Markets stumble hard Tuesday
NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Stocks took a beating in New York Tuesday with investors pondering disappointing third quarter reports and ongoing economic struggles.
In a two-day stretch without a significant economic report to divert anyone's attention, investors were contemplating DuPont's July through September results, the latest in a string of blue-chip firms that came in under expectations.
In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average gave up 214.29 points, 1.61 percent, to 13,131.60. The Nasdaq composite index shed 17.61 points or 0.58 percent to 2,999.35. The Standard and Poor's 500 index dropped 18.02 points or 1.26 percent to 1,415.80.
The benchmark 10-year treasury note rose 17/32 to yield 1.759 percent.
The euro fell to $1.2972 from Monday's $1.3061. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 79.82 yen from 79.96 yen.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index added 0.04 percent, 3.54 points, to 9,014.25.
In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 1.44 percent, 85 points, to 5,797.91.
Apego charged with dodging import duties
ATLANTA, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities allege executives of Lawrenceville, Ga. paper company Apego Inc. dodged more than $20 million in custom duties for imported Chinese paper.
The case came to light when a fired secretary of the company's chief executive officer -- also his ex-lover -- came forward with a laptop computer with incriminating evidence, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege Apego executives directed a scheme in which paper from China was mislabeled as a product of Taiwan.
U.S. customs have imposed 76.7 percent duty charge on paper from China since 2006, when the Commerce Department declared China was "dumping" paper in the United States at unfairly low prices.
Authorities now say Apego first hired workers in Taiwan to switch labels on paper bought from the Wantanabe Group in China.
The scheme later allegedly escalated to include bribes to Taiwanese officials and a paper trail of fraudulent documents.
The scheme became so involved that one company employee in an email once remarked, "everybody is overwhelmed from being so busy making fake documents," court papers say.
On Monday, former Apego Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Chen pleaded not guilty to taking part in the scheme. She was released on bail.
Also charged is company President and Chief Executive Officer Chi-Cheng Gung, known as "Curtis." However, he is currently in Taiwan and reportedly suffering from a potentially fatal medical condition.
He is expected to surrender to authorities in November, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Pearce said.
Also indicted were Zuoru He, 66, an executive at The Wantanabe Group in China and Chong-Sien Wu, 69, the founder of Apego, who is Taiwanese.
Neither Wu nor He appeared in court. Warrants for their arrest have been issued, the newspaper said.
Canada Goose wins counterfeit lawsuit
TORONTO, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Canadian premium arctic outerwear manufacturer Canada Goose has won a lawsuit against counterfeiters in Thailand and Sweden, the company announced.
The District Court of Stockholm convicted five Swedish nationals of purchasing low-quality imitations of coats and parkas designed for use in the arctic from a counterfeiter in Thailand.
The knockoffs were sold throughout Europe between 2009 and 2012, the company said in a release from its Toronto headquarters.
Two defendants were sentenced to undisclosed prison time and the court awarded the company slightly more than $100,000 in damages, the release said.
Genuine Canada Goose outerwear is made with coyote fur as a trim around the hood and uses premium down. The company said the fakes fell far short of its standards.
The fur trim on the counterfeits was raccoon and the insulation was found to be "feather mulch and other fillers, which are often coated in bacteria, fungus, mildew and even feces."
In handing down its sentence, the court noted as much as 10 percent of goods sold in the European Union are counterfeit.
Retirement worries on the rise in U.S.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- More U.S. workers are concerned now about having enough savings for their retirement than at the end of the recession, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday.
At the end of the recession, in late February 2009, a survey found 25 percent of adult respondents to a survey indicated they were "not too" or "not at all" confident their financial position would see them through retirement, the think-tank said.
In the latest survey, 38 percent indicated they were concerned they could not fund their retirement with confidence.
The center said there was "a major shift in the pattern," in that those most concerned about retirement are younger and middle aged workers. In 2009, by contrast, it was the "Gloomy Boomers," adults in their mid-50s, who were most concerned about nest eggs that were too small.
In the more recent survey, "worries peak among adults in their late 30s -- many of whom are the older sons and daughters of the Baby Boom generation," the study found.
In that age bracket, those between the ages of 36 and 40, a survey-topping 53 percent indicated they were sure their retirement could be properly financed.
The survey was conducted July 16-26 and involved 1,505 interviews. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, the center said.
