traders are thrown for a loop as the market takes another unexpected turn. in today's cover story.... on the frontlines as protestors storm the mcdonalds shareholder's meeting. plus... fact or fiction? we put your portfolio knowledge to the test... and... the xmen fight their way back on the silver screen. does the flick have enough staying power with fans? first business starts now.. oil rallied $1.52 while gold fell $3 dollars. sec crackdown on brokerages. u.s. regulators are reportedly investigating charles schwab, and bank of america's merrill lynch for

allegedly missing red flags on money laundering involving drug trafficking. and gm ceo on capital hill. mary barra reportedly has told lawmakers the car company could release an internal investigation and plans to compensate victims in the next few weeks. let's check in now with a trader todd horowitz of the average joe options. hello my friend, how're you doing? > > what's up angie? > > well let's talk about the treasuries to start with. what's your treasury play? we've heard so much fed speak this week. > > you know i think that you're seeing a big flight to quality, you're seeing a lot of buying in treasuries except yesterday a minor sell-off, but for the amount that we've

rallied you know the sell-off yesterday was really very little. i think you're seeing a big flight to safety here, i think there's a big arbitrage of money actually coming out of the equity market even though it rallied into the treasury market. > > it has been a wild week for those equities so what are you doing with your money? > > well i'm still keeping my money in my mattress, i mean i'm actually staying in cash or if i could find a good spot to go to the short side of the market, i think that 1900 is a great spot to take a wack from the short side, i don't think that there's a lot of move to the upside but really when you look at the big picture, six months we've been basically in the same rage with a couple of punches to new highs, but basically we've gone nowhere in two months and we've gotten there fast. > > we've had a number of retailers report earnings this week, do you suspect there will be many surprises today? > > well i think that we've seen earnings are not as good as everyone expected and of course we continue sweep that bad news under the carpet as well. i don't see any major surprises, i think that actually best buy has got it right with the new model. so i would look to see them probably make or beat their numbers but overall the picture does not look good, and i would certainly not want to invest in retailers right now.

> > thank you, todd. > > thank you. have a great weekend. a jumbo ipo trades today! jd.com-- the popular online company based in china.. priced in last night above forecasts at $19. the ipo raised $1.78 billion form 93.7 million shares. those shares will trade on the nasdaq under the ticker symbol jd. jd.com is peaking interest on wall street because it could give investors and analysts a glimpse of how chinese e-commerce company alibaba will perform when it ipo's later this year. according to one anlyst-- alibaba had $250 billion in gross merchandise value last year, jd had $5.3 billion. we turn now to chuck coppola, who joins us with the latest fast food fight. good morning chuck! angie, in today's cover story---nearly two-thousand protesters blocked the campus entrance to mcdonald's corporate headquarters in suburban chicago. they want better pay and hope to draw the support of shareholders who gather todayt at the fast-food giant's annual meeting. several hundred of the protesters-- demanding higher pay for mcdonald's workers pushed past a guard gate and onto mcdonald's corporate campus, wednesday. ---a coaltion of labor groups and more than a hundred mcdonalds workers in restaurant uniforms--from st. louis, detroit and dozens of other

cities. "we need a liveable wage." the surge of solidarity was met by more than dozens of law enforcement officers, including illinois state police and a pooled law enforcement team called "ileas"--most, in riot gear. police dogs stayed in the background. "you are to disperse." officers arrested more than a hundred protesters for criminal trespass, including mary kay henry, president of the service employees international union, representing two-million members. if shareholders who meet tomorrow, saw--any of this from the campus lodge and mcdonald's "hamburger u"--it was from a distance. "we think it can absorb the cost to pay more." the protest comes as shareholders such as the pension fund for california's more than 860- thousand teachers cast non- binding, advisory votes on executive compensation. at chipotle's meeting, last week, the teachers' investors voted against the mexican grill's co- ceo pay of more than 25 and 24 million dollars, each. but they did support mcdonalds ceo don thompson's nine-and-a-half- million pay---less, by the way,

than his pay in 20-12. "we're ok with what thompson is paid because it's a bigger company" "we would hope teachers would support workers." as coporations hold loads of cash to spend-- there may be another major merger in the works... this time in the tobacco industry. reuters reports-- reynolds american-- is in talks to buy lorillard. it could become a 3-way transaction, that includes british american tobacco which owns a 42% stake in reynolds. the merger between reynolds and lorillard could create a mega $55 billion dollar company rolling out camel and newport cigarettes. it also creates a larger competitor to altria the maker of marlboro cigarettes.

altria controls half of the u.s. tabacco market. google could be gearing up for a spending spree. the tech giant told the sec it's planning to keep it's 30 billion dollar offshore cash stash overseas, to use for expansion. that's according to forbes. the report was filed in december, but made public this week. google said it expects to use 20 to 30 billion dollars for upcoming m&a activity. at times it looked like it was a dead deal. but after more than a decade of talks.. russia and china have signed a $400 billion dollar oil deal. russia's gazprom will supply natural gas to china through a new pipeline for the next 30 years. futures traders are already factoring in what it will mean for the price of nat gas.. the pipeline is seen as a way for russian president vladimer putin to pump more money into his country's economy-- as relations with the with the u.s. and europe

breakdown. a judge has cleared the way for shareholders to sue bp through a class action lawsuit. investors claim the company mislead them about the severity of the 20-10 oil spill. especially investors who purchased shares after the deepwater horizon explosion. bp tells first business: "it believes that all of the plaintiffs' securities claims are meritless and will continue to vigorously defend against them." another recall is coming from general motors... this time-- 218,000 older chevy aveo subcompact cars have dashboard daytime running lights that can overheat, melt and catch fire. there are no reports of injuries. gm has 13.8 million recalls this year.. the high number is considered fallout from the deadly ignition switch issue that went at least a decade

without a recall by gm. jp morgan chase is investing 100 million dollars into the motor city. the bank is sinking money into detroit, in hopes of spurring economic recovery. jpmorgan ceo jaime dimon says the money will fund development projects, loans and grants, job training programs, and blight removal. in arizona-- a trouble shooter assigned by president obama to unravel the scandal at the veterans hospital in phoenix meets tonight with the people in charge. several hospitals serving military veterans are accused of deliberately covering up long delays for patient care. some 40 untreated veterans reportedly have died while waiting for appointments. at a press conference yesterday, the president called the issue "fixable" now that it's being disclosed and he plans to take action. if someone's mismanaged or engaged in misconduct, not only do i not want them getting bonuses i want

them punished. critics contend president's actions are long-overdue. ebay is warning 154 million users to change their passwords... ebay's database containing users passwords was hacked. there was no mysterious activity within its paypal service where credit card information is stored. ebay officials believe the breach happened in february or march. security experts warn the attack may spread to other sites as people use the same password. ebay stock was virtually unchanged yesterday falling just 8 cents to $51.88. airlines may soon be forced to do a better job at disclosing ticket prices to consumers. the transporation deparment says passegers have the right to a clear understanding of fees for checked bags,seats and taxes. an airline industry group calls the proposal an overreach and says the current fee system is

working fine. virgin america airlines may vote to end it's non union status. the transport workers union reports flight attendants at virgin america are seeking a vote on unionization. currently -- virgin is the last remaining non union carrier in the country. it follows a vote coming from jet blue pilots to unionize last month. virgin employees reportedly filed the vote this week and election could be held within two months. petco and petsmart are putting an end to selling potentially deadly dog treats. the fda reports more than 1,000 dog deaths may be linked to toxic jerky treats imported from china. petsmart shares plunged 8% yesterday after the retailer cut its full year out look and missed on earnings.. there's plenty "more" earnings news to catch up on this morning.. tiffany sparkled with a 50% surge in profits on hot sales growth especially in asia. the stock rallied 8 dollars. target takes a hit. fallout from it's holiday data breach and poor performance at its canadian operations, sent profits down 16%. it's interim ceo promised fast changes at the

retailer. wall street sent shares up 1%. and lowe's is rebounding from the brutal winter. despite missing estimates, lowe's says sales are better this month, which has it raising it's full year outlook. the stock closed above 45 dollars, down eleven cents. still to come: are traders unplugging from best buy ahead of earnings? find out in chart talk. plus... back in action....how the latest x-men sequal stacks up against the originals. and....find out how you score in financial planning by taking our quiz... that's next after today's "now you know" message.

time to test your knowledge about saving money for the future. portfolio manager ed gjertsen of mack investment security is kind enough to help us out with a pop quiz. it's

probably been a while since you had a pop quiz. > > go gentle, angie. > > ok number one: true or false? your portfolio should be able to beat the s&p 500 every year. > > false, it's everybody's portfolio should be a little bit different. if you use the s & p as a benchmark or a guide for that, you've got to be careful about what you try to set your targets to. > > how often should you be able to beat it though? you should be able to beat it primarily though correct? > > well depending on what your investment portfolio looks like. if you have any kind of bonds or any kind of savings in your portfolio it's probably very unlikely you'll beat that bench mark. > > true or false? you should always make investment choices based on your age and when you plan to retire? > > that would definitely be false. everybody has their own tolerance for the ups and downs of the market, and if you're nervous about the market in general, you will never make it to retirement because you will worry yourself to death. > > true or false? it's better to invest in riskier stocks such as social media stocks while you are young?

> > well being young gives you the option of being able to recover from the ups and downs of the market but just because it's a hot stock at the time and you're young, doesn't mean you need to take that excessive risk. it's good to have a maybe a stock or two in your portfolio like that but generally not everything even if you are young. > > if you are say over the age of 50, is it's still ok though to may be invested in the facebook or twitter? > > so look at back at the dotcom era and what we were generally guiding clients on was to take a look at a portion of your portfolio and invest in those stocks because then you have something to talk about at your cocktail parties but keep it to a small portion of your portfolio. > > thank you for coming in. > > thanks angie. coming up.... how the fickle stock market is making for a long week on the trading floor... plus.. it's godzilla versus the x-men at the box office this holiday weekend.. our critic unleashes a behind the scenes look at the film studio likely to bring in the most money. keep it here...

warner bros. is using brute force to conquer the box office. our movie guy eric childress is here with the tall tale of godzilla. good to have you back on the show. > > thank you. > > now i have to start with this: a lot of people say i want to see the movie big which means they want to see it on the silver screen against the television and now they're saying they want to see it really really big so warner brothers seems to really want people to go to imax. is that helping the numbers? > > well absolutely i mean imax numbers are actually good over the weekend and when you have a movie that people know for a giant lizard and skyscrapers you're going to want to have that extra headroom that an imax theater can provide. so absolutely see it in imax. it's that good. > > well here's what happened at the box office last weekend, a big number godzilla puts up $93 million where does that land on the scale of big numbers?

> > well it's the second- biggest opening of the year and no one really called this one. my colleague sergio mims thought it was a possibility but everyone was sort of saying maybe the low 70's would be the ceiling for this thing but it exceeded everyone's expectations and now it's probably going to make 200 million in the u.s. alone. > > also at the box office over the weekend neighbors at 25 million, the amazing spider-man 2, million-dollar arm and the other woman. i actually want to go see the million dollar arm. i'm hearing good things on facebook. > > i've heard mix things you listen to the good things i'll listen to the other things. > > this weekend at the box office, some more excitement coming up: blended with drew barrymore... > > that's not the excitement... > > she's doing that t c m... i love her on saturday nights on that show... and x-men days of futures past... > > there is the excitement. > > ok let's get down to it. what's your anticipation here? > > this is actually the-- fox is going to kind of sweat this one out over the weekend because there's reports that this is the second highest budgeted film in fox's history-- the number one film being avatar. so you imagine the expectations that this film is

going to have. we're talking-- they're saying it could be 225 million, i've heard as much as 275/ $280 million. bryan singer's had a history of having big budget films like this. so this film's going to need about 525 million just for starters just before it starts to break into the open. > > now you have actually prepared a list of how much money these x-men movies make including wolverine of course so here's a look at that: 2001 for instance-- 296 million and the list just goes on from there all the way down there you go. but these numbers are not gigantic. > > no, if compared to the amazing spider-man 2 the summer which is over 635 million right now and has had a poisonous word of mouth, you look at this list for x-men the magic number of 500 million is not there. the half billion dollar number is not there but this story: days of future past is not only the the best of x-men movies and my personal favorite but it's the story line that the x-men fans have really been waiting for so i think they're going to flock to the theaters this weekend. they're probably going to see over 115, over a hundred 20 million over the four days

and we'll see if it can hold the momentum. i think the story line is good enough that it's going to bring people into the x-men for a change. the gross has gone down over the series for last few years but i think this is going to be up, and i think fox might get away with this one is. > > come back next week and let us know what happened. > > will do. still to come-- the focus is on best buy earnings this morning. a trader's play is next, in chart talk...

we are checking the charts this morning with matt cavanaugh of cmz trading. good morning, matt. > >good morning. > > everyone's anxious about these earnings coming from best buy this morning. the stock is up only about 1% for the year. what do you anticipate? > > you know best buy has had a pretty rough year. not a lot of good expectations for them, the stock was $45 a year ago i think it started off the year somewhere around $40. so definitely much more attractively priced right here, but they're coming into their ninth straight quarter of declining earnings. so i don't think the market is really expecting too much from them. > > so many people feeling bearish about the stock going into earnings. would you put on a contrarian play and look for a rally? > > yeah i think so. i think that with the stock having come down in price so much it looking at least more attractively priced down here

and people not really expecting much that maybe it is time to take a little bit more of a contrarian play. i think this is a perfect candidate to maybe sell some put spreads or buy a call and see that if they do say something and the turnaround plan is working, maybe apple hopes to boost their sales, i think the stock could go higher. > > matt it's been a wild week for the market. what's it like to trade this market? > > it's tough to trade this market. you know we're pretty much range bound, a lot of people have been bullish, volatility is a very low, and you kind of really got to stay nimble because we're moving a lot but we're not really going anywhere. so it's a tough market to trade, it's tough to really figure out what the next step is and i think all of us down here are really just waiting to see where we go. > > a lot of traders out there are sitting on their hands and not involved in the market right now so is the low volume affecting your trading as we get closer to the long holiday weekend? > > yeah definitely this week in particularly the volume is

very low, you've got people kind of burned out a little bit, and also in the same boat it's tough to find value in the market but at the same time, with the interest rate so low you're really being pressured to take risk and invest money in the marketplace. so that's why every dip in the last five years has been bought so i think that now that the market has rallied so much, we're sitting up close to 1900 in the s&p and people are waiting are we going to break out? or we going to give some of this back? that's why you're seeing kind of the tiredness. > > lots of questions out there. matt, thank you. > > thank you. that's a wrap for today. coming up tomorrow -- it's traders unplugged! a couple of our pro traders will be here to kick around whether its better to buy google or apple. join us for that tech talk on friday. from all of us at first business.. thank you for watching..

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