a new study reveals the states with the best healthcare. in today's cover story, careers that are making a comeback as the economy improves. the secret world of college admissions. what you don't know about what's behind being accepted or rejected from a school. plus, oil production is soaring in the u.s. will it have an effect on gas prices? and, is the halloween box office a trick or a treat for movie goers? first business starts now. you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning. it's thursday,

october 25th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: apple comes out with earnings after the close. the stock rallied 3 dollars yesterday, but has fallen far from the $705 peak it hit back in september. the federal reserve is sticking to its economic stimulus and will keep interest rates through 2015. the fed says job growth is slow, but housing is rebounding. the fed meets again in december. a very red day, with a selloff in stocks, gold and oil. it's the 5th session in a row oil has declined. a warning from best buy sent shares tumbling 7%. the retailer warned earnings will fall siginigicantly short and a management shake-up is underway. and could it be game on for zynga? shares rallied 15% on word the social gaming company plans a $200 million stock buyback and has a deal to take its online poker game to the uk for real money.

now for some thoughts on what today's trading session could look like, larry shover of sfg joins us now. good to have you on the show. will we see some fallout perhaps from the fed meeting that happened yesterday and the rate announcement? > > you know, we could. but i think people are just expecting miracles from bernanke, and the fact is, he just came out and stated what we all thought he was going to state, and that is, rates are going to stay low for a while. but i think people were expecting some type of silver bullet to propel the markets higher. he has no reason to do that at this point. > > what is your outlook on oil? > > oil dropped again yesterday, and really it's all about supply, it's not about demand. let's keep in mind north sea oil production is back up to where it was a year ago. it's been down a lot over the last year, so it's simply just a fact of supply. also keep in mind that refinery margins are at a high that we haven't seen for about three years. so, people are refining oil as the getting is good right now. > > we have a report on that coming up in the show, larry. and also, apple earnings after the close and other corporate earnings yet-to-be this week - will that play into market

trading? > > you know, i think it will. last week we were so macro- focused, no one really cared about earnings. but suddenly, last friday, everything became micro-focused. people now are really concerned about earnings. and the last couple days have been mixed, we've had some good and some bad. so the ones going forward definitely will affect the markets going forward. > > thank you larry. have a good day. > > thank you. in our cover story, the list of industries and jobs within them that are making a comeback is growing. according to careerbuilder, the gains are going beyond i.t. and software development and now include work in oil drilling, machine shops and trucking. careerbuilder and economic modeling specialists emsi looked for industries with double-digit job growth that filled at least 20,000 jobs since 2010. among the leaders - oil and gas drilling, which added 21,970 jobs - an increase of 29%. "i think that's surprising. we hear debate about should we or shouldn't we drill, yet we've seen significant growth in jobs." in addition to drilling, machine shops added 44,754 jobs,

up 18%, and specialized freight trucking added 22,936 jobs, up 11%. "we're starting to see some resurgence in consumer demand for products and so we're seeing that in double-digit job growth over the last couple of years." the study says there are now more computer-controlled machine tool operators working than before. jobs heading back to pre-recession levels include metal-refining furnace operators, pourers and casters, along with engine and other machine assemblers. "we're seeing more going into manufacturing than any time, recently. mostly engineers." but posting bigger gains than manufacturing and trucking - putting forth information on the internet. more than 28,000 jobs - a 30% growth. "these are fulltime opportunities. they may be freelance, but they will help people pick up new skills in jobs that are growing to meet

the demand." "i think people are finding work sooner. they're finding work within six months. before it was eight to 12 months." geographically-speaking, the top four comeback cities for job growth are san jose, houston, austin and detroit. tough new austerity measures are likely a go in greece. and it's not going over well with greek residents. protests are said to be flaring up now that greek officials have reached a deal with eurozone leaders known as the troika. greece will receive billions in a new round of financial aid. in exchange, greece is agreeing to cut $17.5 billion in spending and tax increases. final approval by greek lawmakers needs to happen before november 12th. most of the money will go to stabilize the shaky banking system in greece. the u.s. is suing bank of america for $1 billion for mortgage fraud. b of a is

accused of misrepresenting the quality of home loans it sold to mortgage finance firms fannie mae and freddie mac, which resulted in over $1 billion in losses and numerous foreclosures. the government claims that the bank designed a high-speed loan processing system without quality checkpoints during the process, which prompted fraudulent practices. the u.s. says the program was started by countrywide financial and continued when b of a bought it in 2008. a pair of corporate criminals will be spending time behind bars, starting with former goldman sachs executive rajat gupta. the wall street journal reports he will get 2 years and pay $5 million for ties to insider trading. meanwhile, jerome kerviel, known better as the "rogue trader" from societe general, will spend 3 years in prison and pay $7 billion in damages in one

of the biggest trading frauds in history. he calls himeself a scapegoat for the bank. the u.s. is now pumping out so much oil it could soon surpass saudi arabia. new drilling methods and high prices are driving up production of crude. reports say this year will be the largest growth spurt in oil output since 1951. however, the increase has failed to translate into lower prices at the pump. the average price of a gallon of unleaded has slowly dripped down to $3.62, but that is still above $3.45 a year ago. oil futures on wednesday plunged to 85 dollars. debt collection agencies will be under the watchful eye of federal regulators. starting january 2nd, the consumer financial protection bureau will scrutnize whether debt collectors are using overly aggressive tactics to shake down consumers for money they owe. consumers union reports there has been an explosion of shady debt collection tactics. debt collectors say they are being inaccurately

characterized. barnes and noble is calling in federal investigators to solve what it calls a sophisticated crime. credit card readers called pin pads used when customers make purchases were hacked in 63 barnes and noble stores in california, connecticut, florida, illinois, massachusetts, new jersey, new york, pennsylvania and rhode island. the bookseller suggests customers should check for strange charges. store employees will now have to swipe the cards. a new study shows that highly- ranked hospitals make a big difference in patient care. dr. archelle georgiou has a check-up on the importance of choosing a doctor or a hospital. "people need to do their research before they are a patient, with respect to what doctor or hospital they select for their care. and that makes a difference because when you go to a highly-ranked hospital, a 5-star hospital for care, you have a 75% lower risk for death

and a 61% lower risk for complication than if you go to a 1-star-ranked hospital. the study by health grades also shows sick patients are less likely to die in arizona, montana and colorado hospitals. alabama; washington, d.c.; and mississippi fared worst, according to the survey. monster beverage is defending its energy drinks and it's giving a boost to the stock. shares had been selling off this week on reports the fda has received word of 5 deaths linked to its drinks. the stock rallied 16% yesterday when the company said a 24-ounce can contains less caffeine than a 16-ounce cup of coffee. a 14- year-old girl recently died after downing two monster drinks within 24 hours. her parents are suing the company, and the fda is investing other deaths. in corporate earnings, what facebook investors have been waiting for - postive earnings news that would spark a rally. yesterday facebook shares shot up more than $3 - its largest one-day gain since the ipo last

may - mostly on gains in mobile advertising. boeing was another surprise. the company propelled its way to better-than-expected earnings and lifted its forecast. at&t revealed flat revenue and admits it's losing customers to verizon, blaming short supplies of the iphone 5. ford is halting production at a european auto plant. a slowndown in the region's economy is forcing ford to close its first european plant in nearly 10 years. the plant, located in belgium, will shut its doors by the end of 2014. 4,300 workers will lose their jobs. ford expects losses from the eurozone to total over a billion dollars this year. nike is taking a shot at cutting costs by selling off some of its brands. the athletic retailer just sold its umbro clothing brand to iconix brand group for $225 million. nike bought umbro in 2008 for nearly $600 million. cole haan may be next to go, so nike can focus on jordan, converse and hurley.

still to come, what's going to take "flight" at the oscars this season? that's later in "movies and money." but first, sending out multiple college applications? it's frustrating. find out how to deal. that's next with bill moller.

any parent, any student who's gone through the process of applying for college knows it is fraught with baffling complexity, pitfalls and seeming utter randomness as to who gets in. application pain it is. as a parent, a university professor of finance and onetime university administrator, john binder took his experience & insider knowledge and has written a terrific satirical novel about the college applications & admissions process, "the girl who applied everywhere," about sarah, who applies to 101 colleges & gets into 99 of them - not because she's an outstanding student, but simply because of the novelty of her mass application strategy. so tell me john, what is so striking about this whole process - well, you don't have to tell me; i'm a parent, i know. what prompted you to write a satirical novel about it?

> > i think there's a lot about the process on both sides of an application that initially people are maybe not quite so aware of. on the admissions side, there's a whole back room that probably a lot of people don't know about, at the top universities, the very selective ones. > > these are the ones everybody wants to go to and have their kid go to. > > a lot of people have their heart set on it. it can be incredibly hard to get in there, just because a lot of times they're admitting on all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with academic credentials. they're admitting the famous, the children of the influential, the wealthy, the legacies whose families have gone there. they're admitting athletes to stock the sports teams. they're admitting people for diversity and geographic reasons. by the time all those spots are taken, there aren't too many spots left for the other applicants, and then if you're in that other group, your chance of getting in can be incredibly low. > > so your kid maybe is the trombone player but they happen to be looking for trumpet players that particular year. > > yeah. and your kid could have incredibly good academic credentials but not get in just because they're admitting heavily but not totally on things other than academic ability.

> > so is the system broken in some way, or is it just by nature complex and kind of mysterious? > > universities are big business in this day and age, and in a lot of places, they're very heavily concerned with the care and feeding of current and future alumni to keep the old endowment up. so i think that's driving a lot of it. so it's not about academics that heavily at some places as it is about other things. > > and it really doesn't matter, i think you say in your book, where you go to college. it's more important who you are as a student, as an individual. > > i firmly believe that most of the applicants to college can get a good education at a large number of different places. sure there are some people who have specialized majors, and there are some people who learn better in certain environments. but i think a lot of kids can get a very fine education, if they're willing to work hard, at any number of places. so, one of the morals of the story is, don't get your heart set on any one particular place. if you don't get in there, there's lots of other good places for you. > > good advice. john binder. thanks so much. > > thank you bill. thank you bill. still ahead, it's the scariest time of the year. find out what frieightful features are in store at the box office for halloween weekend.

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movie studios attempt to scare up audiences this week with films geared toward making you leap out of your seat. our film critic, erik childress, is here for some tricks and treats at the box office this weekend. good to have you back on the show. let's start with the scary stuff first: "paranormal

4" doing quite well at the box office over the weekend. > > yeah. it didn't do quite as well as the last two entries, but so what? as we talked about last week, these movies cost $1.10 to make- > > it's a low-budget. > > $5 million. this movie was in profit before midnight on friday, and they've already greenlit part 5 for next year, so... > > coming up this weekend, the scary movie would be what? "silent hill?" > > "silent till: revelations," the sequel to a 2006 movie that was based on a video game. it's just kind of this big haunted house, scared girl in there and she gets scared a lot. the first one opened to $20 million. this one is being very well advertised, opening in more theaters than any other new releases this week, so i think it could open at the number-one slot. > > here's what happened at the box office last weekend: "paranormal activity" coming in at $29 million; "argo" at $16 million; "taken 2," still hanging in there, $13 million; "hotel transylvania," that's a scary one, at $13 million. that's kind of fun i guess- > > it's for the kids. > > it's for the kids. and "alex cross." kind of a low open for tyler perry, $11 million. > > second lowest opening of his career as a director or star, just by about $100,000.

and you'll see a big drop on that this week. "argo," how about the drop for argo? > > you know what i think, i love that film. > > "argo" is a great film- > > i think it's a sleeper. i think once the oscars roll around maybe people will start to see it. > > it's more than a sleeper. the word-of-mouth on the thing is, it's had the lowest drop for a movie in its class - 3000 screens or more - by more than 25% than the next movie on this list - adult movie anyway. > > "arbitrage" and "argo" are my two favorite films so far this season, not that i've seen a lot. all right, coming up at the box office this weekend, "chasing mavericks." "cloud atlas" - now this is with tom hanks and halle berry. hugh grant. > > based on a very popular book, a very kind of big, sprawling, epic story of science fiction, and past lives and future and all this kind of stuff. it's a very epic film, a very hard film to put into words. warner brothers had a hard time kind of marketing this thing. but i think people who go see it are going to be very rewarded. it's almost three hours long. i hope people take a chance on it, because

it's great. > > and also out this weekend, "funsize," that's something for the kids- > > nickelodeon. > > -and there's a halloween tie-in there - and "silent hill: revelations." now, coming up on november 2nd, "flight" is already getting some buzz. denzel washington stars in this film. but it's a film you're not likely to see while flying on an airplane. > > well why would you? i don't think anyone who made this movie was going, "i wonder if we're going to get those big airplane dollars." for one, you obviously have, the movie is about a plane crash, so you're not going to see that on an in-flight movie. but also it's an r-rated film. it's very adult - there's nudity and language and all that kind of stuff in the movie, so it's going to be edited down anyway, so no one's going to care if they don't see it "flight" on it, they'd rather see "funsize" on an airplane. > > i find it interesting that delta pilots actually helped out denzel. > > yeah. it's a terrific movie too. it really is. it's being advertised in a way that makes it kind of look like it's this big thriller, and it is in a different kind of way. it's a really great movie and denzel is probably going to be oscar nominated for it. > > good to have you on the show. that's erik childress, our movie guy. > > thank you. still to come, a trader play ahead of earnings tonight from apple.

matt cavanaugh of cmz trading joins us now for a look at the charts on apple ahead of earnings after the close. what do you think here matt? this stock is a heavyweight. > > yeah it sure is. i tell you what, all eyes are going to be on this company. they are a bellwether for the u.s. economy and the u.s. consumer. i really don't like the way that the stock has been moving. it really struggled to find its footing around $700, and sold off and kind of bounced around here. but, i'll tell you what, there's a big move priced in. if you look at the options, they're looking for about a 5.5% move, which is much greater than the 4-4.5% move we've seen over their last eight earnings cycles. so i think this is a big stock to watch, and you know, it's a big weighting of both the nasdaq and the s&p - almost 20% of the nasdaq tracking, 4-5% of the s&p - so this is a big, big weighted stock, and a lot of people are going to be watching this.

> > what do you think happened here? the stock was trading around $705 back in september. now it's down near the $600 range. what do you think? > > well, i've had a very small short position that i'll try to take in before the earnings. but, i'm going to try to wait this one out. i worry the stock looks cheap on paper. it's a great company, great products, but it is a really crowded trade. it's the most-held by hedge funds. there's just a lot of people who have a vested interest in this stock, so i worry that if there's a bad earnings or a little scare, that it could be a rush to the exit. so i'm going to wait, see what happens. if the stock sells off to maybe the $580, $590 area, then i'll try to get in again. but we'll wait and see what happens. > > meanwhile, people are kind of upset about this $329 pricetag on the ipad mini. the company actually had to come out and defend the price. do you think it's too high? > > you know, i don't. apple has never been one that's known for having really cheap computers or cheap prices, and you know what they say, you get what you pay for. so, unless a lot of people get upset, i don't really see the company bending on this one. but, good company, good product, and you're going to have to pay for that. > > thanks for coming on the show. matt cavanaugh of cmz trading. > > thank you. that's it for now. coming up tomorrow, a stock market clash over the presidential candidates. our traders unplugged debate the so-called romney rally and the obama bounce. from all of us at first business, thank you for watching and have a great thursday!

>> we're live at san francisco where two men fired at a officer while he was driving. while they may not have known who they were dealing with. giants fans get ready for game two of the world series. the potential problem ahead for oakland today. as occupy protesters plan to

reclaim their ground. all ahead on ktvu channel 2 news. good morning everybody it's thursday october 25 i'm brian flores. >> i'm pam cook. thank you for waking up with us. let's check in with steve paulson. is rain gone? >> it goes down in the books. we call it light rain. the radar doesn't pick up a lot on it. it's going to be cloudy today, just a little bit warmer and kind of muggy for some. traffic is doing pretty well. they're picking up some road work in oakland near downtown. westbound 24 is pretty good. also this mortgage, we're look -- morning we're looking at interstate northbound as you drive