after the company's c.e.o. david delorenzo rang the opening bell, i asked him about the impact high food prices are having on getting americans to eat healthy fruits and vegetables. >> i think that if people make a concerted effort to look at individual pricing, you can eat very economically with fresh fruits and vegetables. bananas, for example, is the cheapest product in the supermarket, it's a great bargain, really healthy for you. and a great snack item as opposed to junk food. so i think that people can eat healthy. and it doesn't have to really hurt their pocketbook that much. >> susie: prices for fresh fruits and vegetables have been rising. do you see that trend continuing for this year? >> well, there could be some price inflation this year. we've had strange weather a lot of rain' weather on the west coast a lot of cold weather in the crops. the prices tend to follow the weather patterns. on the other hand you have other crops like bananas that have been great bargains and continue to be great bargain

its new c.e.o. was the number two at american eagle outfitter. and yoga clothing retailer lululemon was up 8%. better-than-expected earnings boosted its outlook. finally, i.t.t. it makes industrial, defense and technology equipment, and it's splitting into three different companies based on those businesses. shareholders like it, sending the stock up more than 16% on very heavy volume. this is a new 52-week high. very heavy volume. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> susie: our next guest represents the gold standard when it comes to buy-and-hold investing. he's legendary investor mario gabelli, the chairman of gabelli asset management company investors, or "gamco". when i talked with mario today he told me why he's bullish for 2011. >> in the world of change, in the world of dynamics there's always opportunities. in particular in the united states, i think the 80% of the unemployed are spending, clarity because of what happened with the new election in november, conviction, leads to action. and corporations are going the start hiring again,

when apple's c.e.o. steve jobs announced his third medical leave this week, apple cited only unspecific health reasons. but legally, that may be all they have to say. >> the law says that the company has to tell you anything that's important, anything that might affect your understanding of the riskiness of the investment. it doesn't say that you need a complete medical report. >> reporter: sara lee took a similar approach to apple. last summer when the company announced its c.e.o. was taking a temporary medical leave, at first it didn't mention that she'd had a stroke. but corporate governance experts say steve jobs is special. >> he's not just the c.e.o. he's the company's brand and he's their most important asset. >> reporter: the creative genius who gave us the ipod, the iphone and the ipad. >> and he is what the investors and the employees and customers are betting on. so, yes, we are entitled to some candor. >> reporter: at pacific biosciences, hugh martin is glad he was candid. he's back on the jo

here's harry lin, c.e.o. of technology startup tahz.com. >> those of us who worked in the internet and high-tech in the late 1990s sometimes tell stories about that first dot-com boom, when so-called "irrational exuberance" helped fuel a craze that hasn't been seen since... well, the recent mortgage and home-price debacle. but anyway, us internet workers are now having de ja vu all over again. the news that goldman sachs invested in facebook at a purported company valuation of $50 billion is a very heady wall posting. the news that groupon recently rejected an acquisition offer by google for $6 billion is insane. amazon.com just invested a reported $175 million into groupons competitor, livingsocial. who knew the marketplace needed two group-buying discount sites? while this isn't exactly like the first dot-com boom-- the number of startups and investments is small compared to that era-- the distinct scent of irrational exuberance is a smell i recall pungently. and i smell it again. the worst consequence of t

c.e.o. klaus kleinfeld in our exclusive interview. you're watching "nightly business report" for monday, january 10. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. solid earnings tonight from alcoa and a bullish forecast for this year. the world's largest aluminum company is the first dow component to report quarterly numbers, and tom, analysts are hoping these strong numbers will set a positive tone for the upcoming corporate earnings season. >> tom: susie, the results also beat analyst estimates. excluding special items, alcoa earned 21 cents a share in the fourth quarter-- two cents more than estimates. revenues were in line with expectations-- $5.7 billion. alcoa also said it expects 12% growth this year for aluminum products, and it's calling for global demand to double

we'll ask c.e.o. alan mulally what's driving business. >> susie: linkedin could be the first of the big social networking companies to go public. the site aimed at connecting business professionals with other professionals filed with regulators today for an initial public offering. but linkedin did not say how much money it's hoping to raise, or when it will do the offering. other social network firms are expected to follow in linkedin's footsteps, with groupon and facebook going public over the next 18 months. >> tom: shares of bank united begin trading tomorrow at the new york stock exchange. late today, they priced at $27 a share. that's $2 more than the expected range. the bank raised $783 million. we'll talk with its c.e.o., john kanas, tomorrow. he invested $23 million of his own money in the bank when it was bought by private equity firms, including w.l. ross, blackstone and carlyle group in 2009. >> susie: with high unemployment and a shaky outlook for housing, you'd think consumers would stay

c.e.o. bob dudley this topic was addressed then i think it's been made clear by leadership of russia that frankly the experience b.p. has had in the gulf of mexico or over the course of the period from the end of april last year through the end of last year should be viewed as a positive there are many exploration wells being drilled around the world. and have been doing so for many years this one incident is obviously it was painful for all of us in the industry to see at the same time looking back i think we can complement the way p.p. handled it we can also compliment i think the transparent nature in which b.p. is willing to discuss it and resolve any remaining issues as to compensation etc. in terms of our specific project setting up first a technology center and also a emergency potential rapid response center and in the event that there is some sort of event receive the highest priority as high as any of the commercial economic terms in the agreement and i would also say that it's ear

he's the c.e.o. of auto web site edmunds.com, and he pointed out some likely hits and misses. >> well, this is an interesting vehicle. this is the mini, and it's actually not so mini as the old mini. lot of space. it delivers all wheel drive, a lot of space. it looks kind of fun and funky, like the original mini. and if you look at them side by side, you'd be surprised to see that it's quite a bit bigger. there's a nice little handle there. so, this isn't huge, but compared to the original mini, it's quite practical. so, you can actually put groceries in there without having to push down the back seats. mercedes makes me feel old, because i look at the styling and i think they are trying to reach people younger than me. this is a car that is all about style. this is the new mercedes cls. the original version of this was very elegant, very simple lines. this one's gotten a little more complex. they want to become relevant to new buyers, and this is where styling really plays a role, because it's reall

on the other hand, he is a c.e.o. and that is a clear signal to the business community that the president wants to hear what they have to say. it's also a signal and a political signal it may be to republicans and to some of his critics on the right that he is not afraid of hearing from business leaders or people who might not share 100% of his views. so it's certainly disarms a lit -- a little bit of the ritisms who for the last two years said this is a very antibusiness white house. and by doing that this week, it's really setting him up to lay out a plan for the economy on tuesday and also to deflect a lot of this criticism that he has been receiving and a lot of people in the white house say unjustly so that they're not very business friendly over there. host: if you want to ask questions, here's how you can do so this morning. this week started with an op ed about business in the washington journal. tell us about that. guest: there's a lot going on this week. starting the week with this op ed basically saying tha

now bob dudley was formerly the c.e.o. of the tie up between t. and k. the russian oil company and now he's moved to be the c.e.o. of all of the entirety of b.p. and there's a strong belief in russia in the competency of b.p. to carry out a project like this in spite of the disaster that we saw in the gulf of mexico last year i spoke to. him who's the chairman of ross nafta and one of russia's deputy prime ministers here's what he had to say about why they chose b pay for this. is working on a new strategy aimed to transforming the company into an international energy holding our deal with b.p. is of course part of the strategy they've gained a great deal of experience including the gulf of mexico oil spill cleanup operation b.p. has learned from this experience and our joint venture will be carried out with the greatest level of measures aimed at protecting the environment we've been working with b.p. for many years they are competent and have strong experience of russian companies. so there is a strong relationship already in place between b.p. and ros

s c.e.o. as a key advisor. the move comes as the big you're watching "nightly business report" for friday, january 21. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. my colleague tom hudson is off tonight. another business-friendly announcement from the white house today. president obama named general electric's c.e.o. to head up a new jobs council and also made him his chief outside economic advisor. speaking at a g.e. plant in schnectady new york, the president said he chose jeff immelt because he can find new ways to promote private sector hiring. >> the past two years were about pulling our economy back from the brink. the next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive. >> susie: immelt's appointment came just hours after g.e. reported better than expected qua

naming a prominent c.e.o. to head the panel underscored the president's recent attempts to shore up relations with the business community. immelt was one of 20 c.e.o.s who met with the president during a daylong summit at blair house last month, and one of 14 u.s. business leaders invited to meet with chinese president hu jintao at the white house this week. on tuesday, the president ordered a review of federal regulations on businesses which may hurt job creation. he wrote in "the wall street journal": "our economy is not a zero-sum game. regulations do have costs. often, as a country, we have to make tough decisions about whether those costs are necessary." meanwhile, yesterday, first lady michelle obama joined executives from walmart, the nation's largest retailer, to promote healthier eating habits. >> when i see a company like walmart launch an initiative like this, i feel more hopeful than ever before. >> suarez: and earlier this month, mr. obama named former commerce secretary and j.p. morgan chase exec

c.e.o. john kanas. >> tom: ford motor's run of better than expected quarterly earnings grinded to a halt in the fourth quarter. the disappointment led to a stiff sell-off in ford shares today, dropping over 13% to a six week low. ford earned 30 cents per share in q-4-- well below analyst estimates and down from a year ago. among the reasons for the miss, higher production and advertising costs for new vehicles. c.e.o. alan mulally says expect those higher expenses to continue as it does more business. >> our costs will increase through 2011 because we are increasing production and we're bringing new products to the market. but the most important thing is not the cost but also the margins. to see the revenue increases in addition to the productivity. despite the fourth quarter earnings miss, 2010 was a big year for ford's turnaround story. it was the first time in five years that ford has posted positive per share earnings numbers for the full year. and while mulally isn't putting a number on

c.e.o. rex tillerson said the commission did not investigate the entire industry and ignored years of good performance. for more on the safety of deepwater drilling, washington bureau chief darren gersh spoke with the oil commission's co-chair, william reilly. >> thank you very much, for your time, i appreciate it. >> your report concludes the bp oil spill was avoidable, why? >> well, if you look at the sequence of decisions that lead up to the explosion, the blowout, there were any 23478 of them that are difficult to explain and just plane wrong. if those had not been made, many of them the way they were, a negative pressure test that was judged a success but was clearly not, and they had evidence that it wasn't, and mistakes like that, you could have certainly avoided the loss of well control. and even after that happened it's possible one could have diverted the gas over the side and avoided the explosion. it's possible, it's not obviously certain. >> b.p. shares are up today because an m

joining us, john challenger, c.e.o. of challenger, gray and christmas, the executive outplacement firm. john, nice to have you on the program. >> nice to be here, susie. >> susie: well, john, we -- you know that payroll report showed the biggest gain in hiring since 2000. you do a lot of surveys, are you seeing that same kind of data come through in the su surveys you conduct? >> we are seeing that. the downsizing has been very low. in december, we saw just over 32,000 jobs cut. and we saw 579 for 2010. that was the lowest since 1997. >> susie: based on all of the people that you spoke to and all of your experiences in the job market. what are you expecting for this prim friday's job employment? will we see a big jump in job hiring. >> it rose from 9.6% to 9.8%, and it may come down as weekly jobless claims fall below 500,000. there is optimism this number could be better than expected. >> susie: you put out a list of industries that announced in december that they're hiring. if you look there on the screen, at the top

thousand and eleven predicting what this entire year will be like that man is gerald celebrity the c.e.o. and founder of trends research institute and he's sitting down with our team now to tell us what we can expect in two thousand and eleven my first question for you of course is about the economic crisis for the past two years economists analysts journalists every day people have referred to this as a great recession you for many years have been calling this the greatest depression and you say that in two thousand and eleven in this year every citizen is going to realize it and it's going to agree with you why is that because they're running out

. >> reporter: bazarrvoice c.e.o. brett hurt. >> there's an amazing creative energy here. >> reporter: thousands of talented graduates pour out of the university of texas here every year. the state has no income tax and austin has low house prices and a rich cultural scene. so you're going out there and you're aggressively recruiting. >> we are very aggressively recruiting. >> reporter: dave porter's job at the chamber of commerce is to entice companies from more expensive states like california. california's fertile ground for you? >> it has a bull's-eye right on it. >> reporter: california-based sun power is not leaving the state, but the solar company is opening an operations center in austin after the city offered up to $900,000 in hiring incentives. so for every employee you hire you get more money? >> that's correct. >> reporter: sun power plans 450 hires. >> the average salary here is going to be about $70,000. >> reporter: but about 80% of jobs created in austin come from local companies. at the austin technol

c.e.o. klaus kleinfeld joins us with the results. and with the valuations of online firms like facebook and groupon expanding exponentially, are we in the midst of another dot com bubble? >> susie: on monday, auto supplier visteon will again trade here at the new york stock exchange. the company will use its old ticker symbol v.c. visteon's shares haven't traded on the big board since march of 2009. it emerged from bankruptcy reorganization in october wiping out $2 billion in debt from its balance sheet. >> tom: the u.s. supreme court will decide if a group of halliburton shareholders can pursue a class-action lawsuit against the oil services company. the investors claim halliburton inflated its stock price when former vice president dick cheney ran it. cheney, who is not named in the lawsuit, was halliburton's c.e.o. before he joined george w. bush's presidential ticket. the merits of the lawsuit are not at issue before the court, only whether it can proceed as a class action. a ruling is expected in june. >> tom: investors still do

rick horrow is a sports business analyst and c.e.o. of horrow sports ventures. cbs with the jets and steelers, 31 share, third of all televisions in america were watching the jets and steelers, is this the biggest, most lucrative television contract there is? >> by far, and most of the televisions in the new york area had unhappy viewers watching them but they watched it. and they bought advertising. we we'll get in that in a second. the bottom line is it is a 20 billion total tv package and so significant that they can actually front money for the next round of television dollars that will cash the owners in a position to impact how the negotiations will go for the next round. >> tom: to that point, rick, fox gets the super bowl this year. this is a $4 billion deal. it actually ends this year, as a matter of fact. 21% of all nfl television money comes from fox. how does all of this shape the strike negotiations? >> well, because they will get money up front. why do these networks pay an extraordinary amount of money, 106 million people watched the super bowl la