captioning sponsored by wpbt >> let me assure people, we will redouble our commitment to quality as a lifeline of our company. >> tom: despite akio toyoda's assurances, the auto maker's troubles continue. a new recall of its flagship prius and other hybrids, along with new reports of problems with other vehicles, have led to new headaches for toyota. >> suzanne: now, the company is in an all-out drive to turn things around and redeem its image. you're watching "nightly business report" for tuesday, february 9. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by:

this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suzanne: good evening, everyone. susie gharib is on assignment tonight. new troubles for toyota and its customers. the auto maker has recalled 440,000 prius and other hybrid vehicles. >> tom: toyota's global recall now stands at 8.5 million cars and trucks. in another black eye for the company, its late-model corollas are being reviewed by the u.s. government after complaints of steering problems. >> suzanne: akio toyoda,

grandson of the auto maker's founder, says he's coming to the u.s. to see how to fix the company's tarnished image. joining me now with his take on toyota's troubles and how to repair them is michael ramah. he is director of strategic planning at porter novelli. michael, welcome to the program. >> thank you, great to be here. >> so exactly how tarnished do you think the toyota image is right now? >> well, they're in serious trouble. the question is what are they going to do about it and how fast they can turn it around. >> do you think the brand though is dead? >> no, by no means is the brand dead. there's a tremendous heritage that's not being taken into account. consider everything they've done up to now and what they have to look forward to, i think it's surviveable. >> what do you think they should be doing right now to turn this image problem around? >> they should be doing a lot of what they're doing. the question that's lingered is how fast they came to the game. that aside, the issue now is how quickly can they turn around these recalls, how quickly can they get the vehicles back on the road and restore public confidence in their safety. >> so is it a function of

focusing on the recall effort itself and what should they be doing there? >> there are two things. the apology is good, and it only gets them so far. at some point they have oh move on from apology to action. the number of cars, the sheer volume of that, is going to be a vast undertaking. but the momentum and the reassurances that they are on top of it and the move by toyota to come here and oversee this, i think is a good move. >> one of the things you mentioned when we spoke earlier was the use of social media to repair some of the image problems. i found that very interesting. how exactly should they be using social media? >> it's a powerful tool for engagement. before we came over here today i did a quick dip in to look at what's going on in the social media and what sort of discussions are taking place. if you look at the blogs and twitter, what surprised me is that we still had a year ago about 40% having a neutral point of view on toyota. that number hasn't changed. what we're seeing is on the extremes, and there's an

uptick of about 10%. but the interesting thing is that a lot of discussion is around toyota jokes. and jokes don't come up when something is devastating. so i think it moving into the opportunity for good will to prevail if the right actions are taken. now, how you engage, when you engage and how you maintain that engagement i think is critical >> what's more important right now for toyota? is it what it says or what it does that everyone is watching? >> it's what they do. after a certain point i think public turns off and says it's spin, and in fact we're seeing some of that. a lot of the pundits and people online are saying enough spin, let's see what's going to happen. >> what else can they be doing, would they consider using incentives to attract customers back to the brand? >> that's a slippery slope. it's not something that's traditionally in their realm of discussion, and it sets up perhaps something that you wouldn't intend, an unintended consequence which would be why are you eve than on top of these problems willing to pay

me to come back. i think there's enough good will, enough reputation that they should not, probably should not be doing that. >> what is your timetable for repairing the brand, the toyotarand, how long do you think it will take before we see some real traction? >> two things have to take place. the question first is how long is it going to take to get these vehicles back on the road. then looking at the impact on sales, i think that's the ultimate measure, and we're probably looking at one sales cycle, so probably a year, looking at september, they're on schedule for production of some of their new models. and i think that momentum should be sustained. so we're looking at probably nine months to a year. >> thank you. let's leave it there. some very interesting thoughts. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> my guest this evening, michael ramah of novelli. >> tom: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: buyers came back to wall street today. the dow had a better than 200 point range. at the closing bell, it finished up 150 points.

the nasdaq rose nearly 25 points and the s&p 500 added close to 14 points. the optimism was fueled on word that european leaders will bail out greece. european union officials plan to meet thursday to discuss a financial rescue plan for greece and other e.u. nations in danger of default. u.s. investors hope that will reduce the odds of a global debt crisis. but ubs's mike ryan says stocks are not out of the woods. >> even the financial crisis is past, doesn't mean that all the risk issues are off the table. let's face it, we've had a massive amount of debt on board for all sorts of nation as cross the globe and now we have to deal with the painful process of unwinding that. >> tom: speaking of debt, former treasury secretary henry paulson says the u.s. government will get back every penny given to u.s. banks during the economic meltdown.

he predicts uncle sam could even make a profit. billionaire investor warren buffett agrees. the two men appeared together today at the omaha chamber of commerce annual meeting. >> suzanne: president obama is optimistic about completing one of his short-term goals: passing a bill designed to accelerate job creation. but the 362-page measure is still in draft form, and it includes only a few new provisions for creating jobs. namely, a $10 billion plan that exempts companies from paying the employer's share of social security payroll taxes for new workers hired this year. today, the president acknowledged that the legislation may not be ideal, but he says, it could be a good first step. >> we're seeing an increase in temporary workers, but they haven't yet taken on that full- time worker. and so providing some additional impetus to them, right as the economy is moving in a positive direction, i think can end up yielding some good results. >> suzanne: senate majority leader harry reid hopes to pass the bill by the end of the week, despite the slowdowns caused by snowstorms in the nation's capitol.

>> tom: royal phillips electronics is a world leader in health care equipment, like cat scan and x-rays. still ahead, with the changing face of health care in the u.s., we'll find out if the company is changing its game plan in america and overseas. >> suzanne: tom, the dow industrials was able to get back into five-digit territory today. what's on tap in tonight's market focus?

>> tom: suzanne, the biggest point gain since the first trading day of the year and the biggest percentage gain since november. let's take a look at tonight's market focus. shaking off some of the worries about i.o.u.s in greece and elsewhere helped re-ignite buying interest in the economically sensitive sector of basic materials like miners and chemical companies. this sector has been pushing the market around all year, leading the sell-off that began in mid- january. earnings have been strong from the group as investors look for signs of the global economy picking up. caterpillar led the way today. an analyst at morgan stanley upgraded the stock, predicting rising orders will lead to stronger than expected profits. coca-cola shares were one of the other leading stocks inside the dow today. coke helped push the dow back over 10,000 today. earnings came in as expected with profit gains in asia and latin america. at home in north america, it's still a soft market for soft drinks.

let's take a look at the numbers from coke. while the results met expectations, revenues were better than predicted and global sales volume was up 5%. in china, coke volume was up 29%. the rally spilled over into pepsi today ahead of its earnings thursday. after the close, entertainment giant disney beat street expectations, driven by its broadcast and cable tv channels as well as its movie business. the house of the mouse saw profits drop at its theme parks and consumer products divisions. the company thinks movies "alice in wonderland" and "toy story 3" will drive future profits. disney shares were up fractionally in after hours. its up more than 50% over the past year. as we mentioned earlier, hopes of a debt fix for greece helped lift the market spirits as worries about portugal and spain

also were lessened. we saw the stocks of banks in those countries respond today. these three bank stocks trade as american depository receipts on the new york stock exchange, representing a share much like a normal u.s. stock does. national bank of greece saw very heavy volume on today's rally. the two spanish banks, santander and banco bilbao, also saw lots of interest during the rally. several items in the airline industry today brought buyers in for those stocks. the legacy carriers all saw nice action on the upside led by united airlines. u.a.u.a. helped lift the sector as it reported much better passenger revenue results for january. with united's global reach, investors see it as leading some good news to come. american airlines won the fight to keep its alliance with the bankrupt japan airlines. delta lost out, but not its stock-- continental was up and us airways hit a new 52-week high.

selling stock below the market price helped boost interest for shopping center owner developers diversified realty. d.d.r. sold more than 37 million shares at $8.16 a share to raise money to pay off short-term debt, and the price shot higher on huge volume. we showed you yesterday how the homebuilder's bucked the selling, but pulte didn't escape its earnings results today. the company reported another loss. now, its c.e.o. says there are reasons to be hopeful about housing in 2010. pulte's revenues were up and its orders for new homes doubled from the doldrums of a year ago. but that didn't help the stock today. it was down on about twice normal volume. the market was listening to audio equipment maker harman, fueling a break out in the stock price. harman was able to get over $40 a share. that was its high price in november.

today's price action takes it to a new 52-week high. the break out was on huge volume, better than eight times normal. it was a blow-away quarter for the company, easily beating analyst expectations. for a company that relies on the automotive business and consumer spending, it was a big surprise. tomorrow, earnings include allstate, boston scientific and sprint nextel. and watch for lighter volume with the blizzard forecast for the east coast. that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: from light bulbs to

razors to x-ray machines, royal philips electronics counts on consumers and healthcare across the globe to drive profits. you may even be watching us on a phillips tv. but even with its global presence, the company has cut 9,000 jobs over the past year and a half. gerard kleisterlee is the c.e.o. at royal philips electronics. we spoke with him recently about where its growing its health care business, but began by talking about the company's hiring plans. >> the more stability we'll see, the less of additional restructuring we'll need to do. in a number of areas of course in particular the emerging markets, we are adding people because we go for where the growth is. >> tom: so adding areas where the growth is including emerging markets, health care obviously another big focus for royal philips moving ahead. but in north america clearly some head winds are the outcome of any potential insurance reform. how is that impacting your guidance in the ability to plan and fiscally plan as well as make business plans for hiring for health care?

>> globally we've seen a quite healthy environment for our health care business. in the fourth quarter we had an order intake growth of 7%, which was driven by a healthy mid single digit growth in europe, and strong double digit growth in emerging asia. in the u.s. we still saw a difficult environment in the fourth quarter, but also there we see some early signs that the tide is turning. if you look at how the imaging equipment market in particular has developed in the u.s. in the past few years, and it's hard to imagine that it could go any lower, and as one of our competitors has indicated the aging of the installed -- is becoming an issue for hospitals. so we think that replacement has to set in, and therefore with or without health care reform we're looking for an american health care market that is also starting to turn the corner. >> tom: we did see some

softness in the fourth quarter with the u.s. health care market wrchl was that weakness, was it with the big ticket imaging items or the smaller tick it items? >> we saw some slight recovery with the smaller items, which shows that hospitals go to replace their olderquipment. it was still a little soft on the big ticket items. and actually for diing a mostic imaging, the u.s. market going out of 2009 was back at the level where it was in 1998, and we don't think that the u.s. health care system deserves such an old installed -- >> tom: you've got a unique business model in consumer electronic lifestyle products and a third in lighting. when it comes to the consumer as you look across the globe, where do you see the consumer having sustained strength this year? >> i'm actually surprised about the european consumer, and it may have to do with the fact that we have some nicely different shaded product

categories. in spite of lower consumer confidence, the consumer has continued to spend, but it is more selective. and we have seen some good money going into our categories. we had in the fourth quarter also in the consumer segment good growth in europe and in the low to mid single digits and we had high single digit growth with the consumers in asia. >> tom: where do you anticipate the fastest bounceback from the geographic region, still expected to be in emerging markets? >> emerging markets are certainly benefiting from the internal driven growth, where in a country like india it's more driven by consumer demand. in a country like china, a big part of the drive comes of course from the infrastructure program, so the government puts in place. but all in all we are very positive about the emerging markets. >> tom: we appreciate your time, thank you for legaling us know about 2010 when it comes to royal phillips.

thank you. you can watch my interview with c.e.o. gerard kleisterlee on our web site, including what keeps a c.e.o. of a global conglomerate awake at night, at nbronpbs.org. >> suzanne: a chain of service stations that lost money in a bear stearns hedge fund won a multi-million dollar arbitration award. today's $3.4 million award is the first ruling in favor of an investor in one of two bear hedge funds that collapsed in 2007. in november, a jury acquitted the funds former managers of criminal charges. the award suggests that investors who lost more than a billion dollars in the funds may still be able to recover some of their money. >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: an update on the state of u.s. imports and exports from december's trade balance. also tomorrow, are friendly skies ahead for the airline industry? in our "street critique" segment, we'll look at what will feed future profits. our guest is julius maldutis, chief airline analyst at aviation dynamics.

>> suzanne: holiday shoppers spent $39 billion online in the final three months of last year. marketing research firm comscore says that's 3% higher than in 2008, and reverses four straight quarters of year-over-year declines. most of those shoppers were lured by free shipping offers. december 15 ranked as the heaviest online shopping day in u.s. history. the big winners in the online holiday wars were retailers amazon and wal-mart. >> tom: that morning glass of o.j. may soon cost you more, thanks to mother nature. it now looks like last month's freeze in florida slammed citrus growers in a big way. more than 4% of the orange crop and more than 3% of the grapefruit crop were lost. and that means the state's citrus production will be sharply lower this year than last. florida's the largest producer of oranges in the nation, and most of them go to make juice. orange juice futures are near two-year highs.

>> suzanne: it's day three of violent protests in south africa. demonstrators near johannesburg want mining companies to hire more local workers. south africa's investment in infrastructure has attracted countries like china to invest in mining and construction companies there. but due to south africa's labor laws, some chinese firms are

experiencing a bit of culture clash. shannon van sant reports. >> reporter: engineers for chinese-owned sany heavy industry company are on site here in johannesburg, south africa. sany makes machinery, and they're supplying equipment for another chinese company, covec, which is constructing a water extraction facility where water will be diverted from a river for industrial usage. jiang chen, an engineer and account manager with sany, says this is one of five construction projects sany has supplied equipment for in south africa. >> in south africa, three years ago, there is suddenly a need to build everything from the stadium, airports and roads, hotels. there is a shortage for the engineers for the material, for the equipment, and also the construction halls. the equipment costs are tremendously high, and i believe

by the involvement from the chinese companies, the equipment suppliers can make the efficiency go higher and the costs could become lower. >> reporte it's part of a building boom in south africa that is drawing chinese firms like sany. in recent years, the south african government has built infrastructure and facilities for this year's world cup. and chinese immigrants like jiang chen are playing a bigger role in south africa's economic growth than they ever have before. while chinese construction workers are moving in large numbers to countries like angola and botswana, they're facing stiff opposition from the south african work force. covec's contract for this water project stipulated that it use mostly local labor. the chinese state-owned construction company has ten chinese managers and engineers and 200 local african construction workers on site. covec had to form a joint partnership with a local firm, botswana-based mathe

construction, and abide by local labor laws. covec's manager ivor clifford says the company had trouble adjusting to safety standards in south africa. >> when they started, they weren't very safety oriented. gradually, they begin to understand. one of the problems is we get one lot right, and then send them back to china, and we have to start all over again. >> reporter: clifford has been onsite for four years. >> it's expensive and its hard. safety isn't just going up and saying, "hey, guys." it costs money. i don't come for free. i've got staff that don't come for free. and then people say, "well, why do you need it?" but the law requires it, and they abide. >> reporter: amidst south africa's investment in

infrastructure, the government is choosing job creation over the low cost of importing chinese labor. it's also forcing chinese firms to create safe working environments for their african employees. while critics say these requirements undermine south africa's economic growth, local construction firms say these measures help them remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace. shannon van sant, "nightly business report," johannesburg. >> tom: and finally tonight, if you've ever struggled to tear open one of those teeny ketchup packets you get at the fast food drive-through, help is on the way. heinz is rolling out a new packet shaped like a cup. you can peel the top back to dip your fries, or tear off the end to squeeze the stuff onto your burger or fries or corn dog. heinz says the new packaging holds three times as much as the old one did, and it's even been road tested. suzanne, the company bought a used mini-van to see how the packets work on the go.

let's face i as the parents of young kids you've got to figure out if those packets are going to work in their native environment, inside the minivan. >> and you know as the parent of young kids that more ketchup inside your car is not necessarily a good thing. >> tom: well put. >> tom: that's "nightly business report" for tuesday, february 9. i'm tom hudson. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, suzanne. >> suzanne: good night, tom. i'm suzanne pratt. good night, everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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