>> i sd that we wanted to make re that people who didn't ha health insuranceould get health insurance. and this bill covers 30 million people who don't havit. >> pau the president tells pbs' jim lehrer 's satisfied with the health care refor moving through congres coming up, what those rerms could mean for your waet. >> when peoplealk about buy and hold, it's not buynd forg. >> suzanne: but this dade has been one to forget aut when it comes to stos. we'll take look at the financial deca that wasn't. >> paul: tonight's "reet critique" est has three stocks he says are tried and tr, high ality growth choices. 's chuck carlson, c.e. and pofolio manar at horizon investment serces. >> suzanne: th, if you're shopping for a perfect gt for the c.e.o. who has erything,

how abt a chauffeured limo. or, perhaps an orange jump st? coming up, aunusual take on coer office offerings. >> paul: i'm paul kangas. >>uzanne: and i'm suzanne pratt. susie arib is off tonight. this is ightly business report" r wednesday, december 23. ightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possie by contribions to your pbs station from vwers like you. ank you. captioning sponsored by bt >> suzanne: go evening eryone. present obama says the senate health ce bill set for passage

tomorrow contas the strongest reforms we've er seen. in an intervw with the pbs newshourpresident obama said he's prepad to sign the bill even without a public option >> y know, look, i've been in favor of t public option. i think the more choice, the more cpetition we have, the better. on the oer hand, i think that the exchange itself, t system that we're setting uthat forces insuranceompanies to essentially bid for thre million or four milln or five million people's business, tt and of itself is going to have a disciplining efct. would i like one of the options toe the public option? yes. do ihink that it makes sense, as some have argued, tt, witht the public option, we dumpll these other extraordinary reforms and say to the 30 million ople who don't ha coverage, you know, sorry. we didn't get exactly wh we wanted? i don't think that mak sense. >> so it is not-- th's not a

deal-baker for you in any way, either w. >> i think, rit now, that the senate and the house bills--f you look atheir overlap, the 95% thathey agree on-- if that bill was preseed to me... i uld sign it. >> suzanne: you can wah jim lehrer's full interview wi the president onhe pbs newshour. so what will health reform mn for you? all e answers aren't in yet, cause a final bill is still month or two awa but some of e details are becoming clearer. americans won't have to rry as much about keeping their coverage when they lose thei jobs or get sick. though, as darregersh reports, the biggest changes don't ta effect rightway. >>eporter: health reform stts off small. once a bill is sned into law, insurance companies will no longer be able to ny coverage to children with preexting condions. rents will be able to keep kids on their health pn until the age of 26 or 27, depding on what finally passes. anthose retroactive health

insurance cancellaons you may have heard about? no more, says famili usa's ron pollac >>t means an insurance company can't fi some absurd pretext to cut you offour coverage when y have health problem. >> reporter: also taking effect right aw: higher taxes. drug compaes will pay $2 billion more in taxes begiing next year. bankers of manyñi mmon medical supplies begning about the same i2011.ñi health policy anyst joe antos says those costs wilall ickle through thsystem. >> these are supplies th we haveo buy with our health insurance dollars, a the cost of the supplies will a to the co of the insurance. >> reporter: the details havto be workeout between the house and senate, t both bills bring in morthan $500 billion in new revees over the next ten years, much oft from the ghest paid americans. >> mlionaire's tax, cadillac insurance x, the most likely result will be a little bit

both. >> repter: the big changes u've heard about, they phase in over the next three to ur yes. like, subsidieto expand coverage to more tha30 million uninred americans. nes for those who don't buy insurance, an emoyer mandate to offeroverage and tax credits for small business, and health iurance reforms. pollack sa all americans will benefit. they will be protected from e abuse of insurance practic that so many people are worrd abou you won't be denied corage due to a pre-exiing condition. you won't get chargea fferent premium just because of your health status. >> reporter: wle the house and senate hlth care bills are milar, important details wil have to be word out next month beforemericans will know exactlwhat reform means for their health and their walle. darren gersh, ightly business report", washingto >> paul: will the 'nauts go down as america's lost dade? you are measuring with a nancial yardstick, the answe probably yes. as scott gurvey explns, it's a cord few would want credit for. >> reporter: probay the best

thinwe can say of the ten ars now ending is that they are over. financlly, it's ver been worse. even the 1930s, en stock rket returns fell 0.2%did not "out-badthe current decade, which is on track to post a 0.5 strategist stephenreedman of ubs notes the current decade, weot clobbered twice. with separe bear markets folling 9/11 and the real estate collaps >> i think it'clearly a decade where the notionhat stocks are an assetlass to hold for the long r didn't prove out to be accute. ten years for a nuer of people is a sufficitly long amount of time that you should expt to be compensated for takinthe risk of investing equities and really this wasn the case. >> reporter: but it was alsoot a case of a straightine decline. alec young at s&p says s of the ten years werectually positive, and market timers could have traded succsfully. >> the003 through 2007 period were five sod up years in the market andbviously 2009 is

shaping up to be goo so while end to end 's been a dismal decade ere've been some positi pockets within that period. >> reporter: still, the combinatioof the housing bust wi the stock market declines meant a loss in net wortof 13% for the averagamerican. that meanshell-shocked investorare concerned about the fure. buhistorian richard sylla says th is a mistake. >> i would tl people now, while there are reasons be pessimistic,ou know it's been a loy decade, don't get so pessimistic that you don'take advantage of t probably inevable rebound of stock prices. you knowmerican stock market histy goes back 200 years and whenever youad a bad decade usually the ne decade was a lot better. reporter: investors should also ne the market was trading at 25 times earnings at the beginning of the decad it is much cheaper at times earnings today. sct gurvey, "nightly business report", new yk. >> paul: an unexpeed drop in new home sal took some of the wind out of ll street's sails in the early goi.

at the outset, the d fell 18 pointsbut the nasdaq managed to gain five points. an 11.3% decline in novemberew home sales cast doubts abouthe durability of the economic recovery. but some strength in t nasdaq marketelped the blue chips firm up anthat led to a positi market close. the dojones industrial average ended with a gain of 1.51 at 10,466.44. the nasdaq compositeose .97 to 2269.. ths&p 500 index advanced 2.57 to 1120.59. in theond market, the ten year note gained 1/32 to 96-232, puttg the yield at 3.75%.

>> suzanne: oil pric surged today afr a big drop in weekly u.scrude supplies. inew york trading, crude oil tures jumped more than $2 to close at76.67 a barrel. joining me now wh an update on the oil market is john kildu, partner at round earth pital. john, welcome back tthe program. >> thank you, thanks forñr having me.ñiñrñixd >> suzanne: so this has been a crazy yearñi in theil marketñi andñiçó rectly we hadñi another big nup in prices, so i guess what everybody was to know isñr whereñi are prices headed in >>ñr clearly crude oil has been in a range from 65ñi aboutxd 08 for pastñr ) but think it pretty cle thatñi itñiç'i closer to 80 than below 70. i think that ows its resilien and i think it show what is the industry from the oil producers to the finers artrying to do to keep that price up, d i think that only augers for muigher prices particularlyñinto the first quarter next year.

>> sanne: we are to ask you, how much higher. >> i tnk at some point duri the first hal of the year we llñi approachñi $100 a barrel on crude oil again. that's going to be a result ofi e peck remaining stingyith -- opec remaining stin with their production, particularly in china. and the s. refining industr ntinuing to idle a fifth of their oductive capacity in the u.s. suzanne: let'salk a little abo tho supply-dandñi fundamentals. china is a big factor again potentially next year? >> tremendously. we talabout saudi arabia as beina swing procer, chi is clearly now the swing nsumer. we wait almt every nth for them to falter, for the demd therto dial down ask i just has not. when you hear about iron ore and other commodities bein shipped there and wting to be unlded, it goes to further that argunt. >> suzanne: on the supply si, i know you had mentioned to me earlier something abouu.s. refinerieswhat is the story

with t u.s. supply picture? >> both the u.s. ply picture an globally, we have produce oil out the ground or refiners in the u.s. skpshs le globally, cutting back. th've cut backtremendously.ñi u.s.ry finers are cut bac thr production by 20%, th're only operating at0% of capacity all year long. th's because they wt to drain the supply swamp thas out there. therwas a glut of sply most of the year, that is quicklyraining both on the crude oil fron and now on the heating oiand diesel front. >> suzanne: wod you expect to see a lot of speculato in th market, will that be a factor driving up prices? >> i thinkore of the fundamenta are supportive of what's going on, tre's a lot to worry aut with geopolitics. but ceainly too the instment community that's worried about the big u.s. government defit and the effect of that producing inflation. this is a place to deout

agnst inflation. oil, otherommodities are the place to be to guard against what might be a nasty inflation scare down the road. >> suzanne: you mentioned geo geopolitical ftors, tell me about th. just iran or is there something else wneed to be watching for? >> iran is the biggest bause it's multi fated andt's the send largest oil oducer within opec and it's in a tough neighborhood. but the situaon with iranf cose is two-ld. first their nuclembitions, whher or not they get attaed by israel d or the united states, but also now wee dealing withhis internal opposition because of the angerover theelections in that country. civilar could break out there at somepoint it's calating every day. the beginning the year especially will b need to be tched there because they'll be on the clock the nuclear affair and internally because of the oppositio strike. sz so we'll watching for $100 a barrel in 2010. >> yes, thank you. merry christmas.ñiñi

shó my guest,ñi john kilduff. >> paul: now let's taka look at our scks in the news tonight.

night's street critique guest says with stockst new highs for e year, invesr appetites arehanging. joing us from chicago isçó chuck carlso,.e.o. and portfolio manage at horizon investment serces. chuck, welcome to "night business report" thank you, paul. >> paul: wt is this change in investor appetite, tell us about it. >> you'rstarting to see a transition ay from some of th more specutive stocks that really d the rally

sincemarch to more the tried and true high quality growth at a reasonable price scks. i think you're seng a movement, a fortunately for ushat's in our sweet spot in terms of the times o stocks that we like to invt in. >> paul: so that pretty well describes your investing philoshy? >> it is. we tend to try to buy consiste growers and buy them at reasonable prices. they don't hav to be dirt chp, but again t two commonhreads are growing nicely and reasonably priced. d there are a number of them out there now and a lot of them are in that mid to large cap range. anwe're seeing a numbe of opportunities ght now. paul: following that growth at a reasonableprice model, do youave some recommendations for our viewers? >> i do. i have tee. again the common thread between all of these thr is at they're growing nicely, estites are increasing for all ree of the scks, and yet their valuations are still quitreasonable. i'll start off with abc, which is a drug distribur. i like thistock, agn last

quarter it outperformed its esmates, we think the estimates for 2010 are too w, thstock only trade at 13 sometis 2010stimates, and if you're looking at a way to ay health care reform, one the big areas of amerisource is drug distributi in the generic drug area. and i thinkou'll seeeneric drug have more peal in is ty of health care environment. >> paul: thetock has had quite run. what's your target pce? >> the target pce on this over t next 12 to 18 months in the mid 3. right now it's about 2 and change. >> paul: we've only got a minute left. how about another recommendation? a second rommendation is c software, a company that make products for corpora data sites. again we like tech, this is a lesssecondy tech na, which to usndicates that there's still plenty ovalue there, tradabout 15 times 2010 earngs, estimates are rising, we think we can beathose

estimates. paupz and one last pick quickly. >> generalills, they boothsed their dividend twice in the last year. rising still, yield up 2.8%, lid name and a solid growth space right now. >> pau chuck, do you own thes stocks or have othe disclosures to make? >> yes, wedo, and our clien own them a well. >> paul: sounds li a nice trio there, an we wish you lucknd success withhose. >> tha you. >> paul: my guest chuck carlso oforizon investment services. >> suzne: tomorrow or market monitor gut is mes grant, edor of the grant inrest rate obsver. >> suzanne: cle sam is pledging big bucks to lp the nearly 700,0 americans who are homeless. the obama ministration will ve almost $1.5 billion in grants to fund pgrams to reduce homelessness. projects that lp families with children wl get about half of that money. since last year, family homelessness has increased b more than 50%.

>> paul: theace for last- minute shopping is on. several retailers arnow open around the cck hoping to attract christmas procrastinator cy's, best buy, d k-mart are among the chains keeping som stores open for 24ours. whe the last minute rush tends to make some stores unusuall bu, for some, that's just not the case many stores arfinding few shoppers looking forargains in the midd of the night.

>> suzanne: here's a look what happening tomorrow. 'll see weekly jobless claims, and novemberurable goods. and thstock and bond markets will close ear on christmas eve. in theoney file tonight, the st money rolutions to make for thne. here's donnaosato, senior writer at moy magazine. reporter: you survived the ression and a brand new year is around e corner. with the shaky enomy, more americans are focusing on eir financl security. he are four resolutions to ke 2010 your best money year ever: first, do a gular financial check-up. 09 turned out to be a banner year for stocks, which mea you probably didn't wie the last time you checked yr 401(k). but the surge in stocks obably so means that your asset allocation is out of whack. sties show that portfolios rebanced at least once a year

gr larger than ones that aren't rebalanced at all. nearly 60% of companieoffer autotic rebalancing programs for 401(k) plans, so sigup. xt, secure your job. e economy looks like it's ou of recession but the jobarket isn't. develop a skill oret a crential that will make you more attractivto your current employer or to a prosptive one. skillsn demand now include social media marketing strategies and proje manageme. you'll also want to take sheer against taxes, which mt experts believe aren't gng anywre but up. a good way to do that is wh a roth i, which offers tax-free withdrawals when you retir in 2010, anyone regardss of come can convert a tradition ira into a roth. you'll pay income tax onhe money you convt but if you expe to be in the same or higher tax brack when you reti, you should come out ahead. finally,e all want to save more but it's ugh when most savings accounts payess than 0.5%. many banks offer online-ly savings accoun with higher rate

go to bankte.com to find top yields. i'm donnrosato. paul: recapping today's market action, auiet day of trading ends on the upde. the dow ed out a gain of 1.5 points. the nasdaq csed up almost 17. to learn more abouthe stories in tonight's broadcast, to wch r streaming video and to tak part iour daily blog, go to "nightly business rert" on pbs.org. you can also eil us at nbr@pbs.org. suzanne: and finally, do yo still have some last-mute christmas opping to do? tonight, an unusual taken that, with some ouageous gift ideas for at hard touy for person on your list: the corporate c.e.o. >> this holiday season, e peon on your gift list may be ging you a little extra trble. ying a gift for the ceo who has everything can be a challenge. but for a good place to art, take a look at what some cver bods of directors have

actual done to keep that top ex happy. getting to his private jet wl be a lot more fun a new helicopter. and to get to your helopter, why not $140,000 for aew car. drer not included, unless the big boss asks for one. considering a w set of golf club why not a golf club? memberships are the gi that keeps on giving. if you can't pick one, pick several. this is also taxime. why not be practical andtuff at silk stocking with $400,0 ininancial planning. filly, while clothing can be tricky, n't go for the shirt or tie. orange jumpsui are versatile, stylish and look gd on evyone. and as bonus, they often include a free set of bracels. just kidding. but just right for the especiallyaughty this year. and remember, the y in the cornerffice may already have everything he needs, butore is always areciated. happy holidays

>> suzan: so what's the swer? paulz i dot know. suzanne: that's "nhtly business rept" for wednesday. december 23. i'm suzanne pratt. od night everyone anood night to you, paul. >> paul: i'm paul kangas, wishinall of you the best of good-bs.

"night business report" is made possible : by contributio to your pbs station from viewers likyou. thank you. captioning snsored by wpbt caioned by mediaccess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org