bertha coombs, "nightly business report." >>> more health news you should know about, an experimental class of cholesterol lowering drugs, showing promise for up to 70 million americans suffering from heart-related illnesses and could generate $3 billion in annual sales for the companies racing to get new medications to market. dominic chu has the details. >> reporter: the american heart association says cardio vo s ca disease kills more than any. for decades fighting high cholesterol is taking statten drugs like crestor and zocor and l irk patro. if you suffer from high cholesterol, there is a new drug. instead of stanton chemicals, they are protein-based. stanton's curve the cholesterol and companies like amgin and pfizer are working on them, but there is a catch. stantons are usually taken orally and cheaper because generic versions available. the newic injections, possibly an enpi pen. while the concept is generating positive chatter in medical circles, many more tests will need to be done before it can be determined if these drugs help reduce the risk of heart attacks. >> the que

but perhaps a little grudgingly. >> reporter: bertha coombs, "nightly business report," new york. >>> to read more about young millennials and how they're dealing with their health care issues go to our web site, nbr.com. >>> finally tonight, a renovation that's nearly 40 years in the making. some of the most iconic artifacts of american aviation and space history will be getting updated displays at the smithsonian's really wonderful national air and space museum in washington thanks to a $30 million donation from boeing. among the pieces getting brand-new displays after the two-year project, charles lindbergh's spirit of st. louis propeller plane across the atlantic, john glen's mercury capsule from nasa's first earth orbit be and the centerpiece of the museum, the apollo lunar module from the very first moon landing in 1969. now, don't worry if you're planning a trip this summer. the museum will be open during the renovations. it is a favorite especially for young kids. >> sounds fantastic. >>> that's "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib. thanks for watching. >> a

. >>> bertha coombs now with a quick "market flash." >> hi, tyler. united health down for a second day, among the worst performers. the health insurer says it spent more than $100 million to cover the price of hepatitis c treatments in the first quarter. gilead's new drug sovaldi costs $1,000 a day for a 12-week treatment. very effective but very expensive. united trading down currently, about 3.5%. rival health insurers wellpoint, etna also moving lower. this is going to be a big theme for the insurers this quarter and this year. shares of gilead, meantime, moving higher. reuters reporting that the national health service in england will invest about $31 million for sovaldi treatments there saying it will benefit 500 patients who need the treatment. sarah? >> an interesting setup for biotech earnings next week, bertha coombs, thanks very much. >>> turns out 83 s&p 500 companies, that's about 17%, have reported earnings so far. 63 of those have actually come in above estimates. 14% were in line while 23% were below forecasts. what is this all telling

bertha coombs is here with what is moving your money. his a relief rally as they call it, bertha, or the start of the bulls? >> well, the earnings news was mixed with boeing bet ter than expected, and procter & gamble sales disappointing, but the slowest pace of home sales in a year. affordability is an issue with the interest rates creeping up to 4.5%, and the median price is now at a record $290,000 nationally. >> and a lot of the folks are talking about the irs bonuses. >> yes, interesting, because the irs obviously if they find something funky on the return, you will be audited and they want to hound you to make sure that you pay your fair share, and seems that the irs nearly paid $3 million the workers who were facing the disciplinary action according to a new report from the inspector general, and some face actions for misconduct for federal credit cards misused, fraud, and unemployment benefit abuses, and there were also bonuses paid to those who owed back taxes. this took place between 2010 and 2012 and the irs now says they base

for that and the rest of your news before the bell, we turn to bertha coombs, happy friday to you, bertha. >> happy friday. a lot of folks may think the tech gurus down in silicon valley make a lot of money, but maybe they could have made even more. google, apple and adobe have settled a class action lawsuit alleging that they conspired to keep engineers and other highly sought workers from taking better jobs with their competit competitors. the deal averts a trial that was scheduled to begin in late may that could have exposed tactics that apple's late co-founder steve jobs and former google ceo eric schmidt used to keep lower paid employees working on their products and services. the suit had been seeking $3 billion in damages. >>> meantime, teachers are planning to lower start after stocks treaded water for much of thursday's session. news of the latest tensions between russia and ukraine weighed on the markets and likely will be a theme as we continue to hear really tough rhetoric there. we'll get some data this morning on consumer sentiment and earnings from ford which have come in l

bertha coombs. >>> and despite the strong earnings, the next guest says we're in a decline. jeff, welcome, good to have you with us. you're not saying the quarters earnings are the weakest in 55 years, explain to me what you are saying. >> stake a look back -- take a look back, you can measure the earnings or the peak from one cycle to the next. i'm looking back 27 quarters ago when it peaked, when the prior peak was back in the middle of 2007, to now. that growth rate is very poor inniin i earnings, usually every other earning cycle over the last 55 years we have been up 50 to 70% from the prior peak, this is the slowest in 55 years, not only because the trough was deeper but because the momentum over the last few years has been much softer than we usually see at this point in the earning cycle. >> so jeff, what is the takeaway from this headline statistic that you see, what do you want us to factor in, in their investment choices and what do you think of the latest factor of earnings this week? then good so far this week. >> earnings are critical, we've seen the valuations

for that let's turn to bertha coombs. good morning. >> good morning, scott. we have the futures pointing to a higher open, stocks fell for the first time in five sessions on thursday, investors eagerly awaiting the big economic news which is the march jobs report. the expectation is we'll have seen 200,000 new jobs in march after early slow january and february, a lot of that being attributed to the really terrible weather that we saw on the east coast and the midwest. the expectation is unemployment will fall to 6.6%, the dow starts at 16,572 after slipping a half point. the nasdaq at 4237 after falling 38. the national highway traffic safety administration says it continues to get answers and documents from general motors about its recall ignition switches that the safety regulator hasn't said yet when they are going to make that information public. gm has reportedly hired a third outside expert to help it with the recall response, they hired doug eler, a crisis management expert who works with firestone after its massive tire recall in 2000. google's lab s

let's get to bertha coombs in the newsroom. >>> chipmaker advanced microdevices posted 2 cents a sharethe bottom line, as it tries to replace dwindling chip s for pc makers on gaming consoles. $1.4 billion. they're getting a nice pop on the back of those results. back to you. >> 6% not bad. bk you had been -- >> sold it. after this report, i'll take another look at it. i think they're turning their business around. they've got more than just gaming. they've got bitcoin, which is, of course, right up my alley. i'll take another look at this monday morning. >>> weibo trading today. this as yahoo!'s numbers were bolstered by the numbers out of alibaba. let's bring in a senior analyst. jeff, great to have you with us. >> great to be with you. we're taking a look at jd.com. i don't know if american viewers are familiar with it. it's like an amazon model. and you say pass on this. why? >> yeah. i think similar to weibo, two situations are going on for jd.com. first, they're clearly focused on revenue growth and not profit growth. secondly, i don't think it's optimal for them to come right be

. >> let's send it over to bertha coombs for a quick market flash.rs both spiking after its outdoor subsidiary was currently trading up there, about 7. -- that's cbs outdoor, up 7.8%, cbs outdoor was spun off back on march 28th, cbs also gaining on the news. guys? >> bertha, thank you very much. >>> the movie "frozen" just continues to print money for disney. we'll tell you though about the one thing that parents are now willing to pay ten times the retail price for. . ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities appointment today. because when people talk, great things happen. for what reality teac

and bertha coombs is here with what is moving your money.eral mills did an reversal, and they said that if you bought the goods, you could not sue them, and agreeing to arbitration, and something that is built into the things like the cell phone contracts, and people balked of the idea that, you know, if you had a problem with the cherrios you could not do a class action sort of situation of the things were bad. so the company reversed itself saying that they listened to the customer concerns and the people misinterpreted what they really wanted to do. >> i am partial to this one, kfk, and talk about that. >> well, you are the figure for it. in 2010 kfc launched the double-down, and this is essentially a sandwich that is two breaded pieces of chicken with cheese and bacon. >> yum, you said bacon. >> and no bread, but chicken, bacon and cheese. in 2010, it was supposed to run for a month, and they sold 10 million of them in a month, so they doubled down and went for the second month. they are doing it again and this time around also a social

bertha coombs is live at cnbc world headquarters. >> always the big number the first friday of the month. a higher start, the expectation we'll see a bounce back in terms of jobs. stocks fell for the first time in five sessions on thursday. investors are expecting to see a tick up again after what's been a miserable winter that really a lot of people blame for depressed job numbers, calling for 200,000 new jobs in march with the unemployment rate ticking down to 6.6%. the dow starts at 16,572. the nasdaq falling 38 to 4237. bank of america reportedly close to an $800 million settlement with the u.s. government over its credit card practices. accused of pushing customers to buy extra services such as canceling debt the they lose their job or identity theft protection. these products usually offer little benefit and aren't worth the bang for the buck. >> office space creator mike judge his look at silicon valley this weekend. >> if to live here you have to deliver like steve. >> steve jobs. >> i heard you. >> jobs. >> jobs was a poser he didn't even write code. >> silicon valley takes an a

bertha coombs has the details. >> a fixture in late night for more than 20 years.ng that david letterman plans to retire in 2015. he recently reupped his late-night contract with cbs in a two-year deal that was expected to be his last. as of next year, he will have hosted "the late show" for 22 years. before that, 11 years on nbc's "late night. let's take a look at shares of cbs. unlike the transitions we've seen at nbc, there really isn't as much of a succession plan that's so evident at cbs. letterman is such a fixture and has really dominated that show for so long, really a generation. >> incredible, bertha. you're so right. i want to get quick thoughts from the panel here. michelle, what do you make of it? >> i'm not surprised at all. jimmy fallon has done so well on nbc. huge spike in the ratings. best late-night television ratings we've seen in a long time. if you're david letterman, do you want to go up against that? his show is tired. he's been tired for a long time. i'm in the surprised he would choose now when you see such a great young upstart. i don't s

bertha coombs joins us with more on what's moving markets >> soda stream moving higher on a report byraeli financial daily that it was in talks to sell 16%. pepsico, dr. pepper, snapple and starbucks noted as possible investors, all decline iing to comment. and lockheed martin came in high after the approval of the f-13 fighter jet. it will make its debut in july and health care providers saw its rating cut from neutral to buy over at citi citing limited opportunities for growth this year. read more about the downgrade and about its earnings report due tomorrow before the bell on cnbc.com. kell? >> bertha, thanks very much. now, we were talking a little bit about manufacturing this morning. big-ticket items often seen as belle weathers to the economy and they don't come much bigger than recreational vehicles. saw a 12% increase shipped to dealers in 2013 and the industry is on pace to exceed that this year. >> the leading rv brand name is win pago who saw a 20% increase in its recently released second quarter results and here to talk about the big moves on the road, we welcome winneba

bertha coombs is with us. i thought it would have been.t the case. >> in some reasons it may be because of the aca. the rule letting adults between children on their plans until 26. mom and dad may be covering workers who could have employer coverage. like this 25-year-old, a marketing account executive in new york whose work health plan would have cost him more than $100 a month. his dad able to do it for less and so he's pocketing the cash. found this 2010 while more workers under 30 gained eligibility for benefits up more than 4%, big firms seen a 7.6 of% drop in those workers actually signing up for coverage. in some cases still opting out, despite new obamacare mandates. >> a lot of the individual mandate that takes effect really will be happening with 2014 tax return. so a lot of this age group really, they just haven't seen the full impact and awareness yet. >> they haven't yet. they'll see it over the next couple of years. an executive at a big firm tells me, sue, this is becoming a sensitive issue, because they are now seeing more

but first, bertha coombs. >> here's a look at how wall street finished today.l average popping 157 points. the s&p 500 adding 15. we have better than expected retail sales for march. also some strong earnings from citi. that's it from cnbc. we're first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks who will talk to them about preparing early for retirement and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. this is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeown

. >>> i'm bertha coombs. the dow surging 106 points. the nasdaq added 22.n the economy may be improving. retail sales jumped unexpectedly in march, up 1.1%. a bit of spring fever for folks after a bitter winter. citigroup beat earnings expectations. profits in the facility, rose 3.5% from a year ago to 3.94 billion. >>> google bought titan aerospace. the move will allow google to wireless internet service to remote areas. that's it from cbs. we're first in business worldwide. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. all stations come over to mithis is for real this t

bertha coombs live with that and a look at how futures are trading this friday morning. good morning, bertha. >> hey, good morning, laura. ambition knows no bounds. right now the futures pointing to a lower start. stocks treaded water much of thursday. the tensions between russia and the ukraine and the rhetoric also with the u.s. has been weighing on the markets and will likely continue to be a theme. today data on consumer sentiment and earnings from ford looking pretty good. the dow entered the day unchanged yesterday. a rare event. the last time it happened was on christmas eve 2001 and only happened 160 or so times in the history of the dow. the nasdaq had a strong day up 21 points to 41.48. amazon after taking on retailers now looking to challenge u.p.s., fedex and u.s. postal service. the online retailer is testing own delivery network in new york, los angeles. amazon has trucks loaded with packages driven by its own contractors. the move would help the company get closer to being able to deliver items on the same day that they're purchased, giving shoppers one mor

bertha coombs and the futures now traders have more. >> yeah, we did see a tick-up after the weak gdput no follow-through. will that change after this afternoon's rate decision? anthony, what do you want to hear if you're a gold bull? >> if i'm a gold bull, i want to hear the fed say we're not going to taper, in fact we'll add to the program. bertha, the chances of that happening slim and none, and slim has left the building right now. >> all right. rich, would you buy gold here ahead of the fed? >> bertha, no. i've gone neutral until after the number and after the close. take a look at your six-month chart. you see the down trend line and 200-day moving average convernaling around 1,300. bulls take command at 1,305. on the downside, previous low of 1,267. below that, and the bears take control. i'm waiting until the close to make that bet. >> the 1,300 an area of resistance. for more on gold, check out futuresnow.cn futuresnow.cnbc.com. back to you. >> thanks, bertha. >>> coming up next on "the half," amazon is one of the worst performers this month. coming up, find out why john naja

let's get out to bertha coombs at cnbc's headquarters. very interesting class-action.ell us more about it. >> it is interesting, karen. we always think of silicon valley being so competitive. the class-action suit was filed in 2011, accusing the companies of conspireing to hold down salaries in silicon valley. the settlement comes weeks before a high-profile trial had been set to begin. the suit filed on behalf of 64,000 workers had been seeking $3 billion in damages, an award that could have been tripled to $9 billion under u.s. antitrust laws. reuters reports the companies have agreed to pay just $324 million to settle the case. they acknowledge entering into some no-hire agreements, they dispute the allegation that he colluded to drive down wages. apple, google, intel, adobe agreed not to enter into no-hire deals in the future. intuit and disney's pixar and lucas film units agreed to a settlement paying a combined $20 million. the case was largely based on e-mails between apple's late co-founder steve jobs and former google ceo eric schmidt and other rivals who alle

but remember bertha coombs, we hired her while she was on finance tv during the dot com bubble. >> thensa meyer came in after a host of other people and shade they were going to turn it back to a technology company. and now they are back to tv. >> i think this is the third time they have tried to do tv. >> if you are going to do tv, you need to have -- it's a whole different skillset. you can add reuters and so forth. >> people are good at picking pilots, which is an extremely difficult thing to do. >> from what little i know now about the tv business, $700,000 for a half-hour comedy may sound like a lot, but relatively to the networks is nothing. if you are a writer, director, actor, i'm not so sure you are taking that. >> i was watching the "game of thrones" marathon. i remember -- >> what's after that? >> but then i also saw, there's a new, like, spa new mexico the revolutionary war, which could be cool. but then they keep advertising this silicone valley. >> by the way, people say it's good. >> those nerdy -- i don't care about their life. >> mike judge -- >> i can't tell with young

. >> bertha coombs, what's driving these markets today? >> we've seen a lot of movement.one thing. china answered a twitter, it opens lower in its debut after moving higher. the lower range of expectations. still a nice move up today. more than 20%. ge also gaining ground after its first quarter earnings beat street estimates by a penny, boosted by a rebound in its industrial businesses. sears, a surprise mover today. in an s.e.c. filing, sear's director disclosed he purchased $475,000 worth of sears stock. >>> a good day for netflix after the stock was upgraded. the company's international growth will accelerate over the next 18 months. stock lost a quarter of its value since hitting an all-time high of $458 last month. i remember seeing the ceo at nasdaq seeing well what are they going to do? nobody rents cds anymore? what are they going to do as we move more digital? clearly they were thinking ahead and i wasn't. >> right. they were pioneers. thank you, bertha. we'll talk more about what this upgrade in earnings due out on monday, should you be betting on netfl netflix

we'll go over to bertha coombs with an update. >> all right. thanks very much.ooking at here? taking a look. we're looking at walmart at the moment. the retail giant says it's going to launch a domestic money transfer service called walmart to walmart let its customers transfer money to and from more than 4,000 walmart locations. this will be in direct competition with western union in another money transfer companies moving down on the news. see walmart fractionally some of the others are getting hurt on that. carl, certainly will be very interesting if that goes on as a remittance situation in terms of being able to go from a walmart in the u.s. to a wallmax in mexico. that could be a big deal. >> thanks very much for pointing out that walmart news. sorry for the confusion. a lot going on, lot moving. we want to point out sabre it has opened for trading at the nasdaq. let's see the opening trades and as you can see, up 6.25%, almost a dollar here on the open. sabre by the way we're going to be talking to the ceo, big day for ipos, big day for technology here.

bertha coombs at the nymex. >> alibaba was expected to file for its ipo here in new york but more thane details on that next. next. nd freddie mac have been there for america. helping millions realize their dreams of homeownership. and when fannie mae and freddie mac needed help, america was there for them. today, fannie mae and freddie mac celebrate payment in full to taxpayers. together, we've created one of the greatest comebacks in our nation's history. so, let's preserve and strengthen fannie mae and freddie mac. because without them there really could be no place like home. that's why i got a new windows 2 in 1. it has exactly what i need for half of what i thought i'd pay. and i don't need to be online for it to work. it runs office, so i can do schedules and budgets and even menu changes. but it's fun, too -- with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, 'cause a good playlist is good for business. i need the boss's signature for this. i'm the boss. ♪ honestly ♪ i wanna see you be brave everything looking good. ♪ velocity 1,200 feet per second. [ man #2 ] you're look

we want to go to bertha coombs at the nymex. >> the number a little bearish we saw an injection of 49ers here in the options pit were saying a number in the 30s would be bullish. we have seen lower than expected injections this time of year because we continue to see cold weather. we're seeing a little bit of a pullback slightly but we're more or less unchanged. overall, nat gas continues to be somewhat bullish for this time of year because of the fact that we continue to see cool temperatures. so we're not seeing that move into the warm temperature and the shoulder season injection just yet. hope springs eternal one of these days it will be open toe shoe weather. back to you. >> it is coming. shares of facebook all over the place, reported first-quarter profits nearly tripled from a year ago. here's mark zuckerberg on the conference call. >> we reached agreement to acquire whatsapp and oculus and announced new connectivity lab focused on developing technologies to expand internet access around the world. these are important efforts that we believe will help us continue making progres