>> tom: gold, oil and stocks all tumble as the euro drops to its lowest level since january, reflecting investor worries the eurozone won't act fast enough. >> the word i would use to describe how investors are feeling is "despair," more >> tom: she's one of wall street's top market strategists. we talk with liz ann sonders of charles schwab about where to invest in the new year, her outlook for 2012 and the european debt crisis. it's "nightly business report" for wednesday, december 14. 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 everyone. my colleague susie gharib will be along in a few moments. a nasty day in the markets, and the culprit once again was europe. stocks tumbled for the third straight day, gold fell sharply and the euro fell below a key benchmark. investors took profits wherever they could. the markets are on pins and needles about the messy situation in europe. let's run down the numbers, starting with the euro. it fell below $1.30 to its lowest level in nearly a year. worries about the future of the euro prompted investors to raise cash. that's why gold dropped nearly 5%, closing below the $1600 level for the first time in three months.

on wall street, the dow fell 131 points, the nasdaq lost almost 40 points and the s&p 500 was down 13. >> tom: our guest tonight says what happens in europe will be a "defining characteristic" for the financial markets in 2012. she's liz ann sonders, chief market strategist at charles schwab. when i met with sonders this morning at a schwab investment center, she began by talking about the connection between europe and the u.s. stock market. >> i think the recent decision to attempt a fiscal union makes a lot of sense, you need that if you're going to have a monetary union, but whether they can effect those changes and then bring in the ecb, those are a lot of still open questions for 2012. but i think it will be the key mover of the u.s. market. the phrase being used is kicking the can down the road, and it's an apt phrase, i think that's what policy makers in europe are doing. so we don't seem to be truly on a path toward a long-term

solution. and until we seem to be on that path, i think volatility driven by europe is with us to stay. >> susie: the big worry for many investors is that europe's financial problems are going to cause a recession in the u.s.. what are your thoughts on that? >> there's two transmissions coming out of europe. there's the financial system, so let's say a major problem with one of the big european banks, con teen-age unin the banking -- contagion in the banking system. that i'm worried about. what i'm less word about is that a recession in europe necessarily pulls the rest of the world down with it. net exports from the u.s. to europe only account for 1.3% of u.s. gross domestic product. so in and of itself, europe doesn't crush the u.s. economy. there are other drivers, and i think that will be the case. so i'm less worried about the economic contagion, i'll a little more worried about the financial system contagion. >> susie: so how will american companies and their stocks do in that environment? >> probably similar that they have been.

it's a very different story, the micro story of corporate earnings which have been strong and margins which have been strong, business else that are very lean right now and i think that story continues. the pace of growth is likely to diminish, but that doesn't necessarily kill the stock market, particularly with valuations as reasonable as they are. >> susie: so where are you telling schwab clients to put their money? >> i think investors have to understand that to get reasonable returns, inflation beating return, there has to be a risk component to it. you cannot eliminate all risk out of your portfolio and hope to beat inflation. so be reasonable, if you want to be defensive there's a way to do it. but to say i'm out, never going back in stocks again, understand the opportunity loss down the road. >> susie: so should investors buy the stocks of american companies or can they do better by going international? >> look, recently in the last couple of years certainly companies that have a lot of foreign exposure have done well, but i actually think we're at the beginning of an american renaissance of sorts, particularly in manufacturing. and i think it's an undertold

story for the long term. we may start to see companies that have a more domestic orientation perform fairly well. so no longer do i think you should only look for companies that have that global exposure. there's a lot domestic industries that look intoing too. one is technology, that's been a long standing recommendation for us and the other is industrial. so very cyclically oriented companies, they tend to be benefited by not only what's happening in the u.s. economy but global growth as well and don't tend to be impacted much by what's going on in europe, and they're a play particularly with technology on companies wanting to remain competitive and productive and efficient. >> susie: what are you avoiding? >> the more defensive areas. we think as the market ralies, during some of these rally periods you want to pare back on the defensive holdings like the consumer staples sectors, stocks in the utilities sector. there's been so much slight to this perceived safety of defensiveness that from a valuation perspective they're

probably a little rich, and that may be where you want to pull back some of your profits. >> susie: today schwab said that its november trades were down. from the customers that you're talking to, what's the investor mood these days trz word i would use to describe what a lot of investors are feeling is really just despair. more pervasive despair and it's not just about the market, it's about the economy, it's about our political situation. and it's just a different feeling in 2011 than it was in 2008. >> susie: what do you think is going to take to restore confidence? >> i think a continued better economy, including more direction in job growth, i think we have to see some resolution in europe, and i think we have to see the political situation calm down a little bit. it's been so tox nick the last year that an easing of those appreciatees, i think you need all three. >> susie: do you think it will happen in 2012? >> maybe not all three, but i'm relatively only timistic that we'll see improvement in

the economy. and i think european leaders are realizing they're at the end of the line here. >> susie: okay, thanks so much. great talking to you. >> tom: that strength in the dollar we told you about pushed oil prices down. crude oil futures fell more than $5 today, or 5%, settling at $94.95 a barrel. but, oddly, it's been a different story for gasoline. prices at the pump are at their lowest level in nine months. erika miller looks at why those two energy markets are moving in opposite directions and where prices are likely to head from here. >> reporter: if you are driving to grandmother's house for christmas, the trip will probably cost you less than it did over the summer. prices at the pump have been falling steadily since may and now average about $3.25 a gallon nationwide. what's strange is that while gasoline has been falling the past few weeks, crude oil has moved in the opposite direction.

oil was $75 a barrel in early october, now it's pushing $100. trader ray carbone says the diverging paths of gasoline and crude stems from a seasonal spike in gasoline production. >> when they do that, they use crude oil, drawing down the inventories, resulting in more gasoline product available. and therefore, the price diverges. >> reporter: but over the long term, gasoline and crude tend to move in together. some believe prices for both could soon start to fall due to weakening global demand. >> far and away the biggest concern, for us and much of the market, is europe. what can happen in europe? what can go wrong in europe? is what adds up to, in a nightmare scenario, a systemic risk. >> reporter: but much depends on whether the dollar continues to strengthen against the euro. when that happens, crude-- which is priced in dollars-- becomes a less attractive investment to buyers outside the u.s.

there are other reasons oil prices could suddenly spike, most notably troubles in oil- producing nations: >> we have the iran story-- between sanctions by the e.u. and/or an attack to rid them of their nuclear program. we also have russia. we are seeing protests in russia, the second largest oil producer in the world. >> reporter: add to that worries about turmoil in north africa. >> egypt, syria, yemen-- all three of which have some oil production, but they also have much greater ramification-- instability there has much greater ramification across their neighbors. >> reporter: given the tug of war in the marketplace, many experts think energy prices will remain volatile. this time of year also tends to be a low-volume market as traders close their books and head out on vacation. erika miller, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: still ahead, avon's calling for a new c.e.o. the struggling door-to-door

cosmetics retailer separates the roles of its chairman and c.e.o. from another round of stress tests to rules on banks trading with their own money, 2012 is shaping up to be another year of new rules and new pressures for banks. kelly king is the chairman and c.e.o. of bb&t. he joins us from winston-salem, north carolina. happy holidays to you, sir, nice to see you again. >> thank you, tom, happy holidays to you as well. >> tom: as you look at the new regulatory environment continuing to take shape in 2012, how about the business environment shaping up for bb and t? >> well, you know, actually the business environment for us is meshably positive -- measureably positive. it's been strengthening as we've gone through the fourth quarter, and our pipelines are robust, and we're pretty optimistic on the lone side and the deposit side as we look into next year. essentially we have a number of special opportunities in

our business that's causing us to have a better than market growth rate. so we're relatively positive. >> tom: what are those special opportunities that presented themselves to bb and t? >> well, so we have a real focus now on large corporate lending. because our bank has gotten to be fairly large fairly quickly. we've never really had a large share of the national large corporate market, so fortunately at the time that we're focusing on a lot of the traditional players have gone away, so there's a void of good banks out there to take advantage of those needs that they have. so that's one. and we have a really neat set of specialized lending businesses. for example we have a neat company called sheffield, and we lend money all around the country to landscapers to buy their lawn tractors and snowmobiles and all kinds of things. >> tom: so advocates would

look at your growth on the corporate side and say there's plenty of banks serving that size of the market, it's the small businesses, the new businesses that are starved for capital. what are youeeing in terms of your lending capacity and ability when it comes to the smaller players? >> well, tom, we've always been a very focused small business lender. i'm sure you know we've been in business for 139 years, and we grew up as a small business, agricultural bank, and we've continued that focus even as we've gotten larger. we consider that to be kind of our front line of offense in the marketplace, because obviously there's so many small businesses and they created most of the jobs in the country, which we're focused on trying to be supportive of. for example, in north carolina and in virginia, two of our major markets, we're the number one sba lender in both of those markets and we're very strong in our other markets. so our capacity and our interest in small business

lending is unwaivering and very strong. the real issue today is not our capacity or appetite. it's the challenges that the small business community is having. >> tom: what role do banks like bb and t play in either contributing to those pressures, to be frank, or easing some of those pressures? >> well, i think we contribute in terms of easing the pressures by being aggressive in terms of trying to help those small businesses develop their plans. as you know, most small businesses don't have a large corporate finance staff and planning staff. they really rely on their banks for real partnership consultation. so we pride ourselves in being very good at getting and helping them develop their plans, and then sculpturing or tayloring, if you will, the financial arrangement that will help them achieve their treatments and goals in life. >> tom: just a few seconds

left. are you doing more small lending today than a year ago? >> oh, absolutely. we sure are. and we're moving markets in that area and being very aggressive in it. some businesses are having challenges, but many are doing well, and so we think we're doing more today and we think we'll do more next year as well. >> tom: we'll leave it there, sir, best of luck and a happy new year. kelly king, the c.e.o. and chairman at bb and t.

>> tom: markets were led lower by commodity prices thanks to a steep drop in the euro and sharp rally in the u.s. dollar. let's start our focus with the euro, falling below $1.30 to the for the first time since january. the euro continued the sell-off from yesterday, when germany came out against increasing a new bailout fund. now that sent commodity prices lower, signaling a classic "risk off" day when traders sell riskier investments like commodities. this c.r.b. index is made of all the major commodity groups and tonight it sits at its lowest

level since the september sell- off. metals led the drop in commodity prices. gold fell $76, an ounce-- almost 5%. it settled at its lowest price since july. it wasn't the only metal to fall. silver dropped more than 7%, settling below $30 an ounce. copper and platinum each fell more than 4%. stocks followed the commodity market lower, with the major indices down three straight sessions and now down to their lowest level of the month. with the commodity selloff, no surprise, the commodity-focused energy sector led the losers, down almost 3%. the technology and consumer discretionary sectors fell more than 1% each. oil giant chevron was among the big energy losers, down 3%. volume almost doubled on today's drop. brazil's federal prosecutor wants chevron to shut down operations in brazil. the company is the target of a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit over an offshore oil spill last month. other energy stocks cooling off. independent producer denbury

fell more than 6.5%. driller helmerich payne and e.o.g. resources were down 5.5% each. an energy company of a different sort pushed the technology sector lower. first solar cut its financial outlook for the second time in as many months. that kind of continued disappointment pushed the stock down to a four-year low, losing more than a fifth of its value. the company plans to run its factories at only 80% capacity. the firm has been hurt by lower prices for solar panels and european government cutbacks on subsidies. despite the sour market, g.e. and drugmaker merck found buyers a day after executives separately spoke about the future. g.e. predicted earnings to grow at a double-digit percentage rate next year. the firm cites strong demand in the u.s. and asia more than making up for weakness in europe. shares were up more than 1%.

merck was up more than 1.5%. its c.e.o. defended his $8 billion research budget, saying innovation will create long-term value for shareholders. at avon products, the board of directors acted after months of criticism from shareholders over leadership. longtime c.e.o. andrea jung will give up that job but remain as chairman. the idea of new leadership sent a-v-p shares jumping-- up 5%. volume quadrupled. in late november, the stock had fallen to its lowest price since 2007 after a two securities and exchange commission investigations were disclosed. more on avon coming up. finally, going along with the risk-off trade today, people were buying bonds. that pushed the yield on the 10- year government note down to 1.9%. that's close to the low in yield, high in price from november. and that's tonight's "market focus."

shares surged 5%, the biggest gain in three years, on word that andrea jung is stepping down as c.e.o. jung will become executive chairman at the beginning of the year while the legendary 125- year-old company searches for a new c.e.o. >> susie: andrea jung has been one of america's best-known female c.e.o.s. she's been running avon for 12 years-- that's longer than any other woman heading a fortune 500 company. at first, she was adored by wall street and avon shares surged. but since 2004, they went from beauty to beast and, this year alone, plunged 45%. there have been other blemishes. avon faced an s.e.c. investigation into executive disclosures and a bribery investigation in china. it's also launched two restructuring efforts. still, jung is popular with the company's 6.5 million sales reps.

management professor syd finkelstein says that's one reason avon is keeping her on. >> it is really a reaction to the feeling that people have to do something about this, that the board wants people to know, wants the investment community to know we're making changes. but still they have this kind of tight connection to that c.e.o., in this case andrea jung who has been there for a long time, and i think they couldn't bring themselves to go the further step. >> susie: wall street welcomed the prospect of new leadership. at least two investment analysts raised their ratings of the stock. caris and company now rates it "above average" and b.m.o. capital markets lifted it to "outperform." citigroup called the announcement, "long and broadly anticipated / expected / hoped for." it also said "investors should acknowledge that there is no easy fix." like many makeovers, this one will need to be more than skin deep to attract investors. >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: we'll see the weekly numbers on

how many out-of-work americans filed for first-time a check on inflation at the wholesale level with november's producer price index. also tomorrow, blackberry maker "research in motion" turns in its latest quarterly results. we'll see how the struggling smartphone maker is doing. for the first time since last year's b.p. oil spill, uncle sam auctioned off drilling rights in the gulf of mexico. today's sale pulled in over $337 million in winning bids. the interior department put oil lease auctions on hold after the 2010 deepwater horizon oil disaster. b.p. was among the 20 companies bidding for the new drilling rights today, and conoco- phillips submitted the highest bid at just over $100 million. a federal judge has signed off they have seen all the money transfers leading up to m. f. global's collapse. it is now working to see if those transfers were legal.

that came after a federal judge signed off on a deal allowing failed brokerage mf global to continue using cash to finance its bankrupt. the judge says none of the money cover bid the decision came from customer accounts. tomorrow m. f. global's ex c.e.o. makes his third appearance on capitol hill. >> tom: just two weeks left to take care of tax issues before

the calendar turns to 2012. that's why we're focusing this week on some last-minute tips to cut your tax bill. our tax guru, kevin mccormally, is here to help. he's editorial director at "kiplinger's personal finance." tonight's tax tips, an opportunity for older americans to supercharge the tax benefit of their year-end giving. >> tonight, an opportunity for older americans to supercharge the tax benefit of their year- end generosity. i'm talking about owners of traditional i.r.a.s-- individual retirement accounts-- who are age 70.5 or older and are required to take required minimum distributions or r.m.d.s. in most cases, every dime that comes out of a traditional i.r.a. is taxed in your top tax bracket, but there's a way around that. taxpayers age 70.5 and older can order that up to $100,000 of i.r.a. money be donated directly to a favorite charity. it might seem silly to give away money just to avoid paying tax on it, and it would be. but if you're planning a substantial gift anyway, this direct donation strategy can pay

off. of course, there's no double- dipping allowed. if you make a direct donation to keep the money out of your taxable income to begin with, you can't also claim a tax deduction for the gift. but if you're among the 75% of americans who don't itemize deductions, that doesn't matter. in fact, if you're in that group, a direct donation is a no-brainer. lets say you're planning a $10,000 contribution to your alma mater. if you give a $10,000 direct donation from your i.r.a. instead of writing a check, you'll save yourself the $2,500 in tax you would owe on a $10,000 r.m.d., if you're in the 25% bracket. even if you do itemize, a direct donation can make sense. some tax breaks, including the write off of medical and miscellaneous expenses, can be crimped by rising adjusted gross income. a direct donation that keeps r.m.d. money out of your a.g.i. can reduce that squeeze. it can also protect some of your social security benefits from being taxed. i'm kevin mccormally.

>> tom: and finally tonight, "time" magazine's annual person of the year is "the protester." the magazine based its choice on the political uprisings across the middle east and the occupy wall street movement here in america. "time" says the movements redefine "people power." the mid-east protests began when a tunisian fruit vendor set himself afire in a public square. the magazine says at the time no one thought it would incite protests throughout the middle east and north africa, leaving changed governments in its wake. five years ago, in 2006, time named "you" as person of the year. all of us. that's nightly business report for wednesday, december 14. i'm tom hudson. good night everyone, and good night to you "nightly business report" is made possible by:

captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> be more. pbs.