most volatile, difficult... it's very hard to stay sensible in difficult, volatile market like this. >> susie: while stocks continue their winning streak, the housing market continues losing ground. we talk with toll brothers c.e.o. doug yearley about what can be done to turn things around. it's "nightly business report" for tuesday, september 27. 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. stocks continued on the comeback trail today, extending the global rally to a third session. fueling the move higher-- greece's approval of new property taxes, a move needed to ensure further aid. >> susie: the selling came on reports of a rift emerging in the euro-zone over whether private investors will have to take a bigger haircut on greek bonds. the dow managing to hold on to a 146-point gain, the nasdaq adding 30, and the s&p 500 up 12. >> peter jauntionon is president of the johnson advisers, and joins us from albany new york. >> with the news out of

greece, duej the worst is over? >> it could be. if we look at the performance of the markets taking last week out, but look at the performance of the market since the middle of august, it has been pretty encourage, , stock market up, and investors migrating back to the sulsector of the market. the and economic numbers have been okay, not great. but okay. leading indicators for the economy have risen in the month of august, and i think they'll rise in september. so on balance, i think there's a chance we could be out of the woods, out of the difficult times, but i wouldn't want to bet on it. >> tom: let's take the data points here's the market, the zip over the last 90 segs. it rallied nicely off the lows last week. the question is, can it be sution tainable, the rally? >> i think it could be sustainable. we could have an up market between now and the end of the year because the economic numbers are still okay.

but you're not going to get anything particularly great or exciting f. we get a move up between now and the end of the year it's going to be gentle, and the reason is investors are concerned about the risks associateed with investing. the risks of europe. too much fiscal restraint, and the risk that policy makers will move to aggressively towards fistal constraint neither of which would help the europe or u.s. economy. >> tom: and today the confidence board index of consumer index inched up ever so slightly, but still awfully low, and only 13% of those surveyed think they'll be making more money, bigger paychecks in the next six months. you're out there buying consumer stocks. xlp, the consumer exchange traded fund. >> the reason we are is that xlp, that sort of sector of the consumer market tends to be a good performing sector during difficult times, bear

markets and difficult times in the market, so you see that seblgtor xlp, consumer staples do well, along with health care, uutilitys and telecommunications. toez are the sectors that go down the least during bear markets or difficult times in the market. >> tom: is that the idea, look for the places where you lose the least or make the post? >> respond to the markets and move towards defense, which means reduce equities a bit, and make sure the equity portion of the portfolio you go overweight utilities, telecommunications, health care and consumer staples and that's exactly what we're doing. >> tom: the exchange traded fund, you is have a position. >> i own it, and i have it in all high client's portfolios. >> hue johnson with hue johnson advisers. >> most advertising agencies are about output. we're about outcome. >> susie: that's ad man jordan zimmerman.

in tonight's "beyond the scoreboard," he talks about industry trends and how companies are spending their advertising dollars. finally-- a bit of good news for the still struggling u.s. housing market. homes prices are up for four straight months, as measured by s&p case-shiller. the 20-city index rose nine- tenths of a percent in july from june. but when compared to a year ago, it's down more than 4%. in today's report, 17 of the 20 cities reported higher prices. only phoenix and las vegas saw declines, while denver was unchanged. despite today's news on prices, there are mixed signs in the u.s. housing market. and as suzanne pratt reports, exactly when the residential market will fully recover is still a big unknown. >> reporter: hoboken, new jersey-- known mostly for its close proximity to manhattan. but lately, trendy shops and family friendly neighborhoods are also part of hoboken's allure.

so, too, is its broad mix of real estate choices, from new condos to historic brownstones. halstead agent gene cordano says that may be why prices in the city are only off 15% from 2005 highs. >> lifestyle in hoboken is probably one of the better ones you can find in new jersey, with such close proximity to manhattan, or even to jersey city, the financial center where so many of the banks are located right now. >> reporter: very few other areas of the country are as resilient as hoboken. most the nation's housing market is still stuck in the basement. home prices are down sharply, inventories are high, and there's little agreement as to when things will turn around. some housing experts believe residential real estate has already bottomed. they see lots of regional differences in the national market. in particular, the prices of non-distressed homes are flat to higher, even though the sales of distressed properties are still

preventing a full recovery. but others say it will take years to build a new foundation in residential real estate. economist michael gapen says that's because there are four to six million homes still in some part of the foreclosure process. >> it will be three to five years before we work all of that off. and because of this, it will three to five years before starts accelerate to such a pace that you and i begin to talk about normalcy in the housing market. >> reporter: for all its strength, cordano thinks the hoboken market will be flat at least until after next year's presidential election. and he says americans from coast to coast have learned a valuable lesson in the last few years. >> we don't necessarily need to have that big of a house or spend that much money. we can do with a bit less. that comfort level of having a bit of a smaller mortgage or smaller carry will drive the market for the foreseeable future.

>> reporter: after all, doesn't a home stretch well beyond four walls and a roof. suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," hoboken, new jersey. >> susie: for another take on the outlook for housing, we turned today to the c.e.o. of homebuilder toll brothers, doug yearley. as we continue our look at "how to fix the economy," i asked yearley when he thinks the housing market will turn around. >> i wish i had that crystal ball. we're six years into this worst housing depression in decades. right now we're stable. wore at low levels, but stable, ask that's somewhat encouraging considering what's going on on wall street and around the world this summer. but i think until there's a change in administration or at least some clarity as to what's going on in washington. until we see decisions, and

confidence with buyers, it could certainly be a little bit more time. >> we know the connection between the unemployment rate and the housing market, and both president obama and speaker boehner have jobs proposals out there. are there -- does either one of them sit well with you in terms of helping your industry if >> i'm not going to comment-which side had the better plan. i think there needs to be serious cooperation to come up with a jobs bill, and the country is waiting. >> what about the latest action by the federal reserve on interest rates. are you seeing any new home buying or refinancing as a result of those moves? >> yeah, i think it calms people down to know that rates will stay low. i think low rates are going to help. it hasn't helped enough, because there's not enough confidence in the market, but

i'm encouraged rates will stay low for some time and help the recovery. >> the other part of the problem with housing-zoo a lot of people just don't want to buy a home anymore. they don't think it's a good investment, and more and more people are willing to rent because they think it's a safer bet. your thoughts >> i think the american dream is still to own a home. that's the foundation of our country. i think what we're seeing now is very typical of the reaction or over reaction. they're on the sidelines. with interest rates where they are and the core foundation of wanting to own a home, in the long term we're going to be fine. >> in terms stabilizing the housing market, is there any one action from washington policy makers or lawmakers that would help revive the market? >> i think the number one thing that washington needs to do now is to stop the debate

over eliminating or reducing the mortgage interest deduction. stop the debate over blowing up the gse, fany and freddie. just those headlines alone scare people and have a chilling effect on people considering to buy. so i think right now the best thing to do would be to back off any discussion discussion that kept them at low rates fsh a long time. that's our number one request of washington. back off and let the markets heal naturally. thank you for coming on the programme. >> thanks for having me.

>> tom: chelsea clinton has a new job. the former first daughter will be joining the board of directors at internet giant iac/interactive. clinton is 31 years old. the company says she brings expertise that will complement other board members, like media heavyweights barry diller, michael eisner, and edgar bronfman. but is chelsea inton the right pick for shareholders? darren gersh talked to corporate governance expert nell minow to find out. >> reporter: you may not know it, but you probably used an iac/interactive web site recently. whether it's dictionary.com or match.com, iac serves up nearly

four billion page views a month. chelsea clinton won't bring years of management experience to the iac/interactive board, but in a statement, chairman barry diller says she brings something else. diller says, "experience, as has often been proven across board of director rosters, can be of no great value, while diversity, youth, character, and exceptional brain power has a good chance to create a fine contributing board member." iac/interactive denies this match was made because of her parents, the former president and current secretary of state. even so, corporate governance expert nell minow says clinton is the wrong pick. >> she's a bright girl with a terrific resume, but she is not in the same category of people who go on corporate boards. normally, those are university presidents, current and former c.e.o.s, people who have got decades of achievement. >> reporter: chelsea clinton has worked at management consulting

firm mckinsey and the hedge fund avenue capital, and has served on other boards, including her father's foundation. iac/interactive points out clinton brings experience in consulting and public policy. but minow says she doesn't have enough experience to be truly independent. >> what this shows us is that barry diller, once again, has no interest in having an independent board. he has always filled up his board with cronies and people he thinks he can count on, and that's even more important to him now that he doesn't have the controlling share of the vote. >> reporter: let me play devil's advocate here. wouldn't chelsea clinton, because of her background and her parents, be more independent than somebody who didn't have that behind them? >> she knows that she serves at the pleasure of barry diller, and that, in and of itself, makes it impossible to be independent. >> reporter: minow serves on the board of governance research and rating firm gmi, which gives the iac/interactive board a grade of "d," in part for the large pay package it awards to chairman and senior executive barry diller. darren gersh, "nightly business

report," washington. >> susie: apple wants to talk iphone. it's planning a media event next tuesday at its cupertino, california, headquarters, but the invitation was short on details. will it unveil a revamped iphone 4 or an all-new iphone 5? the invite simply said, "let's talk iphone." this will be the first product launch since steve jobs resigned as c.e.o. tom, since jobs stepped down last month, apple shares were at a record high just last week at over $411 a share. >> tom: susie, today's iphone news comes on the heels of a report out of j.p. morgan asia yesterday questioning demand for the ipad. apple stock lost about 1%, closing below $400 for the first time in a week and a half. let's take a look at tonight's "market focus." the stock indices came well off

their best levels of the day by the time the closing bell rang. the dow jones industrial average showed strong gains from the opening bell through about 2:30 p.m. eastern time before a late- afternoon swoon cut the day's gains. at its best level, the dow was up more than 300 points before ending with a gain of half that. hewlett-packard led the dow, up almost 4%. h-p-q has a lot of ground to make up; it's down more than 40% over the past year. a big chunk of the selling has come since mid-august, when it announced a restructuring of its personal computer business, and last week fired its c.e.o. and hired former ebay chief meg whitman. another technology giant that has fallen on hard times saw its stock price jump today. research in motion was up 4.5%.

rimm shares have lost two-thirds of their value since february. the speculation today centered around the possibility carl icahn has been buying shares. icahn was successful in getting motorola to break up into two companies. the official start of earnings season is still a few weeks away, but drug store giant walgreen turned in better than expected results. profits were helped by the sale of its pharmacy benefits management unit. still, walgreen stock fell hard, down more than 6% as volume tripled. the worry is over walgreen's future business. at the end of the year, walgreen is due to lose a huge pharmacy customer, express scripts, and the negotiations don't appear to be any closer to a resolution. today's best stock sectors were those closely tied to the economy. the materials sector added 2%; industrials and energy gained about 1.5% each. we saw a continued rebound in

some commodity prices-- oil popped more than 5%. silver bounced up 5% after its rout since the middle of last week. and copper was up 5% from multi- month lows. energy services firm transocean gave up earlier gains to end down more than 1%. transocean was one of the company's involved in the gulf oil disaster last year. it owned the rig that blew up. late today, the coast guard announced it was working with transocean to find the source of oil sheens that have shown up in the gulf of mexico. the guard said the sunken "deepwater horizon" oil rig may be the source of the oil spotted over the past several months. finally, the u.s. dollar index. as worries about greece took hold in september, the dollar rallied strong, up more than 5% in the past month. with some confidence about europe handling its troubles, the dollar fell 1% today.

and that's tonight's "market focus." >> susie: despite the struggling economy and turbulent stock market, money spent on advertising was up during the first half of the year. overall, spending on everything, including tv, the internet and newspapers rose more than 3% in the first six months compared to 2010. jordan zimmerman is the founder and chairman of zimmerman advertising, the 14th largest ad agency in the country. he's also a partner in the national hockey league's florida panthers. in tonight's "beyond the scoreboard," rick horrow talks to zimmerman about what sets his agency apart from its competitors. >> most advertising agencies talk about outpult, and more about outcome. you've got to connect. you've got to connect emotionally with your message and give them a good reason to want to ebgauge and consider your brand. at the same time, we're dealing with many, many brands, and every single sector from papa john, to pep

boys to friendly's restaurant to white castles restaurant. it goes above and beyond what people think are fashionable in today's world. but everybody has the same challenges out there. it's how do i connect with you and get you to consider me, and why would you consider my brand over the directed competitor? >> tom: so what categorys are doing better than others? >> the pizza category last year and 2010 became a war with price. we activateed in a different way, but the whole category through. >> it's back on a trend. you can look at every category, and i think every category could be up. it depends how the marketers market their brand. >> it's important to market.

>> we're starting to see good things because of consistent marketing and nlding the value proposition that the customer is looking for and knowing that we're going to give you a better reason to buy than price alone. >> tom: and the future trend high-tech, mobile and all of that. >> it's unbelievable what has happened in that sector. we have a full interactive department that does all thaf work and more. >> and so the nfl does did a deal with pepsi. $2.3 billion in values. are these long term deal the the trends of future? >> when you associate premiere branlds with premiere, you go -- >> tom: i know whatever you do, it's going to be stellar >> thank you, good toy sue >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: durable goods orders for august, along with quarterly earnings from olive garden owner darden restaurants and retailer family dollar. amazon has scheduled a news

conference where its expected to release a new tablet computer. and hilary kramer is back as our "street critique" guest. email your questions to street "street critique" guest. email your questions to street critique at nbr.com.bq

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