of solid earnings from big-name companies. also, after listening this week to fed chairman bernanke's economic outlook, investors are counting on him to do more to stimulate the economy. the dow added 35 points, the nasdaq rose 23, and the s&p gained nearly four points. suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: with all the recent noise in the economy and financial markets, you might have missed that stocks are doing pretty well this year. the dow is up 6%, the s&p 500 has added 10%, and the nasdaq has inked an impressive 14% gain. market pros credit earnings for the resiliency. >> when we get into earnings period, reporting period, the market tends to do better, because the one bright spot for the last three or four years has been corporate america, corporate earnings. >> reporter: nevertheless, retail investors have been heading for the exits, pulling their money out of u.s. stock funds.

those funds lost more than $8 billion in the past five weeks. in the first six months of this year, investors yanked $51 billion out of u.s. stock funds. by comparison, only $14 billion came out of those funds in the first half of last year. certainly, the aftermath of the financial crisis has scared small investors away. >> given the general uncertainty out there in terms of if i'll have a job today versus next week, i think more people are being more conservative, putting more money into savings, trying to build up their savings a little bit rather than put money into the stock market. >> reporter: experts say it will take a strong u.s. economy to restore confidence and bring retail investors back to stocks. suzanne pratt, nbr, new york. >> susie: still ahead on the program-- we ask c.e.o. mike jackson why sales of autonation are speeding up while other retailers are stalling out. "nightly business report" is brought to you by:

captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: some more signs toda that companies are in the mood to make deals-- ppg industries today agreed to buy georgia gulf's chemicals business for $2 billion. recently, pfizer sold its baby nutrition business to nestle for almost $12 billion, and anheuiser busch inbev spent $20 billion to take control of the corona beer brand. but so far this year, m&a deals are down more than 20%. so, will that change in the rest of the year? joining us now to talk about the outlook for m&a, bob profusek, chairman of the global m&a practice at jones day. >> bob, you were responsible for two mergers today,

including that c p&g deal we just mentioned. do you see more deals picking up the rest of this year? >> it's actually a pretty good deal environment. the numbers are down year over year, but the first half of 20 len wa2011 was very active. and at&t and stx t mobile for example. this is an active market, but like the economy in general, it lacks some animal instinct. there aren't those huge headline grabbing deals that i frequently see. not a lot of home runs, but plenty of singles and doubles. >> susie: what would you say about the deals i mentioned? it seems more strategic in nature than the big transformational deals you just mentioned. >> they are. they're kind of asset redeployment deals. ppg and georgia gulf, for

example, those are two chemical companies coming together. it's a complex structure. ppg spins its business off and merges into georgia gulf. engineered and strategic, designed to be accretive, and it was well received on wall stet. both company's took went up significantly today. >> susie: we'll be talking more about that in our stoblg segment later in the program. tell us about all the clients you talked to, and the company ceos you talk to, what sectors do you think will so more of this kind of activity? >> there's no question, we've been saying it for some time, and it didn't come to pass. but health care. a lot of health care deals this year. a big one with wellpoint, and there's going to be more. it's a consequence of the environment in general, and the consequence of the new health care law which has been

upheld. the message is get efficient and deliver costs on a unit basis and cheaper. one way is to consolidate. energy is very active and going to become much more active, and again, iit's sort of page 2 stuff. financial institutions, a whole reshapes of the financial institution industry. a loot of asset redeployment again. not elephant mergers of giant banks but getting in compliance with the volker concept and that sort of thing. those three sectors in particular. >> susie: i also have to ask you about airlines, because there was word today that american airlines, amr, and us airways had high level talks about a possible merger. that would be a headline grabbing page 1 example. do you think that kind of deal will go through?

the synergy in airlines can be -- don't. any time a big company goes into brments, woon alternative for creditors is a merger. there's another aerospace business in bankruptcy, hawker beechcraft, and it signed up for a deal to be acquired by a chinese company. so m & a in the context of bankruptcy is quite common. i can't comment one way or the other. >> susie: we appreciate you coming on the program. robert profusek. >> susie: recent college

>> susie: recent college graduates, listen up. if you're worried about paying down your federal student debt in a tough job market, uncle sam has a plan to help. it's called "income-based repayment". but many people who could be helped by the payment plan aren't even aware it exists. sylvia hall explains. >> reporter: income-based repayment could save millions of people from falling behind on their student loan payments. but the program hasn't been around long, and so far, out off the 1.6 million borrowers who could benefit, just 85,000 have enrolled. >> income-based repayment may be one of the best kept secrets in loan repayment. a lot of borrowers still don't know about it, even though it can help them stay out of delinquency and default if they're struggling to make their payments, based on their earnings they currently have. >> reporter: the program lets borrowers pay off their loans based on their income, and that's capped at 15%, meaning they'll pay no more than 15% of what they earn.

after 25 years, if a borrower hasn't made enough money to pay off all the loans, the remaining balance is forgiven. it's a huge relief for people trying to pay off their student debt in an economy with high unemployment and low wages. for the unemployed, a monthly payment could even equal zero. ( cheers and applause ) the president jumped behind the idea last year when he announced a similar program called "pay as you earn" that will make repayment even easier, once it's available. as borrowers make more money, the idea is that they'll pay more each month and pay off their loans on time. most of them probably will, but in this economy, it's not a given. >> the ability to grow that income over time, and therefore repay at a greater rate, is more in question than perhaps it was a decade ago. to the extent that this economy stays soft, wage growth is slow, promotion opportunities are limited, yeah, it'll put more strains on this program over the longer term. >> reporter: those strains could cost the federal government

$225 billion more than expected, according to a barclays analysis. and there are a few things borrowers should understand before signing up: no matter what you pay each month, interest still builds on your loans. that means low-income borrowers might end up paying more than they would in a traditional payment plan. a red flag for some, since student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy. >> they will offer very attractive alternatives to bankruptcy upon graduation, but in the absence of bankruptcy protections, there is no way that i can endorse these programs. there's no way that citizens, in my view, should roll the dice. i mean, this is like playing russian roulette with five bullets in the chamber. >> reporter: there's one more thing people should know about the program. the way the law is written now, if you don't pay off your loans and some are forgiven down the road, it could count as income and you'll have to pay taxes on it. sylvia hall, nbr, washington. >> susie: autonation is celebrating one of its best quarters ever. the company says vehicle sales

in the second quarter jumped nearly 30% over last year as consumers ditched their clunkers for shinier new models. the nation's largest auto retailer earned 66 cents a share. that's 17 cents better than a year ago and a nickel better than analyst estimates. diane eastabrook's on the auto beat f nbr. she joins us now. diane. >> susie, it looks like u.s. consumers are on track to buy 14 million vehicles this year. joining me to talk more about the auto industry is the ceo of auto nation, mike jackson. -- why don't they seem to be buying anything else. >> there's a difference in autos. there's a replacement need driving the business.

they postponed purchases and could get the financing, and that pushed the average age of cars in america to an unprecedented le 11 years old. they either have to spend money in the existing vehicle or talk about buying a new vehicle. so when they come in, we have exciting new products for them. chocked full of innovation, and dramatically improved foul economy without giving up anything in size or speed. and the last piece of the puzzle is great financing for them in the autos. great rates and great availability. >> during the crash everybody kept making their car payment. it's the number one payment. it's a good, safe secure loan. you put it together. genuine need, exciting new products, great financing, that's driving the oolt business. >> you talked about fuel

economy. are consumers, now that we're seeing gas prices come down, going back to buying trucks and suvs again? >> well, this is the big change from '08. the last time there was $4 a gallon there was a stampede to spall cars. we were taking cadillac escalades in trade for smart vehicle. >> you can get the same size vehicle with the same performance with a 20, 25, 30% improvement in fuel efficiency. and the interesting thing is the technology supporting that is not the hybrid, not the electric. it's an interesting small segment of the marketplace. but it's breakthroughs in existing technologies, whether it's turbocharging, direct injection. transmissions with eight, nine speeds, where the consumer could have a small upcharge for the technology that's what

the consumer is looking for. >> mike, you're optimistic, but do you see headwinds later this year? >> who didn't see headwinds later this year. i think there's risk at the end of the year. we'll certainlyings over 14 million unit sales. but with the fiscal cliff, and the election, if it's mishandled it could throw us back into a recession. thos put a cloud of uncertainty over everyone's head. so i'm fundamentally optimistic about america. i think at the end of the day, there will be a grand bargain, and let's face it, the only time you can get a grand bargain is immediately after a presidential election. it needs to be done, hopefully it will get done, certainly not without brinksmanship, and excitement unnerving for the market. >> we'll leave it there.

joining me was mike jackmon, ceo of auto nation. >> thank you very much. >> susie: also from the auto beat, a recall for ford motor. more than 11,000 ford escape s.u.v.s are being called back. ford says a fuel leak in 2013 models with 1.6-liter engines could result in a fire. the auto maker is telling owners to contact their dealers to schedule a repair. the new escape hit the market just last month. two tech titans out with stronger than expected earnings

after the close of trading today, and both stocks were up in the after market. first, google. second-quarter earnings rose 11% to $10.12 a share-- that's eight cents ahead of estimates. google benefited from its core search-advertising business-- paid clicks were up sharply. but the average cost advertisers paid google per click were down. google shares rose almost $20 in after-hours trading. as for microsoft's results, the software giant earned 67 cents a share in its fiscal fourth quarter. that beat estimates by a nickel. sales rose 4% to $18 billion. and the latest version of the company's operating system, windows 8, is set to come to market this fall. motley fool tech analyst andrew tonner says he'll be watching that launch like a hawk. >> windows 8, it should be a revolutionary product that should really launch them forward in a space they've really been lacking lately, and

that is the smart phone and tablet arena. microsoft has the p.c. market under lock and key, and that's not going to go away, although it could recede slightly over the longer period. windows 8 is their real all-in bet to break into mobile in a meaningful way. >> susie: those strong tech earnings helped propel the nasdaq higher, despite the lackluster economic data that we saw earlier today. in the broader market, the s&p climbed to a 2.5 month high. apart from the tech sector, material stocks also moved higher. the weakest group was telecom services. shares of apple, a heavily- weighted part of the nasdaq, surged to 3.5 month high. quarterly earnings for the tech darling are due out tuesday after the closing bell. apple ended the session up just over 1% to $614, it's highest close since april. ibm helped support the dow. investors snapped up shares of big blue following last night's profit report.

ibm stock tacked on $7 to close at $195 and change. another big winner today was drugstore chain walgreens. it struck a deal with express scripts, settling a dispute that's been going on since january. >> there are those customers who do want the convenience of being able to go to the 8,000 walgreens stores, so therefore express scripts also agreed to do the deal. the terms were not announced. the financial terms were not announced, but we assume that both firms come out ahead with this deal. >> susie: shares of walgreens and express scripts both moved higher on the day. cvs, which had been able to add customers when the dispute began, lost 6% today. meanwhile, in the retail space, the teen clothing store five below went public today and investors rang up the price. the shares were priced at $17 apiece, and surged more than 50% to end the day at $26.50. as we mentioned, on the m&a

front, georgia gulf agreed to buy ppg's commodity chemical business in a deal worth a little more than $2 billion. shares of ppg moved 7.5% higher, while shares of georgia gulf were up 13%. shares of morgan stanley took a hit after issuing a gloomy outlook and announcing about 4,000 job cuts. despite the forecast, morgan stanley did manage to swing to a profit from last year's loss. it earned 29 cents a share for the quarter. morgan stanley ended the day down 5% at $13. since the beginning of july, shares are down 9%. investors hung up on shares of verizon after the telecom company delivered disappointing figures on the number of business customers it was able to add during the quarter. still, verizon posted profits of 64 cents a share, in line with wall street expectations. shares of the dow component were down nearly 3% on the day. chipotle shares taking a hit in trading after the close.

the fast-food chain handily beat estimates, but revenues were lighter than expectations. chipotle shares closed just above $400 in the regular session, but sank to just below $360 in after-hours trading. in the commodities markets, the ongoing drought in the midwest continued to push grain prices higher, as analysts warned of the impact the lack of rain could have on food prices. corn, soybeans and wheat surged further into record territory earlier in the day. there is little to no rain expected through the end of july. in the oil markets, crude rose for a seventh straight session on the back of tensions in the middle east which could potentially disrupt supplies. crude ended today above $92 a barrel. for the second day in a row, the powershares q's rose more than 1%. and that's tonight's "market focus."

no jail time for the man who helped send galleon group's raj rajaratnam to jail for insider trading. testimony of anil kumar, a former partner at consulting firm mckinsey and company, was key in the government's case. kumar has been sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and to forfeit over $2 million. we head to arizona tonight as we continue our coverage of immigration and the economy. the state has become ground zero in the debate over immigration reform. with the supreme court recently upholding arizona's controversial "show your papers"

law, mike sauceda reports on how that law has impacted phoenix area businesses. >> the happy sounds of cuban music at the havana cafe in scottsdale, arizona. customers come to enjoy the cuban dishes, and after the controversial immigration policy in arizona became law two years ago, business at the havana cafe slowed do you know. she owns the business with her husband. >> we have an economy which was detrimental in arizona, and also that law came in, and that was my woofrt fear. 2010. i believe that in the year 2010 after 1070 was passed, we dropped 20% more than we had in the prior years at the beginning of the recession. >> hernandez admits the the slowdown was not due to the

immigration law alone, and the law made woorkers harder to find. still. the law gives her concerns, because of the show me your papers provision of the law upheld by the supreme court. the law requires police to check the immigration status of those who might be in the country illegal's but only after a arrest or traffic stop. >> i travel a loot. and other countries you always have to show who you are and show and submit your papers. and in united states of america, we never had to do that, and now they're asking us to do that in arizona. >> senate bill 1070 isn't the only immigration law from arizona that has had an impact on hiring. the check of illegal status of workers was part of employer sanctions upheld in 2011. >> the fire side grill is the only non-military business in fountain hill that has a table

commemorating our fallen veterans. >> gary is a russian immigrant and general manager of the holiday inn in arizona. they beegt say they comply, for all new employees in arizona since 2008. >> it can be $1200 to $2400 for the first year, and after that $435 a year for a small business to run the system. nationally, three percent of employers use the system. but in arizona, the compliance rate is 26%. arizona's immigration lawsioo impact businesses, and while the businessineers here disagree about the law's effectiveness, it makes a larger immigration solution. >> i think if the federal government were doing their joob, we wouldn't need it. >> and i feel our congressmen are not facing the fact of what to do with the immigration policy. >> nbr, phoenix.

>> susie: the impact of immigration policy has been critical for border states, but what about for the rest of the country? >> susie: tomorrow on nbr, we're tracking earnings from two big blue chips, general electric and xerox. and "market monitor" guest kurt reiman of ubs expects the economy to pick up later this year, and he has some stock picks that will benefit from the upturn. spongebob squarepants doesn't just live under the sea. he's taken up residence in the vault at bankrupt futures brokerage pfg best. fbi agents today detailed some of the assets seized at the failed firm, including silver coins featuring the nickelodeon cartoon character. pfg best worked with the new zealand mint to sell the coins bearing the motto, "in spongebob we trust." the price tag-- $260. that's "nightly business report" for thursday, july 19. good night, everyone. we'll see you online at nbr.com and back here tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is brought to you by:

captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> join us anytime at nbr.com. there, you'll find full episodes of the program, complete show transcripts and all the market stats. also follow us on our facebook page at bizrpt. and on twitter @bizrpt.