and look for earnings from mcgraw hill, thomson reuters, "washington post," good lord, madison square garden, the maker of bubble wrap. there's one one to watch. >> who doesn't like bubble wrap. still to come on the program, we'll take a look at what tuesday's election means for america's chances for falling off the fiscal cliff. >>> greece's coalition government on shaky ground. quit because of a scandal over a published list of suspected tax evaders. it they're putting on a unified front before a key vote on austerity measures. >> royal bank of scott land has had a loss of just over 1.4 billion pounds mainly due to a clarm on his own debt. the lender has increased its compensation provision by 400 million pounds and will soon enter negotiations to settle libor investigations. it's also likely to be hit. they reiterated the banking industry must make major changes to it culture. >> i guess in general banks didn't live up to the standards of integrity and have the right cultures. so we're paying some of the sins for that. >> some of the world's biggest banks, more capital to deal with

jharonne martis is the director of consumer research at thomson- reuters. >> jharonne, are we seeing the discounting early like we have in seasons past? >> >> no. in fact, we are seeing the discounting even earlier, a lot of stores, including wal-mart, target and toys r us opened their stores on thanksgiving as opposed to waiting for black friday. they did receive a little bit of grief for it from a lot of angry consumers, but on the other hand, there were lots of shoppers lining up in front of the stores to get those deals from wal-mart and toys r us. >> are the deals likely to get better if they are not satisfied with the crowd and the sales receipts we see over the next 72 hours? >> well, in fact, deals could continue to go on at all way until christmas over the next couple of weekends. we saw that wal-mart doubled their order of the apple tablets in order to guarantee that they would have enough to meet the demand and as a result analysts did become bullish on the company and did increase their earnings estimates for the fourth quarter for wal-mart so we are seeing retailers are

overall, sales were up 1.6%, according to thomson-reuters. that's only half the growth expected. the impact of hurricane sandy on the east coast earlier in the month gets the blame for the disappointment. among those with worse than expected results, kohl's shares plunged 12% as volume jumped ten times normal. kohl's in all regions of the u.s. reported a drop in november sales. macy's stock fell 4.3% to its lowest price since halloween. its same-store sales were down for the first time in three years. jewelry store tiffany cut its outlook after a weak third quarter. profits were held down by weaker consumer demand, as well as higher costs for precious metals and diamonds. that pinched its profit margins. the stock saw heavy volume, sliding 6.2%. in focus after the closing bell was yum brands, the parent company of kfc, taco bell and pizza hut. after hitting an all-time high during the trading session, the stock was down almost 7% in extended hours trading. yum warned china sales have softened, leading to an earnings outlook for next year that is short of expectations. research in

thomson reuters and factset crunch the numbers slightly differently, and believe profits are actually down. the bigger concern is revenue growth. s&p has the most optimistic analysis with a 0.6% gain. the other two firms see negative growth. firms face an almost universal problem: a slowing global economy. >> companies kind of put it in this context: the red flag is europe still. china falling there after, being kind of a yellow flag. >> reporter: that weak global demand is forcing many companies to cut prices, hurting profit margins. according to goldman sachs, bed bath and beyond, coach, marriott, fedex, southwest, and union pacific have all specifically talked about the difficulty preserving margins. a new, less obvious concern has also emerged this earnings season: >> we've been hearing a lot of concern about the fiscal cliff. not only are companies warning in their press releases, but even during the earnings calls, we're seeing that a lot more analysts are bringing it up. which shows that both wall st. and companies are concerned about the fiscal cliff. >> reporter: mcdonalds, g

the thomson-reuters, university of michigan consumer sentiment survey for november was up just a fraction from a month ago, but it continues trending higher. the pace of the increase slowed the same month as election day, and as talks over avoiding the fiscal cliff heated up in washington. fewer americans filed for unemployment insurance for the first time last week. initial jobless claims fell by 41,000 as the impact of super- storm sandy on the job market began to ease. still, new claims remain over 400,000 thanks to the storm. on wall street: the dow closed up 48 points, the nasdaq added almost 10, and the s&p 500 finished higher by three. >> susie: stocks also rose on news of a ceasefire in the fighting between hamas and israel in the gaza strip. the announcement came after a week of rocket attacks and counter-attacks that has killed an estimated 150 people. most of the dead are palestinians. and just before that agreement to end hostilities, a bomb exploded in a tel aviv bus station injuring 27. >> tom: i don't wake up trying to solve for wall street, i wake up trying to solve for ou

. >> everybody is running to the thomson reuters counter. thank you for joining us.reat to be with you. and the washington editor at large for "the atlantic." i want to complement the newseum for an island -- i know this is a jam packed day. this is one of three times in the history here that they have allowed and outside groups, the other happen to be the president of the united states and madeleine albright coming in to give a teleconference -- this is the third time they have opened up an and bird for during the day session. this is a great partnership and i want to thank them for doing it. what we are going to do now -- i have a friend it somewhere, the founder of circuit city. he has written a book called "the rise and fall of circuit city. they are uncomfortable when you think about these -- hopefully the united states is not the fall side, but political campaigns are lousy times to think about the hard truth of what is happening. one of the hard truths about our panel is we are five white guys. we are for tall guys and doug. we are very well aware of this. you

while everybody's running to the thomson reuters counter, thank you all for joining us. i'm steve clemons, i want to just compliment the newseum and tell you how historic this is. the google party's coming up, david drummond. this is one of the few times in the history of the newseum that they've allowed an outside group -- the other happened to be the president of the united states and then one time madeleine albright when she was secretary of state or something -- coming in to do a teleconference. thises the third time they've opened up annenberg for a during-the-day session here. so this is a really great partnership. i want to thank the few seem for doing this. what we're going to do now in this time, i have a friend here somewhere, alan, the founder of circuit city, he's written a book called the rise and fall of sir sutt city, and -- circuit city, and there are uncomfortable truths when you think about nations and companies, there are certainly rise and fall stories, and hopefully the united states is not on the fall side of this. but political campaigns are really