| Products, Deals & People | Investment Product Launches for the Week | This week’s new investment products and services
include an absolute return fund from Goldman Sachs; a book about stable value
investing from Stable Value Consultants; and the launch of Tideline, a consulting
firm designed to provide tailored advice about institutional impact investing.Read more > | | Economic Events | The U.S. Census Bureau announced that
July sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and
offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences
but not for price changes, were $449.5 billion, down 0.3% from the revised June
level and down 4.2% from the July 2014 level. July sales of durable goods were
up 1.2% from last month and up 0.2% from a year ago. Sales of machinery,
equipment, and supplies were up 5.2% from last month and sales of computer and
computer peripheral equipment and software were up 3.2%. Sales of nondurable
goods were down 1.7% from June and down 8.0% from last July. Sales of petroleum
and petroleum products were down 8.2% from last month and sales of farm product
raw materials were down 2.2%.
In the week ending September 5, the
advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 275,000, a decrease
of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported.
The four-week moving average was 275,750, an increase of 500 from the previous
week’s revised average.
The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage is 3.90%, up from 3.89% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The
average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.10%, up from
3.09%.
| | Market Mirror | Yesterday,
the Dow closed 76.83 points (0.47%) higher at 16,330.40, the NADAQ climbed
39.72 points (0.84%) to 4,796.25, and the S&P 500 gained 10.23 points
(0.53%) to finish at 1,952.27. The Russell 2000 was up 4.80 points (0.42%) at
1,153.02, and the Wilshire 5000 increased 93.36 points (0.46%) to 20,610.16.
On the NYSE,
3.2 billion shares traded, with a slight lead for advancers. On the NASDAQ, 2.7
billion shares changed hands, with 1.4 advancing issues for every declining
issue.
The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 8/32,
increasing its yield to 2.229%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond
decreased 20/32, bringing its yield up to 2.995%.
| | Compliance | PBGC Issues Final Rules for Reportable Events | The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
issued final rules for reportable events, focusing on the minority of plans and
sponsors that pose the greatest risk of defaulting on their financial
obligations. The
final rules make the funding level for satisfying the well-funded plan safe
harbor lower and tied to the variable-rate premium. It also adds company
waivers for five events.Read more > | Legislators Hear Arguments About Fiduciary Reform | Two subcommittees of the United States House of
Representatives Committee on Financial Services held another round of fiduciary
rule hearings in Washington, D.C., adding still more commentary to an
impressively long-running fiduciary rule debate. The hearing was hosted by the
Subcommittees on Oversight and Investigations and Capital Markets and
Government Sponsored Enterprises. Taken together, the latest round of
commentary closely matched earlier hearings at the Department of Labor (DOL).
As with the previous commentary, experts cited pros and cons in the DOL’s
exemption-based rulemaking package, largely based on the financial interests of
the type of service provider or advocacy organization for which they work.Read more > | Terex Corporation Settles Stock Drop Lawsuit | A federal court has approved a settlement of a
class action Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) lawsuit against
Terex Corporation alleging fiduciary breaches related to holding company stock
investments in its 401(k) plan. Terex has denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed
to fund a settlement account.Read more > | | Small Talk | ON
THIS DATE: In 1609,
explorer Henry Hudson sailed into New York harbor and discovered Manhattan
Island and the Hudson River. In 1789,
Alexander Hamilton was appointed by U.S. President George Washington to be the
first Secretary of the Treasury. In 1910,
in Hollywood, the first commercially successful electric bus line opened. In 1936, Boulder Dam in Nevada was
dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by turning on the dam’s first
hydroelectric generator. The dam is now called Hoover Dam. In 1941, in Arlington, Virginia, the
groundbreaking ceremony for the Pentagon took place. In 1952, Dr. Charles Hufnagel successfully replaced a diseased aorta
valve with an artificial valve made of plastic. In 1954, the Miss America beauty pageant made its network TV debut on
ABC. Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was the winner. In 1959, the U.S. Congress passed a bill
authorizing the creation of food stamps. In 1967, The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS. In 1974, “Little House On The Prairie”
made its television debut. In 1974,
the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets set a National League record when
they played 25 innings. It was the second longest game in professional baseball
history. In 1977, the Atari 2600 was
released. It was originally sold as the Atari VCS. In 2001, four airliners were hijacked and intentionally crashed. Two hit
the World Trade Center in New York City, one hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,
and another crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were
killed.
And now it’s time for FRIDAY FILES!
Travelmath sent a microbiologist to explore both airports and airplanes,
testing a variety of normally used items to come up with a list of the dirtiest
ones of all, based on “colony-forming units.” The dirtiest parts of
an airplane, in order from most to least dirty, are tray tables, overhead air
vents, lavatory flush buttons and seatbelt buckles. The dirtiest places in
airports are drinking fountain buttons and bathroom stall locks.
| This video of an elderly man greeting his
sweetie at the airport will warm your heart.Read more > | This little girl finally gets some love back
from Siri.Read more > | In Magnitogorsk, Russia,
two five-year-old boys hatched a plan to escape kindergarten. The two
disappeared during a supervised walk on the kindergarten grounds. They used
spades to dig a tunnel under a fence. According to The Rakyat Post, after they escaped,
they walked two kilometers to a car dealership. A woman noticed the
unaccompanied boys and asked them what they were doing. They said they had left
kindergarten to buy a Jaguar, but didn’t have money. The women took the boys to
a police station.
In Guangzhou, Guangdong
province, China, a woman’s son was caught in a downpour while jogging at a
park, so she went to take him an umbrella. The son soon received a call from a
pedestrian saying that his mother had been found unconscious on a bridge with burn
marks on her chest. The woman was taken to a hospital and eventually woke up to
learn that she’d been hit by lightning on the way to meet her son. According to
the Shanghaiist, a report says the metal umbrella likely acted as a conductor
for the lightning, while the metal underwire in the woman’s bra diverted the
surge of energy away from her vital organs, possibly saving her life.
In Denver,
Colorado, a day after a vandal had thrown a rock at his windshield, a man
made an appointment at a local auto glass shop to have it replaced. Just as he
was about to pull into the shop, an Adams County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled the
man over and issued him a ticket for an “unsafe vehicle.” The man
tried explaining to the Adams County deputy he had an appointment to repair the
windshield, but it didn’t make difference. According to the local NBC News
station, the shop owner has offered to pay the ticket if it is not dismissed in
court.
Have a great weekend! | 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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