>> susie: wall street wraps up a weeklong winning streak, its first in months... >> i don't think the bull market is back. i think, at this point, that we're just seeing some bounce after a losing streak. >> tom: we look at positioning your portfolio for uncertain times. it's "nightly business report" for friday, september 16. 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 >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. it's a five in row. the major stock averages were in the green every day this week, susie. >> susie: tom, the dow is just points away from turning positive for the year. one reason for the optimism? investors are hopeful that the european debt crisis won't spin out of control. here's a rundown of today's closing numbers. the dow rose 76 points, the nasdaq added 15 and the s&p up almost seven. for the week, the blue chips posted impressive gains, up 4.7%. the nasdaq did even better, up

6% over the past five days. and the s&p rose 5.3% on the week. u.b.s. strategist steven friedman says its been all about europe this week. >> right now the market is really trading in line with swings of investor sentiment in relation to the situation in the eurozone. there have been some reassuring comments by policy makers in europe, and some concerted efforts to provide liquidity to the banks in europe, and that's really what's been driving stocks higher this week. >> susie: despite this week's gains, investors are still jittery. they're worried about all the market volatility and the uncertain outlook for the economy. as suzanne pratt reports, investors are looking for ways

to scotchguard their portfolios. >> reporter: miami couple janet altman and tim schmand are disciplined savers with well- defined investment goals. first and foremost, they hope to be able to retire as early as in 10 years. still, they're not worried about what a recession might do to their portfolio. they have a financial planner to do the worrying for them. >> it's not our profession to track the trends and where to go next. the advisors are helping us manage our expectations for the future. >> in the last 12 months, she's reviewed my 401k plan 17 times. she hasn't had me change my investment 17 times-- it's been more like five or six. they are definitely actively looking at where we should be and giving us good advice. >> reporter: financial planner ellen siegel is their professional worrier. she says janet and tim are in good shape to weather a recession. what does she tell other clients? >> absolutely have a plan and a

strategy for what monies have to be available for what reason and when. and, two, diversify. diversification is not "jump to cash when i get scared." >> reporter: for siegel, diversification means buying shares of companies that are small, medium and large. also, those that are a good value and pay dividends. and then, don't forget bonds: government, corporate and high- yield. experts say portfolios that make tactical shifts when the economy turns usually weather economic storms the best. but, strategist stephen wood believes it's impossible to recession-proof a portfolio. >> what you can do is, you can create an asset allocation which is designed to take you through bull markets and bear markets, and recessions and through strong growth spurts. that's why you asset allocate your portfolio, because can't foretell the future, so you prepare the eventualities as

best you can. on that note, our savers tim and janet also have one out of the box piece of advice. >> we also do an awful lot of yoga, so we've remained calm under most circumstances. i think that's helped immensely. >> reporter: suzanne pratt, "nightly business report." >> susie: still ahead, tonight's "market monitor" guest says hunker down-- we're in for a brutal bear market, and it will be grizzly. >> tom: u.s. treasury secretary tim geithner met with finance ministers in europe today. he urged them to overcome their divisions and work together to remove catastrophic risk from markets and solve the region's debt problems. specifically, he suggested the eurozone boost its bailout fund by allowing it to draw money from the european central bank. also in europe, it looks like portugal's debt woes are worse than we thought. its central bank today said the country's madiera island region has underreported its debt for the past seven years.

the bank of portugal says the autonomous island failed to report $1.5 billion dollars in debt. that means the nation's overall budget deficit numbers will have to be revised upward. >> susie: here in the u.s., alabama's largest county will avoid bankruptcy. jefferson county today reached a tentative deal with its wall street creditors. at issue? over more than $3 billion in debt from a scandal-plagued sewer system overhaul. if the county defaulted on its i.o.u.s, it would have been the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. county commissioner james stephens explains bankruptcy is still a possibility. >> that will remain an option. we're looking for a holistic solution to our problems. we have a tremendous amount of stress on our general fund budget. right now, our deficit that we're looking for in our general fund is over $40 million. >> susie: still, stephens says

he's hopeful that he and other commissioners can work with creditors, including j.p. morgan, to agree on a final agreement. >> tom: the labor department says there were a little more than three million job openings in august for the 14 million americans out of work. so, if you're a company hiring, that certainly puts you in the driver's seat. while many firms are holding the line on hiring right now, some are seizing the opportunity for top talent. diane eastabrook visited a job fair this week where hundreds of applicants turned out for just a handful of openings. >> okay, i'm going to go ahead and give you two applications. one for each job. >> reporter: in a desperate economy, this two-day job fair brought hope to hundreds of job seekers. 21-year-old ahanti wiley was among them. >> in this economy, i think it's kind of hard to look for a job, but if you have the qualifications, that should get you in. >> reporter: all are vying for nearly a dozen openings, from tour guide to candy maker at the jelly belly candy company near chicago. 40-year-old scott kraly was among the more experienced applicants. he's been unemployed for three years.

>> i left behind a really good construction job. and what i'm looking for is anything to pay the bills. anything that's 40 hours a week with a paycheck. >> reporter: with 14 million americans out of work, this is a buyer's market for companies like jelly belly. the firm best known for its flavorful little jelly beans has lost close to 20 employees at its north chicago plant through attrition over the past couple of years. vice chairman william kelley says he held off replacing them because sales had been choppy. but he's ready to hire again since sales began rebounding five months ago. he thinks the trend will continue. >> i think it's more of a gut feel. we feel the pulse of the business day to day, and if it's good we'll hire them. >> reporter: kelley also wants to snatch up the best possible candidates. john challenger, from the outsourcing firm challenger, gray, and christmas, says now's the time to do it. >> they've got a lot of people who want the job. they've got a lot of measurement

tools today to really seek out the best people. so, holding a job fair, sifting through hundreds of people to find the very best, is good business. >> reporter: the brief interviews jelly belly managers conducted at the job fair let them size up each applicant for second interviews. scott kaley hopes to be among them. how do you think it went today? >> about the same as always. i hope i hear something back. >> reporter: kelly says he'll consider adding more workers if sales at jelly belly continue to improve and if the economy improves. diane eastabrook, "nightly business report," waugkegan, illinois.

>> tom: a deal appears to be gaining traction between general motors and the united autoworkers. labor talks are said to be in the final stage of negotiations. both sides say they're making good progress. a deal could come as early as tonight. this is general motors' first labor negotiations since returning to life as a publicly traded company. separate negotiations continue between the union and automakers ford and chrysler. >> susie: and some deal-making for yahoo could be in the works as well. microsoft and the private equity firm silver lake are reportedly looking to buying yahoo! the web giant could be worth more than $19 billion, but it has struggled to keep up with rivals google and facebook. darren gersh reports. >> tom: finding a buyer with deep-pockets and a hunger to turn around a troubled company is one obvious solution for yahoo.

but that's one tough search, says morningstar equity analysts rick summer. >> they've been trying to liquidate assets in asia in yahoo japan and alibaba group. they've been unable to do so. they have big tax liabilities associated with any liquidation. both of those problems will travel with the company to the acquirer, so it's not clear the acquirer can solve these problems any better than yahoo can, so why should they pay up to be able to solve those problems? >> reporter: yahoo has butted heads with the c.e.o. of its asian partner, the e-commerce site alibaba. alibaba chairman and c.e.o. jack ma has made it clear he wants to buy back yahoo's stake in the company, and the opportunity there could tempt a patient buyer, because it's a big opportunity, says standard & poor's scott kessler. >> most people don't realize that if this company were publicly traded, it could very well be one of the ten largest internet companies, based on market cap, on the planet.

>> reporter: if yahoo could spin off its asian business, what would be left behind is an internet turnaround, but one that still has 700 million monthly visitors. >> we think the core of what the company is, which as described repeatedly in recent months, is the premier digital media company. and we think they're going to stick to that vision, because we think it works and we think it's going to be relevant going forward. >> reporter: yahoo's board of directors may decide time is not on their side. waiting for a buyer may worry advertisers. and that could force the company to try to heal itself. >> we think they will end up having to put in a new management team. we think any sort of transaction will be challenging to be able to happen, and we wouldn't put a high degree of likelihood on that occurring. >> reporter: which may leave yahoo where it has been for years: still searching for a future. darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington.

up just a fraction, but down from what microsoft was willing to pay. we saw today's rally continue, let's look at market focus. a strong week for shareholders, with the major indices going five for five. let's put the gains into perspective. this is the past 90 sessions of the s&p 500. with the rally this week, the index has almost matched the rally we saw off its august low. the index remains 10% lower than its july high.

technology fueled the gains this week. the s&p info tech sector jumped more than 7% compared to a week ago. consumer discretionary stocks and industrials also put in decent gains, up more than 6% each this week. consumer goods giant procter and gamble led the dow industrial gainers today with its 2.5% gain. volume was heavier than usual with shares of p&g running up to the top of its trading range since june. a move to $65 would take the stock to a four-month high. financial stocks held today's broad market gains in check as investors try to figure out the risk posed by europe's problems. we did learn today trading revenues at u.s. banks were down 18% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, and many analysts expect that business has continued shrinking this quarter. big banks start reporting their third quarter results in four weeks. bank of america and j.p. morgan were among the worst dow components today, slipping more

than 1% each. goldman sachs shares were down a fraction. we mentioned the earnings disappointment from research in motion last night, and the price action followed suit. rimm stock dropped 19%. volume exploded, more than quadrupling. the company came up short of estimates for both earnings and revenues-- shipping fewer blackberry and tablet computers- - the playbook-- last quarter. but even with today's steep loss, the stock remains above its 52-week low hit last month. at&t continues recovering from its drop earlier this month when the federal government sued to block the company's $39 billion buyout of t-mobile u.s.a. the stock was up another 1.4% today, even though seven states joined the justice department's lawsuit. speaking of deals, conglomerate, united technologies is looking to get bigger. reuters reports the company is securing financing for what may

be its biggest buyout in decades-- perhaps topping $20 billion. shares were a little weaker today on the rumors. but shares of possible buyout targets were rallying. rockwell collins and goodrich each popped more than 7%. textron added almost 7%. those companies refused to comment. finally, sugar prices saw a sharp drop today. this is the past 180 sessions. today, sugar had its biggest one-day slide in six months. some technical factors from future expirations, and more sugar exports from india, pushed prices lower to their lowest price in a month. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> susie: a new law signed today overhauls the nation's patent system. it's the first major change in more than two generations on the

way inventors can bring their products to market. the "america invents act" is expected to reduce frivolous lawsuits and streamline the patent process. it will also give the u.s. patent office money to speed up application processing. president obama expects the changes to help entrepreneurs and spark job creation. >> it will help startups and small business owners turn their ideas into products three times faster than they can today. and it will improve patent quality and help give entrepreneurs the protection and confidence they need to attract investment, to grow their businesses and to hire more workers. >> susie: the legislation received broad support from several tech heavyweights including microsoft, apple, google and facebook. >> tom: here's what we're watching for next week: it'll be a busy one. our friday "market monitor" is chris orndorff, senior portfolio manager at western asset management. tuesday, federal reserve

policymakers begin a two-day meeting on rates. their decision will be released on wednesday. monday, we're one on one with george schultz. we get the former treasury and labor secretary's take on how to fix the economy. >> susie: the net worth of american households fell in the second quarter of this year. household wealth, which is the value of assets like homes minus liabilities like debt, was about $150 billion lower than in the first quarter. the stock market and housing market are to blame, according to the federal reserve report. but not everyone is feeling the pain. the fed says corporations continued to stockpile cash during the spring. >> tom: more questions being raised today about the bankruptcy of solar panel maker solyndra. the white house released emails showing reassurances from the company as recently as may that its finances were strong. meanwhile, a house committee released emails showing concern within the white house over what a solyndra bankruptcy would mean for the president's re-election campaign. the bankruptcy left uncle sam on the hook for a half a billion

dollars in loan guarantees. >> tom: investors should expect a bear market to grind lower in the years ahead. that's the forecast from tonight's "market monitor." it's frank cochrane, president

of investment timing consultants. he joins us from troy, michigan. nice to see you. back back to the program. >> thank you, tom, great to see you. >> tom: why so bearish? you describe yourself as extremely bearish? why? >> well, i'm looking at, say, the next three or four years. i think, first of all, where we are now, the combination of economic stagnation and government austerity is not really a pill for a better economy. we have shifting demographics with people-- baby boomers are getting older. housing to me doesn't look like it's fixed yet. the employment levels look like they're going to get worse, unemployment levels and we see what the fed is doing. they basically told us we're giving you a free pass on interest rates the next couple of years, that combined with what's going on in europe the last couple of days i think is a real testimony to the issues and problems going on, in a global economy. these are not things that happen when the economy is doing well. these are things that-- this continued facilitation of money and money being thrown at everything it try to fix it. i don't think it's really going

to work over the long term. and it's going to exacerbate problems longer term. >> tom: so with that in mind for investors, how low is your forecast and how fast do you get there? >> well, again, i think this is going to be something where you'll see the market drop 500 points, rally 200 points, drop a thousand, rally 700. i'm talking the next three or four years and there will be megarallies along the way. i would not be surprised, as i said last february, we see the 6-6-6 level broken on the s & p, the march '09 level and go lower from there . the ultimate low on the s & p wouldn't surprise me to the 475 to 500 level, the '94 break out on the dow industrials and i could go on. this ising in that is going to tack a long time to manifest. and i think what's going to be brought on boy that is when we see the political scene change over the course of the next year. the year 13 and 14 is going to be when the government comes in

and really starts doing some major austerity measures which will not help the economy but will try to clean things up so to speak. >> tom: which of course will be in the next presidential cycle. some of the numbers, the dow four, 000, s & p 400. a lot of people are sitting up and taking notice. we haven't seen those numbers for the better part a generation. you did bring along investment ideas. you do like an exchange-traded fund designed to profit twice on the upside when the russell 2000 moves lower. so it's an inverse exchange-traded fund. why do you like this one so much? >> well, again, i don't think the growth is going to be there in the economy. and these are typically small-cap issuees, typically the ones that fare the worst in an environment like that. so i think the russell guilty considerably lower from where it is today and it's really suffered this year. i think this year to date it's down 8%, 9% or so. the e.t.f. should do well in this type of environment. it should be a little more active in terms of trading that but holding i wouldn't have a

problem for the long, long term. >> twn, ticker symbol. you liked the silver change trade fund, slv, up 35%. well done, sir. you still like it even just below $40. what do you expect from slv over the course of your forecast? >> well, if you can stomach a lot of volatility, i mean a lot of volatility, i would expect that to go up towards 70 to 80. >> tom: almost double. >> correct. but there's going to be a lot of volatility. cant could go up to 50 pull back to 42. i would buy that on weakness, and build on that position over the course of the next several years. >> tom: previous picks also back in february, you were looking at commodities with ticker symbol gcc, the green haven continuous commodity fund. that's down 1.7%. and you also like luny, the canadian dollar. do you still like these? >> gcc, no.

i would get out of that. canadian dollar, yes. it could go up to 105. it did that and i think it could go back to that and stay it the 108. it's a good position hold with respect to a commodity based economy. >> tom: how about disclosures? positions in those you still have? >> s.o.v., and touchdown w.m., we have positions on that now. >> well, good luck, frank tonight with us from michigan with investment timing consultants. >> susie: you can keep up with nbr anytime. we're online at nbr on pbs.org. there you'll find all the market data from the program, and you can watch any programs you may have missed. you can also follow us on twitter, @bizrpt or my personal feed, @sgharibnbr. we're also on facebook at bizrpt. >> susie: and finally, the story

travel web site trip adviser pulled 1400-- polled 1400 people. for many of them, worrying about the return to work starts before the trip is over. their biggest fear-- facing hundreds if not thousands of work emails. tom, the best way to stop the post-vacation blues they say, plan your next trip. >> tom: i guess the upside is you have a job to go back to, to help pay for that summer vacation so you can't be blue about that. >> susie: very positive attitude. >> tom: friday, here, we have september 16 for you. it's in the books. tom hudson for you. good night, have a great weekend, you, too, susie. >> susie: tom and i hope to see all of you next week. "nightly business report" is made possible by:

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