they certainly were confident coming out of today. >> brown: sara eisen, laurie levenson, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you >> lehrer: still to come on the newshour: syrian protestors turn out in force; fannie mae and the banking crisis; and the analysis of shields and gerson. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: wall street finished its best week in more than two years, after getting a lift from june economic data. manufacturing activity increased for the first time in four months, and general motors, ford and chrysler reported double- digit sales increases. the news sent the dow jones industrial average ahead by 168 points to close at 12,582. the nasdaq rose 42 points to close at 2,816. for the week, the dow gained 5%; the nasdaq rose 6%. minnesota's state government was closed for business today. the shutdown began at midnight, after democratic governor mark dayton and republican leaders failed to reach a budget deal. dayton wants to raise taxes on high earners to close a $5 billion deficit; republicans want more spending cu