Evening Market Wrap

Evening Market Wrap Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 17:21 Contents Commentary Economic News Corporate News Currency Alerts General News Political News Commentary Disappointing Beige Book Leads To Weakness On Wall Street - U.S. Commentary Stocks showed a notable move to the downside over the course of the trading day on Wednesday, giving back ground after seeing significant strength in the previous session. The pullback was partly due to a negative reaction to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Economic News U.S. Housing Starts Surge Up 15% In September Fueled by a jump in construction of multi-family dwellings, U.S. housing starts surged higher in September, according to figures released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. Housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 658,000 in September, 15 percent above the revised August estimate of 572,000, which was little changed from the initially reported level of 571,000. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article U.S. Consumer Prices Show Modest Increase In September With a jump in energy prices partly offset by lower prices for apparel and used cars, the Labor Department released a report on Wednesday showing a modest increase in consumer prices in the month of September. The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.3 percent in September following a 0.4 percent increase in August. The modest increase in prices came in line with economist estimates. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Corporate News Visa Hikes Quarterly Dividend 47% Visa Inc. (V) Wednesday said its board of directors had declared a 47 percent increase in the quarterly dividend aggregate amount on its class A common stock from $0.15 per share to $0.22 per share, payable on December 6 to all holders of record of the company's class A, class B and class C common stock as of November 18. The quarterly dividend increase raises the annual dividend rate from $0.60 per share to $0.88 per share. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Rio Tinto Makes Cash Offer Of C$4.15/Share For Hathor Exploration Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Plc/Ltd. (RIO, RIO.AX, RIO.L) has Wednesday made a recommended all-cash offer of C$4.15 per share for Canadian uranium miner Hathor Exploration Ltd. (HTHXF.PK, HAT.TO) in a deal valued at $578 million. The offer represents a premium of about 11 per cent to Hathor's larger rival Cameco Corp.'s (CCJ, CCO.TO) unsolicited offer for Hathor of C$3.75 per common share and a premium of 55.4 percent to Hathor's closing share price of C$2.67 on the TSX on August 25, the day prior to Cameco's hostile offer. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Citigroup To Pay $285 Mln To Settle SEC Charges Citigroup Inc. (C) has agreed to pay $285 million to settle charges that it misled investors about a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation tied to the U.S. housing market in which Citigroup bet against investors as the housing market showed signs of distress, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday. The total settlement amount of $285 million, which includes $160 million in disgorgement plus $30 million in prejudgment interest and a $95 million penalty, will be returned to investors through a Fair Fund distribution. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Coldwater Creek Prices Public Offering Of 26.5 Mln Shares At $0.85 A Piece Coldwater Creek Inc. (CWTR) said Wednesday that it has priced its underwritten public offering of 26.5 million shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $0.85 per share. The company also said it has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3.975 million shares of common stock. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Currency Alerts Dollar Struggles Versus Euro Ahead Of EU Summit The dollar continued to wobble versus the euro on Wednesday, despite doubts that Sunday's emergency European Union summit will produce a comprehensive solution to the region's sovereign debt problems. Yesterday's Guardian report that Germany and France agreed to a 2 trillion euro package was "totally false," according to a German official quoted by Dow Jones. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article General News Social Security Benefits To Increase By 3.6% In 2012 Social Security recipients will see the first increase in monthly benefits in three years in 2012, the Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday. The SSA said that monthly benefits will increase by 3.6 percent, reflecting a cost-of-living adjustment tied to a government measure of consumer price inflation. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Political News President, First Lady Unveil Initiative To Boost Hiring Of Veterans President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Wednesday outlined a new initiative aimed at promoting hiring of the nation's veterans after they return to civilian life. Speaking on the final day of a three-day bus tour to promote Congressional action on job-boosting measures, Mr. Obama said that the nearly 3 million veterans of the nation's conflicts since September 11th bring unique skills to the workforce. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Most Say Government Is More To Blame For Economy Than Wall Street While most Americans say that both the federal government in Washington and the financial institutions on Wall Street are at least partly to blame for the nation's economic problems, the results of a USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday showed that a notable majority find the government to be more at fault. (Oct 19, 2011) Full Article Home | Top Stories | Breaking News | Economic News | Forex | Politics | Featured Interviews Sent to autoforextradingpro@gmail.com | Customize your alerts | Unsubscribe Copyright © 2011 RTTNews. All rights reserved. By using this service, you agree to the Terms of Service