how do we establish the amazon brand?strategy did not always pay off. >> people look at the financials and say the company will not make it. >> amazon.com was profitable in december 1995 for about one hour. >> with a series of slight moves, jeff bezos built and rebuilt amazon.com. >> it is the thing he does not if you asked a question and the answer is something he will not want to get into, the answer you're going to get is the laugh. he is laughing all the way to the bank. >> you can buy anything at amazon.com from books, music, clothing, to a tiki hut. it is the most successful online retailer in the world. is still run by the man who created it back in 1994. it was founded by jeff bezos. >> he seemed to realize that being the singular place where a consumer can buy anything that is available in the retail market was a critical part of the company's growth strategy. >> the public image is of a super hero entrepreneur. and he is that. if you look at his life from the very beginning, he has solved the problems and create

sell amazon. >> are you worried about amazon as well, scott? but the valuation is no treat, either, the company is finally making money the p.e. is well over 500. i don't think there's anything good going on over at amazon. the interesting thing for the trader is, carter has a downside target. given that we're bearish a downside target, we want to buy a puts spread. earlier in the day, amazon, you can buy the june 300. 335 put spread. for $11.75. with any put spread we buy, that 11.75, that's our max risk. but where do we make money? as long as amazon is at or below carter's price target then we make $23.25. we're only risking 11.75. it may well more than double that because we're biography the at the money put. >> you know, there's only one thing really that you can do with amazon is that is to use options to make a bearish bet, people have been screaming that this thing was overvalued. since it was less than $200 and even before that. this stock or naked sell up side. but this put spread actually has fairly nice numbers to it. you're going to

what exactly is amazon at ceo planning? facebook ceo mark zuckerberg's grand aspiration is hardly a secret. what is happening to make it a reality? how a company never heard of until now and nasa are part of zucker bird's brave new world. how to make it big as an american chefs. charlie palmer beat the odds running a dozen restaurants around the country. his latest project, a $200 million revamp of the century old knickerbocker hotel in times square. "countdown to the closing bell" starts right now. sandra: i am sandra smith in for liz claman, just one hour to go in trading stocks trying to stay positive. after giving up most early gains, the dow is currently about 40 points. it had been the triple digits with session highs of 150 points. the nasdaq close to break-even for the day, up just a fraction of 1% up 3 points but still the nasdaq down 2%. the university of michigan says consumer sentiment is back this month. the commerce department says consumers spent more in february than in january. rising 0.3%. we should point

i don't think there's anything good going on over at amazon.der is, carter has a downside target. given that we're bearish a downside target, we want to buy a puts spread. earlier in the day, amazon, you can buy the june 300. 335 put spread. with any put spread we buy, that 7.25 that's our risk. as long as amazon is at or below carter's price target then we make $23.25. we're only risking 11.75. >> you know, there's only one thing really that you can do with amazon is that is to use options to make a bearish bet, people have been screaming that this thing was overvalued. you can get your face ripped off frankly if you decided to short this stock. but this put spread actually has fairly nice numbers to it. you're going to make a bearish bet, enough time out to the june expiration. >> no trader wants their face ripped off. >> another thing, we talked about solar city, it looks like they're slowly adding insurance to the stock. it makes sense to buy a put spread. >> that's how risk less to make more. >>> coming up next, the final calls from the op

the internet giant amazon made a significant announcement today raising the price of its amazon prime service today by $20 a year to $99 a year. investors, you would think would say what? but applauding the move. this is the internet picture. as the news went through the system in has fallen a bit but still up a fraction at the moment. one point they were up 2%. will customers like it or will they revolt of the way netflix users did after the streaming service type kids prices three years ago. netflix figured out what to do differently and its stock has looked good. which should you pick? fox business exclusive, director of research and senior tech analyst covers amazon and in minneapolis michael wilson, piper jaffray senior tech analyst covers netflix. the first thing i thought was when will they learn? everyone has a right to raise prices of there is big demand but can amazon pull off when netflix couldn't? >> absolutely. you will renew your subscription. amazon prime, we are hooked on it and the reason is it is because they lose money. is a good value proposition. amazon lost $3.9

let's look at gainers and losers amazon is up.t the prime membership increase. pvh, downgraded at morgan stanley, electronic arts downgraded at bank of america. con ed was downgraded at barclays. an interesting piece of news here "financial times" is reporting that alibaba is 95% certain that they are going to list in new york not in hong kong. remember, they've had a lot of disputes in hong kong over to the board structure according to "the financial times" they will list here, if that's true where will they be listing new york stock exchange or the nasdaq. the new york stock exchange has no comment on this. i did ask. nasdaq hasn't responded to my request. but this would be, folks, david, as you know, arguably the biggest ipo and the year, or maybe the u.s. visa was $18 billion as i recall, david, and there is speculation that alibaba's could top that as well. a little bit of chatter on the floor over this. guys? >> thank you very much, bob. let's get over to chicago and the cme after a stellar ten-year auction it's time for the

amazon contends, quote, amazon prices our items consistently for all customers.nd it attributes the price different to, quote, third party sellers that may be selling the same product. but while those third party sellers may offer a cheaper price, they don't offer all the benefits that come with prime. >> i wanted it in two days. i don't want to wait two weeks up to even longer though, too. >> reporter: garcia says he doesn't mind paying a little more per purchase for fast shipping easy returns and the customer service that comes with his prime purchases. even if it is in addition to his $79 annual prime membership fee. >> it's definitely worth it. >> reporter: now, it is important to note that there's a prime-only filter option that allows you to see only prime prices. if you inadvertently select that you may not be able to see some of the cheaper prices from third party sellers. and keep in mind when searching amazon in general, the first price listed isn't always the cheapest. if you have a consumer problem, give us a call 888-5-helps-u. >> got to pay attentio

they can loop in amazon as well because amazon is trying to expand in some very similar areas.ne fell swoop, alibaba google and ebay, amazon rolled into one. they tried to bring out their own android competitor a while back and google was able to squash it. but they will be back with another one. david: other than its penetration of the chinese market which obviously it has much greater than amazon and ebay and the others what can it do? is there anything tech logically that alibaba could do that amazon and ebay can't? >> not really. but this is about getting access to product. and, anybody that draws traffic to their site that can sell through somebody wants to sell a product is going to use. there is really no barrier. alibaba with support from the chinese government is solidly ensconced in china and makes it difficult for somebody to come in and displace them. coming out of china, if they do china and everything else, folks going shopping eventually would pick the e-tailer that had both, both sits of goods if you will. you go to one place to shop for everything. if those guy

is it clear to you what amazon prime membership buys you?ter shipping but not on all products, like third-party vendors. it gets you access to streaming but not all content. it is like amazon better but slightly better. is it worth the premium? >> obviously, for 25 million people so far, it has been worth the premium. there are a lot of people who are very addicted to the convenience, especially if you look at other attribute like straining. it is a great value relative to, say, netflix or the competition. at the end of the day, it is a good value for customers. >> is there a tipping point when it comes to pricing services? you mentioned netflix. the annual service comes out just under $96 a year where is amazon is having the 99 dollars level. at what point does it turn off customers? >> i think it was smart to keep it under the $100 mark. i think what they could have done better is, if they really wanted good -- you do a good job with pricing, they should have offered two different versions. i think they could have actually pushed the curre

this is interesting about amazon. blackberry is going down, amazon rising and they are going to point sale. you are talking about a company, website with tens of millions of people coming every month talking about this streaming video that will help people look at a video, look at a movie, watch a dvd and go to the purchase point. you don't have to click anywhere on the page, you can get it right then and there. that is what the future is. you have to make it easy for customers to buy stuff. amazon is taking advantage of that. adam: we were triple digit earlier, will this be a lost quarter when we going to earning season? some are saying it is not a good quarter. >> probably not going to be a great quarter but maybe, maybe not, this looks like consolidation more than anything, the market is expecting lousy earnings, anything above that will be very good. adam: as we said, the dow up 79 points. cheryl: we are getting some breaking news. kansas city federal reserve president bastard george, the nonvoting said member say

shares of amazon bucking the trend of the market sell-off we are in the middle of. on the upside, amazon announcing it raised fees for prime membership from $99 to $79 a year. the first price increase for amazon prime in the company's history, and customers, people who own this stock are buying it today. adam: amazon can do no wrong for a lot of investors. cheryl: online sales for february. the ultimate test for general motors's new ceo, the automaker singing a different tune about the massive ignitions which recall. actually detected the problem. adam: best buy hopes next time you walk into its store you walk out with the few solar panels. we have the details coming. cheryl: charlie gasparino with the details of a mysterious death on wall street after a series of untimely deaths, nobody knows the story like charlie does. that is later on. in the new new york, we don't back down. we only know one direction: up so we're up early. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new

that's about 10% of amazon's customers.that could lead to 500 million in incremental revenue. amazon thinks of prime membership as a big growth opportunity. those members are estimated to spend four times as much as nonmembers. kelly, back to you. >> all right, josh. thanks. investors cheering the price hike because it could add some $400 million in yearly revenue. did amazon leave money on the table? is the service so popular customers would have paid even more? john fort, would you have paid more? >> yes, i would have. but i'm a ridiculously high prime user. 30 purchases from amazon so far this year. yes, they could have charged more, but they would have put the brakes on their growth a bit. both in media, which is covered under that, and just in general. they want to make somewhat of a volume play. could they have done this earlier? sure, they could have. but investors didn't need them too. if they're about to go into a margin expansion mode, now maybe is the time to do it. >> let's go to todd. he thinks they could have

two items from amazon.hey are raising the price of a prime membership to $99 from the current $79. the first increase since the service was introduced nine years ago. i say this is good for amazon stock because it brings in more revenue. you say what? charles: absolutely. we have to get from the revenue lines to the earnings line. two weeks ago from a standpoint put a strong sell on them, wall street wants to see them make a little bit of money. fantastic growth story. stuart: all the money they make the put back into the business. one more on amazon, we have to go lawsuits which accuse amazon accusing vendors to raise prices on free shipping items. so it is not really free. this is all about amazon prime and the free shipping that comes with it. i see this as a tempest in a teacup. amazon is huge so they will be nick picked to death. charles: they will be nick picked to death. they don't have to seduce me into doing that. i'm going to take the initiative to do that on my own. we can save money on shipping.

this puts amazon into your living room. right now you can only get the streaming on amazon devices. lot of original content, they already produce some but putting this in your living room, they are encouraged to do more original content. stuart: number two is, just look at walmart for a second. it is getting into the used videogame business. you can walk in, hand over your used videogame in exchange it for groceries or anything else walmart sells. it is not good news for game stop which has long tolerated the market. there are two angles here. i think the sale of physical games is going the way of the dodo. downloading is everything, isn't it? sandra: not everything. walmart doesn't do something like this without their homework. they look at game stop, it showed their preowned sales were up 7%, guest of the profit margins are nearly 50% on a preowned videogame. walmart wants a piece of that pie. this is the second time around walmart has tried to do this. this is a $2 billion industry. walmart has done their homework. game stop on the way down, lost 22% this year alone. they are goi

or amazon. >> english version?s. it is much smaller, more difficult to find products. does that need to change? will it change? >> i think it will change, but i think the pace of user experience in the u.s. is such that i don't think it is difficult for alibaba to get that right. personally, i think it looks like a good user experience when i look at it. really quality of the products they sell. but look what they're doing in the u.s. they're making great strides to sort of cleanup the tainted image around counterfeit goods, etc., etc. i think that we'll get there. >> do you think they want to rival ebay and amazon? >>. yes >> do they want to be number one in the market worldwide? >> i think amazon more so than ebay. if you look at ebay's core proposition, consumer to consumer, you need critical mass and it is difficult to position yourself against that. but if you look at amazon, where amazon is a really it user experience, but i think alibaba is well-positioned to challenge -- >> scale? amazon is thinking of doin

>>reporter: and, no, the amazon prime member is not comparing amazon's prices with another online retailer. >> $383, $382, versus $389.99. >>reporter: he's doing a side- by-side price comparison on amazon.com where this ipad mini costs less on our producer's cell phone than it does on garcia's tablet where he's logged in as an amazon member. >> i never compared prime versus something that's not prime for the same exact item. >>reporter: after hearing from other consumers, we compared multiple items on amazon offered by multiple sellers, everything from electronics to dental floss, even baby formula, and many, like this shampoo reflected higher prices for amazon prime members, even with free shipping factored in. amazon contends "amazon prices our items consistently for all customers and it attributes the price difference to third-party sellers that may be selling the same product." but while those third-party sellers may offer a cheaper price, they don't offer all the benefits that come with prime. >> i want it in two days, i don't want to wait two weeks, up to even longer. >>reporter: gar

those artist, is amazon their friend?rtist what they need is visibility, which is what the amazon platform provides. the blue-chip gallery, everyone knows their name. >> i want the price to return -- price return is. if you're going to spend so much money you want to see the art before you buy it online. quick they are going after the consumer who is looking to flip stuff. quick people would buy $.5 million of art without being echo >> if you live in cleveland are you going to fly to los angeles echo >> you can return it like any other thing? >> the shipping is free. >> most of the galleries that are putting their items up have that. like i could see that over your couch. >> you can see how this would look on your wall. is the percentage ratio between investment-grade and decorative? >> week loaded a gallery don the pc said that this was too populous, so i think that is and was -- amazon's and, to have it be everyone. >> your wonderful magazine comes out four times year about the economics. there is nothing in it i can af

are you an amazon prime member? they claim a membership to amazon prime provides free two-day shipping on items. an alabama woman filed a a lawsuit in seattle saying vendors are increasing prices to cover the shipping costs and amazon was encouraging it. the free shipping it offers to prime members wasn't free. amazon is not commenting. >>> target apologizes after getting carried away with photoshoping pictures. they were pulled from their site, but not before they caught the photoshop fail. it shows teen models in teen bathing suits with awkward gaps out of the thighs and a slice out out of the right shoulder blade. it is fueling the debate on how they market to teens. target is apologizing and working on new images for the site. >>> the villainous rein of arthur chu has come to a close. >> you wrote who is george the second? it is going to cost you how much? $6400 and dropping you to 0. >> that's tongue in cheek. he won for 11 consecutive episodes wracking up $300,000. many didn't like him for his unorthodox style

are you an amazon prime member?y claim a membership to amazon prime provides free two-day shipping on items. an alabama woman filed a a lawsuit in seattle saying vendors are increasing prices to cover the shipping costs and amazon was encouraging it. the free shipping it offers to prime members wasn't free. amazon is not commenting. >>> targetp aizes after getting carried away with photoshoping pictures. they were pulled from their site, but not before they caught the photoshop fail. it shows teen models in teen bathing suits with awkward gaps out of the thighs and a slice out out of the right shoulder blade. it is fueling the debate on how they market to teens. target is apologizing and working on new images for the site. >>> the villainous rein of arthur chu has come to a close. >> you wrote who is george the second? it is going to cost you how much? $6400 and dropping you to 0. >> that's tongue in cheek. he won for 11 consecutive episodes wracking up $300,000. many didn't like him for his unorthodox style of play

are you an amazon prime member?aim a membership to amazon prime provides free two-day shipping on items. an alabama woman filed a a lawsuit in seattle saying vendors are increasing prices to cover the shipping costs and amazon was encouraging it. the free shipping it offers to prime members wasn't free. amazon is not commenting. >>> target apologizes after getting carried away with photoshoping pictures. they were pulled from their site, but not before they caught the photoshop fail. it shows teen models in teen bathing suits with awkward gaps out of the thighs and a slice out out of the right shoulder blade. it is fueling the debate on how they market to teens. target is apologizing and working on new images for the site. >>> the villainous rein of arthur chu has come to a close. >> you wrote who is george the second? it is going to cost you how much? $6400 and dropping you to 0. >> that's tongue in cheek. he won for 11 consecutive episodes wracking up $300,000. many didn't like him for his unorthodox style of play

you see it on amazon. some of those, when you look at the multiples, they traded a much higher level. facebook had a nice rebound today. but look at what's working. it's big cap. technology or others. look at caterpillar today. look at g.e. today. very strong and finishing in the green. and you look at the big cap techs, microsoft or intel, a lot of the names trade very nicely. some of them hitting 52-week highs. they're pulling back. some people are taking money off the table and deciding where that money's going to be redistributed right now. but the high fliers, there's pressure on them. >> we have to talk about microsoft in a moment's time. in the meantime, what was working at the beginning of the year, the trade where e.m., emerging markets were getting slammed and everyone was going to new tech. really started to see a reversal here. e.m. is coming back. and new tech is getting slammed. what do you think is going on, karen? >> the high-fliers, it was hard to put a valuation on them that was supported

on april 2, amazon says that they will have an event in new york tied to video.y sent an invitation to the press today. in the invitation, they have a little bit of popcorn so there may be ties in their movie initiatives, tv show initiatives. brad stone is hearing that out the house, one of their original shows, is going to get a second season. >> indian food. chinese food. popcorn. [laughter] elusive amazon set top box, we will be covering that next week. >> all of these different devices, the cloud, all of this data, it is funny to cover all of these companies and have them all come together. >> thank you all for watching. we will see you later. > . . >> from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, i am mark crumpton. this is "bottom line." today, congress passes a financial aid package for ukraine. then, what's in store for the banks that fail the latest fed stress test? and we will look at a game changing ruling for college athletes. to our viewers here in the united states and those of you joining us from around the world, welcome. we have full coverage of

amazon rain as king. amazon will offer free music and movies. watch out netflix, there's a new kid on the block. two hours of "varney and company" about to begin. ♪ charles: we have to begin with harry reid claiming that he never said all of those people telling obama care horror stories are liars. let's listen to him backtrack on the floor of the senate. >> mr. president that is simply untrue. i never came to the floor to my recollection, never said a word about any of these examples republicans have given regarding obamacare and how that is not very good. charles: let us help him recollects. here are his exact words from just about a month ago. >> despite all that good news there are plenty of horror stories being told all of them untrue, but they are being told all over america. charles: a month ago did he really forget he said that? tea party news network scott hughes were here, what do you make of it? >> it is obvious harry reid's background was being a boxer and he got hit in the head one too many times if he is already forgetting what he

raising prices like amazon is doing never sits well with them.ays categories that can get them more fired up. the sec got more than 115,000. number four, imposter scams. the 122,000 times. number three, with this group constantly nickel and dime enough to death, no surprise consumers complained 7% of all complaints. number two, debt collections. nobody likes a banker, nobody likes a debt collector. number two was in reaction to these folks, 205,000. the number one complaint category is identity theft. 290,000 complaints were filed last year as americans reported losing over $1.5 billion in 2013. the age group most likely to complain, people in their 20s. still to come, my two cents more. we are looking after you and your money with advice on your golden years. here to give us the truth about retirement, don't go away. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd that wothat's correct.a rate. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate

huge backlash, a huge stock problems, doesn't seem to be that way with amazon social amazon be in your portfolio or should netflix? two supersmart analysts. melissa: i get stuff shipped freed many times every week. thanks. >> up next, the retail rebound, sales bumping up for the first time in months, chief u.s. economist michele gerard is here to break down. you can never have too much money. we will be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] evenore impressive than the research this man has at his disposal is how he puts it to work for his clients. morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. co on in. [ male annncer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. melissa: the markets down 220 points, this is a low of the session. one stock is bucking the trend. williams sonoma is still trading up 11.5%, beating expectations, avoided the drop from the harsh winter weather that included retailers, 44% of net revenue in 2013 boosted by their ecommerce business. retail sales in february rebound in after disappointing january. michelle ng gerard, arby as managing director and u.s. c economis

using amazon, there is a large ecosystem of companies that use amazon for distribution.pple, we all understand the notion of apple stores in the music industry. facebook has done very well in the mobile platform. >> he likes competition. here is what he had to say about the iphone. billion users.1 of android. we activate 1.5 million a day. android is a huge pot form success. it is extraordinary. you now have a battle between the iphone and the android phone. that fight is producing enormous cost savings, volume savings. the consumers benefit from the competition. >> one challenge facing google -- china. search from google the mainland to china. here is eric schmidt on the chinese government. >> negotiating is difficult. it was my job to do so. it will remain difficult to negotiate with the chinese government. the most likely scenario is that the government will continue to google.of they have the power to block access to services through their great firewall of china. we have tried to convince them that the country will be stronger and in better shape by opening up to tw

that's something that amazon typically doesn't do.ig question is going to be, how many people bail from this service? i've got some thoughts on that. but that's the big question. >> let's go there. what i find most interesting about that very question is that, piper did it its own survey that said 66%, two-thirds of people, wouldn't pay the increase. yet, you're prepared to argue that it would be closer to 15% that wouldn't. how does that mesh? >> well, we love doing survey work. as you said, we published this very destructive kind of analysis that would say this is going to be really bad for amazon. but at the end of the day, we think there's something inherently wrong with the question. in the past we've asked about price increases, what we've seen, for example, and some of our research on netflix or red box, people say they won't play the price increase. but people actually do. and so, in some ways, it's really hard to ask that question because people are trained to say no to that. if we look at the red box example, they lost 8%. t

come addition from lower-cost retailers like amazon. -- competition from lower-cost retailers like amazon staples.com gained 10%. this is the take away here. the news is not all bad. half of its business, which is much higher than most other rick otherrtar retailers -- brick and mortar retailers, is much higher online. not mean that amazon is not still a risky, but staples is one of these retailers that has adapted and continues to try to adapt to this changing landscape. >> didn't they have those amazon lockers? order at, you could amazon and store it at staples. i think they did that. >> in the last three or four years, they've done much better than they did in the beginning years of amazon. it's not that brick-and-mortar is necessarily doomed. where do you actually need to talk to a human and physically look at something? when you are buying pens, you do not need to talk to someone. when you are buying a book, you do. it was an experiment, the amazon lockers. >> i was at the barnes & noble. ofyou know, i took a couple days off. i was at the barnes & noble on the upper website -- upper

it is the amazon of china. the ebay of china. the google of china. the twitter of china. it owns 19% of weibo that filed for an ipo on friday. andit has -- >> it has b2b b2c where they do high-end luxury brands. and sort of like ebay but not an option bank -- auction, where anybody can sell. >> a massive scale. in their pay business. the numbers are incredible. the numbers you can only see in china. >> let's talk about how significant this offering is going to be. i want to bring and the ceo of -- and a former google executive. i will start with you. how significant is it that alibaba is going public in the united states? anticipating for some time. it does two things. stake was aas a big it will be good and they have been a acquisition. going public i have to believe will provide more currency. >> what kind of acquisition? >> they said $1 billion last year. outright purchases and minority stakes. we heard they took a stake in aibo and it took a stake in video and movie production company and it has been launching a lot of mobile areas where it has a weakness. numbers --

amazon prinl tme the wrong grap there.ut is this a situation where they want pictures with the pope or could he have influence? >> i think he could have influence. he's obviously begun i think a serious process of changing how people see the catholic church, whether they're catholic or not. he's learhad an incredible impan changing the face of the church. he comes across in a way that is surprising especially to folks who are either critical or spectacle of the church. the serious scandals they have had to address in terms of child abuse issues and other things. but in terms of pot ticks, i thinki thinkity divine intervention could be useful. so i think if could be a possible. >> so the question is useful to who. we have heard the president talk a lot about income inequality and helping the middle class. >> what everyone american wants is a paycheck that lets them support their families, experience a little bit of economic security, pass down hope and optimism to their kids. that's what we'll be fighting for. that's what i

amazon is hitting the road and consulting with close ties to the company claims that amazon is unveiling its very own fleet of delivery trucks. of course that poses a significant threat to companies like fedex, ups, and ebay who are left scrambling to keep up with amazon's innovation machine. tech expert rob enderle joins me now. this is yet another wrinkle in what amazon's plan is. they increased their prime rate to $99. i can see why they're planning on having their own fleet of trucks though because the cost of delivery, expense to them went up a billion dollars last year. i think that was all me. i'm a prime customer. order a bottle of amazon and i mean bod bottle of aspirin and say send it to me free. >> there is something else hine this they plan to carry inventory in the trucks. when you order something ventorryed in the trucks they can drop it off much more immediately. gives them more rapid response time. no are 24 hours. not even same day. could be delivery for locations of ink or pens or things ordered commonly from amazon and can be delivered. this is much bigger. melissa: ro

. >> think you are getting a deal with amazon prime?ny is being accused of cheat >> how about a look at the embarcadero in san francisco, check out the flag that is blowing but not whipping like it was yesterday. that shows it is calmer this morning. it will be warm but, perhaps, mike will adjust the temperatures down. >>> tone, a 49ers player is honored at the bark and whine ball with a champion of compassion award with a foundation that promotes animal welfare and hopes inner -- helps inner city youth paying for medical care for sick annals and she verily injured. >>> today in san francisco get ready if the cuteness factor when dozens of baby goats will be let out of their pens. the goats part of the furry fire prevention effort. with city grazing releases photos, 50 babies, 20 proud moms have given birth the last month most with twins. their job is to eat dry brush, invasive bushes and weeds, and the landscaping goats are based at port of san francisco but work in the presidio, the heights and residential backyards across the bay are

. >> amazon is raising the price of amazon prime in seven days, jumping to $99 for you and returning customers, a $20 increase. amazon prime offers free two day shipping for members and streaming video and access to kindle books. they say they are sending an e-mail to individual subscribers telling them when their increase kicks in. >> alabama woman is filing suit over the free shipping policy claiming vendors are increasing prices to cover the shipping costs and amazon encouraged the practice. >> our meteorologist, mike nicco, will comment on the nice weather. mike? >> different than yesterday. no white caps. it looks nice on the bay right now. temperatures are on their way. there have been a couple of days of holding steady with record highs and a chance of rain still going to happen next week in the seven-day forecast day. >> goats roaming the city streets today with an important job usually reserved for rush areas. >> the java jolt in new york that folks are willing to the shell out >>> we have breaking news from oakland with a fire. you can see near the oakland port, we have bee

given that the infrastructure, you see amazon and ebay, can alibaba get into it? >> i think so very selectively. alibaba is focusing on cross-border growth. it started that way you to get the chinese merchant does internationally. it can certainly do it for b2c, the luxury brand going into china. and also goods from china exported to the u.s. >> alibaba has quite an operation and in the united states. on the b2b side, u.s. businesses get their goods through alibaba.com. maybe a random ingredient to a special kind of lotion they cannot get into the united states and they get on alibaba. maybe it comes from tahiti. i have talked to the business owners in the united states. paul, what do you think of the extent of alibaba's potential to grow even more to further infiltrate the u.s. and other markets? >> one of the reason for the u.s. offering, the primary reason was control, jack ma and his partners want to have control over the board even though jack ma only owns cap 7.4% of the stock. that is the key reason they are looking into the united states. to make this comp

contrary to earlier reports amazon says it has no plans to offer free streaming video services. for that and the rest of the news before the bell we turn to bertha coombs. good morning. >> good morning, scott. you wonder what they are going to announce next week. let's take a check of the futures, they are pointing to a higher start. we've seen that every morning this week, but stocks fell for the fourth time in five days yesterday, after mixed economic reports. we saw the nasdaq hit a 6-week low and it's on pace now for its worst week since october 12. october 2012 rather. we near the end of the first quarter on monday the dow poised to break its winning streak. we're going to get data on personal income and spending and consumer sentiment. starting at 16264, the nasdaq at 4151 after falling 22. amazon says not true it's going to offer free streaming video. addressing them ahead of that event. "the wall street journal" reports that amazon has been considering a prescreening tv and music video service. amazon invested heavily in providing shows and movies to customers who pay th

let's imagine this heyman system is owned by amazon. ebay users, amazon could say charge next or quarter percentage point to buy the same item. they could run an ad next to a babe -- paypal arches on ebay to stew that business toward amazon. priceould have instant discovery. you can imagine the way the technology has used to ebay to create opportunity because they know how to set prices, they now what is hot and what is not on a very real-time basis. the moment when it matters most, not when interest is shown but when a purchase is made. the power of these payment systems in an era where we have to the computational power collect big data and use it is really powerful. >> is that data that cory talks about, is that valuable when it comes to these payment networks, if it is just the plumbing they do not care what you're doing, do they? they will not necessarily be unless sell that data you are already a cardmember. there is no reason for them to to sell youwant anything. >> in this day and age it is about the data. if you are combining n

it's really amazon. amazon runs at zero gross margin for all practical purposes.jcpenney could be a private equity target? >> nothing would paek make it impossible. it's a big company and would take a lot of equity and debt to do it. i don't know if anybody's working on it but i wouldn't say it's impossible. >> we have a bet on "street signs" that the stock will hit 10 by the end of the year. i'm giving you a chance on national television to back out of your bet. >> we made that bet $5. now it's at $8.50. i'm feeling about about my bet. >> cocky. >> if you were an investor in retail stocks, which you're not, what would you buy? >> i really like, if you're looking for best in class over time retailers, i lost costco. i think they're the best retailer in the world. macy's owns their space now. they're a great retailer. i love gap because they're going to the omni channel world. they're the only one inside the mall i feel great about. except for footlocker who turned in great numbers, therefore nike turned in great numbers. it's a destination. you can't go wrong with

why did you pick amazon over other sites like ebay?cause doing a lot of the shows i always saw instances where there were a lot of counterfeit things being sold. i mean, if michael jordan had signed as many signatures as i've seen, he had to be about 30 or 40 of him to sign that many signatures. just so many counterfeit things out there. and there was a niche there that i saw for authentic items that fans that want to buy really good and interesting memorabilia, they want to sink their teeth into it. that's why we started starguard. it's starguardcollectibles.com. you can go there and find all kinds of things from every sport imaginable that would pique your interest and are worthy of being collected. >> how do you guarantee these are actual collectibles from those players and not authenticated? i'm sure other memorabilia sites and stores say they're authentic? >> we film everybody. so, we film people signing the items. the items are limited. they are one of a kind. let's say six and eight of a kind, that type of thing. and they're tot

the amazon customer who says the company isn't playing fair. do you use amazon? choppy waters are reaching the bay. we will show you a few of the things proceeding in the wind. >> dan, those winds are diminishing now. temperatures will be riseing. i'll have the accuweather forecast coming up. >> thanks, spencer, plus the unprecedented search for the malaysian airline plane that . >> the code orange from parents protecting their children from sexual predators. here's a sketch from a man trying to assault two children in elementary schools in oakland. laura anthony has the story. >> these parents say they don't want one mover child assaulted in their neighborhood. they realize police and schools can only do so much. >> we need to do more so that community members are for all. >> our goal is to get out the message that we're here, we're going to stay positive and we want everybody to know that we're altogether in unison to help protect these young ones. >> reporter: in the meantime, oakland police release this sketch they believe he assaulted a 2nd grader on campus

under his leadership, it has risen to number two worldwide behind amazon. as someone who can help microsoft innovate faster as it tries to navigate the post-pc world. in the meantime, he can still count on windows and office, microsoft's two biggest money makers. >> so, just how much will his move onto apple's platform -- what impact will that make? by adam, i am joined who covers apple for bloomberg. this sounds good. >> this shows kind of an acknowledgment by microsoft that their platform is winning here. they have come out with their own surface tablet that really was kind of a flop. and now they are putting one of their most valuable pieces of software onto to the ipad. -- apple does have its own technologies we. is this a threat? its own types of processing the come preloaded nicad, butone or this is different. this will be really geared toward business. that is something where apple has tried to get more and more ipads sold. >> so, wbc is coming up. there is no date yet, but it is normally in june. what are we expecting? >> it is a developer conferenc

the study is presented at at the meeting in america. >> amazon is accused false amazon provides freems. but a woman says the veteran dos -- vendors are increasing prices and amazon is encouraging the practice. the attorney says the bottom line is the free shipping that amazon office to the prime members wasn't free. amazon is not commenting. >> morning news continues at five o'clock with the new stories. >> a gun may have cost a top california republican trying to become governor and his campaign manager. >> a tall problem in the biggest little city, the meter mistake that has a company scrambling. >> "7 on your side" puts roof touch ups to the color test. which best at keeping out the ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get your taste of the season, at raley's, bel air, and nob hill. >>> live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. developing now at 6:00, demolition is underway at the san francisco construction site destroyed by fire. we are live with the progress and what is happening. >> a driver plowed through a crowd of people at the texas festival bringing together the biggest name in music, a

it offers. >> amazon when you talk to retailers they hate amazon because they think amazon has been givene other retailers have to meet or beat numbers. amazon doesn't. i still think it's a rotation. i'm not saying it's the end of the world. i think it's the rotation. >> with that we are in the red earlier than usual here down 52. bob pisani's on the floor, hey, bob. >> hey, techs were down earlier on, although i see emerging markets, again, doing very well. but the big talk and discussions about the ipo business, remember after the disappointment of king, pricing now becoming very important. pricing right, opening with a mild pop here. here's trinet, trinet priced last night here, human resource outsorcer. primes e priced 15 million at $16, the middle of the price range. and applied genetics small biotech firm they priced below $12, the talk was $13 to $15 but they raised the number of shares. they had to raise $50 million and they got pushback on the price so they lowered the price and raised the number of shares in order to get the $50 million still, though, still below the range. squa

it's a little bit of the amazon and ebay and the google of china. it's a little bit twitter of china which owns 19% of weibo which filed for an ipo on friday. >> it's got business to business businesses, b to c where they do high-end luxury brands, it's got c to c which is like ebay but it's not an auction. the chinese people get their everyday items there. >> they've got a massive scale, 800 million registered users for their alipay business alone. those numbers are incredible. >> let's talk more about how significant this offering will be. at's bring in craig yu, former google executive. he joins us from bloomberg industries in new york. how significant is it that alibaba is going public in the united states? anticipatingen their announcement of a filing for some time. it pays back yahoo! has a big stake in the company. the second thing is that they have been on acquisitions. going public will provide more currency for them to make more acquisitions. >> what kind of acquisitions? >> they have spent $1 billion on acquisitions in the last year in di

liz: we should throw google meets amazon meets -- >> that's right. that's all of it. of.much, joling kent. again, you've got to be able to read mandarin, joling can. who stands to gain the most, who will be the biggest loser or, and this is a stock, is it, that you might want to buy when it goes public? we bring in christina warren, how long have you been watching alibaba? >> i guess about five year, most of the time yahoo! has really been active with them. they've owned their share, i guess, for almost ten years, be i d but i've really been watching actively for the last five. liz: that's huge, isn't it? >> how among goes. as jo was saying, they do everything. they're like amazon, paypal, ebay all in one, and day that serve a gargantuan market that's still growing. liz: seven million sellers with 760 million product listings. however, being a middleman -- and, by the way, part of it is a business-to-business operation as well where you could buy 25 industrial paint center machine, what have you -- being that they are the middleman, how valuable are they really? does that

it's the first price increase since amazon rolled out the service nine years ago. >>> and spending onn all-time high. an industry trade group estimates americans will spend about $59 billion this kwayear their pets. that includes $20 billion on food and an estimated $650 million on pet insurance. other expenses are for groomers, training, boarding, and pet sitters. >>> in hope for a seed in the ncaa tournament appears to be dashed. the wildcats grab a one-point lead with less than ten seconds to play, but that leaves seton hall with enough time for one last shot. >> dana to inbound. dibbs. dibbs, a setback for the rim. he got it! >> sterling gibbs hit the buzzer beater to give seton the 64-63 win. >>> when we return, a crazy night in jersey. some vandals dress up like kiss, go on a rampage at a body shop. >>> and an early fourth of july in a town takes an unorthodox approach to saving some homes. and that little angel says, "weeeeeeeee!" 60% more sheets than charmin. shop. >>> and an early fourth of july in a town takes an unorthodox approach to saving some homes. and the value you lo

there is buzz that amazon will reveal a set-top table or broadband box next wednesday. the online retailer invited journalists to a new york city press event for an update on the company's video business. despite the buzz, shares of amazon down about 1.5% to 338.47. >>> reverse mortgages are getting some buzz today for senior citizens living on a fixed income, reverse mortgages have been appealing. however, for their heirs inheriting that debt it can be a nightmare. some new rules are being put in place to safeguard those who are left holding that debt. let's turn for an explanation from paul aflander for answer force that. paul, welcome. you're director of financial planning with provise management. what are this new rules and what are they intended to do? >> well, as you correctly pointed out, it's designed to protect the heirs from exactly what you describe. reverse mortgages suffer from that bad reputation that they suffered for years because that marketplace was a bit like the wild wild west until 1989 when they came under hud and fha specifically guidelines in gov

three stocks moving higher including amazon. talking about that a moment ago.riprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. >>> there are stocks higher, mostly defensive names like utilities, centerpoint energy. cnp, a rare bright spot up 2.4%. >> okay. let's move along and "street talk." start with two very different calls, brine, two video gamemakers. from a buy to neutral. >> target up as well. downgraded electronics arts as well. a little different dlacall betw the two. >> cigna aldrich. interesting calls from yesterday. slightly higher, nonetheless interesting. >> after the analyst, a $103 target. ubs says sell with an $86 target. 10% less than the stock stands now. >> stock three.