very, very good way. i m confident that at the end of the day we will have a bill to the president s desk. on guns the senate could start voting on key amendments such as the new assault weapons ban and magazine size tomorrow. on the toomey mangs man shin background check measure. vice president biden predicted they are getting close to the 60 votes they need. bret? bret: international monetary fund cut projects for growth to from 3.7% to 3.3. hit more than a million in march driven by surge in apartment construction. consumer prices felt .2% as the price of gas went down. wall street had a big bounce back today as yesterday worse of the year losses. the dow dropped 265 monday. it recupid 158 today. the s&p 500 was up 22. the nasdaq finished ahead 48. american airlines customers
mike, those numbers suggest where we have been. where am lis say going construction jobs. one analyst told me today he expects there will be gradual improvement in hiring in the construction industry over the next year or two. he is looking for signs of hope while is he troubled about more skilled workers leaving the field. it s discouraging that the industry has not yet been adding jobs but when you combine it with some other things like the announcement of a big air bus plant going in to alabama, very strong demand for apartment construction. can you see that there are still areas of strength in construction. though, when you consider peak unemployment in construction was 27.1% in february 2010, even at 12.8% now. there are still many experienced people who have been out of work a long time. harris? harris: well, while the president cannot control private sector hiring, can he encourage public sector projects. what s he saying about that?
bret: stocks were up today. dow added 96. s&p 500 gained 13. nasdaq closed 34 ahead. last month builders broke ground on more single family homes and requested more permits than they had done in the last 3-1/2 years. overall, housing starts actually fell, though. but that was because of a 21% drop in apartment construction. the next two nights we are going to take an in-depth look at the leadership styles of the men who want to run the country for the next four years. first up, president obama. here is chief white house correspondent ed henry. what i like about him so much is he listens to me so little. senior advisor david axelrod likes to boast about how often president obama ignored his advice like issues like the auto bail-out. people in michigan, in michigan weren t in favor of it. and you know, it would not be
colorado division of housing says finding a place to rent in denver is getting harder and pricier. companies tracking real estate nationwide are finding even if folks can qualify for a mortgage many are worried about another housing bust. the result? more people are being pushed to rentals. so as vacancy rates shrink the average rent is going up. landlords are well within their ability, well within their legal rights to push rents right now if they think the market can bear it. reporter: places like boston, san francisco, detroit, orlando, almost every major metro area in the country saw rent increases in the fourth quarter of 2011. dr. ron troupe of the university of denver conducted a study to find out why it is a landlord s market? we have nod been building apartment units over last few years. it takes time to catch up about permitting or actually building these. reporter: experts say, jon, could take years for all of the apartment construction to catch up
thank you so much. we re going to be speaking with congressman michael grimm from new york in a moment. he s dealing with the hard work that s taking place on the hill. we re going to ask him about what is going on behind the scenes in washington, d.c. will this work get done, or will republicans give the middle class a tax hike? the markets are way up today. not because of what s going on in washington, but take a peak at this. the dow almost up by 300 points boosted by some positive economic news out of europe and a jump in apartment construction here in the u.s. we see green arrows with the s&p as well as the nasdaq. dangerous conditions to tell you about from eastern new mexico to kansas where whiteout conditions and icy roads are sending drivers spinning in all the wrong directions. the storm being blamed for six deaths already. let s go straight to weather channel meteorologist mike slidell. he joins us in garden city, kansas, with more on this. i was watching you earlier tod