>> this is n.b.r. >> tom: good evening, i'm tom hudson. apple shares hit a new high after its big patent win over samsung, now it wants some samsung products banned in the u.s. >> susie: i'm susie gharib. merger monday on wall street, from cars to tech to banking, nearly $8 billion worth of deals are announced. >> tom: and, tropical storm isaac threatens gulf coast residents and energy production, but his rains could bring some relief for the mid-west drought. >> susie: that and more tonight on "n.b.r."! apple's big win in court, meant an even bigger win for shareholders today. the stock gained 2% and closed at nearly $676 a piece, an all- time high. the rally comes as apple moved today to stop the sale of eight

samsung electronics devices, including its galaxy and droid smartphones. friday, a jury ruled the korean company copied critical features of apple iphones and ipads. samsung stock dropped 7% today, erasing more than $12 billion in market cap. meanwhile, apple is now valued at $633 billion. suzanne pratt takes a look at what's in store for the world's most valuable public company. >> reporter: just when you think the shine on apple can't possibly get any brighter, guess what, a legal victory in a bitter patent dispute makes it happen. >> it's a pretty big deal. i think it gives them an enormous precedent to go up against any other manufacturer that they deem is getting a little too close to their designs and their software. >> reporter: the one billion dollar verdict pushed apple stock; already a market darling, to a new all-time high today. and amazingly, apple shares have

surged nearly 150 points or nearly 30% since sliding to $530 in mid-may. many analysts believe the momentum will continue for apple stock. but, not so much because of friday's big win in federal court. >> really long-term it doesn't have much of an impact and the reason is this even though this is a big win for apple those features are relevant today and this technology moves forward those features may not be relevant in the future because there's so much innovation within mobile. >> reporter: more likely to drive apple's stock higher this year is the company's continued ability to innovate, and to sell more of its super-cool gadgets. the iphone 5 is expected to hit the stores in september, and everyone from wall street to main street has high hopes for it. not only is the screen likely to be bigger, but data flow should be much faster. still, piper jaffray's munster says he's sticking to his $910 price target for apple for

reasons well beyond the next iphone generation. >> right now smartphones are only about 30% of the overall phones in the world, and eventually that's going to be 100% and that's a big business for apple. and, we think based on the opportunity in the smartphone market the stock is going to go much higher. >> reporter: also potential drivers for apple stock, an expected mini ipad in october, and much-hoped for apple-tv. no word on that hush-hush product, but already anticipation has consumers and shareholders drooling. suzanne pratt, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: our next guest says the apple verdict is an opportunity for companies to be more creative. he's christopher carani, patent attorney at mcandrews, held & malloy, and chairman of the american bar association's design rights committee. so christopher, how long do you think it's going to be before we see new designs other than the apple iphones that we've gotten so used to seeing? >>.

>> typically these things will take about a product cycle or two cycles before we'll see something. remember, in this case there are two types of patents that are implicated. utility patents which protect the way things work and design patents which protect the way things look. in other words, their aesthetic. here companies competitors of apple are going to be challenged that they are going to now need to come up with new, different, exciting looking designs in order to catch the customer's interest. >> susie: but what about consumer choices. as you heard in our report app sell trying to get certain samsung gadgets off the market. what does this mean for consumers? >> yeah, this, when you have a design-- where we have that the jury decided that these particular device of samsung infringe the apple patent, one of the remedies is damages which here they've assessed a $1 billion damage award, but also a determination regarding an injunction, in other words, a ban of the products from sale and importation to the united states.

this decision is left up to the hands of the presigning judge. so in september 20, she will hold a hearing at that time, and hear the arguments from both sides. in this particular case, it is likely that she will enter the injunction on these particular products for three reasons. the first being that these are competitors, apple and samsung are actual competitors. also apple actually produces this product, this is a patented product, not just some patent they have sit on the shelf but they actually have commercialized a product for. and then lastly this typically a court might reserve entering a judgement if there was something to implicate the public health or safety but that is not the case here with tablets and smart phones. >> susie: well, you know, samsung has said that it wants to appeal. how do you think this whole legal battle is going to play out. and as for that 1 billion dollars, you know, awarded to apple, will samsung have to pay up? >> well, the amount of damages is still in question. i mean the jury has come up with a $1 billion verdict.

however they also found it was willful infringement. in other words, it was intentional infringement on the part of samsung. so the judge will have the opportunity to increase that amount by up to three times. we could be talking about $3 billion. that decision will probably ultimately be appealed up to the appeals court. and then we'll have to decide whether or not there was some type of error in the assessment of those-- of that amount. but right now i haven't really seen any reasons, any technical or legal reasons why that particular holding would not stand. >> susie: real quickly, are you talking dollars and cents, some people have been saying that it appears that now apple has cornered the market. does that mean that consumers are going to have to pay higher prices for whether it's iphones or ipads that sort of thing? >> i would think that would be an unlikely result of this. at this point, i mean there are designers all over the world bursting with creativity that can come up with new, unique looking

design force smart phones and tablets there are currently other products that are already on the shelfs that look different. in fact that was one of the central parts of apple's case is this is not the only way that these products have to look. indeed there are other competitors who currently have competing products that have different appearances. so i think that the idea that this is somehow going to stifle competition is a little off the mark. in fact i think this will actually spur innovation uz certainly an interesting case. thank you so much, christopher car-- carani at mcandrews and malloy. >> reporter: i'm diane eastabrook in chicago. isaac is rumbling towards oil refineries along the gulf coast, and that's causing gasoline prices to jump. >> tom: a lot of talk about apple on wall street today, but most investors were marking time until that big speech friday by federal reserve chairman ben bernanke in jackson hole, wyoming. the dow fell 33 points, but the nasdaq gained three and the s&p 500 was down just over half a point.

two regional federal reserve surveys found a mixed picture for manufacturers. the dallas federal reserve bank reported this month manufacturing conditions softened in texas. but chicago-area manufacturing picked up in july. >> susie: wall street kicked off the week with a bunch of deals valued at nearly $8 billion. hertz is finally driving to the alter with "dollar thrifty". the on-again-off-again marriage has been in the works for two years. the $2.5 billion dollar deal now puts 95% of the u.s. rental car market in the hands of three companies.

in tech, i.b.m. is paying $1 billion to buy kenexa. it makes human resources software applications. but today's biggest deal was in banking: m&t is buying jersey's hudson city bancorp for $3.7 billion in cash and stock. it's the biggest bank deal since the recession. >> tom: with the hudson city merger, m&t now joins the ranks of so-called super-regional banks. after the deal closes, m&t will have 870 branches stretching from connecticut to virginia and assets over $100 billion. as darren gersh reports, the reasons behind this merger have a lot to do with the unusual economics of banking in a time of low interest rates. >> reporter: for saver's who are essentially getting 0% interest on their deposits, it may be small comfort to know banks have pretty much the same problem. hudson city and other banks are painfully aware the interest rates they can charge for loans are only going in one direction. >> loan yields have steadily come down. they are actually going down every single day here and the

same with security yields. so if your funding cost is low, but stable and your yield on your assets are going down, your net interest margin or the earnings power that you produce on your balance sheet is shrinking. >> reporter: for banks like m&t, the solution to falling yields on loans is to get bigger. which explains why m&t has merged its way up to the ranks of super-regional banks. not only do bigger banks have more assets and therefore more earnings power, they also are better equipped to deal with a new regulatory landscape. >> dodd-frank was a factor in that it raised regulatory costs and with that, it makes it more attractive for banks to combine and increase their revenue base to offset the higher fixed cost increase. >> reporter: but the merger wave many predicted dodd-frank's banking reforms would set in motion has been slow to develop. falling interest rates on loans is one reason why. >> they don't want to sell out now, because their earnings power is depressed and they know when rates rise, the earnings power will improve and with that their takeout bid will also

improve. so nobody wants to sell out at the bottom if they don't have to. >> reporter: when interest rates do go up, bank earnings and mergers may soon follow. darren gersh, "n.b.r.," washington. >> susie: good news for regional bankers like hudson city, the federal reserve today, said it is considering delaying stress tests for medium sized banks, under the dodd-frank reforms, banks with between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets will have to start conducting those tests in the fall of next year, but the fed says it has received comments raising concerns over whether banks of that size would have the resources, readiness and ability to get the stress tests done.

>> tom: tropical storm isaac pushed the start of the republican presidential convention back to tomorrow, but the g.o.p. is already gathering to hear from party leaders, and to see the official nomination of republican frontrunner mitt romney, and vice presidential pick paul ryan. the main event of this afternoon's scaled back agenda was activating a national debt >> susie: tropical storm isaac is barreling towards the gulf of mexico where the u.s. gets much of its energy. the storm has forced oil companies to halt production and close refineries. and as diane eastabrook reports the shock waves are already traveling through the supply chain. >> reporter: just in time for the labor day travel weekend comes tropical storm isaac and

the threat of soaring pump prices. but, energy analyst kimberly dubord says she's not panicking. >> we are currently well supplied, production is on the increase, we're producing more oil than we have in a decade so from that level there's not a lot of supply risk over the medium term. >> reporter: right now the u.s. is sitting on 360 million barrels of oil. that's about nine million barrels more than we had a year ago and the government says that is well above the average for this time of year. still tropical storms and energy markets don't mix. the u.s. gets about a quarter of its daily oil from the gulf of mexico. and this storm has shut down most of that production. refineries are an even bigger problem. almost half of u.s. refining capacity lies along the gulf coast. the threat of isaac to refineries could push already rising gasoline prices even higher. economist carl tannenbaum says higher fuel prices in an anemic economy could force both consumers and businesses to

tighten their belts. >> to the degree that they are tying to find room in those; budgets for hiring more people and maybe making those investments that would really grow the economy having to pay more for a basic commodity may delay those decisions and therefore delay us getting that extra strength into the economic recovery. >> reporter: analysts say even if isaac takes some refineries off line for weeks-- the combination of weak demand and good inventories could put a ceiling above prices at the pump. it's that weak demand that really makes people mad in these situation. having gong through isaacover the weekend, i saw lots of lines on saturday and sunday, plenty of supply. why should prices spike if demand is relatively low but there is still plenty of oil around. >> you know, tom t is sort of a delicate dance between the production and refining. we saw gases spike on the west coast earlier this summer because there were a couple of refining outages

out there. so again it's sort of a delicate dance and it's very difficult to move production from one refinery to another. so if they're short on supplies on the west coast it's difficult to just move refining production out that way. >> you know, diane we're entering the threat of isaac here with the gasoline inventories down about 4% nationwide, down 10% on the east coast this really continues to add to the pressure that the refinery business is in. you mentioned the west coast situation, then of course there is the explosion, the deadly explosion we saw in venezuela at a key refinery there. >> yeah, and that's the fear that, you know, if we have had issue down in venezuela, we have the storm heading towards these refiners on the gulf coast, you know, what are we going to see. we saw something very similar happen during katrina. 10, 12 years ago. we could see the same thing happen that we saw with gustav and ike back in 2008. and it's a very delicate situation. so we'll have to watch what happens.

>> tom: separate from the threat to life and property along the gulf coast wa, about the chances of rain in the midwest and quenching some of the drought conditions. >> we actually did see some rain here in the midwest yesterday. that could help the soybean crop. but it's very doubtful that it will do much more the corn crop. that crop is pretty much gone. we've seen a lot of farmers grinding that up. so it may be beneficial, the rain, and the cooler temperatures for soybeans but probably not so much for corn. >> watching grains, gulf and gasoline, our midwest bureau chief dianaestabrook. >> very little momentum in the markets, everyone is talking to is it going to happen or not, we have to wait and see. >> tom: whether or not the federal reserve will supply more stimulus. in the meantime plenty of corporate new, not a lot of activity though at the major

indices. let's get it updated. >> tom: let's get going with tonight's "market focus." >> tom: despite the good news in court for apple, and a few announced corporate mergers, the major stock indices finished quietly mixed. the s&p 500 chopped around in a narrow six point trading range swinging in and out of positive territory, ending down a fraction. trading volume was very light. just 503 million on the big board. under 1.4 billion on the nasdaq. we also saw small moves for the major stock sectors. the leading losers were the materials sector, down 0.6%. and telecommunications slipping 0.5%. while apple stock hit a new high after its court win against samsung, the ruling may have been moving a few other stocks, including the maker of android, the competing smartphone software that powers the samsung devices at the center of apple's court win. google fell modestly, down 1.4%. barclays analyst called the samsung loss a mild set-back for android, but it could get worse if apple is successful in

keeping the samsung devices off the market in the u.s. traders were bidding up the price of nokia though. the stock jumped 5.5% on heavy volume. nokia has its own mobile phone patent portfolio which may be considered more valuable, as well as nokia's smartphones running microsoft software. in fact, during the patent trial, apple's attorneys used a nokia smartphone as an example of a competing device that doesn't infringe on apple's patents. another smartphone maker that has been hurt badly by apple is >> shares up 41%, just below the buyout price of $46 a share. ibm meantime falling modestly down 1.1%. >> a week

after naming a new c.e.o., best buy's founder has his own deal to make an offer to take the retailer private. richard schulze has been talking about buying out best buy, but the company and its founder had been at odds over how to proceed. once he starts his review of financial information, schultze will have 60 days to make an offer. if rejected, he will have to wait until after the holidays to make another one. word that schultze remains in the hunt helped shares gain 3.2% today but they remain well below the price range schultze has mentioned as a possible bid, $24 to $26 per share. best buy closed below $18 tonight. a much different retailer, tiffany earned one penny less than estimates. sales fell in asia and in the u.s. the company also cut its financial forecast for the second straight quarter, but anticipates margins to improve during the holidays. shares jumped 7.2% despite the disappointing earnings. it's warning was not as bad as feared, and it continues to move forward with store openings. this is a three and a half month

high for tiffany shares. it's been more than 12 years since the deal of the century, and three years since it was unwound, today a.o.l. announced two efforts to pay shareholders: a special dividend, and a faster stock buyback plan. the special dividend will be $5.15 per share, payable in cash to shareholders of record on december 5. at the same time, a.o.l. has accelerated a stock buyback plan, re-purchasing $600 million of stock. the money for these comes from a.o.l.'s $1.1 billion sale of some patents to microsoft. the news helped push a.o.l. shares up 2.9%, closing less than one dollar away from a new 52 week high. the stock has continued climbing since announcing that patent sale to microsoft in april. two of the five most actively traded e.t.f.'s were down, led by the 1% loss in the emerging markets fund.

and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: the summer of discontent for gold investors may be coming to an end. prices have risen over speculation the federal reserve will do more to help the economy. gold settled today at $2.70 dollars an ounce. also on the rise: money going into precious metal funds. tonight's word on the street: gold. gregg greenberg is a reporter with thestreet.com. lots of different ways to play gold as you know from the fund side, etfs and mutual fund, of course gold or gold mining,

let's begin with gld the i shares gold trust it slipped today slightly while the underlying gold prices were up slightly but what should investors expect from gld? >> well, the glg has rallied in the last two weeks over expectations that ben bernanke will ease further. but year-to-date it's only around 6% as compared to 13% for the s&p so it has underperformed. >> just half the rally that we've seen for the precious metal etf there. what about the gold mine err-- miner stocks as opposed to those that invest in gold but companies that are mining the gold, gdx the most popular here, an exchange traded fund, the investigator gold miners slipping just a fraction today but again has been trying to rally since that summertime low. >> well, the gdx and gdxj which is the etf attracts the junior miners have really severely underperformed the gdl which is the gold etf which tracks underlying gold and that is

because gold miners have had a really horrible year. you look at the earnings for barak and newmonth and gold corp. have really been off quite a bit and that really dragged down the miners. now mining stocks have rallied over the last month so maybe the bottom is in, but we're going to see if that is true going forward. >> one of the points in the debate between investing in a metal versus those that mine the metal it gets down to when are you investing in the companies that mine the metal are you still investing in the company, not the metal itself. that is an important distinction, isn't it? >> yeah, there are a lot of factors that go into the gold miners that aren't at play when you buy the pure play etf, when you are buying pure gold. those are things like the cost of production. we have seen oil prices move up higher. there are a lot of things like mining strikes seen in south africa recently for a platinum mine amount of lot of thing goes into gold miners. we've seen some gold mining c.e.o.s lose their job this summer. so that's another reason why a lot of people think that the mining stocks have

bottomed out. there is a new class of investor getting the mining stocks and there's a different class of investor going directly into the gold etf. >> let's talk about precious metal mutual funds, meantime. the permanent portfolios, perhaps the best known mutual fund that invests significantly in physical gold, this fund has been rising nicely really since may. >> well, mike runs this fund and he really does diversify. he preaches asset allocation. 20% of this particular fund is in gold bullion. he puts it directly into american eagle coins and maple leaf and 5% is in solid silver. so he doesn't mess around. a lot of diversification in that fund. then there is also gold mining funds like fidelity has one, and tocville, those attract the gold miners and have not done as well. >> any disclosures yourself for the fund. >> nope, don't own them.

>> tom: gregg greenberg with the street.com. >> susie: tomorrow on "n.b.r." an update on home prices, as we get the latest reading on the s&p case-shiller home price index. and we'll find out how people are feeling about spending money: the conference board comes out with its august index on consumer confidence. >> tom: and finally, interest in pinterest is growing. the social media site, that works like an old fashioned cork board, lets you pin up your favorite pictures and styles and then share them with your friends. mashable's lance ulanoff says there's a reason; pinterest is taking off. >> it excited people because of its simplicity, ease of use and its entertainment value. >> tom: susie, have you pinned it is take off for two key reason, one, recipes because you know how i love to eat, and activity force the kids, you have to keep the small hands busy on the weekends and during the holidays. >> susie: not to mention,

just one more way for people to connect each other, it's amazing. >> tom: absolutely. of course you can connect on-line with us that is nightly business report for this monday evening, the 27th of august. have a great night, susie. >> susie: goodnight tom, thanks for watching everyone. hope you join us online at: www.nbr.com and right back here tomorrow night. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org