bertha coombs, "nightly business report," boston. >>> and that does it for "nightly business report"or tonight. i'm sue herera. have a great weekend, ty. >> and you too, sue. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great weekend, everyone. and we will hope to see you right back here monday evening. >>the house republican leadership race becomes a meltdown.... hillary clinton splits with president obama... the united states gives up on one key strategy in syria... and a polarized supreme court sits down to argue again... i'm john harwood in for gwen ifill tonight....on washington week. >>i think i shocked some of you huh? shhh. >> chaos in the house as the presumed successor to speaker john boehner drops out of the running. >> we should put this conference first. and i think there's something to be said for us to unite, we probably need a fresh face. john: but who might that fresh face be? all eyes are on this man. meanwhile, hillary clinton again distances herself from the president, this time on his pacific trade pact >> what i know about it, as of today, i am not in favor of what i haea

bertha coombs, "nightly business report." >>> activist investor carl icahn takes a stake in aig, andt is where we begin tonight's "market focus." icahn is pushing for change at the nation's largest commercial insurer, saying it should spin off its life and mortgage insurance units into public companies. he also said the companies should cut costs. shares of aig rose nearly 5% to $63.91. >>> hyatt hotels is in talks to buy starwood, according to cnbc. this comes after reports that at least three chinese firms were looking to buy starwood, which we told you about yesterday. starwood rose more than 6% to $79.56. hyatt hotels fell nearly 2% to $49.63. >>> diamond foods is being bought by snyders lance in a traction yacks worth more than $1 billion, an effort by snyder's to improve the portfolio of snacks. they serged to $38. snyder's lance fell almost 8% to $33.25. >>> and chipmaker texas instruments is in talks to purchase maxum integrated products, according to bloomberg. maxim has reportedly also received interest from analog devices and may not sell unless it gets a high premium. sha

bertha coombs, "nightly business report," boston. >>> and that does it for "nightly business report"or tonight. i'm sue herera. have a great weekend, ty. >> and you too, sue. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great weekend, everyone. and we will hope to see you right back here monday evening. ( dramatic music playing ) thank you. ( cell phone rings ) ( ring ) ( ring ) gerry, what do you want? it's my day off. yeah, i know, and i'm sorry about that, but i need your help. why, what's happened? no, nothing like that. listen, i'm giving up cigarettes. gerry! well done! that's fantastic! and i just wondered whether you'd be my fag buddy? your what? fag buddy, you know. someone who helps somebody else give up smoking. oh, right, of course. no, i'd love to help. yeah, but you've got to keep encouraging me, all right? make sure i don't waver.

let's get more on this with bertha coombs. >> it's more like if there weren't bad news, there would be no news at all. today, really the points of pain is the larger arc of biotech index. it's off more so than the nasdaq index which has more small caps in it. pricing in biopharma industry is again in the spotlight. there is big fundamental news as well that is moving things lower, exact sciences hitting a 52-week low after getting a disappointing fda rating on the colorectal screening tests. they want to make sure that these targeted drugs will work on patients. so the testing is very critical. then you are also getting a warning today from dna sequencing tool firm illumina. it says it has weak instrument sales, asia, another issue here. the transpacific partnership agreement has a limit on biopharma exclusivity. five years, half of what u.s. biopharma industry wanted. >> that is weighing on these drug makers. mandy. >> big time, indeed. thank you very much, bertha coombs. >>> as we mentioned, oil is rallying, the prices steady despite the market volatility. the worse may not be over.

thank you very much for that, bertha coombs.'s get to seema mody for a market flash. >> nor weeken cruise line on a steady climb. up over 2.5%. the cruise line operator says it will add its first ship customized for the chinese market in 2017. keep in mind, shares are up 27% this year so one of the big outperformers. >> thank you very much, seema. >>> big banks are reporting q3 this week. with me is zachary karabell and da dave. zach, i see you're not really making any major sector bets at this juncture but you are negative commodities in particular. >> yeah, i mean, look, granted that's not the most bold call with oil prices below $50 and china demand clearly lagging. i mean, even if we see good numbers or rather less bad numbers out of china, a lot of that is going to be driven by chinese consumers buying nike and starbucks, not china consuming more iron. i don't see any massive global change in the commodity cycle. we're going to keep having more and more supply coming on over the next year. >> and yet, zach, the supply side

carl. >> bertha coombs thank you very much. we should mention the ceo of the biggest biotech listing ak a vent sciences. >> and some blockbuster news on the alzheimer's front. >> jackie deangelis has details. >> a near 5% spike in oil prices today, it really sort of came out of the blue for a lot of traders telling me they weren't expecting t but here were the reasons that we were up. you had the eia with its short term energy outlook showing a month to month drop from august to september in u.s. production of 120,000 barrels a day. also you had a weaker dollar today which is typically supportive. having said that, traders growing increasingly concerned about russian air strikes in syria as well. the bearish factors are still out there. this afternoon we will get the api inventory report, department of energy tomorrow. expect to go see an inventory build here and also the lackluster session in equities and concerns about global growth still could be a problem for oil prices. we took off the 47 level whiskey technically, we clos

thank you very much bertha coombs. get to seema mody for a market flash. >> check out shares of fxcm down 7%. it says its systems were hacked and a small number of unauthorized wire transfers were made from customer accounts. all funds have been returned to the accounts that were compromised. >> stocks are raising some early gains as we kick off the first trading day of october and the fourth quarter. will it be noer bad quarter for the market? joining us are nick colas and rob lutz. let's start with the bull, that would be you, rob. you see 12% upside between now and the end of the year. that's pretty bullish? are we going to get there? >> yeah, i think we're going to get there because right now investors are kind of shell shocked. that last month has been quite volatile, quite unusual, but really the last 14 years many investors have really seen quite substantial decline this is the market. two 50% declines. i think a lot of investors are acting like short-term traders and they're not taking the long view. i think th

back to you. >> all right, bertha coombs at the nymex.well, is oil really going to go to 80 bucks next year? let's bring in dave purcell. dave, we've got a lot of bulls on this show around oil and they make the case about how production is going to go down and maybe demand will go up. 80 seems aggressive. make that case. >> so i think you have to believe that the market is not as oversupplied as consensus believes. if you look at inventories in the second quarter of this year, the market is half a million barrels oversupplied. july and august inventories, we're much closer to balanced. couple that with demand growth, although maybe slower than the stellar growth we're seeing today and non-opec supply is going to fall 500,000 barrels a day next year, so that puts the market clearly under supplied by the back half of 2016. now, that's not tomorrow, but those factors coupled into the equation boil out to be $80. >> you're in houston, you're probably an astros fans but you're kind of sounding like a mets fan. you have to believe. you have to

let's go to bertha coombs. >> we have health care a bit of a drag here, but technology is higher with apple in particular. really that's the one thing that's the positive influence here on the nasdaq 100 after its earnings, getting an upgrade to overweight from pacific crest that is boosting the chip sector. that's one of the strongest sectors where we see apple suppliers moving higher. walgreens, you know the story there, they beat on the earnings. they are forecasting lower earnings because they are going to suspend buybacks in order to fund the deal for rite-aid. color from the call. they are not really outlining how many stores they expect they'll have to divest in order to secure ftc approval for the deal. they were also asked, because it was talked about transforming, being a bigger health care player whether they will take a page from cvs and not sell tobacco, they said they're not ready to announce on that anthem, though it beat and its guidance is strong, it says it is still trying to work out the individual market. back to you. >> bertha coombs, thank you very much. >>> comi

bob pisani at the nyse and bertha coombs is going to be joining us from the nasdaq as well. bob, find the action for us. >> i'll tell you why i'm happy, we've got the through first major week of earnings with the banks and now ge and honeywell, market is holding up fine on that. i am happy with a quiet day. ge reporting today, new high for general electric. also we have two dow stocks at new highs, nike and general electric. nike has been hitting new highs for a long time. a good report from honeywell as well. we haven't been hitting many new highs. it's been a small group of consumer names, altria, reynolds american, the cigarette company. clorox has been doing great this week. they've been hitting new highs on a regular basis but not much beyond a small group of consumer names. no love at all for metal stocks again today. we're seeing notable declines in some of the steel names, freeport another day down 4%. alcoa down 3%. i suspect, mandy and tyler, maybe they're trading down ahead of china's gdp report which is out sunday which is widely expected to have a six handle in

over now to nasdaq and bertha coombs. bertha?> imagine that, starbucks in the birth place of cappuccino. we have huge volume on the netflix sell-off after the disappointing earnings. already trading in three times average daily volume but that's being offset by gains in apple today and the rest of the f.a.n.g. gang. a lot of their competitors when it comes to streaming. facebook is a stand out higher on an upgrade to buy with a price target of $115. the interesting thing is, that's not the worst performer. a couple down grades for sea gaseagate technology, garmin gutted after lower guidance having a tough loss in the crowded wearables business. biotechs interestingly are bucking the trend in health care despite valeant being subpoenaed for pricing. and chips are extending their gains. finally go pro is launching a weekly cash video award to boost its platform. the company is going to give away $5,000 a week to the best edited video, $1,000 for the best video. they'll also give prizes for stills, up to $5 million a vote. my vote w

i'm bertha coombs at the nymex.eekly inventory numbers are out, and they are even worse than some had feared. much more bearish. we had an 8 million barrel build in crude stocks. that was higher than any of the expectations, even higher than the petroleum institute's bearish number last night which was just over seven. of that we saw a 1.1 million barrel build it looked like at cushing, the delivery hub for nymex. meantime, gasoline inventories fell less than expected, down 1.5 million barrels. distillates were down 2.6 million barrels. we're watching oil right now trading at just below $45, falling to $44 and change. already we were on the downside this morning with concerns about another sell-off in china with no move towards easing in china, and the fact that, carl, we have that opec technical meeting with nonmembers and it appears according to folks who were in that meeting that there was no discussion at all about trying to limit production or set some sort of price floor. back to you. >> thank you very much, b

bertha coombs at the ins. >> china's gdp, also the prospect of iron perhaps putting more oil on the market sooner rather than later. that's all weighing on oil today. anthony joins me here at the nym nymex. what are you looking at? >> you hit the two main points of what's driving oil lower this morning. it's china, iranian sanctions being lifted. you also have refinery turnarounds in the u.s. crude oil isn't being refined right now into product. it's building supply. so with all that weighing on the market, i think we see a 30 handle again before we see a 50 handle by the end of the year. >> it seems as though this is a supply story. we are starting to hear from suppliers. from the drillers. that maybe it's time to start throwing in the towel and cut back. >> yeah, you are hearing that a little bit. to me, that's a surprise call right there, $30 a barrel. i don't think that happens. when you look at the range in oil now. you're looking basically 44 1/2 to 50 has been the rank. when you look at the oil volatility index, it's making lower highs. in other words, things are calming down. the f

bertha coombs is live with a look at how it's going one week after launch.r to you. >> doctors have been worried about. much like y2k. they worried there would be lots of glitches. the entire health system, every provider, every insurer switching to the new coding system that expands diagnostic codes and billing codes five fold from what we've seen over the last 30 years. here at athena health, they helped process for doctor groups and individual doctors. they've already processed more than 1.25 million claims. swron than bush, the ceo, joins me now. jonathan, the question is how is it going? thank you, humana. they paid the first lame in one day. it was for lobach pain and insomnia, which we know and will refer to as m-545 and g7000. >> you have already processed one and a quarter million. 6,000 have been paid. a lot of folks worried that there were going to be a lot of delays. have you seen any glitches? >> no. documents that we monitor everything that goes on in our 70,000 doctors offices, and we saw a small wrup tick from, you know, on average of 5.3 day

bertha coombs. we are getting word that secretary of education artie duncan will step down.hat's coming from the white house. now word that president obama will make a personnel announcement at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon and possibly answer some questions in the state dining room. when that happens, of course, we'll bring it to you live. in the meantime, europe is about to close in three and a half minutes. simon, back to you. >> as you look at the map, the important thing to realize is europe was much higher at around 6:00 this morning. the paris market was up 2%. 1.9%. the affect of the disappointing employment report here and the fall on wall street has been to cut the gains in europe, which were led originally by the oils and the semiconductors. the other important point to make, of course, is that inaction from the fed in this country means it's more likely that the ecb will enhance the qe that it's involved in on that side of the atlantic. not least because it sends the election from the fed sends the dollar down and the euro up. that is deflationary, and it's also, of c

let's get more from bertha coombs. >> alex yan pharmaceuticals and vertex farmer are the big gainers. the pair are up about 10% for the week. the stocks remain in bear market territory. they're down about 20% from their highs. as is the nasdaq bio tech index. quite a reversal for the week. you look at the one-week chart. crashing through the august 25 lows. we have seen the reversal holding the low levels and moving higher. on pace for a weekly gain. chip stocks, also moving higher on pace for weekly gain. memory chipmaker micron posting a smaller than expected loss. amd moving up, too. they're restructuring and cutting jobs. wynn resorts are the biggest gainer. china's casino capital is lifting a number of chinese stocks as well. back to you. >> thank you very much. >>> so, the u.s. economy posting another month of weak jobs growth. how will the latest numbers influence the fed's plan? steve is here. not that yellen had the jobs data at the time of her decision, a lot of people are saying she's being vindicated. others are saying, the feds missed the window. >> some people said they

let's get to bertha coombs. scue us, bertha. >> if you are long oil, you probably would like to turn to the ministry of magic. no magic in the oil trade these days right now. we are just slightly above the final trade which was right at around $44.59. that's sitting right at the 50-day moving average despite the fact that we had that big move from china which normally does rally the animal spirts in the crude pits. not today. we had the dollar strengthening. that was a bigger headwind. for the week, crude down 5%. second straight weekly decline. >> bertha, thank you very much. >>> every day we dig through analyst research to find the five stock calls that stick out the most to us. we call it "street talk" and what's so funny? >> i was looking into the wrong camera. >> that's already. it happens. you haven't done the 2:00 show in a while. there's only two choices. first up is equifax, ef x, stifel nicolaus upgrading it to a buy. they make a recent deal they made. they say a big government contract in the uk and a

bertha coombs. >> yeah. the big cap tech is really what's led the nasdaq's rebound this month.aidu surging about 12%. but it is among the china stocks that though still in bear market territory is up about 30%. a lot of them look like that. a big rebound amid consolidation. also a big rebound in chip stocks. pmc sierra, and sky works and semi. and the big gainers have been the nasdaq 100 caps. helping that gain 12%, microsoft the biggest contributor. amazon and apple. take a look at microsoft. the real standout. biggest monthly gain since october 2007 and now just about 5% from its all-time high back in 1999. which is helping to move the nasdaq 100 very close to its all-time high surpassing that y 2 k high. >> thank you. it is not just u.s. markets that have been strong. the rally seems to have really spread around the world. >> let's start with asia which was a source of concern over the summer given the free fall in exotic stocks. fwau but a dramatic turnaround. the hong kong stock market up 9% or so. what's changed? well a couple of things. one is investors seem to have beco

. >> bertha coombs at the nasdaq market side give us a quick update on what happened there today. >>tech led the reverse this will morning. take a look at biotech one week chart. talk about a reversal after crashing through the august lows on monday, biotechs are set to be up about 6% from that low we saw on monday. on the other side you have apple which is a continuing to be a laggard here, dragging despite those record sales, concerns about maybe whether apple has stockpiled chips and cutting back. hip r hit the chip sector earlier this week but the chip sector is on pace for a nice gain for the week as well, a nice reversal there as well, breaking a two-week losing streak. the big winners today are the china related stocks on reports coming out of beijing that china is look to go prop up the government, that has all of the gaming stocks up, but it's also carrying a number of internet names as well. back to you. >> isn't it interesting, isn't it interesting, kelly and i have been hearing from traders and we are seeing this change of psychology that turned on a dime this morning aft

bertha coombs has been following the movers there. >> the nasdaq now positive, just fractionally for the year. large cap nasdaq 100 is the laggard on the day when you look at the major indices. apple, while it may be the world's strongest brand, its shares are weak again today. micron though is part of the reason the nasdaq is strong extending gains up to better than expected earnings last week and outlook on very heavy volume today. the best gains today really in the small cap. look at the russell 2000 index up 2%. a small biotech, spark therapeutics. they're surging with positive results on a gene therapy treatment on blindness. gene therapy is something people watch closely. spark shares more than doubling from their ipo price since going public here on january 30th. very much bucking the trend in biotech which is down again today on those continuing concerns about high priced drugs and pushback, not just in the market but also potentially within congress. back to you. >> bertha, thank you. google shares have officially stopped trading as google shares and today they begin trading

let's go uptown and check in at nasdaq with bertha coombs. >> uptown they say october is often the time when we put in bottoms. today we're seeing the strength in large cap technology, although it's down today. when you take a look at chip stocks, they are among the worst performers today. they're among the best performers this week. the philadelphia semi-conductor index is up about 4% or so. biotechs, again, a different story. today they're fractionally higher, but the nasdaq biotech index is actually the loser for the week down about 2.5% as pricing issues and regulatory risks continue to weigh on sentiment when it comes to that sector. tesla shares have come off their lows but they're getting hit on a downgrade over at bark clays to underweight. the analyst there not seeing the model x driving much in terms of new sales volume but that's not stopping elon musk from throwing a little shade on apple's ambitions to make an electric car. saying apple is tesla's graveyard saying the analysts who can't make it at tesla go there to bury their careers. ouch. >> fighting words. it has been a

let's go up town, nasdaq, bertha coombs following the big movers there. >> the big movers were the small caps. the russell 2000 out performing and the reason why biotechs. positive headlines starting with pbm express scripps. they buy a lot of drugs and they have been trying to combat high prices. they're adding the new cholesterol drugs to their formulary. they were able to get a good price from amgen and sanofi. cvs officials are still studying the issue but biotechs leading the way. >> stocks have been struggling a little bit but it's been in rally mode. the major average is up 3% in the past one week alone. well, with all the global fears out there, why is the market rallying in? >> it's important to know that this rally extends overseas as well. take a look at european markets so far in october. you can see germany, france, spain all up about 3% to 8% in the month of october. asia joining in on the rally, stocks there trading at seven-week highs. speculation that japan will ease further has sent the nikkei higher by 8%. ubs global strategist says there's three reasons global markets