Stocks leap higher as hope builds for job recovery

Stocks rose sharply on Thursday after an unexpected drop in new applications for unemployment benefits and strong retail sales. The Dow Jones industrial average had its biggest gain since Dec. 1.

The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 368,000. That's the lowest level since May 2008. Economists had expected the number of claims to rise.

Separately, the Institute for Supply Management said its measure of hiring by service companies rose to the highest level since April 2006. The index covers a broad range of industries including retail, health care and financial services.

The signs of job growth followed a report Wednesday from payroll processor ADP saying that private employers added far more jobs than analysts had expected last month. Those gains are raising hopes that Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department will show that the unemployment rate fell from its current level of 9 percent.

Retailers Limited Brands Inc., Macy's Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. all reported gains in February sales compared with the same month last year. Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. trimmed its losses in the fourth-quarter and beat analysts' revenue estimates. The stock rose 7.6 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 191.40 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,258.20. The Dow is still below where it was trading on Feb. 18, before a three-day plunge caused by a surge in oil prices as the unrest in Libya deepened.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 22.53, or 1.7 percent, to 1,330.97.

All 10 company groups that make up the S&P index rose. Industrial companies had the largest gain, with 2.4 percent. Caterpillar Inc. gained 3 percent, the largest increase among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow average.

The Nasdaq composite index gained 50.67, or 1.8 percent, to 2,798.74.

The drop in unemployment claims pushed Treasury prices lower, raising their yields. The yield on the 10-year note rose to 3.56 percent, up from 3.48 percent late Wednesday.

Oil prices eased slightly, but remained above $100 a barrel. Concerns over the impact of high oil prices on the U.S. economy have rattled markets over the past two weeks. Crude settled above $102 on Wednesday for the first time since September 2008.

Five stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was 4.5 billion shares.

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Americans fall short of 'ideal' heart health

A new study finds only one out of nearly 2,000 middle-aged Americans hit the mark for ideal heart health as defined by the American Heart Association (AHA).

That entails acing the AHA's seven-item checklist, which includes being physically active, not smoking, having a healthy weight and diet, as well as staying below certain thresholds for cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Not meeting any one of those goals would be a risk factor for developing heart disease, the leading killer worldwide.

"I was surprised that so few study participants met the AHA's goals, because this was a self-selected group that volunteered to participate in a study focusing on cardiovascular health," including heart attacks and stroke, study author Dr. Steven E. Reis told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

"Heart health may be achieved by changing behaviors, such as becoming a nonsmoker or losing weight," added Reis, a cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh. "Although this may be very difficult for many individuals to achieve, it is these kinds of changes that can lead to healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and (blood sugar) levels and, in turn, to ideal cardiovascular health."

The AHA released its "Simple 7" (http://www.heart.org/mylifecheck) criteria in January 2010, with the goal of reducing deaths from heart disease by at least 20 percent by 2020.

Today, a third of all U.S. deaths are due to heart disease, so judging from the latest findings it might take a lot of work to reach AHA's goal.

A healthy level of activity means exercising each week, while eating healthily includes getting lots of fish, fruits and vegetables and other foods low in saturated fat, salt and added sugar.

The AHA says total cholesterol should be less than 200 milligrams per deciliter without medical treatment; the top blood pressure (systolic) reading should be less than 120 and the low (diastolic) less than 80; and the fasting blood sugar concentration should be below 100 milligrams per deciliter.

Dr. Reis and his colleagues analyzed data for 1,933 middle-aged men and women in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh. Of those, a little less than half were black and two-thirds were women.

Most had been to college and earned at least $40,000 a year.

Heart-healthy lifestyles were uncommon among the volunteers, even when the researchers used more forgiving criteria: Fewer than one in ten people in the study met five or more items on the checklist, and only about two in 10 met four.

Blacks were much less likely than whites to meet the criteria, the researchers report in the journal Circulation.

Bad behaviors abounded. More than 80 percent of study participants were overweight or obese, while 61 percent weren't eating enough heart-healthy foods.

Although nearly a quarter of participants reported getting regular exercise, most either did so sporadically or were inactive.

Meanwhile, almost three-quarters of people in the study had either dangerously high or elevated cholesterol, and 85 percent had elevated or high blood pressure.

So is the AHA's 2020 target woefully unrealistic?

In an editorial accompanying the journal article, Dr. Clyde W. Yancy, past president of the group, said no -- although reaching it may require "a moonshot mentality."

Yancy mentioned the better-than-expected achievements of an earlier effort by the AHA to reduce deaths from heart disease by a quarter by 2010.

"Clearly, there is much work to be done," Yancy wrote, "but we can and should address this goal with the ingenuity and fervor that previously spurred our success."

Reis agreed, noting that "it would be inappropriate to lower the goals just because few individuals meet them."

"Rather, our data suggest that we should increase our efforts to assist individuals to achieve heart health," he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/fMEcLl Circulation, February 14, 2011.

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Supreme Court rejects AT&T corporate privacy rights

AT&T Inc and other corporations do not have personal privacy rights to prevent disclosure of federal government records about them, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The justices unanimously overturned a ruling by a U.S. appeals court for the telecommunications company that corporations can assert personal privacy in claiming the records should be exempt from disclosure.

The high court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, agreed with the Obama administration's argument that the personal privacy exemption under the Freedom of Information law applied only to individuals, not to corporations.

Public interest groups supported the government.

They said that under AT&T's position, government records could be withheld about coal mine safety violations, offshore oil rig problems, dirty conditions at food manufacturing plants and questionable investment bank financial dealings.

Business groups supported AT&T and said corporations have long enjoyed a range of rights, including privacy rights.

AT&T argued the Federal Communications Commission should keep secret all records about it during an investigation into its participation in the federal E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries get Internet access.

AT&T told the FCC in 2004 that an internal investigation had revealed certain irregularities in the company's billings to a Connecticut school under the program.

AT&T TO PAY $500,000

The FCC launched an investigation that led to a December 2004 settlement in which AT&T agreed to pay $500,000 and to adopt a two-year compliance program.

CompTel, a trade association representing some of AT&T's competitors, requested all records in the FCC's file under the Freedom of Information Act.

The FCC decided to release some of the records, but AT&T said that disclosing any information violated its right to personal privacy, and the appeals court agreed.

Roberts in the Supreme Court's opinion overturned that decision.

He said the word personal ordinarily referred to individuals and dictionary definitions also suggested that it does not usually relate to corporations. Roberts said AT&T provided scant support that personal denoted corporations.

The Supreme Court case is FCC v. AT&T, No. 09-1279.

(Reporting by James Vicini; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Maureen Bavdek)

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