bertha coombs "nightly business report," new york. >>> kentucky senator rand paul today. he is running for president in 2016 and one of his goals if elected is to get that pile of cash that companies have abroad and put it to work back here in the u.s. >> more than $2 trillion in american profit currently sits overseas. in my vision for america, new highways and bridges will be built across the country, not by raising your taxes but lowering the tax to bring this american profit home. >> and that is the perfect segue into what we've been calling tax tuesday. just 8 days to go until the filing deadline. 80% of americans by now have either gotten or will get a refund. so what should you do with it? sharon epperson joining us with suggestions. good evening, sharon. if i'm lucky enough to get a refund what are refunds running on average and what should people do with it? >> probably lucky enough because at least three out of four americans every year seem to be getting a tax refund and this year to the tune of some near $2900. you have a couple choices, of course. you could s

back to you. >> bertha coombs, thanks so much. bring in art hogan, chief strategist at wunderlicht securities. >> there's a play to get neutral at about 2100 and call for some kind of pullback. do you think that's needed or prescribed at this moment? >> well certainly the playbook and people are certainly paying close attention. i think what we've got here is a juxtaposition of stocks at or near all-time highs and working their way higher in an environment where you have lackluster economic data, that's been the case for the last two weeks and earnings that are better than expected, but still not great. and expectations for the second half of the year certainly better than first half of the year. you have to try to rationalize how did we get to all-time highs necessarily. the one thing that's kept us here and hasn't broken is the energy trade if you look at the support that the energy trade has been in the s&p 500 this entire week. it's been the lead or close to the lead sector. that's on the pick-up and crude energy stocks follow

bertha coombs "nightly business repo new york. >> but will the new specialty treatments she just mentioned be affordable for everyone? personalized treatment for cancer and cys can cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and in some cases they prolong life by just a few months. dr. peter balk is director of the kettering sloan center for outcome and joins us for insight. doctor welcome. good to have you with us. in a phrase or two, why do drugs cost so much in the united states and why do the prices keep rising as rapidly as they do apart from the break-through personalized drugs that we're seeing more and more of? >> well tyler, thank you for having me. i think what we see is very rapid rises in drug prices that seem largely disas from the benefits the drugs provide to patients. and it is important to realize that many of these therapies are coming on the market and helping patients magnificently but irrespective of their major break through that's change the -- the trajectory of minor gains we're seeing rapid price increases. ten fold price increase in the last 20 years adj

bertha coombs tracking the action there. >> apple now down three days in a row. the last time we saw it do that following its earnings was back after disappointing numbers in january of 2014. for the week it is down although it is up for the month. but we are seeing apple after having touched that all-time high falling back below it's 50-day moving average. some of it may be the negative headlines on the tap touch technology not working as well as they hoped. biotech among the worst performers of the day and this week down 7% over the last four days. part of it some disappointing numbers. people were looking for a bit more growth. celgene moving to the downside and the worst performers overall are the social stocks. yelp disappointing, baidu disappointing, twitter coming back a little after that horrendous day yesterday. at the bottom of the hour i'll tell you what the best performer is here at the nasdaq this month. >> look forward to that. a monster month, meantime for oil. it's up more than 20% for april, huge earnings today from exxon, even though they were l

bertha coombs is tracking it at the nasdaq for us. >> this has been a story 15 years in the making which i would have never thought. what's really moving things right now, biotechs the usual suspects are very strong. biotech up nearly 1%. apple up nearly 1%. apple started to move higher ahead of its earnings next week. a lot of folks watching to see what kind of dividend payout it will do what kind of buy back it will do but the heavy lifter today are the big caps. we've got all-time highs on like o'reilly automotive, dollar not impacting them citrix also beating, ebay strong and comcast surprisingly strong today despite of the fact of potential headwinds with an fcc hearing looming. also we're seeing the chips today ironically being the big drag. qualcomm texan, texas instruments disappointing that's dragging down the sector. yet we're seeing the nasdaq potentially at a new all-time high close today. part of the reason is that this year the heavy lifters have been the big cap tech stocks. they are up about 6% or so. but small caps have started to catch up. in no small part because of bi

. >> bertha coombs thank you so much. rolling blackouts of park carnitas sounds like a nightmare. the real momentum here is declining sequentially. >> comps were not good. margins improving, comps declining. revenue mississippi. so what's the trade? it becomes comical after awhile but if they sell jack in the box off on this you buy it. because i think they deserve a higher multiple. they report on may 13th. it is about 7% or 8% off its all-time high. if that doesn't get whacked tomorrow, it's gone. >> you don't like cmg. >> no. i think you're seeing divergence in the wage income. i think that benefits mcdonald's and yum. and i think cmg had its day. people that are bull sh say this cycle is different. this is different than 2012 when the comps caught up to the company again. remember what happened to the stock. so this is what i think. i think the comps are unsustainable. i think they're not in that bulletproof cycle where you have the internal things going on at the company but also this secular thing going on. i would be a seller. >> just to push back a bit, it's trading below

i can't imagine it, kelly. >> bertha coombs, thank you. about the apple watch, and to look ahead to the earnings next week max wolf from manhattan venture partners with our panel. hi, max. >> always a pleasure to join you. thanks for having me. >> i like the focus on the capital return. how much is that going to move the needle for apple monday relative to the product side. >> the sizzle is always what carries the day when you have a watch in play and earnings. we expect earnings to be huge. we expect them to come in north of 56 billion. we expect the shipments on the iphone 6 and 6 plus to do two huge things for them one, show that the burst in demand for the full-size phones is lingering. it's not going away. the average price they're getting is higher. we think they're going to beat on margin at 40 or a little bit higher. they'll beat on revenue. it will give people something to be excited about separate and apart from whatever the financial engineering, which is also exciting for the long-time holder. >> one second. how much do people

bertha coombs at the nasdaq. >>> jackie deangelis is standing by at the nymex. >> this was one of thoseleft traders scratching their heads, not sure what's going to happen next week. the fact we didn't close over 56. we settled at 5574 was a little bit of a negative sign to a lot of people. that was a key technical level. also you have the head of citi's european energy group saying to our colleagues that he's still bearish on oil and thinks there could be downside pressure ahead ahead. a lot of people are questioning the analysis that this wasn't a head fake that this could be a bottom and wonder if we'll continue to trade in the range of 45 to $50 until we get more concrete information. we get an opec meeting in june. nobody is expecting to see a production cut there. we had an output report from them that said they were raising output in march. that supply/demand equation is still on the table. also we have that correlation with the dollar come back a little bit. you get a stronger dollar today, pushing crude down as well. but still, five straight weeks of gains. we haven't seen that

bertha coombs, that's not the case with technology that is looking strong right now. >> not the caseled by chips and biotech. research much better than accepted. it's one of the big gainers. you have amazon with the new high. the best performer up 6% for the month of april. all the talk about deals. not just myelin at all time highs, but the topic. gilliad has so much and needs to make an acquisition. that's one of the likely targets. the nasdaq is working on the all time highs. the high this year is 50.26. that would be bullish. >> thank you very much. is the u.s. still the best place to invest? >> right now we are seeing emerging markets outperforming the u.s. and the world. now is the time to shift out of the u.s. into other markets. >> here with me the chief executive and investment officer. to aing is he is mr. emerging markets, but none the less he will agree with what he said. >> to be fair this is a positive year for equityiesequities. and the bull market continues in the u.s. you have this great combination for low oil and interest rates and excessive pessimism. >> at the sa

let's check back in with bertha coombs at nasdaq. hi bertha. >> you are within nasdaq 5,000. less than ten points away. biotechs, once again, are a big reason for the gains. you know last year april was the -- so far it's been pretty good. biotech is the best performer this week. up 5% for the sector. and it has now been up seven of the last nine weeks. >> that's usually a catalyst particularly for the cancer drug researchers. on top of that we have seen a few companies, though talk about disappointing earnings. we have disappointing guidance from the medicines company. part of it a patenten certainty over its -- one of its drugs. heel start the week after, but we will be hearing from intel, from netflix, which, today is higher. it's new marvel series. they've used it as an upgrade over -- we'll hear from schwab as well as mattel as well. 5,000 back within sight, but not there yet. >> how about that? just as the dow is above 18,000. thanks bertha. >>> plus size apparel represents a significant and growing opportunity for retail. many brands can't seem to figure it out. more o

. >> bertha coombs is at the nasdaq. before we get to rick here some of the biggest losers we're seeing as this selling intensifies going into this final hour of the month. bertha. >> yeah. we're seeing apple near the lows. nasdaq now down for its fourth straight week but remember we are coming off of an all-time high last friday. so we're no up down about 3.5% from that all-time high. that's one of the things that traders are talking about, the fact that a lot of these names, a lot of these indexes are really stretched. so we're seeing some folks taking some cash off the table. apple is the big example here. apple near the lows of the session here right now. right now it is on pace for its smallest monthly gain in about two years. it had moved up to that all-time high. remember four days ago record numbers on its earnings. record sales of iphones. record high. and now has pulled back this week ever since then. we've seen that a couple of times this year. as apple reaches for those big highs, even as people say that the v

. >> bertha coombs. let's head over to the bond pits. >> good morning, sara. hit on a very key component. let's start with rates in the yield curve. i always like pairings. our pairings are yesterday and today. we are popping through the upper end of yesterday's range. this is intraday and we are rangebound, pay attention. further down the curve you go. look at the 30-year. yes rates popped but they didn't pierce yesterday's top of the range. you are getting a little bit of the short end pushing their yields up a bit. flattening the curve. steepening has been the recent move. if you look toward europe and address what sara's point was, let's start with the bund. they got with a six handle. they are trading up in yield, down in price just a little bit. look at the shape of that chart. look at the shape of the two-day dax. two-day dollar index. they look similar, don't they? this relationship is on and off near term and historically. let's swap it out and look at the two-day euro versus dollar. it is a bit weaker. you want to pay attention to whether or not it g

bertha coombs. let's look at what gold prices are up to. we are currently down for the fourth session in five sitting at 1199. as for the others let's look at silver and platinum. copper is moving to the downside. keep in mind we do get that weak data out of china which does have an influence on that metal. as for stocks as tyler mentioned, giving up big gains. what should investors be doing in the studio with me? christina hooper is strategist and global investors. the chief investment officer of oppenheimer funds. christina, earnings are kicking into higher gear and for the first time in six years, we are expecting a decline at the same time as it seems sitting around the highest in a decade. do you see that as an impediment or priced in? >> it's largely priced in. we have to understand that we have to look valuations differently in the context of such low rates. while we had a disappointing first quarter, it's a wash. in a lot of ways it has been written off and we need to look to the second quarter. >> what do you think that will look l

bertha coombs is live at the nasdaq. >> i would argue everything is already digital. many respects we don't see it. today we have got the nasdaq back and intel leading the way. when was the last time intel was the biggest gainer on the nasdaq. revenues is cautious and it's better when they are raising the price target and that's having a nice lift for the chips among the best performers. they are moving to the highs and they talked and they have done it again. they have been melting over the course of this week. you are getting that with names with the outlook for earnings. the energy names moving up higher and go pro getting an up great. i call that the sporty spiz up great. my son has a go pro. >> thanks a lot for that. the foreign market is it time to be cautious? here with me and from the mute null asset management. great to have you with us. they tell us we are at historic highs or there abouts. what we call a baby bear. not like dooms day, but none the less at historic highs, do you think it's wise to be cautious from here on? >> there is a need to be cautious a

let's get out to the nasdaq where bertha coombs is following that. >> reporter: the nasdaq falling fractionally below 5,000 for the first time in some seven sessions. we'll see if it can hold on to that mark. a lot of big movers to the upside. go pro. apple continues to be a drag today. it's selling off even more following its earnings and wynn a huge disappointment there. also some other health care names today in the news anthem and express scripts have two good quarters. anthem said it's mixed on public exchanges is feeling younger. press scripts said it controlled its buy back in the quarter. they said this on the conference call because they were looking to maybe do a deal. meantime, mylan is raising its bid trying to do a deal for perrigo. finally the nasdaq apologizing for the earlier release of that twitter earnings release yesterday, shareholder.com is their site. they said there was a complication. this comes days after the nasdaq did settle one class action lawsuit over facebook to the tune of about 26.5 million dollars. back to you. >> rick santelli just brought us the seven year no

. >> thank you, bertha coombs. >>> it's been a pretty good earnings season so far, at least if you lookhe u.s. how do you play it? dominic chu is here with a look at some of the stocks that almost always beat earnings. >> at least over the past few years. every quarter, the analysts at bespoke investment group take a look at the stocks that typically beat their earnings expectations. whether they're low or high is not for us to say. but they end up beating the expectation. so we here at cnbc and the cnbc pro team took a look further than that. we said take a look these stocks that bespoke looks at and we look at the ones with three years' worth of earnings history, they have the beat earnings estimates at least 9 out of the 10 times and have a market value of at least $1 billion. among the highlights for this particular screen we ran, some interesting companies come up. three years' worth of earnings history. mastercard beats earnings estimates 94% of the time over the past four years. and the average move on the heels of earnings is a 3% gain. not bad for mastercard. linkedin averages

bertha coombs has those numbers. >>> we have a mixed report from chipotle.88 per share. the street was looking for something in the range of 3.60. however, on the top line a little bit shy at $1.09 billion. street had been looking at 1.11 billion. also when it comes to same-store sales, comps, up 10.4%, the expectation was better than 11.5%. the company says it's proud of what it did. said the food costs were in line with expectations at 33.9% of revenues. of course we're waiting to hear what they have to say about the pork the sustainably raised pork, they said they were going to take a $2 million charge this quarter for that. whether they've been able to source more to bring that back on more of their menus and also one of the things we'll be watching on the conference call is what they have to say about the bird flu outbreak in the midwest, whether that is going to be impacting their sourcing as well. another thing i'll be watching for on the conference call kelly, is health care costs. the company said last quarter they had about 1,000 people take up the

bertha coombs has the story for us. what are the details?if you think medical billing is confusing now. just wait. the government wants more detail on medical care and spending so it's rolling out a new upgrade called icd10. it's going to mean an eight-fold increase in the number of codes your doctor has to input. dr. andrew cl i-man thinks gathering data is great, but the switch could put solo practices like his out of business. consultants tell him to keep three months of cash on hand to deal with the inevitable glitches. >> we should have reserves either in a credit line or in cash of three months of income because we might not be getting any income for a while. for a small practice that could be devastating and could put some people out of business. >> hospitals are worried about getting paid too. a medical center in kansas city has said their systems have worked well with the it provider. they've had to invest nearly half a million dollars in upgrades and training and consulting. analysts say for smaller clinics and doctor's offices, it

here's bertha coombs. >> bill i'm so glad that you're here today. it is the first time the nasdaq crossed 5,000 this year you weren't here you didn't believe it. today we have seen it firmly above that all-time high close. the all-time high intraday is 5,132. nonetheless, today we've just seen big momentum. volume has grown here this afternoon. lot of traders are saying they're not really sure what is moving this beyond momentum at this point. because this morning it looked like we weren't going to get near there. disappointing numbers coming out of qualcomm facebook really dragging on the market. but we've seen some of the other big names that posted better earnings, like o'reilly automotives, ebay helping to lift this market here. starbucks ahead of its earnings this afternoon is also higher. some of the usual suspects have piled in investors coming right back into biotechs today. they are leading the way higher even as chip stocks today are a big drag. and you can't talk usual suspects without talking apple. topping $130 a share for the first tim

bertha coombs is standing by with more on this sharp decline in biotech stocks that jeff was just talking about. >> sharp decline, and one of the things that people watch when you see one way, sort of momentum like this is volume, and we are seeing a much higher than average volume already with an hour left to go in the trading day. one of the things that's sort of helping contribute to that negative feeling is that what i call the unrequited love dance between mylan and teva and perrigo, rejecting the bid. the market cap is about $35 billion. that bid undervalues the company. we've also got some big heights recording later this week in terms of earnings. gill yan, one of them on the 30th people worried about the momentum slowing down there with regard to its hepatitis c drugs because there's more competition, there's more pricing pressure. bucking the trend are some of the usual suspects, we talked about tesla, also monster beverage, it doesn't report until may -- >> i think often whenever you have a disappointing on the mna front, the mylan looking like it's rejecting the bid. disappoin

why don't we then head to the nasdaq and find out the big moves today with bertha coombs. >> mandy, they say history doesn't repeat but it rhymes. and this week big cap tech reasserting itself and certainly, yesterday, was the big juggernaut. if you take a look the nasdaq composite is up above 5,000 for the fifth straight day. fourth straight day of gains. but it's the nasdaq 100 that's really moving forward here up more than 4% for the week, powered by those big cap tech earnings. amazon is the big move. amazon having its best weekly gain since back in 1999 on the heels of that astonishing number and just how big its cloud business is. we have seen the cloud and amazon has a huge piece of it. its market cap today, topping $208 billion. it's going to make it a bigger lifter now within the nasdaq 100. the other heavy lifters today, microsoft. the old name huge name for microsoft on the back of that cloud break that the street seems to like as well. also google more discipline in its spending and apple is on deck next week. that's going to be a big mover when we see just what kind of cash

. >> bertha coombs joins us with that important story. >> for doctors and hospitals, it's a massive change. the new medical coding system that will capture eight times more health data than we do now. dr. andrew clineman thinks that's great, but he worries the rollout next fall will also mean eight times more errors and delays in getting paid. a consultant advised him to get a credit line for three months' period of time of expenses. >> there's an increasing pressure on physicians to leave small practices and to join either large groups or to go into hospital employment situations. this is one of those things that i think is going to help accelerate the end of private practice as we used to know it. >> hospitals are worried about the upgrade, too. truman medical center in kansas city processes hundreds of claims a day. so far their systems have worked well in testing with their health care provider -- i.t. provider. connecting with the medicare system, that's worked well. both the government and insurers have lots of testing planned before the system goes live next october. i have got much