for that we turn to business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis. rebecca? >> reporter: hey, jeff. there were great hopes for 2011 but what many got instead was whiplash and a letdown. the s&p 500, the broadest measure of major u.s. stocks, ended 2011 down just .04%. it's the smallest market move since 1947. despite a year of extraordinary volatility. why all the volatility this year? >> in a word, uncertainty. >> reporter: alan valdes is a veteran floor trader at the new york stock exchange. >> we had a budget problem. we had supercommittee that just failed. >> reporter: the dow jones industrial average closed up or down triple digits more than 100 times, fraying the nerves of small investors who have nearly $2 trillion of their 401(k) savings tied up in stocks. >> it's really scary right now because i don't know if it's going up or going down. >> reporter: nancy stanek is a 63-year-old nurse in leonia, new jersey, who's investing for her retirement. >> i can put the money in the bank and i'd get maybe .75% interest, but at least it would be safe. >> report

for retailers and economists, this day is all about taking stock as rebecca jarvis will report in our cover story. >> reporter: did you get everything you wanted for christmas? >> the christmas season has become the retail super bowl. >> reporter: the big story this year was not so much what we bought but how we bought it. >> you're going to be walking into a store with your phone. you see a good. you scan it with your phone, check the price. if you like it, boom, you'll pay for it with your phone. >> reporter: santa, in the digital age ahead from sunday morning. >> reporter: this is seth doane. in the season for shopping, the shopping bag plays a supporting role. where do you find all of these bags? >> we found a lot of them on e- bay. these we bought through our dealers. >> reporter: art dealers sell shopping bags? >> well, they sell it as art. >> reporter: unwrapping the story of this practical and pretty invention. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: albert brooks is known far and wide as a very funny actor and director. so what's behind his latest movie role as a very menacing ba

business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis is here with more on this. rebecca, good evening, what went wrong at sears and kmart. >> and this is more of a sears and kmart story than an overall economy story. because it's been a difficult time for all retailers but it's been particularly difficult for sears to garner the kind of demand to keep its doors open at all of its stores. and you're going to see these closures that analysts estimate could impact as many as 10,000 workers. there's a bigger ripple affect on the overall economy because you look at these sears stores, in many malls they're the anchor store. pull that out and there's a ripple effect on the local economy and the local community as well. >> glor: so right now who are the winners? >> target, wal-mart and amazon.com are clear winners here. people are spending what they have, the little that they have in these retailers as well. but online is a big winner here. 16.4% is the number sales rose online on christmas day. that's a huge number. 7% of those purchases were made with ipads. huge trend

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> i'm russ mitchell. rebecca jarvis is up, up, up today! >> up, up, baby. >> what is in that coffee cup? >> it's the holidays, i think. >>> a deal has been reached in washington to extend jobless benefits and social security payroll tax cut but only for two months. nancy cordes will fill us in a bit. >>> we will talk to actress claire danes on the thriller "homeland." and named for a global award nominee for her role in the show. >>> who doesn't remember the music "rent"? the first musical i ever saw. it won practically every single award including a pulitzer prize. before it closed three years ago, obviously, that was a hard time for some people, but guess what? it is now back and better than ever. this morning, the cast will perform two of the songs that made "rent" an instant classic. >> it's a cast of thousands too. >> it is really great! >>> first, to the latest on the tentative deal in the senate that could extend a payroll tax cut and help struggling americans continue to receive unemployment benefits. cbs news congressional correspo

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff glor. lot of schools going in this direction going more high tech, high tech on the rise these days around the globe. so many of them are replacing textbooks with laptops and tablets. is going in the opposite direction. there are no computers in the classroom. students use pen and paper, teachers write on chalkboards, and the school is located in the most unlikely place that you could imagine. so coming up, we will see why this retroapproach seems to be working. >> good for them. very interesting. >>> and also coming up, singer michael buble. ♪ >> we will get to know the man behind that smooth voice as he reimagines old classics as we show you some extra material from "60 minutes" overtime that you didn't see last night. >>> first, another musical act. we take a look back at the late amy winehouse. a remarkable singer who died way too young. she was just 27 at the time of her fatal overdose in july and in this 2006 interview, never seen in the united states, a younger and healthier winehous

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. speaking of the fact that it's christmas eve morning, there are a lot of people celebrating the holidays and trying to make of more meaningful ways. what can i do and embrace the spirit of all of this. we come up in the program ways people can give back and volunteer and embrace the meaning of all of this. >> mo rocca is going to be here with tips from the holiday classic movies. it should be fun. >> it should be a lot of fun to see. >>> we begin with the kickoff of the holiday travel season as people prepare for their christmas celebrations. will the weather cooperate? that's, obviously, a question every year we are asking ourselves here in new york. will any parts of the country enjoy a white christmas? for some answers, we head over to john elliott from wcbs in new york who is filling in no lonnie quinn and great to have you with us. >> merry christmas eve to you and to you at home. a busy time of the year and travel day. chicago, minneapolis, detroit and new york all above freezin

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. yil erica hill and chris wragge are off this morning. >> i hope you had a nice holiday. >> i did. i guess we can sing happy new year? >> almost there. we will spend some time this morning looking at the biggest news stories of the year. >> a huge year continuing with the arab spring and japanese earthquake and tsunamiy and osama bin laden killed by u.s. forces this year. >> we begin with terrell brown with a check of today's headlines. >>> it's megamonday. retailers expect the day after christmas to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. it will also be the bifting day for returns and exchanges. correspondent michelle miller has more on the holiday season shopping. >> reporter: this year's christmas was a little brighter for the nation's retailers, as holiday sales were up 3.8% over a year earlier. that is according to the national retail federation. but it wasn't all good news. as analysts say sales were driven by heavy discounting. >> i feel like a lot of the stores are cu

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff glor.uiz for you, j.j. >> oh? >> which one was america's first ally? >> reporter: you have a head start on me. france during the war of independence that was obviously, a long time ago. >> it was, indeed. the latest case now of french flayizing going on here in the u.s. because mitt romney speaks french. some democrats are drawing attention to that and trying to stir up some voters. we will hear more about that with a very cool piece from chip reid here in a few minutes. >> mercy. >> you speak french? >> the government has a plan to change the way you drive. on tuesday, the national transportation safety board called on all states to make texting, e-mailing, or talking on a cell phone illegal while driving. >> right now, 35 states and the district of columbia have banned texting while driving and nine states bar hand-held cell phones by drivers and 30 states ban all cell phone use for beginning drivers. noin is the ntsb chairman, mark rosenker. he doesn't speak french, as far as we know. bo

i'm chris wragge alongside rebecca jarvis. erica hill has the morning off.as gifts. >> she got so many, right? >>> forget about the spa. many women are finding a great way to relax is to fire off a few rounds at the shooting range. >> exactly. in the last decade the number of women who enjoy target shooting has nearly doubled. they're picking up weapons for many different reasons. we'll talk with some of these women who say, and i'm quoting here, you could be a girlie girl and still shoot a gun. >> that's right. love it when you bring your fair arm to work and we're doing a piece on it. >> that's not true. >> a serious question, with obesity rates rising and debt skyrocketing, should americans be subsidizing junk food? >> come consumer advocates say we're spending millions promoting the wrong ingredients. even some farmest say it's time for a policy change. >>> we plant what we eat and we eat what we plant. >> these are grape tomatoes. >> reporter: farming is a family affair. it's also a business that literally puts food on their table. >> we grow tomato, we

i'm rebecca jarvis. erica hill is off this morning. >>> lots to get to. let's begin this morning with the worst violence baghdad has seen in months coming just a few days after the last u.s. combat troops left iraq. >> more than a dozen bombs went off this morning killing at least 57 people and officials believe it was a coordinated series of attacks as charlie d'agata reports from london. >> reporter: the first explosion after dawn and then came another and another. iraqi officials counted at least 14 blasts across baghdad throughout the morning rush hour. the targets were indiscriminate. roadside bombs and car bombs struck everything from neighborhood markets to police stations. a suicide bomber and an ambulance killed 18 people in one attack alone. militants unleashed a coordinated string of bombings days after the last of the u.s. troops pulled out. they also come at a time of bitter political fighting between iraq's sunni and shiite factions. prime minister nuri al maliki ordered the arrest for running death squads. this is a criminal case, he says.

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. in just four days, iowa republicans will be the first to vote in the 2012 presidential campaign. >> still a tight race in the iowa caucuses and that means a busy weekend coming up for the candidates and those covering them. chief political correspondent jan crawford is in west des moines, iowa, this morning. jan, good morning. >> good morning, guys. that's right, as these candidates make their final push across iowa, one thing that is striking, mitt romney is on the rise and that alone makes this campaign very different than the one four years ago. mitt romney's machine is powering through iowa, handing out yard signs and shaking hands andasking for votes. >> going to be caucusing this year. >> right up here. >> reporter: last night in ames, romney's bus roll under to another packed event and he continued to fire up crowds. >> i watched the president. he says, well, it could have been worse. that goes down there with, let them eat cake. >> reporter: he is going for a knockout blow in

. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. we begin in afghanistan where a suicide bombing that killed dozens of people this morning is being called unprecedented because it targeted shiite muslims as they celebrated a major religious holiday. >> this comes a day after dozens of world leaders including hillary clinton promised to support afghanistan's government for years to come. mandy clark is in kabul, afghanistan, for the latest for us this morning. >> coordinated attacks in three different cities today. insurgents targeted the minority shia population on the holiest day on their calendar where they performed religious rituals. afghan police say he walked into a large crowd and then detonated his explosive vest. this picture, taken shortly after the blast shows a blood-stained little girl surrounded by dead and injured children. this devastated mother cries. i only had one son. sectarian attacks are rare in afghanistan, past violence tends to be along tribal or ethnic fault lines, rather than between the different branches

i'm rebecca jarvis with jim axelrod. coming up a few good christmas stories.an the most to them. >>> also ahead we'll visit with model turned activist lauren bush lauren. she's president george bush's granddaughter, president george w. bush's niece and her father-in-law is ralph lauren. at the young age of 27 she's made quite a name for herself fighting world hunger. she'll explain how it helps students around the world and also tell us what it's like to be connected to a political dynasty an a fashion dynasty. >> first we want to look at some traveling myths. travelers are told over and over again if you leave your electronic devices on, maybe it could cause the plane to crash or it could interfere with some system on the plane and the right credit card will cover an accident with a rental car. >> this morning it's time to separate fact from fiction. travel editor peter greenberg is just the guy to do it. good morning. please tell me the guy in the next seat who's on his blackberry is not going to bring the plane down. >> well, the guy in the next seat is you

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff xwlor. wife, hey, hon, i would like something for christmas, does she ever say it's hard to shop for you, jeff? >> yeah, she can, i think. >> it can be very difficult to find the right gift for a guy. we have some great gift ideas for you this morning, everything from fashion to sports, of course, food, everybody loves food. and by the way, there are multiple kinds of bacon. >> what was that? >> there are lots of different types of bacon and maybe one of them is right for your guy. >> bacon freak. >> yeah. especially iffite he's a bacon freak. i don't know what that is, but anyway -- >> what's even more special is all the gifts cost less than 100 bucks. >> that's good. coming up. >>> one of the most famous shoe designer el in the world is celebrating 100 years in the business. stuart weitzman is one of the most famous designers in the world. >> they're comfortable. >> so you like these shoes, b essentially? >> i'm a fan. >> he sells more than 2 million pairs of shoes a year. but he says he m

. >> and i am rebecca jarvis. chris and rebecca are off this morning. hope you had a nice holiday, jeff. >> i hope you did as well. i guess now we can say happy new year. >> almost. we are almost there. and by the way, we're going to spend some time this morning looking at some of the biggest news stories of the year. >> it was a news year, from the beginning of the continuing arab spring. the japanese earthquake and tsunami. to the end of two of the world's most dangerous men, anwar al awlaki and osama bin laden killed by u.s. forces this year. >>> and we begin with terrell brown with a check of the day's headlines. >> good morning to you both. it's mega-monday. retailers expect the day after christmas to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. it will also be the biggest day for returns and exchanges michelle miller has more on the holiday season shopping. >> reporter: this year's christmas was a little brighter for the nation's retailers as holiday sales were up 3.8% over a year earlier. that's according to the national retail federation. bu

. >> rebecca jarvis is off this morning. >> let's get right to it. retailers counting the sales from the day after christmas. a hugely important day for them and so far appears to be one of the most profitable days of the holiday season. >> this latest bump in sales is giving businesses more hope for 2012. shoppers filled the stores on monday. i was one of them, it was insane. actually, somebody described it as a war zone. that was a bit of an overstatement. anyway, people exchanged gifts and spent money they didn't have until christmas and michelle miller has more. >> reporter: cathy brown's 8-year-old triplets can't wait to spend the holiday gift cards left under the tree. their mom was much more generous this year because this year she has a job. >> you spent how much more? >> oh, i would say maybe $1,000 more. yes. >> reporter: so a good christmas for the triplets? >> oh, yes. >> reporter: the day after was pretty good, too. look at the foot traffic at the short hills mall in millburn, new jersey. >> i think it's the returns and the, you know, th

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> i'm jim axelrod. erica hill and chris wragge are off this morning. >>> we begin with the news that the end of d.c. deadline is over. the payroll tax cut in time for christmas. on thursday, house republicans bowed to pressure from all sides agreeing to extend the tax cut for two more months. >> it would have been implemented next month for 160 million workers. sharyl attkisson is on capitol hill for us this morning with details. good morning. i guess the day in washington today will be caved. what is going on? >> reporter: the uncomfortable stalemate appears to be over to 160 million workers no longer have to worry that their payroll taxes will be going up on new year's. the house and senate could pass the two-month extension as early as today without a formal member by member vote, as long as nobody objects. that would end the public relations nightmare for republicans that if he would suffer for failing to get together on this, tension sooner. john boehner admitted as much last night. >> may not have

save where you can. >> rebecca jarvis, thanks. great tips. we will be right back.ly show" on cbs. jamie lee curtis?? oh, hi, yes...wow, you really went all out on the decorations, huh?! yeah, but i'm so slow taking them down after all the fatty holiday food. but that's normal. what do you mean that's normal? it doesn't have to be. to me, normal, means feeling good inside. not slow. try some activia. activia helps with occasional irregularity, when eaten 3 times a day. keep a video diary and let me know about your new normal. love your new normal or it's free. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, [ growling ] captain, one step at a time.keep going! come on, snowy. look! did

i'm rebecca jarvis. >> nice clouds out there. >> yeah.>> and i'm russ mitchel resist as a parent we often worry about whether we are spending enough time with our kids or giving them everything they need. one father is asking parents to take the shortcomings and write them down and turn them into resolutions or promises to kids. coming up a mom and dad will read those resolutions to their kids. >>> if you're in the mood for a wonderful meal tonight and who really isn't? the incredible jacques panpan gets saucy about dishing about n his favorite new year's eve dish and he brought a little cockt l cocktail. >>> up to a million people expected to gather in times square here in new york city. and to welcome in the new year, let's go back to the crossroads of the world and correspondent seth doane. good morning to you, seth. how tight is security expected to be there in times square? >> reporter: good morning, rebecca. you can see people are starting to come in here and security is already tight even though we certainly haven't seen the crowds

i'm rebecca jarvis with jeff glor. one of the last days of 2011.ive from here in new york city. >>> coming up, something that is close to a lot of our hearts here at "the early show." a high tech solution to a common problem with alzheimer's patients. someone got the idea to put gps in shoes to help keep track of people with dementia who have a tendency to wander off and get in dangerous situations. >> it's a potential life saver for family and hear from one family saying it is saving their lives already. >>> first, debbye turner bell with headlines. >> >>> a major fire on a dry dock russian submarine for nearly a day was extinguished this morning. mark phillips has more. >> reporter: officials have said the fire which began yesterday arond the dry dock russian submarine has been brought under control. but not before injurying nine people and stranding several others inside. earlier, fears there might have been nuclear material, either fuel or warhead on board, and at risk were dismissed by the russians. the sub was in dry dock for repairs with its

good memory, erica. >> rebecca jarvis, thank you very much. >>> we'll turn now to bill plante at the white house because even with unemployment falling below 9% to 8.6%, the president is still looking for some solutions on how to get it even lower. bill, i mentioned the white house is pleased at that drop, but what other tools do they have at their disposal now? >> they are very pleased and you can expect the president to talk about that today. he scheduled a job announcement today when the job numbers come out. today he will announce another initiative for green jobs. $4 billion, 2 billion in the private sector and $2 billion in government buildings. these are upgrades and he's going to do it in partnership with bill clinton. anything he can do to appear to be creating jobs will help him down the line. >> and in talking about jobs, bill, the president, as you know, has been pushing this jobs plan for months now. what is the status of that? >> well, the congress hasn't been very cooperative, so, he's tried to do it piece meal but his biggest problem right now past things that expire

here to tell us what it means is business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis. rebecca, good morning. >> good morning. >> we've seen rallies before, this is the biggest one. we've seen these rallies before. is this one different? >> it's different because of the underlying reason behind it. we've talked a lot here about the european crisis. the fact that europe's problems are overflowing into our stock market. well, yesterday came the news that a number of central banks led by the federal reserve here in the united states are going to be lending to europe's central bank. now, what does that mean? europe central bank sends funds out to the banks of europe. the banks of europe are in crisis right now because european countries are in crisis right now. and we want those banks to function properly, that's what allows for a globalized economic system to function properly. that is why the fed is lending right now to the european central bank. >> when you spell it out like that, i would imagine that is not going to sit well with a lot of americans. we have seen a simil

for retailers and economists, this day is all about taking stock as rebecca jarvis will report in our cover story. >> reporter: did you get everything you wanted for christmas? >> the christmas season has become the retail super bowl. >> reporter: the big story this year was not so much what we bought but how we bought it. >> you're going to be walking into a store with your phone. you see a good. you scan it with your phone, check the price. if you like it, boom, you'll pay for it with your phone. >> reporter: santa, in the digital age ahead from sunday morning. >> reporter: this is seth doane. in the season for shopping, the shopping bag plays a supporting role. where do you find all of these bags? >> we found a lot of them on e- bay. these we bought through our dealers. >> reporter: art dealers sell shopping bags? >> well, they sell it as art. >> reporter: unwrapping the story of this practical and pretty invention. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: albert brooks is known far and wide as a very funny actor and director. so what's behind his latest movie role as a very menacing ba

i'm russ mitchell. >> i'm rebecca jarvis. the fact that it's december already, that is -- >> i know. >> it's crazy! >> as soon as it comes out, no, it's not really! yes, it is. >>> in a minute the homeless brother and sister profiled on "60 minutes" last sunday who captured our hearts will be joining us. >> you will meet them and the president of stetson university who helped changes their lives since that broadcast. >> a new study warns about doctors who own their own equipment and what you need to ask before you take any medical tests. >> we have the results of another test. it turns out that guys don't think about sex several thousand times a day. only about 19 times according to this survey, which begs the question what do men do now that they have all of this free time on their minds? >> gee, i wonder. >> i wonder. we will answer these great mysteries of the world in a bit. >>> the incredible outpouring of support for a homeless brother and sister in florida profiled last sunday by scott pelley and producer nicole young

we will ask rebecca jarvis if the rally can last. >> herman cain presidential contain rolls on for now. he will decide in the next few days if he will keep going after allegations of an alleged 13-year affair. >>> adele and bruno mars put snubs for taylor swift and beyonce beyonce. we will all that and more "early" this thursday morning, december 1st, 2011. captioning funded by cbs >>> boy, that's something to wake up to. >> stunning. >> it is. good thursday morning, everyone. i'm erica hill. >> not quite as good as rihanna's song. i'm jeff glor. chris wragge is off this morning. >>> we begin in iraq. one month from today, all u.s. combat troops will be gone after nearly nine years of war. this morning, at camp victory in baghdad the u.s. is handing over control and pausing to remember all of the troops who have died in the fighting. >> in 2003 as u.s. troops invaded iraq national correspondent jim axelrod was the first western reporter to get to baghdad airport. he is back in baghdad this morning with the latest. jim, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. what we are seeing h

all right, rebecca jarvis, thank you. oday the today the largest demonstrations that country has inn in months. huge crowds again calling for the resignation of bashar al assad. they also want to show arab league monitors how strong their movement. is ep mark phillips reports, that didn't stop the regime from th striking with deadly force. preeporter: the presence of arab league observers in syria in there in their high- ity velity vests in the video the protesters have been ehooting themselves, seems to have emboldened the movement in north.laces like the city of beib in the north. the crowds appear to be several hundred thousand strong. edt government troops continued prshadow the protesters and the tisualties continue to mount up. shots fired in this damascus fired hit the man taking these sectures. four days into their mission, ave arab league observers have found themselves in the middle argue argument, accused of sticking to a government trranged schedule. hedule.ee the corpse of a victim" they're being told here. "

i'm chris wragge along with rebecca jarvis.the high speed field of diop line dating isn't just for young people any more. older americans are checking on the dating websites, too, in record numbers. we're going to show you how the 55 and older age group is finding love in cyberspace. >> and we'll take you into the secret world of the military's elite special ops unit. there is a reason why they've earned the reputation for the toughest jobs. we're going to speak to the author of a special book that traces the history of special ops. >> it is fascinating stuff. >> we're going to begin this hour with the story of a government program which some say is worse than the fast and furious gun running scandal where thousands of agents allowed the drugs to go from the u.s. to mexican drug cartels. >> we're in washington with a look at another program, this one entirely legal sending more weapons across to the mexican border. good morning to you, cheryl. >> good morning. selling weapons to mexico is so controversial because so many of the

what here to explain this is cbs news business and economics correspondent rebecca jarvis. good morning. >> good morning. >> britain is one of the holdouts here. this is rattled markets as we know. markets in fits for week, now. any indication it's going to end now and things will calm down? >> the fact they say they have a deal is a really a misnomer here. their deal isn't without the european central bank and without britain playing a role in the overall decision. this has rattled our markets now for almost two years. in the last weeks a lot of hope and expectation the european central back would come to the rescue the way our federal reserve did and buy up the debts of the struggling european economies. the ecb's response our hands are tied and it's out of your our domain and jurisdiction and everyone is looking around at the summit saying individual european countries have to come to individual aid and agree to cutting spending in a lot of places. that's not looking very likely right now. >> in terms of -- that is really the crux of this issue here is that you have so m