alan mulally tells us his american rivals won't have a leg up just because they're getting a helping hand from uncle sam. >> i like to go shopping. >> suzanne: meet olivia. she's one of millions of kids hitting stores in search of new duds and school supplies. that has retailers discounting like never before to cash in on the back to school bonanza. >> paul: i'm paul kangas. >> suzanne: and i'm suzanne pratt. susie gharib is off tonight. this is "nightly business report" for thursday, july 23. "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. microsoft turned in ugly numbers after the bell today. disappointing wall street and raising big questions about the stock market rally. the software giant earned 34 cents a share in its fiscal fourth quarter, two pennies shy of estimates, and off sharply from a year ago. but the revenue numbers were the most disappointing, coming in a $13.1 billion for the quarter. that's more than a billion short of expectation

. >> suzanne: myuest has been ford ceo alan mulally. >> suzanne: ading senate democrats are putting the brks on health care reform sayi they will not voten a bill before the augusrecess. senate majoritleader harry id says a vote in his chambe won't co until the fall. it's blow to president obama whwanted the house and senate to pass bis in the next week and get a final measure to h desk by the end the year. speaki in cleveland today, the president acknowledgedhe senate won't me his deadline. t he says that's okay and wants lawmakers to kp moving forward spite the delay. >> paul: n let's take a look at some stocks in the news tonight. >> paul: and tse are the stocks. >> suzanne: 's the middle of mmer. but storesre already pulling out all the stops to boo their back to school sales. is considered a major test for consumer snding, and an early edictor for the holiday season. as eka miller explains, the recessn has changed the rules for back to schoolhopping. >> oh,his one! actually, thisne! this o!" >> repter: while most kids are focused on vacation, or mp, five-year-ololivia anton is ady

. >>> dedicating this week to the alan mulally. i promise to try to find it for you come monday.im cramer, see you monday! >>> tonight, nike, a brand so powerful, so dominant, it's known around the world. >> just do it. >> 13,000 products, 16 billion in sales. and some of the most famous faces on the planet. >> it's something that represented my name and what i did to the game of basketball. that has continually transcended over time. >> a company with critics. >> a transnational corporation that exploits people. >> and connoisseurs. >> my favorite pair. >> he's got to have the shoes. 350 pairs. >> what percentage of your disposable income were you spending on shoes? >> all of it. except for my mortgage. >> it all started with a waffle iron and a college jock with an idea. >> and did you really think you could implement this? >> yeah. i was too dumb to know better. >> now in the design studio, on the factory floor, and behind the latest blockbuster, cnbc presents "swoosh: inside nike." from the nike town store in new york city, here's correspondent darren rovell. >> good evening.

earlier on cnbc phil lebeau asked ford ceo alan mulally if the company is ahead of schedule to return to profitability. >> with everything that's going on in the market and coming back slowly that we reaffirmed our guidance that we would be profitable in 2011 with positive free cash flow also. >> therefore, you're not going to move up the guidance? >> no. with everything we know right now it looks like it's going to be a slow recovery and so i think our guidance is appropriate at this time. >> and the labor department reports initial jobless claims rose by 30,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 554,000. but the number of americans continuing to collect unemployment benefits fell to 6.22 million, which was smaller than many economists had been expecting, maria. >> you know, scott, last night president obama took his case for reforming the health care system right to the american people in a primetime press conference. but in an op-ed in today's "wall street journal" former council of economic advisers chairman under the first president bush criticizes president obama for not governi

alan mulally said he will stay at ceo until they have sustained profitability. i love that. but you know what, this trade to me it's late.. if you're getting in now you're playing stock market. but ford was the play and we talked about it. >> at the end of the day today, i sold short toyota motors. i think that has had a tremendous run but it's actually rising again to the levels. back to the pre-lehman levels where there's the tremendous amount of supply sitting overhead. and also keep in mind with the dollar coming off, you are going to see the japanese yen catch a bid, that will not bode well for toyota motors. it's a play i'm putting on. got short here, risking against $90. >> are we going to see the top of the automakers? because if we are stimulating all this demand right now and everybody's buying a car now to capture this rebate does that mean essentially they're not going to buy a car later on. if you buy one, you won't buy one in december when it's over. >> we saw how quickly we possibly burned through this money. we had the ceo of hearrtz, they are making a lot of

the ceo alan mulally telling cnbc that ford will burn less cash in the second half of the year.hares are up 10%. newspaper business is struggling to survive but "the new york times" surprising investors by reporting 85% jump in earnings. analysts were looking for a loss. >>> ups reporting earnings in line with wall street estimates but given a lower than expected outlook for the current quarter. shares are slightly higher. >>> just a short time ago harry reid cast considerable doubt on the idea of passing a health care reform bill before the august recess. >> the decision was made to give them more time for the finance committee part of what we're trying to do. i don't think it's unreasonable. it's better to have a product that is one that's based on quality and thoughtfulness, rather than trying to jam something through. >> so, is part of today's rally being fueled by the health care proposal being stalled a bit if you will? let's head back down to the floor of the new york stock exchange and talk about that with steve grasso. what do you think? we've heard from some people it'

>> and alan mulally. >> i just got off the phone with ford ceo mulally and had a chance to talk to him the second quarter numbers, better than anybody expected on wall street. two things i talked to mr. mulally about. the first one, listen, they're within spitting difference of turning a profit. they say 2011 is the goal. i asked him, do you move that up because you're making so much progress? he said simply we're on target to meet our profitability and cash flow targets, which is to be positive by 2011, although i think wall street has thrown that out the window. wall street is expecting it to happen much quicker. al mulally sticking with when he always does, underpromising and overdelivering. he said he will continue to improve their balance sheet but he will not commit whether there will be another equity offering to raise cash to pay down debt. first on cnbc coming up on "power lunch" with mr. mulally. back with you. >> thank you very much. we'll check in with you a little later this morning as well. >>> also coming up today, president obama making his health care pitch to the amer