i'm suzanne pratt. good night, everyone, and good night to you, tom. >> tom: have a great evening, suzanne. thank you so much for watching. we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. there is a world of investment opportunities out there. spotting them takes experts on the ground. assessing potential firsthand. templeton, a pioneer in global investing for over 50 years. gain from our perspective. >> announcer: and by exxon-mobil. this program is made possible by contributions to your pbstatio pbs station frm viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> more information about investing is available in "nightly business report's" video "how wall street works". to order this dvd, call 1-800- play-pbs or visit online at shoppbs.org.

susie gharib is off tonight, suzanne pratt joins me. wall street continued its focus on earnings today, suzanne, with disappointing results from boeing, comcast and c.v.s. caremark. >> suzanne: tom, we're just over the halfway point for second quarter results, and despite today's numbers, corporate profits are a lot stronger than they were last year at this time. >> tom: but, remember where we were a year ago. the second quarter of 2009 was a disaster, making for easy comparisons this year. that has investors scrutinizing the quality of earnings. and, as scott gurvey reports, so far that quality leaves a lot to be desired. >> reporter: earnings up 52%. companies beating estimates. margins at record levels. what more could an investor want? but there's trouble beneath the topline numbers. economic growth depends on growth of sales. howard silverblatt of standard & poor's says that is still missing. >> sales are only growing at 3% to 4%, that's why the margins are so high. sales are key here, until companies get sales they are not going to

suzanne pratt has more on what's ahead for b.p. and its new boss. >> reporter: three months after b.p. began polluting the gulf of mexico and u.s. coastline, the company has a new leader and new strategy. the company's new chief executive, bob dudley, said change is coming, even though he's a longtime b.p. insider. >> we're going to learn a lot, and the industry's going to learn a lot, and there's no question that we will change as a company and from those learnings. >> reporter: included in those changes is an accelerated plan to raise cash by selling b.p.'s non-core assets, or less than 10% of the company's total business. the company is guessing it will need $32 billion to cover costs and liabilities from the spill, well below some worst-case estimates of $60 billion. still, analyst cathy milostan says, by disposing of assets b.p. hopes to show investors it can pay for the mess. >> we're starting to see what i call building blocks of being able to demonstrate that there is cash that they can access to cover oil spill costs. the

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. worries about the recovery kept wall street in check. stocks end the week little changed. the dow fell a point, the nasdaq gained three, and the s& s&p 500 was flat. volume on both the big barrels of oil a day and the nasdaq fell from yesterday's pace. consumers are still feeling uneasy about the economy. the consumer sentiment index crept higher than expected in july, but it is still at its lowest level in six months. and greece's military will end a trucking strike that has led to wide-spread fuel shortages on the island. truckers are protesting top new austerity measures adopted in response to greece's debt crisis. >> tom: you may own the land, but not what is under it. pitting neighbor against neighbor in the rush to cash in on natural gas. >> susie: president obama defended his decision to rescue g.m. and chrysler at two campaign-style rallies in michigan today. the president said letting the auto industry fail would have cost up to a million jobs, spreading pain across the count

suzanne pratt looks at what a prolonged period of falling prices would mean for the u.s. >> reporter: at this wholesale market in brooklyn, prices of fruits and veggies have been falling. in some cases, the declines are weather-related. but manager michael scotto says, lately, extra supply is pushing prices lower for many items. >> now that an influx of produce comes in, like anything else, no one wants to get stuck with it. so what they do is drop the price so everything moves a lot faster. >> reporter: falling prices are great for americans struggling to buy groceries or fill up their gas tanks, but the drop in costs reported today raises concerns about the u.s. soon facing a prolonged period of falling prices throughout the economy known as deflation. the half a percentage point drop in june wholesale prices follows declines of three-tenths in may and one-tenth in april. the federal reserve is also growing more concerned the u.s. is at risk for the kind of deflationary spiral that japan faced in the 1990s. policymakers revealed their worries yesterday with the release of minutes fr