a small one, two cents a share, revenue more than doubled and the company saw a big uptick in user growth and here is what happened to the stock. look at that chart. up as much as 30% in after hours trading. our julia boorstin spoke with the ceo and has a look at those results. >> twitter shares soaring after hours as the company's results beat expectations across the board. twitter's users numbers are growing faster than expected. the company ended with 271 million monthly users from 255 million at the end of last

quarter. the company benefitted from the world cup but in an exclusive interview the ceo said that's not all. >> it was a continuous set of growth across the quarter. it was no one moment or one time thing that affected the growth in users. it was the combination of product changes that we talked about over the course of the year that are starting to deliver the kind of results we wanted to see. >> when it asked if advertising revenue would double to catch up with facebook, he said he didn't see anything structural to have the same financial results seen from others in the space. as for catching up with facebook size, he said our goal is to have the largest audience in the world. questions tweeted in about privacy, the company is taking action. >> we have a whole product team focused on user safety and privacy and will continue to invest in that. as we become increasingly the

world's information network, obviously, it's the case we need to take that seriously and address it. >> we'll see if costlo can keep up the growth and continue revenue. i'm julia boorstin in san francisco. a major escalation today in the war of words and actions with russia over what the west says is its continuing role in backing insurgent on dest destabilizing retain and token efforts to make vladimir putin back off. he hasn't. president obama said the new measures are aimed at three key and sentence areas, energy, defense and finance. future technology sales to russia's important oil industry will be blocked and the president says the sanctions already in place are taking a

toll. >> russia's actions in ukraine and the sanctions that we've already imposed have made a weak russian economy even weaker. foreign investors are increasingly staying away, even before our actions today nearly $100 billion in capital was expected to flee russia. russi russ russia easte's energy are feeli pain. >> let's bring in john harwood. john, what did the president and european allies do today specifically and is it likely to change vladimir putin's mind one little bit when he clearly enjoys very strong support within russia? >> well, obviously, as you indicated earlier, nothing changed his mind so far but this is the moment the president was waiting for when finally, germany, italy, france the united king doom agreed to be willing to bear some of the pain

they would feel from inflicting pain on rush shaft the u.s. was reluctant to get out far too far because it wouldn't do that much as long as europe continued to do business would make the united states look weak. so now you have the possibility with these broader sector sanctions of changing the calculous for putin. if it doesn't, they have to see if there are other steps they can take. everybody ruled out military boots on the ground. one option, tyler, is supplying the ukrainian formed forces but the president said when asked about that, the problem isn't ukraine's inability to respond military, it's something to change russia's incentives. >> i thought we said pointly to a question, this is not the beginning of a cold war. >> no, he didn't. the united states continues to seek russia's assistance on other issues, such as sanctions against iran and north korea and a whole range of other issues and they had relations, the

obama administration got results from that. they are not swearing off the relationship but feel like given the seriousness of the situation in ukraine, the violation of ukraine's sovereignty and finally, the downing of that passenger jet, this is the moment they can mobilize the european community to join them and maybe change the balance of power in ukraine. >> followed by the downing of some military aircraft after the downing of that malaysia airliner. >> and firing of artillery shells. it hasn't gotten better so far. this is the strongest gambit the west has made yet. >> thank you. those sanctions overshadowed generally favorable corporate earnings and new economic reports on the state of the economy. consumer confidence is measured by the board jumped in july to a nearly seven-year high but a report on housing confirmed what we already know, home price gains are slowing. by the close, the dow fell more than 70 points and is now about

1% off its record high. the nasdaq dropped two and the s&p 500 was down nearly nine points. >> american express reporting earnings posted a 9% jump in profit partly on higher credit card spending. earnings were $1.43 a share exceeding expectations, card member speeding accelerated growing by 9%. revenue up 5% at amex meeting at $8.66 billion. that came to an investor group. shares were initially lower after the report and there you see they closed at $91.71. dow components posted quarterly profits that beat analysts predictions but both stocks went in opposite directions as the companies looked to find new areas of growth. meg terrell has more. the country's two largest drug makers are gearing up for growth. both are facing generic

competition to major medicines, merck lost a name of nasenex. the two drugs combined sales, more than $4 billion in 2014. >> both are facing patent losses and have a lot of legacy products doing pretty well that offset those patent losses, but really translating into pretty stagnant growth and that really sums up to leading to the question where is growth going to in the future and i think that's really depending on the pipeline for both of these companies. >> so what is coming up? for meark, investor attention is on cancer and hepatitis c. it's developing a drug that's under consideration at the fda for treatment of advanced melanoma but morning star damian said it could be expanded to diseases like lung cancer in a market he estimates to be worth

$20 billion by 2023. they are coming up with combinations for hepatitis c to shorten treatment times to four weeks. he says drug makers focus on specialty diseases is only increasing, and that could be good for patients. >> as meark shifts to specialty care and as do a lot of big firms, you'll seei reca a wave of influx of specialty care drugs that will increase pressure on pharmaceutical firms to reduce some prices. >> reporter: as for pfizer, it's developing a breast cancer drug the that could draft $5 billion in peak sales and all eyes will be on pfizer's plans for business development. they expect another bid to be made continuing a string of so-called inversion deals that lower company's corporate tax

rates. in telephone interviews, the ceos or meark and fazer said the tax code must be reformed. they are not considering a big consolidation deal. both ceos said that u.s. tax code puts companies at a competitive disadvantage. for "nightly business report", i'm meg terrell. a big earning's miss for ups. higher spending and increased cost caused them to lower cost for the year and that sent shares down by 4%. morgan brennan takes a closer look. >> reporter: the world's largest package delivery company shipped 7% more packages around the globe than a year ago. shipping activity surged internationally especially in europe but here in the u.s., more consumers purchase products online. e commerce fueled a 60% increase in upss less expensive shipments.

positive sign for consumer spending, but a drag on the delivery giants revenue per package. >> it is an interesting time. we're seeing actually the strongest growth in our domestic business that we've seen in over a decade. e commerce is driving it but we have investments to expand capacity and handle the growth. that's why we're seeing mixed results economically but great results as far as demand. >> reporter: those investments are in response to botched holiday season delivers after competitors couldn't keep pace with the last-minute surge. the investments include updates to existing infrastructure, dozens of newly built hubs and operating this black friday as a full workday. the first time the company has ever done so. all together, it will rack up $175 million in cost. significantly higher than the $100 million ups estimate in

year. that will weigh heavily on future earnings through the rest of the year but analysts say the investments are prudent. >> in the long run, we think they will adapt the network size to increased demand and then the contention will be dealing with the long-run shift. >> reporter: moving forward, analysts say the biggest challenge facing ups will be catering to increasing shipping demand as infa stuk torastructu being built out and whether the dramatic increase will continue to pressure sales. for "nightly business report", i'm morgan brennan. still ahead, are americans getting better at paying down debt? the surprising numbers behind a new report.

china is, of course, one of the hottest growth markets for american technology companies but for microsoft, relations are turning cold. as we told you yesterday, chinese officials made an unexpected visit to microsoft offices and today, things intensified. more from beijing. >> reporter: china has confirmed an investigation into microsoft. the state administration for industry and commerce has said that the software giant is suspected of a monopoly. the agency sited compatibility issues for the windows, os and office software and said about 100 officers raided microsoft's offices in various cities across china to gather more information into the way microsoft bundles the software and adds security

features. the inspectors are investigating some of the company's senior management and other personnel in china. the government said some employees in question are out of contact and is urging microsoft to cooperate with the authorities. microsoft confirmed the official visits on monday and said it was happy to answer the government's questions. microsoft is the latest american tech firm to face scrutiny after washington's repeated acquisitions of chinese cyber theft. we begin tonight's market focus with strong after the bell results from amgen. they saw better than expected earnings helped by the arthritis drug. they announce add restructuring plan and will cut the work force to focus resources on developing new drugs. it will close two plants, as well. shares rose initially, after the report during the regular

session, the stock was up slightly to $123.31. aetna said revenue. they up the full-year outlook. they were concerned about rising medical cost when the company blamed on new hepatitis treatments, hepatitis c. shares of aetna down to 81. 88 the close. corning used to make gorilla class, earnings missed marks as demand is lower. on that, the company cut the shipment growth forecast and the stock tumbled, down more than 9% to $20 even. shares on caterpillar, they agreed to repurchase $2.5 billion worth of stock. it will buy it from another company.

it sent cat up a fraction. shares of wind stream popped after the telecom company received regulatory approval to convert some assets into a real estate investment trust or a reet to minimize taxes. that approval made other telecom companies look attractive and sent shares higher. the federal reserve begun a two-day policy meeting and will continue winding down the economic stimulus, part of the great monetary policy experiment following the financial crisis. the fed has begged interest rates at 0 and put about $4 trillion worth of extra cash into the banking system and on its balance sheet. so what happens when the central bank tries to bring rates and its balance sheet back to normal? will it end badly or well? steve liesman reports. >> reporter: the market expects

the federal reserve to stop buying assets this year and around this time next summer to raise interest rates for the first time since 2009. so what happens then? can the fed exit the extremely easy monitory policy smoothly or will it end badly? the market evenly divided between doomsayers and smooth sayers. some say it will end badly, 34% say it could end well. and about 1/4 say it could go either way. >> i think we had periods in the past with very low interest rates, very low monetary policy and in the past they ended badly. i think in this particular period there are more risks and challenges to what monetary policy has done and i think the fed to pull this off has got to get too many things just right. i don't think we'll get that many things just right. >> reporter: inflation may rise to cool down the economy causing

a spike in interest rates and could cause stocks to sell off and result in a recession but john of moody's capital markets disagree. he's not worried about inflation, at least not until he se sees the reserves being turned into loans. >> until i begin to see this increase in reserves, this huge balance sheet produced more in terms of loan growth, chances are it's not going to go ahead and trigger a lasting upturn buy inflation. >> reporter: both agree the fed needs to tread carefully. they think the fed can do it but thinks it has to move interest rates from zero all the way to 4%. >> it's like asking how can you drop an egg from a ten-story building and have it not break? i don't know, how can you? >> reporter: the fed will try not to break eggs tomorrow. it's expected to reduce bond purchases bringing them down to $25 billion a month and could signal they will end in october. part of the effort as a smooth

exit and to prove wrong those who think it can't end well. for "nightly business report", i'm steve liesman. a study by the urban institute finds more than 35% of americans with credit records have debts reported to collection agencies, even though credit card debt as a percentage of income is at the lowest level in more than a decade. they found unpate hospital bills, student debt and gym memberships are piling up. the debt is overwhelmingly consenscentrated in south herb nevada states. nevada and texas have unusual high households with debts in collections. what do you need to know if you're an american facing debt collection? tim mower joins us with he's director of personal finance. tim, great to see you. thank you for rejoining us. i thought our debt problems were getting resolved, that total debt was coming down and these problems had gone away, but it

seems like the number of households with debt in collections is high, hasn't budged. >> i think it may be a result of the crisis that we had in the past with mortgage debt. that was so much bigger and so much more of an issue, that's where all of our focus went at the time but think about this, and especially when you look at the different geographic areas suffering so much. some of the areas hit the hardest economically in the downturn recession, those folks may have had to defer some bills for money they owed. they may be in denial but i think it can make some sense why we're seeing this today even though we see overall debt coming down. >> i'm sure that most of the people who are subject to collections know that there is a collection action out there outstanding, but my guess also is there are a fair number of us

who have collection actions that we don't know about because we haven't checked our credit records in a long time or moved and the bill keeps going to the old address, hasn't been forwarded. >> certainly possible, and i think there is fraudulent activity. another reason to check your credit report at least annually. i would say medical bills is the big one here. tyler, believe it or not, most foreclosures happen as a result of and in many cases, medical bills. it's one of the top reasons for foreclosures, even in the recent downturn. they tend to be big numbers and do tend to be harder to understand exactly how much you owe. you know that the insurance company paid some and then you have a bill for some. they are coming from doctors, hospitals, i do think that medical bills, especially, can be perplexed. >> how much do these credit actions or collection actions hurt your credit rating, and does a $50 bill hurt you as much as a $500 bill?

>> well, look, smaller bills are definitely not going to hurt you as bad as bigger bills but simply having someone go to collection is certainly one ding against you and that certainly will have a negative impact. your credit card company is not likely to send for six months but your doctor, the hospital will automatic will you outsource the collections to another external company and as a result, they tend to get to your credit report even faster, tyler. >> that's an interesting point, tyler. it's not necessarily your credit card. is the best thing i can do is a get a credit report from one agency or all three? do you do? give me advice. >> i've got to be honest, i check it, i'm a financial planner so i do it as inexpensively as i can and there are three great free resources i used in the past that i currently use or recommend and people have gotten good news from. annual credit report.com is one where you can get each of the

three major credit burros to send you the credit report itself, you do have to pay money if you want to get your credit score, but if you go to credit karma.com or credit sesame, you can get an idea of what your report looks like and an estimate that tend s to be close of what your score is. that score drives a lot of leverage. >> next time you come here and teach me how to tie a bow tie, okay? >> my pleasure. already disrupting the transportation and lodging industries and not done yet. what these two startups are setting their sights on now.

finally tonight, two hot startups moving into the lucrative business market. josh lipton tells the story. >> reporter: uber has a lot of fans among consumers. nava startup is taking aim at business travelers. uber for business letting users bill trips to the company. users will be able to toggle between payment options which means business travel can be expensed while personal trips stay personal. uber is partnering with a travel management service with 25 million people as well as american express whose card holders will add double points. >> it's about making the experience of using a card for business purposes better for both the employee and corporate account expense manager. >> reporter: this is another big growth opportunity for uber valued at $18 billion. that's about the size of hertz

and avis combined. it follows an announcement that lets homeowners rent out spare rooms to strangers. they announced a partnership and introduced its service for business. both startups are trying to cash in on the fast-growing market for business travel aiming to disrupt global brands like hilton and marriott. they are expected to generate $1.2 trillion. one risk for uber and air b and b is backlash from politicians and regulators who question the safety and security of these services. that could limit the market share these companies ultimately grab but uber's executives say such concerns are unfounded. >> we have better insurance coverage than any other ground transportation provider out there today. and so businesses are covered end to end and their employees more so than any other means of

transportation today. >> reporter: only time will tell whether uber and air b and b can have the same success with companies as consumers but today's announcement is a big shot across the bow and entrenched players in the space. josh lipton, "nightly business report", silicon valley. that will do it for "nightly business report" for tonight. thanks for joining us. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great evening, everybody. we'll see you tomorrow.

♪ the 7th annual california hall of fame presentation is made possible by: visit california california - dream big the california endowment health happens here where we live, learn, work, and play. learn more at calendow.org chevron - committed to the great state of california. learn more at chevron.com/weagreeca sacramento international airport it's easy as smf. visit www.smf.aero for routes and information. ♪ ♪