i'm joined by my colleague suzanne pratt. suzanne, we are just days away from the latest federal government stopgap funding bill running out and the risk of a government shutdown is rising. >> susie: republicans and democrats are back in washington after a weeklong break, and they are getting close to a long-term agreement on spending. >> tom: the current budget blueprint runs out april 8. if there is no deal by then, uncle sam shuts down. pressure is rising on congressional leaders from the left and the right not to cave in to the other side's demands. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: democrats and republicans are now just a few billion dollars apart in negotiations over this year's $1 trillion-plus federal budget. but senate majority leader harry reid says agreement hasn't been reached, because republican leaders face a revolt from the right. >> they seem to be afraid to anger a small, extreme minority in their party that's willing to shut down the government, put the economy at risk of killing at least 700,000 jobs. >> r

as suzanne pratt reports the oil market is coping with a long list of issues. >> reporter: in the past week much of the world has been fixated on japan, with one exception. the global oil market is paying much more attention to bubbling conflict in north africa and the middle east. oil trader john woods says right now all eyes are libya. >> you look at qaddafi like, "all right, listen, we're going to go in there and start bombing you if you don't knock it off." all of the sudden he says, "okay"-- oil drops three bucks, but no one really believes him. >> reporter: and, traders worry supply disruptions won't end with libya. trouble is brewing in bahrain, iran and saudi arabia all big suppliers of oil. oil expert john kilduff says conflict in any of those countries would have a huge impact on crude oil prices. >> if we see the situation in saudi arabia in particular worsen, if the protests in the eastern region escalates, all bets are off. we could easily see $150, $200 oil on escalating fears there. >> reporter: still, traders say oil prices would be much higher today if there hadn't bee

i'm joined by suzanne pratt. as gasoline prices push closer to $4 a gallon, suzanne, president obama today renewed his call for a greater focus on u.s. energy independence. >> susie: tom, the president says it's time to "get serious about a long-term policy for secure affordable energy." >> tom: the president issued his blueprint for a secure energy future. it calls for cutting the nation's oil imports by one third by 2025. >> we're going to have to find ways to boost our efficiency so we use less oil. we've got to discover and produce cleaner, renewable sources of energy that also produce less carbon pollution, which is threatening our climate. and we've got to do it quickly. >> tom: the response from the oil industry has been varied. conoco phillips said it was encouraged by the president's call for more domestic oil production, but that it wants to see more specifics. while the former president of shell oil, john hofmeister, says the president's energy plan sounded more like a campaign speech. >> i heard polit

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: after a small dip this morning, the major stock indices roared ahead as oil prices dropped a fraction from their recent high. bank of america was a big part of the jump for the dow jones industrial average, and for making the financial sector the best sector today. shares rallied almost 5% on huge volume. the bank held its first investor day today since 2007. c.e.o. brian moynihan calls it a new era for the bank. in addition to pledging no more mergers and a return to dividends, b-of-a will split its $2 trillion portfolio of home loans just about in half. it will continue to own 49%, while separating the rest for sale. those will be the worst- performing, riskiest loans, most of them done between 2004 and 2008, during the worst of the housing bubble. speaking of mortgages, homebuilder pulte group saw a nice 8% pop, reversing some of the slide shares have seen since may of last year. the builder said it signed 11% more home sale contracts in the first two months of this year compared to last year. other builders also saw some

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: the world has watched as japan suffers through a tragedy so vast it's almost incomprehensible. homes and villages swept away, factories, plants and oil refineries shuttered, roads and ports crippled, even the neon lights in tokyo are dark. still, japan will rebuild, even if it takes many years. the devastation is likely to tip japan into another recession in the near term. but economist nariman behravesh predicts reconstruction will ultimately give the economy a nice boost. >> at the end of this year and through next year, it could add as much as half to maybe even a full percentage point to growth of the japanese economy. so, it's actually going to be good news starting in about the third quarter. >> reporter: what will japan need to rebuild? in a word, "everything." japan does not produce any raw materials, and it will have to buy everything from iron ore to large scale machinery. urban planner and professor rae zimmerman says rebuilding japan will be one of the most difficult tasks the world has ever faced. >> one of the main challenges is rebui

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: there's no question the human toll of japan's epic earthquake and tsunami is incalculable. after all, how can anyone possibly put a price tag on the tragic loss of thousands of lives and homes? nevertheless, there are already estimates as to the cost of recovery and rebuilding. those projections range from $200 billion to as much as a trillion over several years. still, many economists say the devastating damage to the world's third largest economy is unlikely to halt the global recovery. business cycle expert lakshman achuthan says that's because america's economic rebound remains on course. >> the u.s. economy is at a stage in the business cycle where it is actually accelerating to the upside. events in japan will not derail that acceleration, and therefore with the u.s. economy demanding more the rest of the world will be lifted by that. >> reporter: in 2010 japan's total output of goods and service ran at $5.7 trillion. a hefty number by world standards, but still only a third of u.s. g.d.p. for other experts, it's simply too early to say how mu

suzanne pratt got some answers. >> reporter: on wall street, they're calling it the "teflon market". throw at stocks an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in japan, not to mention a war in libya, yet the dow is above 12,000. nyse broker ted weisberg is surprised by the market's resiliency. but says he finds the recent volatility very troubling. >> the volatility, to me, simply says that there's no confidence. yes, the market's had a dramatic move off the lows, but for the most part, this move has not be accompanied by a lot of volume on the upside of the swing. >> reporter: still, the question is whether stocks can maintain their non-stick status? experts say that will depend on the quality of corporate profits. we'll get that news starting in about three weeks. according to thomson reuters, which tracks earnings data, wall street will not be disappointed by first quarter results. s&p 500 firms are expected to show profit growth of 13.6% for q-1. that number has steadily improved from october of last year. strategist nick colas expects earnings season will be a good stretch for

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 going to get. but it is getting better. >> reporter: to be sure, there were positives and negatives in the february report. as for the negatives: both government and retail hiring fell last month. on top of that, average hourly wages barely budged. that's raising concerns about how consumers will cope with higher energy costs. on the positive, the private sector added 222,000 jobs; factory and construction payrolls each added 33,000 and the world largest staffing firm is experiencing another labor market positive first hand. tig gillum, adecco's north american c.e

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: in japan, the operator of a damaged nuclear power plant reports new setbacks in the effort to bring the facility under control. the plant's operator, tokyo electric power company, today reported that high levels of radiation are being found in the ocean about 100 yards offshore from the nuclear plant. and as lucy craft reports, contamination has dispersed well beyond the evacuated zone. >> reporter: for the beleaguered people of japan, there is a new menace. radiation contamination has been discovered in spinach, milk and tap water. officials say the levels don't pose a danger to human health, but they aren't taking any chances. today, the government slapped a ban on shipments of spinach from four states-- gunma, tochigi, ibaraki and fukushima, where the crippled nuclear power plant is located. milk from fukushima, the state which has borne the brunt of the radiation menace, has also been taken off the market. so far, japanese customers seem to be taking the news in stride. food sales overall are unaffected. but export customer

suzanne pratt takes a look at what's behind the deal activity. >> reporter: from the social- networking site linked-in to telecom innovator skype, many u.s. firms are thinking this is the year to go public. i.p.o. expert kathleen smith says the pickup in deal activity suggests growing confidence in the economy and the stock market. >> investors are moving money from bonds into stocks because interest rates are so low. so they're looking for returns and looking for growth companies, and growth companies are really the domain of the i.p.o. market >> reporter: according to renaissance capital, there have already been 24 u.s. ipos this year. that compares to nearly half that amount in the same period last year. b.d.o. capital markets expert brian eccleston says pent-up demand from private equity funds is also a big factor. >> a lot of the private equity money and a lot of the private equity-owned companies that have been waiting on the sidelines the last couple of years may now be recognizing that prime time is here, and we've already seen that with some activity in the first couple of mont

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: without a doubt what happens with prices here has a definite impact on prices here. that's especially true when energy costs spike in a short period of time. take last week for example-- the worst one for stocks since august. crude oil prices jumped 15% in a matter of days. in that same time frame, the s&p 500 lost nearly 3%. big board specialist jonathan corpina says equity investors are reacting to fear of the unknown. >> if we're going to see oil prices move higher, it's because there's uncertainty in the middle east. and, when there's uncertainty in the middle east that can reflect to uncertainty globally and any type of uncertainty, investors pull their money to the sidelines. >> reporter: in the summer of 2008, when crude prices surged to a record $150 a barrel the s&p 500 plummeted. from july through december, the index plunged nearly 30%. clearly much of the decline was due to the financial crisis, but oil prices also got some of the blame. the question today is whether stock investors will eventually shrug off the oil shock and see this time

i'm joined by my colleague suzanne pratt. u.s. warplanes, ships and missiles have been striking against libya for more than a week. this evening, suzanne, president obama makes his case to the american people. that's after facing questions about the goals and costs of the mission. >> suzanne: and, tom, the president's speech comes as congress has yet to agree on a federal budget. lawmakers continue to haggle over spending cuts ranging from $30 to $60 billion. >> tom: while nato has agreed to take over the mission and take full command, the cost to the u.s. has been estimated at between $300 million to $1 billion. todd harrison is a senior fellow at the center for strategic and budgetary assessments. he joins us tonight, todd, what is your financial estimate of the cost of the u.s. mill taefer action in libya so far? >> well, so far based on the number of cruise missile es that we've launched and the number of sortee the u.s. has flown in this operation, i would estimate that we are towards the lower end of that, probably 300 milli