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Jobs & Stocks: Beyond the Numbers; Riding a Roller-Coaster Market; Interview With Greg McBride of Bankrate.com; How To Get Growth Going Again; The Help Desk; Rebels Eye Town On Road To Tripoli
Aired August 05, 2011 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Let's get you up to speed.
Fasten your seatbelts. It's another turbulent day on Wall Street. Stocks rallied at the opening bell after a better-than- expected jobs report, but they have been up and down since then. The Dow is coming off yesterday's steep plunge. Right now, the Dow taking a big plunge of 215 points right now.
Of course, we'll continue to watch the markets throughout the day.
All right. Some positive news in the highly-anticipated jobs report out today.
The economy added 117,000 jobs in July. Economists were expecting about 75,000. The unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 9.1 percent.
And last hour, during a speech on helping veterans find work, President Obama said improving the job outlook is his number one priority.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My concern right now, my singular focus is the American people, getting the unemployed back on the job, lifting their wages, rebuilding that sense of security the middle class has felt slipping away for years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A big relief for 4,000 furloughed FAA workers. This morning, the Senate approved a deal to temporarily resume the agency's funding. It had been held up in a dispute over airline unionization and subsidies for small airports. Well, Congress will have to take it up again after its August recess.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We need to begin working next week on an FAA bill so that we don't have these kind of problems in the future. And there's a commitment on the part of Senator Reid to get people together and to get a bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: An intriguing discovery on Mars. Scientists say they found evidence of possible water flows at several sites on the red planet. Pictures from a NASA spacecraft show slopes that appear to fade in the Martian winter and come back in the spring. Because of the surface of Mars, it is salty. The scientists say the water would also be salty.
Protests are raising across Syria despite the government's brutal crackdown. This video from YouTube reports to show teargas and shots being fired at a mosque in Douma. The theme of today's nationwide demonstrations is "God is With Us." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Syria's government is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths since the unrest started mid-March.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Sometimes you lose sight of the incredible tragedy unfolding on the streets by just looking at the numbers which are so numbing, but the shooting death of a 1-year-old recently by the Syrian regime's tanks and troops is a very stark example of what is going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A jury in Texas is considering the fate of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs. They found him guilty of sexually assaulting two children. Those charges came out of a 2008 raid on a ranch his church operates near El Dorado, Texas. Well, he could soon get life in prison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLORA JESSOP, FMR. FLDS MEMBER: I am elated. I am happy for all of his victims and for the many that he didn't get a chance to abuse because he has been in jail for five years. And I am just looking forward to moving forward and trying to help as many of these women and children that we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The FBI is hoping a vial of serial killer Ted Bundy's blood will help solve murder cases dating back 50 years. Today they are adding his DNA to a national database. Bundy confessed to more than 30 murders before he was electrocuted back in 1989, but investigators have always believed there were many more victims.
And we want to take a closer look now at the better-than-expected jobs report for July and the stock market's reaction. The Dow rallied at the open after yesterday's 512-point free-fall, but stocks have been up and down quite a bit so far today.
Let's bring in our Money team, Christine Romans in New York, and Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. So, Christine, let's begin with you. Give us a breakdown of the jobs report.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's look at some of these numbers in perspective.
You had 117,000 jobs created in the month. And you're right, Fredricka, that is better than we had expected. When you look in the year how that shapes up, look, that's better than May, that's better than June. And those May and June numbers, those two bars right there, May and June, those were revised higher, so they are actually better than we thought.
So, after some momentum in job creation in February, March, April, it stalled out in early summer, and then you saw 117,000 jobs created in the month of July.
Let's broaden it out further from, say, 2009 until now. Let's put these months in perspective.
You can see that we have created jobs every month this year. Last year, in 2010, Fredricka, we created jobs in half the months, but half the months we lost jobs.
Compare that to 2009, the depths of the recession. You can see just how far this economy has come.
Look, 117,000 jobs created is not good enough. It's not good enough. No one thinks it is. But it is so much better than what you see in 2009.
Step back even 10 years, and you can see what a difficult decade it has been, quite frankly. We had a recession in the early part of the decade. We had another one in 2003, and that brutal, brutal financial crisis that just shows -- look at how deep and how just disturbing the job loss was there. We're crawling back from a difficult period -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Slow and steady, right? OK.
ROMANS: That's right.
WHITFIELD: Well, let's check in with Alison now at the New York Stock Exchange.
A second ago we were looking at numbers dipping beyond 200 on the Dow. What is it saying now?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right now we are down about 198 points, Fredricka.
You know, at this point, we saw the Dow rally at the open, 172 points on the better-than-expected jobs number, but then more news comes out, and that's really what is moving the markets right now. We're getting some news about unsubstantiated worries that Standard & Poor's, one of the big rating agencies, could downgrade the U.S. credit rating after the closing bell today.
Now, we did reach out to Standard & Poor's. They don't have a comment at this point. But that's why you are seeing stocks fall again.
And we're also seeing the VIX -- that's the fear index that measures the volatility that we're seeing in the markets -- that's spiking over 23 percent right now. So just that worry is weighing on the markets, you know, and that causes a cascade of events. Most notably, it would raise borrowing costs for companies and for people like you and me, so this is definitely weighing on the markets right now -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Alison, Christine, thanks so much. Appreciate that. I know you'll keep us posted throughout the afternoon.
All right. Meantime, here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next hour.
First, what to do or not to do to stop the bloodletting from your 401(k).
And forecast, 110 in Oklahoma City. More on the deadly heat fallout.
Then, a lava eruption on Hawaii's big island.
Also, lots of big companies are sitting on cash. We'll tell you who they are and why they are not spending.
And our Michael Holmes takes us to the front lines in Libya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The rebel commander we're with says if we drive down that road, we will be seen by Gadhafi forces and they will open fire.
WHITFIELD: We'll show you how the rebels are faring in the fight against Gadhafi.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A day after the Dow posted the steepest one-day drop since 2008, it's hard for some folks not to panic, especially about their retirement accounts.
Greg McBride is a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. He joins me now from North Palm Beach, Florida.
So, Greg, with all this volatility in the market, should we be worried about our 401(k)s?
GREG MCBRIDE, SR. FINANCIAL ANALYST, BANKRATE.COM: No. I think here's the perspective you have to have, particularly with a 401(k). Your time horizon is decades. It's decades before retirement. It's even decades after you retire.
And over the course of decades, we're going to see this kind of volatility. You can't respond -- you have to resist the urge for those knee-jerk reactions every time we see this. Instead, just how make sure that however your money is invested is consistent with how long you have to retirement on in retirement, as well as the retirement lifestyle that you want to have.
WHITFIELD: OK. But then what if retirement is right around the corner, you know longer have decades in which to count on volatility, rebounds, et cetera?
MCBRIDE: Well, and that's again why if you're 60, 60 just didn't sneak up on you. Right? I mean, this is over time, as you get closer to retirement. You have to dial back the risk as you get closer to retirement because you don't have those working years to ride out the volatility.
So, again, we're all two weeks older than we were two weeks ago. That's really not going to change a whole lot in terms of how you're changing your 401(k) unless you were out of whack to begin with. And regardless of the volatility, you want to make that corrective course if how the monies invested isn't consistent with the things that it really needs to be in tune with, your time horizon and the retirement lifestyle that you envision.
WHITFIELD: What might be the one very important thing that you would advise people to today, or over the next couple of days, if you are someone in your 40s or 50s?
MCBRIDE: Well, I mean, one good thing is today is payday for a lot of people. So that 401(k) contribution is actually going to go a lot further today than it did last payday. But I think at any time, regardless of the volatility or not, just make sure that how your money is invested is consistent with your goals. If that's the case, you don't need to make any course corrections.
And I think that's really focus. Otherwise, embrace the volatility, because you're getting more for your money.
WHITFIELD: Do you think that might be one of the biggest mistakes that people make, is that they become knee-jerk? They see these numbers, they get nervous, and they go in there and start fiddling around.
MCBRIDE: Without a doubt. I mean, people, they feel the pain of losses more than they enjoy gains. And that's to our detriment, because every time you dial back the risk in your portfolio, it just means you have to save that much more to make up for the difference, and people don't save enough to account for that.
WHITFIELD: All right. Greg McBride, thanks so much, of Bankrate.com. Appreciate your time.
MCBRIDE: Thank you, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, another blistering day for much of the U.S. We'll find out how long the heat wave is going to hang around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: In Florida, a close encounter with a tornado. One of our iReporters, Robert Zippin, caught this funnel cloud on camera. It damaged some homes and uprooted some trees when it touched down.
Scary scenes. Oh, my gosh. Very ominous. Right, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, looking straight up at it.
WHITFIELD: Yes. I'm like, what kind of view is that? How did he do that?
MYERS: It's time to go inside.
WHITFIELD: Probably, he did it very safely.
MYERS: Time to close the shutters, as Jimmy Buffett would say.
I have something else in Florida today, too.
WHITFIELD: What's that?
MYERS: I have a Juno Atlas rocket about to take off.
WHITFIELD: Oh, yes.
MYERS: So, if you are near the beach, you're on the beach, Cocoa Beach, whatever, get out there and take a look at it. It's scheduled to launch -- at least so far they're still counting down -- at 12:25.
It's still there. That's the NASA Channel. You can also see that on the --
WHITFIELD: There's a satellite launch.
MYERS: It's a satellites that's going to go out into Jupiter. It's going to take a long time to get there, like 2016 before it arrives. It's going to spend an entire year circling the planet around and around and around.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Well, this summer's heat, no laughing matter. It has been very dangerous, particularly for those engaging in high school football practices. At least two players and a coach died this week, one of them a young student in the Atlanta area whose death has devastated his family.
This story now from George Howell. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLENN JONES, PLAYER'S FATHER: He's my hero. So strong.
GEORGE HOWELL, REPORTER (voice-over): Glenn Jones admits he didn't see the signs until it was too late. His 16-year-old son Forest (ph) started feeling sick a few days after a summer football camp.
JONES: I did not think anything about it, you know. I just didn't put two and two together. And he was giving us signs, but he wasn't complaining. But he was giving us signs that there was something wrong.
HOWELL: The teen died of heat stroke the next week after collapsing at a voluntary team workout. Jones was one of at last four high school football players across the country to fall victim to the extreme heat this summer.
DR. FREDERICK MUELLER, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: I think some of the preventive measures aren't taking place.
HOWELL: It's especially frustrating to Dr. Frederick Mueller, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who says heat-related deaths are preventable.
MUELLER: I talked to somebody today, and they saw a practice happening at 12:00, 1:00 in the afternoon, at the height of the heat.
HOWELL: Mueller has studied heat-related football injuries for more than three decades and says heat-related deaths are on the rise.
To beat the heat, the head coach of St. Pius High School in suburban Atlanta holds practice late in the evening, with lots of water breaks. The team's athletic trainer also keeps close tabs on the heat.
GARY SCHMITT, ATHLETIC TRAINER, ST. PIUS HIGH SCHOOL: The wet bulb reading takes really everything, humidity, temperature, wind. If that reading particular wet bulb reading gets too high, then we have to tell the coach, and the coach is real good about it, and we have to shut the kids down from activity.
HOWELL: At a nearby Tucker High School, we found players practicing indoors to stay cool.
FRANKLIN STEPHENS, HEAD COACH, TUCKER HIGH SCHOOL: The county kind of regulated that for us today. I think that was big, them making the decision that they were not going to put kids in harm's way by allowing them to go outside today.
HOWELL (on camera): Monitoring the wet bulb, pushing practice back later in the evening, and even practicing indoors, are methods that coaches are using to protect their players. But they say education is the most important piece, making sure that coaches know what to look for on the field and that players speak up when they feel they have reached their limit.
You talk about monitoring kids, but as a student, I'm sure they want to impress you, show you they're bringing their A game. How do you get a student to walk up and tell you this is too much?
STEPHENS: Well, I think some of them do it, but as a coach you're going to see it.
HOWELL (voice-over): All precautions Glenn Jones hopes everyone will take to heart.
JONES: It's a shame that Forest (ph) had to pay for it to get it to be better, but if it makes it better, then it's worth it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Oh, terribly heartbreaking.
George Howell with us now from Gainesville, Georgia.
So what can parents do? You talked to the coach about what they can do, what the kids can do. But what can parents do to try to monitor and make sure their kids are safe on a field?
HOWELL: Well, the bottom line, it's up to the parents. And Glenn Jones really drives the point home that parents need to look out for their kids, look out for the symptoms -- headaches, dizziness, if they've been out in the sun for too long, because many times, as you know, kids will not speak up when something is wrong -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. George Howell, thanks so much, in Gainesville, Georgia.
All right. Now more on the markets today. Let's talk directly to a trader.
Before we do that, you can see the Dow down now 74 points. It's been dipping and diving and kind of spiking up all day long.
Teddy Weisberg has been on Wall Street for 43 years.
So, Teddy, as we look at the Dow that has taken quite a dip, and then just 10 minutes ago was down 200, this after yesterday's huge, colossal fall of 500 points, how do you read this? Yesterday, it appeared that a lot of analysts were saying it was fear that was driving the markets down. What is the explanation today?
TED WEISBERG, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, I think it's a lot of mixed emotions. Listen, there is nothing rational about stock markets and pricing the stocks. And, you know, there are true emotions that drive investors, fear and greed, and boy, it doesn't take long to go from the greed to the fear mode.
And I think what we're dealing with is that folks are just kind of fed up. And investors, like consumers who are saving more, and like corporate America, that is fleshed with funds in their treasuries, I think investors basically are just taking risk off the table because there is just not a lot of clarity and there are just too many unknowns out there. And those are the two things that investors really have trouble dealing with.
You know, we can deal with almost anything, good news, bad news, but when you have so many unknowns and so many problems, sometimes it's just better to kind of move to the sidelines. And I think that's clearly what we have been seeing for the last six or seven trading days.
WHITFIELD: But wouldn't you think even today, with kind of an encouraging jobs market, jobs outlook, that perhaps those investors might kind of release some of that money today?
WEISBERG: Well, I think so. We had an immediate, very positive reaction to that jobs number.
The futures were weak going into the number, they completely reversed. The market at one point was up almost 170 points. But the problem is, one number isn't going to change the sentiment.
You know, we just went through the most toxic, the most understanding, if you will, process of this whole debt ceiling dance. And no matter what your politics, there is no way you could have come away from that process with a warm and cozy feeling, whether you're an American or whether you watched from afar.
And then the result was rather anemic. So, I mean, after all that, what did we actually accomplish?
But then we started to get some real hard numbers towards the ends of last week, and we got a very weak GDP number, and then we got a revised weak GDP number from the previous quarter which caused analysts to kind of ratchet down their expectations for the second half of the year. We got a weak manufacturing number this week. We got a weak consumer number.
WHITFIELD: Oh boy.
WEISBERG: Consumer sentiment number.
WHITFIELD: It just goes on.
WEISBERG: And it goes on, yes. And then we have all the problems in the Eurozone. So there seems to be a complete lack of direction in this country, and the problems in Europe. I mean, when you add it all up, it really doesn't make for a positive scenario.
WHITFIELD: No, it doesn't. I am exhausted, Teddy. You've got to be exhausted after this week. I hope you get a chance to have a nice restful weekend, because who knows what Monday will bring?
WEISBERG: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Teddy Weisberg, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
WEISBERG: My pleasure.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A better-than-expected jobs report today easing some of the fears that contributed to yesterday's stock market plunge. The economy added 117,000 jobs last month, more than 75,000 economists actually expected -- more than the 75,000. The unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 9.1 percent.
So, take a look right now. The Dow, down 49 points, kind of fluctuating within the past couple of hours. So anything could happen still.
All right. So, let's check in with our -- I think we've got Alison Kosik, who's at the New York Stock Exchange?
Oh, I'm sorry. We've got Poppy Harlow now.
So, Poppy, give us an idea of what's behind these numbers that keep fluctuating.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: You know, it's interesting, Fred. When you look at the numbers here, you see an uncertainty among investors. We've got it right here on our home page. We'll pull it back up for you in a minute. But that volatility that we are seeing in this market, right? Yesterday we saw the market fall 512 points. Today we started up about 130 points and then fell significantly down more than 200 points. Now we're coming up. So, this is the new name of the game on Wall Street, Fred. It's all about volatility.
A lot of this comes after the jobs report, which as you said, was a lot better than expected. But we want to point something out to folks, and that is the fact that the biggest companies with the most money in this country, in general, are not doing a lot of hiring. I want to show you how much money these companies have on hand.
Look at that number, that's $1.5 trillion. That's how much cash over 4,000 U.S. nonfinancial companies have in their coffers, have under the proverbial mattress, if you will.
To give you some perspective, that's the same size as the GDP of Canada. But even with all that cash, they are not doing a lot of hiring right now. I want to show you some numbers so you get spme idea of who is hiring and who is not hiring. When you look at the small- and medium-sized companies represented in the red there, they've hired a lot, as you can see over the last two years.
But that negative 22,000 number that you see on your screen, that's for big companies. Big Fortune 500 companies that cut jobs over the last two years, and that's very troubling because you are hearing this rallying cry for them to add more jobs because they have all this cash on the sidelines.
The problem, Fred, is they feel so uncertain right about the regulatory environment and about where the economy is, they're not putting that money to work and hiring. That's why you have to take today's jobs report sort of in context of that. We've got a long way to go still, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Yes, we heard that from that trader on the floor not too long ago who talked about companies holding on to the money because they are not sure what is around the corner.
All right, Poppy Harlow, thank you so much. Appreciate that.
So, while the jobs report says the economy is adding jobs, where are they in particular? We will tell you what positions are available and where you might have to go to get them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD; So we had a positive jobs report today with the economy adding 117,000 jobs. So who is hiring? Joining me right now is jobs expert, Charles Purdy. He is senior editor for Monster Worldwide. So, Charles, we just heard from our Poppy Harlow. We heard from an insider trader, who was talking about companies that have money are tight with their cash and they don't want to hire. So, tell us who is hiring out there to contribute to this encouraging jobs report.
CHARLES PURDY, SENIOR EDITOR, MONSTER WORLDWIDE: Well, the Monster employment index looks at activity on corporate career sites and on online job boards, including monster.com. And it paints a picture of industries where recruiting online is happening.
We picked the top five, and this year from July 2010 to July 2011, the industry showing the most growth are mining and oiling gas extraction, transportation and warehousing, so logistics, retail trade, wholesale trade, and other services, which is sort of a catch- all term for personal services that don't fit into a larger category. That might include things like pet care, mortuary services, dry cleaning. Sort of a catch-all for hands-on personal services.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. So how easy is it - oh, yes, go ahead.
PURDY: I'm sorry. So, what is interesting about these industries, though, is that they include a wide variety of jobs. So, when we say something like transportation and logistics, you may think of a truck driver. But a company like, for example, Penske, which is a large trucking company, is not only hiring truck drivers on Monster.com, but they are looking for people in HR, looking for people in accounting. So these industries represent a wide variety of jobs.
WHITFIELD: OK. So you like that job or any of the others, but you don't necessarily have the training. How do you try and break into these industries?
PURDY: You know, there's a couple things people need to keep in mind. First, the importance of customizing your resume and your background so it speaks to the position you are applying for. A lot of people make the mistake of sending out the same blanket resume to every job they apply for. Take a look at your past experience and look for that relevant experience and make sure it's featured prominently on your resume.
The second thing that is key is networking. We do a lot of surveys of people who recently found jobs and more than half say that networking, someone they knew, played a role in them getting a job. So, in this day and age, it's really key to have a robust online profile and get out there on the social networking sites, Monster.com has a great new free Facebook app called Be Known for example, that lets you create a professional profile on Facebook and keeps those professional contacts, however, away from your more personal and more social activities on your Facebook wall.
WHITFIELD: OK. Now, what cities do we need to be targeting?
PURDY: It's interesting. There's some interesting cities that are showing some great growth. A lot of it is because year-over-year they are doing great from 2010 to 2011. And in some cases it was because 2008 and 2009 were so bad. So, at the top of our list, really nice to see, Detroit is showing a strong growth right now on the Monster employment index, and then --
WHITFIELD: I love that!
PURDY: I love that, too. And there are cities that are showing more consistent growth throughout -- Minneapolis, for example. And then Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Orlando showing strong jobs growth.
WHITFIELD: Fantastic. Charles Purdy, I can hear the e-mails going out and resumes going out already. Appreciate it.
PURDY: I think there's reason for hope. Yes, thank you very much.
WHITFIELD: Yes, right! Half glass full. All right, thanks a lot.
All right. A thief felt bad about taking a wallet, so three days later, he decided to make it right. You'll hear what he did about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Growing up without a father is a reality in many African-American kids' lives. So, from fatherless to fatherhood, it's a new film that tackles the issue and searches for solutions.
T.J. Holmes has the story in this week's "What Matters."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father means a protector of his family, a provider, and gives lots of love and wisdom and knowledge. Especially about God. That's what a father means to me.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new documentary "From Fatherless to Fatherhood" explores the role of fathers in the African-American community.
KOBIE BROWN, PRODUCER, "FROM FATHERLESS TO FATHERHOOD": The purpose of the documentary is really to ignite discussion throughout the African-American community about the importance of fatherhood. to let people understand. Especially young people who understand that in a lot of cases, their situation is not unique. That their lives are not determined by the absence of their father, that they can move beyond that and succeed nonetheless.
HOLMES: Producer Kobie Brown started the project two years ago and says he gained insight from the many men and women he met.
BROWN: We are bombarded with all these images and stories of absent fathers. There are positive fathers out here and this project reveals who some of them are.
HOLMES: Jwyanza Nuriddin is one of those fathers. He is busy with a full-time job, runs a small business with his wife. But still he makes it a priority to spend quality time with his three active sons, ages 4, 5, and 6.
JWYANZA NURIDDIN, BUSY FATHER OF THREE: It's a juggling act. I mean, that's the bottom line. But I do a lot of multitasking, and I am motivated to be a good example for my children. A good example of a good husband and an example of a strong worker and an example of a good father.
I want them to know and see that work equals reward.
HOLMES: Nuriddin says his faith and his wife, Dawn, both play a pivotal role in his relationship with his sons. Especially since his wife is more of the disciplinarian.
NURIDDIN: There is no us without her. And we have a great balance with our sons that allows for us, I believe, do an effective jobs.
But I am probably more of the father that is a friend than a disciplinarian. One of my challenges with discipline is I look at my sons and I see the best in them. And one of the challenges is I have to know and realize that bringing out that best in them often requires discipline, not necessarily just friendship.
HOLMES: He is hopeful that his presence in their lives now will be better prepare them for the future.
T.J. Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And the film will debut at Martha's Vineyard, the American - African-American Film Festival, which is next week.
Time to go "Cross-Country" for stories CNN affiliates are covering. First stop, Philadelphia. A city bus passenger says a woman he criticized for spanking her child called friends who then -- who then kind of assaulted the bus with automatic weapons. No one was injured. Four people are charged with attempted murder.
And in New Hampshire, police in Plastow (ph) are looking for a man they call the remorseful robber. They say he stole a woman's wallet out of her shopping cart. Three days later, he actually gave it back at her home with an extra $10.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, I'm sorry. It's like I just stood there and froze. He turn around and ran down the driveway. I would like to believe it, you know, that he really needed the money, but not after I heard he tried it again. That's not sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And now to the big island of Hawaii. Scientists have been tracking two new streams of lava from Kilauea volcano. The streams have merged and lava is now ponding in a low area, as you see right now. It's an extraordinary view. This is in a remote part of the volcano's national park that is closed to the public.
All right, getting the U.S. economy growing again. That's the chief concern for the White House and for U.S. Congress. We'll hear from the economist who has President Obama's ear.
And another quick check of the Dow right now. Now it's up! It's been a roller coaster ride all morning long. Up now 80 points. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, a bit of good news in this tough stretch for the U.S. economy. The Labor Department says the economy added 117,000 jobs last month. Experts were expecting about 75,000. The unemployment rate dropped slightly from 9.2 to 9.1 percent. And then after yesterday's big selloff on Wall Street, it has been up and down all day long. And right now, a little encouraging news, going back up by about 115 points. Felicia Taylor is now with us from New York. So, she sat down with Austan Goolsbee, the White House chief economist and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.
Felicia, what were the highlights?
FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, he basically took a look at what that jobs report is and said pretty much what you just did, which is, we've got a better than expected number, however it's not good enough. And we haven't really been able to see a sustainable recovery. We need to see months of more than 200,000 jobs created in order for the economy and for it, frankly, for investors here on Wall Street to believe that we're moving in the right direction. But hear it from him himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIST: It was an encouraging number. Well better than expected. But clearly we've got a long way to go. I think what needs to be done is, we need to overcome what are some well-known heavy blows we took the first half of the year from gas prices, from the events in Europe, the events in Japan. I think what we ought to do now is enact those things that have bipartisan support, put off the things that both parties are going to argue about and do the things that they agree on, like free trade agreements, the infrastructure bank is bipartisan, the patent reform. Some things that have been put on hold while there was this dysfunction coming out of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAYLOR: Now, words like dysfunction are not what you want to hear as a description for your government. Clearly that doesn't put any positive sentiment on anything. And that's really what, you know, investors are concerned about right now is the sense of dysfunction in Washington. We've got that debt ceiling off of the table at the moment, but it was the three weeks leading up to it that really dismayed investors. And that's why you're seeing a kind of whip saw reaction of the market today where you're up 160 points on that good piece of economic news on the jobs front, but then down another 215 points on any kind of headline that crosses. And still that that uncertainty remains that we're not really in a recovery yet. And now you've got people throwing out words like a double dip recession,. That remains to be seen.
Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Felicia Taylor, thanks so much, from New York. Thanks so much.
All right. So with all the turmoil in the markets you may be wondering what should you do with your money. Here's some free advice from the CNN "Help Desk."
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Well, time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Manisha Thakor, a personal financial expert, and John Ulzheimer, the president of consumer education at smartcredit.com.
Guys, thanks very much for being here.
We have two interesting questions. The first one comes from Frankie in Columbia, Missouri. Frankie asks, "Is it better to just pay the minimum of several credit cards at once or pay off one at a time while skipping payments on one or two others?"
John, what do you think?
JOHN ULZHEIMER, PRESIDENT OF CONSUMER EDUCATION, SMARTCREDIT.COM: Skipping payments equals bad idea always, OK. If you are treading water to the point where you're barely able to make the minimum payments to the point where you're even contemplating skipping payments on some in lieu of the other, you need to reach out for some help. Contact the NFCC, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, nfcc.org. Sign up for a debt management program. They can get your interest rates lowered, which means your payments are going to go down.
HARLOW: Right.
ULZHEIMER: Hopefully you can attack the principle more aggressively than you're currently able to do so. Knock out the debt.
HARLOW: Yes, and stop spending.
ULZHEIMER: And stop spending.
HARLOW: Stop spending.
Manisha, your question comes from Harriet in San Diego, California. Harriet writes, "I'm 71 and very conservative with my money. What is the minimum percentage of stocks that I should have in my portfolio?"
MANISHA THAKOR, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: It's a interesting question, particularly coming from women who I've noticed just have a propensity to be a little more conservative in their investment posture. My favorite rule of thumb comes from John Vogel, the founder of Vanguard. He says 100 minus or age is the maximum amount to have in stocks. So in Harriet's case, 100 minus 70 would be 30 percent as the maximum. If she's really nervous, you could maybe take it down to 20 percent. But there's big risks in her not having any stocks because, of course, then she faces the specter of inflation.
HARLOW: Sure. And especially given the yields lately.
THAKOR: Precisely. So a little bit of that extra juice in there is actually a conservative way of making sure that you don't outlive your money.
HARLOW: She's got enough for retirement.
THAKOR: Yes.
HARLOW: Guys, thank you so much.
If you have a question you want answered by our experts, just e- mail us anytime at cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Protests are raging across Syria despite the government's brutal crackdown. This video from YouTube reports to show tear gas and shots being fired at a mosque in Duma (ph). The theme of today's nationwide demonstrations is "God is with us." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is appealing for a louder, more effective international response. She says Syria's government is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths since the unrest started mid March.
Libyan rebels are making key advances in their battle against Moammar Gadhafi' forces. Rebel troops are now eyeing the town of Tiji, which is on the doorstep of Tripoli. Our Michael Holmes takes us to an observation point on the front lines. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two thousand years ago, so the locals say, this crumbling structure was an observation post for berbers (ph) on the lookout for invading Roman armies. Today, it's a lookout for a whole new war. Rebel fighters watching over the Gadhafi-held city of Tiji a few kilometers away. Rebels have it sealed off on three sides. From the fourth, to the northeast, Tripoli.
HOLMES (on camera): The rebels are calling Tiji, the town behind me, a gateway city. That's because, they say, if they take that and the nearby town of Barto (ph) to the east, then there's going to be very little standing between them and the doorstep of Tripoli.
HOLMES (voice-over): But talking about taking Tiji and actually achieving it are different things. Rockets arrive daily from the city and into the nearby town of Kabul (ph), but rebels are not returning fire at the moment. That's because when they advanced on the city and engaged Gadhafi troops in a fierce firefight earlier this week, they saw families, including women and children, running into houses. And so they withdrew.
TAREK ZAMBOU, HEAD OF LOCAL MILITARY COUNCIL: This situation we're facing a bigger problem because Gadhafi forces and Gadhafi (INAUDIBLE) people and civilian people as a human shield.
HOLMES: That's a claim we can't independently verify, but it is clear that after making significant gains last week, seizing half a dozen towns beneath the Nafusa (ph) Mountains, the advance here has stalled at this key city. Rebels say they've gotten word to the remaining residents to leave and leave soon.
ZAMBOU: We will go in, but we will try, as can, you know, to avoid the civilian people. But we should be a go, you know, because we give them the chance.
HOLMES: During our visit to this observation post, anti-aircraft fire, ineffective from this distance, could be heard coming from the city. Zambou says he likes that sound. It is, he said, the sound of Gadhafi fighters wasting ammunition.
HOLMES (on camera): And this is as close to the front line as we'll get today. The rebel commander we're with says if we drive down that road, we will be seen by Gadhafi forces and they will open fire on us and on his men.
HOLMES (voice-over): With the prize that is Tiji so clearly in their sights, the rebels say it won't be long before they're firing back again.
Michael Holmes, near Tiji, western Libya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And the CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Fred. Thank you and have a great weekend.
WHITFIELD: You too.
