new thing inhe world tod. it's due to be announced tomorrow. it's not everything, but it is a very, very welcome start. that does it for us tonight. fear factor, a massive stock plunge on wall street send shockwaves through markets around the globe. cabin pressure. good news for thousands of furloughed faa employees after lawmakers reach a deal. and liquid assets. nasa scientists find signs of flowing water on mars. very good morning to you, i'm veronica de la cruz. those stories and much more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. we begin this morning with the perfect storm.

it hit wall street hard thursday as a variety of factors caused stocks to suffer their worst day since the financial crisis of 2008. what started as a sell-off in european markets quickly rolled over wall street with the dow losing over 500 point and the nasdaq dropping 5% of its overall worth in just one day. with recent data showing scant economic growth, corporate america is sitting on record amounts of cash and consumers holding on to what little cash they have, investors are becoming convinced the united states is entering a new recession -- the dreaded double dip. perhaps most alarming of those retreating stocks are the safe havens of gold, silver, oil, and bonds, found tumbling prices in those markets, as well. we'll have more on thursday's route on wall street. that is straight ahead in "business." the federal aviation administration is on its way back to being in business. congress has reached a compromise to end the partial shutdown of the agency.

nbc's tracie potts joins us now from washington with more on that. good morning to you. >> reporter: veronica, good morning. it essentially came down to this -- none of these lawmakers wanted to go home over the break and explain to their constituents why they left washington and left 74,000 workers not getting paid for a month. after president obama urged them to deal with this, democrats and republicans came up with a compromise. essentially they'll come back for an extremely short session, just the leaders today, to get this done. it provides for temporary funding for the faa through september 16, until after they get back. now the issue about those subsidies for rural airports being cut won't be dealt with until later. this measure would cut them but also gives the obama administration the authority to override that. republicans wanted to see those subsidies cut. democrats were concerned about issues that would not allow airport employees to unionize.

bottom line, they'll have to deal with that again in september. these workers may be back on the job as soon as monday if president obama signs this deal over the weekend. veronica? >> tracie potts in washington, thank you. last night on "hardball with chris matthews," chris asked transportation secretary ray la hood exactly how an agreement was reached to bring an end to the partial faa shutdown. >> we had meetings at the white house every day. the president was intimately involved. he cared a lot about these unemployed construction workers and faa workers. he instructed me, and he instructed his staff -- stay on this every day until you get it solved, until these people get back to work. so the president and senator reid, senator rockefeller, senator kay bailey hutchison, senator max bachus stepped up. there is an agreement so these people can go back to work on monday or as soon as the president signs the bill. they can have their -- workers

will go back to work. it really was more about some member of congress letting their own agendas and their own egos get in the way of hard-working people right smack dab in the middle of the construction season. this is not the time to be laying people off. chris, you've heard the speeches. so have i. jobs, jobs, jobs. people give a lot of good speeches. the way to create jobs is not to have legislation that lays off 70,000 workers. >> lean forward with chris matthews as he plays hardball with some of the most prominent leaders. watch "hardball with chris matthews" at 5:00 and 7:00 eastern weeknights on msnbc, the place for politics. according to a new poll from "the new york times" and cbs news, the recent battle over the debt ceiling has sent disapproval of congress to its highest level on record. the survey shows that 82% of americans disapprove of the way congress is handling its job. the most since the "times" first began asking the question in

1977. the poll also found that congressional republicans shoulder more of the blame for the problems in reaching a debt agreement. 72% disapprove of the way they handled the negotiations. a majority said the gop compromised too little. on the other side, 66% were not satisfied with democrats. as far as the president's involvement in the battle, the public was more evenly divided. 47% disapprove, 46% approved. also not getting help from the debt issue, the tea party. it is now seen unfavorably by 40% of those polled, up from 29% in april. 43% think the tea party has too much influence on the republican party, up from 27% since the spring. here is your first look at some of the other news going on around america today. two window washers in san francisco are lucky to be alive this morning after their scaffolding collapsed yesterday, leaving them dangling from a 17-story highrise apartment

building. fortunately both men were wearing safety harnesses. firefighters pulled one of the men to the roof. the second was rescued through a window. in new hampshire, a woman who was robbed at a grocery store got an unexpected surprise. the alleged thief saw his picture from surveillance cameras in the newspaper and then showed up on the victim's doorstep. she returned the amount of cash that was stolen plus an extra $10 and then a note of apology that he signed "stupid." in hawaii, bright ribbons of lava flowed out of the kilauea volcano wednesday. beautiful pictures. nearby roads were closed. the lava is reportedly not a danger to residents. and meanwhile, mother nature has been wreaking havoc across parts of idaho. destructive bolts of lightning have sparked more than 30 fires across the southern part of the state. finally, if you are too hot, you might wish you had the

problem of some folks in the mountains of washington state. too much snow. some highways at upper elevations are reportedly still buried under 30 feet of accumulation. now for a look at the national weather, we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. i think you need to talk to washington state. i think they're confused. it's august, right? not december. >> we can ship some of that to dallas. it would melt in a hurry. i don't think it would make it through oklahoma. good morning, everyone. yesterday we were dealing with a huge heat wave and tropical storm. now just the heat wave is left because the mountains of hispaniola tore emily apart. there's really nothing left of it. there's some showers and thunderstorms over cuba. but we're no longer dealing with emily. and in south florida it's not going to be a concern for you. yesterday, another boiler in the middle of country in the furnace. 108 in oklahoma city. record highs in many areas. we hit 100 in savannah.

it wasn't like the southeast was much cooler. we had a nice day from d.c. up through new york city and boston, only 76. cooler air has arrived for the northern half of the country. we're not getting there yet in the deep plains, especially around dallas. even this hour we're still at 89 degrees. new orleans, a little steamy lately. heat warnings continue, a, because it's still humid especially in mississippi, southern alabama, louisiana, and it's extreme heat in oklahoma and north texas why we have the excessive heat rarng. this isn't going to end any time soon, unfortunately. we have cooled off around kansas city. we have thunderstorms rolling your way, omaha, if you're in iowa, bring the umbrella. here's the radar. some of the storms are very strong in central kansas. we're not talking tornadoes, but hail and damaging winds. i think these will make it to omaha and kansas probably at the peak of morning rush hour. we'll keep an eye on. that your forecast for your

friday, record heat, 108 in dallas. san antonio, we haven't been talking about you much. you've been well above normal, too. 104 for you. 95 around new orleans. but it's also 95 and humid. forecast looks gorgeous. d.c. northwards up through the busy i-95 corridor should be a really enjoyable friday. atlanta southward, we'll have to deal with thunderstorms. veronica, we'll be back later with the weekend forecast. a lot more of the same. not too many huge concerns out there now that emily is gone. >> all right. thank you very much. stocks plunge. banks are inundated with cash, and what to expect later today. your first look at this morning's business headlines is straight ahead. >> reporter: tiger makes his return. rays and blue jays need extras, and no glove needed for the catch of the night. [ man ] they said i couldn't win a fight.

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welcome back to "first look," i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of the top stories

this morning. syrian forces continued a brutal crackdown for a fifth straight day, reportedly killing dozens of civilians in hama. secretary of state hillary clinton thursday accused syria of killing more than 2,000 of its citizens in the past five month. a texas jury has convicted polygamist sex leader warren jeffs of sexually assaulting two child brides. jeffs, who defended himself in court, faces up to life in prison. a new government study finds casual and occasional smoking along u.s. high school students on the rise. researchers found the number rose from 67% in 1991 to 79% in 2009. a long overdue military funeral where the remains of 12 u.s. airmen were laid to rest

years after their bomber crash-landed in the pacific. the remains were located in 2003 in new guinea. nasa scientists say they've found evidence of flowing water on mars which could point to signs of life on the red planet. images taken from the mars reconnaissance orbiter show dark, fingerlike features that appear to extend down the slope of a crater. very cool. now here's your first look at how wall street will limp into the day. the dow opens at 11,383 after sinking 512 points yesterday. the s&p fell a whopping 60 points. the nasdaq plunged 136 points. taking a look at overseas trading in tokyo, the nikkei skid 359 points. in hong kong the hang seng tumbleded 938 points. as we reported earlier, gripped by fears of a new recession, thursday the dow jones fell more than 500 points

-- its ninth steepest decline ever. as sudden as the collapse may seem, it's actually been brewing for days. over the last 13 days, the dow lost more than 1,300 points, roughly 10.5%. an estimated $2 trillion in market value disappearing over two years. yesterday's problems were triggered in europe. markets there were hit by a massive sell-off sparked by concerns over the troubled economies of italy and spain. the global wave of jitters in selling hit asian markets this morning. as that wave hit here, all ten industry groups on the broader s&p fell. bank of america, citigroup, and hooup were among the stocks hitting new 52-week lows. despite posting stellar earnings, kraft and g.m. fell. gold briefly hit a record high then tumbled. oil fell even more than stocks, 6% or more than $5 a barrel. and agitated investors were so desperate to get into bonds, they were willing to accept

almost no return just to get their money into a safe spot. so how quickly were stocks dumped? bank of new york mellon told investors like pension funds and investment houses it would start charging to hold their cash because they were depositing so much after selling off shares. and as if things weren't tense enough, today the government releases july's all-important payrolls report. many expect a slight rise in unemployment. well, don't bump the ump. the yankees beat up on chicago again. and real cool fans don't need a glove to snag a foul ball. plus, tiger woods is back on the golf course, but did he bring his game with him? your first look at sports is straight ahead. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas to dig deeper. work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself the one person i do trust

to take charge of my financial future. [ bell dinging ] maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. in money-saving coupons at exxon and mobil, we engineer smart gasoline that works at the molecular level to help your engine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. finally, there's a choice for my patients with an irregular heartbeat

called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk of a stroke caused by a clot. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning.

if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. welcome back to "first look," i'm veronica de la cruz. in sports, will he ever be as good as he was? that is the question everyone asks about golfer tiger woods. yesterday he began the process of answering it. here's nbc's mario solis. >> reporter: hi there, good morning. tiger woods returned to golf yesterday. and even though one round doesn't make a comeback, he's got to be pretty happy with this performance. bridgestone invitational, takes him time but tiger gets going, drains the long birdie on 16. that's vintage woods. he would finish with a two under 68. you may recall a couple weeks ago tiger fired his long-time caddy steve williams. now williams has paired up with adam scott. scott is playing like the tiger of old. he's your leader after the first

round at eight under. perhaps williams is a good luck charm. quick football note. the san francisco 49ers have signed wide receiver braylon edwards to a one-year contract. edwards caught seven touchdowns with the jets last season. baseball, the cardinals' moleini has been suspended for five games when he threw a tantrum thursday. he bumped the umpire, arguing balls and strikes. he didn't spit on drake, but as you see, rob needed goggles and a shower cap while listening to molina. the games now, seesaw battle between the rays and blue jays. tampa ties it in the bottom of the inning with the homer. they exchange a pair of runs in the 11th. in the 12th, the rays finally end it. squeezing one in through the hole, in comes the writtening run. ways get the 7-6 win in 1. red sox, you've got company atop the a.l. east.

the yankees beat chicago 7-2, setting up the weekend series with first place on the line against the pinstripes. we've all seen people bring gloves to the park in hopes of catching a ball. for this fan, no glove is needed. a foul ball into the upper deck, he reaches over the ledge and makes a one-handed grab. sign him up. worth another look. no doubt about it. with a drink in his hand, he make the catch of the night. that's your first look at sports. i'm mario solis. >> wow. now for another quick look at the weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. unbelievable. >> going to be a fun weekend at fenway, too. the yankees are coming with boston. fenway's a fun park even though i'm a yankee fan. good morning, everyone, as far as the weather in new england, just like yesterday it's going to be a pretty nice day. at worst, you'll have cloudy skies. we don't really have showers this morning. temperatures are comfortable. later this afternoon, this is a typical almost like a late summer-like day. high temperatures are going to be in the 80s in most locations.

the wind off the water may keep you slightly cooler in boston. even there it's not going to be too bad. warmer air for pittsburgh and d.c. but this is much better compared to what we dealt with, say, a week or two ago. here's the weekend forecast. the record heat continues down here. 108 today in dallas. it will be about 108 also in oklahoma city. now from kansas city to st. louis, you could be dealing with showers and thunderstorms, especially early today. late this afternoon, atlanta and orlando, much of florida will dodge showers and storms. this is a look at your saturday forecast. we start to increase the moisture a little bit. there will be a chance of storms from pennsylvania, new york, washington, d.c. a 40% chance. they'll be hit and miss. as we go through the middle of the country, we warm it up again. denver at 91. kansas city at 92. the heat expands into sunday. on sunday, mid 90s in denver. 92 in kansas city. even chicago, some of that warmer air will try to move in sunday. it looks like new england, unfortunately, sunday's the worst day of the weekend. cloudy and damp.

>> are we talking hot and humid? >> not in too many spots, just the southeast. >> good. how will they cross the finish line this weekend at the box office? will movie audiences go for another take on apes taking over the world?

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welcome back to "first look," i'm veronica de la cruz. last night on "late night with david jimmy fallon," jimmy nailed the current generation on its obsession with technology. >> in a recent survey, 60% of teenagers said they're highly addicted to their cell phones. the other 40 important were like -- [ laughter ] >> one second, i'm sorry. what were you saying?

hold on a second. gary's awesome. this is cool, i heard that later this year india will introduce a $35 laptop. it's weird buying a computer in india because when you call tech support your own cell phone rings. hello? have you tried unplugging it? you know i did -- control-alt-delete. >> tonight jimmy welcomes former s&l cast member horatio sands and triple h. that's weeknights at 12:35, 11:35 central on your local nbc station. time for your first look at entertainment news. this weekend at the box office, audiences are ready to go ape. "rise of the planet of the apes" starring james franco is the latest from a franchise that kicked off way back in 1968.

the ape films have always drawn well. this one has actually received some very good reviews. experts see it taking first place with around $40 million. last weekend's "bridesmaids," "the smurfs" expected to make a more triumphant jump taking in $20 million. the question mark is the debut "the changeup." jason bait man and ryan reynolds star in the body-change plot. it could finish near $20 million and challenge "the smurfs," or disappoint with holdovers "cowboys and aliens" and captain america." you've got apes, aliens, smurfs, what are you going to see? >> i really do like jason bait man. but i feel like i'm having too much of him lately. >> you think so? >> i just -- last weekend i saw

his movie that opened in the beginning of the summer, "horrible bosses." >> i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned because "way too early with willie geist" starts right now. every stock in the nasdaq 100 closing down. >> fell off a cliff, down 512 points. >> the market dropped 155 point just in that last hour of trading. >> nasdaq nose-dive, 5%, worst day. >> a disastrous day in stocks here in the u.s. the dow jones industrial average fell a stunning 513 points. could you have seen this coming? a day after the dow jones average fell more than 500 points, as you just heard, asian and european markets are sliding again today with german chancellor merkel and french president sarkozy calling an emergency meeting. the question is -- what happens when the u.s. markets open this mornin