susan pratt takes a closer look at that weak jobs report. >> reporter: yes, the economy added jobs in march but with millions of americans still out of work, the number was a big, fat disappointment. >> it was much softer than we've seen over the prior few months. how we're interpreting the report is it's a blip down in what is a still strong trend. >> reporter: so what happened to the job market last month? retailers were hurt the most, cutting 34,000 jobs. that was a surprise given the recent strength in retail sales. temp hiring also fell. a worrisome sign because firms often add temps before permanent workers. there was, however, good job growth in manufacturing. hotels and restaurants also stepped up hiring. still, the march jobs data revved up chatter about the federal reserve and whether the central bank would inject more stimulus into the economy known as q.e.-3. >> what the fed is likely to do is accumulate the data up until the june meeting and make a decision then. our view is that the data won't be weak enough to cause the fed to do q.e.-3. >> reporter: for now, most exper

there is one at pratt street and another at hillsdale road. the roads are little wet. this is the topside of the beltway leading up to york road. outer loop traffic looks pretty good at the moment. this is the j.f.x. leading up to the accident scene. no delays leading up to the accident at the moment. the volume is still light. that is the latest on traffic pulse 11. >> the delayed decision of proposed bottle tax increase to baltimore city. >> jennifer franciotti joins us live from the city hall with the latest. >> good morning. this is something being considered by the committee of taxation. they are saying they are not ready to take a vote on this issue. there was two hours of debate last night. the committee said they are not ready to take a vote. the bottle tax would jump from 2 cents to 5 cents. opponents say they support improving city schools but they do not believe it the bottle tax is the answer. this could encourage spending outside of the city. >> i would like to have everybody here take an oath that if she supports this that will guarantee there will buy yo

marshall on june 13 last year after -- hours after two teenagers were struck at mlk and pratt street. officer willis testified he believed brigandine was under the influence of alcohol, but did not tested because he was under the influence -- because he was the passenger. the defense says his testimony has no merit. >> he does make it up with -- out of thin air and you are going with this? >> i did not imply it at all. i said it. >> kendra miles to the stand through the afternoon. through emotional testimony she said she and dunn argued that night because they had spent too much time at her mother's because he was with his friends too long. when they reached mlk boulevard and pratt street, she told him to make sure they did not get caught by the red light there. miles said cheek briefly saw the two girls and and the windshield caved in. done stopped briefly and then drove away. once they reached 295 he told her to drive because she would get a lesser charge if they got caught. she agreed and they switched on 295 in hopes of driving back to the scene, she says, to help, but they were p

at pratt and light -- 5:00 a.m. at pratt and light streets. the u.s. justice department launched its own investigation and a jury will also be convened to review evidence in the case. back to you. >> a report by the wall street journal says states have the so assaulted stand your ground law. george claims he killed martin due to self defense. justifiable homicides doubled from 2000-2010. >>> 9-year-old girl is facing severe injuries to her foot while her father trying to repair the emotions of running over his daughter with a lawn mower. neighbors said the 9-year-old girl and brother were outside playing and the father was on the law mower. the fire department says the girl's foot was nearly severed. she was taken to johns hopkins in serious condition. >>> a vigil will be held for a student killed in a hit and run. happened saturday on york road near washington avenue. ryan bailey had been studying accounting at towson university. >>> baltimore city officers on paid leave after he shot and killed a suspect. officers had been there on a disturbance call

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: jacob frenkel is a former enforcement attorney with the securities and exchange commission. he now pratices with the law firm shulman rogers. >> tom: how serious should shareholders take the bribery accusations? >> if shareholders are worry body whether or not it's fundamentally going to affect wal-mart business. really not at all. i really don't believe it's going to impact individual decisions whether to shop at a wal-mart on the other hand, in terms of reputational effect and corporate governance, it's significant. it happened a number of years ago, and there's in no way an explanation, but i think the government has come down hard on wal-mart, and right now it's doing exactly what it needs to do, and it does not happen again. >> let me ask you here. several big multinational companies have been accused of violating this law in the past, semens, for instance, paid a billion and a half dollar fine. you c halliburton, and lucent fined under this act. how serious are these allegations? >> i would expect the stul consequences, the

still, as suzanne pratt reports, investors need not lose sleep over the earnings miss. >> reporter: a quick look at gas prices behind me and you're probably wondering how exxon mobil could possibly disappoint investors with its latest profit report. to be clear, the world's largest oil company still earned billions of dollars in the first quarter. and exxon's c.e.o. said today, "the results reflect our ongoing focus on developing and delivering energy needed to support job creation and economic growth." analyst faisel khan said several factors, including chemicals output and higher taxes, caused the earnings shortfall, but nothing was significant. >> this is such a large diversified company that there's a lot of things that can affect earnings in any given quarter. what we've found in covering the stock over the last four years or so is that, over time, those earnings tend to smooth out and issues tend to right themselves over time. >> reporter: as for exxon's stock, it slipped today on the earnings news, and in the last year, despite volatility, it's returned little for shareholders.

suzanne pratt has a closer look at what's behind the brightening profit picture. >> reporter: what do tech innovator apple, aluminum giant alcoa and internet whiz amazon have in common? no, it's not the "a"-thing. it's the "e"-thing. "e" as in earnings, and we're talking better than expected earnings in the first quarter. sure, the bar was set very low this quarter for corporate america. but, profit growth is no longer in danger of slowing dramatically. in fact with more than half of s&p 500 names reporting, profit growth is up on average 7.2%. that's more than double what analysts we're expecting on april 1. on top of that 73% of big u.s. firms surprised wall street with better than expected results. in a typical quarter 62% usually top estimates. so what's going on? it's all about stronger demand. >> this season what we're seeing is that demand is truly driving bottom line growth. whereas in the past, companies had to cut costs in order to increase the bottom line. so, even though the growth is significantly weaker than what we've seen over the last four quarters, it's truly this ti

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: the stock market got off to a super start in the first three months of this year. that's as investors were cheered by a stronger u.s. economy and solid corporate profits. but, with a new earnings season just a couple weeks off, the profit picture is looking pretty dismal. standard and poor's predicts first quarter earnings growth of less than 1% for s&p 500 names. thomson reuters is slightly more optmistic with a ho-hum forecast of 3.2%. but, it's not like corporate america is keeping the bad news a secret from wall street. so far 120 firms have pre- announced q1 earnings and what's most disturbing is that negative pre-announcements outweigh positive one by a ratio of nearly three to one. that's more than average. the profit picture is suffering from tough comparisons and an inability of companies to do more cost-cutting. after all, most got pretty lean post financial crisis. but, earnings expert jharrone martis points to three other reasons for declining profits. >> the first one: slower economic growth in emerging markets, less favorable exchange ra

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: coca-cola shares hit a 13-year high today, closing at almost $75 a share as the soft drink giant announced plans for a two-for-one stock split. if approved, it would be coke's 11th split since becoming a publicly traded company. so, accounting for stock splits and reinvested dividends, one coca-cola share bought in 1919 for $40 would have earned $9.8 million by now. it looks like the recent discovery of a cow infected with mad cow disease was pure luck. the u.s. department of agriculture tests about 40,000 cattle per year, but that's only a tiny percentage of the 34 million cows slaughtered every year. this was the first case reported in the u.s. since 2006. so far, it looks like the disease was caused by a genetic mutation and not transferable from cow to cow. >> tom: we saw the apple effect today, maybe even more than the federal reserve effect. while the fed continues to hold interest rates down, it was the technology sector, led by apple, that pushed the broad market higher. the s&p 500 had a nice jump from the opening be

but as suzanne pratt reports, there are still signs of life in the market. >> reporter: the drop in home sales is a depressing reminder america's housing market is still in the cellar. after all, home sales are well below the six million annual rate that experts say comes with a healthy market. the good news is that activity in the past three months made for the best winter stretch in five years. >> by and large, i would say that the marginal improvement in housing is alive and moving forward. it's going to depend on how strong this recovery turns out to be. >> reporter: much of the reason sales slipped in march was a lack of supply. that's, in part, because foreclosures are starting to decline in some areas of the u.s., and that's a hopeful development. while much of the nation's housing market is struggling, new york city is rebounding strongly. still, realtors here say this spring would be even stronger if there were simply more inventory for would-be buyers. halstead broker brian lewis says new york's short supply of housing is due to a lack of new construction. >> there's a dirth of

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: while the bears and bulls battle in the stock market, investors continue pouring money into commodity exchange traded products like gold and oil. after stagnating last year, commodity e.t.f.s grew to more than $189 billion in the first quarter. will rhind is the managing director of e.t.f. securities, a provider of exchange traded funds focused on commodities. so, will, why commodity etf's attracting money when the stock market had such a strong rally in the first quarter? >> well, what we've seen through the first quarter is really a change in sentiment. last quarter of 2011 was all about bearish news, problems in europe, low global growth, and what we've seen this year is primarily driven by the u.s. numbers. a change sentiment, things starting to look a little better, that is positive news for commodities and typically commodities are one of the first things that lead an economy out of a recession, and we've seen that reflection in the numbers. >> tom: demand for that raw material by growing economies. gold prices have been in

suzanne pratt takes a look at what's selling in the big apple. >> reporter: spring came early to new york city this year, and so did the prime selling season for real estate. warm temperatus got people lookg earlier than usualand broker ann lenane says homebuyers are more confident about the economy. >> it is hot. the crazy thing about it is just that there's no inventory. so, as brokers in january, we usually have a ton of inventory that will come in and start progressively getting more and more. but january came, february came, and there was just nothing. there's been a pent-up demand. >> reporter: here's the curious thing-- manhattan's market is becoming bifurcated. sales of studio apartments picked up in the first quarter, and luxury is very strong. in new york, "luxury" means homes that go for $5 million, or a lot more. take, for instance, this stunning townhouse, a lenane listing. it can be yours for a cool 12 million bucks. it's got tranquil living space, a killer master bathroom, and quite the gourmet kitchen. >> this is caesar stone. we've got italian custom cabinets, two di