tom, they've posted their second largest increase on record in a two-week period. >> tom: susie, the last time we saw this kind of spike was right after hurricane katrina. today, the national average price for regular gas is $3.51 a gallon. that's up 33 cents in the past two weeks. >> susie: the obama administration is considering all options to help ease prices. one possibility: tapping the nation's emergency oil reserves. the white house says the price of oil is only one factor in making that decision. >> tom: but those prices shot up again today, underpinning the prices at the pump. in new york trading, april crude futures rose a dollar to settle at $105.44 a barrel, the highest level since september 2008. >> susie: oil is not the only commodity surging these days. so are many agricultural and industrial raw materials. erika miller looks at how this trend could affect the bottom line at many american businesses. >> reporter: luxury chain coach, hershey's chocolate, and colgate-palmolive are three very different companies with one common concern. all are feeling the squeeze of risi

i'm tom hudson. good night everyone, and good night to you too, suzanne. >> suzanne: good night tom. i'm suzanne pratt. good night everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

i'm tom hudson. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, susie. >> susie: good night, tom. i'm susie gharib. good night, everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> more information about investing is available in: to order this dvd, call 1-800- play-pbs or visit online at shoppbs.org. >> be more. pbs.

i'm susie gharib. >> tom: goodnight, susie. i'm tom hudson. we'll see all of you again next week. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> gerald stern was born in pittsburgh, 1925. his parents immigrated from poland and ukraine. gerald stern, who said, "poetry should be passionate and outrageous and political and most of all revolutionary." >> in all these rotten shops, in all this broken furniture and wrinkled ties and baseball trophies and coffee pots i have never seen a post-war philco with the automatic eye nor heard ravel's "bolero" the way i did in 1945 in that tiny living room on beechwood boulevard, nor danced as i did then, my knives all flashing, my hair all streaming, my mother red with laughter, my father cupping his left hand under his armpit, doing the dance of old ukraine, the sound of his skin half drum, half fart, the world at last a meadow

i'm susie gharib. >> tom: goodnight, susie. i'm tom hudson. we'll see all of you again next week. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org d i'm not a collector, but i find them irresistible because they are moments of time captured forever. now, are you the postcard collector? no, they're not mine. they were my brother's. and when he died, he passed them on to my daughter. - so she owns them. lucky girl. - she does. what was his interest? he collected postcards for many many years and he just liked to have any subjects within local history and old burnham and highbridge. what started him? i think it was just purely his-- he was a great historian. - right. yeah. - he loved history. and postcards were one of the easiest and cheapest things to find. well, they are wonderful moments of history. so we've got here-- obviously albums - containing, i presume, local vi

>> i own them all, yes, tom. >> tom: you can follow all the previous picks on the blog. you can email us, streetcritique@nbr.com; or you can send us a note via twitter at my feed, hudson n.b.r., or n.b.r.'s feed. and facebook, too. we'll feature some of your questions next wednesday. our guest this evening on "street critique," it's hilary kramer with www.gamechangerstocks.com. >> susie: and here's what we're watching for tomorrow. the national football league has until midnight to reach a contract with the players union or face a work stoppage. we'll also see quarterly results from anheuser-busch in-bev and chain store sales for february. and speaking of sales, we look at how retailers are bracing for the fallout from rising cotton prices. president obama could soon put "for sale" signs on government properties around the country. he wants an advisory panel to create a list of unneeded federal properties that can be sold to save taxpayer money. uncle sam currently owns more than a million pieces of real estate, at a cost of $20 billion per year. the president says about

but tom, that was overshadowed by a big jump in oil prices. >> tom: susie, oil prices surged again today as anti-government protests continued in libya, bahrain and yemen. april crude futures now stand at $104 a barrel up $2.50 to more than a two-year high. but on the bright side, american businesses added 192,000 jobs in february-- the fastest pace of hiring since last may. the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9%-- the third straight monthly decline. >> susie: from wall street to main street, everyone's trying to figure out if the worst is over for the job market. suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: so, should we be celebrating the latest snapshot of the labor market? most experts say don't open the champagne bottles just yet. sure, february was the best month for unemployed americans in the past nine. but economist josh feinman says we're only starting to repair the damage from the great recession. >> it's better. it's certainly not a robust report. i think it's consistent with a gradual improvement in the labor market. it's not as rapid and strong as we'd like to see, and i think we're

>> tom: a jittery day on wall street. stocks suffer their biggest one- day drop since august as global tensions heat up. >> it definitely gives us a moment to pause and reflect and actually take stock of where value really is in the capital markets. >> stock prices dropping 2% today is just an opportunity to pick them up a little cheaper. >> susie: we talk challenges and opportunities in stocks with a market bull and a market bear. you're watching "nightly business report" for thursday, march 10. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening. investors haven't seen a sell- off in stocks like today's since last summer. several worries were pressuring the markets today, violence in saudi arabia and renewed concerns about europe among them, susie. >> susie: tom, adding to the jitters-- worries about china's e

a great weekend, susie. >> same to you, tom. i hope all of you have a great weekend as well and we hope to see all of you again next week. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

goodnight, everyone. >> tom: i'm tom hudson, thanks for joining us. we hope to see you back tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

you, too, tom. >> tom: good night, susie. i'm tom hudson. we'll see all of you again tomorrow evening. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> more information about investing is available in "nightly business report's" video "how wall street works". to order this dvd, call 1-800- play-pbs or visit online at shoppbs.org. your possession? well, it is my grandfather who won it at this college here in saint david's. how terrific. well, let's have a look at it. - it says, "athletic sports, s.d.c." - saint david's college. and i think that's st. david on the building behind us, isn't it? - that's right, yes. - in person. "first prize for throwing the cricket ball, 1884." - yes, yes. - and do you know how far he threw the cricket ball or not? i'm very sorry, no. you've got the lion here with the coronet on top, - holding up the shield. - yes. and his hea

tom, he's accused of making $45 million through illegal stock tips. >> tom: susie, prosecutors allege rajaratnam and 25 others swapped confidential corporate secrets on many well known companies, including google, ibm, ebay, intel, and goldman sachs. >> susie: our cameras were rolling when rajaratnam pulled up to the courthouse early this morning. from the moment he arrived, raj rajaratnam was in the spotlight. >> are you going to testify in your defense? >> susie: federal prosecutors allege rajaratnam used inside information to trade 35 stocks. the feds plan to use 173 wiretapped conversations and testimony from confidential informants against rajaratnam. on the list of the government's potential witnesses is lloyd blankfein, the c.e.o. of goldman sachs. rajaratnam's net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion, and he has spent an estimated $20 million on his defense, so far. his lawyers are expected to argue rajaratnam was simply doing thorough research in his role as a hedge fund manager. the trial is likely to last six to eight weeks. it is the government's highest profile attempt to c