There may be one more day left in the month but as far as wall street is concerned the books are closed on a sluggish month of april. The dow did manage to squeeze out its Third Straight month of gains, but the nasdaq was the big drag having its worst month since january, and we all remember how bad that one was. As for today, the stocks fell early and often after some weak Economic Data helped set the tone. But late in the day the market staged a bit of a comeback and ended well off the lows. The dow fell 57 points to 17,773. The nasdaq dropped just about 30. And the s p 500 was off 10. The dow and s p were off more than 1 , but the nasdaq fell more than 2. 5 . And for the month only the nasdaq was lower, down about 2 . Yesterday billionaire investor carl icahn has said he has gotten out of his stake in apple and that sent stocks lower. He also warned of a day of reckoning for the markets. Today Warren Buffett weighed in and said, thats just icahns opinion. There were probably just probably 50,000 or people more that bought stocks today and probably 50,000 people that sold. I dont know that id pick out any one of them and put too much weight in what they did. No i have no idea what the market will do day to day or yesterday. One thing that pressured stocks early on today, a sign of weakness as a reading of Economic Activity in chicago slipped. The Chicago Purchasing Managers index for april came in at 50. 4, thats down from last months 53. 6 and well below expectations. A decline in new orders hurt things. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. Two of the major oil companies, exxonmobil and chevron, were out with their latest results today. As you might expect, low Oil Prices Spell trouble. Exxons profit fell more than 60 , its lowest quarterly level since 1999. But to put it in context, revenue was still nearly 49 billion. That is for the quarter, folks. As for chevron, profits turned into a loss and it was more than wall street expected. In the end both companies were relatively flat in todays trade. Jackie deangelis goes deeper into the numbers. Reporter big Energy Reporting this week ecand by all accounts it was a tough quarter. Exxon managed to beat expectations with 43 cents earnings per share. But that profit was achieved by slashing costs to offset plunging crude price in the First Quarter. The companys Capital Expenditures dropped by 33 year over year, showing drastic measures were necessary to survive a quarter where oil fell to almost 26 a barrel. Very hard to see this thing outperforming. On its valuation its already pricing in oil at about 75 a barrel. Plenty of oil stocks are pricing in the 60s, a lot lower than what exxons pricing in. If you look at the details, exxonmobil pulled out a profit because of their refining and other types of downstream profits that offset still losses in upstream. So when you look at everything, these lower prices are providing excellent margins for refineries and for the chemical units. Chevron missed expectations reporting a net loss of 39 cents a share, compared to a net profit of 1. 37 in the same quarter last year. The ceo said controlling spending and getting key projects under construction would boost revenue. With oil prices up nearly 20 in the last month, some analysts are hopeful for the future. But others are not. Were anticipating a continuation of an oil recovery into the 60s by the end the year. Probably 70s next year. But in the case of these two names, because of how well they held up during the meltdown, theyre already pricing in essentially all of their recovery in the commodity that we can envision. Unless we see Global Growth go to nothing, eventually we tighten up. That might be a year or two down the road. But were going to have to resume Production Growth globally longer term. Reporter earlier this week exxon lost its aaa Credit Rating from standard poors. A credit downgrade, another blow to the companys reputation. For nightly business report, im jackie deangelis. Were more than halfway through earnings season and while not a lot was expected, there has been a slight improvement. Dominic chew has the mubs on the earnings and where we stand. Reporter now that more than 60 of companies in the s p 500 have reported results, were seeing a slightly better picture for corporate profits than originally thought. But its still not a pretty picture. If you count all the companies in the index that have reported and assume that all remaining Companies Report results along the lines of what analysts expect, First Quarter profits wont post a 5. 7 decline over the same time last year, according to data from Thompson Reuters ivis. Thats better than the 7 drop expected before the season began. Oil and gasrelated stocks have posted some of the biggest profit drops of the season. Meanwhile, those companies geared more towards Consumer Spending have posted some of the biggest gains. As bad as things may appear, famed billionaire investor Warren Buffett still has faith in americas corporate profit machine. Earnings have been so high. Corporate earnings have never been better. I mean, as a return on tangible equity, american businesses never had it so good. As a percent of profits, as a percentage of gdp Profit Margins up and down the line, business has been very, very good. Reporter some experts on wall street are looking ahead to what lies in the coming weeks. And theyre sounding a little bit more positive on what themes that i develop. For the back half of the year analysts expectation earnings to pick up because we have easier comparisons to last year that will make the back half of 2016 seem a lot better than what were experiencing now or in the second quarter. Reporter the second half of earnings season will see its fair share of retailoriented stocks. That may give investors a better idea of the health of Consumer Spending. With the s p 500 reporting next week, theres still reason to pay close attention to not only the results but what companies are forecasting about the rest of the year as well. For nightly business report, im dominic ch i dont have to tell you but corporate profit season can be brutal for companies that miss wall street estimates. Even if they show earnings and Revenue Growth. If your company is growing, should wall street estimates really matter . If so, how much and under what circumstances . Brian jacobson, portfolio strategist with wells fargo, joins us, good to have you with us. I think companies that have troubles but then i sometimes look at the earnings estimates and i think, is it the company that is having trouble . Or the estimator thats having trouble . What is it . Well, thats always a good question. The analysts, their expectations do matter quite a bit as far as setting the current stock price. Really its expectations about the future. If you think about the stock price itself, its supposed to reflect expectations of cash flows in the future to shareholders. So thats where analysts opinions and estimates really matter. And its also one of the reasons why earnings season is always so exciting and also such a volatile period of time. You get an estimate as to what that path really looks like. Is the company on the road that analysts were expecting . Or have they somehow deviated from that path . You know, you say that different estimates matter in different settings. Why is that . Its very interesting if you look at parts of the economic and market cycle. Early in this recovery for the stock market, it really looked like all that mattered was that companies were finally showing profits again. So we call that the bottom line number, earnings per share. But now it appears as though people are much more fixated on whether or not theyre generated that top line Revenue Growth, so those Sales Estimates really seem to matter a lot more than what they did earlier in this bull market that were currently in. I think part of that is because people recognize theres only so much cost cutting that you can really do. At some point you do have to have that sustainable Revenue Growth to really support continued cash flows to shareholders. I need a quick answer here. In the long run, is what really matters more far more than the estimate, what the actual earnings and revenues are . And whether they are growing, growing faster, or slowing . Isnt that the longterm determinant of what the stock price is and will be . Youre absolutely right. It really is that longterm view. And so the current measure with earnings for this particular quarter, really its a question of what does that tell us about that longerterm view . And its that longterm growth rate that really matters in setting that stock price. All right. Brian, thank you very much for helping us, Brian Jacobson with wells fargo fund. A decades old saying sell in may and go away. The reason in many investors believe the late spring and summer months dont provide much return. Bob pisani looks at whether thats really the case. Reporter sell in may and go away, its true going back for decades. The biggest gains in the stock market are made november to april each year. While going largely sideways from may through october. It doesnt work every year but it works enough to make money over time. In the last 20 years, the s p 500 rose in price an average of 6. 4 from november through april but gained only 0. 2 from may through october, according to our partners at kenshow. Still i would not recommend this strategy for most investors. The s p still rose may to october 63 of the time, including doubledigit returns a dozen times. Its just risky to stay out of the market for six months. Instead of just getting out, s p capital iq argues a rotation strategy is better. They recommend buying the etfs for Consumer Staples and health care, two defensive sectors that tend to outperform may to october. Then switching into the s p 500 from november through may. The bottom line is if you want to do a seasonable play, rotate, dont just go to cash. By the way why does the s p tend to underperform in sum mores . Its not clear bit likely due to the Summer Holidays when Trading Volume traditionally drop, as does Investment Banking activities. On the other hand theres more people investing money in the new year from tax refunds or to fund an ira. Im bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. As jkie mentioned oil prices didnt go away in april, they surged. Prices were a few pennies lower today but in the month of april they were up about 20 . That is the largest onemonth gain in a year. Iran has asked the United Nations secretarygeneral ban to intervene after the u. S. Supreme court ruled that 2 billion in frozen iranian assets must be paid to american victims of attacks blamed on tehran. Last week the court upheld a 2012 law which said irans froze be funds should go toward satisfying a multibillion dollar judgment won by families in u. S. Federal court in 2007. Meanwhile the tehran stock market has rallied sharply since iran reached a deal to end sanctions over its disputed nuclear program. Michelle Caruso Cabrera is in that Nations Capital with a look inside this small market thats on the. Reporter anyone off the street can walk into the lobby of the tehran stock exchange. And they do. So they can watch the trading of their favorite shares. When these investors found out we were from a tv show that covers the stock market, they were dying to talk to us. One man asked me if it was possible to corner the market in the united s i told him no, there are rules to prevent that. He responded, we need rules like that here in iran. Inside on the official trading floor, seats are rented by iranian brokers so they can trade on behalf of clients or for themselves. Hows the market look . Is it going to go up or down . I hope it will go up, i think. Reporter there are more than 300 listed companies and altogether theyre worth 100 billio thats much smaller than the s p 500, which is worth 19 trillion. Trader hasan maliki said transparency requirements for listed companies are good but they should be even better. We need promote our rule. For example, we must make them standard, international standard. Reporter the market here has rallied sharply in the last few years. The Vice President of the Exchange Says that happened even before iran signed a deal with the west that lifted sanctions, because the new president encouraged policies that brought down inflation and Interest Rates. Inflation rate in iran was more than 30 . But now its one digit. I mean, its lower than 10 . And Interest Rate was more than 28 . And this rate has a lot of financing for listed companies. But now it is below 20 . Interest rate has a big effect on the capital market. Reporter in iran, they dont have bulls and bears. They have lions and foxes. If youre bullish, youre lionish. If youre bearish, youre foxy. For nightly business report, im may she Caruso Cabrera, tehran. Coming up, this weeks market monitor says its all about the blue chips. He has three that he says you should own republican president ial frontrunner donald trump kicked off his California Campaign today and he was met by several hundred raucous protesters outside his speaking venue. Some of the protesters tried to rush barriers and several dozen were arrested. Trumps motorcade was forced to go around the back of the hotel and walk past a concrete median. There you see him going into the rear entrance of the hyatt. But while he has a Comfortable Lead over his challengers in the golden state, one place he is not winning, among silicon valleys tech elites. Does trump think he can win them over or does he even care . Josh lipton is in burlingame, california, with more. Reporter in california, donald trump has a lot of fans among republicans. In some polls hes currently beating senator ted cruz by more than 17 percentage points. Today he was in burlingame, california, just north of silicon valley, rallying his supporters. We cant let these people down, right . Reporter among silicon valleys elite, its a different story. They have come after trump, including facebooks mark zuckerberg, who used his developer conference to criticize though not by name trumps plan to build a wall along the u. S. Border with mexico. I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others. Reporter beyond ceos, others bash trump, even rightleaners like mark who suggested he would support Hillary Clinton if trump is the nominee. Trump, for his part, has fired right back. He criticized amazons jeff bazos in a tweet referring to his noprofit company. Bazos responded saying hell reserve trump a seat to space. Its possible trump couldnt care less what tech elites think of him or his campaign. His base of support remains workingclass voters and hes saying theyre going to come out in full support of him leading up to this california primary on june 7th. For nightly business report, im josh lipton in burlingame, california. The food and Drug Administration grants Quest Diagnostics emergency authorization for its zika virus test. And that is where we begin tonights market focus. The Laboratory Testing company said it expects to make the diagnostic test available to doctors in the u. S. And puerto rico by next week. It comes on the day when puerto ricos Health Secretary said the u. S. Territory has reported its first zikarelated death. Shares of quest finished down a fraction to 75. 17. Sanofi reported an increase in quarterly profit as the drugmakers bio tech segment helped lift results. Overall revenue for the company fell dragged down by lower diabetes drug sales. Also Biotech Company medevation has turned down their unsolicited 9. 3 billion offer saying the amount undervalues the company. Shares of anna fee fell 4 . Roby will buy tivo in a deal valued at more than 1 billion. The new company will take the name tivo. Tivo was up nearly 6 to 9. 98. Shares of rovy up were over 1. 5 to 17. 62. The drugmaker valiant announced it has finally filed its Financial Report for 2015. Avoiding thereby a default on some of its debt. The report was initially delayed over accuracy concerns with the companys financials. Valiant also nominated three new members to its board of directors. Shares of valiant nonetheless down more than 5 on the day to 33. 36. Our market monitor has listed blue chip stocks he says will rise 15 over the next 18 to 24 months. Joining us tonight is gary bradshaw, Portfolio Manager at hodges capital management. The last time he was on in may he recommended Brinker International which is down 17 . Cracker barrel which is up 5 . And Caseys General store up nearly 24 . Gary, welcome back. Two of three is pretty good. Thank you, its nice to be back. How do you feel about the market overall . As i understand you think people are a little too pessimistic . Sue, we do. Even in spite of this slowgrowth economy, we think investors are too negative and that the market will move higher Going Forward. The market is not too hot, not too cold, when you look at market multiples at about 17 times this year, 16 times next, and with Interest Rates low, 10year around 1. 85, we think market multiples can expand Going Forward as the economy gradually improves here in the u. S. And we think the World Economy will improve as well. Lets go through a couple of your picks. Youve got interesting ones there. All large capps but they represent different slices of the economy. The first one is home depot. Tyler, home depot we believe at hodges Blue Chip Fund is the best retailer in america. And they just came off a quarter where top store sales were up 8 . Whats driving that is individuals home values are improving. Housing sales are still good. People feel good about putting money into their houses. And so home depot, earnings continue to grow. They raised their gi ed their d and theyre buying back shares. Boeing is next, you think it could be a stock over the next 12 to 18 months that could rise considerably . You like the yield too . Well, boeing has a great yield. 3. 3 . But better yet, theyve got seven or eight years of these airlines that theyre going to build. And we think their margins will continue to improve. Its a Great American business. Their customers are doing well. And we think the stock could go up dramatically over the next 12 to 18 months. 165. Yet youre getting 3. 3 , which is better than any other deal. Number three, home depot, hardware. Your last ones a Software Company . Microsoft. Even tyler in spite of their pullback, microsofts been reinvigorated by their cloud business. Its not just the cloud business, its windows 10, its their search business bing. We think earnings will continue to grow. Its a 2. 7 dividend. Theyve got 100 billion sitting in cash. So hopefully theyll be able to put it to work. Gary, have a wonderful weekend, thanks for coming. Gary bradshaw with hodges capital management. Up next, americans are saving more for retirement. Well tell you how and why. Heres what to watch for next week. On monday we get a snapshot of how the manufacturing indu is doing nationally with the ism index. Tuesday brings auto sale for pip and the april jobs report caps off the week friday. That is what to watch for in next week. A new report from fidelity out today shows that despite vol volatility in the markets, americans continue to sock away money. Were saving. Its a great report and it shows the savings rate is increasing significantly. But more important a Record Number of people are saving in their 401 k . About 14 , according to fidelity. What theyre doing is one strategies thats the best way to save, in terms of your 401 k , to contribute at least into the company match. What were seeing is its a combination between their own contributions and employer contributions that are contributing to nearly 13 savings rate in the First Quarter. Weve often heard that people underfund their 401 k so thats a nice change of pace. What else are you seeing . Theyre not just doing it with 401 k . If they have one theyre bundling it with contributing to an ira as well. And so that is a significant change too, that more people are doing both. So theyre not just relying on that employer plan. Anything in that report that points to the average balance in those accounts . Because im often shocked at really how small they are. Well, theyre not that great. I mean, the average balance for a 401 k was around 87,000. And for an ira, 89,000. And it has dipped a little bit in the First Quarter with the volatility weve seen. A year ago its down 5 . So people still need to be putting in more money and of course one of the things thats interesting is that theyre not moving their money around a lot. So thats a really interesting despite the volatility, theyre holding steady. That would be i would think a very good indication, because volatility, people tend to react to volatility instead of sticking with their plan. Exa. Listening to you theyre listening to a lot of people that are saying, dont react to the shortterm movements, make sure that youre diversified, and make sure you realize theres going to be some risk there but youre looking for the longterm. I think what this study also showed is those who have been in their 401 k 10 years or more, theyre seeing a significant increase in their balances. One, because the market has improved. Also because theyve stayed in and theyve ridden it out and thats what the 401 k longterm plans are for. Sharon, thanks very much, have a great weekend. Finally tonight, speaking of saving, you better keep packing away that retirement money sharon was talking about. Because if youre mapping on goi planning on going to weddings its getting more expensive. The average cost for an American Wedding guest is 703. Thats for things like airfare, clothes, child care, but not the gift. Not the gift . Not the gift. Especially if its a little blue box. If youre in the Wedding Party its 743. But if youre a millennial the average cost is nearly 9. Did you hear Sharon Epperson gasp . 900 . Dy say 9 . Whoa. That does it for nightly business report, thanks for joining us. Tyler mathisen, thanks for joining us. Have a great evening, see you monday. John clinton and trump solidify their frontrunner status but the one Trump Movement vows last stand. Im John Dickerson in for gwen ifill tonight on washington week. Over. S as far as im concerned, its over. Secretary clinton its your house, were going to come back to philadelphia with the most most pledged delegates. John so close, they can taste it, Hillary Clinton and donald the verge of locking up their nominations and looking to fall campaign. Mr. Trump i think the only card womens card. Shes got nothing else going. Secretary clinton if fighting for paid healthcare and equal pay is playing the womens card, deal me in. John the latest