Month: February 2014

Dylan Lipton-Lesser was born 11 weeks premature, which affected his hearing.        

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks climbed on Thursday after a reading on manufacturing activity hit its highest in nearly four years, while news about Facebook and Tesla drove their shares to record highs. U.S. factory activity accelerated at its fastest pace in nearly four years in February, according to Markit's preliminary U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, a bullish economic indicator following a string of weaker-than-expected reports. The stock market has selectively shrugged off tepid data, pinning recent weakness on the impact of extremely cold weather and massive snow rather than worsening fundamentals.

By Phil Wahba and Lisa Baertlein NEW YORK/BOCA RATON, Fla (Reuters) – Avon Products Inc hopes higher prices, a growing Hispanic market and smaller selection of beauty products will help it reverse years of declines in U.S. sales, top executives said on Thursday. The company's North American sales have fallen by half since 2007, and last year, the size of its army of Avon Ladies sales representatives, shrank 15 percent. "That's our No. 1 priority," Avon Chief Executive Sheri McCoy told analysts at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, where her team laid out in the most detail yet how Avon plans to return to growth in its home market, despite short-term risk to sales. Avon's senior vice president for North America, Pablo Munoz, put the growing U.S. Hispanic population at the center of the company's plan, saying Hispanic sales representatives are "incredibly committed" to the Avon brand.

By Allison Bond NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Ambivalent hearts may be at higher risk for heart disease, according to a new study of married couples with mixed feelings for one another. “The most intriguing finding was that within a couple, only if both of them felt ambivalent towards their partner did you see this elevated (heart disease) risk,” said Bert Uchino, a psychologist at the University of Utah and lead author of the study.