CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little business buzz. The rate of personal bankruptcies continues to rise. Joya Dass is at the Nasdaq market site with the numbers. Good morning -- Joya.</s>JOYA DASS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. You know I guess there's nothing funny when it comes to your money, but when you take a look at personal bankruptcies, they are actually on the rise. And in fact, this number is up 10 percent from the same period a year ago to a record 1.6 million. Now that's an all-time high for any 12-month period. And the main culprit here is the rise in consumer debt, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. We're still working through the excesses of the '90s and don't forget that even through this recession consumers have continued to spend, but it's been at the expense of their household debt. Now the only silver lining in this story here is that business bankruptcies are actually down 5 percent. Now if we could only just get business spending back up -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: That's for sure. Quick look at the futures.</s>DASS: Well the futures markets are pointing to a higher opening for stocks. We saw a nice rally yesterday helped by some of the retail stocks. And in fact, just this morning, Home Depot, the home improvement retailer, just reported its quarterly results. It did come in better than the Street's expectations, not only on the profit front, but also on the sales front. And they are reaffirming, it looks like right now, what their earnings projections are, somewhere between 9 and 14 percent -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Joya Dass, we'll get back to you in the next half hour, many thanks, live from New York this morning. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com Months>
Personal Bankruptcies: Filings Totaled 1.6 Million Last 12 Months