More
More small businesses use Twitter, Facebook to promote
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAYSAN FRANCISCO — A surge in social-media use by small businesses reflects a shift in how they operate and their comfort with increasingly easy-to-use technology.
In growing numbers, small-business owners are adopting social-networking services, location-based services, Twitter and online video to promote products and services, according to a new study by MerchantCircle, a social network for small businesses. It polled › Continue reading
As flying gets more stressful, some passengers turn rude
By Charisse Jones, USA TODAYWhen Mike Nugent flies, nothing annoys him more than settling into his seat, the plane taking off, and the passenger in front reclining into his lap. So he’s come up with a solution.
“I put my knee right in the middle of the back of the seat,” Nugent, 66, says. “They think it’s broken. They try (to recline) two or three times, then they give it up.”
Nugent, a hospital laundry consultant who’s on the road › Continue reading
Stocks plunge more than 2.5% on continued pessimism
By Stephen Bernard and Seth Sutel, Associated PressNEW YORK — Investors are finding disappointment everywhere and taking out their frustration on stocks.
Stocks slumped Friday after banks’ second-quarter earnings fell short of expectations and a new survey found that consumers are becoming more pessimistic. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 261 points, and all the major market indexes dropped more than 2.5%. Interest rates fell in the › Continue reading
Regulators shut 6 more banks, making 96 failures for the year
By Marcy Gordon, Associated PressWASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to succumb this year to the recession and mounting loan defaults.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday took over the banks: Woodlands Bank, based in Bluffton, S.C., with $376.2 million in assets; First National Bank of the South, based in Spartanburg, › Continue reading
More companies developing products for rooftop gardening
By David Runk, Associated Press TRENTON, Mich. — Using heat from a forge that turns orange-hot metal into everything from car parts to hand tools, a Michigan manufacturer is developing an energy-efficient way to warm a year-round greenhouse on the company’s roof.
Trenton Forging President David Moxlow started growing fruit and vegetables atop the plant southwest of Detroit in November and has already harvested greens, peppers, broccoli, › Continue reading
Mutual fund prospectus will explain more about holdings
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou should always prioritize your to-do lists. For many people, the list looks like this.
1. Walk the dog.
2. Tidy up the viper pit.
3. Read a mutual fund prospectus.
Unpleasant as it is, however, you really should read your prospectus, as well as the Statement of Additional Information. For investors in target-date funds, the prospectus may soon have new information that might help › Continue reading
Mexico invests, puts its mark on more U.S. brands
By Sergio Solache, Special for USA TODAYMEXICO CITY — A new kind of Mexican immigrant is making it big in the USA: huge Mexican corporations that are snapping up U.S. brand names, opening U.S. factories and investing millions of pesos north of the border.
From Thomas’ English Muffins to Borden milk, Saks Fifth Avenue department stores to The New York Times newspaper, Mexican investors have taken advantage of low interest › Continue reading
Bear trap knocks some stocks down 20% or more
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAYInvestors are gnawing at their nails wondering if the market, now in correction, is headed into a bear. Some individual stocks, though, are already there.
The broad Standard & Poor’s 500 is down 12% from the April 23 peak this year, putting it past the 10% correction mark — but still well shy of the 20% drop that typically defines a bear market.
Yet, 76 of the S&P 500 stocks are down 20% or more in that › Continue reading
Good news for drivers: Gas prices can fall more
By Mark Williams, AP Energy WriterGasoline prices dropped on Tuesday for the 26th straight day of lower oil prices and it looks like there is room for pump prices to move even lower.
After hitting a national average of $2.929 per gallon on May 6, retail gasoline prices have fallen 20.2 cents, or nearly 7%, to $2.727 a gallon on Tuesday.
COMMODITIES: Check where crude’s at now
Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service › Continue reading
Geithner and Paulson say more financial regulation is needed
By Marcy Gordon and Dan Wagner, AP Business WritersWASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says a root cause of the financial crisis was Congress’ failure to give regulators enough power to rein in risk-taking by financial firms operating outside traditional rules.
But his predecessor Henry Paulson is cautioning lawmakers against overreaching on financial overhaul legislation that could stifle innovation.
Geithner and › Continue reading