this morning on "early today" -- rallying cry. wall street surges on a long-awaited european debt deal. last stand as the manslaughter trial of michael jackson's doctor wind down. close encounter. a california kayaks amazing close encounter. a california kayaks amazing run-in with two humpback whales. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

hello and good morning. i'm vinta nair. today we begin a booming rally. the dow jones won't a terror, relieved of ang glit after european leaders hammer out a deal. news of the sweeping deal stoked optimism on wall street yesterday with rejuvenile natured investors sending the dow soaring 340 points, putting on track for one of the best months ever. the economy grew at fastest pace of the year in the third quarter with gdp growing at 2.5% annual rate, way up from just 1.3% over the prior three months. we will have more on the market run-up coming up in business. a decade's old case of discrimination against black farmers is being addressed now that a federal judge has approved a landmark $1.2 billion settlement. the case had been settled back in 1999 for $1 billion after a

group of african-american farmers successfully sued the department of agriculture. the second round of payments is directed at tens of thousands of farmers who missed an earlier filing deadline. congress passed the second settlement in february of last year. the defense team for michael jackson's physician is winding down. yesterday attorneys for dr. conrad murray tried to convince the jury jackson himself could have administered the final fatal dose of the potent painkiller propofol, hoping to create enough reasonable doubt to vindicate their client. nbc's jinah kim has more. >> yes, do i. >> reporter: expected to be the final witness of the conrad murray trial, dr. paul white is a renowned anesthesiologist who's known as father of propofol. testifying for the defense, white made it clear to know he's not excusing dr. murray.

>> the elephant in the room being conrad murray accused of infusing propofol and leaving this patient. can you justify that? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: white's roll is to rebutt the testimony of the prosecution's key propofol expert, dr. steven schaeffer. he says the amount of propofol given to michael jackson could be wrong based on a previous study we worked on together. >> the solid line is dr. sheriff's modeling of the fharmacokinetics and you can see it underpredicted the blood levels. >> reporter: the other witness was dr. waldman who said he believes michael jackson was addicted to demerol and the withdrawal caused his crippling.

sometimes he clashed. >> i'm talking about the chart. >> where did the chart come from? >> you. >> i have no idea. >> excuse me -- >> this is a fascinating k colloquy but we have questions and answers. >> reporter: the defense could call one more witness, dr. murray himself. now a look at other stories making news "early today" in america a massive inferno erupted from an apartment building under construction. quickly engulfed the structure before spreading to a nearby mobile home park. firefighters put out the fire but stayed on the scene to douse hot spots. a photographer snapped a once in a lifetime photo in the waters off california. the amazing image of a kay yakker's close encounter with two hump humpback whales was captured through the lens of a

photographer taking photos for a santa cruz campaign. a thrilling person for the kai kayaker. a texas couple became the saving grace for a flock of hummingbirds. they captured rare photos of hummingbird swarming the bird feeder. the couple went out of their way to purchase water, shug an and an additional bird feeder. in new york, memorabilia of the man infamously known as dr. death is set to go up for auction. items from dr. jack kevorkian. now for a look at your national and regional weather here's bill karins with the weather channel forecast. an interesting auction. >> that's fitting right before halloween. >> i actually read in one of the paintings he used a pint of hi own blood. >> yeah, okay. >> too much for you this

morning? >> yeah, i have enough stress with my forecast. good morning, everyone. yesterday we saw cold temperatures and snow throughout many areas. boston saw your first snowflakes along with people in providence up through connecticut. accumulating snows in massachusetts, southern new hampshire and upstate new york. and now we're talking about potential snowstorm from the i-95 corridor, the end of october, an event rarely if ever happened in our recorded history. that's why there's so many question marks with what's going to occur. right now that storm is located down here in arkansas. it's a cold, chilly rain moving across southern tennessee. memphis, northern mississippi, you can see rain showers from alexandria so jackson. this will move today across the southeast. umbrella day, birmingham, eventually into atlanta. it's once we get further north on saturday that this storm is going to hit the cold air. this is just what my computer sa significant. this is not my forecast. this is meteorologists up and down the east coast are dealing with this forecast this morning. the computers are telling possibility of accumulating snow

from philadelphia, boston, d.c., heart ford. we have gotten october snow in boston, hartford and providence but not sh far south. i'm thinking it's going to be too warm. i think the computers are overdoing it a little bit so my forecast is in the cities you will see snow. at worst it will get slushy. suburbs could see 1 to 3 inches in the grass yeah areas. the hills in connecticut, massachusetts, poconos in northern jersey the best chance of actually getting accumulating snows, even lalgts on the roads. that's a very difficult saturday forecast. keep it in mind for your travel in those areas. that's a look at your national forecast. now a look at the weather outside your window. miami florida, chance for showers and storms today. st. louis, we'll have a very, very important game seven world series, rare event. should be an exciting scene. weather looks fine. today, sunny, clear and cool skies. just way too early for me to be stressing over a snow forecast.

it's not going to be an easy game to predict. >> but the pore thing, game seven 124. >> yes, it should be fine. more on wall street's giant ral rally. meg whitman changes course at hp. what is speeden doing in switzerland? plus, the world's highest grossing movie actor is named and we are betting you cannot guess who it is. coming up there will be a game seven in the world series. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." . here are some of your top headlines this morning. reg-led house of representatives announced it will be in session only 108 days next year, even less than the 127 days lawmakers worked this year. house loaders say member need more time in their district

during election years while democrats counter it's too few days on the job during an economic crisis. the presidential campaign for texas governor rick perry hinted he may skip upcoming republican debates. the plan prompted criticism from gingrich and santorum saying it's a sign of weakness. at least 1,000 people attended a candlelight vigil in oakland to honor an iraq war veteran who was jl injurily hurt. on thursday hospital officials and family members said 4-year-old former marine scott olsen was awake and lucid. an amazing recovery in turkey. a 13-year-old boy was pulled out alive after spending more than 100 hours under the rubble of an apartment building. at least 570 people have been killed. and in saudi arabia, hundreds of thousands muslim have descended on the holy set of mecca for annual pilgrimage.

here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12208 after surging 339 points yesterday. the s&p jumped 42 points. the nasdaq spiked 87. taking a look at overseas trading this morning n tokyo the nikkei rose 123 points. in hong kong the hang seng. a cloud lifted over wall street thursday as europe's plan to deal with debts and stocks and a new-found optimism soaring. all 30 stocks closed rising above 120 for the first time. all sectors on the s&p rose with that index back to positive for the year. wall street's so-called fear index fell a whopping 14,000. sparkling economic data pumped up investors. the economy grew at its fast iest time of the year. financial jpmorgan chase, citigroup and bank of america

led stocks higher. commodity companies and others doesn't ent on a strong economy jump. oil zoomed $94 a barrel. earnings continued to be strong. exxonmobil rose on a spike in profit. occidental petroleum jumped on a surge in income. dow chemical was up, thanks to latin american sales growth. sit rick system soared on higher revenue and a brighter forecast. after the bell, met life topped forecasts on earnings. overnight s overnight. avon tumbled 18% on news the government is investigating contacts with financial analysts and suspected bribery. hewlett-packard's meg whitman ditched the previous ceo plans to spin off personal computer unit. and facebook building its first non-american data in

sweden. the world series was never more seesaw than last night's game six. coming up, the cardinals' cardiac comeback that led to tonight's electrifying game seven finale in st. louis. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. instead of a trick-or-treat forecast we're talking about winter storm on saturday. the forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you are just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, regardless of what happens tonight in game seven of the world series, last night's prosecute performance by the st. louis cardinals in game six will go down as one for the ages. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headline. >> good morning. whether you're a die-hard or a casual fan, whether you like the texas rangers, st. louis cardinals or you don't, game six of the world series is what baseball should be. it was dramatic. it was heart-stopping. it was extra innings. it was one for the ages. pick it up in the seventh, rangers and cards tied 4-4. adrian beltre, a solo shot to right center. texas up and one judge just getting started. nelson cruz belted one out, yak do back home run for texas, add

another and lead 7-4. then the game got real pun in the ninth, rangers up 7-5. one out away from winning the world series. two aboard for david freese. texas fans hold that champagne. ripped a triple over cruz's head. in came a pair. busch stadium exploded and the cards tied the game 7-7. on to extras in the tenth, josh hamilton nursing a sore groin took motte deep. rangers back in control 9-7. the pesky cards wouldn't go away. bottom ten, down one, lance berkman slapped a single up the middle. jon jay scored. another tie game. and they were knotted 9-9. only one way to cap off a game like this, how about a walkoff home run? david freese came through in the clutch once again 37. a solo shot to dead center in the 11th. can you believe it? cards rally to win 10-9 and force a game seven tonight at 8 p.m. eastern. >> we just kept battling. that defines our team.

you know, that game, the way we kept coming back and we've been doing that for, you know, a long time. it's incredible to be a part of this. >> that's your early look at sports on "early today." have a terrific weekend. i'm fred roggin. experts think there is a sure-fire winner this weekend at the box office. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, we'd all love to be invited to a state dinner with the president. it was a lot more addressed down but we'll show you how four lucky supporters got to hang out with the commander in chief. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this friday morning. an amazing weather map for this time of year. winter storm watches from all of coastal maine, southern new hampshire, all through central new england away from the coast. outside of new york city, the high country there, the cass skills, poconos and back through central pennsylvania. even the mountainous areas in virginia and west virginia are expecting snow and snowstorm accumulating snow, downed trees, spesly trees with leaves on them. the high country with up to 6 inches possible. the cities looks mostly slushy for you. if you're watching us on wicu 12 in erie, pennsylvania, see an exhibit with objects twisted into abstract form dysfunctional at erie art museum.

that's your early event of day. here's a look at the early morning headlines in entertainment. opening films will make a splash in theater this is weekend including one tabbed by experts to take the top spot. the family film with the shrek 2 spinoff character "puss & boots" is expected to claw it's way to number one at the box office with its $35 million debut. justin timberlake sci-fi thriller "in time" will likely open in the third spot with $13 to $15 million. johnny depp in his second adaptation in a hunter s. thompb son diary. fx channel says it's acquired the charlie sheen sitcom "anger management". finally, the guinness book of world records declare. just his star war roles,

aappearing in two iron men films added up to some pretty big bucks. i new england would have guessed him. >> tom hanks, on leonardo dicaprio with "titanic" but i guess not. >> he's brought in starring roles. >> because he was the star. this comes to us from arlington, virginia, where a few lucky campaign contributors got the rare opportunity to break bread with the president. a retired teacher, retired professional, postal service worker and business owner were the winners of the dinner with barack contest, all from battleground states and randomly selected after donated $5. i'm vinita nair and this is "early today" just your first stocht day today on your nbc station.

>> good morning. we have snow in the forecast for the weekend, but not for today. it will be fine. 41 at the airport. colder in the northern suburbs. a mix of sun and clouds. a chilly day but dry. a high temperature near 54. we'll detail what's going to happen as we head into the weekend. for now to the news desk. >> the time is 4:57.

it is cold. we're just going to say it. it is cold. >> a death investigation of a local psychiatric hospital. plus -- >> more than a year later, people make an arrest in the death of an elderly caretaker. i'm kim dacey. that story coming up. >> how your last trip to the mall helped lift an ailing economy. i'm kate amara with new signs of growth. why and sarah caldwell. checking on your area roads in a moment.

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[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] >> i'm frn fran. thank you for joining us today. >> this is a very interesting weather set-up.