Almanacs “Stocks gain as traders take jobs report in stride - Hattiesburg American” plus 4 more |
- Stocks gain as traders take jobs report in stride - Hattiesburg American
- Spruce up yard with evergreen. Conifer society has suggestions - Akron Beacon Journal
- Stocks gain despite jobs report - Buffalo News
- Search is on for missing Menlo Park girl - The Almanac Online
- Dow shakes off jobs data - Raleigh News & Observer
| Stocks gain as traders take jobs report in stride - Hattiesburg American Posted: 09 Jan 2010 04:26 AM PST (2 of 2) "It was a disappointment, but I think we're on the right track. I think unemployment will begin to show growth very shortly," he said. The Dow rose 11.33, or 0.1 percent, to 10,618.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.29, or 0.3 percent, to 1,144.98, its fifth straight advance. The Dow and the S&P 500 index ended at their highest levels since Oct. 1, 2008. The Nasdaq composite index rose 17.12, or 0.7 percent, to 2,317.17. For the week, the Dow advanced 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 index jumped 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq added 2.1 percent. Most of the climb came Monday, the first trading day of the year, when improving news on manufacturing in China, the U.S. and Europe hinted at a strengthening global economy. The climb for the week was a welcome sign for 2010. Of the last 36 times when the S&P 500 index carved gains in the first five days of January, it ended the year higher 31 times, or 86.1 percent of the time, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. Next week, investors will get reports on retail sales and industrial production. A handful of corporate earnings reports from the final quarter of 2009 will start to arrive. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. is scheduled to report its results after the closing bell on Monday and banker JPMorgan Chase & Co. reports on Friday. In other trading, interest rates held in a narrow range on the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was flat at 3.83 percent from late Thursday. The dollar and gold both fell. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.59, or 0.4 percent, to 644.56. Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume fell to 994.2 million shares from 1.2 billion Thursday. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent. Germany's DAX index gained 0.3 percent, while France's CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.1 percent. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Spruce up yard with evergreen. Conifer society has suggestions - Akron Beacon Journal Posted: 09 Jan 2010 05:16 AM PST Snow on the ground, icy breath in the air, oaks and maples and fruit trees bare and brittle: It is the time of the year for evergreens. One group of evergreens prominent throughout Ohio are conifers, trees and shrubs such as pine, spruce, hemlock, fir, arborvitae and juniper. But what exactly are conifers? Here are a few questions and answers. 1. Why the name conifers? Let's take our lesson from the Web site of the American Conifer Society (http://www.conifersociety.org). This site is a good place to start, especially for us in Northeast Ohio, since the ACS webmaster is Wadsworth's Bill Barger, with whom I had a wonderful chat at Sonnets coffee shop in Wadsworth a week ago. ACS notes that the word conifer comes, not surprisingly, from the Latin names for ''to bear cones,'' namely conus ''cone'' + ferre ''to bear.'' Indeed, conifers such as pine and spruce do bear cones, though junipers and yews (Taxus) have berry-like fruits instead of what we generally think of as a cone. 2. Do spruces have pine cones? All right, I admit to planting this question because I so often make perhaps too big a point in saying ''No!'' Of course spruces do not have pine cones — they have spruce cones. After the usual groans, I go on to make my point about proper plant identification and plant selection: A spruce by any other name is . . . not a pine. The reason this matters is that spruces, and firs, and pines, and even the different spruces and different firs and different pines have varying cultural requirements, pest and disease problems to manage, and landscape design profiles. 3. What is an easy way to tell the difference, for example, between a spruce and a pine? Look carefully at how the needles attach to the twig. Spruce and fir and hemlock all have needles singly attached, while pines have two, three or five needles in bundles attached to the twig. Austrian pines have two needles in a bundle, white pines five needles in a 4. Are all conifers pruned the same way? Certainly not, and here is a perfect example of why it is important to know which conifer you are growing. Here is some perspective gleaned from the American Conifer Society: Some conifers such as hemlocks and yews can be severely pruned, but many others cannot, since severe pruning will destroy their natural charm. Hemlocks and yews have abundant buds on both old and new wood, allowing for new growth after heavy pruning. This is why they work well as hedges. Prune in spring before new growth and the pruning cuts will be covered up quickly. Spruces and firs are in many ways forgiving of pruning at any time of the season because they have ''visible buds along the current season's growth, and some along the previous season's growth.'' Thus, controlling size by pruning back to a bud is a cinch. Pines, on the other hand, lack buds along the stem: Their buds are present only at the tip of the current season's growth, the emerging candle. This soft growth can be pruned or ''pinched'' before the soft candle fully expands in spring, resulting in a compact plant. Wait to prune later like you could with spruce and you will end up with stubs; prune only some years and you will end up with wildly irregular growth habits, something I have regretted for some backyard pines I hoped would be graceful Christmas trees one day. 5. How big do conifers get? As the ACS notes, conifers range from ''massive forest giants to minuscule mounds of elegant foliage.'' Dawn redwoods growing in the U.S. for only the past 60 years are already over 100 feet tall, with the largest at 140 feet, yet some conifers have heights less than a meter high (remember a meter is just a little more than a yard). The ACS defines four size classes, from miniatures that will grow less than a foot over 10 years in your landscapes, to dwarfs (1-6 feet of growth in a decade), to intermediate (6-15 feet) to large (greater than 15 feet in 10 years). Some of the most popular conifers for collectors are the miniatures and dwarfs, which typically start life as clustered witches-broom mutations on normal-sized trees but then grow as tiny natural bonsais of their giant cousins. The tallest conifer is also the tallest tree in the world, a coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. The world record holder is in Redwood National Park in Humboldt County, Calif. It is an almost unimaginable 379.1 feet high. Its discoverers named it ''Hyperion.'' Why so? It comes from mythology: Hyperion was one of the Titans, the son of Gaea and Uranus and the father of Helios, the god of the sun. 6. What is the Conifer of the Year for Collectors selected by the ACS? There are three, a dwarf ginkgo (not actually a conifer, but related) Ginkgo biloba 'Mariken'; an elegant cultivar of baldcypress, Taxodium distichum 'Peve Minaret'; and a cascading form of larch, Larix deciduas 'Puli'. All three of these conifers are deciduous (lose needles each fall), not evergreens, but all are wonderful plants. Want more details, or what are the 10 best books on conifers, or how to join the American Conifer Society and more and more: Learn all about it at http://www.Conifersociety.org. Jim Chatfield is a horticultural educator with Ohio State University Extension. If you have questions about caring for your garden, write: Jim Chatfield, Plant Lovers' Almanac, Ohio State University Extension, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Send e-mail to chatfield.1@cfaes.osu.edu or call 330-466-0270. Please include your phone number if you write. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Stocks gain despite jobs report - Buffalo News Posted: 09 Jan 2010 03:22 AM PST Share this story: NEW YORK — A disappointing jobs report couldn't stop the stock market from having a strong start to the new year. Stocks zigzagged for much of Friday but closed higher as investors took in stride the Labor Department's news that employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, far more than the 8,000 analysts expected. The disappointing numbers were offset by a pleasant surprise: November's report was revised to show the first job gains in nearly two years. The Dow Jones industrial average tacked on 11 points to end at a new 15- month high, while broader indicators logged bigger gains. All the major indexes posted advances for the week, a reassuring sign given that stocks often end the year higher after a strong start to January. The December job losses were disconcerting as a rebound in employment is key to a sustained recovery in the economy. But the market likely focused on the fact that a pickup in the labor market often lags other improvements following a recession. Reports next week will bring an early look at how companies did in the October-December quarter. Investors are looking for companies to report stronger sales and outlooks for the rest of this year. Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at the brokerage Avalon Partners Inc. in New York, said the trend in the labor market is still positive. He noted many of the December cuts were in the construction industry, which is likely due to seasonal slowdowns. "It was a disappointment, but I think we're on the right track. I think unemployment will begin to show growth very shortly," he said. The Dow rose 11.33, or 0.1 percent, to 10,618.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.29, or 0.3 percent, to 1,144.98, its fifth straight advance. The Dow and the S&P 500 index ended at their highest levels since Oct. 1, 2008. The Nasdaq composite index rose 17.12, or 0.7 percent, to 2,317.17. For the week, the Dow advanced 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 index jumped 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq added 2.1 percent. Most of the climb came Monday, the first trading day of the year, when improving news on manufacturing in China, the U. S. and Europe hinted at a strengthening global economy. The climb for the week was a welcome sign for 2010. Of the last 36 times when the S&P 500 index carved gains in the first five days of January, it ended the year higher 31 times, or 86.1 percent of the time, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. Next week, investors will get reports on retail sales and industrial production. A handful of corporate earnings reports from the final quarter of 2009 will start to arrive. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. is scheduled to report its results after the closing bell on Monday and banker JPMorgan Chase & Co. reports on Friday. In other trading, interest rates held in a narrow range on the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.84 percent from 3.83 percent late Thursday. The dollar and gold both fell. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 2.59, or 0.4 percent, to 644.56. The Dow Jones industrial average closed the week up 190.14, or 1.8 percent, at 10,618.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 29.88, or 2.7 percent, to 1,144.98. The Nasdaq composite index rose 48.02, or 2.1 percent, to 2,317.17.  Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Search is on for missing Menlo Park girl - The Almanac Online Posted: 08 Jan 2010 10:40 AM PST Police are looking for Jennifer Blair, a 14-year-old resident of Menlo Park who was last seen leaving her residence in the 400 block of Olive Street on Jan. 6 around 4:30 p.m. Because of her age, police are considering her as "at risk." | She is white with long brown hair, hazel eyes, 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 170 pounds, according to a description from the Menlo Park Police Department. When last seen, she was on foot and wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt, black tank top, blue jeans and sneakers. There is no evidence of foul play and she is believed to be voluntarily missing and may be in or around Redwood City, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto or San Jose, police said. Her name is listed in the nationwide Missing and Unidentified Persons Database as a runaway/missing person.
Police are asking anyone with information on this case to call 330-6300 or the anonymous tip line at 330-6395. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Dow shakes off jobs data - Raleigh News & Observer Posted: 09 Jan 2010 02:46 AM PST The December job losses were disconcerting as a rebound in employment is key to a sustained recovery. But the market likely focused on the fact that a pickup in the labor market often lags other improvements after a recession. "I don't think that anyone should expect a flip of a switch," said Linda Duessel, equity market strategist at Federated Investors. "We were losing 600,000, 700,000 jobs a year ago and we are now toggling around zero." Reports next week will bring an early look at how companies did in the October-December quarter. Investors are looking for stronger sales and outlooks for the rest of this year. The Dow rose 11.33, or 0.1percent, to 10,618.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.29, or 0.3 percent, to 1,144.98, its fifth straight advance. The Dow and the S&P 500 index ended at their highest levels since Oct. 1, 2008. The Nasdaq composite index rose 17.12, or 0.7 percent, to 2,317.17. For the week, the Dow advanced 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 index jumped 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq added 2.1 percent. Most of the climb came Monday, the first trading day of the year. The climb for the week was a welcome sign for 2010. Of the last 36 times when the S&P 500 index carved gains in the first five days of January, it ended the year higher 86 percent of the time, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent. Germany's DAX index gained 0.3 percent, while France's CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.1 percent. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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