this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening, everybody. susie gharib is on assignment tonight. i'm joined by suzanne pratt. suzanne, earnings and europe battled for investors attention today. stocks rallied as optimism grew ahead of this weekend's summit of european leaders. tom, several big blue chip firms reported solid results. we'll get to those numbers in a moment. but first, the market: the dow rose 267 points, the nasdaq added almost 39 and the s&p tacked on 23. trading volume, the heaviest this week. 1.1 billion shares on the big board. 2.1 billion on the nasdaq. today's big rally helped the blue chip dow knock out their fourth straight week of gains. the dow rallied three days this week for a net overall gain of 164 points or almost 1.5%. the nasdaq went the other way, down in three sessions this week for a net loss of 30 po

good night everyone, and good night to you too, susie. >> susie: good night tom. i'm susie gharib. good night everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> be more.

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. my colleague tom hudson is on assignment tonight. europe and the u.s. economy-- those troublesome issues pressured stocks today. there were conflicting signals today on how close european leaders are on a deal to solve the debt crisis ahead of a crucial summit this weekend. investors are concerned that talks between france and germany have stalled. and in greece, one of the largest demonstrations as people protested a new batch of austerity measures. the greek parliament takes a final vote on the plan tomorrow. also worrying investors? a pessimistic report on the u.s. economy from the federal reserve. its beige book survey of regional economies showed weaker conditions for growth. all that led to a negative close on wall street. the dow lost 72 points, the nasdaq dropped 53 and the s&p sli

you, too, susie. >> susie: good night, tom. i'm susie gharib goodnight, everyone. we hope to see all of you again next week. "nightly business report" is made possible by:made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. my colleague tom hudson is on assignment. a bad end to a good month. stocks fell sharply today, but october was a stellar month-- the best gains since 1987. here's a look at the numbers. by the closing bell today, the dow was down 276 points, the nasdaq tumbled 52 and the s&p 500 was off 31. but looking at the month, the dow was up 9.5% in october and the nasdaq and s&p each added 11%. erika miller looks at what investors can expect for the rest of the year. >> reporter: there were plenty of reasons to feel scared on wall street today. even stock investors got frightened, sending market averages down sharply. but relax, strategist andrew burkley says. today's decline is natural after thrilling gains last week. >> the market is just generally digesting things. and, i think as we've gotten p

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. my colleague tom hudson is on assignment. help is on the way for struggling homeowners. the white house rolled out an expanded plan to help americans refinance underwater mortgages. it's doesn't need a stamp of approval or a vote from lawmakers in washington. president obama announced the new program in las vegas today, and he's betting it'll a be a big win for homeowners and the economy. sylvia hall has details. >> there are still millions of americans who have worked hard and acted responsibly, paying their mortgage payments on time. but now that their homes are worth less than they owe on their mortgage, they can't get refinancing. >> reporter: the president is expanding his efforts to boost the nation's troubled housing market. so far, the home affordable refinancing plan, known as har

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. my colleague tom hudson is on assignment. two tech titans out with two different earnings stories after the closing bell today. intel posted strong results and apple surprised investors with a rare earnings miss. this was apple's first miss since 2004. after back-to-back record quarters, apple posted results below analyst estimates. here are the numbers. it earned $7.05 a share. analysts were counting on $7.39. revenues also came in lower than expected, $28 billion dollars-- about a billion and a half below estimates. the problem? a drop in iphone sales as buyers waited for the new model that was launched last week. investors dropped the stock in after hours trading. shares tumbled more than 6% to $396. in the regular session, apple closed at a record high of $422.24. investors were buyin

i'm tom hudson. >> susie: and i'm susie gharib. from all of us at "nightly business report," thanks for watching. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> more information about investing is available in "nightly business report's" video "how wall street works". to order this dvd, call 1-800- play-pbs or visit online at shoppbs.org.

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. a bad start to earnings season-- late today, alcoa posted a skimpy profit that was much lower than expected. the aluminum giant is the first dow component to report and, susie, investors are worried that this a is bad omen for upcoming quarterly results. >> susie: tom, investors were disappointed-- alcoa reported right after the closing bell, and the stock fell more than 3.5% following the earnings release. here's why-- the company earned 15 cents a share in the third quarter, up from a year ago, but seven cents below analysts' estimates. alcoa blamed it on a big drop in aluminum prices and slow economic growth. revenues came in slightly ahead of estimates, up 21% to $6.4 billion. joining us now to discuss those results-- klaus kleinfeld, chairman and c.e.o. of al

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. ben bernanke delivered a grim assessment on the u.s. economy today. speaking to lawmakers on capitol hill today, "sluggish" and "slow" were two words he used to describe economic conditions. >> susie: the federal reserve chairman promised that the central bank will be ready to act, if necessary. but he called on congress to do its part to help the economy, specifically coming up with a long-term deficit reduction plan. >> tom: bernanke admitted u.s. policy makers face tough economic choices, but added those choices cannot be "postponed." darren gersh reports. >> reporter: the key part of federal reserve chairman ben bernanke's message today came when he was asked about the impact of operation twist, the fed's program to bring down long-term interest rates. >> i th

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. google shares take flight after hours, jumping over $30 a share, susie, after the web giant crushed analyst estimates with its latest earnings. >> susie: tom, profits surged 26% and revenues posted anve bigger in. here's how the numbers stacked up. google earned $2.7 billion, or $9.72 a share, almost a dollar ahead of analyst's estimates. revenues were also better than expected, up 33% to $7.5 billion. >> tom: joining us with more-- scott kessler. he follows google as senior director of technology research at s&p capital iq. with us tonight in new york. scott, how do you describe these quarterly results from google, blew estimates out of the water. >> yeah, tom, i would say having covered the stock for more than seven years, probably between good and great. google