but saks said investments in technology and e-commerce would pinch profits this year. as suzanne pratt reports, saks is one of many big companies already warning about first quarter earnings trouble. >> reporter: ask anyone on wall street what's fueled the stock market's recent rally and most will say the same thing-- corporate profits. fourth quarter earnings, reported by most u.s. companies in january, were stronger than expected. let's be clear-- they weren't huge numbers. but it's the element of surprise-- in this case, positive-- that matters most for stock investors. so here comes another surprise in the land of corporate scorecards. it looks like first quarter results will be pretty bumpy. we know this because companies are red-flagging their upcoming performance, a move known as guidance. >> so far, we've received 80 negative guidance and only 19 positive, which brings us to a negative-positive ratio of 4.2%. this is the weakest showing in over a decade. >> reporter: as a result, analysts have slashed q-1 earnings estimates. right now, s&p 500 firms are expecte

how about saks? i regard saks as part of what i call the gatsby cohort. like michael kors, which hit a 52-week high before it was bombed by a secondary offering or coach, which hit a 52-week low, possibly because it is now fashion backward. my daughter has a vintage coach handbag and i know it's the envy of anyone she sees who has a current coach. which of these high-end retailers is telling the truth? is the fall in the stars if saks give us an astronomic view? or in themselves as i think it is with coach. to mix the far superior shakespeare with mediocre fitzgerald. by the way, i'm not a steinbeck fan either while we're calling him out. more of a stephen king aficionado. to stick with the retail theme we also hear from auto zone. all right? and people have been falling out of the zone of late with the good folks at stifel nicolaus making an incredibly bold call today that azo will muff the corner. that would be a serious blow to the auto improvement thesis that's been such a great one. we need the zone to sate opposite, that the car market is strong, an

oh, yes, she was very sexy, beautiful lady and she invited me into the back room and served me sak . go on! go on! well i stayed there all afternoon. talking and drinking saki and suddenly she looked at me and said, mr. kimono man, come closer. closer. and she looked me right in the eyes and said, i think i'm falling in love with you. i am! i love you. i want you. i need you. then she started taking off her kimono. she started to take off her - what happened next! calm down. i can't. i'm just so jealous. wow you must have had a wonderful night together. you think so? yeah. actually, no. no. just because right as i was kissing her. samurais brother suddenly came home. diver suddenly came home. what happened? well, when he saw us he was so angry and he puld out his sword and was going to kill me. oh! how exciting. it was not exciting. what happens. as he ran towards me, he slipped on the shiney floor and dropped his sword. so, i picked it up and i cut him down! you killed? that's right. at that point the wife took out 100 yellow gold coins and said, come on, let's run away together. no

. >> heather from saks fifth avenue says any woman can manilow olivia to her wardrobe. the key is to update your classics with a modern twist. olivia pope uses colors that are simple, lines that are clean and minimal embellishments. she also has signature pieces that she wears off and on the show. trendsetter. that's good to see. the story of a little boy held hostage in an alabama banker caught the nation's attention. come no, we talk with david muir about the exclusive interview that he has with the boy's brother tonight on 20/20. >> and a high school science project but turned into a medical breakthrough. waldorf teenager turned out a patented invention that helps wounded warriors overcome injuries. her captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> the entire country watched as a hostage standoff involving a young boy unfolded in alabama. he is now safe and his captor dead after the fbi raided the bunker where he was being held. david muir is joining me now. this was an incredible story with a happy ending for the young boy ethan. >> good to be

macy's and saks beating estimates on higher revenue. they said sales were expected to rise in the coming years as well as they invest in online technology. taking a look at two key retailers, up macy's and saks up three-quarters percent. ty. >> sue, popular survey. how big of a mess is italy. what does it mean for europe and the u.s.? a shift in u.s. energy policy. we were trying to lessen middle eastern imports but something just changed. we'll be back to tackle those topics when "power lunch" returns in 2:00. [ male announcer ] any technology not moving forward is moving backward. [ engine turns over, tires squeal ] and you'll find advanced safety technology like an available heads-up display on the 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. >>> major snowstorm slamming into the middle west this. video comes from kansas city. they were hit very hard there just a week or so after another storm walloped them. tens of thousands of people lost power in that area. in some parts of the middle west measuring sticks show three feet of snow has fal

so, one of our clients is saks fifth avenue and we end up giving them some really great charts aboutpeople pass while they're open. so, you can see here. these are the hours that they're open. and the dark areas are the hours that they're closed. and if they're open from 10:00 to 7:00 p.m., they capture 81% of the people that walk by. so, that might mean that they want to move their hours one way or the other and capture more people, or stay the same. and it's just data they didn't have before. and i think you can imagine what 5% more people, more customers to a big retailer would be in revenue. i can't tell if they're trying to cut me short or telling me to keep going. [laughter] >> this wasn't even -- this wasn't even part of it. i guess people are just late. so, i get up here. all right. yeah, so, if you go down and in our interface, this is a web app that's available to all our customers, you can see here the busiest day in san francisco is friday. the busiest time, the busiest hour on average is 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.. on september 14th was the busiest day of last month. and the peop

her first sale at bergdorfs by letting the buyers there think she had a deal with crosstown rival saks. she didn't have any such thing, really, but the hint of competition sealed the deal. its not bluffing, brown later rationalized to inc., it's thinking on your feet. well, whatever you call it: thinking on your feet, creative embellishment, fake it 'til you make it-you love it when its done by scrappy entrepreneurs. now compare that to what you read about faking it by big companies-just to pick one from the news, standard & poors. analysts there rated junk mortgage securities as if they were perfectly safe, even though, according to the government, they knew better. if that's true, then, s&p was just doing what bobbi brown did, right, stretching the truth to make a little money? well, no. the difference is a matter of trust. people trusted s&p to give honest evaluations of securities. trust is what they sell. bobbi brown sells facial paint. we'd feel differently about bobbi brown if she sold makeup with toxic ingredients to bergdorfs, but that's what wall street did in the years leadi

in answer to your question, our board makeup of people like neiman's and sak's and barnies. we serve the community, the customers that come there. i also want to point out that our corporate manager and the accountant, that's our entire staff. and we share that with our union square garage. and if the city were to take that over -- mta would take it over, they'd have to use those people or hire somebody anyway. it's just normal bookkeeping, paying our bills and dealing with the tenants in the area. we're here to serve. i think we have a good [speaker not understood]. i think if we run -- it's a pleasure to come into the sutter stockton garage and i'd like to keep it that way. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >>> good morning, supervisors. coner johnston, legislative aid to supervisor london breed. i want to offer a brief statement on behalf of supervisor breed. the japan center garage is in district 5 and the members of the japantown community, many of whom are here today, have expressed how much they value having a community entity involved

. >> tell me about saks as well.nd it's also higher, just like macy's, but it's up about 1/2 a percent. we were up 80 points and modest bounce back from the big drop yesterday. everybody waited to see at ten o'clock will ben bernanke keep printing money? that will make a market difference. >> our next guest, well, he wants to phase out the income tax in his state completely. kansas governor sam brownback. governor, welcome to the program. i'm glad you could join us, i know there is he' a huge snowstorm there and couldn't let you travel in new york. well, look, i've got to ask you about this phasing out of the income tax. are you specifically trying to encourage tax rrefugees and businesses to come to your state. >> we're trying to encourage anybody that's interested in growth and well, on building a strong future and a family to come to kansas because we think we've got the best atmosphere in america to grow a small business and to raise a family and it's right here and we hope you come from all over the world to kan

guest: some of them -- i used to work at saks fifth avenue jewelry department when they were in owings used to pick the gemologist's brain every day i was there. so i know some of these diamonds are rose cut diamonds, and the earrings and one ring. the pearls i had a clasp put on so i know they're nice pearls. but not really as a whole package. appraiser: you have an eye for this. you really do. and you picked the lady's brain, your coworker's brain perfectly because what you have here is a tourmaline and diamond ring. you have a ruby and diamond ring and these all appear to be a minimum of 14 karat. you have ruby and diamond earrings rose cut, like you said. rose cut diamonds in the center, rubies around it. the pearls appear to be cultured freshwater, because they're 10 to 11 millimeters so that's a large size pearl. and then the bar pins you have at the bottom rubies and pearls. and then the other one has the eagle, and then a line cut diamond hanging from the pin itself. do you have any idea what the values of these would be? guest: not exactly. i just know they're pretty and i lov

she's the first lady, for goodness saks not a celebrity. >> reporter: the white house didn't respond appearances have been focused on her campaign let's move. on jimmy fallon, sharing a moment with big bird. >> eating healthy is easy and it's fun and delicious, too. >> reporter: and talking hairdos with rachel ray. >> this is my midlife crisis, the bangs. >> reporter: it's all part of a carefully crafted pr plan. >> it's almost as if her real strategy is a charm offensive that's been intended to build support for her husband's initiatives. >> reporter: michelle obama is working with her team to develop a second-term agenda, something all first ladies must contend with. >> the difference between a first term and a second term really is the fact that you've got your grounding. and all of the lessons learned of a first term now you can pick up and have the freedom to really act. >> reporter: so will the harvard educated lawyer take on more policy heavy goals in the next four years? >> she never wants to distract from her husband's agenda. it's possible she might address tougher, more co

. >> the last ones are saks and macy's.nies at least last time i checked moving in different directions. now moving higher purchase i thought the interesting one was actually macy's. i'll tell you why. outperformer, comps hold up well. i spoke with stacy, really well respected, smart retailer. >> she comes to "street signs." >> a surprising thing, she said actually they are going to disclose less now. what she heard on the conference call, sales growth, online sales growth, not talk about as much, disclosure moving in the opposite directs. >> thanks so much for that. thanks for joining us today, josh. in the meantime let's look at big news on oil and get to sharon at the nymex. >> the lowest close of the year. oil prices settling at 92.63. this is the lowest close of 2013. a number of factors contributing to the slide. down almost $2. a lot of concerns about what's happening in italy. also traders say geopolitical risk has been a little alleviated with the talks in iran and western nations over nuclear program. we have a nu

i would like to know why i should do something like cakestale as opposed to going to a place like sak's free personal assistant already there to assist me. >> is this a better option? >> it is. our stylist services are also free, and can you shop cakestyle from the comfort of your own home so you can sit back and let your stylist pick out outfits, super convenient, on your own time, in the middle of the night. >> how many clients do you have so far? >> in the thousands. >> a lot of women have tried us out. really exciting and the response is overwhelming and it's thrilled. how could you not love doing it? >> for you guys it's like the perfect job. how do you stop people from getting stuff delivered to their door, trying it all on and going out and using it and then sending it back. it's a trust system, isn't it. >> these are higher priced point clothes so most of the time people are interested as investment that they want to keep and really interested in using the service. we haven't had a ton of problems with that which is great. >> are you the guys who only do something like this, or

justice found 185 companies in the fortune 500 took similar deductions in 2010 including apple, goldman sakst packard and exxon mobile. sides have criticized the reduction calling it a corporate tax loophole. it's perfectly legal unless congress changes the tax code. democratic senator of michigan introduced a bill to eliminate stock option deductions in 2011. it was never voted on. >>> a live look outside this evening from the soon mateo bridge, we are seeing cloudy conditions, but dry pavement. the rain has not arrived just yet. storm tracker 4 is pinpointing some returns for our inland valleys and also for the delta, but nothing is actually hitting the ground because as you can imagine, with so many nice warm days, it's quite dry out there. it's going to take a while for the air to be saturated for the rain to actually come all the way down to the ground so satellite and radar picture showing the clouds moving through, but it's dry. we are going to see a bit of a low, some clearer skies filling in overnight and then here comes the second round that is going to actually bring us the rain i

you have big earnings coming out, home depot and lowe's, a number of department stores, macy's, saks, nordstrom. best buy, kohl's, the gap, jcpenney, too. it's a good week to get a good gauge on the consumer, not so much from the earnings but the outlooks. >> without a doubt. what we have to watch more is it just becomes this theme that people are going to pile onto, as opposed to a company by company, who's managing it well, who's not. i don't think you saw a lot of panic in the likes of nordstrom, even though people thought there was that prospect. i'm not really saying the consumer's done. it's much more about where the market is relative to the news flow. i think when you have it on the week laet le week leading up to the sequester, people are going to numbers, maybe we thought the domestic fundamentals in the economy were a little better than they're showing themselves to be in the very short term. >> mike, have a great weekend. see you next friday. >> thanks. >> mike santoli. perfect segway to josh lipton who's watching a couple of retailers. >> two retail names. coach, the stoc

if you're saks, nordstrom's and macy's, you're probably not. macy's is right in the middle. matters. if they are not seeing, it it's just at the lower end. i'm a big man right now of macy's, still a fan of walmart. still think they are getting it right. still think that penny's will have a great year at the back end. i'm on that bandwagon and nobody else is. >> almost impossible for jcp because expectations are so low? >> no matter what jenny's reports this quarter. nobody cares. they have shored up their finances. nobody cares where the cash is anymore. they did three days ago. now they don't anymore. all we care about is what they tell sushappening in february. >> liz, on that point? >> i think jan has been right on this one recently. i've moved to the sidelines because i don't think it's trading on fundamentals, but the stock's heavily shorted. those who own it are in for the long haul and they have shored up their financials. it looks like they have some runway to continue to execute their plans. yeah, the big question is going to be how does february look and whether or

. >> unless you are saks, didn't they come in negatively about sandy's effects?, and i think that's your opportunity to pick up more of that, because the build-out, it's not a boardup situation, it's a situation where you're going to be buying all this stuff wh it' masco or moen or whatever, you are buying that stuff at home depot and lowe's and menard's and then you'll be rebuilding those homes and that's why it continues in that sector well into the second quarter of this year. >> it's interesting macy's is up 3%, if not a little better today, joe, and jcpenney which is also going to report this week is down almost 3%. is this just more you think macy's gain, jcpenney's pain? >> i think that you're look at retail names that gain momentum and lose momentum and you have to be able to identify which have gained the momentum and lost it. limited brands has lost the momentum, however, i'm looking potentially for tomorrow's earnings report to get back into the name, a name that has momentum would be michael kors, a name that i bought last week and add to on strength.

i also think that i have come of age with a lot more friends, working at cbs, working at goldman saksg at price waterhouse. and so sorted of infiltrating those places with feminism, not exclusively doing, and i think that is again a generational shift. i think that you can be a feminist wherever you are. and not have to as i used to say sort of do it as an extra kuric lar activity between 3 and 5 every day. >> so where are you now? >> i'm-- i mean i run something called feminist camp and i run something called soapbox and i spent a lot of time as does gloria on college campuses and i think both of us lev that experience because it renews our sense that feminism is not history but that it is very present. >> rose: an active force. >> totally active and present. and statistically more people today identify with feminism than in any past generation. >> rose: but was there a lull at all. was there a sense that at some point it began to be less part of the consciousness at all? >> in my experience, i was, i think, not prepared for the force of the back will be. i was not prepared for the f