as did 3m, caterpillar, at&t, american express, microsoft, all dow components, by the way. meanwhile, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke spooked the marks with the semiannual testimony before the senate banking committee. bernanke said we are seeing, quote, an unusually uncertain economy. he did say though, that he did expect a moderate economy. about bernanke said the federal reserve was prepared to take steps, any steps needed, if the economy did take another leg down. he did not say what those steps would be. chairman bernanke may be concerned about an unusually uncertain economic outlook, but nigh next guest says he feels like the last optimist standing. he isser is me segal, professor of finance at the wharton school and uthor of "stocks for the long run." always great to have you on the program. welcome back. >> thank you very much, maria. >> so the markets have been so mixed these last few weeks, but you think it's a great time for investors. what makes youo so optimistic? >> they're allowed shrm uncertainties, but i look at valuation. i look at earnings and i loo

3m, u.p.s. and a.t&t all did better than expected. that helped push the dow jones industrial average up by 201 points to close at 10,322. the nasdaq rose 58 points to close near 2246. those broad-based gains more than made up for losses on wednesday. the stock market's surge came as other parts of the economy were headed in the opposite direction. the economy's leading indicators fell in june, the second decline in three months. at the same time, sales of existing homes slid more than 5%. and the inventory of vacant homes was the largest in a year. on the jobs front, new claims for unemployment insurance were well above expectations last week. with that in mind, the house of representatives today gave final approval to extending benefits for the long-term unemployed through the end of the year at a cost of $34 billion. house speaker nancy pelosi said it shouldn't have taken so long. >> imagine that today we're finally taking up unemployment insurance. republicans in the senate have stood in the way of so many initiatives including une