113th Congress Begins Official Business; Secretary Clinton To Return To Work Next Week; Private Sector Jobs On The Rise; U.S. Auto Sales Rise In December
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Johns in Washington here in for Brooke Baldwin today. We will have more on the historic opening of the 113th Congress. Let's look at some other news right now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is planning to return to work next week. We don't know if work includes testifying about the terror attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton was discharged yesterday from a New York hospital after being treated for a blood clot. Her spokeswoman said doctors expect Clinton to make a full recovery, but there is no word on when she may testify about the Benghazi attack. A new report out today shows private employers added 215,000 jobs last month. These numbers a precursor to the official Labor Department report out tomorrow. Job growth to the tune of 150,000 expected in that one and this slowly improving jobs market had more people buying cars. Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange. Carmakers have been reporting sales figures all day. So give us an idea of who is on top and what this says about the state of the economy -- Felicia.</s>FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL'S "WORLD BUSINESS TODAY": Well, it's definitely a good sign. There is no question about it. I mean, it seems that people are getting a little bit more comfortable making these big purchases. So when you look at the big three, it was Chrysler that definitely led the way with a 10 percent sales gain in December. GM did pretty well also posting a 5 percent rise. Ford saw just a small increase of about 2 percent. Toyota though we are going to include because the sales rose 9 percent and you know, obviously that is managing to beat out the arch rival of GM in December. So all combined it wraps up the best year for car sales in the United States since before the recession. So it's great news that, you know, things are moving in the right direction. But there is still a tremendous amount of uncertainty out there about the economy. You know, you have to wonder why are people buying and there is really just one answer and that's because finally lenders are becoming a little bit more generous about giving auto loans and people have the cash to do so. You know, there has been a slight improvement in the jobs market that you mentioned. People have become a little bit more comfortable and confident with their financial situations. That's unleashed pent up demand from when the economy was doing a lot worse as you well remember -- Joe.</s>JOHNS: That's for sure. We certainly have a lot of uncertainty in just two months. We will have to start talking about the debt ceiling that is another issue. Thank you, Felicia Taylor. In Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary students return to class today for the first time since the tragic shooting in Newtown, and just a short time from now, they will be getting out of class. We will hear from some parents coming up next.