Saturday September 18, 2010
Business: Pam Haynes
DOW JONES 10,607.85 +13.02
NASDAQ 2,315.61 +12.36
S&P 1,125.59 +0.93
PHaynes@hpe.com (336) 888-3617
5C
Citigroup to shed student loans BOSTON (AP) – Citigroup Inc. said Friday it is selling its student loan business and about $32 billion in related assets to Discover Financial Services and the student lender Sallie Mae, Citi’s latest move to focus on its core consumer banking business. The big banking company has been looking for a buyer for its 80 percent stake in the Student Loan Corp. for some time as it refocuses it operations. Citi was one of the hardest hit banks by the recession and credit crisis. Citigroup Inc. said Friday it will take a loss of about $500 million loss on the deal in this year’s third quarter. Discover has agreed to
BRIEFS
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Consumer prices rose in August WASHINGTON – Consumer prices posted a small rise in August, but outside of a big jump in volatile gasoline prices, inflation was essentially flat. Consumer prices edged up 0.3 percent in August, matching the July increase, the Labor Department said Friday. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, showed no increase in August.
Consumer mood drives down oil NEW YORK – Benchmark crude oil fell slightly after a new report showed consumer sentiment moderated in September from the previous month. Oil for October delivery fell $1.19 to $73.38 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Caterpillar sales rise across globe NEW YORK – Caterpillar Inc. said Friday that its worldwide machine sales leaped 37 percent in August, led by surging sales in Latin and North America. The results, announced in a regulatory filing, highlight a shift in the world’s appetite for construction and mining equipment. Though the sales growth rate slowed in Asia, it surged in Latin America and picked up slightly in the United States and Canada. Sales in Latin America jumped 57 percent in August over the same month a year ago. ENTERPRISE NEWS SERVICE REPORTS
DILBERT
pay $600 million for the Citi stake in the Student Loan Corp. and will also acquire $4.2 billion of private student loans. Sallie Mae will get $28 billion of assets, adding another 1.3 million new customers. The complex deal comes amid rapid change in the student loan market, after a law this year consolidated the federal student loan program and largely cut private lenders out of the process. By making loans directly, and ending federal guarantees of private student loans, the government hopes to save money. That has left private lenders seeking alternatives to making loans, and trying to sustain their business
by acting as servicers collecting payments on loans the government makes. New York-based Citi, meanwhile, has been unraveling the one-stop financial services marketplace model it created in the late 1990s. It split its noncore assets from its primary operations like consumer banking and is now selling those assets it doesn’t consider vital to its business. Citi split itself into two parts last year – Citicorp and Citi Holdings, the division holding riskier assets including the mortgage-backed securities that undermined the bank and other financial institutions.
SEC backs new bank rules WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal regulators voted Friday to propose new rules that could make it harder for financial firms to disguise their level of debt. The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing expanded disclosure requirements for banks’ practice of temporarily trimming their debt at the end of quarters to make their financial statements appear stronger. The practice is legal but regulators say it can give investors a distorted picture of a bank’s debt and level of risk. The SEC proposal would require financial firms to report detailed information on their short-term borrowing every quarter. Firms currently are required to disclose that borrowing only once a year. The SEC commissioners voted 5-0 at a brief meeting to propose the
new rules and open them to public comment for 60 days. They could be formally adopted them sometime later, possibly with changes. Lehman Brothers used so-called repurchase agreements as an accounting trick in the months before its collapse two years ago into the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The demise of the Wall Street titan triggered a panic in financial markets. Lehman had put together complex transactions that allowed the firm to sell billions in mortgage securities at the end of a quarter – wiping them off its balance sheet when regulators and shareholders were examining it – and then to quickly buy them back. The repurchase agreements, detailed in a report issued in March by a court-appointed examiner, were known as Repo 105.
Fed: Americans’ wealth fell in spring WASHINGTON (AP) – Americans’ wealth shrank in the spring for the first time since early 2009 as financial turmoil eroded stock portfolios. The Federal Reserve says household net worth fell 2.7 percent – or $1.5 trillion – in the April-to-June quarter. The decline left Americans’ net worth at $53.5 trillion. Shriveled stock portfolios were the biggest force dragging down wealth. Wall Street was shaken by
fears over Europe’s debt crisis. Since then, stocks have risen. Net worth is the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards. Before last quarter’s decline, net worth had been growing slowly for four straight quarters. Americans’ net worth would have to rise an additional 23 percent to revisit its re-recession peak of $65.8 trillion.
LOCAL FUNDS Name
Last
Change
50-day Average
% Chg.
200-day Average
AMERICAN BALANCED FUND, CLASS A 16.71 0.03
0.18%
16.43
16.44
AMERICAN FDS BOND FD OF AMERICA 12.37 0.01
0.08%
12.37
12.14
CAPITAL INCOME BUILDER CL A SHS 48.02 - 0.49
- 1.01%
47.35
46.81
AMERICAN FDS CAPITAL WORLD GROW 33.32 - 0.21
- 0.63%
32.38
32.31
AMERICAN FDS EUROPACIFIC GROWTH 38.44 - 0.03
- 0.08%
37.16
36.75
FUNDAMENTAL INVESTORS, CLASS A 32.93 0.07
0.21%
32.12
32.54
AMERICAN FDS GROWTH FD OF AMERI 27.32 0.07
0.26%
26.52
27.15
AMERICAN FDS INCOME FD OF AMERI 15.73 - 0.16
- 1.01%
15.56
15.47
AMERICAN FDS INVESTMENT CO OF A 25.53 - 0.08
- 0.31%
24.96
25.49
AMERICAN FDS NEW PERSPECTIVE A 25.89 0.02
0.08%
24.97
25.07
WASHINGTON MUTUAL INVS FD CL A 25.00 0.04
0.16%
24.36
24.58
DAVIS NEW YORK VENTURE FUND A 30.72 0.01
0.03%
30.02
30.81
DODGE COX INCOME FUND 13.42
0.07%
13.39
13.24
DODGE COX INTERNATIONAL STOCK 32.56 - 0.06
0.01
- 0.18%
31.38
31.15
DODGE COX STOCK FUND 95.29
- 0.12
- 0.13%
92.82
96.40
FIDELITY CONTRA FUND 60.76
0.17
0.28%
58.22
58.79
FIDELITY DIVERSIFIED INTERNATIO 27.56 - 0.07
- 0.25%
26.57
26.56
FIDELITY FREEDOM 2020 FUND 12.90 0.00
0.00%
12.61
12.66
FIDELITY GROWTH CO FUND 72.55 0.15
0.21%
69.37
70.54
FIDELITY LOW-PRICED STOCK FUND 33.71 0.07
0.21%
32.79
33.44
FIDELITY MAGELLAN 62.65
0.14%
60.86
63.76
TGIT TEMPTON INCOME FUND CLASS 2.65 0.00
0.09
0.00%
2.59
2.58
HARBOR INTERNATIONAL FUND INSTI 54.46 - 0.40
- 0.73%
52.99
52.46
PIMCO FUNDS TOTAL RETURN FUND C 11.48 0.00
0.00%
11.47
11.21
PIMCO FUNDS TOTAL RETURN FUND A 11.48 0.00
0.00%
11.47
11.21
PIMCO FUNDS TOTAL RETURN FUND I 11.48 0.00
0.00%
11.47
11.21
VANGUARD 500 INDEX FD ADMIRAL S 104.13 0.08
0.08%
100.99
103.36
VANGUARD INDEX TRUST 500 INDEX 104.10 0.08
0.08%
101.05
103.35
VANGUARD GNMA FUND ADMIRAL SHS 11.00 - 0.01
- 0.09%
11.06
VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX 103.45 0.09
0.09%
100.33
102.67
VANGUARD INSTITUTIONAL INDEX FU 103.46 0.09
0.09%
100.42
102.68
VANGUARD MID CAP GROWTH FUND 16.42 0.09
0.55%
15.58
15.78
VANGUARD PRIMECAP FUND 59.60 0.18
0.30%
57.47
58.54
VANGUARD BOND INDEX FD TOTAL BO 10.80 0.00
0.00%
10.83
10.62
VANGUARD TOTAL INTERNATIONAL ST 14.49 - 0.07
- 0.48%
14.03
13.85
VANGUARD TOTAL STOCK MARKET IND 28.06 0.04
0.14%
27.18
27.86
VANGUARD WELLINGTON INCOME FUND 29.45 - 0.01
- 0.03%
28.99
29.06
VANGUARD WELLINGTON FD ADMIRAL 50.87 - 0.01
- 0.02%
50.07
50.19
10.91
Meager finish keeps stocks rally going NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks gave up most of their gains to end slightly higher Friday, extending a September rally that has slowed as the month wore on. The Dow Jones industrial tacked on 13 points, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index edged up less than a point. Both traded close to the breakeven level all day. The Dow and other major indexes logged their thirdstraight weekly advance. The market started out on an up note following surprisingly strong profit news late Thursday from technology leaders Oracle Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd., which makes BlackBerrys. Technology and industrial shares were broadly higher, though energy companies were weak following a drop in crude oil. A decline in a measure of consumer confidence from the University of Michigan/Reuters also kept a lid on buying. Gold set another record and Treasury prices edged higher in a sign that investors remain cautious. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the measure used most widely by professional investors, briefly edged above a technical trading threshold, but not enough to convince analysts that the market is ready to move sharply higher. Stocks have been on a nearly unbroken upward march in September, driving the S&P up 7.3 percent.
STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Name
Symbol
AT&T Aetna Alcatel-Lucent Alcoa Allstate AmEx AIG Ameriprisel Analog Devices Aon Corp. Apple Avon BB&T Corp. BNC Bancorp BP Bank of America Bassett Furniture Best Buy Boeing CBL & Asso. CSX Corp. CVS Caremark Capital One Caterpillar Inc. Chevron Corp. Cisco Systems Inc. Citigroup Coca-Cola Colgate-Palmolive Colonial Prop. Comcast Corp. Corning Inc. Culp Inc. Daimler AG Deere & Co. Dell Inc. Dillard’s Inc. Walt Disney Co. Duke Energy Corp Exxon Mobil Corp FNB United Corp. FedEx Corp. First Citizens Bank of NC Ford Fortune Brands Furniture Brands Gap Inc. General Dynamics General Electric GlaxoSmithKline Google Hanesbrands Harley-Davidson Hewlett-Packard Home Depot Hooker Furniture Intel IBM JP Morgan Chase Kellogg Kimberly-Clark Krispy Kreme La-Z-Boy LabCorp Lance
Last
T 28.17 29.71 AET ALU 2.88 AA 11.17 ALL 30.99 AXP 41.37 AIG 35.64 AMP 47.62 ADI 29.91 AON 38.12 AAPL 275.37 AVP 31.07 BBT 23.03 BNCN 9.5 BP 38.03 BAC 13.4 BSET 4.89 BBY 37.15 BA 62.95 CBL 13.59 CSX 54.9 CVS 29.83 COF 38.67 CAT 73.18 CVX 78.46 CSCO 21.86 C 3.95 KO 57.56 CL 77.37 CLP 16.41 CMCSK 16.62 GLW 17 CFI 9.32 DDAIF.PK 57.75 DE 72.45 DELL 12.45 DDS 23.77 DIS 34.56 DUK 17.51 XOM 60.78 FNBN 0.76 FDX 82.28 FCNCA 183.5 F 12.49 FO 49.24 FBN 5.06 GPS 18.91 GD 62.69 GE 16.29 GSK 39.82 GOOG 490.15 HBI 25.85 HOG 28.28 HPQ 39.14 HD 29.89 HOFT 10.6 INTC 18.81 IBM 130.19 JPM 40.06 K 50.58 KMB 66.37 KKD 4.24 LZB 7.5 LH 74.96 LNCE 21.69
Chg. 0.06 -0.59 0.01 -0.09 0.14 0.41 -0.07 0.26 0.43 0.23 -1.2 -0.09 -0.25 -0.51 -0.24 -0.15 0.03 0.23 0.37 0.11 0.14 0.35 -0.84 1.18 -0.59 -0.07 -0.02 0.05 0.79 -0.1 0.13 -0.03 0.16 0.25 2.81 0.03 -0.13 0.39 -0.06 -0.19 -0.03 -0.44 1.04 0.05 0.24 0.06 0.33 1.38 0.06 -0.09 9.09 0.16 -0.15 -1.21 -0.06 0.22 -0.16 0.52 -0.93 -0.4 -0.22 -0.08 0 0.44 0.07
High 28.32 30.6 2.92 11.34 31.19 41.48 35.99 48.05 29.96 38.26 277.96 31.43 23.54 10.25 38.26 13.7 4.9 37.2 63.34 13.66 55.45 29.93 39.73 73.31 79.73 22.12 4.02 57.98 77.43 16.65 16.9 17.27 9.35 58 72.47 12.58 24.19 34.73 17.67 61.3 0.9 82.85 184.05 12.54 49.68 5.21 18.99 62.81 16.42 40.21 491.2 25.92 28.72 40.62 30.19 10.75 19.08 130.6 41.08 51.11 66.93 4.38 7.62 75.29 21.85
Low 28 29.56 2.87 11.1 30.88 40.65 35.4 47.43 29.36 37.81 273.68 31.07 22.94 9.5 37.49 13.34 4.8 36.59 62 13.36 54.6 29.48 38.64 71.09 78.24 21.77 3.95 57.41 76.68 16.24 16.54 16.9 9.18 57 69.72 12.31 23.45 34.36 17.47 60.63 0.69 81.81 182.84 12.34 49.04 4.98 18.47 61.44 16.08 39.78 481.18 25.56 28.04 39.1 29.8 10.41 18.67 129.7 39.99 50.57 66.35 4.23 7.42 74.24 21.33
Name
Symbol
Last
Chg.
High
Low
Legg Mason Leggett & Platt Lincoln National Lowe’s McDonald’s Merck MetLife Microsoft Mohawk Industries Morgan Stanley Motorola NCR Corp. New York Times Co. NewBridge Bancorp Norfolk Southern Novartis AG Nucor Old Dominion Office Depot PPG Industries Panera Bread The Pantry J.C. Penney Pfizer Pepsico Piedmont Nat.Gas Polo Ralph Lauren Procter & Gamble Progress Energy Qualcomm Quest Capital RF Micro Devices Red Hat Reynolds American RBC Ruddick Corp. SCM Micro Sara Lee Sealy Sears Sherwin-Williams Southern Company Spectra Energy Sprint Nextel Standard Micro Starbucks Steelcase Inc. SunTrust Banks Syngenta AG Tanger Targacept Inc. Target 3M Co. Time Warner US Airways Unifi Inc. UPS Inc. VF Corp. Valspar Verizon Vodafone Vulcan Materials Wal-Mart Wells Fargo Yahoo Inc.
LM LEG LNC LOW MCD MRK MET MSFT MHK MS MOT NCR NYT NBBC NSC NVS NUE ODFL ODP PPG PNRA PTRY JCP PFE PEP PNY RL PG PGN QCOM QCC RFMD RHT RAI RY RDK INVE SLE ZZ SHLD SHW SO SE S SMSC SBUX SCS STI SYT SKT TRGT TGT MMM TWX LCC UFI UPS VFC VAL VZ VOD VMC WMT WFC YHOO
29.88 21.6 24.56 21.02 74.32 36.33 40.16 25.22 48.95 26.47 8.38 14.11 8.04 3.65 58.45 55.74 38.74 26 4.02 72.05 86.76 22.24 24.4 17.06 66.12 28.19 87.67 60.97 43.53 42.53 0 5.66 38.34 58.41 52.46 33.9 1.5 14.08 2.69 66.83 72.47 37.06 21.59 4.44 20.23 25.53 6.68 25.96 49.67 47.69 23.18 53.74 86.07 31.24 9.08 4.36 66.68 77.48 30.92 31.68 25.28 36.63 53.01 26.01 13.89
0.25 0.13 -0.16 -0.29 -0.48 -0.1 -0.23 -0.11 0.31 -0.31 -0.03 0.01 0 -0.03 0.02 0.4 -0.21 0.19 -0.02 -0.18 0.14 -0.12 -0.01 -0.1 -0.49 0.4 1.28 -0.14 -0.16 0.56 N/A 0.19 0.9 -0.02 -0.41 0.26 -0.09 0 -0.03 -2.01 0.06 0.05 -0.15 -0.03 0.07 -0.2 0.09 0.12 -0.51 0.66 0.03 -0.22 1.12 -0.17 -0.04 0.02 -0.04 -0.12 0.21 0.26 0.08 -0.53 -0.14 -0.05 -0.3
29.99 21.8 25.02 21.47 74.79 36.84 40.75 25.53 49.58 27 8.49 14.21 8.18 3.66 58.9 55.98 39.13 26.28 4.09 72.73 87.84 22.67 24.5 17.26 66.9 28.35 87.77 61.47 43.67 42.75 N/A 5.66 38.46 59.17 53.03 34.12 1.67 14.21 2.75 69.82 72.92 37.19 21.94 4.52 20.59 25.88 6.84 26.1 50.08 48.12 23.59 54.27 86.17 31.88 9.2 4.39 67.04 78.2 31.05 31.75 25.32 37.06 53.33 26.37 14.33
29.64 21.53 24.53 20.96 74.13 36.16 40 25.08 48.63 26.4 8.25 13.9 7.99 3.65 58.06 55.6 38.55 25.25 3.98 71.68 86.35 21.84 23.99 17.03 66.1 27.76 86.31 60.81 43.31 41.94 N/A 5.47 37.72 58.41 52.17 33.22 1.5 13.96 2.68 66.8 71.64 36.89 21.55 4.36 20.08 25.43 6.56 25.69 49.54 47.03 23.1 53.65 85.09 31.22 8.95 4.32 66.1 77.2 30.74 31.38 25.13 36.55 52.88 25.87 13.88
METALS PRICING NEW YORK (AP) — Spot nonferrous metal prices Friday: Aluminum -$0.9665 per lb., London Metal Exch. Copper -$3.4784 Cathode full plate, LME. Copper $3.4830 N.Y. Merc spot Thu. Lead - $2191.00 metric ton, London Metal Exch. Zinc - $0.9670 per lb., London Metal Exch. Gold - $1274.00 Handy & Harman (only daily quote). Gold - $1271.90 troy oz., NY Merc spot Thu. Silver - $20.790 Handy & Harman (only daily quote). Silver - $20.745 troy oz., N.Y. Merc spot Thu. Platinum -$1622.00 troy oz., N.Y. (contract). Platinum -$1611.90 troy oz., N.Y. Merc spot Thu.
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