NEW YORK -- For stocks on Monday, the path of least resistance was up.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Dow Jones industrial average both edged up to all-time highs on a day that was light on economic news and company releases.
Toll Brothers (TOL), a builder of luxury homes, rose after saying its revenue surged 29 percent in the most recent reporting period. Dean Foods (DF) soared after the dairy company reported a much smaller loss than expected for its third quarter and projected a profit for the fourth quarter.
Stocks are trading at record levels, having rebounded following a sharp slump at the beginning of October. Improving company earnings and signs that the U.S. economy remains solid, despite growth lagging overseas, are encouraging stock investors.
"What is there to not like?" said Karyn Cavanaugh, a senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management. "As we head into the end of the year, earnings projections for 2015 are looking strong."
The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) rose 6.34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,038.26. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) gained 39.81 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,613.74. The Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) climbed 19.08 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,651.62.
About 90 percent of companies in the S&P 500 have reported their third-quarter results, and their earnings are projected to rise by about 8.9 percent for the period, according to S&P Capital IQ data. That compares with growth of 4.9 percent in the same period a year ago, and 10.4 percent in the second quarter.
Earnings are projected to keep growing at a broadly similar pace in coming quarters.
Health care stocks rose the most of the ten sectors in the index. They climbed almost 1 percent, extending their gains for the year to 22 percent.
Homebuilders rose after Toll Brothers said that its revenue rose 29 percent in the most recent quarter and average sales prices rose. Toll Brother's stock climbed 73 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $32.95.
Other companies in the industry, including Lennar (LEN), PulteGroup (PHM) and D.R. Horton (DHI) also rose.
Cable companies were among the day's losers after President Barack Obama said regulators should reclassify the Internet as a public utility.
The president also said that Internet providers shouldn't be allowed to cut deals with online services like Netflix (NFLX), Amazon.com (AMZN) or YouTube (GOOG) to prioritize their content. In a statement released by the White House Monday, the president called for an "explicit ban" on such deals.
Time Warner Cable (TWC) fell $7.10, or 4.9 percent, to $136.50. Comcast (CMCSA) fell $2.20, or 4 percent, to $52.95.
Energy companies also resumed their slide as the price of oil dropped again.
The price of oil fell Monday on expectations of continued high OPEC output after the Kuwaiti oil minister predicted no production cut this month and an important field in Libya appeared to be coming back online.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.25 to close at $77.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell $1.05 to close at $82.34 on the ICE Futures exchange in London. That's the lowest close for Brent since October 2010.
Stocks, though no longer cheap, are still attractive because of lower returns elsewhere, said Bill Stone, the chief investment strategist for PNC Wealth Management. Bond yields have fallen this year, and rates on cash deposits remain close to zero.
"My baseline is that stocks will continue to chug along," Stone said.
On Monday, bond prices fell, pushing yields higher, though they remain lower than they were at the start of the year.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 2.35 percent from 2.30 percent. The yield was at 3 percent at the start of the year.
Later in the week investors will be taking stock of retail company earnings to gain insight into how much American shoppers are spending ahead of the holiday season. Macy's (M), Nordstrom (JWN) and Walmart (WMT) will report their earnings. The government will also release its retail sales data for October on Friday.
The dollar edged higher against the Japanese yen, climbing 0.3 percent to 114.89 yen. Against the euro, the U.S. currency was little changed at $1.2424.
In metals trading, gold fell for the eighth time in nine days, sliding $10, or 0.9 percent, to $1,159.80 an ounce. Silver dropped 4.3 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $15.67 an ounce. Copper fell 1.9 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $3.02 a pound.
In other energy futures trading on the NYMEX:
Wholesale gasoline fell 3.4 cents to close at $2.109 a gallon.
Heating oil fell 3.1 cents to close at $2.469 a gallon.
Natural gas fell 15.7 cents to close at $4.255 per 1,000 cubic feet.
What to Watch Tuesday:
Stock and futures markets are open for the Columbus Day holiday; bond markets are closed.
These major companies are scheduled to release quarterly financial results:
U.S. Pavement Services via Facebook
It's not easy to be a veteran in the United States. Sure, we might honor our veterans with parades, bumper stickers, and high-profile concerts on HBO, but when it comes to actual, dedicated outreach ... well, we could do a lot better. The unemployment rate for veterans ticked up to 7.2 percent in October, well ahead of the national unemployment rate (5.8 percent, and dropping). And when you zero in on younger veterans, who have served in the years following 9/11, the picture looks even grimmer.
That's a reality that hit home for Mike Musto, who serves as CEO of U.S. Pavement Services. For more than 25 years, his company has been paving and repairing New England's roads, from patching asphalt to painting the lines in parking lots. He's also been making strides to ensure that veterans are well-represented in his workforce, and hopefully setting an example for other companies staffing up around Veterans Day.
"They are skilled, trained, disciplined professionals that are a big asset to my company, and can be a big asset to many companies out there," Musto told AOL Jobs. "As far as I'm concerned, they work harder than the average person. We have trained some of them in some of the different skills of our company, and it's gone very well."
Want an idea of just how committed Musto is to his cause? In addition to making a concerted effort to hire veterans, he's planted 2,000 Christmas trees on a piece of land he owns in Maine -- which, once they've matured, he plans to give out to vets during the holiday season. If it's possible for someone's very voice to sound patriotic, his does -- and you can hear the passion in it when he brings up his company's Pledge to Hire Veterans, which challenges other employers to hire at least one veteran. So far, more than 30 other companies have jumped onboard.
"It's a good investment in our country, I believe. I feel like we have an obligation to give back to veterans for the sacrifices that they've made."
Musto currently employs seven full-time veterans on his staff of 35, including Steve Bohn, a wounded warrior who, in 2008, suffered severe spinal injuries after a suicide bomber attacked his outpost in Afghanistan. Bohn has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs about the unique challenges of transitioning to civilian life; he now works with U.S. Pavement as a quality inspector and liaison with other veterans within the company.
U.S. Pavement ServicesU.S. Pavement Services CEO Mike Musto, right, with Army Retired SPC Craig Hall.
Musto is well aware, though, that it's going to take more than a handful of companies to change the employment situation for veterans in the United States. The issues are more deeply rooted than that; real, sweeping change, he believes, is going to come through initiatives like the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act of 2014, or EXPIRE. Currently held up in Congress, the bill would offer $2,400 tax credits for companies that hired any veteran -- and up to $9,600 for those that hired an injured one.
"I'm nervous because it's been sitting since January, but it's a no-brainer for us," said Musto. "There are tax credits being offered to Hollywood filmmakers, you know? These are tax credits for people who have served our country. And it's a great way for this country to say thanks to them."
In the meantime, Musto intends to do his part by continuing his company's pledge to hire veterans (and, of course, give them Christmas trees). As for the rest of us, we can all be a little more cognizant of the challenges facing our veterans as they navigate the job market -- and recognize that their ability to contribute doesn't stop when they hang up their uniform.
OJO Images RF/Getty Images
My wife and I recently sold a home and bought another. It was certainly stressful. Our old home was in a depressed area with prices flattened by foreclosures, but I'm not one to just throw up my hands when the selling environment is not ideal. I prefer to research options and come up with a game plan.
Realtor or No Realtor?
I have always thought a Realtor was a necessity when selling your home. I have a job and a family, and I run a business, so my time is finite. Since our home was in such a depressed area, there wasn't too much between what we could sell the house for and what we needed to pay it off completely.
Before I handed off the process, I researched selling our home on our own. A FSBO (for sale by owner) would leave the research, pricing, listing and paperwork to us. That would take significant time and a learning curve.
A third, often-overlooked option is a flat-fee real estate agency, which provides you with a sign, lists your house on MLS and takes care of the paperwork. In my area, three companies provide this service for close to $1,000. You do the marketing -- and everything else.
We decided to use a Realtor, to save our time and energy.
The Cost Breakdown
After interviewing Realtors who knew our area and have recently sold homes, we realized the sale would come with a 5 percent to 6 percent commission. This would be $8,250 to $9,900, since our home was valued at $165,000. Since we were selling our home and buying another, we were able to talk a few Realtors into reducing their commission.
We picked our Realtor from a large company and agreed on a 4.5 percent commission. Once we signed the paperwork, I figured we would be able to focus on finding another house and leave the sale to our Realtor. I was wrong.
What Happens When You Become the Realtor
To make our home stand out from the crowd, we cleaned and staged it. These are things everyone should do no matter how they sell their home. Great first impressions are vital for turning house hunters into buyers.
I researched comparable homes nearby on sites like Zillow (Z), Realtor.com and Movoto. Within two hours, I knew what we could list our house for. We lived in a cookie-cutter neighborhood; the homes only had three or four floor plans. Many houses were on the market, so I had plenty of data points. At our first meeting, our Realtor suggested what she thought ours would go for, and her number was close to mine.
But we disagreed on the listing price. My initial thought was to list the house at $166,900. My goal was to get $162,000 after negotiations. Our Realtor thought we should begin near $171,000, but I knew that was too high. We hadn't even paid that much for the house, and the post-crash values in our area just didn't support that number. Houses on bigger lots and with more square footage were selling for that price -- but only after being on the market for an average of eight months.
Once we placed the house on the market, we realized it was priced right at $166,900. We had good foot traffic and positive responses. My Realtor's effort consisted of little more than putting the house on MLS: The Internet did the rest. After a week, we were under contract. For our area, we sold the home quickly. The problem was the Realtor didn't really earn the commission. The Internet did most of the work, followed by our elbow grease to get the home ready.
Our buyers needed a lot of hand-holding, and for some reason, that work fell to me. My Realtor would reach out to me with questions and concerns, and I had to babysit the process. Forgotten paperwork, last-minute changes and inspection repair lists -- these were all issues you might have expected my Realtor to have handled. Instead, she was focused on other clients. (If you want to make money, you need many clients.) Her lack of attention continued all the way through closing -- and it ended up on me to make sure the closing went through.
I spent nearly 65 hours over three months pushing this process along. Based on my business hourly rate of $35, I lost $2,275 of income I could have earned from jobs I turned down, while doing what a Realtor is supposed to do for their client.
We Could Have Saved $4,585
Based on our selling price of $163,000, we owed our Realtor a $7,335 commission. Add in the $2,275 worth of business income I lost by passing up jobs, and the total real cost to sell our home was $9,610. In retrospect, it's clear we'd have been better off paying $1,000 to a flat-fee real estate company. I would have had the same $2,275 in lost business income, and we would have saved $6,335. Since buyers agents won't show your home unless you pony up a commission to them, I would've had to throw in the same amount as my Realtor did -- $1,750. That would have brought our total savings to $4,585.
The technology for home buying and selling is much better than it used to be. Today's sellers and buyers only need help when it comes to paperwork and the legal aspects. I'm not advocating that everyone who's selling a home do it on their own. But the wise choice would be to look at all the available options and pick the one that's best for you.
Grayson Bell is the founder of Debt Roundup, a personal finance site with topics ranging from fighting debt to growing wealth. When he isn't busy working, running a business and enjoying time with his family, he writes product and service reviews at Empowered Shopper.
Getty ImagesWhether retirees want to spend their golden years on the green or relaxing on a sandy beach, preparing for the costs now can mean less surprises later.By Emily Brandon
Like many people, you may have grand plans for retirement. You could travel for an extended period of time, play golf every day or relax by the ocean, with no end to your permanent vacation. The problem lies in paying for it. None of these retirement dreams come cheap, unless you're willing to expend some effort to find deals. Here's how much it costs to retire in style, along with some ideas to make your ideal lifestyle more affordable:
Golf course. Retirees have the luxury of being able to fit in all the golf they want, assuming they can afford it. Membership at a private golf club often includes a joining fee and required minimum monthly expenditures. Chris Santella, author of "Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die: Golf Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations," says these costs can range from the low five figures to the middle six figures, depending on the club. Playing golf at resorts or municipal courses generally costs less, ranging from $150 to $300 a round on the higher-end courses to between $100 and $150 per round on municipal courses, Santella says. For example, a tee time for two players on a Wednesday in November in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Troon North Golf Club will cost between $89 in the afternoon heat to $213 for more desirable morning spots. "Alabama has put together a wonderful array of quality golf courses called the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail," Santella says. "The cost of living in Alabama is much less than being in Scottsdale, but the quality of courses is fantastic and they are very reasonably priced." At Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, tee times were listed online for as little as $28 per player on a November weekday. Another way to play golf at much lower prices is to volunteer or work part time for a golf club. "Volunteering for a course as a starter or a ranger is a job people will often do free of charge other than the ability to play golf for free," Santella says. "The chance to be out and socialize with people who have the same interest as you and to get those free golf rounds is something that is desirable for a lot of folks."
World traveler. Working people never have enough vacation time to travel as much as they want to, which is a situation new retirees are often eager to remedy. But it's easy to spend your nest egg too quickly on international trips and high-end hotels. "Generally retirees should look for countries that are undervalued in terms of the exchange rate of the dollar," says Matt Kepnes, founder of NomadicMatt.com and author of "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Travel Cheaper, Longer, Smarter." "Everyone goes to Europe and goes to Paris. Instead, go to Croatia or Romania. Thinking contrarian in your travel is one of the best ways to stretch dollars." Indeed, five-star hotels in early May are currently just over $100 a night in Zagreb, Croatia, compared with over $400 nightly in Paris. Once you are no longer beholden to work and school schedules, you are also free to travel at off-peak times when tourist sites are less crowded and hotels and airfares are cheaper. "The more you are flexible with your travel plans, the more you will be able to find deals," Kepnes says. "If you go off-season, the crowds are fewer and you will have lower prices." Some retirees find creative ways to save, including doing a home swap with someone in another city or using a recreational vehicle to traverse the country. And, of course, senior and AARP discounts on hotels, cars and attractions abound for those who are willing to admit their age.
College town. Retirement can be a second chance to head back to school and learn something new. College towns tend to offer lots of amenities at affordable prices. Small cities with colleges often have good public transportation that is low cost and sometimes free. If the college has a teaching hospital, there's also likely to be top-notch health care. Some colleges even have retirement communities on or near campus. "You're going to have, in many cases, small-town living, a reasonable cost of living and plenty of things to do, sometimes as much as a big city," says Bert Sperling, founder of BestPlaces.net. "Major universities have world leaders come to speak to students and also to the community, the sporting events are some of the best, there's the possibility of taking classes and the vibrancy of living in a place where you are surround by young people." Many colleges allow local residents who are above a certain age to take classes for free or a very low cost.
Retirement community. As much as we like to think we will spend our retirement years traveling or relaxing, there may also come a time when we develop health problems and need help from others. In case that happens, it's essential to have a plan for the very high costs of long-term care. A private room in a nursing home costs a median of $240 a day in 2014, up 4.35 percent from 2013, and assisted living facilities cost a median of $3,500 a month, according to a Genworth Financial survey of 14,800 care providers. However, the cost of facility-based care has grown at a much faster rate than prices for home care. Home health aides cost a median of $20 per hour, and adult day health care costs $65 a day. "Take a look at home care versus an assisted living community and the costs related to each if you move or stay put," says Joy Loverde, author of "The Complete Eldercare Planner." "If you stay home, you are going to need to retrofit your house so it is senior friendly, and home remodeling costs will depend on what you have done." The cost of care varies significantly by region, so it's important to check local rates when making your retirement budget. In some cases, Medicare will pay for up to 100 days of care in a skilled nursing facility. Those without significant savings can often get help from Medicaid, but families with assets to protect might want to consider a long-term care insurance policy to help defray some of the costs.
Beach bum. Retirement is the perfect time to relax by the sea, but a seaside property purchase could capsize your retirement budget. The cost of oceanfront property largely depends on where you choose to live and whether you want to be right on the water or are willing to live a few blocks away. "In order to determine a budget, you must first outline what is important. House size? Location? View? Proximity to beach? For some, a water view with beachfront access is the priority, and there is some flexibility on the location of the home and its size," says Karen McIntyre, managing director and senior financial adviser for Wescott Trust Services. "For example, Crystal Beach, Maryland, sits at the intersection of the Chesapeake Bay and the Elk River. A two-bedroom, one-bath home with great views and a private beach a short walk down the street can be purchased for less than $100,000. Of course, a beachfront home in a prime location may cost over a million." And if your retirement dreams aren't tied to the ocean, a lakeside or riverside retirement home can also provide water views at a fraction of the cost.
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If you use the headlines as a guide, credit and debit card fraud has never been scarier. We have seen massive data breaches at Target (TGT) and Home Depot (HD), reminding us of our vulnerability in a digital world. Clever hackers can steal the personal information of more than 100 million shoppers with relative ease.
How do you defend yourself in a world where mega-breaches seem to be increasingly frequent? Americans are still carrying plastic in our wallets that uses a magnetic stripe to store our personal data. This technology was invented in the 1950s, and fraudsters have had more than 60 years to create ways to steal that information in the physical world. And every new digital or online payment tool creates the opportunity for further theft. If you link an account to a digital payment company (like PayPal), you become dependent upon the security of both PayPal and your bank. The more complicated and elaborate the web of payments becomes, the greater the potential for vulnerabilities that can be exploited by clever fraudsters.
You should think about fraud in three ways:
Prevention.What can you do to make sure fraud never happens?
Detection. If fraud happens, how can you find out as soon as possible, to minimize the size of the potential theft?
Resolution. If you do lose money, how do you make sure you get it back?
Prevention
There are two ways that you can get into trouble:
Someone takes over your identity and opens up a new account using your name and credit information (identity takeover).
Someone takes over one of your existing accounts and starts spending money (account takeover).
To prevent identity takeover, you need to guard your personal information. And the most critical piece of information is your Social Security number. Once someone gets hold of those nine digits, they can really make your life difficult. Avoid writing it down on paper. (Feel free to say no at the doctor's office, or almost anyplace else that requests it.) Never make it your username. And don't store it on your phone.
To get the highest level of prevention, you can "freeze" your credit report. For a small fee (you will need to do it at each of the three major credit bureaus), you can prevent any new accounts from being opened. You will be given a PIN code that can be used to unfreeze the accounts, if you plan on applying for credit. (There's a how-to guide on my website, MagnifyMoney.)
Account takeover is easier to accomplish than identity takeover. Fraudsters can steal your information in the physical or digital world. Skimming is one of the most common methods for stealing your data. A skimmer is a device that reads the information from your magnetic stripe. There are hand-held devices (that a waitress can use), and there are even devices that can be attached to ATMs.
If a waitress or some other service professional wants to skim your credit card after you've handed it to them and they've left your sight, it is almost impossible to stop them. However, you can take steps to prevent ATM skimming:
Avoid suspicious ATMs. I only use ATMs inside a bank branch, where cameras are present.
Use your hand to cover the keypad when you type in your PIN code. One common fraud technique involves a small camera hidden nearby, recording you inputting your PIN.
Beware out-of-hours devices at branches, where you swipe your card to unlock the door. Fraudsters are increasingly adding skimming devices here.
Online bill paying can also be a risk. If fraudsters steal your sign-in credentials, they can issue payments to bogus payees. The best way to prevent this is to have a high level of security around the addition of a new payee. A good example is Bank of America's (BAC) SafePass. To add a new payee, you need a code from a physical device that only you have. But, at a minimum, you should receive email notification every time a new payee is added and every time a payment is made.
Avoid web cafes and public computers, as they are sometimes infected with malware that enables fraudsters to see everything on your monitor.
Stolen or lost wallets and phones remain the preferred ways for fraudsters to get access to your money. Never carry more credit cards than you need to in your wallet. Never write down a PIN code, password or Social Security number anywhere in your wallet or on your phone. And don't leave your wallet in your hotel room, waiting for housekeeping to pilfer it.
Detection
No matter how vigilant you are, there's always a risk that you'll be a victim of fraud. Your best defense is early detection. And the best way to detect identity takeover is by regularly looking at your credit reports and signing up for a credit monitoring service.
Every year, you should get a free copy of your credit report from all three bureaus by using AnnualCreditReport.com.
You can sign up for ongoing credit monitoring for free from CreditKarma.com. It only looks at TransUnion, but it is free.
To detect an account takeover, make full use of tools that alert you to transactions. These include:
Setting your account so that you receive an email or text for any transaction above a certain dollar amount.
Setting your account so that you receive a daily message that shows your balance.
In addition, banks use detection algorithms to identify suspicious transactions. The best banks will send you an email or a text alert, asking you to verify.
Resolution
Once you detect fraud, your goal is to stop the fraudster from being able to steal more money and to get any money back that you lost.
As soon as you detect fraud, immediately call the bank. If you don't report your fraud to the bank within 60 days, you lose a lot of your legal protections.
My Approach
I know it can seem scary, but this is a risk that you can manage. Here is what I do:
I keep as little money in my checking account as possible. That is the account with the most potential for theft (money can exit the account via a debit card, ATM card, check, bill pay or online account like PayPal).
My emergency savings is in a certificate of deposit that is not linked to my checking account. If someone wants to get at that money, they have to break the CD, which takes time. And I would receive plenty of warnings and alerts along the way.
I only use my debit card one to two times per month, to withdrawal money from an ATM. And I only use a bank ATM during business hours.
I have an alert set up so that I am notified any time any transaction takes place in my checking account.
I make all of my monthly purchases on a credit card, and I receive a daily text message showing my balance.
I don't carry my back-up credit cards with me. They are locked away at home.
I check all three credit reports annually, and I have credit monitoring so that any new account inquiry is sent to me via email.
I don't panic if fraud strikes me. And it has (always on my credit card, never on my debit card). And I have never lost a dollar of my own money on fraud.
Nick Clements is the co-founder of MagnifyMoney.com, a website that makes it easy to cut your costs without cutting your lifestyle. He spent nearly 15 years in consumer banking, and most recently he ran the largest credit card business in the U.K.
Andresr/ShutterstockEvery one of us has had "aha! moments." Epiphanies. Days when we reach a crossroads and realize that we have to make some changes. For the next two months, we're sharing moments like those in our Life Stage Lessons series: Real stories straight from the financial lives of our DailyFinance contributors about times when they realized they were due for a serious course correction. So read on, learn from our mistakes, and get inspired to improve your relationship with your money.
Last year, some girlfriends and I met up for a glass of wine and started discussing (what else?) men. I don't recall how it came up, but my friend Sarah quipped emphatically, "I don't do Dutch treat." She went on to state that if a man wants to court her and enjoy her company, he should treat her. I was quite surprised. How could it be that two professional women in their mid-40s with investments in real estate and stocks could have such polar-opposite views on this subject? (You may wonder: Is Sarah is from the South? No, she's from New Jersey.)
Don't Emasculate Your Date
I often write about the advice my mother gave me when I started dating. My mother urged me to behave like Sarah; she said if I offered to pay on a date, I would emasculate the man. My mother had already been divorced twice when she gave me that tip.
It made practical, economic sense to me that a man who had a higher income or more assets than I would be in the best position to pay for my meal. But as I progressed in my career (specifically when, at 26, I left a job in Washington, D.C., that paid $29,500 a year to become the youngest policy adviser to Oregon's governor, which paid $57,000 a year), most men my age made less than I did. My net worth was growing too, as I had already begun investing in the stock market and saving for retirement.
In my late 20s, I went through a phase where I dated older men -- much older men. In those cases I didn't feel uncomfortable at all when they treated me. They were more established and had more money. One 50-year-old man even took me on a weekend trip to Canada. We enjoyed spending hours in Ottawa's Canadian Military Museum and drinking lattes at Second Cup. But I was never serious about these men, and they weren't serious about me, either.
Equal in the Workplace and Equal in the Restaurant
By the time I was 31 and had moved to San Diego for a job, I was making $110,000 a year. That's when my mindset changed. If I want to be treated equally in the workplace, why would I want to be treated unequally at a restaurant? From then on, when a man offered to treat, I'd always pull out my wallet. And if he refused to split the bill, I'd tell him that the next time was on me. And I meant it.
Sarah's views aren't uncommon. In a 2013 research paper titled "Who Pays for Dates? Following versus Challenging Conventional Gender Norms," survey data shows that more than half of women claim they offer to help pay the bill when on a date -- but nearly half of those women secretly want men to reject their offers to pay. What really interested me in the survey was that nearly half of women were annoyed when men expected women to chip in.
I asked my husband how he handled the bill issue when he dated women prior to me. "If I knew she made less money than I did, I would offer to treat," Dan said. But he soon followed with, "It's hard to treat someone like an equal partner when you're the one always footing the bill."
My mother got to know Dan before she passed away. I'm sure she'd now agree that whatever I did financially in our relationship, it certainly didn't emasculate Dan the Man.
Carlos Osorio/APAn employee works on the new Ford F-150 truck at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich.By DEE-ANN DURBIN
DEARBORN, Mich. -- It's Ford Motor's biggest bet in decades: an aluminum-sided F-150 that could set a new industry standard -- or cost the company its pickup truck crown.
Ford (F) was scheduled to start production of the 2015 F-150 Tuesday at its Dearborn Truck Plant, four miles from the company's headquarters. It will arrive at U.S. dealerships next month.
Ford thinks a truck that is lighter and more fuel efficient, but even more capable, will win buyers while its competitors struggle to catch up. Aluminum -- which is lighter than steel but just as strong -- isn't new to the auto industry, but this is the first time it will cover the entire body of such a high-volume vehicle. Ford made 647,697 F-150 pickups at its two U.S. plants last year; that's one every 49 seconds.
There are big risks. F-Series trucks have been the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. for 37 straight years; last year, Ford sold nearly 100,000 more full-size pickups than General Motors (GM). Any quality problems, production hiccups or customer doubts about aluminum could slow sales and hurt Ford's bottom line. Morgan Stanley estimates F-Series trucks account for 90 percent of Ford's global automotive profit.
CEO Mark Fields told the AP he is confident Ford made the right decision. The new truck has been through 10 million miles of testing, which is more than any other vehicle in Ford's history, he says.
Top managers agreed unanimously to switch to aluminum at a meeting in 2012.
"Were we recognizing that it was a risk? Sure," Fields says. "But it was a very calculated and informed risk that gave us the confidence that we were going to get this done."
If Ford masters the art of delivering an aluminum vehicle at the level the F-150 sells, they are going to be able to expand that to Mustangs, Edges and Lincolns.
If Ford's bet pays off, it could gain an even more commanding lead in the lucrative truck market. More importantly, aluminum "future proofs" the truck -- and the company -- in an era of rising fuel economy standards, says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book.
"If Ford masters the art of delivering an aluminum vehicle at the level the F-150 sells, they are going to be able to expand that to Mustangs, Edges and Lincolns," Brauer says.
Truck buyers are among the most loyal in the auto market, and Ford can count on many of them. The company says more than 224,600 potential buyers have already asked for more details about the truck.
But even some Ford loyalists have their doubts. Ginny Pruet, who runs a wedding rental business in Rockwall, Texas, recently traded her 2012 F-150 for the 2014 version because she wanted a backup camera.
Pruet, 54, has checked out the 2015 version at auto shows. She is impressed by the new truck's bells and whistles, like the movable LED spotlights on the side mirrors. But she's concerned that aluminum is untested and not worth the extra cost. Ford has raised the price of the base model by $395 to $26,615, including destination fees. A fancier King Ranch version costs $3,615 more.
Carlos Osorio/APA worker installs a grill on a new Ford F-150 truck at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich.
Ford's promise of better fuel economy also failed to sway Pruet, who is paying less than $3 a gallon for gasoline in her area. Fuel economy numbers won't be released until later this month, but Ford has said the 2015 truck will have up to 20 percent better fuel economy than the outgoing model, which gets up to 23 mpg on the highway.
Ford has the disadvantage of introducing the truck as gas prices are hitting a four-year low. But Fields says even when gas prices were $1.25, truck buyers still asked for better fuel economy.
"These vehicles are not just vehicles to our customers. They're tools to help them do their job," Fields says. "This thing has to deliver."
John Krafcik, the president of the car buying site TrueCar.com, says pickup drivers will be drawn by the truck's capability. The F-150 sits on a high-strength steel frame that's carrying less weight from the truck, so it can carry more cargo and haul heavier trailers. The new F-150 can tow up to 12,200 pounds compared with 12,000 for the Silverado and 10,500 for the Ram.
Ford is spending more than $1 billion to retrofit its plants in Dearborn and Claycomo, Missouri, where the trucks are assembled, as well as the metal stamping plants that make the parts, says Bruce Hettle, Ford's vice president of manufacturing, who spent three years planning the changeover.
Sparks used to fly from the noisy robots welding steel in the Dearborn body shop. Now, 500 new robots quietly rivet aluminum parts together. At Ford's Dearborn stamping plant, new machines collect and sort aluminum for recycling, which couldn't be done with steel.
Ford also helped dealers with the $30,000 to $50,000 cost to retrofit their repair shops, says spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt.
Around 700 of the company's 1,500 dealers who do collision repairs have gone through company training on aluminum, along with 700 independent repair shops. Weigandt says Ford took steps to minimize repair costs. Because of the way the aluminum is sectioned, for example, the roof doesn't have to be removed to repair to the B-pillar, which sits just behind the front doors.
Russell Barnett updated the repair shop at his Ford dealership in Winchester, Tennessee. Barnett figures that in three to four years other brands will be adopting the same technology, so the investment will pay for itself.
Jason Cannon doesn't haul much more than an occasional Christmas tree in his 2006 F-150. But Cannon, 34, a writer who lives in Demopolis, Alabama, says he wouldn't drive anything else.
Cannon's only wish is that he got better fuel economy than the 15 to 16 mpg he averages around town. That's why he's eyeing the 2015 F-150 with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost engine, a V6 that could give him similar horsepower to his current V8.
Cannon says he wouldn't hesitate to buy aluminum.
"This is an F-150. The technology is proven," he says. "This is the same song, just a different verse."
-Auto writer Tom Krisher contributed from Detroit.
Microsoft via APMicrosoft's Lumia 535 smartphoneBy Rama Venkat Raman
Microsoft (MSFT) said it would roll out its Lumia 535 smartphone this month with an affordable price tag in its key markets, dropping the Nokia name just months after buying the Finnish company's handset business.
Loaded with its latest Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, the Lumia 535 and Lumia 535 dual SIM will be priced at around 110 euros (about $137) before taxes and subsidies, Microsoft said in a statement.
The phone will feature a wide-angle 5 megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-inch qHD display screen, the company said.
Smartphones run on Microsofts' Windows software, mostly Lumias, captured only 2.7 percent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, down from 3.8 percent the year before, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
Microsoft completed its $7.2 billion deal to buy Nokia's handset business in April. Nokia continues as a networks, mapping and technology licensing company. It owns and manages the Nokia brand and only licenses it to Microsoft.
Microsoft had said in the past it planned to license the Nokia brand for its lower-end mobile phones for 10 years and to use the name on its smartphones only for a "limited" time, without saying how long that might be.
WASHINGTON -- U.S. small-business optimism rose in October as more owners said they planned to invest in their companies and were having a harder time filling job openings, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Twenty-six percent of business owners said they planned capital outlays, which are investments in things like machinery and land. That was the second highest reading since early 2008, and a hopeful sign for the business spending outlook.
Also boosting the index, 24 percent of owners reported job openings they couldn't fill, up 3 percentage points from September.
"Historically, readings this high only occurred in periods of strong growth," NFIB economist William Dunkelberg said of the survey's labor readings.
Still, more business-owners said their profits were falling, holding back bigger gains in the overall index. Six of the index's 10 components rose in the survey of 1,502 randomly selected small business owners.
The 2013 holiday shopping season was largely defined by its price wars. And while those are sure to continue this year, another type of battle is already starting to take shape: Shipping wars.
Despite a slew of late deliveries last holiday -- the result of last-minute delivery promises and a series of snowstorms -- retailers are looking to get a leg up on the competition by pushing Christmas deadlines for online orders even later in the season.
According to a new study by the Kurt Salmon consulting firm, which surveyed more than 100 retailers with revenue greater than $750 million, 26 percent will guarantee Christmas delivery for orders placed one to three days ahead of time. That's up from 17 percent in 2013. What's more, nearly 50 percent will guarantee on-time delivery for Christmas orders placed by Dec. 20. That's also up, from 37 percent last year.
Overall, these changes mean retailers plan to push back the final order date for guaranteed Christmas arrival from an average of 6.9 days to 5.5 days.
"Retailers are making ambitious promises in order to capture last-minute online sales," said Steve Osburn, retail strategist at Kurt Salmon. "But if you compare average delivery times with last-minute promises, there is a gap that retailers will need to account for."
The findings come as carriers FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) are warning retailers against the 11th-hour delivery promises that lead to shipping delays. Experts remain torn as to whether retailers will listen. While some argue they will heed the warning to protect their brand and build trust with shoppers, others say they'll be unable to resist the temptation as the competition intensifies.
Earlier this season, a Shop.org study of 55 online retailers found that nearly 80 percent of respondents were planning earlier deadlines.
Jarrett Streebin, founder and CEO of EasyPost logistics company, remains skeptical. "I think [the carriers are] really sort of whistling in the dark," he said.
Last year, retailers said about 15 percent of orders arrived late. They're aiming to trim this to 8 percent in 2014.
Companies are also competing over free shipping offers, which Target (TGT) kicked off last month by offering free shipping on all online orders through Dec. 20. According to Kurt Salmon's study, 76 percent of retailers are already offering some form of free shipping, compared with 35 percent last year.
Forrester Research (FORR) predicts online sales will hit a record $89 billion during the final two months of the year, meaning carriers will be met with even more volume. Both FedEx and UPS are boosting their holiday hiring to accommodate the expected increase.
Damian Dovarganes/APBlack Friday, the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving celebration of parking lot melees and shopping as a contact sport, has been popular because of the money you could save. Only, it's no longer the king of discount dates.
DealNews had already reported that Thanksgiving sported the most deals, with Cyber Monday coming in second and Black Friday a clear third. But if you really want to save money, you should plan more strategically. Depending on what you want, different days offer the biggest bang for the buck.
A study of five years of data by Savings.com shows that depending on the category -- toys, apparel, electronics or novelties (books, flowers, candy, wine and other products) -- widely different days offer the best savings, according to information sent to DailyFinance by Savings.com. And Black Friday rarely shows up.
"One of the things we say a lot is Black Friday is dead," Savings.com spokesperson Meghan Heffernan told DailyFinance. "Not that there aren't deals on Friday, but most of the deals that were Black Friday deals are available well in advance. The day has lost a lot of that significance."
Here are some of the calendar ins and outs for getting the most savings.
Toys
You want to start early, as in the day before Thanksgiving, or Nov. 26 this year, when you should be able to get 30 percent off. That could be a little impractical, given getting ready for Thursday and the possibility of travel. But Dec. 8 and 19 are the second- and third-best days, so you even have time to get rid of your leftovers.
Apparel
If you want 30 percent to 50 percent off on clothing and accessories, Cyber Monday (Dec. 1 this year) is your best choice. Otherwise, keep Dec. 11 free for the second-best day or Dec. 18 for the third-best.
Electronics
The sad news: The best day to save 20 percent or more off electronics was Nov. 1. But fear not, because the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and, the one exception, Black Friday are your second- and third-best choices.
Novelties
In this area, the percentage off can vary widely, depending on the specific product. The first-, second- and third-best savings days are Dec. 15, 22 and 23, giving you an excuse to procrastinate.
And, according to Savings.com, the top online retailers for deals include Macys (M), Sears (SHLD), Kohl's (KSS), JCPenney (JCP), Expedia (EXPE), Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Amazon (AMZN).
For some additional intelligence, the Adobe Digital Index indicated that in 2013, online prices hit rock bottom on Thanksgiving. Online sales start the Monday before Thanksgiving. And you can ask stores to match online prices -- other than Black Friday specials -- and you have a chance of getting a deal.
Eric Risberg/APHampton Creek Foods CEO Josh Tetrick holds a species of yellow pea used to make Just Mayo, a plant-based mayonnaise.
You have to break some eggs to make an omelet and, according to a lawsuit from the maker of Hellmann's, the same goes for mayonnaise.
The food company Unilever (UL) is suing a California company that uses the word "Mayo" in its sandwich spread name, saying that federal regulators and dictionaries define mayonnaise as a spread that contains eggs.
The suit claims false advertising by the company Hampton Creek for labeling its egg-free product "Just Mayo." Unilever says in a complaint filed in federal court that the world mayo implies that the product is mayonnaise, and Just Mayo is "stealing market share from Hellmann's."
Consumers and cooks have an expectation that mayonnaise should both taste and perform like mayonnaise.
"Consumers and cooks have an expectation that mayonnaise should both taste and perform like mayonnaise. Just Mayo does neither," the complaint states, noting that the Hampton Creek product's oils separate when heated.
Unilever holds the biggest share of the U.S. mayonnaise market, which is estimated to be worth $2 billion annually, according to market-research firm Euromonitor. That's more than twice the size of the ketchup market.
Hampton Creek didn't return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday morning. The company told The Wall Street Journal that it doesn't mislead consumers because it advertises the absence of eggs as a benefit.
But a marketing professor hired by Unilever to survey consumers found in an online survey that more than half of thought Just Mayo was mayonnaise when they saw the label. The professor said in a document filed last week that 822 consumers participated in the research.
Just Mayo is the first product from Hampton Creek, a San Francisco-based startup that touts the backing of Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing, Asia's wealthiest person. Just Mayo is available at Dollar Tree (DLTR), Whole Foods Market (WFM) and Kroger (KR) stores, among other locations.
Hellmann's celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Mayonnaise originated in France in the 1700s, when a chef seeking to make a creamy sauce combined oil and egg yolks.
Mie Ahmt
On Veterans Day 2014, the good economic news for veterans is that employment rate for vets is up, and the underemployment rate is down. The bad news is, there is a long way to go.
According to a new CareerBuilder.com study conducted by Harris Poll, 33 percent of companies interviewed claimed to be actively recruiting veterans. That's up from 20 percent in 2011, just after we emerged from the depths of the Great Recession, and 27 percent in 2013. In addition, 31 percent of all companies said that they had recently hired veterans who had seen active duty within the previous 12 months.
"Several years ago, more U.S. companies started making pledges to recruit and train returning U.S. veterans, and we are beginning to see those efforts pay off," Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, was quoted in the release.
The news is good because veterans have faced a tougher time in the employment market than average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2013, the unemployment rate for veterans who had been on active duty anytime since September 2001 was 9 percent. The jobless rate for all veterans, no matter when they served, dropped to 6.6 percent last year. That compared to a general rate that started at 7.9 percent at the beginning of 2013 and ended at 6.7 percent.
Veterans as a group face a number of hurdles to employment, according to the Mental Health Association of New York City. The issues include higher disability rates, lack of civilian work experience, and difficulties in translating their military work experience into something appropriate for the private sector.
The converse of the recruitment picture is also true: Roughly two-thirds of companies don't actively seek to recruit vets. And 57 percent of veterans don't think that identifying themselves as vets helps them get jobs, although 40 percent of employers say they pay extra attention to job applications from veterans. All other things being equal between two candidates, if one had served in the military and the other had not, 68 percent of companies say they'd be more likely to hire the vet.
Teamwork, Discipline, Respect and Integrity
Among the attributes employers most often credited veterans with bringing to the table were the ability to work in a team (62 percent), a disciplined approach to work (62 percent) and respect and integrity (58 percent).
The top 10 types of work that companies recruited vets for were:
Information technology manager/network administrator (16 percent)
Customer service rep (14 percent)
Computer programmer (14 percent)
Engineer (13 percent)
Administrative assistant/secretary (13 percent)
Accountant (13 percent)
Sales representative (12 percent)
Other computer or Internet specialist (11 percent)
However, not all the jobs were all they could be. Of the 286 veterans polled, 23 percent reported that they were underemployed -- down from 32 percent in 2013.
Two-thirds of vets did say that they were satisfied with their jobs, up from 59 percent in 2013. Twenty-four percent plan on changing jobs next year, vs. 20 percent last year. And 81 percent said that they came out of the military feeling prepared to enter the workforce; last year the number was 68 percent. However, 37 percent didn't know how to write a resume when they left active duty, and 33 percent didn't know what civilian industries would be the best places to put their military experience to use.
Only 38 percent took advantage of GI Bill tuition credits to advance their education.
The online survey also involved 2,440 hiring managers and human resources professionals.
If you're not already covered though your employer, dental insurance can be really expensive, costing an average of $400 annually for an individual plan and $1200 annually for a family plan. Luckily, there is another budget-friendly option available.
Joining a Dental Price Club will give you access to a large network of dentists at discounted prices, typically up to 60 percent off the market rate. There are no copays. Instead, you pay a membership fee of around $75 to $150 for an individual plan, while family plans will cost about $50 more.
Along with the low prices, there are other distinct advantages: Dental clubs can really save when it comes non-routine services, such as root canals, cavity fillings and tooth extractions. For example, the industry standard for a single tooth extraction runs around $167. Through a club, that same procedure will only cost about $81 dollars. That's a savings of over 50 percent. If you were to do this though dental insurance, you would potentially be paying a copay of up to 60 percent of the total bill, especially for major restorative work.
Joining a club can also get you discounts for cosmetic dental work, which dental insurances typically don't cover. You can typically save up to 25 percent off veneers and braces, while full dentures can be up to 50 percent off, depending on your coverage.
Another bonus with dental clubs is that there's no waiting period. Your coverage begins immediately upon sign up, whereas for dental insurance, you might have to wait anywhere between 3 and 18 months before getting any major work done.
To find a dental plan, check out DentalPlans.com. You can find a great comparison chart of all the top plans including DentalSave, Careington and Brighter. Once you choose your plan, go directly to the provider's website to sign up to avoid paying extra processing fees.
In the end, joining a dental club can potentially save you big, especially if you're looking for more cosmetic and non-routine services. This way you can still take good care of your teeth, and have your budget shine as well.
As you're looking for deals while holiday shopping, one of the best sources is closer than you think -- in your wallet, actually. Many credit cards have benefits that can help you save money and protect your purchase. Unfortunately, you probably don't realize it.
Features on credit cards from MasterCard (MA), American Express (AXP), Visa (V) and Discover (DFS) include getting money back if you see an item for less, receiving automatic extended warranties or having easier times returning merchandise. Extended warranties and guaranteed product returns are also frequently under-appreciated.
Shhhhh! Not Everyone Knows
While great perks do appear in the disclosure statements for cards, the card companies and issuers may not promote the features heavily. The reason is cost -- they work financially for the provider when not everyone uses them.
For example, American Express used to have a price guarantee that offered the difference between the price consumers paid and lower prices they eventually found, but the company no longer does, according to Harzog. "There is speculation that American Express dropped it because so many people took advantage of it that they couldn't afford to do it anymore," Beverly Harzog, consumer credit expert and author of "Confessions of a Credit Junkie," said in an interview with DailyFinance.
Discover will refund the difference up to $500 if you find your item at a lower price within 90 days of making a Discover card purchase, Citi says it will refund the difference in price up to $300 per item if its price-finding service discovers a lower price within 60 days of the purchase, and MasterCard will refund up to $250 within 60 days or 120 days, depending on which type of MasterCard you use.
However, Harzog says that the details can be bedeviling. "MasterCard will offer price protection within 60 days, but whether or not your particular card [issuer] has included that benefit is something you have to find out," she said. The disclosure statement is the place to look. Similarly, Citi's Price Rewind feature is only for consumer credit cards -- not debit or business credit cards.
Visa also has price protection within 60 days but requires a consumer to call a toll-free number within 10 days of seeing an advertisement for a lower price.
For any price protection program, it's up to you to file the claim and any necessary supporting material, which can include the original receipt and dated proof of a lower advertised price. Again, check the disclosure statement and any additional material for the details.
Purchase Protection and Return Protection
Although American Express may no longer have price protection, it does have purchase protection. Buy a covered item (tickets, gift cards, and travelers checks are examples of items that aren't), and if it's lost, stolen or damaged during the first 90 days, you can get a refund. Some cards also offer extended warranties. Instead of shelling out the extra to buy more protection, check if additional coverage comes automatically with the card purchase.
American Express also has return protection, so if a merchant refuses to take an item back within 90 days of purchase, the card company will -- if the item is still in new condition. Visa, MasterCard and Discover all have return protection, purchase protection, and warranty extension, in addition to price protection.
There are limitations for all these perks, so double-check the disclosure statement and remember that you'll have to make the entire purchase with that card. Sorry, you can't pay for half with a MasterCard and the other half with American Express to get a more favorable mix of benefits.
Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty ImagesRenee J. James is president of Intel.
With interest rates still near record lows, and classic safe investments paying meager returns, growing numbers of conservative (and savvy) investors are turning to dividend stocks to generate the income they need from their investments. Dividend stocks have also produced stronger total returns than the overall market, which has led more investors to use strategies aimed at emphasizing those dividend stocks.
One such strategy is known as the Dogs of the Dow. At the beginning of each year, you buy the 10 stocks out of the 30 members of the Dow Jones industrials (^DJI) whose dividend is the largest fraction of their share price. Then, you hold on to those stocks throughout the year, collecting their dividends. When the year ends, then you take a fresh look at the top dividend yields in the Dow and make any necessary adjustments.
Because dividends are paid out as a set amount per share, they don't fluctuate with stock price. This means the dividend ratio does. Lower stock prices equal higher dividend ratios -- your cue to buy.
The strategy is doing fairly well this year, and one big reason is the outperformance of Dow tech components Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC) so far in 2014.
The Dogs in This Race
Over the past dozen years, the Dogs have beaten the return of the overall Dow Jones industrials six times, and the Dow has beaten the Dogs the other six. Most recently, the Dogs have had a good run, beating the Dow in three of the past four years.
So far in 2014, the Dogs and the Dow are neck and neck, with the Dogs producing gains of nearly 8 percent and beating the Dow's current pace by 2 percentage points. A large part of that success has come not only from having tech's strongest players among the Dogs but also in avoiding the worst Dow stock in tech.
A Tale of Two Tech Markets
The successes of Microsoft and Intel have come to a large extent from a revival of their core business areas. In particular, Intel has struggled in recent years as the mobile revolution threatened to leave the dominant PC-chip company behind, with competitors taking control of the high-performance mobile-chip market. But as Microsoft's support for its Windows XP operating system ended earlier this year, Intel saw an upsurge in its sales thanks to a rise in sales of traditional PCs. Even as some concerns have arisen about the sustainability of that trend, Intel has also made strides toward improving its position among mobile-chip makers, and Intel stock has ridden that optimism higher by about 29 percent so far in 2014.
Microsoft's operating system and office software businesses also rely on brisk PC sales for a big piece of revenue. But another contributing factor in Microsoft's success in 2014 has been the ascent of new CEO Satya Nadella, who has broken the company out of what many saw as a rut under former CEO Steve Ballmer and started making more aggressive moves toward innovation and competition. Initiatives emphasizing cloud computing and recurring revenue have the potential to become game-changers in the way that the tech giant makes money in the future. Microsoft's willingness to become less platform-centric and instead focus on delivering valuable services regardless of what type of hardware customers are using has driven more enthusiasm about the stock, which is a big part of why Microsoft has gained 30 percent so far this year.
IBM is the worst performer in the Dow this year, falling more than 13 percent.
As strong an influence as Intel and Microsoft have had, the fact that the Dogs didn't have International Business Machines (IBM) on the list has been a big factor in their current lead. IBM is the worst performer in the Dow this year, falling more than 13 percent as the company has seen declining revenue as a result of its attempts to shift toward higher-margin business lines. Despite extensive share buybacks, IBM looks poised to miss its target for earnings this year, and with all the competition from Microsoft and other big players in the IT services industry, IBM stock has a long way to go to recover from its malaise in 2014.
With roughly six weeks to go before the end of the year, the Dogs of the Dow don't have an insurmountable lead by any stretch. Still, the strength of the Dow's high-dividend tech stocks points to the usefulness of the Dogs of the Dow strategy as a simple but largely effective way to get more dividend income and still see good total return performance.
Motley Fool contributorDan Caplingernever saw a dividend he didn't like getting. He doesn't own shares of the companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on Twitter@DanCaplingeror onGoogle+.The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool owns shares of Intel, International Business Machines and Microsoft.To read about our favorite high-yielding dividend stocks for any investor, check outour free report.
Nam Y. Huh/APA 2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan on display at the Chicago Auto Show last February.By Paul Lienert
DETROIT -- Daimler's Mercedes-Benz unit is recalling 10,509 C-Class compacts from model year 2015 in the United States because some cars can lose steering function at low speed.
Mercedes said it had reports of two incidents from outside the United States alleging loss of steering. No injuries were reported.
The automaker said production workers did not properly install a steering component on some C300 and C400 models equipped with four-wheel drive.
Owners have been notified and dealers will repair the cars at no charge.
There's a persistent rhythm to the sewing machines at the Colonial Mills factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Needles puncture through cords of cotton and linen, binding yards of fabric into soft braided rugs and baskets so fast they're barely visible at a passing glance.
The women operating the machines act like snake charmers, coaxing tangled piles of baby pink, gray or floral blue fabric out of barrels and into recognizable rug forms with seemingly magical ease.
Only the hissing sound of forced air competes with the drum of the needles. The air comes through small holes drilled into sprawling green wooden tables, helping to levitate the rugs and ease the process of spinning them as they grow to 9- or 12-feet wide.
There's a loft-like feeling to the 68,000-square-foot factory, with windows that flood the wide-open floor plan with light, and cheerful white and green painted walls that give off an energetic freshness. Rooms for bobbin production, fabric storage and braid making are remarkably clean, with not one fabric cutting out of place.
On an average day, 80 employees will make about 700 rugs, and in a year fill 175,000 orders. Often it only takes two days from when you hit "submit" on your online order to having one of these rugs under your feet.
While the digital age may have added online-only retailers like Wayfair.com (W) to Colonial Mills' traditional customer base of stores such as Pottery Barn and Kohl's (KSS), the company hasn't much changed the way it makes its rugs since it opened in the 1950s. They all start as cotton from Georgia or wool from Canada or America that is dyed, braided into flat or cable lock patterns and then sewn on one of the company's 35 sewing machines.
A rug begins as a bolt of fabric or wool, which then gets turned into spools of thread or yarn. From there, the spools are braided into long cords in patterns like houndstooth, seersucker, florals or even solid colors then cut precisely to measure for specific rug orders. Next, they're sewn into their shapes and if necessary, finishers add a border or piping. Although machines are used at every step, the process has a handmade feel about it as each step is watched and manipulated by trained workers on the lookout for quality.
The company's long-standing American-made reputation has kept Don Scarlata -- who bought the company in 1977 and now runs it with his two children, Gregg Scarlata, 31 and Meredith Thayer, 34 -- from ever taking production overseas.
"I'm always asked why I don't move production overseas. There may have been times it might have been less expensive," Don says. But even when the economy crashed in the late 2000s, Colonial Mills remained committed to its "Made in the USA" mantra. "I wanted to maintain all the control over what was being made and how it was being made," he says. "Our reputation made me continue to focus on being a domestic manufacturer."
Credit: Lee StraussChapter 1: Embracing The Past
Don, 63, didn't know how to run a factory when he purchased Colonial Mills more than 30 years ago. And he didn't know how to make a rug. But he had a feeling he could figure out the mechanics of sewing machines.
With the self-assured swagger of a new father, a then-26-year-old Don walked away from a job in finance to get his hands dirty. Living in Massachusetts, Don had been on the lookout for a job that produced something he could touch, when he and his brother Paul Scarlata saw an ad in the Boston Globe. Colonial Mills was being sold for $3,000. They pooled their money and dove in. If there were fears of failure, his New England practicality steadied him: "I looked at it as a simple manufacturing operation," Don said. "If it didn't work out, I'd get another job."
Credit: Lee StraussColonial Mills' CEO Don Scarlata, left.
With that, Don became part of a centuries-old American tradition. New Englanders are known for their braided rugs, a craft that began in the late 1700s out of necessity, weaving straw into floor covering. When it became available, leftover wool and fabrics were used and utility met a softer kind of beauty. Pawtucket in particular would play a huge role in making materials for braided rugs more easily available.
A few miles down the road from Colonial Mills, Samuel Slater built the first cotton-spinning factory in 1793 by harnessing the power of the Blackstone River. Young men apprenticed for more than 10 years before getting paid for their work, mastering the machinery needed to run the factories. Women worked the cotton mill and seeded protests over fair pay. Slater Mill revolutionized American textile manufacturing and became a harbinger of the industrialized America to come.
In its 1977 form, Colonial Mills was far from the technological marvel Slater Mill was when it was built. There were just five employees working at a factory that was literally a mess. Exposed wires hung from the ceilings and lights dangled. Don got right to work, cleaning up the space and putting organizational processes into place. Each night, he returned to his family filthy and exhausted, but completely fulfilled.
Once the factory was up to Don's standards, his attention turned to the rugs. "The product was not being designed to coordinate with home fashions of the time," he says. While on the surface the company seemed like it was a manufacturer, Don envisioned it as a home fashion business. It seemed obvious enough to Don that Colonial Mills' color palette needed to change from drab browns and oranges to fit the ever-changing nature of interior design. They added five new designs in four color options -- including the now classic Federal Blue -- in the first few years. In 1989, Don's innovations had set the company on a course for success, so much so that he was able to buy his brother's share of Colonial Mills.
Chapter 2: Surviving the Present
By 2008, Colonial Mills was flourishing as a home interiors company with a strong American-made manufacturing foundation. But just as it was set to really take off, the economy crashed and retail business models began to change. The company that accounted for 40 percent of the Colonial Mills' business, JCPenney (JCP), slashed its orders.
Don considered walking away from the company, but with help from the state and the Small Business Administration, Colonial Mills remained open by using low-interest loans to float costs like making payroll and acquiring materials. Colonial Mills also cut its workforce in half, dropping from 120 employees to 60. "The recession was hardest because of the human factor," says Don's son Gregg.
Credit: Lee Strauss
Change in the business model was necessary. Before the economy crashed, Colonial Mills' business was driven by bulk orders that stocked warehouses for companies like JCPenney. That model quickly changed as retailers cut their warehouse facilities in favor of drop shipping directly from factories to stores.
Gregg never had any intention of joining his father's company, but during this rocky patch, he took on the challenge of reshaping Colonial Mills' entire sales strategy. Step one was increasing the channels for sales to make up for the huge loss of JCPenney business. Gregg hit the road to build Colonial Mills' partnerships; his friends started calling him a "traveling carpet salesman." Eventually, he landed an account with Restoration Hardware. But new clients revealed a new need in the industry.
Customization of products and speed of delivery became the new differentiators for manufacturing businesses. Colonial Mills began to diversify their client roster, pulling smaller orders, but from more clients. The company had found its new niche.
Before the Great Recession, 90 percent of orders were filled in five to seven days. To keep up with its new business model and cut production time, Colonial Mills implemented "lean" manufacturing practices, much like the ones automakers have used for decades. Since 2010, production dropped to four days and since August 2013, Colonial Mills fills orders in 2.2 days 93 percent of the time. Today, nearly 80 percent of its products are individual orders.
But more change was coming, courtesy of Don's daughter Meredith.
If Gregg was responsible for changing Colonial Mills' business model, Meredith can take credit for reviving and retooling the company's creative path. In her role as chief designer, she helped to land a huge new business win for Colonial Mills that set a course for her tenure. The potential client was Pottery Barn, and Meredith knew their pitch had to stand out. So she bought the company's classic kids pink gingham sheets and turned them into a basket to take into the pitch meeting. Pottery Barn was hooked. Baskets now account for 20 percent of Colonial Mills' business.
Just as her father revolutionized the company's color scheme early in his career, Meredith is reinvigorating Colonial Mills' product line. Her vision includes using pastel yarns to create contemporary children's rugs using traditional braided rug techniques. "Rather than focusing on [rugs] just being something to cover your floor, there is texture and design to them," Meredith says.
Gregg and Meredith's involvement in the company has brought a renewed passion to the business of braided rugs -- and a huge amount of pride to their father. "Right now I find it amazing how my kids have picked it up from where I brought it," Don says.
Chapter 3: A Strong Foundation
To define family at Colonial Mills you have to look beyond Don, Gregg and Meredith. Many at the factory have been with the company for more than a decade, and some 30 years.
"They're like family, they have seen my kids grow up," Don says about his employees.
Don drew on this connection to stay focused on keeping the company open when it seemed nearly impossible. Most employees work within five miles of the factory and keeping the company running meant helping the community immediately beyond its walls.
The City of Pawtucket is important to us and we're important to the City of Pawtucket.
"We feel a responsibility to keep the factory open," said Gregg. "The City of Pawtucket is important to us and we're important to the City of Pawtucket."
Loyalty runs both ways in the company. Diva Pinenta has been a sewer with Colonial Mills for 31 years and, when prompted, happily tells the story of her hiring in a thick Portuguese accent. For starters, Pinenta didn't know how to sew, but Colonial Mills took her in and trained her anyway. Two years later, Pinenta developed breast cancer and spent three months home. Once she had beaten the disease, her job was still waiting for her. Pinenta remembers her first day back, walking over to her sewing machine. "I like the work here. I'm happy every day."
All of the sewers are trained over the course of six months to a year, a fact that garners loyalty and helped the company during its recession reinvention. Having expertly trained crafts people helped Colonial Mills to maintain the quality of the product while the company focused on retooling its business and manufacturing process.
It's a model not unlike the one started by Samuel Slater more than 200 years ago. Then, the view of the Blackstone River from Slater Mill would have been blocked by the small homes built to house factory workers. The community was centered around the Mill, which offered apprenticeships and eventual employment along with the promise of a better life.
"We value employees who have been here for so long," Gregg says. "They are some of the best, hardest working, loyal people I've ever met. They're what makes us who we are."
Todd Williamson/Invision/APJennifer Lopez (left) and Iggy Azalea perform at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. American companies are cashing in on growing demand from women seeking the more curvaceous figures of their favorite stars.By JOSEPH PISANI
NEW YORK -- Gym classes that promise a plump posterior are in high demand. A surgery that pumps fat into the buttocks is gaining popularity. And padded panties that give the appearance of a rounder rump are selling out.
The U.S. booty business is getting a big bump. Companies are cashing in on growing demand from women seeking the more curvaceous figures of their favorite stars, who flaunt their fuller rear ends.
Nicki Minaj, for instance, raps about her "big fat" butt in "Anaconda." Reality star Kim Kardashian posts photos of hers on Instagram. And in the music video for "Booty," Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea, wearing leotards, spend four minutes rubbing their curvy bottoms together. At one point, they slap each other on the booty.
As a result of the pop culture moment the butt is having, sales for Booty Pop, which hawks $22 foam padded panties on its website, are up 47 percent in the last six months from the same period a year earlier. The company, which declined to give sales figures, has sold out of certain styles and colors this year, including its Pink Cotton Candy Boy Shorts.
Susan Bloomstone, Booty Pop's co-founder, says customers have asked for larger sizes. So, the Boston-based company plans to begin selling pads that are 25 percent larger this month. "People just want more booty," she says.
Feel Foxy, another maker of padded panties, says 2014 has been its best year since launching nearly a decade ago. Sales are up 40 percent from a year ago, but the company declined to give sales figures.
"The Nicki Minaj song gave women the idea to pay attention to their rear end," says Jessica Asmar, co-owner of the Houston company.
Deborah Santiago squeezed into a $40 Feel Foxy one-piece for her 30th birthday. The shapewear flattened Santiago's waist and boosted her backside. A flat butt can ruin an outfit, says the New York stay-at-home mother of two. Lopez is her butt idol, but she also covets the bottoms of reality TV stars on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and "Love & Hip Hop."
"I always wanted a big butt," Santiago says. "Something you could look twice at."
To be sure, the desire for big butts isn't new. Large booties long have been preferable in Latino and black communities, says Dr. Dionne Stephens, an associate psychology professor at Florida International University who has researched sexuality in popular culture. And this is not the first time big butts have been in songs. (Think: "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot in the 1990s.)
But recently, the desire for a bigger bottom became more mainstream, in large part due to pop culture influences. Mainstream celebrities like Lopez and Minaj accepting their ample assets on camera have given the butt cachet. "When people see things repeated on TV more and more, it becomes normalized," Stephens says.
French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann says this is true overseas, too: "In Europe, and in France especially, there's a trend to show off the buttocks in place of breasts. This has to do with Latin American influences, but also the rise of Beyonce and stars like Rihanna," says Kaufmann, author of "Women's Bodies, Men's Gaze. Sociology of Naked Breasts."
Kaufmann also suggests economic reasons are at play: "In uncertain times, people look for security," he says. "Men are attracted to women's hips and the buttocks for security and reassurance. Women respond to this. It's deeply psychological."
Whatever the reason, the widespread interest in larger hind parts seems to have started when Kardashian's reality TV show, "Keeping up with the Kardashians," began airing seven years ago.
In a 2011 episode, she had an X-ray to prove she didn't have butt implants. Kardashian still frequently posts shots of her backside to her 21 million Instagram followers.
But the desire for big buns has intensified. This summer, the music video for "Anaconda" that showed Minaj in a pink thong was viewed 19.6 million times within 24 hours of its release -- a record for music video site Vevo. It has racked up nearly 300 million views. The song has been on the top of the Billboard charts, too, right behind another anthem for curvy women, Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass."
"I'm bringing booty back," Trainor sings.
Some businesses that specialize in butts say pop culture has had a direct impact on their bottom line.
A Brazilian butt lift, in which fat is sucked from a patient's stomach, love handles or back and put into their buttocks and hips, is increasingly popular in the U.S. This type of surgery, along with buttock implants, was the fastest-growing plastic surgery last year, with more than 11,000 procedures, up 58 percent from 2012, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Dr. Matthew Schulman, who performs the procedure in New York, says this year has been busier than last. Schulman, who charges $10,000 to $13,000 for the three-hour surgery, does six to eight Brazilian butt lifts weekly, up about 25 percent from a year ago.
He says when he asks patients which celebrity butt they want, the top names are Kardashian, Minaj and Lopez. Recently, more women have asked for a butt like Kardashian's sister, Khloe, who also stars in the reality show.
The downside of the new interest is that women desperate for cheap options have risked their lives, going to phony doctors who inject silicone, and even bathroom caulk, into their buttocks. Deaths have been reported in Miami, New York, Las Vegas and Jackson, Mississippi.
Another problem is doctors performing butt-enhancement surgeries who don't have experience. Schulman says about 20 percent of his patients come to him so he can fix lumps, bumps and uneven butt cheeks done by unskilled doctors.
Not everyone is trying surgery, though. Those looking for more natural ways to enhance their derriere are attending workout classes and watching workout videos that target the butt.
DailyBurn, which streams workout videos, says views for its "Butt, Hips and Thighs" video doubled in January and have remained popular. The video is so popular that DailyBurn is adding another butt workout clip in December.
At a gym in Boston, there's a waitlist for a $30 class that fits in 120 squats in 45 minutes. The class, Booty by Brabants, was started by Kelly Brabants a year ago. Brabants starts most classes, held at The Club by George Foreman III gym, with Lopez's "Booty" song. By the end of the year, she plans to expand her brand by selling $65 workout leggings that help perk up the butt.
"It's not about being stick-thin anymore," says Brabants. "Every girl now wants a booty."
Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.Follow Joseph Pisani at http://twitter.com/josephpisani
NEW YORK -- The stock market eked out another all-time high on Tuesday, but the gains were slight as investors awaited more news to give them an indication about the strength of the economy.
Homebuilders got a lift after D.R. Horton (DHI) reported a surge in net orders for the fourth quarter, the second encouraging report from the sector in as many days after Toll Brother (TOL) reported strong revenue growth Monday. Juniper Networks (JNPR) slumped after the sudden departure of its CEO.
The stock market's climb to record levels is being underpinned by record corporate earnings. As the reporting period for the third quarter winds down, companies have again managed to post strong earnings, allaying investors' concern that slowing growth elsewhere in the world would crimp profits.
"The strengthening economy is definitely there in the earnings," said Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer of First American Trust.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) rose 1.42 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,039.68. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) climbed 1.16 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,614.90. The Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) climbed 8.94, or 0.2 percent, to 4,660.56.
Ninety percent of companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results for the third quarter. Average earnings for companies in the index are now projected to have risen 8.9 percent in the period, according to analysts at S&P Capital IQ. At the start of last month earnings were forecast to grow only 6.7 percent.
Stocks will likely move "sideways to up" for the remainder of the year, said James Liu, Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds. Earnings "continue to look good," he said.
While earnings remain strong, the market could face volatility as investors fret about the potential timing of the Federal Reserve's first increase in interest rates since 2006. "That's my largest area of concern," Liu said.
Fed policy makers have ended their most recent bond-buying stimulus program in October and have said that they will keep interest rates low until they are more certain about the economic recovery.
On Tuesday, D.R. Horton was among the day's gainers after the company said that net orders surged 48 percent in its fourth fiscal quarter. The company's stock climbed 52 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $23.95. Other home builders including PulteGroup (PHM) and Lennar (LEN) also rose.
Home builders also gained Monday after luxury home builder Toll Brothers said its revenue rose 29 percent in the most recent quarter and average sales prices climbed.
Zoetis (ZTS), a maker of animal health medicines, surged after reports that activist investor William Ackman had taken a $2 billion stake in the company. The Wall Street Journal reported that Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management had built the stake together with fellow hedge fund Sachem Head Capital Management. Zoetis rose $3.56, or 9 percent, to $43.72.
Juniper Networks slumped $1.22, or 5.7 percent, to 20.28 after announcing that CEO Shaygan Kheradpir had left the company after less than a year. The company said in a press release that his resignation "follows a review by the board of directors of his leadership and his conduct in connection with a particular negotiation with a customer."
In energy trading, the price of U.S. oil rose Tuesday on expectations of lower domestic supplies but global oil fell to a 4-year low as Libyan production and exports appear closer to reaching the market.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 54 cents to close at $77.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 67 cents to close at $81.67 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
The dollar rose 0.5 percent to 115.47 yen. The U.S currency weakened against the euro, declining to $1.2476. U.S. government bond trading was closed for Veterans Day.
The price of gold edged up $3.20 to $1,163 an ounce. Silver rose less than a penny to $15.68 an ounce and copper rose a penny to $3.03 a pound.
In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:
Wholesale gasoline rose 0.3 cent to close at $2.104 a gallon.
Heating oil closed unchanged at $2.469 a gallon.
Natural gas fell 0.8 cent to close at $4.247 per 1,000 cubic feet.
What to watch Wednesday:
The Mortgage Bankers Association reports weekly mortgage applications at 7 a.m. Eastern time.
The Commerce Department reports wholesale inventories for September at 10 a.m.
These selected companies are scheduled to release quarterly financial results:
If you're not already covered though your employer, dental insurance can be really expensive, costing an average of $400 annually for an individual plan and $1200 annually for a family plan. Luckily, there is another budget-friendly option available.
As you're looking for deals while holiday shopping, one of the best sources is closer than you think -- in your wallet, actually. Many credit cards have benefits that can help you save money and protect your purchase. Unfortunately, you probably don't realize it.
