Shake Shack shares more than double in stock market debut

NEW YORK — Wall Street went wild for burgers Friday.

Shares of Shake Shack, a burger chain that started as a New York City hot dog cart, more than doubled in their first day of trading.

The company raised $105 million in its initial public offering Thursday, selling 5 million shares at $21 per share. It had initially forecast that its shares would fetch $14 to $16 per share from investors, and raised that prediction to $17 to $19 per share on Wednesday as demand grew.

Shake Shack is known for its burgers, milkshakes and crinkle-cut fries. Its journey from a hot dog cart in Manhattan's Madison Square Park to Wall Street started in 2001. Three years later, Union Square Hospitality Group, a company owned by restaurateur Danny Meyer, opened a kiosk in the same park. Restaurants throughout New York City followed, and in 2010, it ventured out of its hometown for the first time with a Miami restaurant.

It now has 63 locations, mostly on the East Coast, with plans for more.

Shares of Shake Shack Inc. rose $24.90, or 118 percent, to close at $45.90 Friday.

Here's what you need to know about the burger joint's sizzling debut:

WHY DID THE STOCK POP?

Shake Shack feeds into investors' growing appetite for restaurants that are quick but also serve food consumers think is healthier or fresher than what a fast-food chain offers.

Americans' tastes have been changing. They are trading fast-food joints, such as McDonald's, for ones that tout their fresh ingredients, such as burrito chain Chipotle. Shake Shack's IPO comes on the same week McDonald's Corp. announced it is replacing CEO Don Thompson with its chief brand officer, Steve Easterbrook. The world's largest burger chain has been struggling with falling sales as it faces completion from smaller rivals, such as Shake Shack and Five Guys.

Shake Shack cooks its burgers to order and promotes its use of natural ingredients, including hormone- and antibiotic-free beef. Long lines are common, and guests are given vibrating pagers that signal when an order is ready.

Investors view these types of restaurants, known as "fast-casual" chains, as a fast-growing sector. Many tend to be regional chains that plan to expand around the country.

Another likely reason for the huge demand: Shake Shack's New York roots.

"There isn't anyone on Wall Street who hasn't tried their burgers and shakes," said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, an exchange-traded fund manager that focuses on IPOs. "It's a local favorite."

IN GOOD COMPANY

Other restaurant chains that went public over the past year also had huge first-day gains. Burger chain The Habit Restaurants Inc. soared 120 percent in its November debut. Chicken chain El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. jumped 60 percent in July and Mediterranean-style restaurant chain Zoe's Kitchen Inc. popped 65 percent in its April debut.

SMALL CHAIN, BIG FOLLOWING

Shake Shack's locations are mostly along the East Coast, but its brand has grown beyond that, thanks to social media, TV appearances and some well-known fans. President Barack Obama has dropped by a Shake Shack near the White House. "Saturday Night Live," ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and other TV shows have featured the burgers. And Shake Shack's fans on social media have swelled. It has 148,000 followers on photo- and video-sharing app Instagram, about 2,000 more than Chipotle.

CEO Randy Garutti said being based in New York helped turn Shake Shack into a global brand. There are now Shake Shacks in London, Istanbul and Moscow.

WHAT'S NEXT

The company wants to use money from the IPO to open more stores. The plan is to eventually have about 450 locations, according to the company's filling with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ten locations will open this year, Garutti said, including its first in Austin, Texas. Others are coming to Orlando, Florida and Baltimore, he said.

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Cool Southie condo tops retail space

This stylish South Boston condo isn't what you'd expect to see above a retail store, with its paneled wainscoting, sloped skylighted ceilings and private decks with panoramic city views.

The two-bedroom unit at 634 East Broadway, on the market for $629,900, is one of five condos above a former hardware store, but unlike the other condos Unit 1 has three levels and a private entrance.

The first level is the entry­way to the condo, with a marble foyer, hallway and a coat closet, and the living spaces have a reverse layout, with the living/dining/kitchen spaces on the top floor.

The unit was converted in 2005 with maple floors with cherrywood inlay, paneled wainscoting and high-end window and door moldings.

A maple staircase lined with white-paneled wainscoting leads up two flights to the main living area. The living room has paneled wainscoting and features 12-foot sloped ceilings with recessed lighting as well as speakers­ with built-in surround sound. In one corner sits a gas fireplace with a carved wood mantel and black granite hearth with a chandelier overhead. Glass doors lead out to a 200-square-foot private wooden deck with panoramic city views.

The adjacent dining/kitchen area has three skylights. The dining area also has paneled wainscoting and a chandelier and fronts on a three-part bay window. The kitchen features 22 walnut-stained cabinets and black granite counters. The General Electric refrigerator, dishwasher and gas stove are also black.

Off the living spaces is a storage closet and there's a hallway with a second closet holding a stacked GE washer/dryer and the unit's gas-fired heating and central air-conditioning system.

At the end of the hall is a half bathroom with beadboard wainscoting, a black marble floor and a pedestal sink.

Down the stairs, the second level has a step-up open-style den/home office space with maple floors and cherry­wood inlay, paneled wainscoting and crown molding. It is flanked on either side by two bedroom suites.

The rear-facing master suite features a decent-sized bedroom with recessed lighting and an overhead fan/light as well as a good-sized closet with built-in shelving. A pair of glass doors lead out to a 250-square-foot private rear deck with views of the city. The en-suite master bathroom has a marble-tile floor and ceramic tile surround for a whirlpool tub. There's a brown granite-topped wood vanity and a separate one-piece Fiberglas shower.

The second bedroom is front-facing with a three-part bay window, recessed lighting and an overhead fan/light. The en-suite bathroom has marble tile floors and walls and a brown granite-topped wood vanity. There's also a one-piece Fiberglas shower.

The unit does not come with parking, with the best option being a South Boston residential parking permit.

Home Showcase

• Address: 
624 East Broadway, Unit 1, South Boston
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: Two full, one half
• List price: $629,900
• Square feet: 1,438
• Price per square foot: $438
• Annual taxes: $6,380
• Location: About a half mile to main South Boston retail district along West Broadway; a mile via T bus to Broadway Red Line station.
• Built In: 1899, renovated into condo 2005
• Broker: David Murdock of Campion & Co. at 617-236-0711

Pros:

• Paneled wainscoting, high-end door and window moldings
• Living room with 12-foot sloped ceilings and kitchen dining area with three skylights
• Two private decks with panoramic city views
• Both bedrooms have en-suite marble-tile bathrooms

Cons:

• Doesn't come with on-site parking space
• Bathrooms have one-piece Fiberglas showers

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The Ticker

FDA OKs Shire drug for binge-eating use

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved Shire Plc's stimulant Vyvanse to treat binge-eating disorder, the first product to be approved for the condition. Shire's U.S. headquarters is based in Lexington.

Vyvanse, which is currently approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, generated sales of more than $1 billion in the first nine months of last year.

Dr. Flemming Ornskov, the company's chief executive officer, said in an interview that Shire's goal is to generate overall sales of $10 billion by 2020. Of that, he expects $200 million to $300 million to come from Vyvanse for binge-eating.

Casino license draws 5 applicants

The competition for Massachusetts' final casino license, reserved for the state's southeast region, is slowly coming into focus, as state regulators announced yesterday that Mass Gaming & Entertainment had met the application deadline.

The company, an affiliate of Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming, joins New York-based KG Urban Enterprises, as potential rivals for the license.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission said yesterday that it also is evaluating application extension requests from Somerset On The Move, Crossroads Massachusetts and the Seafan Trust. All five groups will be invited to address the commission at its next meeting Feb. 5.

Applicants were to submit by yesterday detailed financial information about key players and investors in their projects as well as a $400,000 non-refundable fee to defray costs of the commission's background investigation.

But only three of the five possible applicants — Mass Gaming & Entertainment, KG Urban Enterprises and Crossroads Massachusetts — have paid the required fee, the commission said. Applicants must pass the background check before they can continue to the next phase of the process, which focuses on the project proposal itself.

New Connector chief takes over Mon.

Gov. Charlie Baker's pick to head the state's health care marketplace and website is stepping into the job a few weeks earlier than planned.

Baker tapped Louis Gutierrez last week to serve as executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, which oversees the state's health insurance marketplace and website. Gutierrez, a principal at the Massachusetts-based IT consulting firm Exeter Group, was scheduled to take over the post near the end of February, but now plans to start Monday.

Interim Executive Director Maydad Cohen is expected to stay on at the connector to help manage the project through the end of the open enrollment period.

Brandeis president to step down

Brandeis University President Frederick Lawrence will step down at the end of the current school year and take a job at Yale. Lawrence made the announcement yesterday in a letter to the university community in Waltham that he looked forward to returning to full-time teaching and scholarship as a senior research scholar at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn.

Lawrence has served as the eighth president of Brandeis since January 2011.

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Merger collapse puts Partners in tight spot

Partners HealthCare will have to tread carefully on any future expansion, or risk a takedown attempt by Attorney General Maura Healey, a hospital expert predicted yesterday.

"If Partners keeps on attacking and capturing more land, the AG may say, you know these folks are out of control and they're far too big to allow competition to survive in Massachusetts," said Boston University professor Alan Sager. "If they continue down that road, they may well risk the AG suing to break them up into two parts."

Partners' options are limited after Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders rejected the deal allowing Partners to merge with South Shore, Lawrence Memorial and Melrose-Wakefield hospitals.

It can forge ahead with the merger anyway, engaging in a bare-knuckles legal brawl with an eager new AG. But that could take one to two years in the courts, not including any appeals, said Tasneem Chipty, an antitrust economics expert at Analysis Group.

"If you had two small organizations trying to merge, there would be no issue at all," said Chipty. "You only see close scrutiny, which could become litigious, in situations where one or both parties are quite big. Obviously, Partners is big."

Partners and Healey could also go back to the drawing board on an agreement more palatable to the court than the one former Attorney General Martha Coakley negotiated, but that would also likely be a multiyear process.

Partners could also abandon the deal altogether, or drop individual hospitals from the merger.

Partners CEO Gary Gottlieb is scheduled to step down July 1. It's reasonable to assume Partners would wait to make sure its new CEO is on board with whatever next step it chooses. Partners had no comment yesterday.

Still unknown is what Healey's takedown of the Partners deal could mean for other hospitals, including Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center, which are in talks to merge.

Healey said yesterday she'll be watching the potential deal closely.

"If an agreement between Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center is proposed, our office fully expects to review the transaction," said Christopher Loh, spokesman for Healey. "We remain committed to tackling the challenge of controlling health-care costs while also promoting quality and access."

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Germany's Merkel says she doesn't see another Greek debt cut

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has underlined the refusal of Greece's European creditors to consider forgiving part of the debt-ridden country's rescue loans, though she stressed in an interview published Saturday that Berlin's aim is to keep Greece in the eurozone.

Greece's new government insists it will honor pre-election promises to seek a cut on the country's rescue debt and scrap painful budget measures that were demanded in exchange for the loans.

Merkel said in an interview with the daily Berliner Morgenpost that Europe will continue showing solidarity with Greece and other nations hit by Europe's debt crisis "if these countries undertake their own reform and saving efforts," and fended off a question about the new Greek government's moves to reverse reforms and rehire suspended workers.

"We — Germany and the other European partners — will now wait and see what concept the new Greek government comes to us with," she was quoted as saying. She was clear, however, about prospects of a debt cut.

Athens already was forgiven billions of euros by private creditors, Merkel said. "I don't see a further debt haircut."

As for demands that have surfaced in Greece for Germany to pay more compensation for Nazi crimes during World War II, Merkel said that "this question doesn't arise."

Merkel said she wants Greece to be successful and acknowledged that "many people there have hard times behind them."

"The aim of our policies was and is for Greece to remain a part of the euro community permanently," she said.

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Smart Spending: Why investors are applauding Amazon earnings

NEW YORK — Amazon.com Inc.'s fourth-quarter earnings roundly beat analyst expectations, sending the Seattle e-commerce giant's stock soaring 11 percent in premarket trading Friday. Here's a closer look at what investors applauded and hope continues.

SMART SPENDING

Operating expenses rose 15 percent to $28.74 billion but that was less than some analysts had expected Amazon would spend. Investors have long wanted Amazon to show some restraint as it invests in its business, and this metric seemed to be a sign that Amazon is willing to do that. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the lower-than-expected costs were related to flat fulfillment expenses — what the company spends on its distribution centers and deliveries — during the holiday season even though Amazon shipped 100 million more free items. The company also spent less on marketing expenses since the launch of its new hardware like Fire TV and the Fire Smartphone are behind it.

"They're getting far more efficient at delivery," said Pachter. "They're spending like slightly tipsy sailors rather than drunken sailors."

PRIME MEMBERSHIP GROWTH

Prime membership grew 53 percent in 2015. Two-day shipping costs Amazon a pretty penny but membership means more revenue from customers in the long run. Pachter estimates there are about 35 million Prime members worldwide. And he pointed out the company is making untraditional efforts to get more members. For example, it cut the price of its Prime membership to $72 one Saturday in January and let non-Prime members stream its Golden Globe winning series "Transparent" starring Jeffrey Tambor.

"Little promotions like that are going to drive prime membership and they'll continue to really promote it," Pachter said.

WILL IT LAST?

Some caution that one quarter of disciplined spending does not a trend make. In a call with investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster pointed out that over the past two years it has been a "little bit of a roller coaster" for Amazon's gross margin, a key metric that shows how big a percentage of revenue is spent on investing back into the company.

"There've been points of optimism followed by points of frustration," he said and asked the company how they plan to "smooth out some of this roller coaster mentality."

CFO Tom Szkutak acknowledged that Amazon has been in a "heavy investment cycle." He said the company is being "selective" about its investment opportunities but didn't give any details, saying it is still finalizing spending plans for 2015.

"The question is, is this a one-time hiccup or are they going to repeat it," Wedbush's Pachter said. "If I see this for two, three or four quarters I will believe it."

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Chamber of Commerce to focus on technology companies

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce is turning over a new leaf, planning to focus on the technology sector and innovation economy as it outlines its priorities in the coming year.

"We need to do more to continue to accelerate innovation and promote innovation everywhere," Jim Klocke, chamber executive vice president, said. "(It's) critical. We have a lot of talent around here, we have a lot of innovation."

The new focus comes as the chamber searches for a leader to replace longtime president and chief executive Paul Guzzi, who announced his retirement in September.

John Fish, who was head of the search committee until he recently stepped down, has said the chamber is looking for someone who could strengthen its connection with innovation businesses.

In outlining its 2015 agenda, the chamber also is emphasizing increasing STEM education and improving entrepreneurial freedom for independent contractors — policies that weren't a priority last year.

"Massachusetts should adopt the federal standard for independent contractors," Klocke said.

"We're going to see more people starting small business, we're going to see more creativity and startups."

The chamber and Boston-based startup incubator MassChallenge also have been working together to increase engagement with fledgling Hub businesses.

C.A. Webb, executive director of the New England Venture Capital Association, said the chamber's agenda for the year represents a good step.

"It's a comprehensive and thoughtful plan that reflects even more of an innovation orientation than last year's agenda," she said. "I'm really supportive of the agenda and look forward to collaborating with them."

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Hot Property: Ocean dreams come true at Seapoint

As we get through the aftermath of the Blizzard of 2015, why not dream of spending summers in this luxurious shingle-style Dartmouth compound at the tip of a peninsula that juts five miles into Buzzards Bay.

Designed by renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern and built in 2007, the 22,000-square-foot property known as Seapoint has a main house with five-bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and a guest house with three bedrooms. It's located on 10 landscaped acres, with 270-degree ocean views and 1,500 feet of water frontage bordered by a seawall.

The current owner, who runs a financial services company and has a home in Boston, used Seapoint as a summer retreat. But he has already moved into another summer home he had built on the Cape. The Dartmouth property has been up for sale since July, listed for a cool $25 million.

"There are very few buyers at this price point," said listing broker Robert Kinlin of Robert Paul Properties, who said the price also includes a buildable lot in the gated community and golf club at nearby Round Hill. "You have people who don't need to sell and people who don't need to buy."

Kinlin said that the eventual buyer of Seapoint will be someone who falls in love with the site. It could easily be a year-round home, he said, although it most likely will be someone's second, third or fourth place. The annual taxes are $178,760.

"It's an amazing piece of earth, first of all," said Kinlin of the waterfront site "You've got views out to Cuttyhunk and Martha's Vineyard. For a property like this, the land is the most important thing, followed by the house."

The site served as a lookout for German submarines during World War II, and there's still a gun turret on the property.

With its wraparound porches, outdoor patios, infinity-edge pool and water dock, Seapoint feels like a hotel resort. Almost every room has a water view.

The enormous second-floor master bedroom suite includes two full bathrooms and two dressing rooms with custom built-ins, a hand-painted, barrel-vault ceiling and a gas fireplace with a baroque pattern of gilt silver. Private staircases from the suite lead to a circular library and home office and there's an outdoor deck with ocean views.

The current owners also hired local artisans to add nautical motifs such as a curved custom fireplace fashioned from stones and driftwood from Buzzards Bay. Craftsmen also made bulls-eye glass windows for the foyer, adorned a living room mantelpiece with shells and mermaids, and carved a rope motif into the dining room floors and seashells into the kitchen floors.

Then there's the unique amenities on the lower level such as a regulation bowling alley, a custom-built stone-fronted circular wine cellar as well as a bar carved to resemble the prow of a ship.

The five-mile Mishaum Point peninsula is a gated community of high-end summer homes 66 miles from downtown Boston.

"Unlike the Cape, you don't have to cross any bridges to get to Dartmouth," Kinlin said. "And it's a quiet, low-key area ideal for someone who wants privacy."

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Businesses stay clear of using Super Bowl name

PHOENIX — It is the game that must not be named — at least not without permission.

For most people, the game Sunday between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks is the Super Bowl. But for many business owners, it's simply the "big game" or "game day."

Radio hosts are tripping over their tongues and airport signs are carefully worded to keep from referring to it as the Super Bowl, a trademarked name the NFL strictly polices. Mom-and-pop shops and large companies hoping to cash in on the game — but also don't want to run afoul of league lawyers — have found ways to color inside the lines.

Tyler Ellis, whose Coney Island Grill is located within the downtown Super Bowl Central village, is selling souvenir tie-dye shirts. The garments say "Coney Island 2015" as well as "the big game." The $15 shirts come in pink, red, blue and green.

Fortunately, the restaurant owner was fully aware of the league's reputation for coming down on trademark infringers.

"I'm just an NFL follower. You can't even YouTube their videos. They're just strict with their licensing," Ellis said.

Grocery chain Whole Foods has avoided using "Super Bowl" on in-store signs and social media. The Facebook page for the central Phoenix location offers recipe ideas for "your Big Game party."

Signs at American Airlines ticket counters in Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport greet travelers with "Welcome to the big game." American Airlines spokesman Casey Norton said though it is the official airline for the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, the company isn't an NFL partner.

"Like any brand, we work to protect our valuable intellectual property and the rights we extend to our partners," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

What constitutes a violation is determined on a case-by case basis, McCarthy said. For example, a restaurant writing up a Super Bowl menu on a chalkboard wouldn't be an issue. And according to trademark law, a fair use exception allows for news organizations to use the Super Bowl moniker.

McCarthy said if a potential infringement is discovered, the league will notify the party involved. If nothing changes, then a cease-and-desist letter follows. McCarthy declined to discuss how many companies have received letters in recent months.

One of the participants in the Super Bowl is not a stranger to trademark disputes. Texas A&M University has long held the trademark for the term "12th Man," the nickname for the Seahawks' large and vocal fan base. The Seahawks and university reached a settlement in 2006 that allows the team to use some versions of the phrase.

And the NFL is not the only sports organization to be vigilant about its brand. Congress has created protections for the U.S. Olympic Committee so it has exclusive rights to use "Olympics" and the interlocking rings logo. International soccer governing body FIFA is requiring countries that host the World Cup to create special rights in their constitutions to protect advertisers, said Jeff Greenbaum, a New York-based advertising lawyer with the firm Frankfurt Kurnit.

Roger N. Behle Jr., an intellectual property lawyer with the firm Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, said the NFL's monitoring is about maximizing revenue.

"They do have a right to police it. They spent a lot of money to build the brand up, make it profitable and not have any Tom, Dick and Harry use the marks," said Behle, who has worked on licensing deals with the NFL and other major sports leagues.

Greenbaum said the NFL's enforcement is also about protecting its sponsors. The league creates "official" beers, chips, sodas and other items, which can give a business a distinct advantage over its competitors.

"The strategy that they're employing is to create enough concern among marketers that they're afraid to even get close to the line," Greenbaum said.

___

Associated Press writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

___

Follow Terry Tang on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ttangAP

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Barbie blues gave Mattel holiday disappointment

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Slumping sales of Barbie did little to bring a happy holiday to her maker, Mattel Inc.

Mattel's fourth-quarter earnings release Friday drilled down into the details of a weak performance that led to the resignation of its chairman and CEO.

Barbie sales fell 12 percent, though that wasn't as bad as the third quarter's 21 percent drop. Fisher-Price sales fell 11 percent. While American Girl slipped 4 percent, it was better than the 7 percent decline in the third quarter.

Hot Wheels sales rose 5 percent.

Interim CEO Christopher Sinclair said he will spend the next few months evaluating the company's businesses to "revitalize our brands."

The results for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 are important because they include the holiday season, a make-or-break time of year for toy makers.

Mattel's fourth-quarter performance fell far short of Wall Street's expectations when the toy maker provided preliminary results Monday, the same time it announced the departure of CEO Bryan Stockton.

Stockton became CEO in January 2012 and then was named chairman a year later. A former Kraft Foods executive, he served as a Mattel's chief operating officer before becoming CEO. Sinclair has served as a Mattel Inc. director since 1996.

For the fourth quarter, Mattel posted an adjusted profit of 52 cents per share on revenue of $1.99 billion. That was below the 83 cents per share on revenue of $2.07 billion that analysts polled by FactSet predicted.

Drew Crum of Stifel Nicolaus said in a client note that not all was bad for Mattel in the fourth quarter, as it significantly lowered retail inventory in domestic markets and reported better-than-expected revenue from Mega Brands.

But the analyst kept a "Hold" rating, saying he is waiting for evidence of improvement in its core brands.

Mattel's full-year adjusted profit was $1.48 per share on revenue of $6.02 billion.

The company's stock shed 50 cents to $26.40 in premarket trading.

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The Ticker

Super Bowl ads
 won't offend

Super Bowl advertisers are being careful not to offend. GoDaddy decided not to run an ad that showed a dog being sold online so as not to offend dog lovers. The Victoria's Secret angels are fully clothed in its teaser spot, at least, although they reveal more in their actual Super Bowl ad. And an anti-domestic abuse commercial will have a high profile-spot during the game after a year of domestic violence scandals in the NFL.

Facebook beats revenue forecasts

For the seventh quarter in a row Facebook beat profit and revenue forecasts, continuing to win more mobile advertising revenue as most users shift to using the site on smartphones and other portable devices.

The world's biggest online social network said yesterday that advertising revenue jumped 
53 percent to $3.59 billion for the fourth quarter — with mobile ad revenue representing
69 percent of the total.

Fed to be patient on raising rates

The Federal Reserve reiterated yesterday that it will be "patient" in raising interest rates from record lows even as the U.S. economy moves steadily closer to full health. The Fed said it thinks inflation will decline further before eventually reaching the central bank's 2 percent target rate.

TODAY

 Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

 Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.

 National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales index for December.

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Apple stock ascends after record quarter

Shares of Apple Inc. surged yesterday after the company announced the best financial quarter ever for a public company, and analysts predict there's more growth in the tech giant's future.

Apple stock closed up 5 percent a day after it revealed blockbuster 
$74.6 billion in sales and record-breaking $18 billion profit in the fourth-quarter after it rolled out its newest smartphones, the larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. The company said it sold 74.5 million iPhones in the quarter, which works out to 34,000 smartphones every hour.

"We believe momentum in the current iPhone product cycle remains strong," said Ben Reitzes in a research note for Barclays, "helped by new form factors as well as new products."

Citigroup analyst Jim Suva pointed out that changes in wireless plans allow consumers to upgrade their smartphones without waiting two years to avoid penalties, which he called a big factor in Apple's sales total and a continuing plus for the stock.

"We believe investors do not fully grasp this change in behavior by the wireless carriers and the positive impact to Apple," he wrote.

But Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, sounded a more cautious note.

"Other factors will make it difficult to match this quarter's growth performance," he said.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Logan service to fly at full throttle today

Airlines flying in and out of Logan International Airport are expected to return to full service today after more than 100 flights were canceled yesterday due to the lingering effects of the blizzard.

"All of our airlines should have full, regular schedules," Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said.

The storm that dumped 
24.6 inches of snow completely shut down the airport Tuesday, and 109 flights out of Logan were canceled yesterday, according to flight tracking website flight-aware.com.

The canceled flights, however, were not because of bad weather yesterday, or even snow on the ground.

"Because we had so much snow here, a lot of the airlines took their craft away from Logan," Mehigan said, "so the aircraft have to come in before they begin their cycle."

The financial cost of even a storm this big is negligible for airlines, said Carter Leake, an aviation analyst and senior vice-president at BB&T Capital Markets.

"The guy who is supposed to fly on Wednesday flies on Thursday," he said. "A one-day event like this, with news coming (in advance), they had time to apply their optimized solution."

Mehigan said crews at Logan have been working nonstop to get snow off the tarmac — including using an industrial snow-melter.

Passengers lucky enough to have a flight to board yesterday said they were making the best of the situation.

Klancy Miller had a connecting flight canceled, so she had to wait out the storm in Boston before going home to Philadelphia, adding an unplanned extra day to her vacation.

"I literally just read magazines," she said. "It's been really relaxing."

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Chinatown creates land trust

Chinatown residents and activists have formed a land trust in an attempt to buy properties and keep them affordable for residents of the Boston neighborhood, which has been giving way to gentrification.

"What we're really trying to do is preserve as much of the residential stock that exists in Chinatown in a form that is more affordable so the whole neighborhood doesn't become luxury, thus pricing out the Chinese community that is here," said Jeff Hovis, president of the nonprofit Chinatown Community Land Trust. "It's not all going to be ultra-low end properties. There may also be some mixture of more middle-income, condo-type properties really designed for families."

Row houses are the primary target of the trust, which hopes to get funding from sources including the city's Department of Neighborhood Development and foundations, and partner with nonprofit or for-profit developers. Some residents held a rally yesterday on Hudson Street, to protest what they said was a forced relocation of tenants from a row house.

"The city of Boston funds affordable housing development, so it's very conceivable that we would be able to fund, at least in part, a purchase of housing in Chinatown if it was going to remain affordable," DND director Sheila Dillon said.

The Chinatown land trust is getting help from the city's first land trust, the nonprofit Dudley Neighbors Inc., which formed in 1988 and has partnered to develop 225 affordable residential units in Roxbury's Dudley area.

"Funding is a big challenge, because when we started, we were able to access blighted vacant land," DNI director Harry Smith said. "They're in Chinatown. There's not a lot of vacant city-owned land."

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Charlie Baker to Keolis: Get on track

Keolis, the French company hired last year to run commuter rail lines, struggled mightily to rebound from the blizzard, canceling 28 trains during yesterday's morning rush hour, sparking a warning from the Baker administration to deliver on their "no-excuses" contract.

The company reported an on-time early-day performance of 36 percent, greatly below its average of 89 percent. The delays left some passengers waiting for more than an hour.

Yesterday's failures to get the commuter rail lines running efficiently after a storm that dropped up to three feet of powdery, dry snow in some areas prompted Gov. Charlie Baker's newly appointed Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack to single out the company.

"We understand the challenges that our operator Keolis faces in operating the system. They signed on to a no-excuses contract and we're going to be looking for a better performance this afternoon and on an ongoing basis over that contract," Pollack said.

Baker was quick to back her up, adding, "I think Secretary Pollack's comments speak for the administration on that one."

Keolis spokesman Mac Daniel said mechanical problems with aging locomotives — from stalled engines to malfunctioning air compressors — were to blame and that snow-covered rails or weather-related track switch issues were not factors in the scuttled trains.

Daniel said 22 of the usual 196 inbound trains heading to North Station during yesterday's morning rush hour had to be canceled, including two disabled trains on the Fitchburg line, which resulted in passengers having to get off one train and reboard another. South Station bound trains fared better, with six of 302 trains getting scratched.

Passengers on the Newburyport-Rockport line endured the longest delay of 74 minutes while waiting for a replacement train sent from Boston to reach the Clipper City after the original train broke down.

Keolis has been hampered by failures with 40 of the new locomotives the MBTA shelled out 
$222 million for being taken off line for major repairs to fix faulty traction motor bearings.

As of 7 last night, Keolis reported it was on time for only 40 percent of the day's runs.

The MBTA has already slapped Keolis with an $804,000 fine in November in part because of a poor on-time record that dropped to 
85 percent in October, as well as unclean trains, and other problems.

Laurel J. Sweet contributed to this report.

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Fed is expected to remain 'patient' about a first rate hike

WASHINGTON — As the Federal Reserve ends its latest policy meeting Wednesday, it is widely expected to repeat the pledge it made in December: That it will be "patient" in raising interest rates from record lows.

That pledge could endure well into 2015.

The U.S. economy has steadily improved. Yet inflation has dipped further below the Fed's target rate, thanks to plunging oil prices and a surging dollar. The stronger dollar makes foreign goods cheaper in the United States.

The statement that Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues will issue after the meeting will be scrutinized for any possible clues to a shift in Fed policy. The statement will be all that investors will have to digest because there will be no Yellen news conference after this meeting and no updates to the Fed's economic forecasts.

At the Fed's last meeting in December, its statement said officials thought they could be "patient" in moving to raise their key short-term rate, which has been kept at a record low near zero for six years.

Most economists foresee no rate hike until June at the earliest. And given recent developments, some economists are starting to push back their predicted timetable for the first rate hike to September or December.

Economists at Morgan Stanley say they now think the first rate hike won't occur until March 2016. Other economists say they still expect the first increase to come this year.

"The Fed does have more latitude, given the rise in the dollar and the collapse in oil prices," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "But I still think the first rate increase will come in June."

Complicating the Fed's timetable is the European Central Bank's just-announced plan to pump 1 trillion euros into its ailing economy. That flood of cash should keep the eurozone's rates ultra-low. Many investors may respond by shifting into higher-yielding U.S. Treasurys. That would strengthen the dollar even more and could push U.S. inflation further below the Fed's 2 percent target.

Under that scenario, the Fed might find it hard to justify a rate hike, which risks weakening the economy and slowing inflation further.

"Standing pat is the best thing to do right now," said David Wyss, an economics professor at Brown University.

Even before the ECB acted last week, anticipation of its move had helped cut the euro's value to a decade-long low against the U.S. dollar. The dollar is also being driven up by strengthening U.S. economic growth.

The plunge in world oil prices, which have fallen 60 percent since June, has contributed to lower inflation even as the U.S. job market has been reviving.

After years of subpar growth, the economy added nearly 3 million jobs added last year, enough to cut the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent. That is just above the Fed's goal of 5.2 percent to 5.5 percent unemployment.

But Yellen and other Fed officials have pointed to other factors — such as weak pay growth and a still-high number of part-time workers who can't find full-time jobs — as evidence that more must be done to achieve a healthy job market.

Prices rose just 1.2 percent in the 12 months that ended in November, according to the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation. When inflation is too low, consumer spending can slow as people delay purchases on the assumption that the same or lower prices will be available later. The biggest fear is deflation — a broad decline in prices and income that can further restrain spending and even tip an economy into recession.

Yellen, who is completing her first year as Fed chair, has had to deal with scattered dissents — from both "doves" who feel more should be done to spur job growth and "hawks" who worry that prolonged low rates could fuel future high inflation.

Two vocal hawks, Charles Plosser, head of the Fed's regional bank in Philadelphia, and Richard Fisher, his counterpart in Dallas, no longer have votes this year under the rotation system for Fed bank presidents. Both are retiring from the Fed in March. The new set of voters lean to the "dovish" camp.

At her December news conference, Yellen said the use of "patient" in describing the timing of a rate hike meant there would be no increase for at least the next couple of meetings. The next two meetings are in March and April followed by a session on June 16-17.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, is looking for a delay to September or possibly not until year's end.

"My question is, what's the rush?" Sohn said. "We are not running a lot of additional risks by keeping rates low, while if they raise rates prematurely they could derail economic growth."

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Crews still working to restore power

Crews were working through the night to restore power to about 28,000 households and businesses, including most of Nantucket, who remained in the dark after heavy snow and falling trees downed wires across the Bay State.

National Grid and Nstar officials said it's likely power could be out for a few days in some areas.

"We're still facing very difficult weather and road conditions on Cape Cod and the South Shore," Nstar spokesman Mike Durand said, "and our 24/7 emergency restoration efforts are continuing."

Nstar had restored power to about 40,000 customers by last night, leaving 17,000 others without electricity, Durand said. Cape Cod and the South Shore between Marshfield and Plymouth were hardest hit, he said.

The utility tapped crews from nearby states, as well as private contractor lineworkers and tree workers. And, to avoid fines like those levied by the state in 2011 for delays, Nstar increased the use of remote switching technology to restore power to customers before crews arrive, Durand said.

National Grid had 13,800 customers without power at the storm's peak and that was down to 11,500 last night, spokesman Jake Navarro said, as crews from as far away as Georgia and Canada tackled downed lines.

"Our infrastructure has performed very well during this storm," Navarro said, "and that resiliency is thanks in part to significant investments in equipment upgrades and increased tree trimming."

Power was beginning to be restored last night on Nantucket — which was almost entirely dark at one point yesterday — with a priority on emergency services, Navarro said. Full restoration on the island, however, could be a lengthy process, Navarro said.

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Some Boston spots brave blizzard

The blizzard of 2015 didn't dampen Bostonians' appetites to venture out yesterday in search of restaurants that were open to serve their snowbound neighbors.

Barracuda Tavern in Downtown Crossing had put up six workers at the Nine Zero Hotel and Omni Parker House on Monday night so it could open at its normal 11 a.m. yesterday.

"We have two hotels right across the street from us, so it's a no-brainer," said chef/owner Luka Stipanov, who counted city workers as well as hotel guests as customers yesterday. "We're staying open until 2 a.m. and serving food until 1:30 a.m. — the full menu."

For Jacqueline Church, founder of private cooking class company Kitchen Confidence, the storm was a chance for a lunch date with her husband, an "essential" state employee who was working in Boston yesterday instead of his usual Danvers. The Leather District couple met at Gourmet Dumpling House in Chinatown.

"There was only a handful of people walking around out there," Church said. "Usually there's a line because it's so popular, but today, we walked right in and got a table."

Church saw only one other restaurant open.

"I was surprised," she said. "Chinatown usually is always the last to close."

Manager PJ Crowley shoveled a path through a 3-foot snowdrift to the door of Battery Park to open the Financial District bar and lounge for drinks -- with discounts equal to the amount of snow, which was 20 inches by mid-afternoon.

"It's a little tough, especially being in the area where we are," Crowley said. "But we had a lot of fun on Twitter yesterday and were committed to it, so we just wanted to follow through. Even after the (marathon) bombings we were open ... so we felt a snowstorm — being from New England -- wasn't really a big deal."

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Business losses accumulate

Bay State businesses are counting their blessings that the monster blizzard of 2015 has brought only minimal losses.

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, estimated the total loss to his members at less than 
$20 million.

"Compared to some other storms, I think it's relatively minor," Hurst said. "It fell during a notoriously slow sales period — after Thanksgiving and Christmas and before Valentine's Day. And it fell during midweek. If it had been this weekend, or right around Valentine's Day, as in 2013, the impact would have been far more severe."

But he acknowledged some businesses were hit harder, such as convenience stores near office buildings that were closed and retailers who have to pay their employees regardless of whether they make it in to work.

Pat Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, said many Boston hotels fared better than expected. Rooms that had been reserved by travelers who couldn't get to Boston because of canceled flights were taken by people who were stranded here or by employees of Boston businesses, Moscaritolo said.

"So overall, it pretty much balanced out," he said. "What didn't balance out though were retailers and restaurants who lost sales and their staff who would have lost tips."

Stoughton-based Rentals Unlimited, which rents out party equipment, estimates it lost about $10,000 worth of orders. But it expects the majority of those clients to reschedule within the next two weeks, said Jennifer Gullins, vice president of sales.

"We don't expect this to be a significant financial interruption," Gullins said. "Making sure you have a good risk-management plan is the best strategy."

The company began planning for the storm on Sunday. A team of four employees stayed at its Stoughton headquarters, where it has five buildings and three large parking lots, to keep plowing and ensure that none of the buildings suffered damage and it could reopen today, Gullins said.

Auto czar Herb Chambers spent between $10,000 and $15,000 for each of his 54 dealerships just to move cars indoors during the storm — and that's not counting lost sales and service work and paying employees, spokesman George Regan said.

"He still thinks that, despite all the expense, it's worth it," Regan said. "Boston is a great city to do business in."

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The Ticker

Apple has huge quarter from holiday iPhone sales

Apple had another blowout quarter thanks to its new plus-sized iPhones, which helped the company smash sales records for the holiday season.

Apple said yesterday that it sold 74.5 million iPhones during the three months that ended Dec. 31, beating analysts' expectations for the latest models of Apple's most popular gadget, introduced in September.

The surge in iPhone sales drove the company's total revenue to $74.6 billion, up 30 percent from a year earlier. CEO Tim Cook said on a call with analysts that demand for the phones was "staggering," and noted that results would have been even higher if not for the impact of the strong dollar on overseas sales.

Stocks slide on disappointing outlooks

U.S. stocks closed lower yesterday after disappointing outlooks from Caterpillar and Microsoft raised worries about future profit growth at companies.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 291.49 points, or 1.7 percent, to close at 17,387.21 yesterday. The blue-chip average dropped as much as 390 points earlier. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 27.54 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,029.55 The Nasdaq composite tumbled 90.26 points, or 1.9 percent, to 4,681.50.

Microsoft shares slid 9 percent, the biggest fall among S&P 500 stocks. The company noted in its quarterly results that licensing revenue for Windows fell, and it warned that a strong dollar will dent revenue.

Caterpillar's stock fell 7 percent after the heavy equipment maker was hurt in the fourth quarter by restructuring costs, and issued a weak outlook.

Obama floats Atlantic drilling lease plan

The Obama administration floated a plan yesterday that for the first time would open up a broad swath of the Atlantic Coast to drilling, even as it moved to restrict drilling indefinitely in environmentally sensitive areas off Alaska.

The proposal envisions auctioning areas located more than 50 miles off Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia to oil companies no earlier than 2021, long after President Obama leaves office. For decades, oil companies have been barred from drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, where a moratorium was in place up until 2008.

Today

• Federal Reserve policymakers meet to set interest rates and release statements.

TOMORROW

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.
• National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales index for December.
• Lockton, the world's largest privately held insurance broker, has promoted Chip Manozzi to executive vice president and leader of its Boston office. Manozzi has worked in risk management and commercial insurance for more than 30 years.

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Facebook: Internal glitch caused hour-long global outage

SEOUL, South Korea — Facebook said it suffered a self-inflicted outage lasting an hour on Tuesday that made its site inaccessible to users worldwide.

The glitch reported in Asia, the United States, Australia and the U.K. affected access from PCs and Facebook's mobile app. The social media giant's Instagram service was also inaccessible.

A Facebook statement said the disruption was caused by a technical change it made to the site and wasn't a cyberattack. Lizard Squad, a group notorious for attention seeking antics online, claimed responsibility on Twitter for the outages.

"This was not the result of a third party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems," Facebook said.

The temporary loss of service may be Facebook's biggest outage since Sept. 24, 2010 when it was down for about 2.5 hours.

On its website for developers, Facebook said the "major outage" lasted one hour.

Facebook has about 1.35 billion active users and Instagram has some 300 million.

News of the Facebook outage set rival social network Twitter alight, propelling the hashtag "facebookdown" to top trend on the site. It comes ahead of Facebook reporting its quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

As access to Facebook returned, some users in Asia reported that the site was loading slowly or not offering full functionality.

Lizard Squad on Monday claimed responsibility for defacing the Malaysia Airlines website and has said it will release data from the airline. The group has claimed responsibility for a variety of hacks over the past year, most of them aimed at gaming or media companies.

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New AG may block Partners merger

Attorney General Maura Healey, in a surprise break with her former boss just days after taking office, threatened to terminate ex-Attorney General Martha Coakley's deal with Partners HealthCare over a proposed merger with three other hospitals.

In a filing yesterday, Healey threatened to sue to block the agreement — which allows Partners to merge with South Shore, Lawrence Memorial and Melrose-Wakefield hospitals — if Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders rejects the deal.

"One of the greatest challenges for our Commonwealth is controlling health costs while promoting quality and access, and I evaluated this issue with that goal in mind," said Healey in a statement. "Should the Court decline to enter the settlement, my office will exercise its right to void the agreement with Partners. I anticipate we then would litigate to enjoin Partners' proposed acquisition of South Shore Hospital."

Sanders has expressed skepticism about the agreement in court proceedings, including one last November in which Coakley herself defended the agreement just days after losing the gubernatorial race to Charlie Baker.

Noting the agreement allows Partners to grow but only on the promise of future price restrictions, Healey said she wants Partners to demonstrate an ability to control health care costs first before it strives to become bigger. She also claimed that certain limitations on how fast Partners can grow — including the number of doctors hired and price caps — could lead to even more Partners growth after the restrictions expire. But Healey said she would enforce the agreement if Sanders approves it.

Healey was sworn into office to replace Coakley last Wednesday evening, making this one of her first acts as attorney general.

"We remain deeply committed to working with South Shore Hospital and Hallmark Health to deliver more coordinated care to the patients in those communities at lower costs," said Partners spokesman Rich Copp.

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Facebook suffers outage affecting users worldwide

SEOUL, South Korea — Facebook suffered a widespread outage lasting roughly 40 minutes on Tuesday affecting users in the United States, Asia, the U.K. and Australia.

The social media giant's Instagram service was also briefly inaccessible.

Instagram said on its Twitter account that it was aware of an outage and was working on a fix. There was no immediate statement from Facebook.

Facebook has about 1.25 billion users and Instagram has some 300 million.

News of the Facebook outage set rival social network Twitter alight.

As access to Facebook returned in Asia, some users reported that the site was loading or responding slowly.

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Facebook suffers 45-minute outage, blames own technicians

Facebook went offline across much of the world for 45 minutes late Monday (Tuesday in European and Asian time zones). Some users also found it difficult to access photo-sharing app Instagram. Normal service has now resumed.

Facebook blamed its own technicians for the problem, while others pointed to hacking group Lizard Squad.

"Earlier this evening many people had trouble accessing Facebook and Instagram," a spokeswoman told the BBC.

"This was not the result of a third-party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems.

"We moved quickly to fix the problem, and both services are back to 100% for everyone."

Lizard Squad, which is thought to have been responsible for attacks in December on Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live, had tweeted about Facebook going offline, which led some to believe they had caused the outage.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Up Move doesn’t look good, but you will

Jawbone Up Move ($49.99, various retailers)

This entry-level fitness tracker by the folks that brought us the popular Jawbone Up tracks steps, activities and light and deep sleep. It's a thumb-size nub that can be placed into a clip that easily attaches to belts and clothes, or a wristband.

The good: For just $50, the price is right. This sensor-laden device syncs wirelessly with excellent companion apps for Android and iOS, reports well on your sleep and helps you quantify your daily activity level.

The bad: This isn't waterproof, so you'll have to remove before showering. And it's not exactly the most attractive when worn on your wrist.

The bottom line: This is a great device for someone who wants to try their hand at fitness tracking and doesn't mind having something that looks weird on their wrist.

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Consumer agency gets an incomplete on mortgage advice

WASHINGTON — When the federal government's consumer protection agency for financial matters tells you how to shop for a good deal on a home mortgage, you should follow the advice, right?

Maybe some of it. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in the backwash of the worst national mortgage disaster since the Great Depression, went online with a new interactive mortgage tool last week. The CFPB's site (www.consumerfinance.gov) offers helpful tips on shopping and has a guide to loan alternatives, closing costs and a "rate checker" feature.

At first glance, the rate checker appears to be a quick way to research prevailing mortgage interest rates in your area. Here's how it works: You enter the state where you want to apply, a FICO credit score estimate, your desired loan amount and the loan term. The rate checker then displays the local daily rate quotes collected from banks and credit unions by its data vendor, Informa Research Services Inc. of Calabasas, Calif.

Say you live in Virginia or California and want to see what rate you might get on a $400,000 house purchase with a $40,000 down payment. You input your estimated credit score. Say you've got a FICO 680. In Virginia, according to the rate checker readout Jan.16, "most lenders" in the survey would quote you 3.875 percent or less for a 30-year fixed-rate loan. Two lenders offered 3.625 percent and six quoted between 4 percent and 4.375 percent.

In California, most lenders also quoted 3.875 percent or less, one quoted 3.75 percent and five came in between 4 and 4.375 percent. None went as low as 3.625 percent.

But something important is missing here: The various fees and charges that the CFPB itself requires lenders to disclose as part of any mortgage quote to a consumer. As regulator of the Truth in Lending Act, CFPB regulations mandate precise disclosures of loan discount fees or "points" and lender closing charges among others. (A point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.) These are included in the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) — the effective rate applicants will be paying over the life of the loan.

When lenders advertise their rates, they must include the APR along with the base interest rate. There may be other charges that come into the total cost picture as well, such as lender-paid mortgage insurance and investor "overlay" add-ons.

So how big a deal could it be when only the interest rate is provided? In a statement for this column, Quicken Loans, the second largest retail lender in the country, said that quoting a rate alone, with no reference to specific points, fees and the APR, "will deliver a cost estimate that greatly differs from what is accurate." Steve Stamets, senior mortgage banker for Apex Home Loans, Rockville, Md., told me "it's inherently misleading because you're not getting all the potential charges" you're going to have to pay.

For example, said Stamets, a loan officer might violate CFPB rules by quoting a 
3 percent rate on a hypothetical $400,000 loan to pull in customers, but not mention that to obtain that rate they will need to pay 5 points — $20,000. Those points could be paid at settlement or financed and included in the interest rate. In the latter case, using one rule of thumb measure, the effective rate on the loan might jump to 
4.25 percent, not the 3 percent advertised.

David Stevens, CEO and president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in an interview that CFPB's rate checker's failure to disclose full costs "violates everything a lender must do" to quote rates to borrowers in compliance with the agency's own rules. "It's just a bad idea," he said. "It needs to come down."

But the CFPB shows no signs of yielding to critics. In a statement for this column, the agency said the rates quoted "assume" discount points ranging between one half a point to minus one half a point "and a 60-day rate lock," but do not include lender closing charges. Dave Hershman, a nationally known trainer and author who helps mortgage companies comply with the rules, scoffed at the CFPB's defense: "Could you imagine (the bureau) allowing a mortgage company to be that nebulous? And to quote rates without an APR?"

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Microsoft’s nifty HoloLens kicks Glass

Google Glass — may it rest in peace — has nothing on Microsoft's HoloLens, a game-changing pair of goggles with a see-through screen that projects holograms that the user can manipulate and control.

Unlike Google Glass, the HoloLens isn't meant to go with you everywhere, and it's not reliant on a smartphone. It exists on its own, when you need it — like a "Star Trek" holodeck worn on your head, smacking right up against the laws of physics. Another difference between Glass and HoloLens: This isn't a concept, it's existing technology, developed by Microsoft in secret for years. It's expected to come to market within the next year, and developers will receive a kit allowing them to design apps for it in a matter of months, according to the software giant based in Redmond, Wash.

The HoloLens looks like a pair of ski goggles, and it's meant for a work or home setting. You are not supposed to venture outside wearing one. In short, it projects a virtual, interactive experience onto the world around you. You can watch television on a virtual holographic screen, launch and interact with a virtual PC, and much more. Or it can virtually put other people in your world, as needed.

Let's say I need help fixing my car. I put on HoloLens and patch in a mechanic. The mechanic can see what I see on his iPad via a compatible app. He can draw on my visual space, labeling all the puzzling parts of my car under the hood. I can virtually tap a part, triggering the screen to virtually spill out all components that are inside that part so I can see how it works without having to disassemble it.

Any task that requires an on-site expert can now be reimagined via the HoloLens. Besides remote mechanics, electricians and plumbers, the HoloLens could change the face of job training and education. Forget about digital classrooms, which are often isolating in my opinion. Having an instructor who can see with your eyes? That's mind-blowing. Being able to mark up and label that visual space? Well, that actually makes you closer to instructors than if you were sitting right next to them.

We still don't know the price of HoloLens. Anything below the $500 mark guarantees mainstream adoption. It makes Apple's upcoming iWatch seem almost petty by comparison.

An irony of this technology is that all of its underpinnings are projects that Wall Street analysts and talking heads had been urging Microsoft to abandon for years — such as Bing, the search engine that gave way to the artificial intelligence for this device, and Xbox, which spawned the motion-sensing Kinect, a technological backbone for HoloLens.

Another irony: HoloLens, in a sense, is a stepping stone to something universal and portable, like Google Glass was meant to be. If 50 million people have a HoloLens, all of a sudden it doesn't feel as idiotic to be wearing one in public.

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Fidelity increasing in private tech companies

Fidelity Investments is looking into more privately owned tech companies to get a leg up on investments as large, successful companies are staying private longer, according to a top investor with Fidelity.

"There are companies that are exciting, innovative, and of a size that are appropriate for our investment but are staying public," said Andrew Boyd, head of global equity capital markets for Fidelity. "We're finding a lot of attractive investments in private companies, particularly in tech."

Fidelity led a $1.2 billion investment in Uber Technologies last summer, and took part in a $1 billion investment in SpaceX announced last week. Fidelity has also invested in Pinterest, Airbnb and several other private tech companies, according to the company's mutual fund data.

"We come across private companies that we think are very interesting and can be a great investment for our shareholders," Boyd said.

Still, Boyd and Fidelity are not working off of any master plan to invest in more private companies.

"It's not that we are coming down the evolutionary scale or the growth scale of companies. These are companies that we would have invested in had they existed 10 years ago, but they would have gone public 10 years ago," Boyd said.

He said Fidelity has more investments in private companies than 10 years ago, but they are still a very small percentage of Fidelity's investment portfolio.

Matthew Wong, a research analyst at venture capital tracking firm CB Insights, said Fidelity is not the only mutual fund company investing more in private companies.

"A lot of the big funding that went to venture funding in 2014 was not from venture capital, we're definitely seeing that trend more now," Wong said.

According to CB Insights data, mutual fund companies Fidelity, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price and Janus made 29 investments in private tech companies in 2014, after making only 16 in 2013 and nine in 2012.

He said the stock market success of companies such as Facebook has encouraged mutual funds.

"Mutual funds and other firms are seeing that and thinking that a better strategy might be instead of investing in these companies when they're public, get in pre-IPO," Wong said.

Boyd said Fidelity is also able to prepare the companies for the expectations that come with being publicly traded and subject to analysts' scrutiny.

"We treat them like a public company, and they need to answer questions from our analysts, and they're probing questions, and this is what they need to get used to for earnings calls," Boyd said.

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Medical pot only OK for sick kids failed by other drugs: MDs

CHICAGO — With virtually no hard proof that medical marijuana benefits sick children, and evidence that it may harm developing brains, the drug should only be used for severely ill kids who have no other treatment option, the nation's most influential pediatricians group says in a new policy.

Some parents insist that medical marijuana has cured their kids' troublesome seizures or led to other improvements, but the American Academy of Pediatrics' new policy says rigorous research is needed to verify those claims.

To make it easier to study and develop marijuana-based treatments, the group recommends removing marijuana from the government's most restrictive drug category, which includes heroin, LSD and other narcotics with no accepted medical use, and switching it to the category which includes methadone and oxycodone.

The recommended switch "could help make a big difference in promoting more research," said Dr. Seth Ammerman, the policy's lead author and a professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Stanford University.

The academy's qualified support may lead more pediatricians to prescribe medical marijuana, but the group says pediatric use should only be considered "for children with life-limiting or severely debilitating conditions and for whom current therapies are inadequate."

The academy also repeated its previous advice against legalizing marijuana for recreational use by adults, suggesting that may enable easier access for kids. It does not address medical marijuana use in adults.

Studies have linked recreational marijuana use in kids with ill effects on health and brain development, including problems with memory, concentration, attention, judgment and reaction time, the group's policy emphasizes.

The policy was published online Monday in Pediatrics. It updates and expands the group's 2004 policy.

Since then, the marijuana movement has grown substantially. Recreational and medical marijuana use is legal for adults in four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Nineteen other states and Washington D.C., have laws allowing medical marijuana use only and most allow children to qualify, according to Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that advocates marijuana policy reform and tracks state laws.

"The cart is so far ahead of the horse related to this drug," said Dr. Angus Wilfong, of Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Marijuana has dozens of chemical components that need to be studied just like any drug to determine safety, proper doses and potential side effects, he said.

Wilfong was involved in a recently completed international study involving 30 children with severe epilepsy. About half got an experimental drug made with a marijuana compound that doesn't make users high; the others received dummy medicine. Study results are being analyzed. Wilfong said five children from his hospital were involved and while he doesn't know if any of them got the marijuana drug, none suffered any serious side effects.

Wilfong said he has a young seizure patient in a different, less rigorous study who has shown dramatic improvement after several months on the marijuana-based treatment, "but that doesn't prove it was due to the" experimental drug," he said.

___

Online: American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org

Medical marijuana: http://tinyurl.com/axxzhrj

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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