erika miller, "nightly business report," new york. >> whax* a difference a day makes.big change in the wall street rally. and investor psychology about buying stocks and based on today. >> lots of sentiment changes in a short period of time. we saw the major indices make up all of yesterday's losses. let's take a look at tonight's market, folks. >> tom: it was a fast move higher out of the gate on the not-bad-as-feared home sales and day two of chairman bernanke's economic testimony. the s&p 500 opened and stayed strong, except for a slip off its high in the last half hour. after the close, the focus again turned to earnings, with microsoft leading the way. its windows 7 operating system and the new office software led to earnings coming in a nickel better than estimates. revenues also were stronger than anticipated, with sales up in all five of its business units. shares participated in the rally before the earnings news. after the close, microsoft stock saw some fractional losses. amazon shares saw heavier volume and buying ahead of its earnings. but, after the close

erika miller looks at whether it's a sign the recovery is shifting to a higher gear. >> reporter: forget about jobless claims or housing data, if you want to know the outlook for the economy, pay attention to earnings at fedex and rival u.p.s. morningstar analyst keith schoonmaker says those companies are the first to notice changes in demand worldwide. >> both of these firms-- the integrated shippers u.p.s. and fedex-- which we are so familiar with in the us, both of them derive more than a quarter of their revenue from their international operations. so it's certainly fair to call both of them global indicators. >> reporter: today, fedex said it is seeing a "pick-up" in international shipments, particularly its higher-margin priority deliveries. but it's not clear whether the demand is coming from consumers or businesses >> i think a large part of it is going to be businesses at this point. we don't have a full revelation from the firm on what the breakdown is between these two. but, at this point, it seems to us it's going to be the b-to-b clients have been responsible for a big porti

erika miller introduces us to two business owners with different reasons for holding back. >> reporter: jewelry designer bonnie riconda say she's one of the fortunate small business owners. sales at her company, calico juno designs, have not gotten hammered in the midst of a weak economy. she works out of a studio in the back of her store, on city island in the bronx. >> in terms of sales we are remaining steady, which is really, really good, especially in a business where it's not a necessity. >> reporter: riconda says she often needs extra help, but is hesitant to boost payrolls until sales pick up. on the other hand, she recognizes it will take time to find the right worker and weeks to train the person to make her 850 designs, which is why she is considering hiring someone as soon as this fall. >> i would like to be able to hire somebody for right before christmas and get the store stocked up, because we do get busy last year right before christmas. >> reporter: lack of demand isn't the only problem small businesses are facing, even firms with strong sales are holding off hiring fo