the nasdaq was slightly lower for the week: off a fraction. the s&p 500 rose more than ten points, a gain of less than 1%. still ahead, market monitor eugene peroni says don't be fooled by the day-to-day volatility, the market is improving gradually. >> tom: bankrupt trading company m.f. global fired its entire workforce today. more than 1,000 people were left jobless. the move is part of the company's liquidation. up to 200 employees will be re- hired to assist with the wind- down process. federal regulators and other authorities are investigating $633 million reported to be missing from its clients' accounts. >> susie: this is the time of year that high school seniors across the country are applying for college. but they may be in the dark about the true cost of their education and how much they will have to pay back later. students and consumer advocates say colleges are not doing enough to help them understand the real price of a higher education. sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: for most college hopefuls, whether they've been accepted to

the nasdaq dropped more than 2% this month. today's move had some rocket fuel behind it, thanks to the action by the central banks today, making it cheaper for cash-crunched european banks to borrow u.s. dollars. on the big board, more than 1,800 stocks were up, while fewer than 100 declined. --400 declined on the nasdaq, almost 2,000 stocks advanced, fewer than 500 fell. the financial stock sector led the way today. this exchange-traded fund follows the sector, jumping more than 6%. still, it trades below its october high, and so far this year, the financial sector is the worst-performing stock sector, down 20% year to date. it was a mix of financial companies leading the sector today. regional bank regions financial jumped 14.5%. big bank morgan stanley closed higher by 11%. real estate management firm c.b.r.e. also gained 11%. the strength in the major sectors was mirrored by the strongest dow industrial stocks. j.p. morgan rallied more than 8%, as did caterpillar. in the materials sector, alcoa was close behind, rising 7.5%.

technology helped lead the nasdaq higher, up 28 points. the s&p 500 rose six. trading volume remained light with just 779 million shares moving on the big board and 1.7 billion on the nasdaq. behind the move up, a drop in inflation at the wholesale level. the prices manufacturers and wholesalers pay for goods and materials fell in october by a bigger than expected three- tenths of a percentage point. also encouraging the markets, a better than expected retail sales report for october. americans bought everything from new cars to electronics last month. the government reported retail sales rose five-tenths of 1% in october. that's after rising by 1.1% in september. the strength in retail sales suggests the economy is on solid ground at the start of the fourth quarter. and as suzanne pratt reports, it also bodes well for the holiday sales. >> reporter: a quick look at your inbox tells you the holiday shopping season is starting even earlier this year. at least that's what retailers, both online and in stores, are hoping. the question is whether earlier promotions

by the close, the dow rose almost 180 points the nasdaq jumped 33 and the s&p added about 20. >> susie: bernanke answered questions from the media after the meeting. our washington bureau chief darren gersh was there. >> reporter: the federal reserve's policy-making team acted to keep the economy from stalling out last summer, but chairman ben bernanke was still on the defensive today. he declared himself dissatisfied with high unemployment and economic growth-- "frustratingly slow," he called it. still, bernanke stressed the very aggressive action he and his colleagues have already taken. >> our best estimates are that absent the support of monetary olic that the economy woul be in a much deeper ditch and unemployment would be much higher than it is. >> reporter: now that commodity prices have receded, the fed is forecasting inflation will remain under control for years to come, leaving unemployment the clear target. while bernanke did not promise further action today, he did say one viable way to boost the economy would be buying more mortgage bonds. >> we are prepared to take furthe

the nasdaq fell about 12 and the s&p slipped almost eight. for the week, the major averages were down, posting their worst weekly performance in a month. the dow lost almost 250 points on the week or 2%. the nasdaq suffered a similar percentage loss, falling 51 points or almost 2%. and the s&p 500 off 31 points or 2.5% on the week. also weighing on the markets: the future of the greek government. tonight, the country's parliament is about to begin a vote of confidence on the leadership of greek prime minister george papandreou. at issue, his handling of a crucial loan package from europe to pay down greece's debts. as greece's political drama unfolded, the leaders of the world's 20 most powerful countries wrapped up their two- day summit without a grand plan to rescue europe from its debt crisis. president obama says e.u. leaders have a tough challenge. >> events in greece over the past 24 hours have underscored the importance of implementing the plan fully and as quickly as possible. i am confident europe has the capacity to meet this challe

the dow rose 32 points, the nasdaq fell about 12, and the s&p 500 added 2.5. trading volume was a touch lighter with 917 million shares moving on the big board and 1.6 billion on the nasdaq. investors were also hopeful that european finance ministers meeting in brussels today and tomorrow could make progress on resolving the region's debt crisis. >> the european stability fund more leverage so it has more power the financial health of italy will certainly be on the agenda. italy's borrowing costs hit almost 8% today, a euro-era record and a sign that the country could need financial aid like greece, portugal and ireland. >> tom: after the closing bell today, standard and poor's applied new criteria to the credit rating of dozens of big banks, and most of those banks had their credit rating dinged. among those seeing their ratings downgraded-- bank of america, j.p. morgan, citigroup, wells fargo, morgan stanley, and goldman sachs. the downgrades come after s&p changed how it computes debt ratings for large financial institutions. among the changes-- less confid

the dow fell almost 75 points, the nasdaq fell 21 and the s&p 500 lost 12 points. trading volume started the week light, with just 709 million shares moving on the big board and less than 1.5 billion on the nasdaq. where stocks head this week will depend in large part on a slew of europe and of u.s. economic reports. from retail sales to inflation, investors are hoping for signs the recovery is finally picking up steam. erika miller reports. >> reporter: if you want to know if the economy is registering growth, it pays to watch the registers. after all, consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of the economy. unfortunately, tomorrow's retail sales data for october is expected to be fairly soft, rising just 0.3%. that would be a sharp pullback from september's 1.1% gain, but economist anthony chan isn't worried about holiday spending. >> net-net, we probably will see a little softer retail sales number in october. but the hope is it's temporary and we will see a little bit of a boost to that trend as we go into the calendar quarter. >> reporter: also tomorrow

he joins us live from the nasdaq. nice to see you again. so why would more oil to refinery row in sdpekz the gulf coast mean higher oil prices? >> well, they say all politics is local, tom, and in this case all markets are local as well. imagine if you had a bumper crop of wheat or really anything on hand, but you couldn't get it to market. what's it worth to you? what's it worth to the world, really nothing because it's stuck where it is and it can't get to the places that need it. what we're seeing here today is that the oil in oklahoma that the contract trades against got liberated or will be liberated shortly, so what we've been seeing with the depressed price relative to all the other global markers for crude oil around the world is now seeing a correction. where that wti oil, that curbing, oklahoma oil is now almost as valuable as all the other oil in the world. >> tom: you're talking about west texas enter media. i want to put on the screen the police differential you're refering to, between west texas crude and the north sea brent, t

the nasdaq up to 2639. day's daily deal is the highly anticipated publically traded company groupon, expected to price the ipo tonight. before it had lowered the price range, reportedly demand is so strong now it can be well above the range. groupon starts trading tomorrow on the nasdaq and the ipo is being eyed by other companies like zynga which is expected to go public by the end of the month. the biggie is facebook. you have to have a friend to get into that one. it likely won't happen until next year. apple not saying "i'm sorry" but conceding there is a problem with the battery in the new iphone 4s. they promised a fix soon. customers complained that the battery runs down quickly even when they aren't using it much. they tribute it to bugs in the software. the iphone 4 had problems with the antenna initially. once the bugs were worked out people were happy with the devices. >> all right. thank you much. >>> it's time for companies to start hiring holiday workers as this year the pay could be a little h

the dow added 25 points, the nasdaq lost nearly 15-1/2 and the s&p 500 lost a fraction. big board volume settled back below a billion shares. while nasdaq volumdropped to one and three quarter billion shares. with the big losses on wednesday and thursday, the down ended the week down nearly 3%. the nasdaq saw four down days, ending the week off 4%. it was a rocky week for the s&p as well. it was down 3.8% overall. despite the turbulent trading still ahead, our market monitor the conference board's index of leading economic indicators rose more than forecast last month, signaling that the economy is growing slowly. still ahead, our market monitor says once the e.u. debt situation is resolved, the market will again be driven by fundamentals. >> susie: now's the time of year when many americans give thanks. it's also a time when many wall street workers get pink slips. bank of america, j.p. morgan, u.b.s., have recently announced job cuts, joining goldman sachs, credit suisse and others. for those workers who survive, they're expected to see big cuts to their pay. as erika m

the nasdaq followed the same pattern for a net overall loss of 131 points or 5%. and the s&p 500 shed almost 57 points on the week or 4.7%. energy was the worst stock sector today, and chevron was the worst dow industrial stock, falling more than 1.5%. chevron is at a six week low. the energy giant was suspended from all drilling activity in brazil. this action comes after chevron took responsibility for a spill off the coast of brazil that lasted a week this month. that leak spilled about 2,000 barrels of oil. today's best sector was the traditionally defensive utility sector. this exchange traded fund is made up for power utility stocks. it closed up just a fraction today. what's interesting is it hasn't benefitted this month from a flight to safety as it was at a six week low on wednesday. power companies from two different regions led the gains. wisconsin energy and consolidated edison were up 1.3% each. xcel energy from minnesota gained 1%. a.t.&t. is less optimistic it will be able to get government approval for its planned $39 billion buyout of t-mobile. th