>> bret: james rosen live on the hill tonight. thank you. general motors raised more than $23 billion today in its initial public offering. the stock closed up $1.19 ending at $34.19 a share. president obama made a rare appearance in the white house briefing room to react to that. >> we are finally beginning to see some of these tough decisions that we made in the midst of crisis pay off and i'm absolutely confident that we're going to keep on making progress. i believe we're going to get through this tougher and stronger than we were before. >> bret: federal government is hoping the ipo is the first step toward breaking even on its $50 billion bailout. more on this with the panel tonight. applications for first time unemployment benefits rose by 2,000 last week but remain near their lowest levels in two years. the number of homeowners at risk of foreclosure dropped by .8 of a percentage point in the third quarter and stands at 9.1%.