hill. steve mnuchin defended his record to a senate panel including his leadership at a controversial california bank that has been called a foreclosure machine. tax reform which he said would be fully paid for and regulations as well. a mon javers reports tonight on the confirmation hearing. >> reporter: absolutely packed house for the mnuchin hearing. people waited in line for up to five hours to get seats in this room that gives you a sense of just how enthusiastic people were to hear from mr. mnuchin. democrats going in felt that mnuchin might be the one trump nominee they had a chance of derailing. by the end of the day they might have been felt differently about that. take a listen to this exchange. >> it seems to me in all due respect you just want to shoot questions at me and not let me he explain what are complicated

issues. >> i'll ask you to complain after i go through my -- i'll let you explain. >> at least understand these are complicated questions. let me at least explain them otherwise there's no point in shooting them all at me and i don't have the ability to respond. >> reporter: mnuchin also said something we're not accustomed to treasury secretaries say when he was asked about the u.s. dollar. he didn't give that reflective explanation that the united states prefers a strong dollar instead he offered a more nuanced answer on that and several other points. >> the u.s. currency has been the most attractive currency to be in for very, very long periods of time. i think that it's important and i think you see that now more than ever. i think when the president-elect made a comment on the u.s. currency it wasn't meant to be a long-term comment. it was meant to be that perhaps in the short-term the strength

in the currency as result of free markets and people wanting to invest here may have had some negative impacts. i will commit to absolutely work with the congress, the house and the senate so that we don't get to the last minute and run out of money. >> is that a yes, passing a clean debt ceiling? >> i don't know your technical issue of what a clean debt ceiling -- let me be clear, i would like us to raise the debt ceiling sooner rather than later. >> that's clear enough for me. >> reporter: i had a chance to talk to mnuchin after the hearing. he said it was terrific to be in front of the committee. i also talked to orrin hatch. he said he thinks he will be confirmed. they think that could happen as soon as next week at the earliest. they feel confident the republicans do they have the votes. for "nightly business report"

i'm a mon javers on capitol hill. >> in another hearing room rick perry faced some tough questions on issues like climate change and budget cuts and nuclear waste disposals. the serious confirmation hearing had some moments of levity. >> the third one, i can't, sorry. >> perry forgot the department of energy in a 2011 debate and triggered a thousand comedy routines. no one would have imagined he'd have fay confirmation one day to become a secretary. he had one today and it went smoothly. the former texas governor showed the political skills that got him elected to three full terms. he disarmed critics but reannouncing his past smoert and dis-avowed the trump's transition team to identify energy staffers. perry said he believes climate change is real and partially caused by human activity. he reduced carbon emissions in

texas by supporting natural gas and wind energy. >> i'm asking if you agree with the scientific community that climate change is a crisis and we need to transform our energy system. >> and senator, i will respond that i think that having an academic discussion, whether it's with scientists or whether it's with you is an interesting exercise, but do i have a record of effecting the climate in the world and in this country and the answer is yes. >> reporter: he suggested he would defend the department from severe budget cuts that were floated in a news story shortly before his hearing. he also showed a bit of humor that helped break the tension that some of president-elect trump's have faced. >> thank you so much for coming into my office. did you enjoy meeting me? >> i hope you were as much fun on that dieis as you were on

your couch. >> well -- >> may i rephrase that, sir? >> please. please. please. oh, my lord. oh, my lord. >> well, i think we found our "saturday night live" sound byte. >> the goal of course is winning confirmation votes in both the energy committee and on the full senate floor. at the moment there are no obstacles in site. nor "nightly business report" i'm john harwood in washington. >> president-elect donald trump has also promised to roll back regulations in the energy industry in his first 100 days. this in an effort to help businesses grow and create jobs. critics say looser regulations could be hard to implement. jackie deank lus is in marmora,

new jersey. >> reporter: donald trump's ad to lift the obama/clinton roadblocks and allow vital infrastructure project like the keystone pipeline to move forward on his first day. while federal government has jurisdiction over a few big projects like the keystone because it crosses international borders and the dakota access pipeline because it crosses federal lane, most infrastructure projects are local and residents have strong opinions about them. >> look at this electricity plant. it needs a pipeline attachment but the root of the proposed attachment would cross over environmentally sensitive lands in new jersey. propoe nents of the project say it would create vital jobs, opponents including four exnew jersey governors, the build out is potentially hazardous. this power plant will hurt jobs long-term because it's a big polluting plant right across from ocean city which is one of our major tourist area. it impacts fisheries.

it kills millions of fish a year in super heated water impacts the fisheries in the bay. by moving towards offshore winds and those jobs we can create many better jobs that are lasting by basically going backward with the fossil fuel of the past. but because of the tension surrounding it a public hearing will be held on january 24th to further investigate. in a letter supporting the project the new jersey chamber of commerce said the pipeline will provide the electric generation plant with the natural gas supply it needs to stop burning coal and become one of the cleanest power plants in the state. but even if they get all those approved that won't get this pipeline built. for "nightly business report," i'm jackie deank list in marmora, new jersey. >> on the eve of the presidential inauguration the dow closed lower for the fifth straight day as treasuries slumped and the dollar weakened.

financials were lower in part because the no, ma'am will any for treasury secretary mr. mnuchin did not advocate throwing out tough regulations during his senate confirmation hearing. the dow jones industrials dropped 72 points to 19732. nasdaq lost 15, the s&p lost eight. >> dow component ibm reported his 19th consecutive quarter of falling revenue. big blue has been trying to transform itself by relying less on its older business units. mortgage latest quarter earning more than $5 a share helped by demand for its cloud busy. the revenue was off nearly 1%. and the stock was volatile in after hours trading. deed dra bosa has the one big take away from big blue. >> ibm tries to pivot itself a modern business era as some prosecute hoping and that brought shares of big blue lower in after hours trade after

initial pop right after earnings. it's important strategicive perative units which include watson, data analytics and cloud that makes up more than 40% of total revenue. however it's not yet enough to ghettotal revenue growing for ibm. ibm notched the 19th consecutive quarter of declining revenue though it continues to reward shareholders. the company says that in fiscal year 2016 it returned almost $9 billion to shareholders in dividends and growth share repurchases. for "nightly business report," i'm deed dra bosa in san francisco. >> february dow kpoepts american express saw its profit fau. the credit card increased marketing to better keep with rivals. it did earn $0.91 a shower. revenues off 4% coming in at about $8 billion. the stock which has rallied since the election fell initially in after-hours trading today.

>> drama on the rails the ceo of one rr company is leaving the station but in a twist he's stepping down so he can shake up a rooil company with the help of an activist. that railroad is csx which saw its share soars. morgan brennan has more on this unusual turn of event. >> reporter: call it a railroad shake-up. spurred a big rally in rail stocks today. harrison a highly regarded railroader is stepping down forfeiting $89 million to, quote, pursue opportunities involving other class 1 railroads. he says he's in talks to teamup with halul. after parting ways with bill ackman's perching square last year. harrisons to lead a turn around

as that company. the two men are setting their sites on csx. >> hunters has a long history of improvement at every railroad he's been. his last target would be an eastern railroad and csx looks like it's the one. there's a big opportunity for him to get into that company and improve margins for them. i think that's what's going on with the stock today. >> reporter: in response to all the talks, csx saying it will quote, active evaluate his views and look forward to discussing his growth strategies. but wall street may already be pricing a management change into the stock. sending the share price to new highs and feeling renewed hope from a merger. >> i do believe that that is optionality that we might see play out over the course of several years. i think the near term opportunities improve the margins and the operations of the business but over the course of the next several years we

could be talking about mergers more. >> and the industry may already be bracing for that possibility. incoming canada pacific ceo told the investment community just last night that he believes consolidation will occur in the industry, possibly as soon as next year. for "nightly business report" i'm morgan brennan. >> union pacific saw its profits rise thanks to an increase in energy prices. favorable -- like its rifles though union pacific was challenged by a decline in coal freight has utilities switched to cheaper natural gas. shares of union pacific rose more than 2% on the day. >> still ahead we'll take a trip to the u.s./mexico border. >> i'm jane wells in america's southern border where there's already a wall. border patrol says plenty of people still jump it but the new president of the united states

wants to build a bigger and better wall to keep people there over there. that's coming up on "nightly business report." >> the department of defense is reportedly nearing a $9 billion deal with lockheed martin. negotiations have been focused on bringing down the cost of the f 35 fighter jets below $100 million for the first time. the f-35 is the costliest military programs history in and has been criticized by the president-elect. >> donald trump made his last cabinet pick former georgia governor sonny perdue has been nominated to led the department of agriculture. mr. perdue earned a doctorate in

vet tri nairry medicine. >> it was perhaps the most iconic campaign promises. >> we are going to build a great border wall. >> but that promise may now turn into reality and it's prompting cheers and engineers along the u.s. mexico border. here's jane wells. >> bob malpen is focusing on the end of america. no really. he's patrolling the physical end of the united states. it's southern border where malpin's ranch is just a stone's throw away mexico where a wall and a fence have not stopped tres passers. >> malpin has spent an estimated $20,000 over the years repairing damage to his party caused by illittle immigration.

there's also this imagine, shoppers from mexico spending money in american stores. people who have legally crossed the border to buy better quality goods without tariffs. >> upwards of about 95% comes from mexico. >> reporter: sales are off double digits since the election in large part to the devalued pay sow which some blame on the incoming president. >> cars are lined up all day to come through the crossing. every year more than 27 million people cross over to ca lexco and west of here it's an even bigger deal where trade between san diego and tijuana is a multi-billion dollar industry. >> these are mexicans coming in. they're coming across the border with money. they're buying goods here. they're money is employing people here in the u.s. what's the problem?

>> recognizes that immigration is a problem but he says building a wall is not the answer. rancher bob malpin could not disagree more. he wants an even better wall to slow down traffic and he will continue his own border patrol calling authorities when he finds a trespasser. >> as an american i'm protecting the country as best i can on my property and the way i feel if you don't think that's right why don't you go live in cuba. >> jb hunt posts arrive in profit and revenue and that's where we begin tonight's focus. the trucking transport company and dedicated contract services divisions helped results. the company benefited from a nearly $10 million aftertax benefit but the earnings missed wall street expectations and hunt's fail more than 3% to close at 94.36. bank of new york melon saw its profit rise.

the bank also posted a gain in revenue but a strong dollar and outflows resulted in a drop in assets under management. shares fell 3% to 44.84. >> panasonic says it wants to expand its partnership with tesla by working with the automaker to -- panasonic currently makes batteries for some of tesla's cars. separately the u.s. government closed an investigation into a death involving tesla's auto pilot feature and said it will not issue a recall. tesla shares rose 2% to 243.76. apple supplier sky works reported earnings and revenue after the bell that beat expectations. they gave up beat guidance for the current quarter and said it will launch a new $5 million share buyback programs. shares initially rose but fell. shares of rent acenter continued to get hammer today after the

furniture rental company warned late yesterday of disappointing quarterly results. the company says it expects to post lower in sales. rent acenter is expected to report results in february, the shares plunged 18% to $8.31. >> new home construction increased more than expected in december. according to the commerce department housing starts rose by more than 11%. of that increase came from a rebound in multi-level units. >> big shift in mortgage lending is raising concerns about one area of the housing market. "the wall street journal" bonds back some nonback lenders by quicken loans and others who lend to borrowers whoan't get loans have topped a trillion dollars. they did so for the first time in november. ralph, welcome, good to see you.

give us background here. it used to be that you went to a savings and loan or conventional bank to get a lone. there are knots of nontraditional lenders in the marketplace how big are they in the percentage of mortgages written? >> they are certainly playing a more important role in lending. if you look at just say fha lending for example, their share is grown from about 9 or 10% from mortgage originations to about 60% over the last four or five years. they are starting to play a much more important role in lending. on top of that some of these nontraditional lenders are offering products that are more attuned to younger generations. so for example, sofi does everything on line. so they are starting to cater to different generations and younger households that can't afford a big down payment they're increasingly getting

into fha loans. >> we mentioned that these nonbank banks the amount outstanding cumula actively topped a trillion dollar for the first time ever. the worry is that we're going to see a replay of the housing crisis of a few years back but you don't seem to think that is a possibility or problemability perhaps? >> truly we're not too worried about it, at least not yet. i'll tell you why. there's really two reasons we're not worried about that. number one, the general economy is very healthy, jobs are growing solid little and so are wages and those are two conditions that really aren't ripe for increasing defaults. so in that first case the economy's doing well, don't have to worry about defaults just yet. number two even if the faults were to start rising any fha loans borrowers have to pay mortgage insurance and that goes into a fund held by the fha that

is used to ensure against defaults. there's not much reason to think of there being a problem just yet, but that said, if defaults really start to rise and they get greater than the capitalization that fannie -- fha has in their insurance pool which is about 27 will billion will then we might start seeing a need for taxpayer bailouts. we think that's unlikely and very, very far down the road if it's going to happen at all. >> we leave it there. good explanation. coming up the costly mistake both investors and companies can make.

there is a new study out that shows that small businesses are slow to hire. in fact, just 20% of small businesses added more than two full-time positions in a year. the study conducted by j.p. morgan chase analyzed 2015 payroll records for more than 45,000 small firms and highlights the challenges that these employers are facing. >> you might be concerned about threats from outside your company like hackers but what about your own employees or the person you vest your money with. companies do not do their due diligence and that can be a costly mistake. >> you need to do reference checks and often times the hr departments at companies don't have the manpower to do it and they say, we want the background check done yesterday. >> reporter: and it's that

pressure to hire quickly that can wind up costing millions. according to former fbi agent and private investigator ken springer, investigating key executives can uncover financial stress and any patterns of bad behavior. >> some of the biggest internal investigations we've done is with problem it people because they do indeed have the keys to the castles. >> reporter: with so much risk more firms are hiring investigators to do deep dives. >> we find often their credentials weren't there. >> reporter: an excon almost straight out of prison managed to siphon millions from the ledge -- lied on his resume to score a job. he's now serving time behind bars. >> there's going to be some company that fails to do all the required investigation and therefore fails to uncover the truth and all he needs of course is one to give him a job. >> reporter: springer says some of the biggest internal threats

may not have a criminal record. >> it's not what they tell you, but often what they don't. whoever comes in on a pitch that says oh, by the way i'm under investigation by fcc or sued by my former employee. >> reporter: same rules apply if you're hiring someone to invest your money. this man wound up pleading guilty to being part of a massive scheme. when he took money from some investors he failed to disclosed he had been permanently barred from the regulatory commission. he's currently awaiting sentencing. >> my investor already heard from me. >> reporter: busted in a $17 million ponzie scheme. he was a former fbi agent and that he had years of experience to start a hedge fund, but. >> he lied at every stage. he lied about his qualifications. >> reporter: should investors have trusted him with their

cash? >> absolutely not rrjs and he's serving a six year sentence. it's not only important to screen every key employee that comes in but to set up checks and balances in each department before you give anyone the keys to the castle. i'm andrea day for "nightly business report." >> and that will do it for "nightly business report" tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> and thanks for me as well. tyler mathisen. have a great even and we'll see you back here tomorrow night.

>> this is "bbc world news america." funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and aruba tourism authority. and now, "bbc world news america." katty: this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am katty kay. on the eve of his inauguration, donald trump promises immediate action on his campaign pledges and starts carrying out the duties of commander-in-chief. so what do trump's supporters want from his presidency? in america's rust belt, they are hoping he can reverse the economic tide. and dozens are feared dead after an