>> tom: worries about greece and global growth send stocks tumbling as wall street posts its biggest loss this year. >> i think traders really started to realize that the market has ran its course, and perhaps even a redo of what 2011 looked like. time to take a little risk off. >> susie: its super tuesday, with republican presidential primaries in ten states. and it could mark a turning point in the race for the white house. it's "nightly business report" for tuesday, march 6. this is "nightly business

report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. stocks took a big hit today, the worst of the year, and it was partly because of greece, again. many investors are worried greece runs the risk of a messy debt default. susie, it all depends on greece working out a crucial debt restructuring deal with its bondholders by this thursday. >> susie: tom, u.s. stocks posted their biggest decline for the year.

and it's the first time that the dow fell by triple digits in 2012. the selling began right at the open, following sell-offs in markets in europe and asia. by the close, all of the major averages were down by about 1.5% or more. the dow tumbled 203 points, the nasdaq fell 40, and the s&p off almost 21 points. >> tom: after a big rally this year, some may think this sell- off has been just a matter of time, even as the u.s. economy seems to gathering steam. suzanne pratt reports from new york. >> reporter: the worry warts have reappeared on wall street. the dow had gone 45 trading sessions without closing with a triple-digit loss. that all came to an abrupt end today due to myriad factors across the globe, from slow growth in brazil to slower growth in china. but, once again, greece and it's financial mess topped everyone's list. >> i think, at this point,

people realize we're really, really at the edge. i know we've said "really" before, so i'll add one more there to emphasize the fact that, if they miss a debt payment, there is no more money. there is not going to be any more assistance. >> reporter: what's impossible to determine is whether today's sell-off is just a hiccup for the stock market, or the beginning of a rlly d case of indigestion, one that could result in the correction that many analysts have been stressing about. greco is in the correction camp, and will be watching the s&p 500 index for guidance. >> at this point, you know, if we got down near the 1,300 range on the s&p, there is a little bit of psychological support there. anything below that is going to hit 1,280 fairly quickly; 1,250 is really going to be a problem; and 1,240 is going to be where we end up landing. >> reporter: if the s&p does fall to 1,240, and we know that's a big "if," it would be an additional 8% loss. that means more red days like today. suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york.

>> tom: still ahead, the verdict is in. allen stanford has been found guilty in a massive ponzi scheme. we'll have the latest from houston. super tuesday is living up to its name today, and not just with the stock sell-off. with one out of every five republican presidential delegates at stake, mitt romney has a strong chance to break away from his challengers and wrap up the republican nomination. darren gersh explains what that cod mean for the rest of the campaign. >> reporter: the votes are still being cast, but the presidential campaign felt more like a face- off today. mitt romney appeared by satellite to speak to a pro- israel lobbying group. touching on the issue that has unnerved the oil markets, romney called president obama's outreach to iran "naive." >> hope is not a foreign policy. the only thing respected by thugs and tyrants is our resolve. >> reporter: the president, appearing before a news conference, hit back against romney and other republicans for what he called their "casual attitude" to war. and he contrasted that with the decisions he's made to send men and women into battle.

>> and the impacts that has on their lives, the impact it has on our national security, the impact it has on our economy. this is not a game. there is nothing casual about it. >> reporter: get used to this kind of back and forth. post-super tuesday, washington analyst chris krueger expects the field to narrow to a two-man race, romney and obama. >> romney is going to have two things on his side after today. he's going to have the delegate math working for him, and he is gointo have momentum working for him. both of them are needed to secure the nomination; both of them will be on his side. >> reporter: and that means the topics and tone of the debate will change, too. expect less talk in coming months about issues like contraception that appeal to some core republican voters, and more talk about the economy and other issues that appeal to middle class voters. >> "economic fairness," "we can't wait," "jobless recovery". you'll start to see the trenches

being dug and the rhetoric start to dial up. >> reporter: for now, though, asd what he uld y toit romney on this super tuesday, the president only said "good luck." darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> susie: also in the spotlight today, president obama giving his first press conference this year. he said diplomatic solutions are still possible in the iran conflict, and he also urged congress to pass his proposal for homeowners to refinance. tonight, the president will be meeting with business leaders in washington. our next guest will be there. he's alan miller, c.e.o. of universal health services, one of the nation's biggest healthcare management mpanies. when i talked with him earlier today, i asked him what he wants to hear from the president. >> one thing i would like the president to do is to assure us that the 2% medicare cut that's supposed to go in next year will be reviewed. that's one. second thing i'd like him to think about is creating some

sort of a committee to review the affordable care act carefully and with a view towards amending those parts that don't work. i'd like to see him say something about medical liability reform, tort reform, which is something that i think is very essential. >> susie: i'm going to come back to you on health care, but the president is also expected to talk to your group of c.e.o.s about creating more jobs. are you doing more hiring at universal health services? >> we are doing hiring. but certainly we would like to see the economy pick up. we have not seen as robust a business in one of our segments, the acute care end, because of unemployment. and the down economy. >> sue: let's lk about health care. the supreme court is expected in the next few weeks to hear arguments about president obama's health care law, and the main point there is the constitutionality of the mandate that's requiring all

americans to be cover bid some kind of insurance policy. what kind of outcome would you like to see? >> i would hope that the whole law goes down, that there is no sefr ability and the whole law goes down, and then it has to be revis ited, which i would li to see happen >> susie: one la question, as you know super tuesday, the presidential race is heating up. come november, who do you think will do more for the economy and the health care issues you've been talking about, the president or one of the republican candidates? >> i think the president has done the best he can. and his administration has also tried. but i think that with the economy being where it is, with the unemployment, with the affordable care act having many, many provisions that i don't feel work very well, it might be timefor another president, and we'll have a close election to see if the population agrees with that. >> susie: all right.

we'll see what happens. thank you so much, alan, for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> you're very welcome. >> susie: guilty-- that's the verdict in houston. texas financier allen stanford was found guilty today of 13 out of 14 counts related to a $7 billion ponzi scheme. andrew schneider reports from houston. >> reporter: the final tol against r. allen stanford came

down to five counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, the counts of criminal conspiracy and one count of obstruction of an s. e. c. investigation. the jury ruled not guilty on one count of wire fraud. the jury is still being held over to sty a matter of forfeiture. there's a question of $300 million in scattered assets across various stanford accounts. there are also a pair of dualing receivers, one appoint bid the u.s. securities and exchange commission and one by the antiguan government to determine the final state of the anford busine empire. the ponzi scheme is the second largest in u.s. history, affecting tens of thousands of investors across more than 100 countries. andrew schneider, nbc, houston. >> susie: the lehman brothers saga entered its final chapter three years after filing for bankruptcy. the investment bank whose failure kicked off the worst days of the financial crisis is now emerging from bankruptcy. the move frees lehman to begin selling its assets next month and distribute the cash to creditors.

lehman filed for bankruptcy in september of 2008. it was the largest bankruptcy filing in u.s. corporate history. so, end of an era there. and maybe a new era on wall street with all of this selling, everyone thought that it was going to be up up and away on the dow. 13,000 headline. and now a lot of questions of what happens next. >> tom: we saw that 13,000 number just last week, let's recall, so up until today it was the best start for the dow in a year since 1998. we hadn't gone a streak like this in terms of the number of days we've seen, not seen a triple digit loss since 2006. so lots of records being broken here tonight with the market selloff, and it was across the board. so let's get you updated with tonight's market focus. it was the biggest stock sell- off we've seen this year, as the

major indices fell at least 1%. the selling started right at the opening bell, and continued with the s&p 500 hitting its lowest level of the session around 2:30, eastern time. putting this pull-back in context, looking at the index year to date, this move lower has taken it to its lowest level since mid-february, erasing some of the gains this year. still, we're up almost 7% from the beginning of the year. the 204-point loss for the dow industrials erased almost all of last month's gains, pulling the dow down to its lowest level since february 2. there's weren't many places to hide from the selling. all ten major stock sectors were

lower. this trio led the losers, falling at least 2% each-- financials, industrials, and materials, all very sensitive to the u.s. and global econom with the deadline oming for greece's lenders to accept haircut to their investments, morgan stanley led the financial sector lower. shares fell more than 5%. volume was heavier than usual, with the stock falling to a six- week low. morgan stanley has been among the strongest bank stocks this year before seeing the recent turn lower. even the traditionally defensive health care sector was hit by selling after drug maker merck's outlook for this quarter was disappointing. the shortfall gets blamed on currency fluctuations. shares of merck dropped more than 2.5%. shares have been trading in a tight range betwn $38 and almost $40 per share before today's drop.

this is merck's lowest close of the year. we have more analysis of merck on our web site, nbr.com, under the "blogs" tab. as we await friday's report on jobs, employment services web site monster worldwide continued to see heavy trading with shares jumping more than 10.5%. the market continues to speculate about a possible sale. the company has coirmed it has hired financial advisors to review strategic alternatives. that can be wall street-speak for "we're for sale." the prospects of a deal for part of independent energy producer harvest natural resources was enough to push this small-cap energy stock higher. shares jumped 23% as volume exploded. the company said it is in exclusive talks to possibly sell its venezuelan assets. despite rising energy prices, share of h-n-r trade at half the price they were a year ago, even

with today's rally. speaking of energy, oil was not immune to today's selling pressure. u.s. crude fell more than $2 per barrel. some profit-taking, coupled with talk about slower global demand, weighed on crude. the energy department today cut its outlook on demand, expecting it to fall to a 15-year low this year. commodities were weak across groups. copper fell by more than 3%. gold was down 2%, settling below $1,700 an ounce. and corn dropped 1%. and that's tonight's "market focus."

what consumers see as a financial challenge, some see as an opportunity. diane estabrook is in houston where she's been talking to companies hoping to cash in on the global demand for fuel. how soon could we see some of these fuels come to market? >> tom, wouldn't it be nice if we could see them here this summer at the pump. but i don't think it going to happen that quickly. however some of these companies think they should be able to -- one of the companies is sell sell aknees and it makes -- celanese. >> today cole is plentiful in many countrys in asia. there's present of cole in china, but not very much oil and they're looking for ways to diversify it organize source. so china is a place where cole could be used. united states we have a lot of natural gas, so that could be a consideration in the u.s.. >> reporter: in carbon based materials aren't the only option. another company called

coolplanets energy systems is making fuel out of plan waste like corn cobbs and that product can be plended with gas or used by itself. >> it can run great, on a standard car you're wasting some of the octane, but it will run fine today, in an existing automobile. >> reporter: and other companies are using a combination of bio organize niches and photo synthesis and there's a company that should quickly be able to produce fuel out of natural gas, which is very plentiful in this country. >> tom: with all these alternatives out there, bio mass, ethanol, what about the old fashioned corn based aet t that held so much promise four years ago? >> ty are still producing a lot of aet not in this country. last year the ethanol industry produced 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol made out of the corn. and you can make it out of sugar and a lot of other

things as well. >> tom: one of the things that has hap happyed it through the years are federal subsidies. what about subject diss for these other alternative sources? >> the companies here today said they would like subsidies but are not depending on them. a lot of these companies are getting private investors and a lot of the oil companies are investing in these companies too. >> tom: how about the cost, not only the cost the produce the energy, but what would probably be the cost to consumers if it is winds up in a pump like the one you're next to? >> wum of this stuff is actually more economical to make than regular corn based ethanol. the it folks at celanese said that last year when ethanol was 2.50 a gallon, the product they could make they could sell for 1.85 a gallon, so it is significantly less. >> tom: wh about the environmental costs? not only the carbon footprints but the amount of energy these

alternative sources can provide? >> well, that's a tossup, depends on what kind of fuel you're talking about. the ones made out of carbon based materials like cole and natural gas, those are a little more, shall we say, maybe a little more dangerous to the environment than those that are made out of plant and bio mass. >> tom: dianees ta brook at a place where a lot of us have been seeing sticker shock. >> thanks, tom. >> susie: the company hoping to build the keystone xl oil pipeline plans to refile its application with u.s. regulators soon. the obama administration rejected trans-canada's original application to build the northern leg of the keystone xl pipeline earlier this year, saying the plan needed further study. trans-canada designed the pipeline to ship oil sands crude from canada to the gulf coast region of the u.s. for refining. last month, the company moved ahead with the southern portion of the pipeline. it hopes to have the entire projecup and running by 2015.

in other energy news, we're learning tonight that b.p.'s former c.e.o. tony hayward was granted a $1 million bonus for 2011. that's one year after he left the company over his handling of b.p.'s disastrous oil spill in the gulf of mexico. but according to an s.e.c. filing, hayward was due the money as part of his deal to leave the company. word of the paycheck comes just days after the british oil giant agreed to pay nearly $8 billion to hotiers, fishermen and others affected by the spill. >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: an update on the job market ahead of friday's big jobs report. payroll processing firm adp issues its numbers on february jobs. we belly up to the bar with peter swinburn, the c.e.o. of brewing giant molson coors. and it's the day apple fanatics have been waiting for-- the expected launch of the ipad 3. tiger is back on the prowl, and that's good for the business of

golf. even though tiger came up short of the title at last weekend's honda classic, ratings for comcast's nbc tv network were up 78%. in tonight's "beyond the scoreboard," rick horrow speaks with the executive director of the tournament, beginning with the return of woods to the contest. >> reporter: from. >> from a revenue standpoint we're projecting a 30% increase in attendance and concessions and a few other things. on the expense side it does affect that because we have to improve our security on course, we have to increase our transportation. we have to increase our concession, the food, the merchandise, so on and so forth and of course the medi the credentialing requests have gob from s 25 to over 300 requests this week. >> reporter: what kind of risk do you take as a tournament director in the game of golf to begin with? >> we can't control mosh they've, so a financial risk for us right away comes in the form of weather. we don't have insurance against the weather.

we can certainly acquire it, but it's not something that we do. economically for us the weather is an enormous factor. one of the good things we've done in this community has been the increase in advance ticket sales. as you know, every event the more tickets you can sell in advance that's revenue in, and at the end of the day the revenue goes to charity. >> reporter: what do you think the business of golf and the pga tour will be in the next five years? >> i think the business of golf is healthy, i think it will continue to come back. everybody struggled from 2008, certainly for the last few years. but the pga tour is strong. i think we'll see more of a global game. from an international standpoint, i think you'll see more tournaments, played internationally. and you think you might see a schedule change. om what we're hearing they are contemplating starting the season on a calendar year basis, perhaps in the fall, and run the whole fed ex cup series through the next year, maybe into a 12-month season again. >> reporter: thanks, ken

kennerly. >> susie: and finally tonight, what's black and white and 100 years old? it's the oreo cookie! today marks the 100th birthday of america's best-selling cookie. the first box was sold on march 6 of 1912 to a grocer in hoboken, new jersey. since then, almost 500 billi oreos have been sold. big question, tom-- do you twist your oreos open or dunk them in milk? >> tom: as fast as possible in my mouth, that's about it. you don't want to be around competing with an oreo with me, it will be grabed and eaten pretty quickly. >> susie: i'm not going to compete but, but you do like my orioles too. that's it for us. >> susie: that's "nightly business report" for tuesday, march 6. we want to remind you this is the time of year your public television station seeks your support... >> tom: .support that makes programs like "nightly business report" possible. >> susie: thanks for joining us, and don't forget to support your public television station. i'm susie gharib.

good night, everyone. you, too, tom. >> tom: good night, susie. i'm tom hudson. we'll see all of you again tomorrow evening. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org