the commerce department said new home sales fell 2.2% last month. requests for unemployment benefits were up 21,000 last week. to 377,000. after a nearly four-year low the week before. stocks today ended the day down. after the dow hit the highest point since the financial crisis, it lost 22. the s&p gave back eight. the nasdaq closed 13 behind. greek officials restarted the talks with creditors aimed at avoiding a default. banks and other investors are asked to swap government bonds for new one with half the face value and potentially lower interest rate. british prime minister david cameron today gave his support to idea of a free trade deal between the european union and the u.s. german chance lor angela chance- german chancellor angela merkel did the same. the testy exchange between the president and arizona s governor has already had an impact. that is later in the grapevine. up next, why the son of
good evening. tonight, we are live from jacqu jacksonville, florida. site of the cnn republican debate, which is just an hour away. the race between mitt romney and newt gingrich is really tied here. it s a big night. and issue number one for voters here, the housing crisis. no doubt florida residents felt the sting of this headline today. sales down 2.2% in december. may surprise you. no, and florida is one of the worst hit states in the country when it comes to housing. one in every 360 homes in this state received a foreclosure notice last month and almost half of mortgages are under water. you look at orlando, down 60%. they have fallen by more than half and miami and in tampa. in most cases, where there s a housing problem, there is an unemployment problem. and no place more so than here in florida. construction drives everything here and the jobless rate is at 9.9%, well above the national average of 8.5%. all of this playing out in the campaign here. romney and gingric
about to get paid. [ speaking foreign language ] more than $14,000 to each survivor. it is a deal reached between the costa cruise line and consumer groups. everyone will get their money back for the cruise tickets and other expenses and the captain who steered the ship into some rocks is still under house arrest. i am going to burn it. protesters set an australian flag on fire outside of parliament today. it is the second straight day that people who are angry about australia s policy towards abridgeabri aborigines made news. the prime minister was forced to make a hasty get away. nobody was arrested in this protest, because burning a flag is not against the law in australia. files are now missing for at least ten pardoned criminals in mississippi including four murderers. the attorney general s office says that the files were supposed to be turned over by the governor s office, but one of the pardoned killers is still missing. authorities are offering a reward to fi
the president said it s overblown and they d rather talk about the prouder tour. bret: ed henry traveling with the president. thank you. 2011 was the worst year for new home sales on records dating back a half century. the commerce department said new home sales fell 2.2% last month. requests for unemployment benefits were up 21,000 last week. to 377,000. after a nearly four-year low the week before. stocks today ended the day down. after the dow hit the highest point since the financial crisis, it lost 22. the s&p gave back eight. the nasdaq closed 13 behind. greek officials restarted the talks with creditors aimed at avoiding a default. banks and other investors are asked to swap government bonds for new one with half the face value and potentially lower interest rate. british prime minister david cameron today gave his support to idea of a free trade deal between the european union and
we are just about a minute away from the opening bell, time for the market run down. cnbc s becky quick here. the fed going to make the market happy today? so far, so good p the fed said we are going to keep low rates forever essentially, what they came out with makes the market feel good about things. this morning, chuck, looks like we are going to open up 50 points on the dow this is important, because if we close by 52 points higher on the dow today that is going tonight highest level in three and a half years for stocks. so, that s big key, something we are watching out for. now, we got jobless claims a little earlier this morning and we did see an increase of 21,000 to 377,000. you might be concerned about a jump like that but remember, last week, it was the lowest level we had seen since april of 2008, almost four years going by and the reason you probably saw a big one off last time around is because of the way the federal holidays fall at this