Our Business News

NEW YORK Stock futures inched higher on the final trading day of the month, but the mood was still cautious with the market firmly focused on U.S. budget talks. * Whole Foods Market Inc announced a special cash dividend of $ 2.00 per share. In expectation of higher dividend tax rates in 2013, companies have been shifting dividends or announcing special payouts to shareholders. * After a close relationship for several years, Facebook Inc and Zynga Inc revised terms of a partnership agreement between the companies; under the new pact, Zynga will have limited ability to promote its site on [...]

Consumer spending in the U.S. fell in October for the first time in five months while incomes were essentially flat, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a 0.1% rise in spending, seasonally adjusted, and a 0.2% increase in personal income. Since spending fell compared to income growth, the personal savings rate edged up to 3.4% from 3.3%, but it remained near a five-year low. Also, inflation as gauged by the core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy, increased a scant 0.1% last month. The core index is up 1.6% over the past 12 [...]

The percentage of small business owners who use personal credit cards instead of business cards is rising, and if they aren’t careful this could lead to financial trouble down the road. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, 49% of small business owners used personal credit cards for business expenses in 2011, up from 42% in 2009. During this same time period, the percentage of business owners who used business cards declined to 59% from 64%.  There are a couple of problematic things about mixing business matters with personal life when it comes to credit cards – some big, [...]

Dear Dr. Don, I have been considering taking out a personal loan and paying off some credit card debt, but I’m not sure if this is a good idea. Will this affect me when I go to buy a house or rent an apartment? Thanks, — Shante Structure Dear Shante, Taking out a personal loan doesn’t pay off your plastic. It just restructures the financing of that debt. You’d consider doing it if you can get some combination of the following financial outcomes: a lower interest rate on the personal loan than on the credit cards, a lower monthly payment [...]

Medical bills, adoption expenses and business startup costs are just a few big-ticket items for which you may consider racking up huge credit debt. But before you whip out the plastic, you may want to consider using creative fundraising techniques to convince family, friends and even strangers to help defray your costs. People often think of fundraising as something that charities do, but consumers can apply the same principles to their personal causes, says Marc A. Pitman, a fundraising expert and author of “Ask Without Fear: A Simple Guide to Connecting Donors With What Matters to Them Most.” “People are [...]

Summer reading is over, and so if you’re starting to veer away from lighter beach reading and more into the heavier stuff, you might want to take a look at some of the self-help personal finance books out there and put them on their reading list… especially if you’ve been crunching numbers and wondering why you took that wildly expensive vacation and used up most of the money in your bank account and on your credit cards. Or if, even worse, you’re crunching numbers and wondering why you didn’t have any money so you could take a wildly expensive vacation. [...]

The government will release reports on weekly jobless claims and personal spending at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to report that consumer spending rose 0.4% in August after falling slightly in July. Incomes are expected to rise 0.3%, according to a MarketWatch survey of economists. Weekly jobless claims, meanwhile, are forecast to decline to 370,000 from an initial report of 372,000 in the prior week.

Dear Credit Card Adviser, I recently applied and was approved for a business credit card. I used my name as the name of the business and my Social Security number as the employer identification number, and I classified myself as a sole proprietor. Other than the credit inquiry to open the account, do business credit cards show up on personal credit reports? While I understand I’m liable for the charges, is it possible for me to bury my spending on my business card to keep my personal credit report free and clear and create a nice, healthy credit history for [...]

Spending by American consumers fell in June for the first time in nearly a year when accounting for inflation, suggesting the economy lost momentum as it ended the second quarter. Consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, f ell 0.1 percent when adjusted for rising prices, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Before making price adjustments, spending was flat. That was just b elow the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 0.1 percent i ncrease. Pressure is rising on policymakers at the U.S. Federal Reserve to do more to help the sputtering U.S. economy. [...]

It’s why you choose one cereal over its competition, and why you’ve been using the same laundry detergent for more than a decade–when it comes to making decisions, it’s all about branding. And when it comes to your career, a personal brand will help convey to your colleagues and potential employers your capabilities and what to expect. How you present yourself—whether it’s with an elevator pitch, resume, online profiles, or website—can differentiate you from the crowd and leave a lasting impression. Having a brand is integral to your career. “It’s easier to manage your career when you know your expertise [...]