Stocks post slim gains Monday
NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- New York stocks bulldozed their way out of early losses Monday with help from Caterpillar.
Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar posted third-quarter profits that beat expectations, helping the Dow Jones industrial average to muscle itself out of a 108-point loss and break away from a two-day slump that included giving up 295 points on Friday, which happened to be the 25th anniversary of Black Monday.
By close of trading Monday, the Dow added 2.38 or 0.02 percent to 13,345.89. The Nasdaq composite index, off 9.28 points at midday, closed with a gain of 11.33 points or 0.38 percent to 3,016.96. The Standard and Poor's 500 index added 0.63 points or 0.04 percent to 1,433.82.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,448 stocks advanced and 1,549 declined on a volume of 3.1 billion shares traded.
The benchmark 10-year treasury note fell 13/32 to yield 1.818 percent.
The euro rose to $1.3066 from Friday's $1.3023. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 79.92 yen from 79.32 yen.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index added 0.09 percent, 8.03 points, to 9,010.71.
In London, the FTSE 100 index gave up 0.22 percent, 13.24, to 5,882.91.
Former Mamtek CEO in custody in Missouri
COLUMBIA, Mo., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Bruce Cole, former chief executive officer of artificial sweeter firm Mamtek U.S., was back in Missouri to face charges of theft and fraud, authorities said.
Cole was being held in lieu of $500,000 bond. He is charged with submitting inventories from a made-up company, Ramwell Industrial Inc., to withdraw $6.6 million from a bond fund.
Allegedly, Cole transferred $700,000 of the first $4.2 million invoice to a bank account in his wife's name. Some of the funds were said to be used to keep Cole's Beverley Hills, Calif., home from foreclosure.
Cole has also been accused of lying to investors about the health of the company and the ingredients of the artificial sweetener, the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune reported Monday.
Cole, who is also being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is charged with lying about whether the sweetener, sucralose, would include and toxic substances.
The company was expected to create 612 jobs in Moberly, Mo.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced the $39 million project in 2010, at which point the company was granted tax breaks from the state valued at $17.6 million if it hit certain financial targets and submitted the right paperwork, neither of which happened, the newspaper said.
2008-2012: Housing markets still struggles
IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A five-point glance at the U.S. housing market shows more communities worse off now than four years ago, online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac said Monday.
While ignoring lag time inherent in a deteriorating housing market, RealtyTrac said in a statement that 65 percent of local markets -- 580 out of 919 communities monitored -- were worse off using a five-point grading system than they were four years ago.
The firm found 315 of 919 (35 percent) were better off in three out of five categories.
The firm checked average home prices, unemployment, foreclosure inventory, the number of foreclosures initiated by banks (called foreclosure starts) and the percentage of home sales that involved distressed properties, which include bank-seized properties and those in some stage of foreclosure.
In a report released Monday, "Election 2012 Housing Health Check," RealtyTrac said unemployment rates are higher in 90 percent of all counties involved in the study and that "the foreclosure picture is mixed, with slightly more than half of all counties documenting lower foreclosure inventory and fewer foreclosure starts compared to four years ago."
The percentage of sales of homes that include distressed properties was split with half the communities experiencing an increase and half a decrease in distressed home sales.
"But the distressed sale share is still 10 percent or more of all sales in the majority of countries nationwide ... and account for one in every four sales in 20 percent of all counties," the firm said.
"The U.S. housing market has shown strong signs of life in recent months, but many local markets continue to struggle with high levels of negative equity as the result of home prices that are well off their peaks. In addition, persistently high unemployment rates are hobbling a robust real estate recovery in most areas," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
"The worst of the foreclosure problem is in the rear view mirror for a narrow majority of counties."
In other counties, foreclosure activities are on the rise, as communities "continue to clear the wreckage left behind by a bursting housing bubble," he said.
Crude oil dips under $90
NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Crude oil held under $90 per barrel Monday, with traders cautious two weeks before Election Day in the United States.
November delivery of West Texas Intermediate crude oil gave up $1.31 cents to $89.13 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural gas prices lost 1.4 cents to $3.438 per million British thermal units. Home heating oil lost 0.3 cents to $3.076 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline lost 2.28 cents to $2.6412 per gallon.
At the pump, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.665 per gallon, down from Sunday's $3.776, AAA reported.
