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Markets keep rally going Friday

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. stocks headed higher Friday as optimism over the U.S. Federal Reserve's bond-buying program spilled over into a second day.

The Fed announced a third round of bond purchases Thursday, saying it would keep interest rates low and make borrowing more available.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said U.S. consumer prices rose 1.7 percent on an annual basis in August with the Consumer Price Index 0.6 percent higher than July.

Although the seasonally adjusted increase for all consumer items was the largest monthly gain since June 2009, about 80 percent of the increase was on account of gasoline, which rose 9 percent, the bureau said.

At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 53.51 points or 0.4 percent to 13,593.37. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index added 28.12 points or 0.89 percent to 3,183.95. The Standard and Poor's 500 added 5.78 points or 0.4 percent to 1,465.77.

On the New York Stock Exchange 2,096 issues advanced while 961 declined on total volume of 5.002 billion shares.

The benchmark 10-year treasury fell 1 10/32 to yield 1.871 percent.

The euro rose to $1.3129 from Thursday's $1.2988. The U.S. dollar rose to 78.41 yen from 77.49 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 255 index added 1.83 percent, 164.24 points, to 9,159.39.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 1.64 percent, 95.63, to 5,915.55.

SEC fines NYSE, demands changes

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The New York Stock Exchange agreed to a civil enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday and will control early access to market data.

The SEC accused the NYSE of practices that allowed certain brokerage clients to receive stock data before the broader public did, usually in a valuable split-second advantage, The New York Times reported Friday.

The NYSE will adopt a battery of internal controls and pay a $5 million fine. It is the SEC's first fine of an exchange, the newspaper said.

"Improper early access to data, even measured in milliseconds, can in today's markets be a real and substantial advantage that disproportionately disadvantages retail long-term investors," Robert Khuzami, SEC enforcement director, said in a statement. "That is why the SEC rules mandate that exchanges give the public fair access to basic market data."

SEC fines NYSE, demands changes

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The New York Stock Exchange agreed to a civil enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday and will control early access to market data.

The SEC accused the NYSE of practices that allowed certain brokerage clients to receive stock data before the broader public did, usually in a valuable split-second advantage, The New York Times reported Friday.

The NYSE will adopt a battery of internal controls and pay a $5 million fine. It is the SEC's first fine of an exchange, the newspaper said.

"Improper early access to data, even measured in milliseconds, can in today's markets be a real and substantial advantage that disproportionately disadvantages retail long-term investors," Robert Khuzami, SEC enforcement director, said in a statement. "That is why the SEC rules mandate that exchanges give the public fair access to basic market data."

Poor often without bank acounts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Look for the poorest U.S. citizens and you will find the highest percentage of households that are not connected to any bank, data shows.

"Whenever you see high poverty and low-income populations, you will see higher populations of unbanked," said Odysseas Papadimitriou, chief executive officer of CardHub.com, who once worked at Capital One on a project to find financial products for marginalized consumers.

The data reflects to trend. Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the country and the highest percentage of households, 15 percent, who have neither a savings nor a checking account.

Texas and Arkansas are second and third on the list, respectively, with 12.8 percent and 12.3 percent of their households "unbanked," CNNMoney reported Friday.

Nationally, 10 percent of the country's households have no routine connection to a bank, a report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released this week said.

Nearly half of the people with no bank account -- 46 percent -- live in the South, although only 37 percent of the U.S. households are in that region.

Not surprising, 40 percent of the nation's poor live in the South, U.S. Census Bureau data indicates.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 1.9 percent of households in New Hampshire have no bank account. The Granite State also has the lowest poverty rate in the country, CNNMoney reported.