“Right out of the gate, it helps prepare our kids for a competition that's never been tougher--a competition for good, middle-class, well-paying jobs. And we are competing now with countries like China and South Korea and Europe, all of which are serious about educating their children. So at a time when a company is able to move anywhere they want in the world-- and a lot of times will make the decision based on where they can find the most highly skilled workforce--it is absolutely imperative that we make sure that the United States is the place where we've got the best-trained, best-educated young people.”

 

Barack Obama there

 

Let's go to the markets now. And the Dow Jones has just closed 102 points higher. The NASDAQ put on 32. The S&P 500 up 14. In London the FTSE put on 57 points.

 

Checking commodity prices, West Texas Crude is trading at 96 US dollars and 73 cents a barrel. Tapis crude is trading at 126 US dollars and 90 cents a barrel. And gold’s at 1,783 US dollars and 50 cents an ounce.

 

To the currencies, the Australian dollar is buying a dollar and four US cents, 75 euro cents and 64 pence sterling.