♪ this is nightly business report with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> wedding season on wall street. from generic drugs to women's apparel. companies are walking down the aisle ringing up billions of dollars in deals. >> big surprise from retail to housing to inflation. are investors in for something unexpected on this heavy data week? >> a supreme court decision gave you a reason to take a closer look at your 401(k). all that and more tonight on nightly business report for this monday may 18th. good evening, everybody. >> nice to have you here. i'm sue herera. $10 billion worth of deals, that's what was rung up on wall

street today. two major retail names are getting together. it was endo that ended up being the biggest acquirer. with an agreement to buy par pharmaceuticals. the deal will make endo international an even bigger player in the fast changing and fast consolidating generic drug sector. shares of endofell more than 5%. bertha coombs has more on the deal. >> repor drug makers that produce generic drugs are attracting big bucks. endopaying $8 billion for par pharmaceutical >> 13e6kly in generics this will position us as a top generics player in the u.s. >> endo's shares fell some analysts citing costs, par pharma was taken for just $2 billion in 2012.

pfizer recently bought hospira for $16 billion, while teva has been 40 billion dollar for mylon, which is 40 billion for perilow. >> it's a nice environment to do m & a. companies are looking to fill their pipelines of products. >> new specialty drugs can command high prices some generic drug prices have skyrocketed. govern data shows prices for generic cholesterol drugs more than doubled the last year. >> part of it is consolidation, part of it is also the supply chain, you probably read that there are a number of plants down because of irregularities in manufacturing. the implication is fewer manufacturer's means higher prices. and i think that you're seeing

it in the generics. >> with some of the backlog in manufacturing easing. generic drug prices increases have slowed this year. but they expect the rate of drug deals in the $74 billion generic drug market to continue at a fast pace. bertha coombs nightly business report new york. >> intel and altera have resumed r again off again merger talks. earlier discussions fell through because the companies were unable to agree on a price, but reports now say a deal between the two chipmakers could top $13 billion shares climb eded 1% on that talk. women's apparel retailer assena says it will buy ann inc. they run dress barn and lane .

they will purchase ann taylor and ann ta the deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. shares of ann inc. sored, while shares of assena fell 1%. tomorrow will reportedly get results, quarterly results from both home depot and walmart, and some of the worlds most recognizable stores are facing big obstacles right now. courtney reaga has more. >> reporter: the majority of companies have already reported first quarter earnings retailers are just ramping up. wall street is hoping the consum will lift the broader economy. particularly after a number of disappointing reports. including april retail sales and estimates for first quarter gdp. there are a number of issues that could hurt retail earnings and forecasts. retail's first quarter is

typically january through april. which means harsher than likely weather blade a part the impact of a strong dollar will likely be most evident in retailers selling goods internationally, it could also impact retailers with mostly domestic operations in a number of ways. macy's one of the first too report set sales in large u.s. cities took a hit from lower tourist spending. the department stores results disappointed thanks to company specific and other external factors. >> gas prices remain lower than last year's levels consumers aren't plowing savings at the pump back into traditional retail spending. instead, consumers are paying down debt or builting up savings, a number of analysts expect retailers to forecast spending will improve in the second half of the year looking

out to the rest of the year we think there's more tail winds than head winds. we think we're going to see a favorable consumer spending environment through the end end of the year. >> an improving labor market and wage growth. wall street will hear from walmart, tjx and dikz sporting it's hard to turn the tide on the world's largest retailer in one quarter. as always u.s. sales is the key metric to watch. thursday wall street gets results from best buy, l brands gap, dollar tree and a number of others. friday rounds out the week with foot locker's first quarter earnings reports. analysts warn it's in the traditionally fickle retail sector. for nightly business report i'm courtney reagan. >> earnings from some big retailers some of the things

that investors will be watching this week. we also get the minutes from the last fed meeting and the details on the health of housing, which started today with the soft read on home buil thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with the consumer courtney outlined all the different companies coming to market this week with their earnings what are you expecting? what do you think the consumer did with their cash the last quarter. >> the consumer has been saving more than people anticipated. which is one of the things that i mentioned. it reflects some rebuilding of balance sheets although they're in much better shape as is mentioned, the labor market wages are looking a bit better i think one of the big questions is whether consumers will spend the power from the tropical oil

prices. they're waiting to see if that's more persistent or is a temporary drop in oil prices. if it lasts longer you'll see that pickup later this year. >> we get the minutes from the fed's april meeting, we have a sense what have lk we always pour over those anyway do you think we'll get any sign any expectations for when the fed's going to start raising rates? >> i don't think they're going e so explicit it's quite likely there will be discussion in the minutes, i suspect they will role out june cat gore rick i lrks there may be some indications of what they're looking at and what factors may potentially lead them to hike later than some people are currently anticipating. >> when do you think that they will start to raise rates. >> we think september would be the earliest we would likely see the fed go. the rhetoric seems to suggest they have a relatively low this

remember hold to get started. it's the beginning of a very long process if it was furl on the data you could make an argument it could be sooner. >> housing, we're not seeing the rebound you would imagine you get at this time in the cycle. home builders sentiment, what's wrong right now? >> housing hit an air pocket last year and moved sideways. we're looking for 1 million starts when the april number comes out this week you're right, people were anticipating it would be more a combination of some tight credit conditions still, first time home buyers i think there's several factors that are kind of still putting a drag on the housing market. >> do you see improvement in credit conditions? it's been tight for a long time? >> if you think about it the mortgage market was the epty center of the crisis it's the last place the healing will show up we think the housing market over the next couple years will

continue to see some s gains on wall street were modest but it was enough to put the s&p 500 and the dow at new records by the finish the industrial average rose by 26 points closed at 18,298. it's fifth record close of this year the nasdaq was up by 30 points and the s&p 500 notched a six point gain to close at 2129. that's its third consecutive records close. now to greece where one central european bank official has reported the end game is near. greece needs to reach an agreement with is by the end of the month to stay afloat financially. a deal must not impose further pension cuts. greece's nex big debt payment is due in early june. >> china retakes the top spot as the holder of u.s. debt. this as central bank holdings of u.s. treasuries fell in march.

japan slippe still ahead, the key questions you need to be asking about the funds in your 401(k) following today's decision by the ♪ carl icon says apple is worth $240 a share. he sent a letter to apple's ceo, saying the stock remains dramatically undervalued. icon cites apple's possible move into two new markets. television and cars.

and wants apple to issue a much larger bye back. icon has been pushing apple for a larger buyback since early 2015. it pays to run a media or a tech company these days. the new york times has released its 200 highest paid ceo rankings the list of the best compensated chief executives at publicly traited u.s. companies, with at least $1 billion in market capitalization. sharon epperson takes a look at the top earners in america's c suites. >> repor those at the top of the corporate ladder continue to see massive paychecks. >> it's obviously not based on performance, you look at the total share of the return in some cases the total share is negative. other cases it's flat or it's underpere market. >> the total shareholder returns slid 24% last year discovery

communications david zazlov topped the list of the 200 highest paid ceo's. making him the highest paid ceo since tim cook of apple received $376 million in 20. in second place, michael freeze. head of the international cable company, liberty global. he pulled down over $111 million in 2014. a 140% increase in pay over the previous year. both zaslov and freeze signed contracts resulting in big paydays. there may be other factors at work. >> i think media executives are the highest paid because it is a very creative industry. it's a very personality based industry the top people of these companies have a lot of relationship s

>> the next on the list $88 million. remarkably gabelli doesn't have an actual salary his pay is based on incentives related to his company's growth. jamie dimon earned nearly $28 million, com in 32nd on the list and tech continues to pay very well out of the top 10 ceo's, four of the executives are at technology companies. microsoft took the first spot earning 84 million in salary, cash and s the survey shows that there's no stag nation in the c suites. medium pay was about 17 1/2$1/2 million. a growth of 21% over last year's study. the average was mor among the top ceo's, the highest paid woman was marissa mare of yahoo.

>> the sec has just come up with proposed roles zs that require the company to show return and compare that against ceo pay. things may be changing. >> repor welco news for average investors. for nightly business report i'm sharon epperson. shares of urban outfitters sink on weak results. both earnings and revenue came in below the street's estimates, the stock was down as much as 13% in after hoyers trading, before the close, though the stock was up almost 3% to 4072. the bird flu will take a big toll on cisco, the company which is the largest u.s. food distributor says the outbreak will crimp egg and chicken supplies for up to 18 months. it is still too soon to tell if the supply squeeze will impact

its financials. the shares were a fraction higher to close at 3749. tesoro has ordered new crude railcars. the safety standards recently set, the new rules are aimed at curbing accidents here in the u.s. and canada. shares rose 1.5% to $92.79. conoco phillips expects to maintain its capital skpenty tours for another shares were a fraction higher to 66.04. and consumer reports review of tesla's top of the line model s, let's say it was less than spectacular. they deemed the car undrivable because of the retractable door handles didn't work during the

test. the good news is tesla picked up the car and repaired the handle glitch efficiently. sharestesla were down to $248.75. does your 401(k) use high cost fundses? after a supreme court decision today, you may want to take a closer look. the justices ruled unanimously in favor of participants in employee retirement plans who object to companies investment decisions, the ruling could make it easier for 401(k) plan participate around thes to sue their employers for putting investments in their plans that impose excessive fees much the case stems from a lawsuit against edison international. how do you know if your funds are in 401)s are low cost or high cost? what should you be looking for. founder of his own wealth management firm member of the cnbc financial network as well. thank you for coming back.

>> thank you for having me. >> high and low fees would be relative. is there a certain level, certain percentage? how do you determine if the fees you're paying is excessive? >> how big is your plan? obviously larger plans with $50 million and more their fees are going to be relatively low, it's cheaper by the dozen. the smaller the plans, which as you might expect are about 9 out of 10 plans are people with 100 or less participant ss. if you're paying over 2% with all of the fees you know the plan is relatively expensive. >> where is the information contained for those who have trusted that the plans that are in your 401(k) maybe they just assumed they were low cost. how can you check? >> most people aren't even aware -- i want to say half the participants aren't aware there are fees.

what your employer has to do is give you a fee disclosure document. and that would delineate all of the fees and language that people can understand so they understand there's an administration fees third party administration fees as well as the investment management fees what i would do is add all these expenses up divided by the account balance, that will give you the% the overall expense of your 401(k) plan. >> i'm just looking at names of finla, morning stars, do they help? >> they do. >> you want to look what is the overall cost the totality of it -- of my 401(k) plan? and then as you start to dig down deeper and you identify the funds themselves expensive. they have the fund analyzer service where you can enter in the fund symbols, and it will show y what the cost would be

over a certain period of time. by the same token, morningstar, which i think is a valuable service, tells you what the expenses are. this is what you can see if there are other alternatives you may have xyz fund. you may see next to it that there are institutional shares available. it's a crucial share, obviously going to be cheaper, bright scope is a great opportunity also for usually plans with over $10 million, where you can type in your company's name and you can see if the plan relative to its peer group charges more or less than the other plans. >> good information, ivory johnson, thanks for jo and coming up competing for the title, meet the high school students who may one day be the next chair of

♪ here's what to watch tomorrow. earnings from dow components home depot and walmart which could determine how the market fairs. housing starts are out, and jpmorgan chase and morgan stanley will hold their annual shareholder meetings. that's what's on the agenda for tuesday. the president has made the case to start hiking rates early next year. but during that same speech in stockholm, charles evans also said an argument could be made for a rate increase this june

if the central bank was was going to move up and the first quarter economic weakness we saw was temporary. some high school students from across the opportunity got to test their knowledge of the federal reserve and economics. competing for the very prestigious title of national economics challenge winner. steve liesman who knows a little something about this topic moderated >> it's come down to this 10,500 students call it the spelling bee of economics. now, just four teams remain vying for top honors in two divisions. you can't believe the drama in the first division. after 29 questions, two teams are tied heading into the last question. >> carmel has a chance to win it but buzzes in too early. >> japan, united states?

>> united states. >> that is incorrect, steve. >> you may reread the question. >> i didn't want it to come to this. consider this list of countries and consider which has the largest gap of income between the rich and poor japan, the united states brazil. >> brazil. >> brazil is correct. >> homestead wins the first round of the competition. a group that teaches teachers how to teach economics to kids. >> we have been very successful we reached 55,000 teachers across the country and millions of kids. >> kids could do the teach themselvesem what is the shape of the marginal rev nall curve based -- >> horizontal lines? >> that is correct. >> can you please reread the question. >> you can't know what the next part of the question -- whatever whatever.

>> there were some incredible displays of brilliance from the competitors also from carmel high school in i if you're looking for hope in education, look no further for these kids they could be the next friedman kane or bernanke. >> great stuff there. gasoline prices are on the rise just ahead of memorial day weeken e national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.70. that's up six cents from a week ago. prices still about a dollar lower than a year ago. if you plan on flying this summer, get ready crowd airports and packed planes. according to airlines for america, a record number of travelers will fly this summer. u.s. airlines will carry 2.5 million passengers a day.

4.5% more than las the odds are in his favor, kentucky derby and preakness winner is now the early favorite to make history and perhaps win the triple crown. a feet not achieved since 1978. our cameras have been following the thoroughbred first at the derby and then this weekend at pimlico. >> reporter: a torrential downpour and sloppy track conditions couldn't stop american farrow. his owners watched in the pouring rain as their horse broke from the dreaded number one post. but the 3-year-old colt stormed the racetrack, breaking from the inside rail, delivg a stunning performance. winning the second leg of the triple crown by seven lengths. >> american farrow's preakness performance offers a payout of $900,000. >> i can't believe this is ours.

oh my god. >> and according to experts. boosted the champ's value north of $20 million. next stop belmont for a chance at the coveted triple crown title. an elusive victory that hasn't been seen since 1978. for nightly business report i'm robert frank. >> good luck to him. >> that does it for nightly business report for tonight. i'm sue herera, thanks for .

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