this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. big finish. stocks rally nearly 400 points to cap off a turbulent month that saw the major indexes drop 5% or more. hands tied? with anemic growth and central banks around the world going to new lengths to reflate their economies is the fed now backed into a corner? portfolio protection. stock picks from a top-rated funds manager that he says have significant upsides in a slow-growing economy. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for friday, january 29th. good evening and welcome. if you can't make sense of these markets, don't feel bad. neither can we, really. to many market observers, january has been a month of turbulence and transition,

defying neat explanations. polar vortex? not this year. bipolar market, you bet. that pretty much explains january. on this final day of trading for the month stocks in a deep funk for much of january, roared higher. dow jones industrial average rallied 396 to 16,466. good for the index's best percentage gain since august. the nasdaq climbed 107. the s&p 500 gained 46. today's drivers were an interest rate cut in japan and weaker than expected economic growth data in the u.s. taken together those two factors suggest that american interest rates may move little, if at all, for many months. today's strong finish merely masked a mostly moribund month. this january will be remembered for producing the worst ten-day start to a year ever. the plunge in oil prices, big stock losses in china, fears of a global slowdown gripped the

market and sent shares sliding. and the final tally for the month, it's ugly. the dow lost 5.5%, worst january since 2009. nasdaq off 8% or so, its worst showing in any month since 2010. and the s&p 500 fell more than 5%. more on the economy now which saw growth sputter in the final months of last year. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, expanded at .7% in the fourth quarter, slightly less than expected and it follows a 2% advance in the third. but the federal reserve would like to see more. more growth, not less. and as steve liesman reports that's not the only thing complicating the central bank's rate hike strategy. >> the u.s. economy registered weak growth in the fourth quarter and the bank of japan facing its own anemic recovery cut its interest rate to negative to try and spur economic activity. it was an historic move and the boj now joins the european central bank as the second major

monetary policy authority to charge banks for keeping money on account. that's right. if a bank deposits money at the central bank, they get charged for the privilege. it's a way of giving banks incentive to loan out their cash rather than hoard it. it leaves the u.s. federal reserve glaringly alone with its intentions to hike interest rates this year. increasingly it appears to wall street janet yellen and the fed will do nothing of the kind. >> i think march at this point is a low probability. i think the fed is taking into account what's happening from other central banks which are continuing to ease and that's going to impact the dollar and that's going to create tighter financial conditions for the u.s. >> fed officials on friday acknowledge the global development. >> what does worry me are things from abroad. like what you said, what's happening in europe in terms of their economic struggles that continue. what's happening in asia. overall, i actually am pretty optimistic about where we are in the u.s. economy. and i think that we can weather some of these storms out there that are happening abroad.

>> the impact overseas of the stronger dollar are evident in the gdp report. it took almost half a point off gdp. another big negative, decline in investment dragged down by a fall-off in spending for oil drilling equipment. the one bright spot, consumers who are weaker than the third quarter but still good spend morgue than 2%. they're a big reason why many economists expect growth to improve this year. the u.s. economy's held up remark debris well but it could get some help from foreign economies if negative interest rates have their intended effect. >> i think this is all pointing to the fact that other central banks are finally getting on the program that they have to create the liquidity that the fed no longer needs to do for the u.s. economy. >> a big wall street rally showed investors were content to shrug off the weak u.s. growth and roll the dice on the prospects for better foreign growth and less fed tightening. >> will investor optimism help

carry this little rally through into february and will today's weak data change the fed's course for rate hike in this john canali, chief economic strategist at lpl financial, here to weigh in. good to see you. start with where steve left off, what effect today's gdp data, the moves by the wayne bank of japan on the course of american interest rates? what do you expect for the remainder of this year? >> i think the fed is in a tough spot here. they had a statement this week but all they had was a statement. they didn't have a press conference. fed chair yellen didn't get to explain what the fed did. there's no new set of economic forecasts. the next time we'll hear from the fed on any of that is in the middle of february, i think february 10th, when chair yellen testifies before congress. we'll have another ten days or so before we actually hear what the fed is thinking about this. my sense is the fed is concerned about global growth but probably not as concerned as financial markets are.

but they are concerned. the market right now only has the fed hiking rates one time this year. the fed says it's still going to do four hikes this the year. that's got to meet in the middle. my guess is it probably meets closer to what the market thinks than the fed thinks but we have another ten days or so to wait that out. we won't know until then. >> john, there is a lot of rumor going around in the market and a lot of fear in parts of the market, despite today's big move to the upside, about things like sovereign debt defaults, currency defaults, things we have seen in the past. are those valid? the market seems to think that they are possibilities. despite some of the strengths we see here at home. >> that's correct. i think today's rally off of the bank of japan move we had overnight and the fact that the fed is probably going to have to rein back its rate hikes, that's a good thing. but remember, groundhog day is next tuesday. and we could just repeat january all over again. if we get some kind of a

currency move based on what happened with the bank of japan. so the bank of japan is in essence weakening the yen. that might impact what china does with its currency. then the china's trading partners might have to change what their currencies are going. that knock-on effect we last saw in realtime in 1998. that was a very unpleasant, volatile second half of 1998. i'm not saying -- that's not our base case but i think the unspoken fear in the markets is that happening or the fear of that happening really i think is what's driving asset prices, at least in january so far. >> i spoke earlier today to the ceo of whirlpool who is clearly worried about the strength of the dollar. it is hurting his business. do you think that will purchase cy persist and hert american nationals in 2016? >> quarter to date, the dollar's up about 5% versus where it was a year ago. the head wind is abating but it's still there.

shouldn't be as bad in '16 as '15. >> thank you, john canali with lpl financial. oil prices rose to just above $33 a barrel after a government report showed production fell in november for the second consecutive month. the number of oil rigs dropped for the sixth straight week. traders are tracking those things closely. any information on potential supply changes given the global glut of crude. but despite today's rise oil saw a double-digit decline for the month of january. so the biggest energy companies in the world are now feeling the wallop of those low oil prices. today chevron reported a loss of more than $500 million in the most recent quarter. its full-year profit the lowest it's been in 13 years. morgan brennan reports on chevron's financial pain. >> reporter: chevron reporting its first quarterly loss since 2002. as oil prices collapsed to the lowest level in over a decade, the u.s.'s second-largest energy

company saw earnings plunge more than 75% in 2010. the lion's share of losses from the upstream division which explores foreign oil and natural gals. fourth quarter results were weak in the downstream segment as well as refining operations saw profit tumble. after slashing its 2016 spending forecast 24% last month, ceo john watson reiterated plans to cut costs including reducing the company's workforce by 10%. chevron also hopes to sell up to $10 billion in assets through 2017 after shedding $6 billion worth last year. as the company braces for oil prices to remain lower for locker watson again stressing the company's "number one financial priority" is to maintain and grow the dividends. which currently yield 5%. after last quarter, analysts question just how long chevron can pledge to do that. but watson is insists it's kept a strong balance sheet just for times like this. >> cash flow as you can see by

chevron's performance today is tight. they're going to have to borrow money this year if prices don't improve and if they want to maintain that dividend. given the growth projects that they have in store for the next two or three years, it's a nice balance between growth opportunities and the ability to pay that dividend. >> as the first of the major national oil companies to report it could be a harbinger of more tough news to come. mobil, bp, and shell report next week. plunging upstream profit, resiliency of mining operations, and assurances dividends will remain intact of interest. still ahead, the senator who wants to crack down even harder on corporate crime.

thousands of port workers walked off the job today in new york and new jersey ought bull shutting down one of the nation's busiest ports. the stoppage is reportedly related to issues concerning collective bargaining and time off after injuries. the terminals impacted receive near 3030% of all cargo on the east post. the port authority is urging members to return to work. companies across multiple sectors paid billions in civil and criminal fines last year but senator elizabeth warren wants

more. in a report she criticized what she calls shockingly weak punishments for corporate crimes. she cites numerous cases in which prosecutors were too timid when going after companies and individuals for what she calls criminal misdeeds. emmett jaffers has been following the story from washington. what were some of the details in the senator's report? >> good evening. here's the report here, "rigged justice," eight pages released this morning. elizabeth warren says it's going to be the first of an annual series of reports she's going to put out highlighting what she sees as the failures of american law enforcement and securities regulators to prosecute big business and particularly individual executives for wrongdoing in corporate frauds. what's upsetting to elizabeth warren here is the department of justice, she says, is not going after enough actual individuals. she also called the s.e.c. especially feeble. and she cites 20 different cases here where she thinks that the u.s. government could have been a lot tougher on those people

who allegedly committed the fraud here. so a really scathing report here from elizabeth war len. >> it points the finger at justice and at s.e.c. so what did they have to say about it? >> well, we asked them both. you might not be surprised to hear. here's what the department of justice told me earlier this afternoon. in a statement to us, they said, the department is committed to aggressive investigation and prosecution of corporate wrongdoing. as the deptive general announced the new policy on individual accountability in september 2015. i also asked the s.e.c. for their comment on this. they didn't have anything to say publicly but i can tell you thay that i know people over there are particularly proud of the s.e.c.'s new policy under mary jo white requiring companies in many cases to admit wrongdoing when they settle cases. previously it had been the case they could settle without admitting or denying the wrongdoing in question. under mary jo white the trend has been to force a lot of companies to admit wrongdoing

when they settle. elizabeth warren thinks that's simply not good enough. >> i suspect wall street will say nothing about this, but maybe privately they're saying something. what would they likely make of it? >> wall street already thinks that the federal government is too onerous and overbearing. they do not think that the s.e.c. and the doj are not doing the job. they think they're doing too much. so obviously wall street and elizabeth warren live on different planets. >> thanks very much. from a different planet, washington. >> that's right. all right, an iconic name is splitting up. that's where we begin "market focus." xerox is splitting into two companies. one a document technology company, the other business services. the move comes as xerox was under pressure from activist investor carl icahn. although xerox says the move had nothing to do with carl icahn but he will be able to name three members to the board of the business services company. >> what we found is that two

companies that have fundamentally different kind of eth ethos, different movements, one grows a little slower than the other, one needed a little more investment in development and developing its market than the other, one threw off a lot more cash than the other, that it was probably better that we split so we can actually be more flexible, more responsive. and essentially more fit and focused for the markets that we're attacking. >> wall street applauded the move. shares of xerox up more than 5.5% to $9.75. appliancemaker whirlpool said quarterly profit more than doubled thanks in part to cost-cutting measures but revenue fell more than 7%. whirlpool says this year it sees a strong u.s. market offsetting weakness in its overseas business. shares up nearly 2% to $134.39. cost cuts the story at honeywell. the move helped lift profit and offset a drop in sales hurt by

the strong dollar. the diversified technology manufacturer reiterated its forecast for 2016. honeywell jumped to $1 over 3.20. american airlines posted a record profit for fourth quarter and all of 2015. cheaper fuel prices helped offset a drop in revenue. the company doesn't expect to $2 billion on share prices. shares up 22%, $38.99 the close. falling cigarette volumes a driving factor in altria group missing earnings estimates. the owner of philip morris said it is working to cut $300 million in costs by the end of next year. that will include about 500 salaried workers. shares of altria group up 2.5% to $61.11. and shares of merck got a lift after the food and drug administration approved the company's new treatment for hepatitis c. merck is the latest to enter the growing market for hep c and

will compete with treatments from gill yad and others. it rose to $50.66 while gill yad was off 5%. to market monitor who who says stocks will provide protections to your portfolio in times of uncertainty in this market. he is rich weiss, a morning star five star fund manager at american century investments where he oversees $25 billion in assets. welcome, nice to have you here. >> nice to be here, thank you. >> let's start first of all with your overall take on this market. >> well, unfortunately, we see the economy both globally and domestically slowing down. you know, the fact is we're not necessarily looking for a recession, but u.s. real economic growth widely forecast to be maybe growing at 2%, 2.5% this coming year, roughly in line with what we saw last year. stagnating growth. we're not getting much of a push from overseas and china

continues to decelerate. so we're really battening down the hatches and trying to bullet proof our portfolios. as the stock market moves from the growth stocks to value sectors, it's imperative that you shift your asset allocation. >> looks like you're trying to bullet proof with energy names. start with entergy, give me your thumbnail on that one. >> entergy, integrated energy company in transition. primarily electric utilities in the gulf states, mississippi, louisiana, texas, arkansas. but they also own nuclear plants up in the northeast. which they are in the process of negotiating decommissioning. by transferring or transitioning from these volatile, noncore commodity sensitive types of plants into the more regulated, stable cash flow businesses, they can almost guarantee an increase in price earnings ratio regardless of the economic direction overall. >> next on the list is first

energy, also in the utility sector. >> right. similar story there. under the leadership of chuck jones, just appointed ceo, they're going to a back to basics strategy. they're going to focus on their core electric utilities businesses across the mid-atlantic states, including ohio. and they too are pursuing this transitional strategy from the deregulated to highly volatile, deregulated industries in nuclear and coal, over to the regulated industries. so you get better earnings visibility and higher multiple. both those energy stocks are trading at maybe 10 times earnings. and if they successfully make this transition, they could easily be valued at 14 times. they each carry a nearly 5% dividend yield. buffered significantly on the downside. >> a quick few seconds on a company you call painfully cheap, syncrony. >> a unique situation, a spinoff from ge, they're a consumer

finance company, the largest and oldest retail credit card company, private label company. they do business with jcpenney, walmart, they're in a partnership with amazon. huge online database of information which they've yet to monetize. they're growing online. they have extremely healthy growth rates. citigroup, capital one, td bank are all trying to get into this lucrative market. but syncrony has a lock on it, also at 10 times p/e. >> richard weiss with american century investments. a month ago most people hadn't heard of the zika virus, now everyone's talking about it, especially after the world health organization said it is spreading explosively in the americas with as many as 4 million cases possible over the next year. the report on what we know and what's being done to control it. >> reporter: though its symptoms are generally mild the concern about zika virus is mainly for pregnant women. brazil has seen a 20-fold higher

incidence of the birth defect microcephaly, leading to smaller heads and less-developed brains in babies. the link isn't proven but officials are concerned. some countries in the region have advised women to delay pregnancy. the cdc advises pregnant women to delay travel to areas where zika is spreading. united states has had more than 30 cases reported but they've been among travelers to the more than 20 affected countries in central and south america. the virus isn't report to be spreading here and experts say the risk in the u.s. currently is lower than other areas. >> we have to have a very healthy degree of respect for this virus but i don't think we need to be unduly alarmed just yet. >> reporter: because of the way the virus spreads, carried by a mosquito which carries dengue fever. >> it's spreading in central and south america because there are a lot of people who are currently infected and lot of mosquitos are we have very local

distribution. >> reporter: the mosquitos mainly found in the warm southern parts of the united states where mosquito control efforts have curbed dengue outbreaks. some in wall street worry about the effect of travel on the caribbean. airlines are offering options to travellers who want to change tickets due to zika. american said it's too early to tell what impact zika could have, that it hasn't seen a material change tonight bookings because of the virus so far. another group is cruise lines. the caribbean is a key location for cruise companies. for carnival the region accounts for one-third of passengers. stocks of carnival, royal caribbean, and norwegian have had a tough start to the year. while there's no treatment or zooeks for zika available now, work is under way. >> we have the capability of moving quickly to get a veekds candidate into phase 1 clinical

trial to determine if it's safe and if it induces the immune spont you'd predict would be protective. >> reporter: he said the vaccine likely wouldn't be ready for several years. the best bet, officials say, is to protect against mosquitos. for "nightly business report," i'm meg terrell. taking a swing. the big industrial company that is helping build a better golf club. here's what to watch next week. the government releases the

unemployment record friday. january auto sales due out, it will be the first report that comes off that record 2015. another busy week for earnings. more than 100 of the s&p 500 companies, three dow components will report. and that is what to watch next week. it's known as the major of the golf business. and the super bowl for golf equipment. it's the annual pga merchandise show in orlando, florida. it ranks among the highest-profile event in the industry and for good reason. dominic chew was there. >> reporter: it's the who's who of the golf business. more than 1,000 companies are on display and over 40,000 attendees are expected to wander through the convention center floor. everyone trying to get a glimpse of the latest and greatest in gear and apparel. >> i think the innovation for this year on the equipment side, we're seeing customization or personalization what is we call it. we're able to do that through the king family and it's really tuning that product to the golfer where they're going to pick up the most benefit.

>> reporter: technology plays a big role in the development of golf equipment. some companies even use partnerships with huge industrial companies to further their cause. >> one of the cool partnerships that we've really had for many years is our relationship with boeing. and, you know, it's really expanded in multi levels across the organization. but this last year, we partner the with them to make our equipment better. >> reporter: all of this cops at a time where the game of golf is at a crossroads. the economy is showing signs of slowing but there is a sense of optimism in the game. >> pga of america, we're incredibly excited about 2016 which for us is a truly unprecedented year. we have such an energy in golf right now. >> reporter: there's a lot of buzz here at the pga merchandise show. but the real question now is will that buzz translate into real-world gains on the fairways and greens? for "nightly business report,"

i'm dominic chew, orlando, florida. before we go, let's take a look at today and maybe not so much the month on wall street. the dow rallied nearly 400 points. nasdaq climbed 107. s&p 500 added 46. that's the good news. for the month, it wasn't so good. it wasn't pretty at all. the major indexes fell more than 5%. good-bye january. >> good-bye january, exactly. have a great weekend. that's "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm sue herera. >> i'm tyler mathisen. have a good week, we'll see you monday.

harry. ah, steven. welcome. glass of champagne? no, thanks. steve: so... elliott pine? harry: yes. eighties icon. ripe for a retrospective. oh. especially since he pegged out just last year. oh, yeah. so, what we did is, we blew all the pictures up, bigger than anyone had ever seen them before. fantastic. yeah. that's how we spotted this. so, what we looking at? oh!