Month: January 2014

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended little changed on Thursday in a choppy session ahead of Friday's payrolls report, which may provide insights into whether the Federal Reserve will announce another cut in quantitative easing at its meeting this month. The S&P retail sector index slipped 0.2 percent after a number of retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond and Family Dollar , slashed their earnings forecasts. The S&P telecom services sector index fell 1.9 percent, pulled lower by AT&T and Verizon Communications, which were the top decliners in the Dow Jones industrial average.

U.S. lawmakers are preparing a stop-gap spending measure ahead of a new federal government shutdown deadline next week as talks on the $1 trillion U.S. spending legislation move slowly. The temporary measure, known as a "continuing resolution," would keep government agencies funded through the end of next week, instead of allowing all spending authority to expire at midnight on January 15, Senate and House of Representatives aides said on Thursday. After vowing that they would complete the massive spending bill on time, House and Senate appropriations committees are still trying to resolve disputes over funding and policy provisions attached to the measure, the aides said. The "omnibus" measure, which combines 12 normal spending bills and includes thousands of budget line items for everything from national parks to weapons development programs, may not be ready for consideration by Congress until the weekend, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said on Tuesday.

By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada's main stock index rose slightly on Thursday after positive U.S. jobless claims data helped boost the financial and industrial sectors, overcoming weakness in natural resource shares. Trading has been choppy so far this year, with investors trying to balance their portfolios after the Toronto market advanced 9.6 percent in 2013. A day after a positive private jobs report, figures on Thursday indicated the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week fell slightly more than expected. "I'd like to see a little higher number tomorrow, a little higher number next month and a little higher number in the month after that," said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager at KCM Wealth Management.

The Regional Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., has set up a flu tent near its emergency room to treat patients, as the highly infectious virus has become more widespread throughout the region. So far, a total of 15 people have died in California, according…

By David Beasley ATLANTA (Reuters) – The percentage of U.S. adults developing lung cancer is falling, with the sharpest declines among those aged 35 to 44, according to U.S. data released on Thursday, fifty years after the surgeon general’s first-ever report warning of the dangers of smoking. The lung cancer rate dropped by 2.6 percent per year among men and 1.1 percent per year among women, between 2005 and 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found, using the most recent available data. “This is a big deal,” said Clifford Hudis, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. But Hudis added that there is still much more work to be done to reduce smoking given all the health problems it creates in addition to lung cancer.

By Zachary Fagenson MIAMI (Reuters) – Most uninsured adult Americans lack basic knowledge about President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law and haven't visited their online insurance marketplace because they think health insurance is unaffordable, according to a survey released on Thursday. The survey from Enroll America, a non-profit healthcare enrollment coalition, found that 68 percent of uninsured adults had not yet logged onto their online exchanges. A similar number, 69 percent of the uninsured, still lacked knowledge about tax subsidies and other financial help designed to make the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, affordable for many, the survey said. "Large proportions of the uninsured are also still in the dark about deadlines and that brand new plans are available," Enroll America said in a report about the survey.