U. S. Output, is finally picking up. Growths domestic product expanded in the third quarter, ending september 30th at an annual rate of 3. 2 , its strongest growth in two years, held by solid consumer spending. Corporate profits rebounded for a Third Straight quarter. Separately, there was a surge in Consumer Confidence this month. Index rose to a nineyear high and expectations for the next six months were the most optimistic since june of last year. Later this week comes the jobs report, which most economists think will show a nation at or close to full employment. The bottom line, the u. S. Economy for all the campaign trail handwringing is a far cry from where it stood when the white house last changed occupants. And thats not all. Home prices at the National Level are higher than ever before. Diana olick takes a look at that key pillar. Home price gains gaining and just hit a new record. The muchwatched s p caseshiller National Home price index surpassed its last peak, which was in 2006 at the height of the last housing boom. Low supply and high demand fueling competition, which in turn fueled prices. Home prices in september jumped 5. 5 annually. Thats bigger than the 5. 1 gain in august. And that again is a national record. But we all know, all real estate is local, so lets dig in. The 20 largest markets were up 5. 1 , which was unchanged from august. Top gainers continue to be seattle, portland and denver, which are all taking the runoff from people moving out of san francisco. All in all, seven cities reached new price peaks, adding to those three are dallas, boston, charlotte, san francisco. Markets hardest hit by the housing crash, miami, tampa, phoenix and las vegas have seen big price gains but are still well below prerecession peaks. All price gains were recorded before mart rates shot up in november. The average rate on the 30year fixed jumped from 3. 5 to 2. 25 today. We are already seeing a dropoff in the number of people looking for homes and requesting showings, that according to red fin. Prices always lag sales, but no question, higher rates give buyers less buying power. For nightly Business Report, im diana olick in washington. And a fed official today said the case has strengthened for an Interest Rate hike since the Central Banks last meeting. Forearm reserve governor, Jerome Powell said the economy is growing at a healthy pace, inflation growing higher and the job market is strong. Powell also warned that moving too slowly to increase rates could mean that policymakers would have to catch up and raise them at a faster pace to keep the economy from overheating. Stocks resumed their climb today, helped by a stirring of economic reports that came out. We just talked about. With the major indexes closing near their alltime highs. But a decline in the price of Oil Pressured energy stocks. That capped the days gains. The Dow Jones Industrial average advanced 23 points to 19,121. Nasdaq added 11. The s p 500 was up nearly 3 points. The trump administrations cabinet is starting to take shape. Congressman tom price, an obamacare critic, has been picked to be the secretary of health and Human Services. More on him in just a moment. Elaine chow, former labor secretary under president bush, is reported to be the new transportation secretary. And private equity investor, wilbur ross, who is reportedly being considered for commerce secretary, was at trump tower today. Take a listen. It was a good enough meeting. It gave me a proper arrangement. Thank you. John harwood is outside trump tower in new york city. Good to see you, john. Lets start with ms. Chow. She will play a crucial role in shaping the president select big infrastructure agenda, and she is no stranger to washington. Tell us more about her. Reporter well, shes been around in washington a long time, as you mentioned. She served as labor secretary under president george w. Bush. She is married to mitch mcconnell, the Senate Majority leader. That serves only to underscore Donald Trumps ties with the Republican Congress, just like tom price does. One potential conflict she may have is with her familys shipping company, her father founded and her sister now runs a shipping company. Thats one of the issues thats under the purview of the department of transportation. But i would expect an easy confirm medication for elaine chow, nervertheless. Now moving to industrials and wilbur roth. He certainly knows about steel. He knows about manufacturing. He will probably be involved in renegotiating trade deals. But his business interests could pose conflicts, no . Reporter well, exactly. And the issue i just mentioned was elaine chow, an issue with the president elect himself. Donald trump, not the least of which is the hotel he has in washington that foreign dignitaries are now saying theyre going to stay in. So, yes. The business interests of wilbur ross range across what the Commerce Department oversees, and trade, of course, is one of the things hes been very critical of trade deals like donald trump has. And so you can expect very close attention to the overlap between his investments and the new stance that the administration is going to take. Before i turn you to secretary of state, the New York Times just reporting late this evening that Steve Munchin is treasure secretary. Reporter he has been the expected choice. There is talk among hensarling in the house of representatives. John allison, former chair of bb t. But steven mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs partner, active in fundraising for donald trump during the campaign, has been the expected choice, and i was told earlier today that there is a good possibility that that could come this week, if not tonight. All right. John, thank you so much. Get out of that rain. John harwood in new york city. I will. To you to tom price, whom donald trump has picked to be his top health official. He will run the department that oversees the Affordable Care act. And as Bertha Coombs reports, its no secret price wants to make big changes to the health law. Tom price is an Orthopedic Surgeon by training, and as House Budget Committee chairman, he was a key opponent of president Barack ObamasAffordable Care act. And Donald Trumps pick for health and Human Services secretary will play a key role in acting the president elects vision to repeal and replace the aca. Hes a known entity. Hes had leadership positions, House Budget Committee also in the conference. So as far as trumps major idea on health care repealing and replacing brark, price will be the one to do that. Reporter prices own prescription for replacement includes measures to get insurers to bring down plan costs, like selling across state lines for consumers, agebased tax credits and Health Savings accounts, rather than the ac as incomebased credits. While it may bring down costs, those gop proposals would not extend coverage to as many people as the aca did. We found that we can get more people insured than we had in the preaca state the world. But we have seen only 2 to 9 Million People more, not the full 20 Million People more. Reporter part of the reason, the republican plan to roll back the expansion of medicaid and would restructure the program through block grants to the state. Analysts say that would give more spending power to states, but less federal funding. States would likely continue to turn to insurers to keep costs under control, but it would put pressure most likely on hospitals. It does appear to be a more aggressive way to get costs under control, and hospitals being at the top of the food chain. It is the highest level of most intense health care spending. They would be hurt. It would be a negative for hospitals. Reporter but as hhs secretary, rolling back some regulations now pressuring hospitals in doctors under the aca. Already in congress, he has pushed for easing deadlines on providers to meet new Electronic Health record requirements. For nightly Business Report, im Bertha Coombs, new york. Lets turn now to sherry gleed for more on tom price and the changes we could see to the existing health care laws. Sherry, thank you very much. She is a Health Care Policy expert, currently dean of nyus Robert Wagner school of public service. What would tom price do . How would he tinker with or replace obamacare . Price would be Donald Trumps main adviser as congress decides how to replace obamacare and hes put his own proposals forward. So he would be the architect of the promise, presumably that trump would negotiate with the Republican Congress around how to replace obamacare. He would also be responsible for implementing the regulations around whatever new regulation was passed and for implementing whatever aspects of the Affordable Care act remain in place. Bertha coombs in her piece just mentioned she thought given what we know of whats going to be proposed that the hospitals would be big losers and maybe the insurance companies. Do you agree with that, given what we know so far . I think thats right. Hospitals are losers on a number of fronts here. One is a lot of people who currently have insurance will lose it. And many people who will lose it will be the least healthy of those people who now have insurance. Prices plan is more favorable to young, Healthy People than it is to older, sicker people and, of course, hospitals wind up bearing the brunt in terms of uncompensated care. True with respect to medicaid cutbacks. Not in favor a lot of the Delivery System reforms pushed by the Obama Administration and hospitals have invested a lot in the reforms, as well. I was going ask you a question about his tax credits that he would give to people to buy insurance in the private market. Theyre based on age. In other words, you get more the older you are and presumably the more expensive your insurance would be. They begin at 1200 a year. Talk to me about that. You cant buy much insurance for 1200 a year. Thats right. These are much lower than the ones available, especially to lowerincome people under the Affordable Care act. So these tax credits would really only help very relatively highincome purchasers of coverage. In fact, i think one of the concerns here is that they would essentially get displaced private money, people who could afford coverage on their own would find that 1200 an attractive bonus. But its not enough money for somebody who couldnt afford coverage in the first place. Would be employersponsored plans . How would they be affected . Prices plan, essentially plans to fund those tax credits by rolling back the tax treatment of employersponsored insurance. Its kind of like the cadillac tax and Affordable Care act thats really drawn a lot of concern and has been responsible for a long time. The proposal that price has is actually much more draconian than the cadillac tax. It comes in at 8,000 per person. So if an employer is spending more than 8,000 on Health Insurance for one of their employees, all of the rest of the cost would become taxable to the employer. So they lose that as a deduction, as a writeoff. Exactly. Thank you, youve been helpful. Its a complicated thickette and you have explained it well. Sherry greed with nyus Robert Wagner school. As we mentioned earlier, Oil Prices Lower today on reports that opec members are struggling to agree on a Production Cut that the group outlined back in september. Domestic crude tumbled 4 , just a day ahead of the official meeting and as Steve Sedgewick reports from vienna, the stakes were high. Reporter late tuesday in vienna, still a lot of question marks about whether opec, which controls up to 40 of global oil supplies, will actually come forth with the deal they promised us from algiers in september, i. E. , to cut production to 1 Million Barrels a day. Its the old questions that still remain, will the likes of iran and iraq get an exemption or forced to take a cut, as well, in order to get a unanimous decision throughout the grouping. I spoke to one oil minister, the minister for the uae, and he said it needs to be man news. There cant be compensations to participation in a round of cuts. The expectation that if we own something, we would like to agree on something that is always sustainable and that benefit everyone. And also get everyone participating. But dont ask me how, who, and when before we meet. Reporter the concern is that the king pin of opec, saudi, would just walk away if they dont get cuts from all members, including iraq and iran. These are some of the Big Questions that remain for the market with the Oil Price Falling around 4 on tuesday. As traders got very nervous about the prospects of a cut. Where the oil price will go if there isnt a cut or some are talking us down to the low 30 barrel level, and if there is a cut, some are saying it could go as high as 55, 60 a barrel later this year or perhaps early this 2017. For nightly Business Report, this is Steve Sedgewick, in vienna. Still ahead, stop the presses. Why demand for real news is increasing as fake news spreads. Senator Elizabeth Warren is criticizing wells fargos decision to seek arbitration for customers affected by its fake accounts scandal, rather than allowing them to sue. In a facebook post, the senator said wells fargos promised to treat customers better in light of the scandal is meaningless, as long as it insists on arbitration. As we reported last week, the bank asked a court to uphold Contract Clauses that mandate orb arbitration something commonly used by Financial Firms to protect against litigation. The nations commercial banks recorded record profits in the third quarter. Revenue and net income increased from a year ago. Loan balances increased, and quality improved and the number of unprofitable and problem banks fell. After years of falling numbers, the New York Times is seeing a surge in subscribers, both print and digital, since the president ial election. For years, print media has suffered from a decline in readership, and these better numbers come as fake news spreads across social media. Julia boorstin has our story. Reporter news organizations have seen a surge in subscriptions and stock prices. New york times shares are up more than 16 since election day, while shares of both usa today parent gannett and trunk, which opens the l. A. Times and Chicago Tribune up by double digits. And donald trump has called the New York Times failing, tweeting, wow, the ny times is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the trump phenomena. New york times Ceo Mark Thompson tells us the paper has added 132,000 subscribers since the election. Subscriptions have been up ten times on the same period last year. So were seeing a 10x net increase in subscriptions. So, you know, far from failing, were seeing a remarkable response by new describers who like the kind of journalism, independent, without fear or favor journalism the times represents. Reporter tronk saw 29 in paid digital subscriptions with one of its publications, the l. A. Times growing its digital subscriptions 61 during election week. The journalism at publications such as the New York Times and the l. A. Times stands in contrast with the spread of fake news, which facebook and others are trying to crack down on. Many say the spread of fake news on social media influenced voters. This campaign season. In fact, a buzzfeed study found the top 20 fake news stories generated more engagement likes and shares than the top stories from major outlets, including the New York Times. Social media benefits legitimate, professional factcheck journalism, as well. Were very, very present on facebook and twitter and other social platforms. But clearly, its true that these new platforms, these relatively new platforms, make it possible for almost anyone to publish almost anything they want. Reporter as for mr. Trumps repeated threat hes going to sue the New York Times and change libel laws, Thompson Says mr. Trump told them in a meeting last week, quote, i dont think youll have any anything to worry about. For nightly Business Report, im Julia Boorstin in los angeles. Tiffany posts its first sales increase in two years, and thats where we begin tonights market focus. The luxury jeweler topped analyst expectations thanks to an increase in foot traffic. The company which has a Flagship Store next to trump tower in new york city said traffic there has been negatively impacted due to the ongoing road closures and the protests. But despite that slow down in customers, tiffany maintained its guidance for the year. The shares rose 3 to 80. 60. Industrial gases company, praxair, wants to restart talks with its rival, lind, regarding a potential tieup. The two companies were in merger talks earlier this year, but fell apart after the parties could not agree on where the headquarters should be located. Praxair shares rose nearly 3 to 122. 18. Shares of Shoe Carnival battered today following lower results after the bell yesterday. They attributed the disappointing numbers to weak demand for boots and other seasonal items. The company cuts its earnings forecast for the year. Shares down 13 at 26. 15. And the Business Software maker, spelunk yes, thats name, beat analysts estimates for profit and revenue. Gave Earnings Guidance above forecast. Shares initially rose in after hours trading. But they went splunk down a fraction at 57. 38. Low wage workers demand higher pay and health benefits. The protests part of the fight for 15 campaign. Its first since donald trump was elected president. Uber drivers participated, as well. Some workers at chicagos Ohare Airport also demanding 15 in ourl wages. Janitors, cabin cleaners, wheelchair attendants as part of a day of disruption planned by the fight for 15 activist group. The strike was not expected to affect flights in or out of the nations second busiest airport. Coming up, hitting the road. Whats behind the resurgence in sales of rvs . Massachusetts is adopting strict background checks for uber and lyft drivers. They go into effect next year. Independent drivers will have to undergo a state criminal background check, as well as a biannual commercial background check conducted by the company. New numbers from the rv industry show americans have rediscovered the great outdoors. In fact, rv sales this year are the strongest since 1976. Phil lebeau tells us why demand is climbing. Reporter rvs are on a roll from campers to motor homes, americans are snapping up these travel rigs in big numbers. This year, the industry expects to sell almost 420,000 rvs. The seventh Straight Year sales have increased after bottoming out in the recession. Whats driving the resurgence in sales . Well, the stronger economy combined with low gas prices and attractive Interest Rates are convincing people this is the time to buy. When you think about the accessibility of being able to find an affordable rig and not only that, the quality of the product is at an alltime high. And these are really the glory days of the rv lifestyle. Reporter the rebound in rvs is welcome news in places like forest city, iowa, where winnebagos are built. In 2009 when sales slowed down, unemployment jumped to more than 13 . Today thanks to the rv boom, unemployment has dropped to 4 , well below the national average. Ironically, the number of americans camping is roughly the same as it was just a few years ago. So why are new campers and trailers in demand . Partially because many people held on to their old rv during the recession, and now they want a newer model. Theres also a shift in the people who are buying a camper or motor home. They tend to be younger and more active. Making hitting the road in an rv more popular than ever before. Phil lebeau, nightly Business Report, chicago. Ive got one. You love it, right . I do. I really love it. Its so much fun. We have so many people out west this summer, so many people rv having. It looked fun. I can drive it, i just cant back up. Thats nightly Business Report for tonight, im sue herera. Thanks for joining us. We want to remind you, this is the time of year your Public Television station seeks your support. And im tyler mathisen. Thanks so much for your support. Have a greet evening, everybody. See you tomorrow. Young composer, singer, and entertainer Ethan Bortnick celebrates the power of music. Its all about music. With special guests glees damian mcginty. When you need a friend and grammynominated singer jane monheit. What about us [playing minute waltz] crocodile rocking is something shocking when your feet. Join ethan in sharing with the world the power of music, next. We are the children the frankenmuth brewery, founded in 1862 and located in the heart of historic frankenmuth, michigans little bavaria, serving families and making memories for over 150 years. [cheering and applause]