U.S. stocks rise on factory, housing news
NEW YORK, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes rose Tuesday in a shortened pre-holiday session following the release of manufacturing and housing reports.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 38.62 points, or 0.29 percent, to 13,574.05 in late-morning trading. The broader Standard & Poor's index added 3.89 points, or 0.26 percent, to 1,523.32. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 8.63 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,640.93.
U.S. factory orders fell a smaller-than-expected 0.5 percent in May, while pending sales of existing U.S. homes dropped 3.5 percent, less than a year earlier.
U.S. markets were to close at 1 p.m. EDT in advance of Wednesday's U.S. Independence Day holiday, when U.S. markets will be closed.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed up 3.60 points, or 0.02 percent, to finish at 18,149.90.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 5/32, yielding 5.008 percent, while the 30-year bond was down 12/32, yielding 5.112 percent.
The U.S. dollar fell to 122.30 yen from 122.32 yen in New York late Monday. The euro, in U.S. dollars, moved to $1.3601 from $1.3622.
Ex-Enron employees get wrong payout
HOUSTON, July 3 (UPI) -- More than 20,000 former Enron Corp. employees who finally got back a fraction of their retirement funds were incorrectly paid, The Houston Chronicle reports.
A pension-fund contractor hired to calculate who gets how much is at fault, the former energy company said.
The contractor, Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Hewitt Associates LLC, blamed Enron as the fund administrator responsible for overseeing its work, the newspaper reported.
The dispute is going to court and ex-employees who waited for several years for their portion of a $265 million settlement will have to wait for a federal judge to sort out the disagreement.
In a court filing, Enron said Hewitt used faulty computer software to calculate allocations, so 7,700 people received too much money while 12,800 didn't receive enough.
Hewitt acknowledged an undetected data error relied on a wrong stock price and miscalculated allocations.
But it said Enron was the fund administrator responsible for overseeing the process.
An Enron spokesman said no one who was overpaid would have to return part of their portion of the faulty $22 million distribution. Instead, a future payment will be lower for those who were overpaid and increased for those who were underpaid, he said.
iPhones 'all but sold out' first shipment
CUPERTINO, Calif., July 3 (UPI) -- Apple Inc.'s new iPhone multimedia and Web-enabled cell phone has "all but sold out" its initial shipment, Apple and AT&T Inc. say.
Neither Apple nor AT&T, which has an exclusive multiyear contract to provide iPhone cell-phone service, would disclose sales figures.
But telecom analysts estimated 500,000 to 700,000 devices totaling $250 million were sold by Sunday after three days of sales, USA Today reported.
A number of customers were not able to transfer their old cell phone numbers to AT&T during the weekend, various media and blogs reported.
And some AT&T customers said their existing cell phones had been deactivated while they were still waiting for their iPhones to be activated, leaving them without a working phone.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said those problems had been addressed and were "substantially behind us," The Wall Street Journal reported.
Apple has a Web page (www.apple.com/retail/iphone) that lets consumers type in their ZIP code to determine -- after 9 p.m. local time -- where to find an available iPhone the next day.
Employers seek to curb summer absenteeism
NEW YORK, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. employers are seeking creative approaches to stop healthy employees from calling in sick to enjoy summer weather, a costly productivity problem.
Approaches include granting "half-day Fridays," compressed work weeks or new types of vacation programs, USA Today reported Tuesday.
Nearly 40 percent of fulltime U.S. employees have called in sick to enjoy a day off during the summer, a Harris Interactive survey found.
The top reason cited for faking illness was a wish for a mental health day. The most common days to call in sick were Friday and Monday.
Unscheduled absenteeism cost some employers $850,000 a year in direct payroll costs, said a 2006 survey by CCH Inc., a U.S. provider of tax, audit and accounting information.
The problem is more likely "when morale is low, they feel burned out or there's no flexibility," CCH workplace analyst Pamela Wolf told USA Today.
Deloitte & Touche gives employees an additional four days off between U.S. Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September so they and the company can plan the extra summer time off.
Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, R.I., lets employees leave at 1 p.m. Fridays between May and August, USA Today said.
