in today's cover story.... behind the "controversial math" of raising the minimum wage. and.... why the weather in brazil could be raising the price of your morning joe! plus...did a company just deliver a blow to it's bottom line by giving away free stuff? first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning! it's thursday, february 20th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: fed fears make a comeback. stocks rallied most of wednesday-- until the fed minutes revealed officials are

talking about raising rates. in the end-- the dow hit the skids falling 89 points, the nasdaq 35 and the s&p 12. gold edged down 13 dollars and oil bounced 94 cents. bloomberg news reports. walmart is considering supporting a minimum wage hike. the retailer had no comment. facebook is buying whatsapp for $16 billion dollars. what's app allows for free texting on most smartphones. facebook shares fell 4% in heavy trading last night on the news. after hitting a new high wednesday of $69 dollars. trader mark sebastian of swan wealth advisors joins us now. i want to talk about that turn for the worse that happened in the stock market yesterday on comments from the fed. will we see follow through today mark? >>i think so. we saw a huge move in the vix along with the s&p 500 selloff. when the vix makes a big move relative to the

s&p it almost always points toward some continued weakness. i would be steering clear of the broad market indexes right now. i'd be waiting until we hit that 100 day moving average again that the market seems to really like bouncing off of. >>tesla shares soared off of earnings last night. but will that continue today? the stock was climbing some 16% plus. >>huge move. the market was expecting about a 10% move. it moved way more than that. it crushed earnings. those environmental credits are really working out well for them right now. in the near term it doesn't look like it's going higher but long term who knows? this is looking very reminiscent of an apple in 2011. i'd be watching out for some sort of top in this stock. >>thank you mark. have a good trading day. >>thank you. the world's largest retailer releases earnings today... and compared to previous earnings from walmart...traders say "this" is the one to watch.

"technically, it's trading in bearish territory. it looks weak on a chart, they have a lot of china exposure which is a big concern for a lot of companies that have been reporting earnings this quarter. so i think on a risk-basis- reward here, it sets up much better for me to be short going into earnings than it does to be long." analysts are weighing in as well. retail watchers suggest walmart could more quickly expand into small stores by purshasing family dollar. chuck coppola is here now with the a report on the expanding price of coffee futures... angie, the best part of waking up..could soon get more expensive. coffee futures are making the biggest jump in more than a decade, which could send prices higher for consumers. it started in brazil, the world's largest supplier of ar-a-bica beans. hot, dry weather there is expected to hurt the supply of the crop. the market moves could likely have higher prices sweeping across the country faster than a typical bump.

marketwatch dot com predicts changes could hit the retail level sometime in the next few weeks. oil is also on an upswing. yesterday, crude oiltopped off above $103 per barrel. natural gas surged nearly 4%. as weather forecasters predict yet another frigid week ahead. oil trader and fox business news contributor phil flynn joins us with the latest. "it's incredible. we're seeing natural gas prices - they soared above $6 - no one thought it was possible. but that just goes to show you, never say never. mother nature taught a lot of the natural gas bears a lesson. people were heavily bearish on this market. they thought with record production, prices would never rally! they'd be low forever! well it's not nice to fool mother nature. mother nature taught them a lesson with one of the coldest winters we've had in a long time, and all of a sudden, people are back to the drawing board trying to figure out how much natural gas we really do need to meet increased non- heat-related demand for power generation like cars, buses, and trucks, as well as enough to keep our heaters going."

thanks for that update phil... the housing industry is taking a hit. housing starts, the u-s indicator of new home building, dropped 16 percent to 880 thousand units, the biggest drop in three years. economists partially blame weather, but add demand has slowed as the u.s. catches up with over- building during the real estate bubble. the midwest took the biggest hit with a 67% drop in construction. however, in the northeast, building acutally increased. google is warming up to the idea of becoming an investment firm. according to reports the internet search company has $300 million in capital to spend. under "google ventures" the tech giant will invest in other technology companies that are in early or mid stages. google has already put money into survey monkey, renaissance learning and lending club. visa and mastercard are adding shopping options for smartphones to compete with paypal. customers can use an application to make purchases by tapping phones to a store's card reader. previously, card information had to be stored on a secured part of the phone. now it's stored remotely. the phone app then retrieves the

information needed to complete the transaction. the federal communications commission's "net neutrality" rules are not sitting well with broadband providers. the fcc wants to stop companies from blocking sites or services from consumers and prevent service providers from charging content companies for access to quicker searches on the web. broadband providers such as verizon claim they have spent billions on upgrades and the new rules are unfair. the fcc says it "will carefully consider, how, consistent with the court opinion, we can ensure that edge providers are not unfairly blocked explicitly or implicitly, from reaching consumers." northwestern university football players union hearings continue this week...quarterback and scholarship recipient kain colter says playing football was a "job," and his monthly scholarship stipend was a "paycheck." he wants players to fight for their rights through unionization. but northwestern argues that that it doesn't regard its players as employees - or its football program as a commercial enterprise. university relations vice president alan cubbage said: "unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by the student-athletes."

the fight to bring a union into a volkswagen plant in the south is not over...reuters reports top labor reps from germany are threatening to try and block vw from making any more moves into southern states in the u.s. if workers are not unionized. last friday, workers at the chattanooga tennessee vw factory voted against union representation. they were also told by a republican lawmaker volkswagen would award the factory another model if the uaw was rejected. in west virginia -- the company accused of causing a water crisis is headed back to court. tomorrow, freedom industries attend a bankruptcy hearing. it filed for chapter 11 in january following a massive chemical spill that polluted water, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. it is now trying to speed up the process so it can hire consultants to reasearch the chemical spill. free pizza is prompting nationwide outrage. chevron made headlines by giving out free pizza coupons to residents of dunkard township, pennsylvania. that's after a fire raged for four days last week at a chevron fracking site

following an explosion that killed one victim, and left another missing. regarding the coupons-- chevron tells first business "it's been well received." however, critics flocked to facebook and twitter to air complaints. " it renforces the negative stereotypes people have about these big corporations. that they don't care about the individuals and they aren't community oriented. it's more about profits. and when it comes to something like a disaster that affects a community, it's almost like an after thought." a director of emergency management says chevron is still working on site and expects an "all clear" in 2 to 3 days. chevron says there is strong support from the community. general motors says it will roll out its shiny new standards for aluminum pickup trucks by 20-18. to keep up with the government's fuel efficiancy goals, gm will convert trucks to the lighter, aluminum bodied material. competitor ford made headlines at detroit's auto show this winter when it unveiled it's aluminum f-150 pickup. gm says it will work with suppliers alcoa and novelis.

a company once closely tied to the automotive sector is moving in a new direction. garmin -- known for gps -- posted a 27% earnings increase as the company builds up business with aviation and fitness to offset a decline of use in cars. the stock headed due north by nearly 10% yesterday even as garmin warned-- more people using gps on smartphones and tablets. kellogg company is caving to pressure from environmental agencies - and vowing to buy only environmentally-friendly palm oil. kellogg will buy palm oil only from suppliers that comply with environmental laws protecting rainforests. palm oil cultivation has destroyed more than 30 thousand miles of rainforest in indonesia and malaysia alone. it is a minor ingredient in some processed foods. nestle is recalling some flavors of hot pockets. "philly steak and cheese" and "croissant crust philly steak and cheese" brands are being pulled from store shelves the products may contain us-da recalled meat from the "rancho feeding corporation" which is accused of neglecting to fully inspect animals. no illnesses

are reported. for questions, call nestle's customer service line at 800-393-4057. two big diamond companies are getting hitched in a billion dollar deal. signet jewelers has bought zale for 1.4 billion dollars. signet's stock shined on wall street yesterday as investors sent shares up 18%. the brand could even give tiffany and company a run for it's money, by adding over 16 hundred locations in the deal. next week on capitol hill, the senate will take up tax evasion. the focus will be on corporations that stash money in swiss banks. the hearings will be lead by senator carl levin. bankers from swiss based u-b-s are expected to testify. last may, levin was in charge of a hearing on apple's tax practices. still to come: one trader plots an exit

strategy for a grocery stock... plus... warner brothers wins big on the movie that kids like, but adults love. and are employees at their breaking point?? protest galore are coming up after this break!

while walmart announces that it's looking at supporting a hike in the minimum wage, the latest piece of ammunition in the battle---has the congressional budget office taking cover from democrats and praise from republicans. our cover story takes a closer look at the c-b-o's numbers. the non-partisan congressional budget office is facing criticism of its calculations that raising the minimum wage to ten dollars, ten cents an hour could cost a half-million jobs...a decrease in total employment. "i want to know what sort of methodology they used..."

members of the white house council of economic advisors said "zero is a perfectly reasonable estimate of the impact of the minimum wage on employment" and accused the c- b-o of being "out of step" with leading economists..."not fully appreciating how much the literature has moved," as one member put it. but a spokesman for house speaker john boener said the report "confirms what we've long known." but democrats found support in another c-b-o finding---that 16 and a half million employees would benefit directly from higher wages. kim brown, laid- off from work in electronics now works elsewhere part-time. "middle-class jobs are disappearing. i made $45,000 before, now, i'm barely above minimum wage, making a fraction of what i had."

to all of this, the director of the cbo, douglas elmendorf defended the report, saying "our analysis is completely consistent with the latest thinking in the economic profession." walmart's possible support for raising the minimum wage is joined by costco, which predicts it would reduce turnover. on the other side, those lobbying congress against raising it include yum brands--owner of taco bell, k-f-c and pizza hut...and darden restaurants, which owns olive garden and red lobster. retired chicago teachers, police officers and other public sector workers... are protesting possible pension cuts. the retirees staged a demonstration wednesday at the illinois state capitol similar to protests last year. a union representing retired workers claims a typical retired teacher could lose $700 per month in pension payments. chicago mayor rahm amanuel says the city faces a massive hike in pensions it can't afford to pay. illinois lawmakers have already approved

pension cuts for state workers. and... the job market is proving to be a "talent show." payscale reports employers are growing more afraid of losing their top talent. now... it's actually a good sign, because it means more employers are planning to hire, therefore workers are more willing to look for a new job. it's also a plus for employees considered "top notch", as companies say they are more willing to give them a raise. coming up...in chart talk...is safe way a safe play as activists turn up the heat. plus...more to the story.... some new hollywood trailers that maybe misleading audiences. we'll be right back.

a big sigh of relief is coming from warner bros. the film studio's lego movie is a smash hit at the box office and dollars are stacking up. our movie man-- erik childress is here to talk about lego. >>last week we talked about expecting it to hit 200 million. it's probably going to do that this weekend. so now it's a question of whether it can hit 300 millionand i think it can. >>audiences are loving it. take a look at the numbers from last weekend at the box officeclearly number one coming in at $62 million, followed by about last nightwhich you also predicted would have strong numbersand it did. then there's robocop, the monuments men, and endless love. the one thing you notice on this screensony, sony, sony. >>yeah, it's sort of a good news bad news front for sony.

about last night was produced on a $13 million budgetthat's already obviously in the black. it was a very big hit for sony. robocopthat's another question. it's doing pretty well overseas. i think the american numbers we're gonna see those dip quite a bit this weekend. they're probably hoping for maybe a break even situation. and monuments men is a film that's really gonna need some overseas numbers. it's already george clooney's biggest grosser as a director but it's a film that's really gonna need some push overseas to make the budget for that movie. >>coming up this weekend are a couple of new films3 days to kill and pompeii. i have seen movie trailers for both. 3 days to kill tells me almost nothing about the film. >>yeah and it's actually telling you not the entire story of the movie. in the movie kevin costner is an assassin. he's got 3 days to kill and amber heard is his handler. but there is another story involved in

hailey steinfeld's characterwho plays his daughter in the movieshe's got an illness and he actually tries to get this cure for her in these 3 days to save her life while he is out killing. and pompeiioh boy. paul w.s. anderson who's responsible for the resident evil movies and some of the worst genre movies out there. it's a romantic movie set around mt. vesuvius. i don't know if anyone wants to see this movie or needs to see this movie. it's february so we're still in that doldrum period. just go see the lego movie. forget about the 2 new releases. >>pompeiithat movie trailer is just very dramatic with the music and very flowybut again not enough to entice me. >>it's gonna be a romance movie for the first half of the movie and then the volcano's gonna explode and then everyone's gonna be running from lava. >>and then we're sad >>right. >>so over the weekend i saw a couple of great films on redboxcaptain phillips and enough said. >>yeah, two movies that we'll be talking about next week on the oscars. not enough said because the omission of james gandolfini being nominated is kind of a shame. >>he was terrific. >>he was terrific. he should have been nominated. captain

phillips is up for 6 oscars. it might have a shot at 1 or 2. but tom hanks not getting nominated is still one of the big stories. >>i was sitting on the edge of my seat with captain phillips. >>that last scenehe should have been nominated for that. >>it was awesome. thanks for being on the show erik. >>thank you. still ahead-- a grocery store stock that is climbing the charts is next in chart talk.

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matt cavanaugh of cmz trading

joins us now for a stock that's been climbing higher in the charts. good morning matt. >>good morning. >>we're talking about safeway this morning. the latest news is the company may be for sale. >>yeah it's pretty big news on safeway's front. they actually had a little bit better of a quarter than people expected and a little bit lower on the revenue side. but the big news here is that they are possibly for sale and that's good news for anyone holding the stock. >>were you impressed by the earnings? >>yeah i think they were okay. the fact that they were better than i expected was good. the fact that they guided lower for the year ahead kind of concerns me a little bit. but the fact that management has really done a lot to try and tighten their business up, sell some assets that weren't working, buy back some stock, pay a decent dividend and listen to some of those activist investors who see some value here those are all good things. >>would you buy this stock here and hang on to it? or would you

buy it and then have an exit point? >>i think it really depends on what you're thinking. this is a stock that could sit for a while. a deal like thisa big company with 1300 locations could take a long time but with that being said i see support for the stock around the $31 range. it pays a nice 2.5-3% dividend so this is one you could possibly sit on but just have an exit plan if you will. >>what would be your exit plan? >>i think it really depends how much somebody wants these assets and what the overall market does. but around $40 i think this stock's a sale. >>thanks matt. >>thank you. that's a wrap for today. join us tomorrow for traders unplugged as our pro traders go toe to toe on whether the stock market is setting up for a big valley or a big rally. from all of us at first business thank you for watching.

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