we ask technology analyst scott kessler. >> tom: and the comeback in housing could be a boon for truck sales. how u.s. automakers are getting ready for a pickup in pickup sales. >> susie: that and more tonight on "n.b.r." on early economic numbers as well as from the corporate corner. we'll have more on facebook and its big announcement coming up in a moment. over all, stocks were lower with investors reacting to some weakness we saw in u.s. manufacturing. buyers, though, were able to step in, with the blue chips mong hher. it wasisappointment over the facebook announcement that led to more selling in textbook shares as apple's stock continued for the second day in a row. the dow industrials closing up 27 points, and the nasdaq lost six, with the s&p 500 rising almost two points. >> as tom mentioned, we got an early read on how american factors are doing. and it is not good. manufacturing contracted for the sixth straight month. and the federal reserve tallied the numbers and said the index for december was preured by a dropi in new orders and shipment. and the conditions index fell to

we ask technology analyst scott kessler. >> tom: and the comeback in housing could be a boon for truck sales. how u.s. automakers are getting ready for a pickup in pickup sales. >> susie: that and more tonight on "n.b.r." on early economic numbers as well as from the corporate corner. we'll have more on facebook and its big announcement coming up in a moment. over all, stocks were lower with investors reacting to some weakness we saw in u.s. manufacturing. buyers, though, were able to step in, with the blue chips moving higher. it was disappointment over the facebook announcement that led to more selling in textbook shares as apple's stock continued for the second day in a row. the dow industrials closing up 27 points, and the nasdaq lost six, with the s&p 500 rising almost two points. >> as tom mentioned, we got an early read on how american factors are doing. and it is not good. manufacturing contracted for the sixth straight month. and the federal reserve tallied the numbers and said the index for december was pressured by a drop i in new orders and shipment. and the conditions inde

. >> susie: joining us now with more on today's facebook announcement: scott kessler, head of technology research at s&p capital i.q. >> susie: so, scott, what is your take on all of this? facebook stock down 3%. you know, is this not a game changer for the company? >> well, susie, we don't look it as a game-changer, at least right now. facebook made it pretty clear that, look, we're in the early innings of their search initiative. and today, obviously, they announced graph search. just in a soft, kind of beta launch, in a very limited fashion in terms of geography and in terms of categories. over the longer term, this could have some material financial impact for facebook and its investors. >> susie: all right, so does it concern you that there is not a real hard-core product here, that it is a test, and there was no announcement of a mobile platform, given that so many facebook members use facebook on their cell phones? >> yeah, i think those are fair points. look, i think what most people probably took away from today's announcement is that it didn't live up to the expectations of a l

we ask technology analyst scott kessler. >> tom: and the comeback in housing could be a boon for truck sales. how u.s. automakers are getting ready for a pickup in pickup sales. >> susie: that and more tonight on "n.b.r." on early economic numbers as well as from the corporate corner. we'll have more on facebook and its big announcement coming up in a moment. over all, stocks were lower with investors reacting to some weakness we saw in u.s. manufacturing. buyers, though, were able to step in, with

we ask technology analyst scott kessler. >> tom: and the comeback in housing could be a boon for truck sales. how u.s. automakers are getting ready for a pickup in pickup sales. >> susie: that and more tonight on "n.b.r." on early economic numbers as well as from the corporate corner. we'll have more on facebook and its big announcement coming up in a moment. over all, stocks were lower with investors reacting to some weakness we saw in u.s. manufacturing. buyers, though, were able to step in, with

. >> scott kessler, thank you for joining us." is coming up next. >> have a wonderful thursday.