Stock futures are rising ahead of economic data focusing on consumers and businesses.
Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 57 points to 12,712. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures are up 7.9 points to 1,342. Nasdaq composite futures are up 19.25 points to 2,604.25.
The Commerce Department is expected to report Tuesday that consumer spending growth slowed to 0.2 percent in April after a very strong start to the year.
And economists expect the Labor Department will report that spending cooled even though prices likely increased only modestly last month. Consensus estimates are for a consumer price index increase of only 0.1 percent in April.
The government also releases business inventory data from March. Predictions are that companies likely restocked at a slower pace.
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Claims for unemployment benefits declined last week to the lowest level in a month, easing concern that the U.S. labor market is faltering.
First-time claims dropped by 1,000 to 367,000 in the period ended May 5, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Other reports showed that a gauge of consumer confidence declined to a three-month low, and the trade deficit widened on rising demand for imports from oil to autos.
Claims are returning to levels reached in February and March, indicating a surge last month probably reflected difficulty in adjusting the data for an Easter holiday that came earlier this year than last. Declines in dismissals point to a brighter labor market that would help sustain consumer spending after payroll growth slowed last month.
A new report says Apple Inc. uses subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands and other low-tax nations as part of a strategy that enables the technology giant to cut its global tax bill by billions of dollars every year.
A New York Times article published Sunday outlines legal methods used by Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to avoid paying millions of dollars in federal and state taxes.
It cites a study by a former Treasury Department economist that estimates Apple’s federal tax bill would have been $2 payday loans.4 billion higher last year without such tactics.
The newspaper says Apple paid $3.3 billion in cash taxes globally on $34.2 billion in profits last year. That’s a tax rate of 9.8 percent.
Apple tells the Times that it complies with all laws and accounting rules.
The Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday that its net income rose 8 percent in the first quarter as it hiked prices and sold more of its beverages around the world.
Although volume growth came from all regions, the world’s largest drink maker said increases were far greater in emerging markets. In the Eurasia and Africa region, for example, volume grew 9 percent, compared with a 2 percent increase in North America.
The company also had strong growth beyond its soda as consumers increasingly have become concerned about drinking and eating healthy. Global volume for bottled water grew 15 percent in the quarter, while energy drinks volume rose 25 percent. That surpassed the volume gains in the company’s namesake Coca-Cola soda, which increased 4 percent.
Even the slight bump in volume in North America was driven largely by the company’s Powerade energy drinks, Dasani bottled water and zero-calorie vitaminwater.
Despite the competition and market saturation at home, CEO Muhtar Kent said: “We believe North America is a growth market for our business.”
Total revenue was $11.14 billion for the three months ended March 30, up 6 percent from $10.52 billion a year ago, in large part because of higher prices in areas like North America. Analysts expected revenue of $10.82 billion for the latest quarter.
Coke said it earned $2.05 billion, or 89 cents per share, a penny per share above what analysts polled by FactSet had expected. In the year-ago period, it had net income of $1.9 billion, or 82 cents per share.
The company also said that the cost-cutting program it began in the quarter is on track. When completed, the measures are expected to save up to $650 million annually by 2015.
Coke is looking to trim costs wherever possible to offset rising commodity prices, which continue to eat into profits for food and drink makers industry-wide. Coke said its cost of goods rose 10 percent in the quarter.
Kent noted that Coke’s global marketing campaign for the summer Olympics in London is set to strengthen its brands by “tapping into emotional passion points like sports and music.”
Shares of Coca-Cola rose $1.04, or 1.4 percent, to $73.48 in premarket trading.
A federal agency says a remote underwater vehicle is surveying plugged undersea oil wells and looking for natural seepage as authorities seek the source of a 10-mile oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says it has instructed operators of pipelines in the area to survey their lines.
The sheen is about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. Royal Dutch Shell PLC has two production platforms in the area. The company said Thursday it is confident the sheen didn’t originate from its operations instant personal loans guaranteed.
The federal agency said it directed Shell to conduct a seafloor assessment using a robot vehicle. Natural seepage is known to occur in the area.
The sheen was spotted on Wednesday.
While the experts would have you believe that identity theft is a growing problem, the chance of losing money to this type of consumer fraud is actually fairly small. But while the dollar amount of losses and number of people it affects may not be big, if it does happen to you it can be a mess to untangle.
Identity theft is a broad term that includes things ranging from a credit or debit card being compromised to a more severe problem like real estate title fraud, when a thief mortgages your property and disappears with the money. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says about 18,500 Canadians were victims of identity theft in 2010, the latest year complete figures are available for. They lost a collective $9.4 million, or about $510 a person. In many cases banks and other lenders absorbed the losses when their customers were victimized.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau Canada jointly manage the CAFC. The agency says that the most likely targets of identity theft are between 50 and 59 and the victims are often duped into giving the information that leads to the fraud. One common scam is through phone calls and emails that claim you
Former New York Times CEO Janet Robinson retired from the newspaper publisher late last year with a severance package valued at about $23 million.
The publishing company that owns The New York Times disclosed the details of Robinson’s compensation in a Friday regulatory filing.
Robinson, 61, retired on December 31, after a 28-year career with the company. She served as CEO for the last seven years.
Since her departure, the company’s chairman, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., has been serving as interim CEO.
Robinson received $11.4 million in retirement benefits, $5.4 million in awards based on her performance, restricted stock valued at nearly $1.07 million and stock options valued at nearly $700,000.
As part of her severance, she is also being paid a previously disclosed $4.5 million consulting fee this year.
Most of the payments were part of Robinson’s original severance package. The consulting payment and one year of health coverage were added after her retirement was announced in December, according to the filing.
Like most newspaper publishers, the Times Co., which also owns The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, has cut jobs and expenses in recent years to cope with a steep drop in print advertising _ a key source of revenue.
Under Robinson’s leadership, the Times Co. built one of the newspaper industry’s most successful digital operations. But the company’s gains in online advertising haven’t been nearly enough to offset the decline in print ad revenue. In Robinson’s final year on the job, the Times Co. posted a $39.7 million loss, as its revenue slipped 3 percent from the previous year to $2.3 billion.
Signed contracts for home resales rose to a nearly two-year high in January, an industry group said on Monday, further evidence of a budding recovery in the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in January, increased 2 percent to 97.0 - the highest reading since April 2010.
December’s reading was revised down to 95.1 from a previously reported 96.6.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which lead existing home sales by a month or two, to rebound 1.0 percent after a previously reported 3.5 percent fall. Contracts signed were up 8.0 percent in the 12 months to January.
A nascent recovery is under way in the housing market, with the supply of both new and previously owned homes on the market being whittled down in recent months.
But with the foreclosure tide yet to recede and continuing to depress prices, recovery will be a long, drawn-out affair.
Australia added the most workers in 14 months in January and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined, spurring investors to increase bets the central bank will extend an interest-rate pause.
Payrolls rose by 46,300 last month, the most since November 2010, after a revised drop in December of 35,600, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. That compares with the median estimate for an increase of 10,000 in a Bloomberg News survey of 25 economists. The jobless rate fell to 5.1 percent.
Stocks fell as traders boosted the odds Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens will keep the benchmark borrowing cost unchanged March 6 after he unexpectedly paused at 4.25 percent rather than cut last week as resource investment drives growth. The central bank lowered the rate at back-to-back meetings last quarter as Europe
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