we talk with pimco c.e.o. mohamed el-erian. you're watching "nightly business report" for wednesday, february 23. 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. continuing turmoil in the middle east today pushed up prices on oil and gold. but tom that wasn't the case for stock prices. the major averages fell for the second straight day. >> tom: susie, oil was the big story. in new york trading, april crude futures briefly traded above the $100-a-barrel level on concerns about supply disruptions in libya. but by the close, oil settled at $98.10-- up almost $3. now those same concerns also gave a boost to gold-- up over $12 to $14.14 an ounce. that's $1,400-plus an ounce. on wall street, the dow lost 107 points, the nasdaq fell 33 and the s&p 500 was down eight. >> susie: also today, saudi arabia's king abdullah w

harbor commodity real return and pimco commodity real return invest in futures contracts, notes and bonds. other funds like fidelity global commodity stock invest in companies that produce, mine, or refine commodities. morninstar's katheryn young says equity funds appeal to more risk averse investors. >> the advantage of going into stocks is that you're getting income and cash flow producing capabilities that you can value your investment where at many times a commodity investment is the value is what other people are willing to pay for it. >> reporter: brett rentmeester is a managing director for altair advisors. he likes commodities as an investment, but warns clients not to get caught in the euphoria of any particular one. >> i think there is a tendency for people to want to chase good performance and i guess we would caution them in most cases to not chase what's done the best recently and take a more balanced approach. >> reporter: rentmeester says most retail investors probably shouldn't devote more than ten percent of their overall portfolio to commodiites. diane eastabrook, "night

so it was, as bill gross, the guru behind the pimco bond fund, i guess the largest financial investment firm in the country -- in the world, he said that emphasis in america and some other nations has been on consumption, not effectively enough on growth, which is sort of what mr. gary becker, professor becker said, and federal reserve chairman, mr. bernanke, said now recently and i will repeat it. there are going to be several years before we get to a normal job growth situation, a normal unemployment rate in our country. even though the unemployment rate seems to have dropped, i think it is important to note that a number of the people dropping off the unemployment rolls are dropping off because they have given up in looking for work. they -- they have gotten discouraged and they are no longer going down to the unemployment office and registering and looking for work, and that's not good. a healthy, vibrant, growing economy looks to be bringing more people into the work force and that affects and can make the unemployment rate look better than it really is. there was an article in "ba

bill gross, who manages pinko, one of the largest mutual funds in the country -- who manages pimco, one of the largest mutual fund the country, he stated that -- he said that if the fed lowers interest rates, it helps our debtors, but harms all of those who work hard and save money. it is, in effect, allowing debtors to reduce their debt on the backs of those that save money. is that right? >> i would hesitate to sadek right now. >> the states and cities have borrowed a very low rates, not just in the past couple of years in extreme conditions, but for two decades now. if rates go up, including possibly way up, you will have to get used to a very different environment very quickly. >> could you argue that the fed's quantitative easing program has, in effect, been a bailout for states and municipalities? >> sure, this is a bailout for anyone who owes money. states and municipalities may not be the disproportionate benefit of this, but it certainly helped them. >> mr. norcross, do you concur? >> i concur. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for hosting