investors are cheering on the facebook rally. so why aren't traders friending the stock? in today's cover story, will the president's grand bargain get congress to budge? plus, flush with cash: the latest way americans are buying homes. and, the piece of americana that needs re-tooling. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's wednesday, july 31st. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: it's the final trading day of july. the nasdaq is on pace for its best month since january of

2012. it's due in part to a break-out above $450 in apple. in other market action, the dow and the s&p stayed near the flat line as traders await the federal reserve meeting that gets underway today. gold pulled back $4 and oil lost $1.45. jc penney's back-to-school traffic is picking up - at least on its website. according to a research firm, jcp is number 2, behind walmart, in traffic on its site featuring back-to-school items. and community health systems heals a deal by paying $3.9 billion to acquire health management associates to create a giant hospital chain. larry shover of sfg alternatives is among the many traders out there preparing for this week's fed meeting. good morning, larry, and do you have a timetable on this tapering? we're hearing september, but has the market already baked this in the cake? - you know, i think it's baked

into the market. people have come to terms with the fact that there is going to be tapering, but there's a vast difference between tapering and tightening. so, whether it happens in september or december, right now it's immaterial. i think the fact is that people are getting comfortable with the fact that the fed will keep rates really low for a long time. - and are traders adjusting for that jobs number at the end of the week? - yeah, the jobs number is another one. consensus is 179,000, 7.5% unemployment rate. but again, i think we do have data-dependent fed. given that, we need to have a number like maybe 100,000 or 250,000 to change the narrative of the fed. - on to earnings. buffalo wild wings reported last night. what do you think about this stock? - they haven't beaten in a long time, and really, i do like this stock. i think it did fall after hours yesterday, but it's one of those things you buy on a rumor, sell on the fact. but the bottom line is, it's a really unique company, unique restaurant. i mean, it's a place where families can go, adults and kids all have a good time. it's got a party atmosphere, and

sally smith is a great ceo. - okay, thanks a lot, larry. - thank you. in our cover story, president obama's tour hits chattanooga, touting a grand bargain for middle class jobs. the president says he'll cut corporate tax rates, but in exchange, he wants programs to boost job growth in manufacturing, infrastructure and job training at community colleges. president obama toured a warehouse run by online retailer amazon, a company that just monday announced plans to hire 5,000 workers. job growth is the theme of the president's visit, though his focus is a trade-off - tax reform for republicans in exchange for jobs programs - building highways and bridges. "i want to use the money we save by closing these loopholes for construction jobs." "amazon is one of the few success stories. it's been improving with technology and has been willing to hire, too." but it's reported that amazon's new hires will make from $11-13 an hour - at most, $27,000 a

year. "i think it's a terrible place to spread the message. these aren't middle-class jobs, and amazon is a company has been criticized for terrible working conditions." still, amazon provided the backdrop for the president's speech. republicans denounced the plan for what it would not do. "to not make the corporate tax reform revenue neutral, but to take some of the money out of corporate tax reform and use it for some other purposes." some question whether tax cuts are even the right enticements. "when the business community is

honest, they don't talk about tax rates to improve business, they talk about aggregate demand for their products. that's what they need to make a profit." today, the president continues his campaign-style tour for jobs, traveling to ohio. thursday, he'll be in leesburg, virgina, and orlando, florida. encouraging indictors show signs the economy continues to build a strong base in the housing sector. according to the case shiller index, home prices rose 12% in may - the most in seven years. prices are supported by a shortage of available homes for sale in many markets. we found out an increasing number of americans are plunking down cash to buy their homes. "it may be due to the increase in stock market evaluation. now they want to cash out of the stock market and use that cash to buy a home. some of the baby boomer parents are using their cash to buy a starter home for their young-adult children." "you have a substantial portion

of buyers using all cash so they can not default on their mortgages since they don't have mortgages. furthermore, tight underwriting standards are assuring that recent home- buyers are very solid buyers." that was lawerence yun of the national association of realtors. the case shiller report notes property values in dallas and denver reached record levels, topping pre-recession prices. copper is becoming a hot commodity in the housing market boom, and in turn, copper theft is a $1 billion business - and thieves are becoming increasingly brazen. 10 years ago, copper traded at 80 cents a pound. today, it's $3 a pound - a 375% jump. cnbc reports thieves are targeting homes, construction sites and even electrical power stations. copper's value is on the rise as it's used in products ranging from fiber optics to plumbing. jp morgan agrees to pay a record $410 million fine for manipulating electricity markets. the deal with the federal energy regulatory commission settles accusations that traders in jp morgan's houston office manipulated the cost of electricity in california and michigan. in the deal, jp morgan executives avoid individual penalties. the bank will also now be required to submit annual reports to the

commission for three years. a tipster connected to sac capital has landed in jail. sandeep aggarwal has been arrested for allegedly passing on information regarding a microsoft and yahoo deal to sac capitol portfolio manager richard lee in 2009. the sec said in a statement that aggarwal "obtained confidential information from a close friend at microsoft and passed it along to lee knowing that he would likely trade on it." prosecutors are also pursuing criminal charges against sac capital, which has pleaded not guilty. a famous call to short herbalife stock appears to be turning into a headache for hedge fund manager bill ackman. seven months ago, ackman said the stock would collapse and refered to herbalife as a pyramid scheme. scheme or not, the stock has gone from $24 to $60 since his call, and up almost 100% for the year. shares gained speed yesterday on earnings that topped expectations. the nutrion company also raised its

forecast. now ackman is questioning the earnings and the number of distributors leaving the company. now on to more earnings news. retailer coach is in a clutch situation. sales are softening as the handbag maker is facing fierce competition from michael kors and kate spade. however, overall revenue rose 5.8% to $1.2 billion due to gains in men's merchandise in china. the stock fell $4 yesterday on word the retailer is in the midst of a management shakeup. in the drug sector, merck reported earnings that beat analyst expectations, although revenue was slightly shy and pfizer also exceeded wall street's view, despite a sales drop of its cholestorl-fighting drug lipitor. changing gears - an upcoming scheduled appearance by hillary clinton is creating a dilemma for car dealers. the national automobile dealers' association choose ms. clinton as the keynote speaker for its

convention in january. some dealers are fine with it, but according to usa today, about a dozen dealers are objecting. the chairman of the convention committee says "we've hosted presidents from both parties," among them president ford, both of the bushes, and bill clinton. chrysler says it will delay the launch of the new 2014 jeep grand cherokee by one month. it won't be available until september due to calibration issues involving the new nine- speed transmission. the 2014 cherokee will be the first vehicle to use that brand-new automatic transmission. this model is also the first jeep to be built on the fiat platform. southwest airlines is facing a minor wing ding. the department of transportation is fining the airline $200,000 for allegedly not having enough seats during a fare sale earlier this year. the airline advertised fares for $100 or less on travel for valentine's day, but transportation officials say it failed to have enough seats available to a significant number of cities. oprah winfrey's cable channel own is turning a profit. launched in 2008 to much

fanfare, it has since struggled to find viewers and ad revenue. winfrey partnered with the discovery channel on the venture, and discovery has loaned own more than $500 million. but, the network was in the black in the second quarter of this year. it's showtime for ticket prices. average movie prices in the u.s. are at an all-time high of $8.38. that's up from just under $8 last year, according to the national association of theater owners. it's mainly due to surcharges tacked on by 3d and imax films. oddly enough, with inflation adjustments, movie tickets are actually less than 40 years ago. mayor bloomberg's plan to ban jumbo sodas in new york has fallen flat. a state court upheld a march decision that the ruling is unconstitutional. mayor michael bloomberg had issued the ban to cut down on retailers like 7/11 selling super-sized drinks. bloomberg says he intends to appeal the ruling.

still to come, a trader play as facebook creeps back towards its ipo price. plus, why netflix is in focus on comcast's earnings day. but first, a rivet-ing tale of how americans are stepping up to save a piece of history. first business continues after this. ♪ ♪

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retired city workers in detroit are still fighting to protect their pensions in the chapter 9 bankruptcy process. pension funds in the motor city reportedly are underfunded in an estimated range of $700 million to $3.5 billion. bloomberg news reports part of the losses are from bad bets on real estate. city officials convinced the fund managers to invest in housing developments in florida and texas that went belly-up during the housing crisis. the wall street journal reports detroit's attorney general, who defended the bankrupcty process, now plans to represent the reitrees in court. just outside of detroit, the world war ii bomber factory made famous by "rosie the riveter" is in jeopardy. here by skype is michael montgomery, who's behind the effort to save a section of that plant. good morning to you, and why is it

critical to save the willow run factory and the story of rose monroe? - willow run is a critical part of our history. it really was one of the major sites of the world war ii arsenal of democracy. people from all over the country, men and women of all races, came together to build the aircraft, to build the other supplies necessary to win world war ii. but more importantly, this was an integrated plant, with men and women working in good industrial jobs in a unionized facility in the 1940s, when none of those things were the norm. so in many ways, the willow run bomber plant is one of the birthplaces of modern america. - do you think most young people today are aware of the rosie the riveter story? - bits and pieces of it. they're certainly aware of the iconic image, the lady with the red scarf on her head. that's one of the reasons why we've taken

that image and made it the icon, really made it the symbol for the campaign, and also borrowed her slogan. in the 1940s it was, "we can do it." well, it's now "we can do it again" - the sense that we can preserve this piece of our history. - what response have you had, especially with the financial struggles happening in detroit? - we've had a phenomenal response from the general public. so far we've been able to mobilize $4.5 million out of the $8 million necessary to do this first phase of the project. and a lot of that has come in $5, $10, $15, $20- but also $500, $1,000, $10,000, $50,000 contributions. - what goes on in the factory today? - the factory today is closed. it's one of the facilities that became surplus to general motors operating needs as part of the bankruptcy and reorganization. so the trust which was created to deal with those properties, to find new

job-creating uses for them, is the building's owner. michael montgomery, good to speak with you today, and that iconic image is something that sticks with us, rosie the riveter. thanks for coming on the show today. - thank you so much. still ahead, a hair-raising story about the lengths counterfeiters are going to "lock" in profits. and, if you are holding out hope facebook will make it back to its ipo level of $38, reasons to keep that hope alive. details are coming up.

th a deadly disease. i was one of them. i'm a nurse and i knew how damaging the disease was to my life. nothing i tried seemed to work. my brother died. from complications of the exact same preventable disease and i knew i had to do something to get healthy.

my disease was obesity and after consulting with my doctor, i received the effective treatment i needed. obesity is a second leading cause of preventable death in the united states. but it's a treatable disease, and there's effective treatment options available. now is time to get help. please join the obesity action coalition and acknowledge obesity as a disease for acceptance, for access to all effective treatments, including diet and exercise, pharmacotherapy and weight-loss surgery for obese adults with at least one obesity related comorbid condition. visit obesity action dot org and sign an open letter pledging your support and for more information about how to talk to your doctor about your weight and your treatment options. together we can make a choice to end obesity now. a public service from the obesity action coalition. it may sound trivial, but there's a serious issue of counterfeiting in the hair industry, especially human hair. michael leigh of follea is skyping with us this morning. good morning, and explain how widespread this

counterfeiting is. - hello, angie. it's very widespread. you're seeing newspaper reports every day of hair thefts from retail sellers and wig stores. - why is hair in such big demand? - women like to have their best hair day every day, and added hair has got a high perceived value. in fact, most of the thefts are really low-value hair. - we're talking about a billion-dollar industry here, so, how does one know the real deal from something that might be counterfeit, and why does it matter? - it matters a lot in terms of where, how it looks, the natural lay and movement of the hair. unfortunately, it's very easy to disguise bad hair as good hair until you've shampoo it for the first two or three times. a lot of cheap hair is swept off the floor, acid bathed, coated in silicon, put in a nice package, and sold at relatively high prices.

- is this counterfeiting hurting reputable companies? - we believe that we're at the start of a trend toward counterfeiting, and we've taken measures to try and stop it as early as we can. we've seen it in many other industries that you're aware of - fashion, perfumes... any high-value branded item has the risk of being counterfeited. we think that we risk that happening in the hair business. - do you have any idea who's behind the counterfeiting? - we have caught three or four different kinds of players specifically doing it, caught them red-handed, and so far have been successful in stopping it. - michael leigh, thanks for sharing that information with us. you're with follea, which has its own hair line. thanks for coming on the show today. - thank you so much. angie, perhaps it's all those celebrity hair extensions helping to drive that market - something, of course, i don't

know much about. but i do know forbes is ranking angelina jolie as the highest-paid actress in hollywood, with estimated earnings of $33 million, within the last 12 months. joining her are new "it girl" jennifer lawrence at $24 million, followed by kristen stewart with her $22 million-a-year salary. rounding out the list are jennifer aniston with $20 million and relative newcomer emma stone with $16 million. there's still much more to come. why traders predict netflix could move off of comcast earnings. plus, people who bought facebook stock on ipo day are closer to breaking out the party hats. chart talk is next.

facebook investors are back in "like." joining us now is james ramelli of keeneonthemarket.com. good morning, james. - good morning. good to be here. - i think those investors who bought on the ipo day are just doing one of these numbers, they're crossing their fingers. what do you think about the outlook on this stock? - i think it's very, very hard to read here. we're looking at order flow in the weekly options. that is extremely inflated here, on the put side, on the call side. bullish flow, bearish flow. the thing is, now that we're right back on that ipo price, those ipo investors almost have all of their money back, so it's very hard to read

what it is they're going to do here. are they going to take their money off the table, are they going to add, are they going to hold? i think we need to let all of this shake out for now, and then i'll be looking to put on a position in facebook, once it gathers some sustained momentum. - i would like to know who's buying this stock right now. do you have any inklings? - you know, i really don't know. - it's tough to tell. - i really don't know who would be buying this stock here. you look at a stock that has come up very fast here back to its ipo price after being one of the most hated stocks in the market for a while, definitely the most hated ipo of last year. to try and say who's buying the stock here, very difficult. like i said, very tough one to read right now. - maybe it's mark zuckerberg and sheryl sandberg "leaning in" on this stock. let's move on to comcast, which comes out with earnings. what do you think about this stock? this one tends to be a mover. - right. comcast does tend to be a mover. i like comcast ahead of earnings. i am actually long the $44/$45 bull call spread in comcast for 25¢. i put that position on expecting a good number from comcast. one of the

main concerns out of this report is how many subscribers to their cable service they might be losing to streaming services like netflix or hulu. they've come up with some compelling reports recently saying that that's not the case, that people are still paying for cable tv, they're still generating new subscribers. and even if they're not, the growth in their high-speed internet business should make up for all that anyway. the stock has rallied 6 out of the past 8 quarters on earnings. strong historical performance. i think this is a great one to get long, and that's why i'm long those call spreads. - and it will be interesting to see if netflix moves on those comcast earnings. - right. we want to see how those streaming providers move on these earnings here. there might be some synergies for them down the road. we always look at how netflix is going to grow its subscriber base - are they going to take it from providers like comcast? i think this earnings will give us a little read on that. - thank you, james. - thank you. that's a wrap for today. coming up tomorrow in movies & money, how little blue creatures could put hollywood on track for a record summer at the box office. from all of us at first business, have a wonderful wednesday!

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