Math and sue herera are off tonight, so its just you and me. The dow snapped its sixday win stream as shares of General Electric weighed on Investor Sentiment and saw their biggest decline in six year. Well have more on that story in a moment, but first the closing numbers. The dow did hit an intraday high today, but finally fell 54 points to 23,273. The nasdaq was down by 42 points, the s p fell by ten. The prospects of tax reform has long been a big driver for this stock market, but one tax proposal that got a lot of buzz over the weekend was changing popular 401 k retirement plans. Thats likely is not going to happen. The president tweeted th be no e its always been a great and popular middleclass break that works, and it stays. There had been reports that republicans in con weighing a proposal that the significantly reduce the amount of income as a way to offset lost revenue with tax reform. All that talk about reat the same time just highlighted one major problem right now. Most americans dont have enough saved for their later years. Bob pisani has the grim details for us tonight. The dustup is a Good Opportunity to remind everyone how bad the state of an average persons retire plan is. The good news is total investment of defined Contribution Plans are at a new high, thanks to a stock market rally. The bad news the numbers are still terrible. Americans dont save enough. Adviser to vanguard 94 million americans are covered by defined accounts. Assets are in competent of 7 2ri8 wrong. Souds like a lot of mine it is, but theres not a lot in account. The median account has only 23,000. At 65 and over its only 6 on,000. You live another 20 users, 60,000 isnt much. We need about 13,000 a year for Social Security right now, a little more than 10,000 a years from private pensions, but only a third collect pensions, so private savings are critical for helping people through retirement. Most people dont even contribute the maximum amounts like lie because they cant afford to or they would rather universal savings account where investors contribute aftertax money, but the gain on the accounts are taxfree have been successfully implemented. Investors can take out money at any time without paying taxes or penalties. One thing is for sure. If we dont find a way for people to save more. A lot of people will work into their 80s or outlive their money. For nightly Business Report, im Bob Pisani Tess new york stock exchange. All right. Here to talk about this Retirement Crisis and what you can do to maximize your savings, diane oakley is at the director on Retirement Security. S folks, thank you both for joining us tonight. Diane, i well remembered when defined Contribution Plans were introduced back in the 1980s with ir as and 40 ks, we see here that the median amount saved by a 65yearold today is only 60,000. What h you know, i think what happened is a lot of americans just couldnt afford to save. We hear from people saying that with their salaries being somewhat constrained and for the growing that much, they just cant save enough. Eric, what do you think . People are told save a certain amount and then let the money grow. Was that a flawed mess well, people need to start earlier ander. Thats the message. In the old school of defined benefit plans, where the company took care of you, it no longer exists. Its all about making sure that people understand what, as al better einstein called the compound interest. Understand what you would have today and what you could end up in the future if youre diligent with your plan. What about dianes point that people cant afford to save as much as they should right now . Well, thats a whole other animal. The end ru89 is youll have to do better budgeting, have to figure out where you can make some modifications to your budget and make heart decision if you do indeed want to reach your goals. The currents camp for a 401 k to save is, whats 18,000 a year . Is that what it is now . Yes, it is. And they were talking i dont know, they still havent taken us back yet, that maybe reducing that sharply to 2400. What would that do to the average person saving for retire now . The average person just doesnt have that much to save as it is. If you cut that back so much, when they get to later years, or maybe the kids have gotten through college, and theyve gone an able to save, they could finally max out, is it going if the new max is 2400 where it used to be 18,000, its hard to catch up for what they lost over those years. People today tell you you had to start in your 20s saving 15 of use you are pay. If you dont do that until youre 35 or 40, youve almost got to do 30 . And most people cant afford their bills and do that kind of saving. Its been a double whammy. They cant be saved by the fixedincome market, because Interest Rates have been so low, and theres no sign theyre going to rise that appreciably in the near future, right . Thats true. Thats why you really want to reverseengineer your plan. That comes back to the fact of, if im 25 or 30 today, and im retired and i have of 5. How much do i need to save . And what kind of rate do i need to earn . Taking a look at your time horizon, as you said, you know, fixed income in rates do rise, it doesnt sound like a one of the time for bonds, so folks may have to get more aggressive. I suspect were preaching to the wise with our audience here. Theyre very savvy to begin with, but lets assume we have a 65yearold out there who has saved the median of 60,000, what do they do now . Well, thats a great question, bill, the safe and secure method of investing just doesnt exist. You cant get anything at the yields are pretty low, so they do have to venture into bull market that may be kind of in the third or Fourth Quarter here. That makes the decisions even a bit harder, but if your time horizon is long enough, having a diversified plan can still ma diane, there are many types of plans these days, you know, with the roast i. R. A. S, the traditional, is it too complicated for the average person who just doesnt pay that much attention to investment these days . It is complicated. It used to be simple when grandpa had a pension plan and it worked well for grandpa. The real question is, as youre looking at retires and you have different products to save, if you dont have it through your employer, it makes it that much harder, because you dont have the convenience of having money come r out of your paycheck and right into your retirement account. Thats a key and an important thing to make sure that your people have the ac an employer. If you go to a low cap, you would end up taking away the incronive for employers to offer plans. Quickly before we go, i know some states for Small Business owners that cant a oregon, for example, now has he retirement plans much like a College Savings plan. Is that a good idea to get into, . It is, actually i think a lot of these states are looking at tt that how many people have nothing saved. If you look at the group of people age 64 to 55, those individuals, you have about a 60 of them who have less than one time their salary saved. How do we get people to nudge into Retirement Savings by having it be automatic like the plan is in oregon and it is about six other states looking to bring these plans on board. Folks, thank you, diage oakley with the National Institute on Retirement Security and eric an es, thank you for joans us. Ge saw the biggest decline in six years today, a number of brokerages cut their price targets, citing following that disappointing Earnings Report last friday. The stock was off more than 6 on heavy volume. Ge was once considered a bellwetherr it still is on the not is up for debate, but today some been looking to a new batch of companies that they say are more reflective of the changitimes. Dominic chu has our story tonight. Bellwether is defined as one that takes the lead or Initiative Also an indicator of trends. Now, trends in the stock market change over time, and so do the bellwethers of the market. In todays environment, its easy to see apple as a market bellwether. Thats what jones trading chief market strategis Michael Roark says, not only is it the Biggest Company out there, its also a blend of technology and retail, which means it could be used as an indicator of a consumer. Its why Northern Trust chief investment strategist says he would pick walmart. The u. S. Is a consumerled economy and walmart is a good indicator of consumers s speaking of Economic Activity wonderlic securities set the bellwether is fedex, its hard to high Economic Activity from Transportation Companies so it acts as a good indicator. When it comes to conglomerate, look for nur, Huntington Private Bank chief Investment OfficerJohn Augustine thinking it has a set of businesses that are basically a smaller sample of the american economy, with from insurance to retear, now everyone has a different view on what companies are the best indicators of the market or economy righnow. One thing is for certain, america and its Top Companies will always have to evolve with the times. For nightly Business Report, this is the busiest week for earnings with more than 170 members of the s p 500 reporting results this weeks. 12 dow components among them. That includes mcdonalds which has seen its stock rise about 35 just this year. Now investors want to know if theres a golden opportunity that could send the shares even higher. Indicate rodgers tells us what to look for when it it reports. The hurricanes could have an impact when the fast food giant reports earnings. It has a large presence in both florida and texas, but many say that impact could be temporary and are focusing instead on delivering sales growth. It has testing delivery in the u. S. Amid the partnership with uber eats now in 13 countries and 3500 location and could positively impact samestore sales growth. It has the potential to add a point, maybe two points in this quarter, particularly with the e transaction size being larger. That will be the big number that a lot of people will be looking for, what kind of contribution for this quarter and more importantly what can we expect going forward. The Sales Performance of newer menu items, including butter milk, chicken tenders, and the continued push. Last quarter the Company Offered earnings thanks in part to mccafe beverages and sodas. That promotion will be in focus for tomorrows report. Delivery, the future of kiosk ordering, and mobile order and pay. We need to see validation this is on track, last couple quarters we have seen benefits from these programs internationally, and now its time for those to start materializing in the u. S. Also look out for any mention of experience in the future. Kiosks should be in 2500 location by the end of the year, and mobile odd been should be nation wide. Im kate rogers for nightly business repor and still ahead, is big tech moving in on the turf of big ba it turns out that amazon has received, get this, more than 230 proposals from cities and regions around the country hoping to be t o the companys second headquarters. Amazon says the tax breaks and grants would be a big deciding factor and that it promises to bring 50,000 new jobs and spend more than 5 billion on new construction form the proposals came from 43 states as well as washington, d. C. And puerto rico, three mexican stays it is states and six canadian provinces. Its not necessarily the banks leading the way, but indeed Big Technology firms. Deidra bosa reports from the money 2020 conference the future of money, big banks arent leading the way. Technology companies are. Thats right some of the biggest speaker as this money 2020s conference are from apple, amazon and facebook. Apples vision of the future, and sending money there i message. Seeing you ordering tro restaurants using the app and paying with the information already stored in your account. This was all once the turf of traditional banks. If Technology Company versus their way, that wont be the indicate et ve. Its still earlier days, but theyre growing fast, and the big question is do they want to actually the Banking Industry does. As any one of these companies decides to get into anyt banking, the universal blending or payments. Impacted by the regulatory oversight. A very complex choice. Using amazon, google or facebook for banking serv. An opportunity to partner and capitalize on a lot of the innovation thats in the market, that the banks may not have the ability to innovate around themselves. Yes, they will offer some banking services, but they dont have to be the bank to do that. They have the regulations and regulatory authorities, and the regulations are so strict, its hard to be a bank. Its around trust. If you can establish the trust with a consumer, and i think both have the brands and depths and history to actually establish that truth, and they dont compromise that trust, then absolutely they can become banks. Banking are all built on truth. Even though Companies Like banks are relying on them more heavily for the expertise. It could prove difficult if the competition heats up. For nightly busines m deidra bosa, las vegas. Cisco strikes a deal with broad soft. Thats where we begin tonights market focus. The networking Technology Company is paying nearly doctor 2 billion to acquire broad soft. The deal is aimed at growing the subscription base revenue and expanding the companys services. The shares closed fractionally higher today. Shares of broadinvolve rose more than 1. 5 . Hasbro reported stronger than expected earnings despite says the results were hurt by the bankruptcy of its biggest customer, toys r us, but the maker of monopoly in the quarter warned that sales in the future would be pressured during the Holiday Shopping season because of that toys r us abruptlies as a result shares felt more than 8 toda underarmour is reportedly considering exiting some of the smaller categories. The wall street journal says the Athletic Apparel outdoor gear and fishing if an effort to underarmour said its cofounder will take a sabbatical from the company. Shares were up more than 3 today to close at 16. 85. Restructuring karges caused profits to miss the market at ar company also lifted the guidance for the full year. In addition, ar connick named Charles Blankenship as its new ceo. Shares fell by 10 , finished the day at 24. 35. And during a wideranging interview earlier today, princeala bebin that lal sid shares of citigroup could go higher than 110, and tesla is too xub raven, as he put it. He runs a conglomerate baited in riyadh and floated the idea that saudi arabia could list more than 5 of saudi aramco in the coming years, but the comments getting the most attention had to do with bitcoin. He told Andrew Ross Sorkin hes not a fan. I just dont believe in the bitcoin thing. I think tell enron in the making. I just dont believe it completely. Because . It doesnt make sense its not under the supervision of any or any other central bank. I just dont believe in it at all. Enron, of course, the prince was referring to the massive accounting fraud that tonight enron, the Energy Trading company into bankruptc 2001. White the prince and others are skeptical of bitcoin its getting buzz due to the at the recent surge, but its had a long effort to get it to purchase things. Diane olick has the story for us tonight. You see it in some restaurants and in some retail. Now bitcoin is buying into real estate. Over the summer, a societys bys agency in austin was behind the first home sale in texas. We knew that bitcoins, crypt occurrence sit, it has an exchange rate. It ce exchanged for u. S. Dollars, so the challenge, which actually wasnt all that challenging iso figure out they turned to bitpay, because the seller, a custom homebuilder didnt want bitcoin, he wanted dollars. We had a brief conversation about that, but bitcoin is new to most consumers, so accepting it just want something they didnt want to do. That will not be the case in lower manhattan. This developer hayes several potential buyers, and he wants to keep the currency. Ill use it both personally and as a dev. On ive been buying some artwork of recent, and personally for me, ive had a bunch of sellers of artwork ask me to pay them in bitcoin. He says in a hot market lyman hanes, accepting bitcoin gives him a competitive edge. Its a price point building in the 700 to 1. 5 million range. There was not a lot of that in the inventory in the marketplace, and you tried to always work and get one of coming out to on you buyers is certainly an edge. It sounds Pretty Simple now, but the deals so far have been all bitcoin sales, bringing bitcoin to your average neighborhood where most buyers need a home loan, with farreaching implications not just for real estate, but for banks and borrows. Im diana olick in washington. Coming up, why this watch is considered the holy grail of timepieces. This watch certainly does more than tell time. It has a history, a history that belongs to the late actor paul newman, an the mystery surrounding it could help it become one of the most expensive watches ever sold. Robert frank has the fascinating story. Paul newman was always in a race against time, as an actor, race car driver and philanthropist. Now his wrist watch which some consider