Markets correct lower
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes closed lower Monday, with investors becoming cautious in the midst of a long winning streak.
By close of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average gave up 21.73 points or 0.16 percent to settle at 13,971.24. The Nasdaq composite index nudged downward 1.87 points or 0.06 percent to 3,192. The Standard & Poor's 500 shed 0.92 points or 0.06 percent to finish at 1,517.01.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,354 stocks advanced and 1,669 declined on a volume of 2.5 billion shares traded.
The 10-year treasury note was flat, yielding 1.968 percent.
Against the dollar, the euro rose to $1.341 from Friday's $1.3372. The dollar rose to 94.25 yen from 92.76 yen.
The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo was closed Monday.
In London, the FTSE 100 index added 0.21 percent, 13.13 points, to 6,277.06.
"We're paring the big run that we've had since Election Day," Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners told The Wall Street Journal.
"The market needs to take a break," he said. "I think we've got a chance of getting to the old highs this week or next, barring any exogenous European event."
Few hospitals quote price of new hip
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The price of hip replacement surgery varies wildly and is hard to obtain, a study on pricing in U.S. hospitals found.
Hip replacements could be had for $11,100 to $125,798, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association for Internal Medicine found.
The study authored by Washington University student Jaime Rosenthal found only 16 percent of hospitals called would provide a bundled price for a hip replacement. Forty-seven percent offered a total price, but only if hospitals and other medical services were contracted individually, the study said.
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday the study was done by calling two hospitals in every state plus the top 20-ranked orthopedic hospitals, for a total of 122 hospitals contacted.
The hospitals were then asked for the price of a hip replacement for an elderly woman with no insurance but the means to pay for the surgery out of pocket.
Rosenthal's study lists Xin Lu and Peter Cram of the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine as co-authors.
Census Bureau names richest community
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Nearly 18 percent of households in a New York suburb are in the top 5 percent of the country's income levels, tops in the country, the government said Monday.
The U.S. Census Bureau said the highest concentration of households with incomes at $191,469 or higher out of any community in the country was the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., area, considered a bedroom community just north of New York City.
Two communities tied for having the lowest concentration of wealthy households, Danville, Va., and, coincidentally, Danville, Ill.
They each have a concentration of wealthy families of 1.1 percent, while the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area has a wealth concentration of 17.9 percent.
"This report addresses one aspect of the growing interest in income distribution by examining the geographic spread of high-income households," said David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau's Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division in statement.
The study found that wealth lives near the water. "Coastal areas had large proportions of counties with high concentrations of high-income households, particularly the New England, Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions," the Census Bureau said. "Conversely, the East South Central division, comprised of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, tended to have low concentrations of such households."
Wealth also favors company, the Census Bureau said. "The most 50 populous metro areas contained 52 percent of all U.S. households and 72 percent of high-income households." a study released Monday said.
Romance at work under the radar
CHICAGO, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Valentine's Day is a reminder that romances at work are flourishing, if under the radar, a U.S. employment research firm said Monday.
"The growth of social media and networking sites, including Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are helping co-workers find each other and interact under the radar," outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.
"Office romances are fraught with pitfalls that can impact workplace harmony, productivity, more and, in some cases, the bottom line if they end badly and a lawsuit is filed," Chief Executive Officer John Challenger noted.
In a statement, the firm said casually dating, hooking up and/or finding love in the workplace "is an issue that keeps many human resource executives up at night."
While workplace romances are generally discouraged, a 2007 survey conducted by the firm found 35 percent of employers had no formal policy regarding romance between co-workers.
"The survey revealed that while many companies discourage such relations, others simply maintain a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," the outplacement firm said.
