ruben ramirez gets some answers. >> reporter: it's another typical school day at truman high school in the bronx. the cooking class is busy in the kitchen. ( singing ) the choir is rehearsing. the astronomy class is learning about stars. but it wasn't always like this. real estate developer charles bendit met truman high principal sana nasser a decade ago through a non-profit called pencil. it connects business people who want to volunteer with schools in their communities. >> i was a small businessman that was just getting started. i was just beginning to realize that someday i might be successful. i didn't have what to give in terms of big dollars, so what i did do was, i thought about how i could be most impactful. >> reporter: bendit serves as a mentor to principal nasser. together, they developed the idea of specialized "academies" within the high school. bendit's biggest contribution: sharing his decades of business experience. >> it all started with learning how to be the c.e.o. of a company and how am i going to make sure my company, my school, is a successful school and is a c

ruben ramirez reports. >> reporter: if there was any doubt how interconnected economies around the globe are, you need look no further than what's happening in the currency markets as governments try to spur growth. >> the difficulty of achieving that i think is why you are seeing the issue of currency wars coming up more and more. >> reporter: the g-7, which includes countries like the united states, the united kingdom and germany, issued a statement saying that it wants to jumpstart domestic growth without explicitly targeting a currency exchange rate. currency watchers interpret it a different way. >> a lot of it is just posturing. you've got all these central banks trying to devalue their currency as a way of trying to get growth reaccelerating. >> reporter: growth is key. one of the biggest culprits right now is japan. the country's new government is taking an aggressive policy to weaken the yen that makes exports of everything from tvs to cars less expensive for overseas buyers. japan isn't alone; the united states is also undertaking similar policies. but europe is a different sto

ruben ramirez reports on the reasons why there is renewed enthusiasm in the sector. >> reporter: for the first time in years, video game stocks are catching the eye of investors. >> reporter: two of the big three, electronic arts and take two interactive, have seen big stock rallies in the past six months. analysts say interest is likely to continue gaining momentum throughout the year, and the laggard of the trio, activision is back in the game. activision is the company behind the call of duty franchise, and, more recently, skylanders. >> the way we look at it is this something that is new to the category. is this something where we have some secret sauce. some competitive advantage. >> reporter: hirshberg likens actvision games to big budget studio films which can take years to produce and cost millions, with the hope of developing them into franchises. >> the mantra that you're seeing across all publishers is bigger fewer better. so its going to be high risk but there can potentially be very high rewards. >> reporter: the billion dollar franchises like madden n.f.l. and call of d

ruben ramirez reports. >> reporter: martha's in the middle, as two of the nation's best-known departmentstores fight in new york state supreme court over just who can carry the domestic diva's home products. >> two different companies are looking at an agreement and interpreting it two different ways. macys is interpreting it very broadly and pennys is interpreting it very narrowly. >> reporter: there's no denying the appeal of carrying martha stewart's brand. macy's says it has billions of dollars on the line. >> for macys, having a differentiated exclusive brand is critical to their competitive strategy and they've invested a lot of time and effort in building up the martha stewart brand giving her a lot of exposure in their stores and its a linchpin of their home strategy. for, j.c.p., martha is a key part of its "store within a store" turnaround plan. >> she can appeal to the kind of customer that penneys has and the kind of customer that they want to get which i think is a little more upscale than what they have right now so its a dual win for penneys in that regard. >> reporter: pe

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: mcdonald's is off to a slow start for 2013. it said january sales slipped almost 2%, blaming slow business in europe and japan. sales dropped more than 2% in europe, while they tumbled almost 10% in the asia-pacific region. but the results were better here in the u.s. with a surprise jump of about 1%, thanks to mcdonald's popular dollar menu. as for mcdonald's shares, up slightly to about $95 a share. >> susie: just two days after the u.s. post office said it will stop saturday deliveries so it can save money. we get more details on how bad things are. the u.s. postal service today reported a loss of more than $1 billion for its first fiscal quarter. that's the october to december period and tom, it's usually the strongest time of year for the post office thanks to holiday cards and packages, but there was as sharp drop in mail volume and this just makes a case for congress to help fix the finances of the post office. >> tom: it looks like it could be a difficult saturday tomorrow on the east coast for all those mail cariers wi

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: tomorrow on "n.b.r." health care reform is one of the biggest issues facing u.s. lawmakers, tomorrow we'll talk with two people who have been on the front lines of rising health care costs, donna shalala, former health and human services secretary, and former senator tom daschle. also tomorrow, a look at super bowl ads, ahead of the big game this weekend. ever wonder what goes into making the perfect super bowl ad? our partners at harvard business school. say when it comes to making an effective commercial, there's such thing as being "too entertaining." to find out why, visit, nbr.com and look for the "nbr-u" tab. >> tom: the door business could be a window into the job market. as the economy has swung from recession to slow growth, specialty companies attached to the real estate market have seen business opportunities open again. dash door and closer service is one of those. the company has been around for 58 years working on automatic doors. it's clients are commercial builders and building managers. f

ruben ramirez reports. >> reporter: across the country, drivers are feeling the spike in gas prices. >> gas prices went up 11 cents in one day. >> it jumps almost every two days, it seems like. >> reporter: according to www.gasbuddy.com, a gallon of regular gas is up 45 cents over the past month to $3.71 a gallon. experts point to a trio of reasons: refineries are not producing at full capacity as they dump the winter fuel from their tanks and refill them with summer blend gasoline; some refineries are closed for maintenance, which is typical this time of year; and, as we began the year, supplies of gasoline were lower. >> there was a lot of concern going on with fiscal cliff and the sequestration and everything like that, so it really kind of put a lot of people on the sidelines, including the oil refiners. so, everybody was kind of in a wait-and-see mode, and now we got through all that pretty unscathed, and now we're getting into some increased demand. >> reporter: but the big fear with rising gas prices: money in people's pocketbooks will go to filling the tank and not their shop

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> tom: the more than 4,000 people from carnival's "triumph" cruise ship are back on land after going without power or plumbing for days in the gulf of mexico. an engine-room fire on sunday knocked out power, leading to over-flowing toilets, no air conditioning and deteriorating living conditions while the ship was towed to mobile, alabama. allison worrell reports on how the ill-fated cruise could impact carnival's future. >> i know it was very difficult and i want to apologize again for subjecting our guests to that. >> reporter: the five days that passengers spent adrift in the gulf of mexico are described as difficult, but the world's largest cruise line is getting positive feedback for how its crew handled the situation. >> i mean it sucked, i never want go through that again, but i mean everyone one the cruise was so nice, like all the workers and stuff it made it a lot better. >> we just endured horrible experiences but the crew did everything they could possibly do or even imagined doing with smiles on their faces. >> reporter: there is a finan

but as ruben ramirez reports no matter what comes out of this weekend's meetings, it looks like gold prices will trend higher this year. >> reporter: gold prices may be taking a breather this week but don't expect that to last for long. >> the environment hasn't changed for gold. i think what were looking for at the moment is a specific catalyst that drives gold to the next level. >> reporter: rhind is keeping an eye on loose monetary policy around the globe, he's thinks those policies could cause currencies to weaken, making gold an attractive alternative. he's also watching gold supplies, which are currently tight. s&p capital i.q. thinks the precious metal could rise 15% this year, ending 2013 just below $2,000 an ounce. >> price forecasts like that could benefit gold miners, toronto-based alamos gold went public today, on the new york stock exchange. c.e.o. john mcclusky says demand, drove today's listing on the big board. >> it's an indication that we've grown to a stage where we could justify listing our symbol down here and actually command some investor attention. >> reporter

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: tomorrow on "n.b.r." health care reform is one of the biggest issues facing u.s. lawmakers, tomorrow we'll talk with two people who have been on the front lines of rising health care costs, donna shalala former health and human services secretary, and former senator tom daschle. also tomorrow, a look at super bowl ads, ahead of the big game this weekend. ever wonder what goes into making the perfect super bowl ad? our partners at harvard business school. say when it comes to making an effective commercial, there's such thing as being "too entertaining." to find out why, visit, nbr.com and look for the "nbr-u" tab. >> tom: the door business could be a window into the job market. as the economy has swung from recession to slow growth specialty companies attached to the real estate market have seen business opportunities open again. dash door and closer service is one of those. the company has been around for 58 years working on automatic doors. it's clients are commercial builders and building managers. for

ruben ramirez has a preview of the case and the possibility of a last minute deal. >> reporter: nearly three years after a rig explosion killed 11 people and spilled four million barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico the u.s. government and b.p. are set to square off in a louisiana courtroom. b.p. has a history of settling civil cases before or during trial, so an eleventh hour deal could still be reached. the justice department and gulf states are considering offering b.p. a $16 billion deal, that's nearly three times what b.p. had hoped to pay. for it's part, b.p. says: >> we have always been open to settlements on reasonable terms, faced with demands that are excessive and not based on reality or the merits of the case, we are going to trial. >> reporter: if there is no settlement over the weekend, well owner b.p. will be joined by rig owner transocean and halliburton, the cement services provider on the well. on the other side will be the justice department, several gulf coast states and other plaintiffs. the first phase of the trial will be focused on determining the causes of th

but as ruben ramirez reports while lowe's and its competitor, home depot expect a bump in sales on the back of new home construction, their success is still dependent on everyday consumers opening their pocketbooks. >> reporter: home improvement retailers continue seeing the trickle down effect of a recovering housing market and a boost in renovations on the back of a better economy. about a quarter of sales at lowe's and home depot come from home construction and renovation. during the housing downturn, lowe's tightened its toolbelt, closing stores, cutting costs and investing in its online business. it's a plan that is starting to pay off. >> it really will take a couple of years yet before the combination of improved merchandising, better supply chain execution and really overhauling a lot of the stores operations before we see some meaningful operating margin expansion. >> reporter: wahlstrom says lowe's 4% growth target for 2013 is aggressive but achievable. the company saw some strength in sales from superstorm sandy, home depot, which reports results tuesday, likely will also se

ruben ramirez, nbr, new york. >> tom: jim senigal is the director of financial services at morningstar and joins us from a snowy blizzard chicago. is banking overemployed? >> i think to some extent it is. you know, i think it has been a really tough environment for the last few years. hard to make money with low rates and high credit losses. and banks are still dealing with the consequences of the financial crisis. >> tom: here we are, so many years after the crisis, and j.p. morgan announcing the coming layoffs, is it late to the party? >> i think it is a little late to the party. you saw major restructurings, and wells fargo has the campus correction program, and j.p. had no announced a lot of job cuts. i think there is good news and bad news in some some of the job cuts are coming in the default servicing area. so the loans are getting better. but there is obviously some bad news in there. >> tom: speaking of that here, what does it tell you about the banking business in the year ahead, in the years ahead, if they're cutting back on payroll now? >> i think it tells us that the envir

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: david garrity joins us now with more on dell. he heads up his own technology research firm, g.v.a. research. >> susie: so, david, the big question of the day, today was what can michael dell do with his dell computer company as a private company he couldn't do as a public company? what's different, really? >> out of the public eye, dell can go through some fairly wrenching shifts in terms of the mix of business the company has, and be able to do so without necessarily having to essentially hold the hand of public sector equity investors. from that standpoint, we can look at a fairly strong deemphasis of the customer p.c. business. the company will most likely stay with the enterprise. but what the company does in terms of trying to pursue or stay relevant to this shift over to tablet p.c.s and smartphones remains a very open question. >> susie: these are uncertain times for any p.c.-maker. it is isn't a dell-only problem. you wonder can michael dell really fix things up at dell? >> certainly he has done well enough in the past. b

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: david garrity joins us now with more on dell. he heads up his own technology research firm, g.v.a. research. >> susie: so, david, the big question of the day, today was what can michael dell do with his dell computer company as a private company he couldn't do as a public company? what's different, really? >> out of the public eye, dell can go through some fairly wrenching shifts in terms of the mix of business the company has, and be able to do so without necessarily having to essentially hold the hand of public sector equity investors. from that standpoint, we can look at a fairly strong deemphasis of the customer p.c. business. the company will most likely stay with the enterprise. but what the company does in terms of trying to pursue or stay relevant to this shift over to tablet p.c.s and smartphones remains a very open question. >> susie: these are uncertain times for any p.c.-maker. it is isn't a dell-only problem. you wonder can michael dell really fix things up at dell? >> certainly he has done well enough in the past. b

ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> tom: tomorrow on "n.b.r." the countdown is on to friday's sequester deadline, we'll see if lawmakers can cut a last minute deal to avoid billions of dollars in federal spending cuts. and we'll see the latest gauge of the u.s. economy, with the latest g.d.p. numbers. oil prices settled slightly higher today in new york, rising $0.13 cents to nearly $93 a barrel. but as tonight's commentator points out, just a few short years ago, everyone thought tight supplies would push oil prices through the roof. here's todd buchholz, author of "rush: why you need and love the rat race." >> what ever happened to "peak oil?" just a few years ago experts assured us the earth was hollow, and we'd be running out of oil and natural gas. now the price of natural gas has collapsed by 75% thanks to the fracking revolution. and this revolution is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in hard-hit, hard-hat states like ohio and pennsylvania. was this magic? no, it was the work of men, women, and markets. as the price of oil rose,