Dow falls flat Friday, down for week
NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The Dow Jones industrial average failed to hold onto early gains in New York Friday, closing flat for the day, but lower for the week.
The blue chip index began the week at 12,184.26 but closed Friday off 0.2 percent on the day at 11,866.39.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 3.91 points or 0.32 percent to 1,219.66. The Nasdaq composite index tacked on 14.32 points or 0.56 percent to 2,555.33.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,862 stocks advanced and 1,152 declined on a volume of 4.1 billion shares traded.
The benchmark 10-year treasury note rose 1/32 to yield 1.844 percent.
The euro rose to $1.3047 from Thursday's $1.3015. Against the yen, the dollar dropped to 77.68 yen from Thursday's 77.85 yen.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo gained 0.29 percent, 24.35, to 8,401.72.
The FTSE 100 index in London shed 0.25 percent, 13.51, to 5,387.34.
Former Fannie, Freddie executives charged
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. finance regulators have charged former executives of the nation's largest mortgage brokers with misleading investors about their risky mortgages holdings.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed the charges in Manhattan against former Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Chief Executive Officer Richard Syron and two other former Freddie Mac executives, Patricia and Donald Bisenius.
Similar charges were filed against Federal National Mortgage Association CEO Daniel Mudd, former Fannie Mae Chief Risk Officer Enrico Dallavecchia and Executive Vice President Thomas Lund, The New York Times reported Friday.
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their subprime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was," said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division.
"These material misstatements occurred during a time of acute investor interest in financial institutions' exposure to subprime loans, and misled the market about the amount of risk on the company's books," he said.
The two banks are considered government-supported enterprises, as they accept the role of buying mortgages from banks to encourage more lending and expanding homeownership.
The banks were encouraged to do so by the government and by banks that did business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
By 2005, the two companies attempted to increase their share of subprime mortgages, as Wall Street was going through a housing boom -- more accurately a mortgage boom.
By 2008, however, the market had soured and banks had billions of dollars worth of frozen assets on their books.
The government has since loaned Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae more than $100 billion to keep them afloat, The New York Times reported.
The Obama administration has already said it would unwind the two banks, the Times said.
WTO gives Russia membership
GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Trade ministers at the World Trade Organization have agreed to allow Russia entrance into the 153-member international trade group.
The agreement puts an end to a glaring omission in the WTO, as Russia has become an increasingly important gas and oil exporting nation that has critical political influence in other international organizations such as the United Nations, The New York Times reported Friday.
The WTO is a trade regulator that resolves international disputes. The group stipulates that members bestow favored-nation status on all other WTO members.
Russia and the United States, however, have each declared they would not extend that status to each other.
The United States is bound to refuse Russia the status because of the Jackson-Vanik law that linked favored status with Russia's track record on allowing Russian Jews to emigrate.
In the past, the U.S. congress overturned the White House's stance with Vietnam and Romania, which allows for the possibility they will do the same for Russia.
Joining the WTO could add 1 percent to Russia's gross domestic product and give Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a boost politically, the Times said.
Ford plant closes out 86-year run
ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Workers said mixed emotions swirled around Ford Motor Co.'s St. Paul, Minn., assembly plant when it closed Friday after 86 years of operation.
The last vehicle, a Ford Ranger, came off the assembly line at about 10:00 a.m. with veteran worker Dallas Theis behind the wheel, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
Theis spent more than 50 years at the plant, the newspaper said.
A cheer went up as he hopped into the compact truck, but emotions ranged from high to low, workers reported.
"It felt like we'd been preparing for a big holiday meal and we were all done and it was time to do the dishes," said 21-year-old line worker, Thomas Epperson.
"A lot of people brought their fathers and grandfathers to see the very end. There was a lot of tears and a lot of smiling when Dallas drove it off the line. He's been here for a million years," Epperson said.
"People will be celebrating because it's hard work that eats up your body. But they'll pretty much be mourning, too, because it's a darn good-paying job with great benefits," said Michael Bartlett, 39, with more than 12 years at the plant.
For Minnesota, the loss of the plant is part of a longer trend that has seen a quarter of the state's 400,000 manufacturing jobs vanish since the late 1990s, the newspaper said.
