Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/193314
8B Daily News – Wednesday, October 16, 2013 US stocks down as investors wait on debt news By JOSHUA FREED AP Business Writer Wall Street The stock market was whipsawed Tuesday as the on-again, off-again talk of a debt deal in Washington made investors wonder just how pessimistic they should be. Stocks were flat or down all day, but the size of the losses waxed and waned depending on which politician was giving a press conference. The market closed with its first loss in a week, with the Dow Jones industrials down 133 points. Yields on shortterm government debt rose sharply as investors worried about the possibility of a default. Indexes were down only slightly early Tuesday, when Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate reported that a deal over increasing the nation's borrowing limit appeared to be getting closer. But after House Republicans came up with their own competing plan later in the day, and it was rejected by Democrats, stocks fell further. The stakes are high and the deadline is getting nearer. Unless the borrowing limit is raised, the U.S. will bump up against a Thursday deadline after which it can no longer borrow money to pay its bills, which could lead to a default on government debt. That possibility has rattled markets all month. It was clear that traders were hanging on every word out of Washington. The losses on the Dow shrank by about 40 points during a short press conference by House Speaker John Boehner shortly before noon Eastern. Another reason for Wall Street's pessimism is that any deal reached this week might simply set up another showdown a few months down the road. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 133.25 points, or 0.9 percent, to 15,168.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12.08 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,698.06. The Nasdaq composite fell 21.26 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,794.01. The losses were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 fell and three stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners, a New York-based investment management group, said he thinks there will be a deal, but that investors are making a mistake to focus on it so heavily since the economy still has so many risks. Investors aren't appreciating the risk of poor economic reports, slow profit growth and the possibility of flare-ups in conflicts with Iran and Syria, which could cause a spike in energy prices. ''There's a lot more risk to the downside,'' Landesman said. ''I don't think things are that robust out there.'' Among stocks making big moves: — FedEx shareholders were happy about expanded stock buybacks. FedEx's stock rose $4.71, or 4 percent, to $120.08. — Charles Schwab rose $1.02, almost 5 percent, to $23.03 after the brokerage company said its quarter profit rose 19 percent as trading and interest revenue increased. — Advertising company Omnicom Group reported adjusted results and revenue that were higher than analysts had expected. Its stock rose $1.01, almost 2 percent, to $64.96. Parts of the bond market have started to show signs of stress. The yield on the 10year T-note rose to 2.73 percent from 2.69 percent on Friday. Bond trading was closed Monday for Columbus Day. Yields on three-month and sixmonth T-bills also rose. The yield on the onemonth T-bill nearly doubled in only a few hours, going from 0.18 percent early Tuesday to 0.34 percent by the afternoon. It's considered to be the T-bill most likely to be affected by a federal government default. Money market funds owned by Fidelity and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have been selling off their one-month T-bill holdings to limit their exposure to the security. The price of oil fell $1.20 to close at $101.21 as negotiations over Iran's nuclear abilities began. Stephen Covey's '7 Habits' shakes up schools INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — One year after Johnathan Kent kicked his principal and school ''went all bad,'' the 8-year-old was recognized at a recent assembly as the ''Star of the Month'' for being polite and helping out his teachers. The third-grader's explanation for the turnaround: ''I'm not doing what I did last year.'' But Emily Cross, the principal of Indian Trails Elementary on the outskirts of Kansas City, Mo., is giving some credit to a program the school began using last year that is built around the late self-help guru Stephen Covey's bestselling ''The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.'' A 25th anniversary edition of the 1989 book will be released in November. The nearly 1,500 mostly elementary schools using the program — called ''The Leader in Me'' — teach principles from the book, including ''think winwin,'' ''seek first to understand, then to be understood'' and ''synergize.'' Teachers, for example, might ask students how historical figures like George Washington might have used them. And if a student gets into trouble, teachers and principals ask what habit could have helped him or her avoid the scrape. When Johnathan's principal asked the boy what habit led to his turnaround, he quickly responded, ''Do first things first.'' He said he didn't finish his work last year. Students typically are assigned leadership roles that range from class greeter to fish-tank cleaner. They also keep a leadership notebook in which they chart growth in an academic area. The notebooks also track a personal goal, such as the time spent learning to tie their shoes. Cross said the tracking is a big motivator for Johnathan. ''He sees that when I'm in class putting first things first, my dot on my graph is going up, and he's proud,'' Cross said. ''He's very confident now, and he wasn't last year.'' The Leader in Me, which has started branching out into preschools and middle schools, is one of ''literally dozens'' of programs seeking to improve the school climate, said Paul Baumann, director of the National Center for Learning and Civic Engagement at the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan group that researches education policy. He said most of the programs are run by nonprofits. The cost of the Leader in Me was ''pretty high'' in comparison, he said. For a 400-student school, adopting the Leader in Me program would cost between $45,000 and $60,000 over the first three years. The program's developer, FranklinCovey, acknowledges that the expense is one of the biggest challenges. Some schools are able to cover the cost using federal Title I money that's awarded to schools that serve large numbers of lowincome students. And for schools that need help, foundations, community Chambers of Commerce or businesses might be asked to help cover the cost, said Meg Thompson, who oversees the program for Salt Lake City-based FranklinCovey.