Stocks
delivered mixed performance last week. The Dow Jones Industrials and
NASDAQ Indices moved lower while the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Russell 2000
Indices moved higher for the week. Stocks were helped by positive economic news
in the United States, including modestly positive retail sales for January,
improved consumer sentiment, and a decline in initial jobless claims. However,
these positives were offset to some extent by concerns about weakness overseas.
Germany reported that its economy contracted during the fourth quarter of 2012.
It’s the country’s worst economic performance since 2009.
Overall,
the major stock indices remain in positive territory for the year. They’ve been
buoyed, in part, by better than expected fourth quarter earnings. On January 1,
2013, analysts expected profitability of companies in the S&P 500 Index
would increase by about 2.9 percent year-to-year. As 2012 fourth quarter’s
earnings season headed toward the finish line last week, that estimate had almost
doubled to 5.6 percent. About 70 percent of companies have exceeded analysts’
expectations so far. On average, over the long term, about 62 percent of
companies beat expectations.
The
yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds continued to hover around 2 percent
during the week. Reports of weaker than expected economic growth in Europe
during the last quarter of 2012 may have increased demand for Treasuries. When
demand increases, prices often go up and yields go down. Bond yields also have
been affected by the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program. The Fed has
been buying Treasury bonds in an effort to help support the economy. In general,
these purchases are believed to be keeping bond yields lower than they might be
otherwise. Quantitative easing will not continue indefinitely which may be the
reason the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a statement last week
that said, “Many economists believe that interest rates are not likely to get
much lower and will eventually rise. If that is true, then outstanding bonds,
particularly those with a low interest rate and high duration may experience
significant price drops as interest rates rise along the way.”
children are
targeted for identity theft far MORE OFTEN than you might think. That’s
right. A 2012 report from Carnegie Mellon CyLab found children are targeted for
identity theft 35 times more frequently than adults. That’s because the unused
social security numbers assigned to children for tax purposes are uniquely valuable
to identity thieves. These numbers can be paired with any name and address and used
for many years. Often the theft isn’t discovered until a child applies for a student
loan or a job, or tries to buy a mobile phone or a car.
The report is
based on 42,000 identity protection scans
of children, ages 18 and under, that were completed during 2009 and 2010. Researchers
found social security numbers for more than 4,300 children – 10.2 percent of
those scanned – were being used by someone else (a stranger, a parent, or
another family member) to:
·
Buy homes and automobiles
·
Establish credit card accounts
·
Secure employment and get
driver’s licenses
Source: Child Identity Theft,
Richard Power, Carnegie Mellon CyLab
The youngest victim was five months old. The victim
of the largest fraud (about three-quarters of a million dollars) was a
16-year-old girl.
The first step in
protecting your child’s social security number is to check with credit bureaus and
find out whether a file has been opened using your child’s social security
number. In many cases, even if the number is being used, your child’s full
identity has not been stolen. In addition to contacting credit bureaus, watch
for warning signs your child’s social security number may be in play. These
include receiving:
·
Pre-approved
credit card offers in your child’s name
·
Notices
from the IRS indicating your child didn’t pay income taxes
·
Calls
from collection agencies asking for your child
Source: Child Identity Theft, Richard Power, Carnegie Mellon CyLab; Federal
Trade Commission Consumer Information, Child
Identity Theft, August 2012
If you would like
to learn more about how to protect your child from identity theft, visit the
Federal Trade Commission’s web site at www.ftc.gov, and click on Privacy and
Identity, Repairing Identity Theft, and then Child Identity Theft.
Weekly Focus – Think About It
“The greatest
pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
--Walter Bagehot, British economist and journalist
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