US stocks follow global markets lower

Trader Andrew Silverman, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Andrew Silverman, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Fred DeMarco works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Warren Meyers, center, works with fellow traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Andrew Silverman, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Frederick Reimer works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists had been expecting. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A batch of worrying economic figures tugged stock markets down Thursday. Measures of manufacturing and business activity in both China and Europe slumped.

In the U.S., the railroad Norfolk Southern warned that it's shipping fewer goods, and the government gave investors another reminder that the job market remains weak.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 12 points to 13,566 shortly after noon on Thursday. The Dow and other stock-market indexes reached four-year highs last week after the Federal Reserve unveiled a new plan to support the economy. Clark Yingst, chief market analyst at the securities firm Joseph Gunnar, said it's hard to find any reason for the stock market to continue climbing. "You do have to wonder what the next catalyst is going to be."

The Labor Department reported that 382,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, more than economists had expected. When applications consistently top 375,000, it suggests hiring is too weak to lower the unemployment rate.

More evidence of sluggishness came from Norfolk Southern. The railroad said late Thursday that falling coal prices and a drop in shipments will likely drag down quarterly earnings. That followed a warning from FedEx earlier this week that global trade has slumped to recession levels.

Norfolk Southern's stock sank $6.45 to $66.27. In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell four points to 1,457, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 12 points to 3,171.

Weak economic figures weighed on markets in Europe and Asia. A gauge of European Union business activity slipped to its lowest level in more than three years.

CarMax sank 6 percent after the chain of used-car dealers reported essentially flat quarterly net income, below analysts' expectations. Costs surged as CarMax opened more dealerships. Its stock lost $1.90 to $30.07.

ConAgra Foods Inc. jumped 7 percent. The maker of Healthy Choice packaged meals and Slim Jim beef jerky said its profit more than doubled, helped by lower food costs and a strong gain from a hedge on commodity prices. ConAgra's stock rose $1.50 to $27.15.

The real-estate website Trulia soared 44 percent in its first day of trading. Trulia priced its initial public offering at $17 on Wednesday, raising $102 million. Trulia's stock was already up to $24.41 shortly after noon.

The three major indexes remain up more than 3 percent in September, historically the worst month for stocks. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a drop of 0.5 percent for the month. The Dow has lost an average of 0.8 percent.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-20-Wall%20Street/id-a0bdb2852b134cb9a3517eb96c53ee35

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Customer Service

You wouldn?t go far wrong if you thought of your interactions with other people as customer service.

Christians, especially, should think of themselves as customer service reps for Jesus. In a way, isn?t that the bare meaning of ?Christian?.

• The customer isn?t always right, but he should be told he is wrong in the easiest way possible and should not be disparaged or alienated.
• The customer is the point of the whole business. I?m annoyed as a customer when I feel like I?m interrupting the work by needing service.
• Advertising only generates new business. Good customer service generates repeat business. Repeat business is where the profit is generated.
• Everyone around me is my customer in some sense or another. I learned that at work.
• Good customer service is good human relations. Good customer service embodies the Golden Rule.
• What goes around comes around. I learned that at work, too.
• ?How may I help you?? is another way to say ?Love your neighbor as yourself.?

Source: http://biblestudygeek.com/archives/4188

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Memories of Harriet.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.cripcommentary.com/harriet/2012/09/affordable-seo-services-and-companies-to-contribute-to-seo/

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Romney looks to steady shaky campaign

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at Schiller Park, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event at Schiller Park, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters about the secretly taped video from one of his campaign fundraising events in Costa Mesa, Calif., Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama walks to the podium before speaking at a campaign event at Schiller Park Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters about the secretly taped video from one of his campaign fundraising events in Costa Mesa, Calif., Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is trying to steady a shaky campaign as President Barack Obama, enjoying a burst of momentum, heads to New York for a celebrity fundraiser with Beyonc? and Jay-Z and a star turn on David Letterman's couch.

Romney is trying to contain the political fallout of an unauthorized video of him telling donors that almost half of all Americans "believe they are victims" entitled to extensive government support and adding that as a candidate for the White House, "my job is not to worry about those people." Romney was also trying to shake stories that his campaign was in disarray and looking for a change in direction seven weeks before Election Day.

In a hastily arranged meeting with reporters late Monday, Romney said that while his comments were "not elegantly stated," he stood by his remarks about Americans who do not pay taxes.

"Those who are reliant on government are not as attracted to my message of slimming down the size of government," Romney said in Costa Mesa, Calif., doubling down on his statement.

The former Massachusetts governor did not have public events Tuesday and planned to raise money in Salt Lake City and Dallas.

Looking to change the subject, Romney's campaign rolled out a television ad featuring a mother and infant, aimed at cutting into Obama's advantage with female voters.

"Your share of Obama's debt is over $50,000 and it grows every day. Obama's policies are making it harder on women. The poverty rate for women ? the highest in 17 years," an announcer says in the ad Romney released early Tuesday. "More women are unemployed under President Obama. More than 5.5 million women can't find work."

Obama, meanwhile, was set to collect almost $4 million at a $40,000-a-ticket fundraiser at a Manhattan nightclub and another at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. He also planned to reach out to less-engaged voters on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman."

Obama was expected to welcome the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx at the White House before flying to New York.

Romney faced growing complaints that his campaign fumbled opportunities at the Republicans' August convention, on foreign unrest and, most crucially, on the U.S. economy, which is seen as Obama's weakest point. GOP activists and consultants have fretted as opinion polls suggest Obama has opened a small lead over Romney since the parties' late-summer conventions.

The unexpected video, recorded in May and released Monday, sent Romney's aides scrambling yet again.

"Every campaign is dysfunctional. It's just the level that differs," said Hogan Gidley, a Republican strategist who was a top aide to Rick Santorum's presidential bid.

The late-afternoon release of the secretly recorded video, posted on the magazine Mother Jones' website, did little to calm jitters as Democrats quickly criticized Romney.

"Mitt Romney's insulting comments during a closed-door meeting with a group of wealthy donors regarding half the people in the United States show just how out of touch he really is with middle-class families," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The job of president is to fight for everybody, regardless of their wealth or social status."

In the video, Romney said 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. About 46 percent of Americans owed no federal income tax in 2011, although many of them paid other forms of taxes. More than 16 million elderly Americans avoid federal income taxes solely because of tax breaks that apply only to seniors, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Some conservatives have complained for months that Romney needs to put more details behind his pledges to tame the deficit while also preserving all tax cuts and expanding military spending. Others say Romney mishandled a chance to criticize Obama's foreign policy last week when the Republican nominee issued sharp remarks in the opening hours of fast-changing and complicated episodes of violence aimed at American diplomatic facilities in the Middle East.

Romney's campaign responded, pledging to be more specific.

Those details weren't expected Tuesday, however. Romney planned fundraisers in Salt Lake City and in Dallas, with former first lady Laura Bush at the Bushes' Texas home.

The unexpected video overtook ? at least for the moment ? the campaigns' planned rhetoric on China, against which the Obama's administration launched an unfair-trade complaint on Monday, deploying it as a wedge against Romney. Obama told voters in Ohio, where the auto industry is important, that China was subsidizing exports of vehicles and auto parts ? and cutting into American jobs.

Obama's campaign released ads that sought to maximize the political upside of the complaint ? and compare it to Romney's record.

"Tough on China? Not Mitt Romney," the ad's announcer says. "How can Mitt Romney take on the cheaters when he's taking their side?"

Romney dismissed the criticism, saying Obama "may think that announcing new trade cases less than two months from Election Day will distract from his record, but the American businesses and workers struggling on an uneven playing field know better."

Romney already has been airing ads critical of Obama's stance toward China.

___

Associated Press writers writers Ken Thomas in Los Angeles, David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, and Charles Babington, Julie Pace and Philip Elliott in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-09-18-Presidential%20Campaign/id-7668a823c37b4aec9ba29ab37166c9f1

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Video: QE3: Good For the Economy?

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49074012/

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PjQhz2ANEvA/now-you-can-tag-live-tv-with-shazam

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