Obviously coming to you this evening from the new york stock exchange, where traders spent most of this day just riveted by washington, werent we all. Wall street did not appear too concerned about what the former director of the fbi told lawmakers. In fact towards the end of james comeys testimony on the russia investigation, the dow actually hit a record high before pulling back. The nasdaq did close at one today. Many investors do not think the hearing produced a smoking gun that could harm the president s businessfriendly agenda. In the end, the Dow Jones IndustrialsDow Jones Industrials added eight points, closing at 21,182. Nasdaq gained 24 points and the s p moved fractionally. While the drama wasnt felt on wall street, there was plenty of it on capitol hill. E m eamon javers has more. Reporter the integrity of james comey was questioned by President Trump. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of his meeting. I thought it important to document. That combination of things i had never experienced before. It led me to believe i had to write it down. Reporter comey said he gave the okay for portions of his notes to be leaked to the press after President Trump tweeted that comey should hope there were no tapes of their conversation. I woke up in the middle of the night on monday night, because it didnt dawn on me originally, that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape. My judgment was i needed to get that out into the public square. So i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didnt do it myself for a variety of reasons. I asked him to because i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. Reporter before a hushed audience on capitol hill and tens of millions watching on tv, james comeys first public appearance since being fired by President Trump left the most important question unanswered, on whether he thinks the president s behavior relating to the investigation of Michael Flynn amounted to obstruction of justice. Comey deferred to the newlypointed special counsel investigating russias interference in the election. On whether he believes the president colluded with russia its a question i dont think i should answer with an open setting. Reporter the president s attorney Marc Kasowitz fired back at comey, questioning his credibility while embracing comeys statement that the president himself was not under investigation. Im eamon javers in washington for nightly Business Report. The other big story is coming out of Great Britain. According to exit polls, Theresa Mays Conservative Party may not have a majority in parliament. Wilfred frost reports from a rainy london this evening. Wilfred . Reporter hey, sue, yes, indeed, if this exit poll is correct, then were headed for a hung parliament, where nobody wins an outright majority, a reminder that there are 650 fea seats at play. The conservatives predicted to get 314, 12 short of a majority. 17 less than they had before this whole process. What next . Well, theres no Clear Coalition partners for the conservatives, either they will try and form a weak minority government and all the uncertainty that comes with it, or labor, who have come second under Jeremy Corbyn and done well, gaining 34 seats to 266, try and form a coalition with some other partners. There are some possible partners as well, the Scottish National party, the liberal democrats, and the greens could all reasonably be expected to come to an agreement with the labor party. But that only totals 315 seats. Still short of the 326 to get a majority. So you could describe this as the perfect storm of uncertainty for markets. That is the reason why, as you said, the pound fell initially some 2 , sue. Let me ask you a question, wilf. Knowing theresa may is a brexit hard liner, what do the results many for the Brexit ProcessGoing Forward . Its probably too early to know at this point. What do you think . Reporter its a great question. The first takeaway you would have to say is the intention to begin brexit negotiations in two weeks looks fairly unlikely, its not even sure well have a Firm Government by then. The second thing is to say that if theresa may goes ahead with a weak minority government, her hand will be a lot weaker than it would have been had she not called an election, and certainly weaker than she wanted it to be by calling this election. The second eventuality, if labor did manage to get together a coalition, it would rely on parties like the liberal democrats who want to have a second referendum and stop brexit. Its interesting to see the reaction of the pound, which is down. Some traders say if this result came about, in the long term the pound could rally if brexit didnt come about. Wilfred, thank you so much, wilfred frost reporting from london tonight. Bill . With the news out of Great Britain and the James Comey Testimony now over, what a day this has been. Our guest is chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery scott. No real smoking guns in the testimony, or at least that seemed to be the response of the market, mark. I would concur, bill. The fact of the matter is, i think the market let out a proverbial sigh of relief toward the end of the testimony. At the conclusion of comeys speaking, the market ran up 60, 65 points. It gave most if not all of it back by the end of the day, but the relief was we didnt hear anything particularly new, there was regurgitation of what was already out there, and as a consequence, the market seems to have dodged a bullet. What does this mean for the agenda of the trump administration, which is focused on businessintensive sectors, infrastructure and things like that . Do those stocks then get kind of a second wind . Sue, i dont know if we see an uptick that quickly, to see a reassertion of trump trade. We still have an independent investigator looking at the russian circumstances and probing around the same things that were brought up in the course comeys testimony. It hasnt necessarily gone away, its just been deferred or deheightened by way of the activity surrounded it. It will continue to lurk out there in the background. Meantime we have an economy that is doing reasonably well in terms of posting positive growth. But some of the Economic Data weve had over the last two months has been comparatively soft, from what we saw earlier in the year. So markets are unlikely to regain that economic sensitive footing until we see better Economic Data to support why earnings should be beneficial to those more interestratesensitive sectors. Before we let you go, we know that since the brexit vote, the ftse has been up appreciably, the stock market there in england. But the pound has gone down. Now we have these questions about the uk vote results. What happens now, do you think . Bill, i think its complicated. I think the good news is that brexit is likely to continue Going Forward, because it was supported by both the tories and labor. But the fact is, you saw this parallel trade between the pound strengthening and the strength in the ftse. I think thats going to be unwound, because obviously the decay were seeing in the sterling at least so far is indicative of the concern relating to the inability to get a majority government and in fact we could see another David Cameron with regard to theresa may actually resigning, which would create some chaos in government. I dont think its a positive at this juncture by any stretch of the imagination, particularly in the shock wave associated with how wrong once again the polls were in assessing who is going to walk away with the majority. Were seeing chaos in the markets already. Thanks, mark. That happenks, bill. The European Central bank seems to be taking baby steps toward cutting stimulus. Policymakers didnt make changes to Interest Rates but did deliver a modest change to their guidance. The ecb moved to drop a reference to the possibility that Interest Rates could move even lower in the future. But the president of the central bank did express concern about inflat measures of underlying inflation remain low and have yet to show convincing signs of a pickup as underutilized resources are still weighing on domestic price and wage formation. Underlying inflation is expected to rise only gradually over the medium term. And while inflation does remain low, mario draggi added that the growth in the eurozone is exceeding expectations. Here at home, the house of representatives is poised to replace dodd frank. The vote was largely along party lines. Republicans said that the bill was making it harder for Community Banks to operate. The bills fate in the senate is uncertain. Tech companies are invading New Territory and it has the nations big banks on the lookout. Thats ahead. About 3 million potential first time homebuyers have been shut out of the market over the past decade. According to a new study, tight lending and a shortage of Affordable Homes in many markets has reduced the pool of potential buyers. First time homebuyers are considered a key component of housing demand. The results of the study suggest the markets recovery for the past few years could have been even stronger. Nordstrom considers going private. And thats where we begin tonights market focus. The retailer said that members of the Nordstrom Family had created a group now to explore the possibility of taking that company private. Nordstrom also said no proposal has been made yet. But investors seem to like the possibility and sent shares up 10 to close at 44. 63. Alibaba sees Revenue Growth that blew past analysts analyst expectations. Shares popped by 13 , 134. 34. J. M. Smucker saw sales fall because of weak demand for coffee and pet food products. Cost cuts helped offset the decline. That allowed revenue to top street expectations. Earnings also fell, but they came in ahead of estimates at the same time. Shares off more than 1 for j. M. Smucker to 128. 51, sue. Bill, drug maker valeant said it would sell inobviovo to unit jointly owned by Equity Partners and carlyle group. Shares rose to 13. 26. In a regulatory filing, clothing retailer Urban Outfitters warned same store sales are falling in the high single digits, a steeper drop than what the street was expecting. That news sent shares lower by 10 to 16. 35. Yahoo s shareholders approved the sale of the companys core assets to verizon for 4. 5 billion. According to reports, verizon will lay off more than 2,000 employees at yahoo and at aol as it works to combine the two units. When the deal closes next week, yahoo will change its name to altaba. So shares of yahoo rose thanks to alibabas forecast we just told you about, to 55. 71. Traditional banks are facing some tough competition from the likes of Tech Companies, of all things. Compa like amazon and paypal and square are issuing consumer and Small Business loans. Ben mcclanahan joins us tonight to talk about this. You have to pity the banks, they had the financial crisis, then they had dodd frank, theyve got low Interest Rates theyre facing, and now this. Amazon in particular, why is it that they are getting into this business and why are they so effective . Its hard to say whether theyre effective at this point. Its been a reasonably quiet effort so far, six years in theyve built a loan book worth 3 billion. Theyve done that using all the terrific data theyve got on businesses and their goods through their platform. Its about half the units that amazon ships worldwide is delivered by these sort of third party businesses. What amazon has done, cleverly, is take a look at all the sales, sales histories, sales projections, the seasonal bits, and judged certain pockets of these businesses to be worthy of credit. Its given them offers of tens of thousands of dollars. Its also, is it not, because the amazons of the world and other Tech Companies are not as restricted or as restrictive as the banks are with their lending standards. Thats a very good point. I actually talked to the head of amazon lending, as theyre calling it. He didnt actually know which regulator he should have kept abreast of this, thats a sign of the regulatory vacuum these guys are operating in. Youre right to observe that the big banks in particular have been suffering. They say, suffering under a punitive supervisory regime over the past few years. Thats made them wary of lending to anyone who might default, who might sue them later for sort of wrong advice. Dont they have to be chartered to make loans . How does this work regulatorywise . This is something i plan to do more reporting on. As i said to the guy yesterday, i asked him, whats the supervisory situation, do you have state by state banked license, are you federally chartered . The answer is no. I suspect its because theyre not actually creating money, theyre recycling their own cash deposits. Thats entirely within board. I think the fact that the regulators havent kept a close eye on this has been a boost to amazons fledgling business. Do you have a gauge as to how predominant this might eventually become . 3 billion in six years isnt bad going. 1 billion of that has been within the past 12 months. Thats a very much an acceleration of the pace. As you said earlier, its not just amazon. Square is doing it, the Payments Processing company. Paypal has two separate businesses, paypal credit to consumers and paypal working capital to Small Businesses. Together, were probably talking about 10 billion, which is a tiny pinprick in the context of Jp Morgan Chase with its 2 trillion balance sheet, but as i say, theres a sharp pace of acceleration. Amazon started as a small pinprick as well at one time. Thats right. 18, now its worth a thousand. Ben mcclanahan from the financial times, thanks for joining us, very interesting. Coming up, what the industry is doing about robocalls and how you can make them stop. Weve all been there. You run to pick up the phone and instead of a friend or a family member, its that pause and then a recorded voice trying to sell you something or collect a debt that you dont even owe. Robocalls like those are on the rise, i didnt have to tell you that, despite a government crackdown. The ftc this week announced 280 million in Civil Penalties against dish network including for robocalls. Why are the calls still rolling in . Andrea day has our story. Hello, this is rachel at card holder services. It is urgent that you contact us. Reporter its a robocall, an automatically dialled call bothering americans. So nothing, alex developed an app to try to stop the madness. Its a pitch from emily the travel spammer or a fake microsoft. Theres nothing worse. This is an Important Notice regarding your automobile. I get probably i would say ten calls a day. Reporter the governments do not call list was supposed to stop these pesky telemarketers. Why does it seem like its getting worse . The do not call registry actually works for legitimate businesses. The problem is all the people who dont respect it, who are the scammers who could care less. Reporter thats right, the new technology we love to use has also made it super easy for scammers. Unfortunately it works. People fall for the scams enough to make it worthwhile. Reporter we sat down with the federal trade commission, the Agency Behind the do not call list. The ftc says consumers lose 350 million every year falling for roboripoffs. The ftc investigates unwanted calls and we do try and track down where these calls are coming from and bring Law Enforcement action to stop them. Reporter but according to the ftc, most robocalls come from overseas, where scammers try to stay outside the reach of regulatory authorities and blast out calls for next to nothing. Last year, the ftc received nearly 3. 5 million complaints about the calls. Thats up 60 from 2015. The federal Communications Commission or fcc also regulates telemarketers and sets rules for providers, telling us, quote, unwanted calls including Illegal Robocalls and telemarketing calls are the top consumer plaints the ftc receives each year. The technology has made it easier to spoof calls where it looks like the calls are coming from your bank or someone nearby. Now theyre coming in from my own area code. Reporter how can we end it . The fcc is testing letting providers block calls that are likely scams. According to the trade group that represents most landline providers we can return trustworthiness, the industry is working on standards for that front. Reporter the wireless carriers trade group says its united in its efforts to defeat robocalls. These efforts collectively stop more than a million robocalls every day. But for now, this man says his free app could help. It plays an out of service greeting to any number we think is a bad guy. Reporter his biggest tip, dont talk to strangers. Everybody has to get out of the habit of picking up the phone and answering if its a number you dont know. Reporter when you get robocalls, write down the numbers and share them with the ftc. Go to complaints. Donocall. Gov. Theyll pass the information to apps that can block the call for you. Im andrea day for nightly Business Report. The Big Phone Companies like tmobile, verizon, and at t are taking steps to flag and block those robocalls. But is that enough . Is there more they can do . Roger chang, executive editor at cnet, joins us. Is there more they can do . Theyve actually taken quite a number of steps to block robocalls. I dont know if theyve done as much as they possibly can, but theyve definitely taken a step in the proper direction. Most carriers have programs in place to automatically detect and block robocalls. They cant get to all the calls, which is still a problem, as legitimate telemarketers still get through. Its not 100 yet. But there is sort of a concerted effort. The fcc has something called the Robocall Strike force, as dramatic as that sounds, sort of a group of these phone companies that have gotten together with the fcc to fight robocalls. The other day, roger, we have a landline, yes, were dinosaurs, but the phone never ran rang. Now i read theyre able to send a message without even ringing these days, right . Yes, the new trend is ringless robocalls, your phone doesnt ring and you have a voicemail that pops up. A company is actually trying to argue that because youre not being technically called, they shouldnt be falling under the consumer production rules. The fcc is arguing or is considering that proposal now. The attorney generals of new york, kentucky, connecticut, have already expressed their desire to the fcc that the fcc squash this attempt. Theres still aggressive attempts to get more robocalls into our homes. Bill is not a dinosaur, because i have a landline as well. But does it work the same way, or is there an advantage if you are only a wireless consumer versus one with a landline . If youre a wireless consumer, you have a few more options. Tmobile, at t, all the major wireless carriers have programs in place. Some of them are all, some of them you have to opt in, that automatically detect some of these robocalls. But they obviously dont do enough to catch all of them. I know my wife, a majority of her calls now are robocalls, theyre from telemarketers. The best advice is to not pick them up. Shes pretty smart about it, if she doesnt recognize the number, shell just hang up really quickly. I guess that is the best advice. Roger, thank you. We appreciate it. Roger chang with cnet. I solved it, i dont answer the phone even if i recognize the number. If its important, theyll leave a message. Thats nightly Business Report for tonight. Im sue herera. Thanks for joining us. We want to remind you, this is the time of year your Public Television station seeks your support. Im bill griffeth. Thank you for your support, by the way. Have a great evening. Well see. This is bbc world news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here, in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the