i'm suzanne pratt. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, tom. >> tom: good night, suzanne. i'm tom hudson 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. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. the times square bomber was sentenced to life in prison

i'm suzanne pratt. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, tom. >> tom: good night, suzanne. i'm tom hudson 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. mark walberg: welcome to antiques roadshow, this week from philadelphia. on top of the kitchen cabinets in a dim light i saw what looked like a basketball. and this was it. when i was looking before the filming, i found $100 in there. do you mind if i keep... (laughing): no, i'd rather have that back. that's unbelievable. lots of history, surprises and excitement

suzanne pratt takes a look at whether it's a mistake for investors to buy bonds at current high price tags. >> reporter: as if small investors don't have enough to worry about, now there's a debate on wall street as to whether a bubble is brewing in government bonds. if there is and it pops, it would create big losses for bond investors, who have been seeking the safety of treasuries. b.n.p. paribas bond expert suvrat prakesh doesn't see a bubble. >> most investors i speak to are more concerned about disinflation than inflation, which is the main premise for the argument that the bond market is in a bubble. >> reporter: according to the investment company institute, people have poured more than $200 billion into bond funds since the beginning of the year. the heavy demand, coupled with large purchases of treasuries by the federal reserve, have pushed bond prices higher and yields to historic lows. so far this year, u.s. government bonds, as measured by barclays capital treasury index, have returned close to 10%. barclays bond strategist michael pond doesn't believe there's a bubble ei

but as suzanne pratt reports, the housing market is getting hammered by headwinds. >> reporter: yes, there are finally signs of life in the housing market. and they even include a few signs like these. the lowest mortgage rates on record, coupled with more affordable home prices, are attracting buyers. still, economist michael gapen says september's recovery is just a bounce back. >> we saw a very sharp dropoff in sales and activity in the summer months. so, we believe what we're seeing now is just a more normalization of activity-- a stabilization of activity at low levels. >> reporter: experts agree the residential market is likely to remain depressed for the foreseeable future. stubbornly high unemployment reduces the pool of willing shoppers. on top of that, the supply of unsold homes is just too big. total housing inventory fell to 10.7 months in september. that's down from august's hefty 12-month supply, but a long way from the six-month level seen in a healthy market. economist yelena shulyateva says supply will soon be even greater, as millions of additional distressed proper

we begin with suzanne pratt in new york. >> reporter: bank of america, citi, j.p. morgan chase and wells fargo. these are the banks with the biggest potential exposure to what's now being called "foreclosuregate." but just how much could faulty mortgage foreclosures cost the u.s. financial sector? on wall street, the range of estimates is staggering. jp morgan's own research staff says, worst case scenario, the price tag could reach a hefty $120 billion. that would cover the expense of buying back mortgages. most banking experts, however, are projecting losses closer to half that number, over a period of several years. s&p analyst erik oja puts the cost somewhere in between financial fiasco and minor blip. >> at this point i'm not sure if it's a minor blip. i'm sure that as these banks go through their foreclosure pipeline, they will find instances of paperwork that needs to be redone. >> and, robert albertson of sandler o'neill says speculating about the size of the losses is silly because the banks can handle it. >> people fail to understand how much the banks ha

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: 21 days, or three weeks-- that's all we've lived through, so far, of this year's fourth quarter. but already, optimism about the last earnings period of 2010 is helping to lift stocks. sure, the approach of mid-term elections and hopes for more fed action have also been big factors for the market. but ubs strategist mike ryan says solid third-quarter results is making analysts feel more upbeat about the fourth quarter profits. >> even though this is not specifically about much higher guidance for the fourth quarter, i think what you're seeing is that analysts are going through the resetting of expectations based on what they're seeing in the most recent earnings reports. >> reporter: when it comes to corporate profits, it's the future that matters most. s&p earnings expert mike thompson says, if the future is defined as the fourth quarter, it looks decent. >> you're going to have positive numbers. you're going to have better growth for the whole s&p 500, by and large, at an aggregate level. >> reporter: better, that is than q3, which could have prof

suzanne pratt takes a look at what it will take to get small investors back into the game. >> reporter: it's lunch time at this midtown manhattan ameritrade office, and surprisingly, there are some small investors inside. surprising, because small investors have been absent from the stock market for nearly two years. ameritrade's peter sidebottom says small investors are getting ready to tiptoe back into stocks. >> we think they are starting to gain confidence. there are starting to be good earnings reports. we see some momentum in the indexes and also in the market. we think they're starting to look at and figure out how they want to be back into equities. >> reporter: the dow has rallied nearly 8% in september, and many small investors have missed it. the blue chip index is up 60% since stocks bottomed in the march of last year. and guess what-- the little guy missed that, too. first, it was the financial crisis that seriously spooked individual investors. and just as they started to return to equities early this year, they got burned again by the "flash crash" in may. a huge drop in

suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: halloween is just days away, and with it comes the start of a season that's anything but spooky for the stock market. according to standard & poor's, november to january is the best three-month period for stocks. since 1930, the s&p 500 has added an average of 3.2% during that stretch. and, it's been an up period in two thirds of those years strategist sam stovall says the gains happen because investors shift their focus. >> i think the reason why november starts off the strongest rolling three-month period is that investors, after they start getting the news about third-quarter earnings reports, start to focus on the year ahead. they start to focus about five quarters ahead-- pretty much giving up on the current year. >> reporter: past history does not necessarily guarantee that this november through january will be a good period for the stock market. but, those experts who believe it will point to attractive valuations for equities. strategist art hogan says the market needs to get past mid- term elections and next week's fed meeting. stocks will the

i'm suzanne pratt. good night, everyone, and good night to you, too, jeff. >> jeff: good night, suzanne. i'm jeff yastine. 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

. >> suzanne: that's "nightly business report" for friday, october 15. i'm suzanne pratt. goodnight, everyone and have a great weekend. you too, tom. >> tom: good night suzanne. i'm tom hudson 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

i'm suzanne pratt and we hope to see every one of you tomorrow night p. 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 >> 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.

suzanne pratt, "nightly business report," new york. >> tom: good news, bad news in today's new home sales report. the good news first. new homes sales rose 6.6% in september to 307,000 units, or an 8-month supply. the bad? sales are still near their lowest levels since uncle sam started tracking the numbers 40 years ago. meanwhile, the nation's home builders today said business is slowly starting to pick up from historic lows. but their chief economist, david crowe, says this recession was different. >> unlike most housing recoveries, this housing industry is really not going to lead the economy out of this recession, it's going to follow it or at least be concurrent with it, because the people that will buy houses have got to be secure in their jobs. >> tom: another issue homebuilders are worried about, the foreclosure paperwork mess putting a chill on demand, which could weaken home prices. but the u.s. treasury isn't worried. its office of homeowner preservation today said it sees no big problems from issues surrounding foreclosures. >> susie: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. n