http://www.channel3000.com/-/1656/10274522/-/appfiaz/-/index.html en-US © 2011 Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. Home Home en-US © 2011 Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. http://www.channel3000.com/money/Stocks-boosted-by-housing-data/-/1644/13611736/-/h8ur8z/-/index.html U.S. stocks moved higher for a second day Tuesday, as investors welcomed a report showing existing home sales surged in April for the first time since January. But the trading was somewhat choppy and the gains were modest as a downgrade of Japan, a weak forecast for global growth, and an ongoing slide in shares of Facebook also weighed on sentiment. The Dow Jones industrial average added 39 points, or 0.3%, the S&P 500 gained 5 point, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq added 3 points, or 0.1%. Bank stocks were among the biggest gainers, with shares of JPMorgan Chase rising almost 5%. Bank of America and Citigroup were up more than 3%, while Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were up about 2%. Following the opening bell, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose 3.4% in April to an annual rate of 4.62 million, up 10% year-over-year. Home affordability also came in at record levels. "These sales levels are still relatively low, but a home is a big ticket item, and to see improvement in the housing market is always good," said Kim Forrest, senior equity analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "It shows that buyers think their prospects are solid enough to agree to a mortgage." Some solid corporate earnings from U.S. retailers also helped bolster the mood on Wall Street, with better-than-expected results from troubled retailer Best Buy, as well as AutoZone and Williams Sonoma among others. However, worries about the global economy kept the enthusiasm in check. Fitch downgraded Japan, the world's No. 3 economy, and suggested further downgrades could be coming. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its forecasts for the eurozone economy to a decline of 0.1% this year, and warned that sovereign debt problems pose a risk to the global economic recovery. European leaders are due to meet Wednesday in an ad hoc summit to address the latest problems with European sovereign debt, worries that Greece is moving closer to leaving the eurozone, and the contagion effects an exit might have on other economies. "For now, investors seem to be concentrating on what's happening in the U.S., but anything can happen in Europe to introduce those fears back into the market," Forrest said. U.S. stocks bounced back from their worst week of the year Monday, on renewed optimism that European leaders would find a way out of the sovereign debt crisis. World markets: A report showing ebbing inflation in the United Kingdom raised hopes that lower price pressures might allow leaders to move toward more stimulus to respond to economic weakness. European stocks ended higher. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.9%, while the DAX in Germany gained 1.7% and France's CAC 40 jumped 2.2%. Asian markets ended before the Japan downgrade was announced. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.0%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.6% and Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.1%. Companies: Best Buy, which has been hit by a scandal that cost the CEO his job, along with store closings during the most recent quarter, reported solid earnings even as same-store sales fell 5.3%. The retailer also reaffirmed its earnings guidance of $3.50 to $3.80 a share, excluding restructuring charges. Analysts are only looking for earnings of $3.58 a share this year. AutoZone also reported better than expected earnings of $6.28 a share, but weaker than expected revenue sent its shares lower. Williams Sonoma reported earnings per share of 34 cents excluding special items, which came in better than forecasts and year-earlier results. The retailer raised its earnings guidance for 2012. Shares of Urban Outfitters popped after the retailer topped earnings expectations. Polo Ralph Lauren's stock also edged up after the company's profit rose 29% on strong revenue and same-store sales growth. The company also doubled its quarterly dividend. But the company's revenue guidance fro fiscal 2013 came in below expectations. Computer maker Dell is expected to post earnings of 46 cents a share on $14.9 billion in revenue. Currencies and commodities: The dollar gained against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen. Oil for July delivery fell 80 cents to $92.06 a barrel. Gold futures for June delivery fell $12.10 to settle at $1,576.60 an ounce. Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury slid, pushing the yield up to 1.80% from 1.74% late Monday. Tue, 22 May 2012 18:27:38 GMT 13611736 2012-05-22T18:27:38Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/At-Finance-Park-kids-get-to-pay-the-bills/-/1644/13611172/-/13iif7p/-/index.html When kids play house, rarely do they pretend to pay bills. But one organization is looking to change that by giving school-age children a chance to be an adult for a day. Junior Achievement, an international non-profit that helps teach children financial literacy, assigns kids in its JA Finance Park programs a marital and family status, a job, and an income and then tasks them with making adult financial decisions. "We want to give them exposure to the challenges that they are going to have, making them fiscally responsible adults," said Andrew Corrado, senior vice president for private banking and professional services at Capital One, a sponsor for JA Finance Park. Students do as much as 20 hours of classroom work prior to their arrival at the Finance Park. In class they learn about a variety of financial tools and how to use them properly. The curriculum covers everything from how credit cards work, to how to make a budget and to figure out taxes. "Frankly, kids don't learn this at home," said Joseph Peri, president of Junior Achievement NY. "We sort of consider it to be almost like the modern version of the 'birds and the bees.' Parents don't really want to talk about it." Once their classroom learning is finished, all that they have learned is put to the test at JA Finance Park. Each child is given a card with their life status on it and they travel from station to station paying water bills, buying clothing, or purchasing cars. Some face a sudden financial crisis and have to pay for braces for their child or repairs to their home after a sudden storm, which impacts their budgets. "I was over budget and I had to change my nice car," said Kiany Probherbs, who was single and made an annual income of $59,000. By the end of the day, many of the students said that they had a greater appreciation for their parents and learned the importance of spending their money wisely. "I noticed that I can't always go to my parents and ask for a phone and other stuff," said Maryan Kabba, who was given the status of married with two kids and had an annual income of $51,900. "Now I realize they have a lot of bills to pay, especially if they have kids." More on kids and finances: How high school kids became tax pros Practicing job interviews at age 10 College kids financial fears -- and tips Tue, 22 May 2012 18:20:43 GMT 13611172 2012-05-22T18:20:43Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Facebook-plunges-18-below-IPO-price/-/1644/13607712/-/qysubdz/-/index.html Facebook continued to plunge as its stock dropped 8% at the start of trading Tuesday, then pulled back to a 5% loss by the afternoon. Facebook fell as low as $30.98 per share just minutes after the the opening bell. That's 18% below $38, the price of its initial public offering, which debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday. In afternoon trading, the stock was trading at shares were $32.23 per share. "It's very promising, of course, but it's not a proven model," said Brian Wieser, an analyst for Pivotal Research Group who rates Facebook a "sell" with a price target of $30 per share. Going forward, Wieser said that Facebook will have to "evolve" its advertising platform to appeal to large-scale advertisers. He said this will increase operating expenses, especially since the company might have to make large acquisitions to compete against Google. But there is also a sense that Facebook could become more valuable, says Daniel Ernst, an analyst for Hudson Square Research. He said Facebook offers "an unprecedented level of targeting" for advertisers with its more than 900 million users, so there's a "long-term future" for the social media company. "They have a great core product, [but] they need to improve the advertising model around that," he said. "There are reasons to sit on the sidelines. That's why we have it on hold." The IPO price for the social media giant was set by 33 underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley. JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were also prominent in the process. Trading for the social media giant was volatile on Friday, but the volume set a new record for IPOs. However, the stock closed just 23 cents above its IPO price -- even though Facebook was considered one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in recent memory. The share price dropped 12% on Monday, falling well below its IPO price. Facebook's competitor Zynga, which had plunged in sessions following Friday's IPO, slipped 1% on Tuesday. Facebook Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has been particularly busy in the last few days. He married his long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan during the weekend following Facebook's stock debut. Tue, 22 May 2012 17:57:59 GMT 13607712 2012-05-22T17:57:59Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/CFTC-investigating-JPMorgan-Chase/-/1644/13611204/-/wi8akqz/-/index.html The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating JPMorgan Chase's $2 billion losses, the regulator told a Senate panel on Tuesday. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told the Senate Banking Committee that JPMorgan's losses are worth looking into, because as a U.S. bank, "it is an entity with direct access to the Federal Reserve's discount window and federal deposit insurance." The CFTC is the latest agency to say it's investigating the losses at JPMorgan Chase. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI are also looking into the matter. Gensler told the panel he couldn't provide specific information about the investigation. But he did say that he first learned about the questionable trades from press reports. The CFTC doesn't have regulators on the ground yet to look at bank trades. "Currently, the American public is not protected in that way," Gensler said, as far as having regulators looking at the trades as they happen. But thanks to Wall Street reforms, the commission does have the power to look at fraud and manipulation charges with regard to the JPMorgan Chase trades. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro told the committee Tuesday that her agency's investigation is limited, because the trades happened in divisions of the banking giant that aren't subject to SEC regulation. "We did not have any direct oversight or knowledge of the transactions," Schapiro said. She stated the SEC's investigation would target the "appropriateness and completeness of the entity's financial reporting and other public disclosures." Regulators have been struggling for months to figure out who should be included in a new crackdown on swaps or derivatives -- complex financial bets derived from other financial products, such as the price of jet fuel or mortgages. Derivatives were the key reason that American taxpayers were on the hook for the American International Group bailout in 2008. Derivatives also threatened to take down the global financial system when Lehman Brothers collapsed. When Congress passed Wall Street reforms in 2010, lawmakers left the big decisions of how to regulate derivatives up to supervising agencies. Generally, the Democratic-controlled Congress wanted swaps to be more transparent and safer. The two regulatory bodies in charge of derivatives, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, originally suggested that the new rules should target those who trade more than $100 million worth of swaps a year. In April, regulators backed off the tougher rules by narrowing the definition of who qualifies as a swaps dealer, and raising the threshold from a suggested $100 million to $8 billion in swaps traded each year. Gensler made it clear he thinks that once the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms are fully implemented, it will be illegal for JPMorgan Chase to make the kinds of trades that resulted in the $2 billion in losses. He clarified that Dodd-Frank allows for trades made to hedge against "individual and aggregate positions" -- not to guard against future economic losses, as JPMorgan Chase had described its trades. None of the new rules on swaps have gone into effect yet. Tue, 22 May 2012 16:57:52 GMT 13611204 2012-05-22T16:57:52Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Home-sales-surge-in-April/-/1644/13615168/-/12bp1igz/-/index.html The housing market surged in April, with home affordability at record levels. Sales hit 4.62 million homes during the month on an annualized basis, a rise of 3.4% compared with a month earlier and up 10% from April 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors. NAR reported that the median price for homes sold during the month was $177,400. That's a jump of more than 10% compared with a year earlier. The housing market's improvement was widespread, as all four regions in the nation recorded gains. That's a good indication that there is a sustainable recovery afoot, according to Gus Faucher, a senior economist for PNC Financial. "The fundamentals for a recovery have been in place for a while," he said. "Only confidence was lacking." A decline in the proportion of distressed property sales -- homes either in default or already repossessed by lenders -- helped boost home prices. These properties normally sell at big discounts to conventional sales and drag down the overall median price. In April, distressed properties accounted for 28% of sales, down from 37% 12 months earlier. Pat Newport, a housing market analyst at IHS Global Insight, said he thinks the market is turning but that it will be a slow process. "The market won't pick up much steam this year," he said. "The key issue is credit: It's still tight both for mortgage borrowers and for home builders." There's no sign that credit will loosen up anytime soon, but the fact that interest rates are at record lows does make financing easier for buyers. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun notes that it's no longer just investors who are jumping into the market. "A return to normal home buying for occupancy is helping home sales across all price points," he said. As prices stabilize, homeowners may be encouraged to put their homes on the market. Inventory rose 9.5% to 2.54 million homes in April, which is common in the spring, as sellers try to capitalize on the selling season. Overall, the supply of homes for sale has dropped more than 20% from 12 months ago and is well down from the record high of 4.04 million in July 2007. Tue, 22 May 2012 16:09:36 GMT 13615168 2012-05-22T16:09:36Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Where-Zuckerberg-would-be-without-a-prenup/-/1644/13517170/-/ubbtdm/-/index.html Mark Zuckerberg's marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, one day after he became one of the richest men on the planet may have seemed oddly timed. But, according to divorce lawyers, it was spot on. As Facebook's co-founder and largest shareholder, Zuckerberg is now worth about $20 billion. And while there's no word yet whether the couple signed a prenuptial agreement, Zuckerberg's fortunes are still largely protected. That's because California is a community-property state. In the event of a divorce, spouses are entitled to half of everything earned during the marriage, Any assets and income owned prior to saying "I do," however, remain separate, according to Ronald Anteau, a matrimony attorney in Beverly Hills and partner at law firm Kolodny & Anteau. Since the couple wed -- in a surprise ceremony billed as a med school graduation party for Chan -- the day after Facebook went public, anything Zuckerberg earns on his stock is considered solely his property should the couple one day divorce. A spokesperson from Facebook was unavailable for comment. "The fact that he got married does not change that property from separate to marital under California law," Anteau said. Despite any increase in the value of Zuckerberg's shares in the future, they will remain separate property unless he combines it with the couple's other assets, Anteau added. As long as the money isn't deposited into a joint bank account, for example, it will be considered his alone, according to California law. Zuckerberg's Facebook options are a different story, however. Although he already exercised 60 million of his 120 million stock options in conjunction with the IPO, he is still sitting on the other 60 million. At the offering price of $38 a share, he could net about $2 billion when he exercises those options down the road. (Facebook is currently trading about 10% below the IPO price.) Depending on when the options were granted and when they will be exercised, there is now a community property interest, which means that, as his wife, Chan could stand to benefit substantially if Zuckerberg makes another bundle on those options in the future. Unless, of course, there is a prenuptial agreement in place safeguarding his Facebook fortune, which Anteau says is likely. "If he came in to see me, there's no question he would be getting a premarital agreement," he said. Those legally-binding contracts, which are drawn up by an attorney, protect each person's assets and determine support obligations in the case of a split. They can be particularly valuable if the division of wealth between a couple is grossly uneven prior to the marriage, according to New York matrimony attorney Barry Slotnick, who represented Melania Trump in her prenuptial agreement with Donald Trump. Billionaire or not, Lauren Lyons Cole, a certified financial planner in New York, recommends that all couples talk openly about money before tying the knot. Prenups get a "bad rap" she said, but they can open the door to a lot of necessary conversations. Tue, 22 May 2012 13:23:52 GMT 13517170 2012-05-22T13:23:52Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Jump-off-the-career-ladder-become-a-supertemp/-/1644/13590272/-/b9m0jd/-/index.html For years the word "permatemp" has sent shivers down the spines of professionals around the world, who fear they will never be able to land themselves a permanent job. But there is now a new breed of temp on the block, one that is not desperate to hold onto the corporate ladder, but instead chooses to jump off it in order to further their careers. These so called "supertemps" are top-level managers who have realized that they are often better off, both financially and emotionally, working for various companies on a project-based or temporary basis. "The number-one reason these high achievers decide to leave their corporate careers behind is for career satisfaction," says Jody Miller, co-founder and CEO of Business Talent Group (BTG), an agency that specializes in pairing up companies with independent business professionals. "They want to choose what type of work they do and for whom. Ultimately they want to be in control of their own life," she adds. Tony Evans, a 58-year-old chief executive from York, in the United Kingdom, was ahead of the curve when he decided to "decouple himself from the corporate treadmill" and go at it alone in 1994. "I got to the point where I wanted to do the things that I liked, not just be part of the corporate bureaucracy," he says. Two years later he set up his interim management services business 3 Graces and he hasn't looked back since. "I find working as an interim manager incredibly freeing," says Evans. "There is a different level of honesty that you can have with your client when you work as an independent, one which they simply don't get from a permanent employee." Evans has worked all over the world helping to rescue businesses that are going through a difficult time. "I only get to play when things are complicated, but that's how I like it," he says. He also is a board member of the Institute of Interim Management (IIM) which supports independent professionals and helps promote them to clients. As with many others who work as an independents, he began his career as an interim when he was made redundant. A recent survey by the IIM showed that 22% of prospective interims cite the end of employment as a trigger for making the move, but a whopping 70% give professional and lifestyle choices as the principal driver. This doesn't surprise Miller who says that many of her clients cite a better work-life balance as one of the reasons why they make the switch. Evans found that when he was made redundant during the recession in the early 1990s he wanted to reassess his life. "I had a young family at the time and although I felt the pressure to ensure I would be able to provide for them I quickly realized that I could earn as much money and do more exciting things if I started to work as an independent," he says. But even though recent research by McKinsey found that 58% of U.S. companies are expecting to use more temporary arrangements on all levels in the years ahead, Miller still believes that there is a stigma attached to temp work on executive levels, one which she is keen to shed. "The idea that a person who works on a project basis is not as successful or as ambitious as someone who sticks to the corporate culture is not true, but it is still something that is part of U.S. conventional business thinking," she says. "My clients could stay in the corporate world if they wanted to, they just choose not to," adds Miller, who recently wrote about the "Rise of the Supertemp" in the Harvard Business Review. But the emergence of the "supertemp" is not just an American phenomenon. In Europe, where more stringent labor laws exist, temporary work is even more widespread as companies are reluctant to hire permanent staff, says Miller. She adds that although the majority of this work is in the middle tier or below, it is now spreading in the high end. According to consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton, the UK market for interim managers is one of the best developed, accounting for as much as $1.8 billion in revenue in 2009; and across Europe, annual growth in the market for interim executives has been over 20%. But Evans wants to ensure that anyone who toys with the idea of breaking free from the corporate shackles realizes that all this freedom doesn't come stress free. "For me the hardest time is at the end of an assignment. I like to work and the downtime gives me itchy feet as there is no guarantee that you will get more work," he says. That's where agencies such as Milller's BTG have created their niche, pairing up companies in need of talent with independents who looking for the next assignment. "It takes a lot of pressure off when you have an agency looking for new projects on your behalf," says Evans, who adds that about half of his business comes through agencies; "The rest I get through my own contacts," he adds. Both Miller and Evans believe that most supertemps share some key characteristics that help them succeed. "These people like to go in and make an impact quickly," says Miller. "They have specific skills and they like variety and a challenge. They can work as an outsider as well as being able to gain people's confidence quickly and they are natural self-starters who are able to network easily." Although the current economic downturn has resulted in an increasing number of managers and executives being let go, thus saturating the supertemp market, both Evans and Miller are hopeful for the future. They argue that it is fast becoming a competitive advantage for businesses to know how best to engage this flexible talent model. "Companies will start realizing that it is more cost effective and more productive to hire the best possible team for a specific phase, and understand that such a team might not be the team which will manage the next phase," says Miller. "I think the corporations that embrace that will be the ones that will do best in the future." Tue, 22 May 2012 11:40:25 GMT 13590272 2012-05-22T11:40:25Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Facebook-scraps-its-paper-stock-certificates/-/1644/13594386/-/doav6lz/-/index.html Facebook investors hoping for a tangible marker of their ownership stake are out of luck. The company won't be offering paper stock certificates, despite earlier indications that it planned to make them available. The operators of two stock-sale websites, OneShare.com and GiveAShare.com, said they learned of Facebook's change of heart late last week. Computershare, which handles Facebook's shareholder records, contacted them to say no paper stock certificates would be forthcoming. "It was a complete surprise, given that they had it in their IPO filing," says Rick Roman, the founder of GiveAShare.com. Facebook's IPO documents include a mock-up of its planned stock certificate. Both Facebook and Computershare declined to comment on the reversal. Facebook joins a growing number of companies that no longer issue paper stock certificates. Regulatory changes over the past decade have made it easier to go all-digital, which is generally cheaper and more convenient for both companies and their shareholders. The "no paper" list now includes major tech companies like Apple, Intel and Microsoft, which ditched its paper certificates last month. Going paperless is more efficient, but it's a bummer for fans of the iconic certificates. They've become collector's items that are sometimes worth more than the stock itself. A share of Apple currently sells for around $560, but on Scripophily.com, a website that deals in old certificates, a 1998 Apple stock certificate will set you back $695. Facebook's digital-only move was a frustrating curveball for sites that specialize in selling single stock shares to collectors and brand fans. IPO-day demand for Facebook shares was intense, they say. "We got more orders in a couple of hours than we do for the whole Christmas season," Roman says of Friday's sales rush. "It was huge," says OneShare.com CEO Lance Lee. "The last time we had a day that big was when Pixar was bought by Disney. For all the fans of Pixar, it was the last chance to get the stock certificate." With Facebook, both OneShare and GiveAShare switched gears quickly. They came up with placeholders to offer buyers and adjusted their listings to make it clear exactly what customers would be getting. GiveAShare.com plans to issue a keepsake certificate facsimile, along with a statement from Facebook's transfer agent showing the customer's account number and their official single-share holding. OneShare.com is creating a "statement of ownership," free of any legally problematic trademarks or logos. It's a plan the company's securities lawyers signed off on, Lee says. "On the plus side, I think it's going to be more visually interesting," Lee says. "On the negative side, it's not the official stock certificate. We're calling it a symbolic certificate." It's a tactic he's resigned -- reluctantly -- to having to use again as more companies go the digital-only route. "I'm hoping they'll change their mind," Lee says of Facebook. "Look at it another way: You have a group of people that are buying your stock and never plan on selling it. These people don't see themselves as customers. They see themselves as part-owners." Tue, 22 May 2012 11:28:13 GMT 13594386 2012-05-22T11:28:13Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Facebook-stock-falls-below-IPO-price/-/1644/13499038/-/g0cxkaz/-/index.html Facebook's stock slid below its offering price in morning trading on Monday and ended the day below that level, following a lackluster debut day. Facebook fell as low as $33 in the first half-hour of trade, but it closed at around $34.03 on Monday. That's down 11% from Friday's $38.23 closing price. Though Facebook was one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings in recent memory, the stock closed with a gain of just 23 cents on Friday after trading was delayed. Shares barely breached $42 at their peak on Friday -- which came at the start of trading -- and spent most of the day floating between $40 and $42 each. More than 80 million shares changed hands in the first 30 seconds of trading on Friday. Volume spiked to about 567 million shares by the end of the session, setting a new volume record for IPOs. "When some people didn't see a pop on day one, they got out," said Nathan Drona, a senior vice president of equity research at ABR Investment Strategy. That rapid sell off was reflected in the intense volume levels that continued on Monday. Nearly 168 million shares changed hands during the trading day. The social media site set its final IPO price late Thursday, pricing its shares at $38 apiece. That price was set by a consortium of 33 underwriters led by Morgan Stanley, along with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Robert Greifeld, the chief executive of Nasdaq OMX, said he was "embarrassed" by the technical glitches that caused the stock's debut to be delayed. The glitch reportedly kept some traders from knowing for more than two hours whether their orders had been completed or canceled, leading some pundits to wonder whether the delay eroded Facebook's debut. To prevent a repeat of such delays, Nasdaq said Monday that it has tweaked its IPO process and will no longer accept last-minute changes to orders for shares of an IPO. Drona, the ABR analyst, said he had expected an initial pop of Facebook's shares. But the current trading level is already near his price target of $31 to $33 per share. He cites Facebook's lack of mobile revenue as a major downside to the stock. "Facebook has said they're working on it, and [critics] seem to have a great deal of confidence that they'll nail it," Drona said. "But they don't have a model in place right now. Without a solid plan, you don't know how you're going to make money on a large part of your user base. And that's a concern." Meanwhile, other social media stocks also took a dive on Friday, including Groupon and LinkedIn. Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and other games that are played mostly on Facebook, plunged more than 10% on Friday. Groupon recovered its losses and then some on Monday, gaining about 7.6%. Zynga and LinkedIn each extended their losses. Tue, 22 May 2012 04:23:49 GMT 13499038 2012-05-22T04:23:49Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Store-bans-pennies-says-they-don-t-make-cents/-/1644/13501030/-/13tylirz/-/index.html A hardware store in Miami said it has adopted a ban on pennies at its cash registers -- even rounding down cash sales in a customer's favor -- because the 1-cent currency has become a nuisance. Andy Haase, owner of Shell Lumber & Hardware, said he hung a sign on the front door of the building stating that the business would no longer accept pennies in its cash transactions because accounting for the roughly 1,200 pennies needed each day for the store's 10 registers proved annoying, the Miami Herald reported. "The bookkeepers used to come down and say your cash drawer was off by a penny," he told the Herald. "It was just a lot of work for nothing." According to the publication, customers using credit cards still pay the full amount, but store clerks lower sales amounts by up to four cents on cash transactions so that no pennies are exchanged. Shell Lumber & Hardware's stance on the usefulness of pennies joins a growing movement across North America. In March, Canada announced it was dropping its 1-cent coin from the nation's currency -- a move estimated to save the country about $11 million. In 2011, the U.S. Mint spent $119 million to produce $49 million worth of pennies. To read the original story click here. Tue, 22 May 2012 02:16:54 GMT 13501030 2012-05-22T02:16:54Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Facebook-trader-Nasdaq-blew-it/-/1644/13504952/-/10lf983/-/index.html Traders weren't expecting Facebook to make its big stock market debut at the sound of the opening bell last Friday, but they weren't anticipating a two-hour delay either. In alerts sent to traders Monday morning, Nasdaq said the trading delay was due to a "technical error." "People didn't know where their orders stood, and it became a big guessing game," said one trader, who had put in an order to buy Facebook shares ahead of the opening bell. "Nasdaq couldn't handle it -- they blew it." Nasdaq started the process that should have led to the stock's first official trade at 11:05 a.m. ET. In that process, Nasdaq matches up orders to buy shares with orders to sell -- orders that don't get executed until the stock begins trading. But on Friday, the process fell into an unexpected loop. Traders submitted changes to their orders before the opening trade began. And since the system is designed to factor in those changes, the process began again. After the process was completed a second time, yet more order changes were received, forcing another recalculation. "This condition persisted, resulting in further delay," said Nasdaq. Twenty minutes later, at 11:30 a.m. ET, Nasdaq switched to another system that matches orders, allowing the exchange to finally complete the process. "Nasdaq was inundated with orders, as they should have been because of the magnitude of the issuance, but the problem was that they promised everyone an 11 a.m. start," said the trader. "Then they moved it to 11:05, and then once they realized they had a real problem, there was radio silence. Instead of telling people what was going on, they opened the stock without resolving the glitch." Though Facebook had started to trade, switching to another system last-minute "resulted in unintended consequences," said Nasdaq. Nasdaq had only accepted orders up until 11:11 a.m. ET, so any new orders, modifications and cancellations made after that point, but ahead of the opening trade, were not part of the final "IPO cross" process. Nasdaq said it eventually delivered confirmations for outstanding order executions and cancellations at 1:50 p.m. ET. The trader said he didn't receive a report of how many shares he bought and how much he paid for them until three hours after his order was executed. Typically, that report is transmitted instantaneously, he added. He noted that GM's 2010 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange was almost as large as Facebook's -- in terms of size, not hype -- and it went off without a hitch. Though he will continue to buy shares of companies that list on the Nasdaq on their first day of trading, despite the experience with Facebook, the trader said he would think twice if he were the listing company. Another trader, Sam Ginzburg, head of capital markets at First New York Securities, said that while Nasdaq's snafu is an "unfortunate" and a "really odd and rare occurrence," it is not game-changing. Ginzburg said Morgan Stanley and the other underwriters remained in contact wtih mutual fund managers and other investors about the technical glitches, which helped keep the stock fairly stable throught the day. "They were keeping people calm, because there were a lot of tempers that were really really high," he said. To prevent a repeat of Facebook's botched opening, Nasdaq has changed its process to no longer accept order modifications once the final calculation has begun. Nasdaq also said that exchange members who were impacted by its errors "may seek financial accommodation" if they had submitted orders between 11:11 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. ET Friday that were either not executed or executed at an inferior price. Claims must be submitted in writing by noon. Nasdaq said it is also looking to implement a procedure for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to review all the accommodation requests and provide a report to Nasdaq and its board with the total value of the valid claims. Shares of Nasdaq OMX Group fell 4% Friday, but bounced back 1.6% on Monday. Despite the snags, more than 80 million Facebook shares changed hands in the first 30 seconds of trading Friday. Volume spiked to about 567 million shares by the end of the session, setting a new volume record for IPOs. Facebook declined to comment. Mon, 21 May 2012 19:37:31 GMT 13504952 2012-05-21T19:37:31Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Postal-Service-s-next-deadline-Aug-1/-/1644/13485362/-/4v9spuz/-/index.html The next deadline facing Congress to save the U.S. Postal Service is Aug. 1. That's when the agency won't have enough money to make a $5.5 billion payment to a retirement fund mandated by law. No one's quite sure what happens if Aug. 1 rolls around and the Postal Service has to use all its cash on the fund to prepay healthcare benefits for retirees. But when a similar deadline loomed last year (and was pushed back by Congress), Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe predicted doom. The last big deadline was a Postal Service moratorium on postal closures, which expired on May 15. Since then, the Postal Service has announced new plans averting closures of rural post offices and delaying consolidations on postal plants. Only 48 plants are to be closed or consolidated in July and August this year. Other consolidations happen in 2013 and 2014 -- and could be trumped by Congress. The Senate passed a bill last month, which would avert the Aug. 1 cash crunch. The House has a vastly different approach to resolving postal woes and doesn't appear to be in a hurry. Postal policy veterans say they don't expect the full House to take up the bill until this summer at the earliest, which irks some in the Senate, like Sen. Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat. Carper launched a website highlighting that the U.S. Postal Service loses $25 million each day Congress does nothing. "I hope that my colleagues in the House will recognize the urgency of this situation and announce when they intend to act to save the Postal Service," Carper said in a statement on Wednesday. The Postal Service reported a $5.1 billion loss last year citing the recession, declining mail volume and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits. The health care mandate is a major liability for the Postal Service. Officials have said they won't have the cash to make a $5.5 billion payment that's due Aug. 1, nor the $5.6 billion payment due Sept. 30. So far the main cost cutting measures on the table have been consolidating plants and ending Saturday service. Unions say the health care payments are the main cause of the Postal Service's financial woes and should be eliminated instead. They say plant closures and mail service delays turn more customers away. "Since $3.1 billion of the reported $3.2 billion loss in the most recent fiscal quarter stems from pre-funding future retiree health benefits -- which no other entity in America is compelled to do -- the USPS and congressional response ought to address the actual problem," said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers in a statement issued Thursday. House lawmakers did make progress this week, with a move aimed at resolving concerns from lawmakers from rural districts. In both chambers, lawmakers from rural areas have fought to save their postal plants and offices from closing. They say the local postal office serves a far greater need to rural areas that lack Internet and faster ways to communicate more readily available in big cities. However, measures saving any postal facility undercut cost-cutting efforts, making it tougher for the U.S. Postal Service to shrink the number of facilities and employees, an effort embraced by the House bill. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, agreed to make a change in his postal reform bill that would limit the number of rural post offices closed to no more than 5% of all closures that happen each year. Additionally, Rep. Adrian Smith, a Nebraska Republican who runs the House rural caucus, agreed to work with Issa to help smooth out other concerns lawmakers from rural areas may have. Mon, 21 May 2012 18:10:10 GMT 13485362 2012-05-21T18:10:10Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/New-York-penthouse-sells-for-a-record-90M/-/1644/13498984/-/6wbdlhz/-/index.html An unnamed buyer paid more than $90 million for a Midtown Manhattan penthouse, the highest price ever paid for a New York apartment, according to the building's developer. The seller, the Extell Development Co., had been asking $98.5 million for the 10,923-square-foot condominium. Gary Barnett, Extell's president, wouldn't confirm the exact price the condominium went for or who the buyer was, but he would say the apartment sold for about $8,000 a square foot. Located on the 89th and 90th floors of the One57 building on 57th street, the apartment features 23-foot ceilings, rosewood flooring, panoramic views of the city, Italian marble and custom hardware and light fixtures. The building, which is still being constructed, includes a total of 95 condos and is built on top of a five-star Park Hyatt hotel. Prices start at $6.75 million and about half of the units have been already sold, said Barnett. Occupancy won't begin until early next year. The purchase follows two other recent blockbuster sales. In December, a Russian billionaire paid $88 million for a home once owned by ex-Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill. Then, earlier this week, a Park Avenue co-op was sold for $52.5 million, a record for a co-op apartment. "I call it the 10,000-square-foot trifecta," said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel and one of New York's best known appraisers. "I think it's a statement about global economic instability." The Weill sale broke the ice. "When that happens, other high-end sales come in clusters," he said. Helping to drive up the sale price was a lack of competing properties on the market, said Miller. The apartment came to the market at a time when there weren't many competing super high-end products. It's also in a prime location, near Central Park, the Midtown business district, theater and restaurants. It's just down the block from Carnegie Hall. Miller said many of the ultra-high-end purchases in New York and other expensive markets are done for investment purchases -- at least in part. With the future of the eurozone in question and bond yields low, there's not a lot of other attractive investing options. "New York real estate is a hard asset, a safe haven for investors" he said. "Relative to other markets, it's still seen as safe. I would not be surprised to see more of these sales." Mon, 21 May 2012 13:01:46 GMT 13498984 2012-05-21T13:01:46Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Yahoo-Alibaba-reach-7-1-billion-deal/-/1644/13496920/-/g6tlviz/-/index.html Yahoo and China's Alibaba Group have agreed to a $7.1 billion deal in which the Hangzhou-based internet behemoth buys back half of Yahoo's 40% stake in the company. The agreement will give a much-welcomed cash injection to Yahoo, which has lost 65% of its value since its 2006 peak and is smarting from the resume-padding scandal of ex-CEO Scott Thompson, the third chief executive to lead the beleaguered web portal in three years. Yahoo's 40% stake in Alibaba, purchased in 2005 for $1 billion, is widely considered the company's greatest asset. But the relationship has been a fractious one, punctuated with public disagreements over company direction, as well as Yahoo siding with Google in its 2010 fight with Chinese regulators. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma publicly said in September he might be interested in buying Yahoo. "This transaction opens a new chapter in our relationship with Yahoo," Ma said in a news release Monday. Alibaba is a leading e-commerce provider in China, the world's largest internet market. "Today's agreement provides clarity for our shareholders on a substantial component of Yahoo!'s value and reaffirms the significance of our relationship with Alibaba," said Ross Levinsohn, interim CEO of Yahoo, in a release on the deal. Under the terms of the deal, Yahoo will get $6.3 billion in cash and up to $800 million in newly issued Alibaba preferred stock. "We look forward to delivering the proceeds of the near-term transaction to our shareholders, and to the further enhancement of value and the additional monetization in the future that this agreement enables," said Timothy R. Morse, chief financial officer of Yahoo. Mon, 21 May 2012 12:47:07 GMT 13496920 2012-05-21T12:47:07Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Facebook-employees-have-millions-Now-what/-/1644/13498202/-/ifyy22z/-/index.html When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the Nasdaq opening bell on Friday to mark Facebook's public debut, he also rang in a crop of new millionaires and billionaires. It's a rite of passage for Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs and the employees who joined their ventures early -- and so is learning how to handle that fortune. Those who have been there before are full of advice. "Buy one thing you've always wanted," suggests Karl Jacobs, a serial entrepreneur and early Facebook advisor. "A lot of people don't celebrate the fact that they've worked really hard." Color CEO Bill Nguyen -- who sold his last company, Lala, to Apple in 2009 -- has a quirky suggestion: don't buy a house. Build one. "It slows you down," he says. "All these things happen to you so quickly, you don't get the time to think about it." Nguyen took his own advice. He used part of his fortune to build a thoroughly customized tropical compound on the shores of Maui's Mokuleia Bay. The Bay Area's luxury toymakers are gleefully gearing up for the anticipated spending spree. Real estate agents are watching prices pop in Palo Alto, Facebook's new hometown, and local car dealers are revving their engines. One area Porsche dealer told CNNMoney that he's expanding his inventory. When you hit the startup jackpot, there's two things you can do: "You buy a house or a car, or both," says tech veteran Rick Marini. Marini sold his first company, Tickle Inc., to Monster in 2004 for $30 million cash and a pile of stock. Ever the entrepreneur, he teamed with a friend who is a construction contractor to buy a San Francisco house that they hope to flip to a Facebook millionaire. "It'll have all the gadgets and cutting-edge technology," Marini says of the in-progress, multi-million dollar renovation. Toys are nice, but there's one thing almost every tech entrepreneur who hits it big ends up lavishing cash on: more startups. "It's almost a requirement," says Nat Turner, who sold his company, Invite Media, to Google in 2010. "One of the big reasons Invite [Media] was successful was because of angel entrepreneurs." Turner's collection of startups he's helped seed includes shopping site Milo (later acquired by eBay), education site Lore, and ad-serving platform Adzerk. Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian calls it "startup karma." After selling his own venture to Conde Nast in 2006, he earmarked 15% to 20% of his wealth for recycling into other startups. He created an "uncorporation," Breadpig, to house all of his ventures, with the profits donated to -- as he puts it -- "organizations and individuals that make the world less sucky." But everyone has their splurge, too. "I upgraded my dad's season tickets from nosebleeds to good seats. Redskins. I would fly home for those games," says Ohanian, a Maryland native. Nguyen also indulged in some parental payback. "The first thing I did," he says, "was buy my mom and dad a home." -CNNMoney staff writer Julianne Pepitone contributed to this report. Mon, 21 May 2012 10:39:25 GMT 13498202 2012-05-21T10:39:25Z http://www.channel3000.com/news/Survey-Gas-prices-down-18-cents-since-April/-/1648/13495226/-/12wwg5az/-/index.html U.S. gasoline prices have dipped another 6 cents due to a continuing skid in crude oil, a new survey finds, with more declines seen on the horizon. The average price of regular gasoline dropped to just over $3.78 per gallon over the past two weeks, according to the latest Lundberg Survey. That's down more than 12 cents from a year ago and more than 18 cents below its April 6 peak, survey publisher Trilby Lundberg told CNN. "The cause is continued erosion of crude-oil prices," Lundberg said. With crude oil currently trading at about $91 a barrel, down 11% in a month, "We will see another 5-10 cents in the coming weeks," she said. Lundberg's California-based company samples prices in about 2,500 filling stations across the continental United States. The latest, conducted Friday, found prices were still hight in the Western states -- "but those prices are just trembling on a precipice," she said. "We can see wholesale prices have been crashing here, and they are about to hit the street," she said. The cheapest average gas prices were found in Memphis, Tennessee, at $3.34 a gallon, Lundberg said. The most expensive were in San Francisco, at $4.36. Average per-gallon prices in other cities: Atlanta: $3.45 Baton Rouge, Louisiana: $3.44 Billings, Montana: $3.76 Boston: $3.78 Denver: $3.73 Houston: $3.61 Indianapolis: $3.82 Phoenix: $3.78 Mon, 21 May 2012 05:09:32 GMT 13495226 2012-05-21T05:09:32Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/GM-won-t-advertise-in-2013-Super-Bowl/-/1644/13485218/-/rb89fr/-/index.html General Motors will not advertise during this year's Super Bowl game, the automaker said Friday. It's a big change for GM which had returned to Super Bowl advertising after sitting out 2009 and 2010 as the automaker recovered from economic disaster and bankruptcy. GM executives have said that ads during the game were very effective. Advertisers paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second ad during last year's Super Bowl, which was broadcast by NBC. Next year's game will be broadcast by CBS. "We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the increased price, we can't justify the expense," GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said. Morrissey would not say how much CBS was asking but he said it was more than was being demanded last year. CBS did not immediately return a call asking for comment. The move was first reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal. GM also recently announced it would stop buying paid ads on the social media Web site Facebook. Although the company said it would continue to operate free pages on the site for its various brands. The automaker is not reducing its overall ad spending, Morrissey said, and may even spend slightly more this year than it has in the past. GM, the nations's biggest-selling automaker, has traditionally been among among America's biggest-spending advertisers. Between 2002 and 2011, GM was the third biggest spender on Super Bowl ads after Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo, according to analysts at Kantar Media. The automaker spent nearly $83 million on Super Bowl ads during that time, Kantar Media said. During last year's Super Bowl, GM broadcast a controversial Chevrolet truck ad that brought an objection from Ford over a claim that Chevy sold the "longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the road." Mon, 21 May 2012 05:08:34 GMT 13485218 2012-05-21T05:08:34Z http://www.channel3000.com/technology/Facebook-IPO-underwhelms-Web-too/-/1632/13466468/-/1v6yuc/-/index.html As the stock market opened Friday with a ring of the bell by Mark Zuckerberg, all eyes were on Facebook -- the social media Megalodon he nursed from a dorm-room project to one of Wall Street's hottest prospects ever. Facebook, or "FB" as it's now known to investors, may have made amateur analysts on the Web go wild. But on the Nasdaq, it was a less exciting ride -- ending the day at a price pretty much exactly where it began. Friends may be priceless. But 'friending' both started and ended the day at just over $38 a share. Facebook's was the biggest opening ever for a tech company and the third-largest IPO in U.S. history, behind only Visa and General Motors. On the Web, reactions ran the gamut from deliriously hopeful to harshly negative for the social-media giant's Wall Street potential. "A $104 billion market capitalization puts Facebook at more than 100 times its trailing earnings," wrote John Constine and Kim-Mai Cutler for technology blog TechCrunch. "That's a big multiple to live up to, and it will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation." And it wasn't just the pros weighing in. In fact, it seemed like everyone on the Internet had an opinion. Business Insider posted a poll (obviously not scientific) asking readers where they thought the $38 stock would be by the end of the day Friday. Early Friday, a pessimistic 15% said under $35. But the biggest cluster of respondents had guessed somewhere between $40 and 55. (15% said $40 to 45, another 13% said $45 to 50 and, yes, yet another 12% said $50-55). A hopeful 10% predicted the stock would skyrocket at otherworldly levels, winding up over $90 a share. Results were similar on another site that sprung up, Facebook IPO Day Closing Price. Its graph showed the biggest number of predictions clustering around what ultimately would be an overly optimistic $50 mark. On rival network Twitter, many observers seemed to be rooting against Facebook and its early investors, finding a measure of glee in the fact that the price didn't skyrocket as some had predicted. "Facebook stock has already started to tank," wrote user Jen Misty (yes, with a healthy dose of hyperbole). "In my best Nelson voice from Simpsons -- "HA! HA!" There was this swipe at youthful startup culture from tweeter Ross Heart: "Harder? Keeping $FB over 38 or trying to get hired at Facebook being over 38?" And then there was this sports metaphor, which referenced a certain polarizing NBA star. "Rooting against Facebook stock price > [is greater than] rooting against LeBron," wrote a user named Jay Kang. More sober-minded watchers, however, noted that on Wall Street, when an opening stock sticks close to where it started, it means it was probably priced correctly to begin with. "Few hours into trading and Facebook's stocks maintain a $40 value," wrote Giuseppe D'Antonio. "No drop, no frenzy behaviour, no wild fluctuations. Serious matter!" While opinions in the business and tech communities have differed on whether the massive social network is a good investment, analysts have largely been bullish on the stock. There's been heavy demand, leading Facebook on Wednesday to announce it will sell about 25% more shares than it had originally planned, bringing its total to 421 million shares. At CNN content partner Mashable, a blog that got its start focusing exclusively on social media and saw its popularity rise as Facebook's did, the staff geared up by creating an IPO-inspired playlist on music site Spotify (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is accessible only through a Facebook account). Making the list? "Mo Money, Mo Problems," by The Notorious B.I.G., "Rich" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs," "Money (That's What I Want) by Barrett Strong and "If I Had $1,000,000" by Barenaked Ladies, among others. Sat, 19 May 2012 02:44:31 GMT 13466468 2012-05-19T02:44:31Z http://www.channel3000.com/news/Charities-spent-millions-on-direct-mail/-/1648/13476472/-/12t58g6/-/index.html If you've ever wondered how much money charities spend mailing you those glossy brochures and free address labels along with their request for a donation, the answer might surprise you. CNN has found that this type of direct-mail marketing cost two veterans charities tens of millions of dollars. Los Angeles-based National Veterans Foundation raised more than $22 million in donations over the past three years to help veterans, yet spent approximately $18.2 million paying its direct mail fundraisers, according to IRS 990 forms. For nearly a year, the charity has been trying -- without success -- to get out of its contract with Brickmill Marketing and its parent company, Quadriga Art, according to NVF's Rich Rudnick. "We were told for two years it would be very expensive, then we'd be going into the black," Rudnick told CNN. "That never happened." Quadriga Art is one of the world's largest direct-mail providers to charities and nonprofits. Quadriga Art is the same fundraiser hired by the Washington, D.C.-based Disabled Veterans National Foundation, which collected nearly $56 million in donations over the past three years, yet paid Quadriga Art more than $60 million in fees, according to a CNN investigation into the charity's tax records. Quadriga Art confirmed that its relationship with NVF is ending because "fund-raising efforts did not prove as financially viable as the client had hoped," a spokesman wrote in an email to CNN. Quadriga Art says although it increased the charity's donor base by more than 700,000 people, the direct-mail provider recommended phasing out the program last August based on its performance. And despite Brickmill and Quadriga Art being paid more than $18 million by NVF, Quadriga Art says it actually lost money. Meanwhile, DVNF still has a business relationship with Quadriga through 2013. The independent group CharityWatch gave both charities an "F" grade because of the miniscule amount of money they spend on actually helping veterans. "It's as if you're looking at these ratios through a fun house mirror," Daniel Borochoff, CharityWatch president, told CNN. "It really ought to be reversed, it ought to be flipped, they ought to be giving 80 or 90 percent to helping veterans, not only 12 percent. It's really pathetic." Beyond its finances, the other services that the National Veterans Foundation offers to veterans are also questionable. On its website, it says one of its principal benefits to veterans is a toll-free hotline, but the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington operates several similar toll-free hotlines for veterans seeking a variety of services. In a statement, the charity said that it has been in business 27 years and that it serves thousands of veterans each year through its toll-free hotline. CNN attempted to visit the National Veterans Foundation office near the Los Angeles International Airport, but staffers said that they would not speak on camera, refused to allow CNN inside, and declined CNN's request to photograph the call center that the charity says it operates there. CNN's recent investigation into the Disabled Veterans National Foundation found that the charity was doling out massive amounts of candy, hand sanitizer bottles and many other unnecessary items to veteran aid groups, surplus items it had obtained for free. It also claimed in its tax filings more than $838,000 in fair market value donations to one charity, although the bill of lading obtained by CNN showed that the donations -- which included chef's coats and aprons -- was valued at around $234,000. DVNF vice president Valerie Conley stressed that "not all the funds" raised by the foundation go to fund-raising. "The cost of fund-raising is high, as you know, and it has been for many veteran service organizations who use this kind of direct paying approach," she said. But CharityWatch's Borochoff says these charities are wasting public donations, and the only ones benefiting are the marketing firms. "We really have to ask why is this going on, what's the point?" he said in an interview with CNN. "This really should be called the 'National Enrich Fund-raising Foundation' rather than the National Veterans Foundation because ... the amount of help that the veterans receive is so small." Fri, 18 May 2012 14:11:42 GMT 13476472 2012-05-18T14:11:42Z http://www.channel3000.com/money/Foreclosures-fall-to-lowest-level-since-2007/-/1644/13429804/-/5ancobz/-/index.html Foreclosure filings in April fell for the third straight month to the lowest level since July 2007. Total foreclosure activity for April, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, was down 5% from March, according to RealtyTrac. Bank repossessions declined significantly -- there were 51,415 repossessions last month, down 26% from a year ago, and about half the 102,000 monthly repossessions at the peak in September 2010. Much of the improvement, however, can be attributed to declines in only a handful of states, especially those that had been hardest hit by the housing crisis and which did not require judicial review of foreclosures. In Arizona and Nevada, for example, bank repossessions were down roughly 70%. In California, they were more than 50% lower. States that do require judicial review, however, are only now catching up to foreclosure filings that were put on hold in the wake of the robo-signing scandal in 2010. The 26 states that require judicial review -- including Florida, New Jersey and Illinois -- continue to see increases in foreclosure activity. Another factor RealtyTrac cited for the decline in foreclosures was a big increase in short sales, deals in which borrowers sell homes for less than what they owe on their mortgages. "More distressed loans are being diverted into short sales rather than becoming completed foreclosures," said Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac's CEO. Banks take a hit on short sales because they forgive the difference between proceeds from the sale and the mortgage balance. But short sales can cost banks less than foreclosures. In fact, several large mortgage lenders are paying out incentives to borrowers who complete a short sale. On Wednesday, Bank of America said it would give some struggling homeowners payments of up to $30,000 if they sell their homes in short sales. Chase and Wells Fargo also have similar programs in place. Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT 13429804 2012-05-18T13:00:00Z