| Economic Events | In the week
ending October 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims
for unemployment insurance was 276,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous
week’s unrevised level of 260,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week
moving average was 262,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week’s
unrevised average of 259,250.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage is 3.87%, up from 3.76% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The
average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate loan is 3.09%, up from 2.98%.
| | Market Mirror | Most U.S.
stock indices ended Thursday nearly unchanged ahead of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ monthly jobs report. The Dow slipped 4.15 points (0.02%) to
17,863.43, the NASDAQ lost 14.74 points (0.29%) to finish at 5,127.74, and the
S&P 500 closed 2.38 points (0.11%) lower at 2,099.93. The Russell 2000 was
down by 0.30 (0.03%) at 1,190.68, and the Wilshire 5000 decreased 19.50 points
(0.09%) to 21,866.46.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares changed hands, and on the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares traded,
with a slight lead for decliners on both exchanges.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 3/32,
increasing its yield to 2.237%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond
decreased 9/32, bringing its yield up to 3.006%.
| | Compliance | Bill Calls for More Hedge Fund Transparency | Legislation authored by Representative Nydia M.
Velazquez (D-New York) would significantly strengthen reporting requirements
for hedge funds. Velazquez, who describes hedge funds as large privately
organized, pooled investment vehicles that are not available to the public, and
whose primary investors are wealthy individuals or institutions, says the
“Hedge Fund Sunshine Act” (H.R. 3921) comes as media reports repeatedly link
hedge funds to the ongoing financial crisis in Puerto Rico.Read more > | Terms of Boeing Fee Case Settlement Revealed | Plaintiffs’ attorneys announced months ago that
Boeing would settle the long-running 401(k) excessive fee lawsuit, Boeing v. Spano, but at the time few
concrete details emerged as to what Boeing’s liability might be, financial or
otherwise.Read more > | | From the Magazine | How Risk Transfer Can Fulfill DB Benefit Obligations | In textbooks on managerial accounting, a chapter
in the middle is apt to consider a basic principle classically known as the
“make-or-buy decision”—more recently known as outsourcing. The idea is simple
enough: A company needs a widget as part of its product, and its engineers and
accountants weigh the likely costs and benefits incurred from building it
in-house versus contracting with a third party to offload the work at a
predetermined price. Sponsors of defined benefit (DB) plans have been
considering their own make-or-buy option of a sort, with respect to the optimal
way to fulfill benefit obligations to participants.Read more > | | Small Talk | ON
THIS DATE: In 1789,
Father John Carroll was appointed as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S.
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected
to be the 16th president of the U.S. In 1861,
Jefferson Davis was elected as the president of the Confederacy in the U.S. In 1894, William C. Hooker received a
patent for the mousetrap. In 1923,
Jacob Schick was granted a patent for the electric shaver. In 1935, Edwin H. Armstrong announced his
development of FM broadcasting. In 1952,
the first hydrogen bomb was exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. In
1965, the Freedom Flights program
began which would allow 250,000 Cubans to come to the United States by 1971. In
1967, Phil Donahue began a TV talk
show in Dayton, Ohio. The show was on the air for 29 years. | SURVEY SAYS: This
week, I asked NewsDash readers, “What retirement industry development are you
most anticipating for 2016, and what is your second choice?” We’re holding the
survey open for one more day, hoping to get more comments. This survey will be used
in the December Year in Review issue.Read more > | And now it’s time for FRIDAY FILES! | Ants can be a solid or a liquid.Read more > | We have been using tape measures all wrong!Read more > | In Bali, a plane was forced
to make an emergency landing after smoke alarms went off. The Aviation Herald
reports the cargo flight from Australia to Kuala Lumpur, with four crew and 2,186
sheep on-board, was flying just to the south of Indonesia when the smoke alarms
sounded. Emergency services didn’t find any trace of fire or smoke and
identified the cause to be the result of gasses and man.ure produced by the
sheep. The plane and its cargo were able to depart the island about three hours
later.
In Daytona Beach, Florida, a
man was dining at the Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet when, suddenly, another
man fell through the ceiling onto him. The man who fell through ceiling was a
would-be thief who had made it through the ceiling to the manager’s office, but
failed to open a lock box that held money. The Daytona Beach News-Journal
reports that it was after he gave up his attempt that he fell through the
ceiling. He tried to get up and run away, but was tackled by another diner.
In Saugerties,
New York, a woman called 911 to report a medical emergency. An ambulance
arrived and transported her to a hospital in Kingston. However, she signed
herself out of the hospital shortly after arriving, the local ABC News station
reports. Turns out she was just using the ambulance to get to Kingston so she
could see her boyfriend. She has been charged with falsely reporting an
incident.
| Somewhere in the UK, a child gave a funny exam answer when he was asked to “show
your thinking.”Read more > | Happy weekend, everyone! | Share the good news with a friend! Pass the Dash along – and tell your
friends/associates they can sign up for their own copy.Read more > |
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