. >> i'm sylvia hall in washington. still ahead, a new government report shows the private market for student loans operated a lot like the sub-prime mortgage market last decade. we break down that report. "nightly business report" is brought to you by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: stocks on wall street fell today, breaking a three-day rally. worries about europe's debt crisis dominated trading on word that spain's government said its economy will remain in recession next year. the downbeat forecast came on the same day that spain received approval for its first round of bailout money from european finance ministers. the dow tumbled 120 points, the nasdaq fell 40 and the s&p down 13. those economic problems in europe will weigh on the u.s. economy. that's the forecast from tonight's market guest: nick colas, chief market strategist at convergex group. nick, worries about europe have been on the back burner. are we back to worrying about europe again? >> i'm afraid we are. we got that news out of spain this mor

sylvia hall, nbr, washington. >> susie: autonation is celebrating one of its best quarters ever. the company says vehicle sales in the second quarter jumped nearly 30% over last year as consumers ditched their clunkers for shinier new models. the nation's largest auto retailer earned 66 cents a share. that's 17 cents better than a year ago and a nickel better than analyst estimates. diane eastabrook's on the auto beat f nbr. she joins us now. diane. >> susie, it looks like u.s. consumers are on track to buy 14 million vehicles this year. joining me to talk more about the auto industry is the ceo of auto nation, mike jackson. -- why don't they seem to be buying anything else. >> there's a difference in autos. there's a replacement need driving the business. they postponed purchases and could get the financing, and that pushed the average age of cars in america to an unprecedented le 11 years old. they either have to spend money in the existing vehicle or talk about buying a new vehicle. so when they come in, we have exciting new products for them. chocked full of innovation, and d

sylvia hall takes a look at the president's push, and how it could affect the nation's bottom line. >> reporter: with the chances of solving the nation's budget problems this year almost non- existent, the president pushed for a short-term way to ease them. while he wants to extend the bush-era tax cuts for one year, it only would be for families making less than $250,000 annually. >> let's not hold the vast majority of americans and our entire economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. >> reporter: the senate is scheduled to vote on the measure soon, but it's not expected to pass. however, the vote moves taxes to center stage in the election- year debate, and highlights the differences between democrats and republicans. republicans generally want the tax cuts extended for everyone next year, including the wealthy. >> it's true that the high-end tax cuts are not the most powerful tools for providing a very short-run, keynsian demand stimulus. but they are extremely important for the long-run perspective because they provide incentives for saving and

sylvia hall, "n.b.r.," washington. >> susie: the founder and c.e.o. of bankrupt brokerage firm p.f.g. best was arrested today and charged with making false statements to regulators about the value of customer funds. appearing in u.s. district court today, russell wasendorf senior was accused of misappropriating more than $200 million of customers' money. the 64-year-old commodities broker tried to commit suicide monday outside his company's offices in cedar rapids, iowa. authorities say wasendorf confessed to the crime in a suicide note, claiming he felt guilty about misusing client funds for at least 20 years. >> susie: the charges against wasendorf come as u.s. regulators today approved the so-called "corzine rule" to protect customer funds at brokerage firms. it's named after jon corzine. the former c.e.o. of failed brokerage m.f. global. the rule requires a firm's chief executive to sign off on big withdrawals from customer accounts. >> for the third year in a row some are worried about a global sdmk slowdown. stay on the defense. jasob is back wi

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: it's called the 80- 20 rule, or the medical loss ratio. the goal: to hold down health insurance costs by controlling the amount of money companies pay for care. insurance companies have to spend at least 80% of customers' premium payments on medical costs, not administrative ones like salaries and investments. for large group accounts, it's 85%. if a company doesn't make the ratio, it has to refund the difference to consumers by august first. a lot of companies didn't make it this year. in all, more than 12 million customers are expected to get rebates, totaling more than $1 billion nationwide. the rebate amounts vary greatly, but they are expected to average around $150 per household. >> insurance companies are clearly making consumers pay too much for health care, and the rebates are long overdue. >> reporter: consumer advocates say the payouts are great, but the rule might not be effective. it could actually encourage companies to spend more on health care to avoid cutting other costs. and the insurance industry says the rule just misse

sylvia hall takes a look at the settlement and what it means for consumers. >> reporter: after seven years of fighting, the battle between visa, mastercard and the retailers who accept their cards is finally over. the two companies, along with a number of major banks, have agreed to pay over $6 billion to 7 million merchants across the country. they also will reduce fees charged to stores for taking their cards for eight months. the settlement's total value is over $7 billion. but the biggest change of all- businesses will have the option to charge customers more when they pay with plastic. >> consumers will have a choice of paying with a cheaper form of payment, rather than paying with a more expensive credit card. and that is where we're very hopeful that down the road. it won't take effect immediate but down the road. there will be more competition in this industry and ultimately prices will be lowered as a result. >> reporter: the price he's referring to is what mastercard, visa and their member banks charge stores when shoppers swipe their credit cards instead of paying with cas

sylvia hall looks at how boeing, and its top rival, airbus are faring at this year's big show. >> reporter: if you want to see fierce competition, just look up. boeing and airbus split the commercial plane market. this week, they duked it out for an edge, that neither really got. boeing's performance at farnbourough was up from last year, it logged orders or commitments for almost 400 aircraft, totaling more than $37 billion. at a similar event last year, it racked up $22 billion in orders. this year's tally includes 150 planes for united airlines. 100 of them will be boeing 737 max 9's, the company's most fuel efficient model. it helped boeing grab some market share back from airbus, who sold $72.2 billion worth of aircraft last year. this year, orders and commitments totaled almost $17 billion. >> the show, in total, was a lot smaller in commitments than last year's paris airshow. did we expect that? a little bit, i mean last year's order book was so strong at more than 2,000 aircraft between the two, that you would expect some falling off this year. >> reporter: worries about the global