. pc shipments down about 14%. >> been kind of a fail in cuts. every month, pc demand falling a little worse and ultimately, you say, wow, this upgrade cycle is still coming, the story is similar. >> and stocks of companies that rely on pcs relying the pain, consumers spending more on affordable touch devices and not impressed with microsoft surface tablet and windows 8 which tried to blend the touch interface with traditional pc software. >> i think windows 8 is not enough on its own, because it's got tablet capabilities and notebook capabilities and the tablet capabilities kind of get in the way if you want it for a notebook and if you want a tablet, buy an ipad. >> sherman is one of the analyst

who's downgraded microsoft today. microsoft is pushing into the tablet market amid reports that it is working on a smaller, more affordable tablet to compete with the ipad mini. what's next? intel working hard to lower the price of pcs to lure customers. shaving 100 bucks or so off the price might not be enough to stem the tide with tablets and smartphones coming out from apple, samsung and others. for "nightly business report," i'm john forte. >> joining to us talk more about the future of microsoft and the pc industry in general. lance uehlenoff. thank you for joining us. microsoft feels like a company that needs a hit and can't find one. windows 7 is going to be it. windows 8, the surface tablets will be it. it never seems to happen. >> yeah, let's start by saying everybody is blaming windows 8

for this, and there are so many other factors at play. the changing habits, habits of the consumer, holding on to the hardware, desk tops and laptops, buying tablets. but, you know there, are also other factors like hp and dell going through all sorts of issues, company issues and not really targeting the consumer the way they did previously. it's -- you know, it is a changing world, but it's not all on the back of windows 8. >> well, you mentioned dell and hewlett-packard and they are going through a crisis and through a turn around if they don't succeed, what impact will that have on microsoft no, matter how well it does on all of its other businesses? >> let's say it's a big market. a lot of other companies out there. samsung, acer, and computers, and the other things to keep in mind, all of the businesses that buy these things. you know, when a new operating system comes out like windows 8,

no one jumps to buy it. i mean, they just don't, because there are so many reasons, consumers are not upgrading as fast. they don't need to. get enough power at the computer. more time with the tablet and, you know, not jumping to buy it. until they do eventually buy and get the upgrade. businesses, forget about it. it is expensive to upgrade like that, and what they have with windows 7 is working just fine for them. let's look 12 months from now and see if the story with windows 8 is any different. >> so back to microsoft, shouldn't have to apologize for microsoft. they make a tremendous amount of money, but no longer really a growth company. feel more to me like a utility company and even in the area that has been their main stay which is software, they don't seem to have the cool factor. that now belongs to google, android, even belongs to facebook. why have they not been able to innovate as effectively as some of the other companies?

>> you know, oftentimes microsoft doesn't get credit for innovating. they do office 365, cloud-based office version. sky drive. you can edit documents in the cloud. need anything running on the desk top. doing many of the same things the other guys are doing but seen as the old out of step company. >> they often do it second, lance. >> and that's very true and that's one of the problems for microsoft. they are not putting themselves in a leadership position and it's very few areas. microsoft, throwing a ton at the wall right now, trying with tablets, phones, and cloud-based stuff. making a lot of money, but not grabbing huge chunks of the market like they need to. the one area where microsoft seems to innovate first and lead is in xbox and that may be the secret to their future success. >> well, let's talk about the future, fast forward to three years from now.

everything changes so quickly. who will be the hot software/hardware star of the technology universe? >> it seems like google. because the way they do it, they are kind of like a giant lab. building new stuff, trying new things, good and bad. you get exciting new tools to try out. there because sometimes google thinks they are all experiments and they could shut them down at any moment. they have the edge, they are willing to try different things and microsoft tends to focus a little bit more tightly and can appeal more methodical in their approach. >> lance, thank you very much. editor in chief at mashable. >> not just pc sales that concern investors, so do semiconductors and that's where we begin our market focus. barclays downgraded the segment, citing the lack of new big consumer products hurting the sales outlook. here is a look how semis closed.

amd fell 3.5%, individuvidia do. >> retail sales spotty as expected. jcpenney and other merchants led the s & p 500 today. bill ackerman says he believes penny shares are worth $75 a piece. and roth stores and the limited leaders as well. jrve c penny up 5.5%. ross gained 6% and l brands, new name for the limited, also up. and zumy up 14%. >> shares of a biotech surged. the fda says the company has a new parkinson's drug without additional trials. shares of acadia gained more than 64%, $13 a share. highest closing price in five years. >> investors bid up facebook in

advance of its home download that goes live tomorrow. the first facebook optimized phone available at at&t as well. shares of facebook gained $28 a piece. still $10 below the ipo price of $38 a share. >> netflix rose on news that is adding shows from hasbro studios. streaming versions of popular kids shows like the littlest pet shop. netflix gained $7 to $173 a share. >> things got a whole lot worse today for scott london, the former kpmg executive, accused of giving out inside information about big california-based companies his firm audited. and got worse too for his stock trader friend that benefited from the proprietary information. jane wells on how the dirty deals went down and the civil and criminal charges both men

face. >> "insider training like counting cards in vegas." that spoken to a country club friend who was reporting on and recording information london was ascending to him in what the fbi said was a huge insider trading scandal involving five companies this photo shows london accepting 5 grand from jeweler brian shaw, which london allegedly believed was his cut for profits made on a tip on decker's outdoors which sells uggs. it made shaw more than a million dollars in illegal profits before the fbi confronted him and he agreed to work with authorities. london faces five years in prison and hefty fines, if convicted. despite what is assumed to be a nice income. london accepted a total of 50 grand in cash and gifts from friends, and earlier we spoke with brian shaw's attorney. >> when mr. shaw came in at the

beginning of this year, 2013, he came in without any deals. and he decided to go forward with the government, fully, completely and truthfully. to date, he has no deals. no deals with the s.e.c., no deals with the u.s. department of justice or the fbi. >> one of the more interesting exchanges involved herbalife. he said that it should beat earnings in february, but he was concerned about hedge fund manager bill accidekman driving price down and then shaw told london, i wish you would have known he was going to release that, we could have made some money. london responded, yeah, that would have been nice. both men have admitted that they regret their actions, shaw calling his stupid. we will have to see if that draws leniency from authorities. jane wells from los angeles. >> certainly mr. london faces jail time if this is prove.

i scratch my head. what were they thinking when they went into this? >> one case after another. we see the headlines, you cannot get away with it. >> eventually they catch you. >> moving along, coming up, will your neighborhood bank branch soon be a thing of the past? first, a look at the international markets and how they closed today.

jamie dimon, bank of america's brian monahan and more. president obama hosted executives from some of the nation's biggest banks and insurance companies today for a regular meeting of the financial services forum. on the agenda, immigration reform and cyber security, a growing concern for the industry. >> some of the same bank ceos in the process of making major decisions about your local bank branch. consumer habits changing, bank branches not as busy and all that pricey corner real estate may no longer be necessary. and kayla touschi here with more. >> bank branches are costly, in many cases inefficient and thanks to mobile technology and atms, consumers go to them less and less and left the industry in a precarious position. they don't want to see physical

presence shrink, but in the end, there may not be a choice. times square bustles with activity, bank branches no exception. but these new yorkers weren't satisfied customers, which could be telling for the industry. >> the last time i came here was to cancel my account. >> easier to do it from home online. much easier. >> usually go to the atm. because it's easier and i don't have to deal with people. >> reporter: not just an urban phenomenon. mobile banking jumped double digits last year. mobile apps doing the work that terls used to do branches across america are shutting down. 1,100 last year alone, the most in a four-year stretch of downsizing. >> we don't need branches as we look into the future to perform basic transactional taxes. >> they do for tasks like getting a lone. jonathan larson who runs citigroup's 4,000 local branches says the branch won't go away,

it needs to be where the most customers are in the big city. >> we'll probably end over time with more outlets, they will be of a different nature and smaller than traditional outlets. >> reporter: bank of america shuttered 250 branches last year, using the money for a technology face lift at other stores. wells fargo is experimenting with ways to cut costs so it too can grow. >> we're not about closing stores. we're opening stores, make ourselves more convenient for the customers. >> jpmorgan chase, focusing on financial advisory services and letting technology handle the simple stuff. smaller and smarter, how the industry hopes to keep its branches relevant. critics say the branch has become an expensive billboard and banks could accident 25% of them. and ae tool for business, they do research

online, but for big money decisions like getting a mortgage or credit card, they want to do it in person. >> i know you did a survey of a lot of consumer to see how they feel about their bank branch and whether they would have an account at a bank if it didn't have a branch. i know how i would respond. what did they say? >> we polled about 1,000 respondents. 60% said they would not consider banking with a firm that had no physical presence where they could go if they needed to trouble shoot or had a problem. 30% said, yes, they would consider it, 9% said maybe. >> the only time i have been in a bank branch recently, mine has those coin counter machines and i can get my coins counted easily. tomorrow, big earnings out of a couple of big banks, wells fargo, jpmorgan, what's the forecast? >> a little concern about what we'll see from the banks, for two reasons. one, interest rates still low and bank's number one business is lending. lending at a lower interest rate, you make less money. we are concerned about that.

and the other concern, they are making money off the mortgage boom. a lot of people refinancing the mortgage. analysts are cautious about what we'll see from the banks. >> thank you for being with us. still to come, the big gamble maryland is taking to improve finances. a look at how treasuries fared today.

hundreds of good-paying jobs, millions in tax revenue for city and states and the chance for people to win big. no wonder more states are building and opening new casinos or allowing existing ones to add live table games, like the one outside baltimore did earlier today. will maryland's big gamble pay off? eamon javers has the report. >> reporter: there were winners and losers on the first day of live table gaming in the baltimore suburbs. table games are new for maryland and owners of this casino are happy with day one. >> we promised a world-class casino, now we have all the elements. >> reporter: this casino was already doing 1$1.5 million a dy in revenue from slot machines, now they have new table games

that number will go up by about 20% and they can deliver about 4$400 million a year in tax revenue to the state of maryland and also generating jobs for some of the local residents. >> i don't want to disappointment the customer. i want them to be happy, give them a good time and obviously i want them to win, but for the casino, i want to take their money. >> reporter: and that's the danger for some people. >> i do not want to see people coming here, losing their house or going any further. such as credit card debt. know your limits and knowing when to stop before you start. >> reporter: more and more states are turning to gambling to fill state covffers, and nationally, gambling is nearly back to the prerecession peak. how much more room is there to grow? >> casinos are not seven-11s and not mcdonalds and they will reach a point and some people

think in certain areas in the east we've reached it already of oversaturation. >> reporter: but not yet. by lunchtime this casino generated two big winners, one person won $20,000, and another one a wonning $64,000. for "nighting business report," i'm eamon javers. from state finances to personal ones, tax time can have a significant impact on your bottom line. a positive one if you are getting a refund. refunds sent to more than 78 million taxpayers, totaling over 270 billion this tax season. sharon epperson on where taxpayers are putting money this year. lucky for those who are getting refunds. >> a lucky day for that. >> tell us what is the average refu refund? how much money are we talking about? >> we're talking about the average refund for 2013, as of april 5, $2,755. this compared to $2,800 last

year and $2,900 in 2011. average refund is coming down, we are looking at a lot of people happy to get that omt of money. >> why is it coming down? what are people doing with it? >> it's coming down perhaps because a lot of people who are underemployed not earning the same amount, not getting the same refunds. but we're not all the way through this filing season and through the refund season yet, and those 2012/2011 numbers for the full year. maybe big checks waiting to come in. >> what are they doing with the money? saving it, spending it? >> something changed in the last year. the american institute of certified public accountants did a survey and 43% of those who said they are getting a refund this year say they really need it. much more in years passed, because of the payroll tax hike.

they need it to cover every day expensives. while the majority of people say they will save this money, there are a lot of people who are say theying they use this money for day-to-day expenses and then some are saying they will use it for paying down their credit card debt and a much smaller percentage, actually looking at long-term goals like saving for college or retirement. >> what's the best thing to do with the refund? >> the best thick is to prioritize, like we always talk about. you need to set out your financial goals, that's financial planning 101, and expect what you need the money for. basic expenses, have to make sure those are covered and you have to make sure you have an emergency fund. so many people forget about the key part of the financial plan and paying down debt. that's the three areas that people focus on, when they have money left over, they can decide what they will do with it. >> let's say you pay down your debt, put money in the emergency fund, and is it okay to use

money for fun? for a vacation, something special? >> i definitely believe in fun money. you have to have some fun money. but you want to think about long-term goals. this is a great time to jump start the retirement fund, add to the college savings plan to make an extra mortgage plamt ay and that may be a good way to use that chunk of money. you don't want to get the big refund. that's what a lot of people don't realize. change your withholding allowances to get your cash in your pocket all the time. so you can save regularly. or spend regularly if you need to. >> sharon, thank you very much. we'll see you tomorrow as we close out our tax tip series with a look at paying back uncle sam without breaking the bank. >> tonight, most 14-year-olds are trying to navigate their way through eighth grade. not tianlang guan, the number to

tee off at augusta national in georgia. the teenage sensation qualified for the first round of this year's tournament winning the asia-pacific amateur championship and before play, he was seen shooting practice rounds with tom watson and tiger woods, another one of those one-time teenage wonder kids who inspired guan to play in the first place. >> tomorrow night, jpmorgan chase and wells fargo report earnings for the first quarter. lots of people watching that one. monthly reports from the government on retail sales and producer prices for march, and consumer sentiment for early april is scheduled to be rele e releas released. >> a lot coming up tomorrow. tune in for that. that's "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib thank you for watching. >> and i'm tyler mathisen. hope to see you back here tomorrow night. >> "nightly business report" brought to you by --