Equal. Here are the numbers for thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 217 points. It finished at 17,141. Nasdaq notched an 87point gain. And the s p 500 was 29 points higher. As for that iffy Economic Data the Labor Department said its index of Consumer Prices fell a seasonally adjusted. 2 in september. Its not much, but its the biggest drop in eight months, and it leaves inflation well below the Central Banks 2 target. Now, the reason for the decline is primarily because of falling gasoline prices. And it is that drop in gasoline prices that caused millions of Older Americans to get some bad news. The federal government today made it official, that Social Security beneficiaries will not get an annual raise in benefits next year. Prices arent rising enough to justify one. And as Social Security benefits remain flat, nearly 1 3 of medicare recipients could be paying a lot more for their monthly premiums. Hampton pearson has the story. Reporter there will be no cost of living increase next year for the nearly 65 million Social Security recipients. With cheaper gasoline leading the way, Government Data showed an overall drop in prices last year. By law Social Security recipients only get a cost of living increase if prices rise. The Obama White House took note of what it described as the unintended consequences. The administration is aware of this frankly unintended policy consequence. Reporter the 38 millionmember aarp was less diplomatic saying the governments inflation Market Basket shortchanges seniors. Older americans spend much more out of pocket on health care, food and housing than do younger workers. And we need a Market Basket that reflects that reality. Reporter meanwhile, at least 7 million seniors could see their Health Insurance premiums skyrocket. Their bills for Medicare Part b, the insurance that covers doctor visits and Outpatient Care contradiction increase by more than 50 next year. Health policy experts say its all connected to a Social Security provision that protects beneficiaries from any cuts in their benefit checks when medicare premiums rise. If youre going to collect a quarter of the cost of the Program Overall and the overall cost of the program has gone up some, that means that youre going to have to collect it all from the minority of enrollees who are not protected by this exclusion. Reporter cms, the agency that runs medicare, is not commenting on what it calls speculation, that a big premium hike in medicare is coming. Meanwhile, the aarp and other proactive senior Groups Want Congress to put a freeze on medicare premiums as part of any budget deal negotiated between now and the end of the year. For nightly Business Report im Hampton Pearson in washington. David sertner joins us to talk more about that flat Social Security benefit and rising medicare premiums and what it all means. For some Older Americans. Hes the legislative policy director at the aforementioned aarp. Mr. Sertner, welcome. There are a lot of directions we could go here with this conversation. Well try to go as quickly to as many of them as we can. But 30 of Medicare Beneficiaries will now see their premiums go up by 52 . Who are those 30 . Well, theres a group of 70 who are held harmless but theres another group of 30 who are not. And they not only see their increases but they have to pick up everybody elses increases as well. These are new beneficiaries. These are people who delay taking their Social Security definites. Theyre people who are not covered by Social Security because maybe theyre covered by a state and local plan. And theyre people who pie higher income premiums. Its a big Diverse Group which also includes lowincome beneficiaries whose premiums are paid by the states generally who pick up the low income. Its a big group. Is it fair to say, or am i making too big a generalization that people who are and have been covered by Social Security will not see this increase . Anybody whos on Social Security now doesnt get a cola. So theyre already missing out on not getting a cola. In addition, theres 30 who are going to see probably a 50 increase in their premiums and on top of that everybody, all Medicare Beneficiaries are going to see a 50 increase in their deductible. So everyone is going to be harmed here. Some very much so by these large spikes. So what changes can be made to make sure there is a cost of living adjustment given every year . You say that looking at the cpi traditionally is not necessarily the way to look at it when just because there are low gas prices doesnt mean that prices for Older Americans, prescription drugs, deductibles and many other costs are going up. Right. Currently the cpi thats governing Social Security benefits is really a cpi for workers. And seniors tend to have a different Market Basket. We think if we use a different Market Basket that reflected what seniors purchase we would have a different measure thats more accurate and in this case this year we would obviously have seen a bigger Social Security cola, obviously bigger than none. We would have had some. So basically, youd like to see the cost of living adjustment based on a measure that is particular to seniors. Lets go back to the medicare premium increase that will affect that 30 category. What can be done there . I hear that there is some move in congress to try and do something that would blunt it. The white house has said it is concerned about it. What would you have them do . Well, we have a hold harmless provision that protects 70 of the population but we really have a silly outcome here because all the costs of that 70 then fall on the 30 and that to us makes no sense. We should make sure we hold harmless everybody from the premium increases. And we have legislation how would you pay for it if the costs are going up, david . Well, thats the debate of course always in congress is how do you offset and how do you pay for this. And thats been one of the hangups that were seeing right now. I think most people realize this is a problem here, that this doesnt make sense that we have this huge 50 spike in premiums and deductibles and theres always a discussion of okay, how do we offset this. All right. David, thank you very much. David sertner with aarp. A thorny issue to be sure. Definitely. Valeiant pharmaceuticals under pressure for how it prices its drugs. The company says its been subpoenaed by the u. S. Attorneys offices for massachusetts and the Southern District of new york requesting more information about price decisions. Patient support as well as access. And that sent shares of valeant nearly 5 lower today. Meg tirrell has more on this drug pricing controversy. Reporter it just keeps getting worse for valeant pharmaceuticals. The company said its also responded to a letter from senator Claire Mccaskill about two heart drugs in particular, nitropress and isoprel. Valeant acquired them earlier this year and raised their prices by more than 200 and 500 according to the senators letter. October 14th was the deadline the senator gave the company to respond. Hospitals say increases such as these will hit them hard. Cleveland clinic ceo dr. Toby cosgrove recently discussed the impact to his hospital. Weve seen just seven drugs in our inventory raise our cost 11 million in one year simply by raising the price of drugs that have been around for 30 or 40 or 50 years and are very common use. Weve seen 600 increase in these drugs in one year. Some of the drugs have had their prices raised eight, nine times in one years period of time. Reporter the clinic says valeants drugs isoprel and nitropress alone will cost an extra 8. 5 million. Valeants not alone in the practice of raising the price of old medicines nor is it the only company in the crosshairs of politicians. Turing pharmaceuticals, the private drug maker run by a 32yearold former hedge fund manager, blasted the issue into the National Spotlight last month after it raised the price of an old drug by 5,000 . Democratic president ial candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seized on the issue, claiming they have plans to curb price gouging. Valeants stock has taken a big beating as a result of the attention, falling almost 30 in the last month. That compares with a decline of just about 4 for an index of pharmaceutical stocks. Still, analysts that cover valeant are defending the company. Our view is that valeant is actually one of the most diversified Specialty Pharmaceutical Companies not only here in the u. S. But globally. 90 of their business isnt really tied to highpriced products. In fact, they have a very sound business, we believe. Reporter others dont agree. Ronnie gal at bernstein tells me hed hold off on buying the stock for a few months as the attorney generals investigations play out. He said right now its not clear that any of these practices are actually illegal, perhaps just distasteful. But any consequences will of course depend on what the investigators find. Valeant says its reviewing the subpoenas and intends to cooperate with the investigations. It also says its contacting hospitals where the impact of a price change was significantly greater than the average. Ceo mike pearson in a statement said he believes the Companies Operated in a fully compliant manner and that its committed to assisting eligible patients who need valeants products. As for price increases, analysts say they may be smaller across the industry for at least the next year as these issues continue to dominate the national conversation. For nightly Business Report im meg tirrell. Meantime, the fbi and the department of justice are reportedly investigating the daily Fantasy Sports industry. As first reported by the wall street journal, investigators want to know more about the Business Models of Companies Like draft kings and fan duel. Eamon javers has been following this story from washington. What, eamon, exactly are the fbi and d. O. J. Going after, trying to determine . Well, tyler, we dont know exactly what theyre trying to figure out here. We do know that the fbi is apparently looking at it according to the wall street journal and the new york times. The fbi is refusing to confirm that itself. But in theory what they need to understand here to find out if there was any fraud is how these Companies Operate on the inside. Theyve apparently been contacting a lot of the biggest and most successful players of these Fantasy Sports to understand how they earn their winnings. And the question is whether any of the companies on the employees side had access to Insider Information that would have made it possible for them to make bets on other sites and profit by what they knew about other players inside the system. Thats the question here. And it looks like the fbis trying to get to the bottom of it. Eamon, how likely is it that congress is going to weigh in on this . I think you could see hearings from congress as early as this fall on this. So far at least weve seen a lot of interest on the democratic side in having some kind of hearings but not so much on the republican side. Although you feel like they are warming up to this idea, there is Massive Media interest in this, massive popular interest in this. If you watch televised sports at all in this country, you have seen tons of advertisements for both of these two companies, fan duel and draft kings. All of that would likely indicate to me some congressional interest is coming down the pike. Theres billions of dollars flowing into and presumably out of these leagues, these fantasy leagues. But lets talk about the real leagues. What are the implications for them . Because some of the leagues, notably not the nfl, as i understand it, have in some cases some very Close Relationships or stakes in these companies. Yeah, its clear that the leagues see a revenue opportunity here from this kind of Fantasy Sports. To them its a good thing. It gets people interested in watching their games, maybe even games of teams that arent the home town team. But the leagues have also spent generations trying to stave off any kind of corruption, game fixing, mafia influence, gambling of all sorts. So theyre going to have a real interest in making sure that they partner with these firms and these firms are offering clean games for their subscribers. The game needs to be square. Eamon, thank you very much. Eamon javers. We should point out that comcast and nbc, the parents of nbrs producer, have stakes in the fan duel site. Treasury secretary jack lew says the debt limit will be reached november 3rd. Thats two days before the treasury departments previous estimate. In a letter to House SpeakerJohn Boehner Lew said that after the new deadline the treasury will have less than 30 billion to fund the government. Still ahead, why a top official at the pentagon is growing frustrated with the Defense Industry. Volkswagen is recalling 8. 5 million diesel cars in europe including about 2. 5 million in germany. The cars in question have that software that can cheat emissions tests. The announcement follows reports that german regulators ordered a mandatory recall. A. B. Inbev is reportedly planning a 55 billion bond sale to fund its acquisition of sabmiller. According to bloomberg that would set a record for a corporate takeover. The bonds would be issued in multiple currencies and with different maturities. Profit at Goldman Sachs plunged for the second straight quarter. The bank missed estimates on both the top and bottom line. Still, shares rose 3 in todays up session. Mary thompson digs deeper into Goldman Sachs results. Reporter a rare miss for Goldman Sachs. Profits and revenue at the wall street powerhouse falling shiy f analysts forecasts following a volatile quarter marked by uncertainty over chinas economy, the timing of u. S. Interest rate hikes, and Commodity Prices like oil that ceo Harvey Schwartz said hurt goldmans business. The sum impact of these various events led to lower levels of client activity and a significant repricing of the equity and credit markets. Reporter hardest hit, goldmans business to trade fixed income commodities and currencies. Its known as fic, and its goldmans biggest business line, accounting for a fifth of its revenue. In the last quarter fic revenue plunged an adjusted 27 . A bigger decline than the results of its wall street rivals. Goldmans investing and lending business, which handles the firms own investments, also had a tough quarter as revenue fell 60 . There were some bright spots. Equity trading was strong, as was year over year growth in advisory fees, or the money it gets advising companies on mergers and acquisitions. A trend goldmans cohead of m a expects will remain in place. Our m a pipeline continues to build. We continue to see increased dialogue with ceos and barring any sort of significant market dislocation my expectation is that we continue. Reporter investors will hope it does. Should its mighty trading arm falter again in the fourth quarter, its goldmans Investment Bankers who will need to provide the fuel for future profit growth. For nightly Business Report im mary thompson. Citigroup sees its profits surge, and thats where we begin tonights market focus. Citi topped market estimates but like other big banks that have report sod far the company saw its revenue fall in its most recent quarter because of stock market volatility. A big reduction in legal bills helped its bottom line and overshadowed a revenue miss. Shares rose more than 4 to 52. 97. Dow component United Health posted earnings that just beat estimates. Revenue rose helped by a recent acquisition. The company says it expects future results to come in at the conservative end of estimates. Shares fell 1. 5 to 120. 17. And a recent merger weighed on bbnts latest quarter. Earnings fell but the bank said a key read on lending profitability improved. That sent shares up 3 to 36. 86. A disappointing quarter for winnebago. The Company Reported lower than expected profit as customers bought cheaper versions of its motor homes. Shares fell 4 to 19. 28. The Payments Processing company priced below expectations. 16 a share in the largest initial Public Offering of the year so far. The company is a competitor of visa and square, among others, but the ceo says they have a plan to take on those firms. If you look at what weve done over the past two years, weve completely transformed the company. We were a no growth company, and we changed that. We changed how we approach our clients. Enterprise solutions. We brought a lot of innovation, a bunch of startups that we feel great about. Shares ended 1 1 2 lower at 15. 76. Garmin cut its earnings forecast for its Third Quarter and full year. The gps maker blamed the current Global Economic environment among other things. Shares slid more than 12 1 2 . Bad day there, down at 32. 28. And according to the wall street journal, mcdonalds may decide to change the structure of its u. S. Real estate. This as some investors have called for the chain to spin off its Real Estate Holdings into a Real Estate Investment trust. Shares of mickey ds up a fraction to 103. 66. Sticking with restaurants, yum updated its fullyear guidance after the close. The fast food chain that owns pizza hut said its sales in china could be lower because of the ongoing volatility there. Still, shares popped in initial afterhours trading, as you see there. During the regular session the stock was 1 higher. It finished at 69. 28. Northrup grumman is realigning its businesses and reshuffling its senior management. The Defense Company named a chief operating officer filling a position that had been vacant since 2009. It also plans to streamline its business sectors, reducing the number to three from four. Some analysts say the move could prompt the company to separate out its Government Services arm. Shares of northrup are up a fraction today but as you can see here theyve more than doubled since 2013 when it launched a big buyback program. And it is those buyback programs for major Defense Companies that dont always sit well with the department of defense, which doles out billions of dollars in contracts to the sector every year. Jane wells talks to the man in charge of the pentagons money about some of his issues with the industry. Reporter the gravy train for the Defense Industry has less gravy these days. Frustrating the man at the pentagon in charge of writing checks who sees new threats rising but has to operate under what he calls this crazy sequestration thing. Its a pretty devastating impact. Reporter undersecretary for acquisitions Frank Kendall says if congress doesnt pass a new budget he will have to cut 20 billion out of purchases. So defense contractors are doing what they need to stay healthy. He doesnt like it. Its natural to consolidate, repurchase shares, hunker down. Isnt it . Yes. And i understand that. But its not necessarily the best for the government to have that happen. Reporter the Justice Department recently approved lockheeds purchase of sikorsky. And kendall wants to be able to have more say in these mergers as fewer companies means taxpayers have less buying power. This trend toward consolidation through mergers, a tool that gave us some sort of a National Security basis for intervening i think would be useful. Have you asked for that . Im working with my staff and ill be working with the congress to make some recommendations to the congress about what they might do along those lines. Reporter then there are the billions of dollars in share buybacks Defense Companies are making to prop up their stock price. Kendall would like to see more of those taxpayerprovided profits going to research and development. Analysts couldnt disagree more. And Companies Say theyre already doing r d. Pentagon officials ought to take a lesson in economics to understand how the Capital Markets work rather than, you know, come up with these, you know, statements that really are devoid of understanding of economics. Reporter but when youre the Defense Industrys largest customer, you can throw your weight around. Kendall not only wants more r d from traditional players, hes dangling the prospect of lucrative business to silicon valley, where the Defense Department has set up an office. Why . Hes afraid the u. S. Is losing its edge. Im very concerned about u. S. Technological superiority. And as i look at the modernization programs of china in particular and also russia, i think we have cause to be concerned. Reporter and that concern is creating tension between buyer and seller. For nightly Business Report, jane wells, washington. Coming up women in tech. There arent a lot of them, but reversing that trend could be good for the economy. Well explain why. What to watch tomorrow. The dow component General Electric one of the most widely held stocks will announce its earnings. On the data front a read on industrial production. Also a report on consumer sentiment. Well see how you guys are feeling. Thats what to watch friday. There is a wide gender gap in the world of technology, but thats nothing new. But did you know that reversing that trend could bode well for the economy . Julia boorstin reports tonight from the largest tech conference for women in computing in houston. Reporter google, facebook, yahoo microsoft, apple. Theyre among the tech and internet giants at the grace hopper celebration of women in computing. Its drawn 12,000 attendees, up from 8,000 last year. Here to recruit, network, and address the massive imbalance in technology, where women make up just 26 of the workforce, earning just 81 cents on the dollar compared to men in computer and tech jobs. The chief Technology Officer of the United States says that it isnt just bad for women, its bad for the economy. This is a huge problem for our country. We have over half a million jobs open right now in the United States in tech. Theyre all over the country. Theyre in all different industries. Manufacturing, in retail, in health care, et cetera. And so we need more people to train. Whats interesting about the tech jobs is they pay 50 more than the average American Private sector salary. Reporter getting more women into tech jobs could help close the wage gap, generate more purchasing power, and make the u. S. More competitive. But while all of the tech giants have talked about working to diversify their workforce, theyre making little progress. A recent fortune survey of nine of the biggest tech and Internet Companies fawned found that on average their workforces are just around 30 female and microsoft and intel are among the worst at just 24 . And the gender gap grows in senior management. At intel, google and microsoft less than 20 of the Management Team is female. Youtube ceo susan wojicci whos working to improve her companys numbers says Education Needs to bring more women into the pipeline and Tech Companies need to fix their culture to hold on to those women. Women earn over half of all bachelors degrees in america. But they earn fewer than 20 of the Computer Science degrees. And unfortunately, this problem isnt getting better. Reporter the heat of the anita borg institute, which hosts the conference, says shes optimistic about companies from google to godaddy talking about the problem and trying to solve it. All the companies here hope there will be a day when women no longer have to have a separate conference. For nightly Business Report im Julia Boorstin in houston. China now has more billionaires than the United States for the first time ever. This according to a shanghaibased research firm. It says there are 596 billionaires in china. Compared to 537 of them here. Much of the Wealth Creation is due to the rise in the stock market, which despite the recent stumble is still up about 40 over in shanghai from a year ago. Lets take a look at the day on wall street once again. The dow rose 217 points to 17,141. The nasdaq notched an 87point gain. And the s p 500 was higher by 29 points. Thats nightly Business Report for tonight. Im sharon epperson. Thanks so much for watching. And im tyler mathisen. Have a great evening, everybody. Announcer explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Announcer judy collins, tom and dick, the smothers brothers, the kingston trio, the highwaymen, the brothers four, glenn yarbrough, the limeliters, roger mcguinn, barry mcguire, randy sparks and the minstrels unite for history in a special celebration of american folk music. 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