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 commodies. 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 aittle 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 intere

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

. >> reporter: i'm suzanne pratt in new york city. spring came early to the big apple this year and so did the prime selling season for real estate. >> it is hot. the crazy thing about it is just that there's no inventory. >> reporter: manhattan's market is becoming bifurcated. sales of studio apartments picked up in the first quarter and luxury is very strong. 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. so, who's buying these high- priced digs? experts say in large part: foreigners. but housing expert jonathan miller says the more terrestrial end of the market has yet to fully recover. >> the balance of the market i almost describe as dull, or mundane. >> reporter: manhattan prices are still well below where they were before the 2007 peak. but, the market here is rebuilding and it's one of the strongest in the country. suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> susie: i as

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: at this manhattan apple store, it was business as usual today. that means busy, busy, and no sign of the recent sour feelings that investors had for apple stock. those investors are clearly fickle, as the shares today regained more than half of the shine they gave up in the last week. today's buying came after a number of analysts issued bullish notes on the maker of iphones and ipads. and many wall street firms still have price targets for apple at or above the $700 mark. analyst colin gillis, however, is cautious on the shares, which he rates a "hold." >> this is the stock that's been the number one stock held in hedge funds right now, and that's going to create some volatility. these hedge funds tend to come in fast and sell even faster. so if there's any hiccup in the numbers, look for some selling pressure and for the stock to retrace. >> reporter: and the stock has ample ground to retrace-- the shares have surged 80% in the last year, and its market capitalization makes it the world's most valuable company. still, even apple lovers concede