SUSIE GHARIB: Wall Street came back from the Christmas holiday in a jolly mood. The Dow rose 52 points and the NASDAQ added 16. On a day famous for returning Christmas gifts, investors did the opposite, buying up retail stocks. As Scott Gurvey reports, some of the biggest sales gains this holiday season were not from traditional retailers.

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: If there were any real bright spots on the holiday sales front, they were found online. Internet portal Yahoo! (YHOO) says sales on 10,000 retail sites it hosts rose 86 percent, with users spending more than $10 billion online. Amazon.com (AMZN) sold roughly one million items each day throughout the holiday season. The news was bullish for the stock of both companies. But online sales are still only a small fraction of total retail sales and overall the season was just about as bad as predicted. The closely watched Retail Index from Intelli-Check (IDN), a company that verifies customer checks, rose by only 2.2 percent this season. It rose 3.1 percent last year. Sales over the weekend and on Monday were strong, but deep discounts were needed to lure shoppers.

LINDA KRISTIANSEN, RETAIL ANALYST, UBS WARBURG: The retailers that did really well were the discounters. Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) really stood out as doing well, I'd say Wal-Mart in particular. They came in at the upper end of their plan for the season. And Target as well. They were actually a little above plan, Target. So both the discounters, the major discounters, did well. K Mart (KM) would be the exception to that.

GURVEY: K Mart had been looking for zero to two percent sales growth and appears to have come in about flat. Similar results are expected from the major department stores, which have been losing share to the discounters for years. Analysts say with expectations greatly reduced, they see fourth quarter earnings coming in on target.

ADRIANNE SHAPIRA, RETAIL ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS: We don't think we'll have any sort of dramatic downward revisions coming. The question is what '02 brings. Hopefully, you know, we're all crossing our fingers for some sort of recovery in the back half of '02. To what degree that happens, you know, we're all sort waiting and watching.

GURVEY: The uncertainty is due to questions over sales margins. It took so much discounting to get the customers into the stores this season that profits will be severely reduced. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

SUSIE GHARIB: Crude oil prices jumped more than $1.50 today, pumped up by hopes that OPEC will cut production when it meets in Cairo on Friday. Oil sector stocks also rose on the news. Darren Gersh reports.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: For weeks, oil prices have rocked back and forth as traders waited to see what OPEC would do. In November, the cartel warned there would be no cuts in production unless Russia, Norway and other non-OPEC nations also slashed output by half a million barrels a day. Fearing a stalemate, oil markets braced for a plunge in prices. But now, non OPEC producers have fallen in line and the Saudi oil minister says there is a 100 percent chance OPEC will agree on Friday to cut production beginning January 1.

GEORGE BERANEK, OIL MARKET ANALYST, PETROLEUM FINANCE COMPANY: That deal is finally coming through. They're going to lower supply to match reduced demand levels and that helps to put a floor under crude oil prices.

GERSH: Since the beginning of the year, OPEC has cut oil production three and a half million barrels a day. On Friday, it is expected to slash quotas another one and a half million barrels, bringing production to the lowest levels since the Gulf War. With supply and demand finally coming into line, crude oil futures on the Nynex today jumped $1.65, to settle at $21.27 a barrel, good news for energy stocks.

POE FRATT, OIL SERVICE SECTOR ANALYST, A.G. EDWARDS: Investors are getting more optimistic on the oil service sector in particular and the energy sector in general, that we've seen the worst of commodity prices behind us and now is a good time to look at stocks that had gotten beaten up pretty severely during the middle of the year.

GERSH: It's not just OPEC. The weather outside is finally frightful and the return of real winter is also fueling enthusiasm for energy stocks. Oil service stocks have now rebounded 30 to 60 percent from their lows of late September. Still, no one is predicting big run up in oil prices.

BERANEK: The second quarter is always a very soft period for oil demand. Prices tend to go down, inventories tend to go up. So over the next six months, we don't have a lot of sustained upside here.

GERSH: But as the economy recovers and the summer driving season begins, analysts expect the price of a barrel of crude oil could rise to the mid 20s. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

JEFF YASTINE: Well, it used to be that declaring personal bankruptcy was seen as a stigma for many Americans. No more. With a slow economy, it's tough for consumers to pay bills on time, so tough that more and more people are going bankrupt to get relief and reorganize their finances. And despite efforts to tighten bankruptcy standards, no one expects those numbers to drop anytime soon. When times are tough and people lose their jobs, they may come here first, an unemployment benefits office. But as savings dwindle and credit bills pile up, more will come to see advisors like Joel Tabas, a bankruptcy attorney in Miami, Florida. He's seeing a lot more people coming to his office in recent months looking for debt relief.

JOEL TABAS, BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY: It's usually a head of household or a husband or wife who have combined earnings of $30,000 or less but have credit card debt, substantial credit card debt, at least $50,000 credit card debt. And we're seeing more people defaulting on their credit card obligations now as the economy gets a little worse.

YASTINE: The American Bankruptcy Institute says when it tallies the final numbers for 2001, more than 1.4 million U.S. households will have sought personal bankruptcy protection, a record number. But experts advise don't blame it all on the current weak economy.

SAM GERDANO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN BANKRUPTCY INSTITUTE: Ironically, however, bankruptcy filings also tend to go up during a time of robust economic expansion. And that was true of much of the period of the 1990s, as well, and that's because consumer spending and debt burden tends to correlate fairly closely with rising bankruptcy filing.

YASTINE: The trend may be here to stay. Experts say a proposed change in federal law making it harder for people to file for bankruptcy is stuck in Congress and won't likely be approved. Still others think changing the bankruptcy laws will do little to solve the real problem, people living beyond their means. They argue more individuals could and should make efforts to pay debts and restructure their finances without declaring bankruptcy.

STEVE RHODE, PRESIDENT, MYVESTA.ORG: Money problems are not about the money. They're about the underlying life issues. And if we simply try to react to the fact that somebody can't afford their payments this month without looking at what their lifestyle is and what their expenses are, you're never going to solve the problem.

YASTINE: And this year California tops the number of personal bankruptcy filings, 112,000 for January through September. Florida ranks second with 64,000.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

SUSIE GHARIB: During the S&L crisis in the US, investors all around the world bought up American assets, paving the way for an eventual improvement in the market. Now, history seems to be repeating itself in Japan. As Lucy Craft explains in the first of a two-part series, Americans could now be the catalyst for a turnaround in Japan's economy.

LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Forty-five-year-old buyout specialist Timothy Collins professes an aversion to the limelight, preferring a discreet low profile for himself and his New York-based private equity firm. But in Japan, his Ripplewood Holdings is anything but obscure. Collins is the most aggressive of a handful of foreign investors who are acquiring bankrupt Japanese companies at fire-sale prices.

ROBERT FELDMAN, ECONOMIST, MORGAN STANLEY: I think a lot of foreigners will be coming here looking for good deals. Whether it turns into a flood depends in part on the ability of the Japanese to stand up to the plate and say, "no, I want it first," which many of them may want to do. But I do expect foreigners to come in and have a very active and constructive role in getting the Japanese economy back on track.

CRAFT: Ripplewood signed its first deal here in 1999, picking up this prestigious but failed former industrial bank; a car parts company, resort, and Japan's oldest recording company were added to Ripplewood's portfolio this year. With a war chest of over $1 billion, Collins is still shopping for bargains in the chemicals, hotels, and electronics fields. Other potential investors look at Japan and they say, "this is a basket case." You look at it, when you're looking at the distressed assets here what do you see?

TIMOTHY COLLINS, FOUNDER & CEO, RIPPLEWOOD HOLDINGS: Well, we don't really look at distressed assets. We look industry by industry, and what we see is a country that's got the most powerful industrial infrastructure in the world. It's got fabulous engineers, great technology, and a hangover from a disastrous bubble in the financial system, frankly not unlike - although elongated and exacerbated by the long length of time - not unlike some of the problems that the US is facing today. So when we look at investments, we fundamentally first on the industry and second on the competitive position of the underlying enterprises. And what happens on a macroeconomic basis is often a lot less relevant.

CRAFT: But while fans call Ripplewood visionary, detractors call the firm a vulture. Hostile popular reaction to Ripplewood's headline-generating acquisitions has been reminiscent of anti-Japanese hysteria in the US, when Japanese snapped up Rockefeller Center and other trophy properties in the 1980s.

EDWIN MERNER, PRESIDENT, ATLANTIS INVESTMENT RESEARCH CORPORATION: People are worried that they're asset strippers. So more or less they're going to come in, they're going to then sell off the pieces at a higher price than the parts are worth as a group, and then they're just going to pack their bags, put their money in their bags, and leave. I think that's the fear, that they're not really serious long- term players; they're just guys who want to make quick buck and be on their way.

CRAFT: Collins, who has specialized in turnarounds for over 10 years in the US, calls such charges unfounded. And admirers say his strategy of scouring Japan for gems in the rough, competitive but debt- saddled companies, is sound.

FELDMAN: I think he's perfectly right about that. I did a calculation once based on a sample of about 2,500 companies. A quarter of the companies, interestingly enough, have poor return on assets but also very low leverage. And that's a group of companies, a quarter of this entire sample, where if you can just get some management focused on raising the return on assets, then they could bloom into very, very good companies. So I think Tim is entirely right about that. Lucy Craft, "NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT," Tokyo.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

SUSIE GHARIB: In the "Money File" tonight, a new year brings new opportunity to get your financial house in order. Here's Terry Savage, author of "The Savage Truth on Money."

TERRY SAVAGE, AUTHOR, "THE SAVAGE TRUTH ON MONEY: It's a new year starting next week. What will you be doing differently with your money? I have a few ideas. Mostly they involve the power of the Internet. How about paying your bills online? That's not new for me; I've been doing it for five years, and I can tell you that online bill- pay is an incredible time-saver. Not to mention how organized you feel. My favorite way is to use one of the two popular software programs, but you can sign up right at your bank's Web site and get going in minutes. Yes, it's secure, and it usually costs less than stamps. Any day now they'll start presenting bills electronically. It's already happening in some places. No more junk mail to sort through, now there's an incentive. What about filing your taxes online this year? No, I haven't done that yet. Taxes sort of intimidate me anyway. But you can save a fortune in hourly accounting fees just by organizing your data on a tax software program for your tax preparer, or the take the obvious next step. The most popular tax software makes it easy to do your own taxes. Even if you decide not to file electronically, just going through the software program may prompt you to take deductions you might have otherwise overlooked. One more change to consider: how about getting investment advice online? It's certainly a better alternative than asking your coworker or neighbor how to allocate your 401(k) plan assets. Computerized modeling can help you make decisions to reach your personal goals. As we enter 2002, the Internet is alive and well, and it can give you a whole new level of power over your money. The new year is a great time to get started. I'm Terry Savage.

Nightly Business Report transcripts are available on-line post broadcast. The program is transcribed by eMediaMillWorks. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc. Nightly Business Report, or WPBT. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. © 2001 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

JEFF YASTINE: And investors went shopping for a few stock bargains of their own this morning, although volume in general was fairly light. The Dow Jones Industrial average racking up most of its gains in the first hour of trading, spurred on by the positive news Scott mentioned about Wal-Mart and its retail sales for December. The Dow jumping nearly 120 points before flattening out a bit.

Big board volume was light, but advancers led decliners by a 2 to 1 margin. By noontime, the Dow remained about 125 points higher. In afternoon trading, the Nasdaq spent time digesting the gains from earlier in the day. And that news of Yahoo!'s 86 percent gain in holiday shopping sales on Web sites that it does host rubbed off on other online retailers like Amazon, and that also helped the NASDAQ hold its gains.

In late trading, the Dow retouched 10,168, which was the intraday high from three weeks ago, and that was enough to bring in the profit takers. And the Dow losing about 70 points in that last hour of trading, but still managing to hold onto a nice gain for such a slow day, going on to close up a little over 52 points at 10,088. And the Nasdaq Composite rising almost, a little over 16 points to close at 1,960.

Big board volume improving just a bit, but still light considering the holiday week, about 800 million shares exchanging hands.

Transports climbing nearly 25 points.

Utilities rising exactly 3.

The Closing Tick mildly bullish at +114.

In the broader market, S&P 500, 100 and MidCap 400 all posting decent gains on the day.

And the CRB Futures Price Index gaining nearly 2 points, as well.

The New York Stock Exchange Composite advancing 2 1/2.

The Value Line rising nearly 3.

And the Russell 2000 Small Caps rising 4 1/3.

The broadly-based Wilshire 5000 up about 54 1/2 points.

More selling for a third consecutive trading day for bonds. Traders said it was mostly due to booking year end profits and there was also more positioning ahead of tomorrow's $23 billion auction of two year notes by the Treasury.

And by the way, the yield on the taxable money market mutual funds is now at its lowest ever, 1.58 percent. One year ago those same funds yielded about six percent, so quite a drop.

Tax frees and corporate issues closed lower.

And Treasuries were down across-the-board, the 5-year note off 11/32.

The 10-year note down 14/32.

And the 30-year off 22/32. The yield at 5.54 percent.

And the Lehman Brothers Long Bond Index falling about 5 points on the day.

Well,not much impact from Argentina on our own markets here, and the Dow managing to hold above the 10,000 level for the fifth day in a row, advancers taking command with a nearly 2 to 1 lead over decliners and 133 issues setting new yearly highs, just 30 new lows.

Solectron (SLR) giving up $0.27 on the day.

Lucent (LU) edged up a $0.05. The company leads in wireless infrastructure sales over the past year and a half, according to a report from Merrill Lynch.

G.E. (GE) falling $0.58.

AT&T Wireless (AWE) gained $0.59. On Tuesday, the company's former parent, AT&T, completing the sale of its remaining stake in AT&T Wireless.

No change in EMC (EMC).

AOL Time Warner (AOL) falling $0.50 -- or, excuse me, $0.44.

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil (XOM) climbing $0.60. Of course, you heard the report earlier about oil prices climbing as the oil market prepares for those OPEC production cuts.

And there's AT&T (T) slipping a $0.10 on the day.

Motorola (MOT) ended off a $0.05. Today it filed a shelf registration to sell up to $2 billion in debt and equity securities.

Halliburton (HAL) slipped $0.39. It's still under pressure from asbestos liability concerns, and this was a $22 stock at the beginning of the month.

Among the widely helds, Big Blue, IBM (IBM) rising $0.95.

3M (MMM) jumped $1.21, that was the biggest gainer on the Dow.

Schlumberger (SLB), another oil service company here rising nearly $3.00.

Schering-Plough (SGP) falling $0.93. The drug-maker earlier won FDA approval to market its new allergy drug, Clarinex but says it will charge 18 percent less than its popular Claritin allergy product. And that's a bigger discount than analysts were expecting between those two drugs.

Tiffany & Company (TIF) rising $0.98. UBS Warburg repeating a strong buy in the luxury goods retailer, raising its 12-month price target to $39 a share.

Tyson Foods (TSN) edged up $0.13. The poultry producer reportedly seeking resolution of a government probe into alleged violations of environmental laws in Missouri.

A.C.L.N. (ASW) gaining $2.61. It's had accounting concerns that have put the stock under pressure recently. The company denies any discrepancies and blames short sellers for the drop in the stock.

Meanwhile Whitehall Jewellers (JWL) gaining $1.17 after Lizard upgraded the stock from hold to buy.

Burnham Pacific Properties (BPP) rising $0.30 after SEC filings show that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) holds a 5 percent stake in the company.

Shares in Covanta Energy (COV) ended off $0.66 after a $6 drop on Monday and that's on news the firm is scrambling with lenders to address liquidity concerns.

Group 1 Automotive (GPI) falling $1.44. The shares are mentioned as a good short by one fund manager in this past weekend's "Barron's" on the expectation that car sales will fall when zero percent financing goes away.

And here's another auto retailer, United Auto Group (UAG). It was down for the day but after the close it says that it expects fourth quar