here in the u.s. investors are feeling better about the future. >> i still have a lot of cash on the sidelines, but i have recently have invested some money into the market. i'm putting my toe back in to the market, you might say. >> tom: then, men-- they were hardest hit when it came to job losses during the recession, but with job gains building they're "men back at work." it's "nightly business report" for monday, february 6.

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. it's deadline time for greece and europe again. the heads of france and germany gave greece an ultimatum today: cut government spending or get no bailout money in march. tom, without that money greece could default on its debt. >> tom: the risk of that weighed on the markets, susie. investors were expecting a debt deal by today, and when it

didn't happen u.s. stocks sold off. also worrying investors? a fresh round of sanctions against iran as president obama tries to pressure the government there to end its nuclear program. by the close, the dow lost 17 points, the nasdaq was off almost four and the s&p 500 was down by fraction. >> susie: the greek government did agree to lay off 15,000 workers by the end of this year. and tomorrow, greek unions are planning demonstrations protesting cuts in jobs, wages and pensions. let's get reaction and analysis on all this from our guest tonight. joining us now? nick colas, chief market strategist at convergex group. are hi, nick, nice to you have with us. >> thanks so much. >> susie: all right so, this greek drama has been going on for two years now. so the question is, is greece going to get its act together or is it going to default? >> well, greece faces a very difficult problem,

obviously. the greekovernment knows that if they choose to default either disorderly or orderly default it will mean a lot of pain forth greek people right away. if they choose to go along with what the european policymakers have in mind, there will be a more protracted problem but one that isn't as short and sharp as what happened with disorderly default or even leaving the euro. so it is really a challenge for the greek government to figure out which path they want to take. >> susie: do you think a default is in the cards? and also related to that, if they have this ordinaril ordinarily-- orderlyefault what does that mean for othetroubled countries in europe? will they fail too or is this just a greek event? >> well, certainly the european policymakers are trying very hard to hold it to be a greek event only. an orderly default means that perhaps they don't get what they expect but greece stays in the euro and is still part of the european system that would be a more ideal situation than a disorderly default which has really bad ramifications across the eurozone

particularly in other troubled countries such as portugal, spain and even italy which say very large economy in the european sector so what the european policymakers are really hoping for is something with greece that they can basically hold greece inside the fold, most investors expect that will be the case. and prevent any kind of run on banks, any other more troubled countries. >> susie: i think the question that a lot of people want answered is can europe fix this problem? doesn't it have the money to bail out all these countries that are having financial difficulties? >> yes, it is a really important point. europe is still a very wealthy region of the world. both in terms of industrial production and human capital. it has more than enough money to solve the problem and really what we are seeing play out is a question of how much political will there is to solve the problem. and that is really what markets are look for at the end of the day, how out of greece and the greek situation political will to solve the problems rather than just the money. the money is there as you rightly point out. >> susie: uh-huh, it's really interesting. let's talk about the markets today. it was really interesting that all this news and

uncertainty coming out of europe wasn't so disruptive for the u.s. stock market compared to what was going on last summer over all of this europe peer:-- european problems. why is that? >> well, we've had two years to get accustomed to the notion that greece had a very serious fiscal problem, was basically cooking the books two to five years ago. and policymakers understood that was the case. now markets really need to understand that's the case. so whatever happens in greece or any of the other troubled countries in europe should come as no surprise to u.s. capital markets, european capital markets. that's really i think what european policymakers mr. going after, the notion of extending these negotiations so everybody understood what the problems were. and it's been successful that is why you didn't see a big sell-off today. >> susie: so then i think a lot of investors are wondering what do i do with my money. i don't know what you are telling your clients. some people feel is it okay to keep myoney in the u.s. or is it still important to have a global portfolio. what are you recommending? >> well, certainly looking at the u.s. economy it's

stronger right now then the european economies both in terms of employment trends and general output. so the european economies don't look as favorable as the u.s. so u.s. stocks look more sound. additionally u.s. companies have done a whole raft of cost-cutting over the past couple of years which means they've had tremendous earnings power. so on average i would say u.s. stocks are better than most overseas stocks, less speculative, more solid. so u.s. stocks really seem to be the way to go. >> susie: very interesting. nick, thanks for coming on the program. >> thank you so much we've been speaking with nick colas, chief market strategist at convergex group. its s&p is up almost 7% this year. the rally las caught many investors off guard and has some questioning where to put their cash this year. susan pratt caught up with some them in new york. >> reporter: the u.s. stock market is off to its best start in 25 years.

the stronger-than-expected american economy gets much of the credit for the recent runup. and, it has some investors feeling more upbeat. in general terms, i would say that i'm feeling more comfortable investing now than i did over the last couple of years. >> i'm in emerging markets and s&p companies. i like equities for the long term. >> reporter: but, the economy's recent strength also has some investors wondering if they should tweak their portfolio. after all, in a good economy stocks often outperform bonds, and cyclical companies do better than defensive names. investment strategist jim awad believes people should be buying more stocks. >> but, i wouldn't change the type of equities that i buy, because there remain risks in the environment. so, what you want to do is increase your participation because the world looks better, but you want to keep your defenses up because there are still risks. >> reporter: but, other market pros say it might just pay to play certain sectors of the market this year. >> if the economy is finally

starting to firm, then traditionally your more cyclical sectors, such as consumer discretionary, technology, industrials and materials, are likely to be the leaders. >> reporter: stovall says the market's five-week rally has also made him more confident about his forecasts. he predicts the s&p 500 will hit 1400 at some point this year. still, others say the fate of u.s. stocks in 2012 remains in the hands of european leaders. >> right now it looks like the u.s. is strong enough, the emerging markets are strong enough. we can handle a european recession. what we can't handle is a series of bankruptcies in europe that freeze up the credit markets worldwide. >> reporter: and then there are those who just want to forget about their portfolio, at least for one day, and celebrate last night's big win. >> i'm investing in a lot of goods like cigars, vodka, and bloody mary mix.

>> reporter: suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >>om: ill ead, tonight's word on the street? yield. gregg greenberg of thestreet.com joins us with three stocks mutual fund managers are buying for their dividend yields. >> susie: men were some of the big winners from last month's new jobs. throughout the economic slump, men took greater hit than women in the job market, leading to the quasi-economic term "man- cession." but as darren gersh reports, men are starting to get back to work. >> reporter: any time jobs are created in an economy like this, it's good news, but the recovery in hiring has been very good news for men. most of the jobs gained over the last two years-- some 2.4 million-- have been filled by men. >> we are starting to see demand really pick up in a broad way. so, the men who are getting jobs are really getting them in many industries-- in manufacturing, in retail trade, in restaurants and bars, in the health sector.

so they are generally coming back across the board. >> reporter: men and women now have the same unemployment rate, reversing a trend that began in late 2006. back then, just 4.5% of men and women were unemployed. but look what happened. in 2007, the unemployment rate for men took off, hitting a painful 11.2% in 2009. women still suffered, but their unemployment rate peaked a year later at 9%. >> men always get hit harder in the downturns because they work in the more cyclical industries like manufacturing and construction. manufacturing did well last month and it's done well in the last few months, and there's starting to be a little sign of life in construction sector in the past two months. so maybe, in the male sectors, the jobs that got hit so hard there, maybe there's some sign of life there. they're starting to climb their way out. >> reporter: the recovery in male employment could be very good news for black men.

they had been left behind by the recovery, with unemployment hovering around 15% until last month. >> it is a good thing that it is going in the right direction. we want to see these numbers come down, but a giant drop from one month to the next usually signifies that there is some month-to-month variability causing that, and that some of that will be reversed in months to come. >> reporter: of course, we still have a long way to go. as a group, men have lost 3.6 million jobs in the great recession and many men have dropped out of the labor force altogether. darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> susie: a little later in the program, we head to a chicago area health care firm. tom, it had such trouble finding skilled workers, it started training its own. >> pretty amazing story. looking for its own workers, train them, stock market here today, still absorbing some of those job gains we saw on friday. t much follow-through buying, not a whole lot of selling either. we'll take a look at tonight's market to kuchlt

kuchlts-- focus. stocks closed well off their worst levels of the day, but the major indices couldn't make up for all of the early session selling. with still no deal with greek bondholders, the s&p 500 fell almost 1% in the first 10 minutes of trading, but finished the day down just a fraction. energy stocks were the leaders. this energy exchange-traded fund rallied 1% to its highest close since the august sell-off. a mix of energy stocks fueled the gains. oil and natural gas explorer cabot and refiner sunoco were up 3.4% each. coal miner alpha natural resources gained more than 3%. one to watch tomorrow could be explorer anadarko. fourth--quarter earnings were much stronger than expected before accounting for a settlement related to the 2010 gulf oil spill disaster. the stock saw some selling pressure before tonight's report, but it made up most of today's losses in after hours trading.

also after the close tonight, we heard how big the appetite is for kfc in china. parent company yum brands saw continued strength in china and improvement with pizza huts in the u.s. earnings came in one penny above estimates. operating profits in china were up 15% and chinese same-store sales jumped 21%. after a 1% drop during today's regular session, they were up 2% from this closing price in after-hours action, trading just shy of a new high. but a completely different siness in china,ohu.com, is struggling. this company runs search, gaming and media websites in china. shares fell almost 16% thanks to a disappointing outlook, something it blamed on weak online advertising and spending more on video content. that demand for online video content is not confined to china, of course. today we saw verizon and coinstar's redbox division team up. this is verizon's first move into video streaming outside of

its own fios television-internet service. it will combine verizon with redbox's dvd rental system later this year. the joint venture is going after other video streaming offers from neflix, amazon.com and others. verizon stock gained a fraction, while redbox owner coinstar jumped 2%. coinstar also reported a very strong fourth quarter, and after initially falling on news of new competitors, netflix shares recovered to post over a 2% gain. but as we mentioned, the broad market was weaker today, led by this trio. the materials and financial sectors fell 0.5%. health care also saw selling pressure. pressuri health stocks was insurer humana, dropping 5.5%. late today we learned a federal court granted class action to a investor lawsuit. the suite claims b of a mislead investors over the takeover and the size of losses and bonus payout.

no comment yet from bank of america. pressuring health care meantime humana dropping 5.5% while earnings came in as expected for last quarter, its outlook was disappointing despite the company's leadership position with medicare health plans. pharmacy benefits managers medco and express scripts also weighed on the health sector-- down 8% and 4.5% respectively. skepticism is growing about express scripts $29 billion buyout of medco over anti-trust concerns. the deal would combine two of the three biggest companies that manage prescription drug benefits. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: as stocks have gotten

>> tom: as stocks have gotten off to a hot start this year, dividend-paying stocks have not kept pace. that brings us to tonight's word on the street," "yield." gregg greenberg is a reporter at thestreet.com. gregg, is the search for yield over, in other words the time to dump dividend stocks if the economy is pick up steam? >> absolutely not. from the fund managers that have been coming to speak with me, the search for yield is still on. and it's going to be on as long as treas year-- treasury yields relane low. we heard from the fed just last week we going to keep rates low for the foreseeable future, so as long as that is the case, pele want yields. >>om: so theunto get paidhileou wait still is out there and among them, fund managerless highlighting stocks, include

intel here. yielding over 3%. and close to a 52-week high. what is kept exed from intel? >> well, that's pretty surprising for a tech company. but intel has been on a tremendous run over the past few months. i think it's up over 40% since september. it's yield --.1%. it's really become unmoored it was stuck at 20 dollars a share for a long time but now it is around 27 dollars a share. and a lot of people say that intel is finally in the right market. they are getting there when it comes to nadgets li tablets. and they could see a resurgence in pcs which is going to help intel's business. >> what about an increase possibly in difficult densd, could that be in the cards? >> sure, intel has money. it's a tried and true tech can. it's not being driven up by a short squeeze which is happening to a lot of other technology stocks in this raleigh. you have-- rally, you have to remember this is a low volume, low quality rally so far. you just have to look at the bioteches to know that. >> tom: meantime in the utility energy space, southern company so the ticker symbol yielding a healthy and a quarter

rcent, a ce mch hire for the ock pre. the question is, though, at this yield account stock price continue to move and trend higher? >> well, utilities were the best performing sector in the s&p in 2011 and a lot of people think they can have another nice year in 2012. southern companies is one of the largest utilities in the southeast, a nice yield and a lot of people see growth there as well. and it's regulated which reassures loft people about the stock. >> tom: you have seen certainly selling pressure in utilities. best sector last year has turned into among the worst so far this yeeferment an etf that pays a dividend, b, t nationalunical bond exchange traded fund yielding about 3%. moneyies have been tarred and feathered over the past several years but this fund has done nicely. >> actually, last year you had meredith whitny wit her big call about municipal bonds saying we will see defaults around the nation. >> tom: didn't happen. >> it did not happen and actually over the course of the year, you saw the big sell-off and you saw municipal bonds really gain steam. the mub had a tremendous

run. but a lot of people say that it can really still maintain these levels. maybe even move a little bit higher. you have been seeing pressure iam soft states. but a t of pele s it good to be in mins. you get the tax benefit and it's safe. >> tom: can you, do you own any of these funds or stocks we mentioned, gregg. >> i do not. >> tom: you can read gregg's article at thestreet.com, a link on our web site as well, word on the street with gregg greenberg with thestreet.com. >> susie: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: we'll see weekly retail sales and the december reading on consumer credit. earnings on tap? oil giant b.p., coca-cola and toyota motors. also tomorrow, as we go "beyond the scoreboard," we look at ether super bowl ad wiers translate into wning investment ideas. more headaches for boeing's dreamliner. the jet maker today confirmed it is working to fix a problem in the rear fuselage of the 787. boeing delivered the first dreamliner in september.

it was more than three years late after numerous design and production delays. five of the jets are now in service and dozens more in production, but boeing says the issue poses "no short-term safety concerns." j. morn che wi pay110 million to end a class action suit over excessive overdraft fees. the bank was accused of routinely processing transactions from largest to smallest instead of the order in which they were received. consumers complained the practice caused overdraft fees because balances fall faster when big transactions are processed first. its the latest of the big banks to strike a deal on the nationwide suit. bank of america reached a similar deal last year.

>> susie: tonight's commentator says while the u.s. job hiring is picking up, there still some fundamental changes to the labor market. he's bill rodgers, public policy professor at rutgers university. >> the reaction to friday's jobs report was the first time in a while where wall street and main street both cheered the news. the superlatives flowed. private sector employment has increased for 23 consecutive months. the length of the work week also expaed, and... the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, the lowest level since february 2009.

i, too, was pleased, but looking forward, i am concerned that as the labor market shifts from second to third gear, americans that are structurally unemployed will be left to fend for themselves. the share of the civilian population that has a job remains below its pre-recession level. over eight million americans can only find part-time work. 42% of the unemployed are long- term, and the prate sector ll have to absorb the over ha a million laid-off public sector workers. long-term commitments to job search assistance, job readiness, and job training will be of paramount importance for a sustainable recovery. the commitments will also be a key ingredient to long-term, broad-based economic growth. i am bill rodgers. >> susie: wanted: medical coders and billers. the bureau of labor statistics predicts demand for these jobs will increase 20% over the next 20 years because of new government requirements.

as a result, hospitals and medical service providers are scrambling to find these skilled health care professionals. diane eastabrook found a chicaco-based firm that's going as far as to train potential coders itself. >> okay, 806.3 is fracture of the cervical vertical column from c1 through c4. >> reporter: what looks like a college anatomy class is actually a medical coding class at accretive health in chicago. accretive is training hundreds of coders and billers who can translate diagstic information from medical providers for insurance claims. they're high-demand jobs and ones hospitals are increasingly outsourcing to companies like accretive because of coming changes in government regulation. >> it's gonna be close to our "encyclopedia britannica." >> reporter: the change says accretive's duane lisowksi will expand the number of diagnostic codes in this book from 13,000 to nearly 70,000. >> for example, the initial code

here is accident. an accident may be animal ridden, it could bfrom a balloon... roller coaster, so you have all of these codes, but then if you think about taking each one of these and then building it out, being even more specific, a roller coaster with an animal... ( laughs ). exactly, you know? >> reporter: david dranove, a health management professor at northwestern university's kellogg school of management, says the new codes could mean big bucks for hospitals. >> sometimes you can make a lot more money by doing one procedure versus another, but to justify those procedures you have to have the right set of diagnostic codes. >> reporter: when accretive moved onto thivacant floor of chicago's bank america building a little over a year ago, it had no coders, billers or follow-up personnel. today, this space is filled with 140 of those employees and accretive plans to hire another 100 coders by the end of this year. most of the coders accretive is training and hiring are referrals from chicago career tech, a local not-for-profit that helps unemployed workers

update skills for new jobs. president marie lynch says the top requirement is good people skills. >> you could have someone who was working at a bank who was doing a lot of customer service, doing a lot of client interaction, or just a very frndlyosite person w had to develop that skill set. >> reporter: 46-year-old berlinda verges thinks 20 years as an executive assistant prepared her for coding. >> there's a lot of autonomy involved when you are supporting the upper echelon of management, and there's a lot of autonomy with this, and you just have to be resourceful. >> reporter: accretive has been hiring three out of four students it trains, and it hopes it can hold onto these workers, since demand for their skills is expected to remain robust for years. diane eastabrook, "nightly business report," chicago. >> tom: that's "nightly business report" for monday, february 6. i'm tom hudson. 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.

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