this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharibbrought to you in part by. >> thestreet.com. interactive multi media tools for an ever changing financial world. our dividend stock advisor guides and generates income during a period of low interest rates. we are thestreet.com. big moves, microsoft and amazon shares taking off after the bell today. capping the biggest busiest day of earnings this season. what's the most important take away from these two tech titans? >> when it comes to quarterly reports, there are companies that don't earn a dime and their stocks are soaring.

we'll name names and explain why. who is at fault for the botch rollout of the new health exchanges. pointing of fingers on capitol hill and we'll ask a health care advisor if the problems can be fixed. >> that and more on "nightly business report" for thursday, october 24th. welcome, today was the biggest day of earnings reports we'll get. the market took notice moving higher. late this afternoon two of the biggest tech companies of them all, microsoft and amazon.com and here again, investors mostly like what they heard pushing stocks after hours. first up, microsoft beating the street estimates for earnings and revenue, profits up 17% last quarter to more than $5 billion, that comes out to 62 cents a share excludeing certain items, far more than the 54 cents cal wall street was looking for and sales topped $4.5 billion.

seema mody joins us with more. what's the one big take away from these numbers? >> tyler, the mayor take away when you look at the microsoft's earnings report is the company is finding ways to offset slowing pc sales. that's the big concern of late. it's device business including the xbox, that business continues to grow and sending consumer demand into price and enterprise and cloud computing business thanks helped microsoft deliver that solid beat. >> we'll come back to you in just a minute, so sit tight. to amazon.com where the world's biggest online retailer saw the revenue rise but it reported another net loss for the third time this year. 9 cents a share excludeing certain items just as analysts predicted. but revenue came in higher than expected, topping $17 billion for the quarter and shares took off in after hours trading. so s

so seema back to you, what do they see? >> look at the chart, that tells you the story. wall street doesn't care amazon isn't profitable as long as it has expansion. it's not strong overseas, that trend doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon, especially when traders bid up the stock. >> this isn't the first time in amazon's history they can't care about profits. >> absolutely. the stock skyrocketed and up 455% from the last decade. there are a number of big name companies with a big run up in shares without making any real money. dominic chu explains. >> reporter: you don't need to make money for the stock to go higher. the investor world is littered with companies that fail to generate profits and yet manage

to show healthy stock price appreciation. take best buy in the mist of a turn around effort by the ceo over the course of the past year shares have gained over 150%, which translates into an added $9 billion in stock market value. during that same time frame, the company posted a net loss of $234 million and there is online discount brock craig e trade financial, the commercials with the cute baby talking about stock trading. e trade shares have close to doubled over the last 1 mon2 mo adding $2.5 billion but the company posted a loss of $234 million during that time. and let's cap it off with a look at a brand name in computers and technology. hp, meg whitman is winning the show and the stock soared some 70%, which added over 18 million dollar in market value for

shareholders. meanwhile, hp as a company lost around $3 billion during that time. so why do companies who lose money keep getting rewarded by shareholders? the answer lies in future expectations. >> stocks basically exist to discount the present value of what future earnings will be. so when you see stocks that rise without profits in the moment, investors are voting profits will be higher in the future. >> reporter: so don't be fooled. when it comes to investing, don't discount a stock just because the company doesn't make money. if you think it will make money in the future, then that might be a good reason to buy. for "nightly business report", i'm dominic chu. before the opening bell today on wall street, investors sifted through a new round of stronger than expected earnings from companies like 3 m, ford and southwest airlines and they like what they saw and slugged off today's economic report. jobless claims fell by only 12,000 last week, less than

expected. the nasdaq up 21 and s&p added 5. with the market in positive territory and climbing higher s there ever good time to sell stocks in your portfolio is and is this one of your times? we asked senior equity strategist at wells far go. good to have you back. the market has been doing well and you think and many people think it's close to fairly valued or fully valued, not way ahead. i'm not asking that question. but there is certainly a lot of stocks in the market today that have had big, big runups. when did you start taking profits? >> tyler, you're right. the target for the s&p 500 is 1675 to 1700 year end. we're trading higher than that. i don't think we'll see a lot of follow through from here and there is a lot of stocks that have really seen evaluations run up and for us, you know, retail envest tors pay the bills here

and so you mention, you know, dominic mentioned, you know, stocks that don't really make money but have big market caps and things like that. that's fine for some people. you know, you want to have maybe a few of those in your portfolio. you don't want to have 50% of your portfolio in stocks that don't make money, in my opinion. so think what we want our clients to do is largely be positioned in s&p 500 type stocks, quality stocks, dividend paying stocks that you can build wealth in overtime. so given the fact we're above what i would consider fair evaluation, we're not a lot above those, but for some people, particularly those who that want to be lighter on their feet, it might not be bad to take a little money off the table. i'm looking for more value 'tilty. i think we'll have opportunities to buy stocks. i had lower levels but really for most retail investors think

about it. a 5%, 8%, 10% pull back, they can't play that tight of a market. >> yeah -- >> that's not enough for them to get in and out. >> we talk a lot, scott, i know on business television generally and personal finance magazines about what to buy and when and buy on this pull back but i look at a guy like carl icahn who earlier this week sold half his very, very rich stake -- >> that worked out pretty well. >> that worked out well. but what he was doing there was executing on a sale discipline he had. how important for an investor the moment they buy a stock to know when they will sell it? >> well, ideally you would like to have an entry point and exit point and that's maybe more of a trade, but investors have to think to themselves, i have an idea in my mind whether it's through buying somebody's research or using our analyst here what is fair value? if momentum takes it above fair value, you should start looking

for ways to peel off a little bit of the money you have, profit you've had, 20% of the stock, 50% of the stock but if it's a good quality stock you think has room to return in the long term, you don't want to completely cut out of that stock because who knows if you'll get back into it. >> which is what icon did, he sold half the stake he said earlier today in an interview, he said i made five times my money in that stock and when i do that, i want to start taking cash off the table but here he's letting, i guess you would say, his profits run -- >> that's right, it's never -- nobody is going to fault you and investors should not feel bad about taking some money off the table. you still have some of that position left. you still benefit -- >> you never lose when you take a profit, do you, scott? >> that's right. >> let me ask you the converse question, at what point do you decide to sell a company you bought that's losing. do you say the minute this goes down 20%, i'm out of here? >> i think really when you have a gain and a stock or even when

you buy a stock, you should have at least some sort of a mental stop. you have to say if it's more of a trade, i think i can make $10 on this stock. well, for me, i like a ratio of about 3-1. if i think i'll make $10 on a stock, i really don't want to lops more than about 3 or $4, something like that. investors, they have a big problem retail investors, they hang on to losers way too long, and you have to be in the right stock at the right time at the right part of the cycle. that's all hard to do -- >> oh, yeah. >> but you need to have mentally in your mind when you'll get out of there. >> tell me about it -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> you just sit there and go, i know this stock is coming back. i love it. scott, got to leave it there. thanks very much for your help tonight. >> all right, tyler, have a good evening. >> you, too. we have big news tonight about the planned initial stock offering of twitter. in regulatory filings out today, twitter disclosed that it would price the stock in a range of

$17 to $20 a piece. it plans to sell 70 million shares, putting the total valuation of the company at $11 million. health care and the half billion-dollar website that doesn't work right, the main contractors for the government's healthcare.gov marketplace got grilled by lawmakers for their role in the glitches, errors and long wait times that plagued the site from the start. bertha coombs was in washington for the contentious hearing, and filed this report. >> reporter: there was one thing all the contractors agreed on today on capitol hill, whatever went wrong it wasn't their fault. cgi that built the marketplace or ffm. >> the ffm passed eight required technical reviews before going live on october 1. >> qssi provided enrollment software said it raised red flags about parts of the system that didn't work. >> our work, the data services was tested, tested well and tested adequately.

we tested every piece of code we received timely. we return add full report of any bugs we found. >> reporter: the problem they say is that the system's pieces don't work well together, and it was health officials from cms, the centers for medicare and medicaid who over saw the project end to end and decided to go live despite red flags raised by testing. >> if cms had the decision for live go or no go decision, not cgi. >> reporter: there was plenty of frustration on both sides of the isle with the seeming lack of accountability. >> are you saying that you didn't test, that the tests worked very well both inside and out, or that you turned it all over to cms? anybody want to answer? >> we had independent contractors testing our system. >> do you think it's right that

99% of the people that try to go through the system get rejected, can't even complete the application? is that a system that you're proud of? >> sir, this is a system that we are working every day to make improvements. >> reporter: none of the witnesses today could say for sure when the problems will all be resolved. cgi contractor estimates it would take another two months. the health department won't commit to a timetable but you can be sure members of congress will put to that question, kathleen sebelius when she testifies before the house next week. bertha coombs, "nightly business report", washington. our next guest has suggestions on how to fix those problems. he's dr. zeek emanuel. he's now vice provoe at the university of pennsylvania. i talked with him a short while ago and he began talking about what went wrong with the government's program from get-go. >> the first thing is that the

regulations and guidance necessary to specify what the sites would look like so contractors can build them came in late. there wasn't a ceo with a lot of mana managing experience, enough it to understand the system running it, instead, the people who run medicare who know how to pay bills and know how to issue regulations, but have never built an e commerce site were entrusted to build this, which didn't make sense and to integrate the different components. i'd say, also, the toxic atmosphere in washington with one party try to defund and constant battles and not everyone work together to make it work didn't help anything and we found out this week that i want wasn't tested from end to end. so someone started the process and worked their way all the way through in a testing phase before hand, which is sort of normally done wasn't done. >> so dr. emanuel, what's the

solution here? it's a mess. what are the key things the obama administration has to do to fix the problem? >> the first and most important problem is get a ceo. they have a temporary ceo in jeff. i worked with him. he's a good person, a good people person and has been a consultant to the health care industry, so he understands health care. he's going to be in there. but he's temporary because he has a full-time job to go to in january at the white house, and they need a permanent person who has the skills i mentioned. that good manager, knows something about the health insurance industry. knows something about e commerce and it and can put up a site. they need someone to see the site through for the next couple years, at least. >> you're familiar with the thinking in the white house and obama administration, after all, you advised president obama early on on the hkt reform. when do they say we're not ready, this is going to take longer than we think and we'll

be better off if we postpone the enrollment? do you think? when will they get to that point? >> that depends upon the it solutions you can put in place over the next five weeks and as i understand the problem from people who are close to it, this is not rocket science. this about blocking and tackling and doing basic things correctly, and the question is if we can get that, the website up and running in five weeks, i don't think they will have to postpone enrollment and postpone the mandate, and i don't think that would be nepsz scary. now, if it turns out that there are much bigger problems, and it cannot operate at a reasonably good level but thanksgiving, that would force you into a different decision. >> one of the key issues here is the success of obama care depends on healthy 20 and 30-year-olds to sign up for insurance. if they feel there are too many hassles and give up and for the hospitals, insurance company, isn't that a risk that the obama

administration is facing by continuing this program as is? >> as you correctly point out, getting people across the age spectrum, in particular younger people who may be not clear what the actual advantage of getting the health insurance is for them enrolled is very important. and so making sure it works well enough so that they can sail through the process in 20 or 30 minutes is very important. and i do think that has got to be the goal, but i, again, from what i've heard, that can be achieved and we know that other websites around, as i mentioned, colorado, connecticut, california, the district of colombia kentucky have been able to do that. so i think this is a solvable problem. it's not an insolvable problem. >> dr. emanuel had advice for the obama add machine station. it should tell them what the problems are, how they plan to

solve them and the timeline. one hedge fund manager makes the case for apple at more than $150 a share, doubling the current price in three years. details next. as nbr reported yesterday, activest billionaire investor carl icahn is asking tim cook to launch the buy back program. icon says the buy back would take so much stock out of circulation it would push the share value from the current price of about $532 to a

staggering 1250 within three years given the forecasted profit growth. also, charles icon said he'll test the waters on a proxy fight against apple's board of directors. if they go for the buy back, it would be the biggest offered by an american public company. more than apple's own 50 billion-dollar program from earlier this year and equaling the next four combined, which are all microsoft buybacks. big names reported earnings today and we begin market focus with positive results from 3 m. maker of post it notes and scotch tape and beat estimates by three cents a share and reported improved results from businesses from industrial adhesives. shares up fractionally today $123.49 up 43% so far this year. sales overseas helped drive

ford's bottom line. the country's second biggest car maker sited strength in north america and a smaller operating loss in europe and it raised the full year guidance and drove shares up 1% to $17.76 a patriotic price. dow chemical reported both december appointing earnings and revenue. they blamed weak results on performing units which dow is looking to sale. but the ceo was quick to focus on its plastics unit, a business growing as the economy recovers. >> another reason price increase is supply and demand gets tighter. improving economy means demand goes up and just reported by the ford result, automotive is going up, housing and construction is going up. markets that are tightening that enable price and value share to occur and that's really the package and plastics business. >> but gains in plastics were not enough to bring the shook up.

shares were down to $40.62. xerox down. they cut back the outlook because of construction charges in outsourcing and higher pension settlement cost and revenues came in lighter than expected but earnings beat estimates by a penny and they sent the stock down 10.5% to $9.61. cost cutting and improved ticket sales helped royal caribbean beat expectations. the world's second largest cruise operator also raised the outlook saying demand is improving next year thanks to higher bookings in most markets including europe, asia and alaska. shares up to $42.35. and the number two u.s. home builter report add rise in third-quarter earnings helped by an increase in sale prices. for the recent rise in mortgage rates and the slowdown in new home orders.

the ceo believes it will be short lived. shares shot to $17.85, making it the best performing stock on the s&p today. >> susie, if you want a full list of all, all of the day's earnings, go to nbr.com. coming up, we introduce you to one of wall street's most feared regulators. he's putting the heat on the banks and changing the way big institutions do business. federal reserve wants big banks to have more cash available than they do now. the nation's central bank propoelss large u.s. banks keep enough cash, treasury bonds and

liquid assets to survive a severe economic downturn like the crisis of 2008. bank of america is laying off a lot of worker in the mortgage division. it told 1,200 they were losing their jobs. the wall street journal reports, 3,000 more workers, these who work in the home loan divisions may get pink slips. not many people know tom curry, whose title is comptroller of the currency. he's one of the bank's most feared and important regulators responsible for leveeing billions in fines just in year and keeping those banks in line. kayla sat down with the comptroller and has more. >> reporter: wall street has a new sheriff in town, no matter that the office of the comptroller of the currency has been around for 150 year, tom curry is new blood at a place

once criticized for being too cozy with the banks. he's out to prove that's wrong and making the banks pay. in 2013 the occ put out 152 enforcement actions and collected half a billion dollars in fines. on the rise from previous years. its highest profile target, the biggest bank in the country by asset. jp morgan chase. anti money laundering efforts, marketing and identity theft products and a whopping 300 million dollar fine for faulty disclosures in the trading loss, just a few issues where the occ has taken aim. it's got an eye on management, too, forcing jamie diamond to see his role as chairman of the bank subsid yardry. here is what curry said about that move generally. >> management, particularly, the board of directors needs to be a credible challenge to operating management that individual institutions will be prodded to take a critical look at the structure. >> reporter: corporate governance just one of the areas where curry is stepping up

standards for banks. >> we think the bar should not be set at satisfactory in critical areas such as risk management, audit and corp brett governance. >> reporter: formal guidelines for the banks are expected later this year. just today came a new proposal with the fed and fdic that yet again capital increases banks must hold. washington wants banks to keep 30 days of liquidity on hand in case another credit crunch. >> it's important to demonstrate the level and capital is there before the crisis emerges. >> reporter: as regulators look inward five years after the crisis, prevention is the priority. for "nightly business report", i'm kayla. >> nobody wants another financial crisis. we talked about how the banks feel they have too many and the

bank s feel they don't have enough. >> investors feel they will burn or shareholders felt burned during the crisis. >> we'll have to leave it there. that's "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib, thanks for watch sglg thanks from me, as well. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great evening, everybody. hope to see you back here tomorrow night. night "nightly business reps brought to you by. >> thestreet.com. multi media tools for an ever changing financial world. the dividend stock advisor guides and helps generate income during a period of low interest rates. we are thestreet.com.