did the maker of farmville and words with friends live up to the hype in its first quarter as a publicly traded company? >> susie: and these rocks did better than the dow and gold over the past decade-- diamonds. they may be a girl's best friend, but should you consider diamonds an investment? it's "nightly business report" for tuesday, february 14. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. not much love on wall street on this valentine's day. a disappointing report about retail sales, susie, led to a choppy day of trading in stocks. >> susie: tom, investors have been feeling encouraged by a steady stream of reports showing an improvement in the economy. but today's retail sales were not as strong as expected. u.s. retail sales increased only four-tenths of a percent in january, half what economists were expecting. a sharp drop in car sales was a major factor. the major stock averages were down most of the day, but by the close, the dow ros

farmville may be the best known game, having the familiar game is designed to attract more players, onecans has played a game online, 35% are new to this play. the growth potential could turn it into a $54 billion industry. zynga is tight lipped but provides a crew with a creation of a casino offering bingor and poker for now. it's spawning new ways to get players to come together. >> there are a lot of people doing a guy's night in or girls night in. they get online. and play poker, together. it doesn't matter what level of experience. >> what is the secret? well, have you to ask ginger but she's too busy playing to tell us. >> ginger, so cute. why do people like to play games online? zynga discovered 44% flirt with opponents. a few have dated and gotten married. bingo. in the newsroom abc 7 news. >> and louie was his name-o. >> sorry. a debate over a coca-cola sign appears to be over. planning commission approved a permit for the sign. the sign was rediscovered during a 1991 remode model of the home. neighbors took issue, arguing it promoted a sugary drink. and the biltd building owne

and you're going to see farmville on the strip. >> farmville on the strip.ething to think about. hope you come back in may once this thing is launched. >> i look forward to that. >> all right. jim murren. thanks for your time. more "fast money" coming up next. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so, i want to trade at a place that really gets who i am tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and what i need. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and still gives me a great price. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, you get everything you need tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to trade your way. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 all for $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 here, it's all about trading. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 start trading with the intuitive streetsmart edge platform tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and use its tools like strategy builder to screen for stocks, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 find opportunities faster and compare your strategies tdd# 1-800-345-2550 against other traders. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, you also have the resources to research and trade tdd# 1-800-345-2550 across 30 countries with more than 40 stock exchanges tdd# 1-800-34

currency to play games that allow them to buy virtual stuff like virtual tractors in the case of farmville or virtual strawberries so this there is obviously a huge markup on using your hard earned money to buy virtual strawberries but that's a profitable business is not a sustainable business it's the virtual currency business and virtual marketplace business is it isn't real or isn't pure puffery carl it is pure nonsense it's i mean i actually do like to buy some virtual sex. because i like you but not like that if i mean you're a nice guy and i know nice fellow they're very nice place to live but i'm not sure that proposition really has got me thinking about getting a plane and flying to florida but i appreciate the offer i just don't understand you know that the whole concept of online gaming is of course been a profitable business for quite a while but the idea of buying virtual strawberries in virtual tractors makes absolutely no sense to me what i see is the difference between google and a company like facebook is it google's primary model used advertising that's what they do they a

farmville may be the best known game. >> one in five americans has played a game online, 35% are new potential could turn it into a 54 bye industry in the next three years. zynga is tight-lipped about future plans but it provides a clue with the creation of zynga casino. poker is a familiar game but spawning new ways to get players to come together. >> we have a lot of people, guys or girls where they all get online and play zynga poker together. >> what is the secret to innovation. ginger is too busy to playing to tell us. >> i've got a date with oscar tonight. >> what about you? >> we're looking at a chilly day today. cooler than yesterday. but the winds won't be as gusty. 54 in san francisco. 57 in concord. fremont and san jose. then down by the monterey bay, still mid upper 50s. weak weather system slides to the south and chance of showers and partly cloudy, cool conditions monday and tuesday. here is about half an inch of rain is possible, maybe more on wednesday. then drier and warmer after that. >> thank you lisa. our next newscast is at 11:00 tonight. i'm carolyn tyler along

farmville hit 82 degrees. 72 down in fredericksburg. we were close but stable enough to avoid big storms. now the cold air will be a process as atmosphere rises behind the cold front. there is the front. you can see it at the end of the animation. the effect will be brief very heavy lake-effect snow. we will see clearing skies and temperatures that will slowly drop tonight. upper 30's and low 40's by the time you wake up. let's win but rise and shine and chilly on sunday. just let quickly wore back up to the 50's and the 60's. >> the toyota sports desk, brought to you by your local toyota dealers. moving you forward. >> are you sure you want to talk about the capitals? >> usually they are the bright hope in washington. they still can be. i have faith. on the surface things look bad for the washington capitals. they are at risk and matching their longest losing streak this season on -- and they are without backstrom. in reality things are not that bad. they are only three points out of playoff contention. four points behind first-place f

the online gamemaker responsible for the possible facebook game farmville reported revenue totaling $311.2 million. zynga's fourth quarter revenue saw an increase of 59% year on year. it is only a 1.4% gain from the prior quarter. the company beat analyst expectations but investors move cautiously after that announcement. wall street strategists are considering tossing apple out of of the u.s. earnings equation. results are striking when they do. for all the companies in the standard & poor's stock index, once apple's earnings are factored out of that, the gain shrivels to just 2.8% according to ubs investment bank. that's it from cnbc. back to you. >>> mild weather in december helps air travelers arrive to their destinations on time. more than 84% of flights arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time in december and less than 1% of those flights were canceled. that is the best performance on record since the d. 06o.t. star tracking data. >>> 2012 starting on a very mild note and today it seems like it's pretty chill out there, too. >> quite the contrary to that prediction. right? we

. >>> the name of the game is farmville. and online maker zynga reports after the bell. how they're shaking up the business model for the entire video game industry. >>> and bikini-nomics. katie upton is in the building. trust me, we do have a business angle on this one. >> of course we do. >>> i'm sue herera with simon hobbs and brian shactman. "power lunch" begins right now. ♪ can't buy me love >> yes, greeting valentine's day with a little bit of red here. retail sales weaker than expected. no earnings to push stocks in either direction. here's where we stand right now. the dow down about 54 points. s&p 500 good for down .5%. same with the nasdaq. pulse of the markets, natural gas getting a pop here. would be characterized as a technical move, up 4.25%. the yield on the ten-year, the price is up but the yield is down. we are well below 2%. check out the dollar right here. the dollar index up .75%. midday movers, rackspace up big after reporting an 85% increase in fourth-quarter quarters. hospira up. and sales better than expected, 6.5%. michael kors, 23% to the upside

the maker of farmville and other games lost $435 million but revenue was up 59% compared to a year ago when they were still private and that was better than they predicted. the number of monthly users also rose 38% compared to last yea . >> the california is improving and could get a higher credit rate figure it can pass a bumming on time that includes more spending cuts. >>> on wall street stocks surged late but still finished flat following reports of progress toward a debt deal . >> let's talk about the weather. there was a little rain yesterday and also a chance tomorrow. bill martin in the weather center. what do you see? >> reporter: sure doesn't feel like february. we have a few sprinkles but nothing like last year. nothing what you would expect for february in the bay area. it's a very mild pattern. there is a chance for a sprinkle in the bay area but no big deal. the thing i'm tracking the strong winds that are gusting to 27 miles an hour. near 30 up around point reyes. the winds kicking up. the highs from today on the mild side. highs tomorrow will be very similar. lots of 50

this is the video game company behind farmville and words with friends, huge games on facebook. shares soared almost 17%. it was among the most actively traded issues on the nasdaq. the stock came public in december at $10, and fell below the offering price until just last week. zynga was responsible for 12% of facebook's revenue last year, indicating its importance to facebook's business model. while we're talking about video games, electronic arts shares jumped 6%. it's "star wars" internet game has sold two million units, calling that a strong start. other consumer-focused stocks moving up-- sara lee added 4% to a new 52-week high after reporting better than expected earnings. costco stock rallied almost 3% with a bigger than anticipated bump up in january sales. and kellogg saw strong fourth quarter sales, helping push shares up more than 2.5%. green mountain coffee is best know for its patented k-cups coffee machines. and those machines keep brewing up big profits. shares shot up more than 20%, thanks to very strong quarterly results. but that remains well below its $115 do

on the head really hard to leave some my unconscious then go on facebook and get on a game like farmvilleor factory ville or planet velour america bill and pretend to be working virtually in a real go make sure you're not really conscious because you don't want the reality of this to set in and at the end of a day or two you've accumulated enough facebook credits to buy yourself a cup of coffee and then you know go stimulate your brain with the caffeine and say look honey i'm working in a factory don't tell her it's a virtual factory in your working you know seventeen eighteen hours a day for a dollar and that might have set or well we talked about the vaporized and deleted but you know matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed the jobs it appears are all sound healthy and well and to have been found china's factories in strong start to two thousand and twelve the chinese manufacturing sector has made a surprisingly strong start to the year with domestic orders cushioning the impact of europe's debt woes according to an official survey the purchasing managers index an important

it hit 82 in farmville, 80 degrees and richmond. we actually did escape a bullet this time around. we will have to deal with the winds. >> we did escapes a bullet, but other people across the country did not. in the midwest it snowed and caused some major problems. drivers are being careful from iowa to illinois. to the south, tornadoes ripped through parts of georgia. dozens of homes where damaged and one woman was killed. we will have more coming up at 5:30. >> a new pair of nikes had people all around the country in a frenzy. some people were lining up for days to the chance to buy these $220 sneakers. at some stores the crowd rushed in. they were breaking doors to get their hands on the nike galaxy. suzanne kennedy is live. >> as you mentioned, those shoes cost about $200 a pair. they can be sold on the internet for much more than that. the problem is people are having a difficult time getting their hands on them especially since the shoe stores are having a difficult time dealing with crowds that show up to buy them. >> a crowd of hundreds swarmed the doors at 10:00 this morni

even more, what generates much of facebook income is farmville, a fictitious world within another fictitiousld meeting the -- meaning it's based on awful video games. i guess it beats making stuff. so it makes sense to pond there are ipo carefully. people have been buying facebook shares privately all along, which means by the time you and i arrive, it's like showing up for thanksgiving a week later. nothing but a carcass in the fridge. the big money has been made. if you must buy, wait a few months and hold, hold, hold. there are positive lessons from facebook. one, ideas and risk mean more than degrees. facebook came from hard work and thinking big. second, its success represents the brain unfettered by bureaucracy. no union bosses or regulations could stop it. still, facebook is weird. vast nonworld where we indulge strangers, often instead of family. but please tonight unfriend me for saying that. eric, you're the financial mind here. should the average retail investor buy into facebook or is it just too late? >> it's too early to answer that question. it depends what's called the valuat

the maker of farmville lost $435 million in the first quarter but reports sales and revenue are up and the company blames the loss on stock based compensation expenses. >> all right. time is 5:20. >>> a new battle over smoking here in the bay area. opponents they agree on one thick. >>> a hearing today concerning lake tahoe. what an environmental group wants to keep out of the lake. >>> good morning, on the san mateo bridge traffic looks good. it's a little windy out there. i'll tell you about the morning commute and the bay weather. >>> good morning. we have a fast moving system that gave us brief rain as snowing and flurries at truckee and tahoe. windy and cool behind the system. temperature upper 50s and low 60s. >>> 5:23. oh boy. the tahoe regional planning agency trying to appeal a decision about boys on lake tahoe. they want to add 1,000 buoys to the lake. the federal judge said an environmental review is needed first. that was made in connection with a save lake tahoe. >>> they narrowly approved a smacking ban that is scheduled to go in effect three months from now. that outlaws

the social gaming company known for farmville and words with friends lost more than $400 million in the fourth quarter, its first reporting period as a publicly traded company. coming up thursday, general motors will announce quarterly results. a fresh round of economic data are also due, including weekly jobless claims, housing starts and the producer price index. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosik in new york. >>> aftershock of the global financial crisis have kept the world's credit ratings agencies busy of late. now moody's has made another tremor of its own, just on thursday's session alone. this is what it did. it decided to downgrade some of the biggest names in the world banking industry. as such, it's put 17 major lenders under review along with almost 100 other smaller financial firms as well. here are some of the big institutions that are looking at having their credit ratings being cut by, get this, up to three notches. we're talking about morgan stanley, credit suisse and ubs, the last two being of switzerland, the first one of the united states. amon

the maker of facebook games like farmville and texas holdem.ings report card since going public in december. and apparently in las vegas, crime does pay. the mob museum opening in sin city of the st. valentine's day massacre. it's not free to check out everything you need to know. tickets for adults go for $18. that's business, i'm neil. if you're like me, you care about the food your family eats. i was pretty confused by everything i'd been hearing about high fructose corn syrup. so, i did a little research to find out what independent experts like doctors dieticians and nutritionists had to say. i learned, whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. sugar is sugar. ♪ ♪ and that's one less thing to worry about. [ squeals ] [ female announcer ] learn more at cornsugar.com. it's where you spend a lifetime so your kids can go to collegege. so you can actually visit that beach proudly displayed on your monitor. for that, you work through lunch. or as we like to say lunch through work. perfectly balanced hormel compl

they are not sitting still and hoping and praying that farmville will be the breadwinner for the long-term. they bought a company that they came out hanging with friends and they came out with scramble with friends, a take on a game that came out and is doing well. they launched it for the first time with the hidden objects that disney play and has done well with. the hidden kronle game and may get into the sports category to work on the poker. they are diversifying. they are not just targeting one niche. they haven't been able to get the franchise. they are dominant and spreading their wings and becoming more dominant. >> any chance zenga gets bought by facebook? >> i was never say never. this is really early stage in both the growth and social networking in the world. very early in the growth of mobile device. just yesterday there was the crunchies that played out and the ap was worth the friends. "wall street journal" this morning and an article about how the giants players were playing and i thought it was a zenga game. we are early in the life cycle of social and mobile. that bodes we