The dogs of the Dow is one of the best known dividend investing strategies, but after giving a boost to investor portfolios last year, the strategy is in the dog house so far in 2012, with CNBC's Jeff Cox.
Related Links:
Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com
Top of page
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46137981/
tashard choice puss in boots the rum diary trailer the rum diary trailer nor easter nor easter st.louis cardinals
WASHINGTON ? Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the protracted policy fight between Democrats and Republicans in Washington is "not about bad guys and good guys," but centers on how best to keep the middle class growing in America.
Biden said the Obama administration has worked hard to strike deals with congressional Republicans on a wide array of issues, including steps to rein in the mounting federal deficit. But he added that time after time in talks he held with congressional figures in both parties, he was told little could be accomplished because of the wall of opposition from 86 conservative House Republicans.
The vice president said it seemed "like the tail is wagging the dog."
"This president came in with open arms" and said he was ready to sit down and talk, Biden said, only to be repudiated by conservative Republicans.
He denied that the White House renounced the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction commission, saying that while President Barack Obama didn't endorse the panel's findings "per se," he embraced many of the ideas contained in the report.
Biden said he wanted to take issue with "this idea that Simpson-Bowles is some kind of Holy Grail."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the differences between the GOP and Obama are "stark" and said there will have to be significant work to overcome them.
"I don't think anyone wants to pay higher taxes," he said. The Virginia Republican said that Washington needs to "get out of the mindset" that the country's problems can be solved with new programs and expensive new initiatives.
He said "small business is the backbone" of the nation, and policies that bolster small business should be pursued more aggressively.
Biden appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," "CBS This Morning" and NBC's "Today" show. Cantor was interviewed on CBS and MSNBC.
earthquakes today twilight breaking dawn trailer shaker jackie evancho wild flag wild flag stevie wonder
This catalog cover provided by J.C. Penny, shows the February, 2012 catalog. Penney said Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, that it is getting rid of the hundreds of sales it offers each year in favor of a simpler approach to pricing. On Feb. 1, the retailer is rolling out a three-tiered strategy that offers ?Every Day? low pricing daily, ?Monthly Value? discounts on select merchandise each month and clearance deals called ?Best Price? during the first and the third Friday of each month when many shoppers get paid. (AP Photo/J.C. Penney)
This catalog cover provided by J.C. Penny, shows the February, 2012 catalog. Penney said Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, that it is getting rid of the hundreds of sales it offers each year in favor of a simpler approach to pricing. On Feb. 1, the retailer is rolling out a three-tiered strategy that offers ?Every Day? low pricing daily, ?Monthly Value? discounts on select merchandise each month and clearance deals called ?Best Price? during the first and the third Friday of each month when many shoppers get paid. (AP Photo/J.C. Penney)
This product image provided by J.C. Penney, shows an advertisement for "it's best price friday" campaign. (AP Photo/J.C. Penney)
This undated photo provided by J.C. Penney, shows CEO Ron Johnson. Penney said Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, that it is getting rid of the hundreds of sales it offers each year in favor of a simpler approach to pricing. On Feb. 1, the retailer is rolling out a three-tiered strategy that offers ?Every Day? low pricing daily, ?Monthly Value? discounts on select merchandise each month and clearance deals called ?Best Price? during the first and the third Friday of each month when many shoppers get paid. (AP Photo/J.C. Penney, Barth Tillotson)
NEW YORK (AP) ? J.C. Penney is permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent so shoppers no longer have to wait for sales to get bargains.
Penney said Wednesday that it is getting rid of the hundreds of sales it offers each year in favor of a simpler approach to pricing. Starting on Feb. 1, the retailer is rolling out an "Every Day" pricing strategy with much fewer sales throughout the year.
The plan, the first major move by Apple executive Ron Johnson since he became Penney's CEO in November, is different from Wal-Mart's iconic everyday low pricing. Unlike Wal-Mart, Penney's goal isn't to undercut competitors, but rather to offer customers more predictable pricing.
"Pricing is actually a pretty simple and straightforward thing," Johnson told the Associated Press during an interview ahead of the announcement at the company's Plano, Tex. headquarters. "Customers will not pay literally a penny more than the true value of the product."
Penney's plan comes as stores are struggling to wean Americans off of the profit-busting bargains that they have come to expect in the weak economy. The move is risky, though, because shoppers who love to bargain-hunt may be turned off by the absence of sales.
"The big question on investors' minds will be: 'How customers will react to a single price point versus a perceived discount under the old strategy?'" says Citi Investment Research analyst Deborah L. Weinswig.
Here's how Penney's pricing strategy will work:
? Sale prices become everyday prices. The company will use sales data from last year to slash prices on all merchandise at least 40 percent or lower than the previous year's prices. So, a woman's St. John's Bay blouse regularly priced at $14.99 could have the "Every Day" price of $7.
? Fewer sales. The retailer will pick items to go on sale each month for a "Month-Long Value." For instance, jewelry and Valentine's Day gifts would go on sale in February, while Christmas decorations would be discounted in November. Items that don't sell well would go on clearance during the first and third Friday of every month when many Americans get paid. Those items will be tagged "Best Prices," signaling to customers that's the cheapest price.
? New tags. The retailer used to pile stickers on price tags to indicate each time an item was marked down. But now each time an item gets a new price, it gets a new tag too. A red tag indicates an "Every Day" price, a white tag a "Month-Long Value" and a blue tag a "Best Price."
? Simpler pricing. Penney will use whole figures when pricing items. In other words, you won't see jeans with a price tag of $19.99, but rather $19 or $20.
? New advertising. Ads began airing Wednesday with a shopper screaming "No" to discounts as they look in their mailboxes, a pile of coupons and big sales signs. The company also has a new spokeswoman (talk show host Ellen DeGeneres) and logo (a red outline of a box that features JCP in the corner.) And a 96-page catalog will be mailed each month to 14 million customers, along with other promotional efforts.
The strategy, unveiled at Penney's investor meeting on Wednesday, comes as the retailer tries to turn around its business. Heavy discounting has hurt department stores like Penney. The group generates an average of about $200 per square foot, less than half the $550 or $600 stores like Victoria's Secret and Lululemon make per square foot, according to John Bemis, head of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.'s retail leasing team.
But Penney has been a laggard even among department stores as its core middle-class customers have been among the hardest hit by the weak economy. It's also failed to attract younger customers even though its added hip brands like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's teen clothing collection called Olsenboye. The stores also have been by Johnson himself as "tired."
For the 11 months through December, Penney's revenue at stores opened at least a year ? an indicator of a retailer's health ? rose 0.7 percent, while competitors like Macy's Inc. rose 5.4 percent, and Kohl's was up 1.1 percent. Penney posted a loss in the third quarter and cut its fourth-quarter earnings outlook after a disappointing holiday season when it had to heavily discount to attract consumers.
The new pricing caps months of speculation about what Penney's future might look like under the leadership of Johnson, a former Target Corp executive and the mastermind behind the success at Apple Inc.'s stores.
Johnson, who joined the company's board in August, already has put his stamp on the retailer. He has tapped former colleagues at Apple and Target to join him at Penney. That includes Target's top marketing executive Michael Francis to be Penney's president.
Johnson also is borrowing from the playbook of Apple, which shuns discounting and focuses on selling products and offering services.
In December, Penney said it will have homemaker doyenne Martha Stewart develop mini-shops starting next year. And during Wednesday's meeting, Penney executives outlined plans to in the next two years add Main Street, a series of 80 to 100 brand shops in stores similar to the Martha Stewart ones. It also plans to open areas in all stores called Town Square, a place that will offer services and expert advice, similar to Apple's Genius bars.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for Penney is to sell shoppers on its new pricing. For years, Penney, like many other stores, has propped up price. The intent: to make it look like shoppers are getting great discounts when items go on sale.
Penney has been an especially big promoter. Last year, the company, which offered 590 sales events last year, nearly three-quarters of its revenue come from merchandise that was discounted by 50 percent or more.
That's more than double the retail industry average. According to an estimate by management consultant firm A.T. Kearney, a typical retailer sells between 40 and 45 percent of its inventory at a promotional price, up from 15 to 20 percent a decade ago.
The increased discounting has been a vicious cycle that only feeds into shoppers' insatiable appetite for bigger and better discounts. In fact, whereas it took 38 percent off to get shoppers to buy 10 years ago, it now takes discounts of 60 percent, Johnson says.
At Penney, the regular price on an item that costs $10 to make rose 43 percent, from $28 in 2002 to $40 in 2011. But because of all of its sales and other promotions, what it actually ended up selling for rose only 15 cents, from $15.80 to $15.95 during that same period.
"I have been struck by the extraordinary amount of promotional activity, which to me, didn't feel like it was appropriate for a department store," Johnson says. "Once you start to promote, the only way to beat a promotion was to make it bigger."
Walter Loeb, a New York-based retail consultant, says Penney's new pricing is "visionary" and revolutionary."
But Charles Grom, a retail analyst at J.P. Morgan, says it will be difficult for Johnson to change shoppers' buying habits. Macy's, for example, cut back on coupons a few years ago, only to reverse courses after sales fell.
Associated Pressdead sea scrolls new jersey nets all my children online all my children online sly and the family stone sly stone the bling ring
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama has resorted to "extremism" with stifling, anti-growth policies and has tried dividing Americans, not uniting them, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Tuesday in the formal Republican response to the president's State of the Union address.
Eight months after deciding not pursue a bid for his party's presidential nomination, Daniels used his nationally televised speech to lash out at Obama and cast the GOP as compassionate and eager to unchain the country's economic potential.
He took particular aim at Obama's efforts in recent months to raise taxes on the rich and castigate them for not contributing their fair share to the nation's burdens. He and other Republicans were hoping to take the offensive and shift the focus away from Obama's theme of fairness, which includes protecting the middle class and making sure the rich pay an equitable share of taxes.
"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, according to excerpts of his remarks released before he and Obama actually spoke. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."
Obama's address, and Daniels' speech, come at the dawn of a presidential and congressional election year in which the defining issues are the faltering economy and weak job market and the parties' clashing prescriptions for restoring both. Obama and congressional Democrats have focused on the more populist pathway of financing federal initiatives by taxing millionaires, while Republicans preach the virtues of less regulation and smaller government.
Obama was ready to describe his vision of attaining "an economy built to last," along with his emphasis on fairness. Led by Daniels, Republicans were firing back that it was their party, not Obama's, that understood the best way to trigger economic growth was to get the government out of the way.
"The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly sane pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy," Daniels said.
Obama has halted, for now, work on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to Texas' Gulf Coast. Republicans say the project would create thousands of jobs, a claim opponents say is overstated. The administration has also pursued policies aimed at reducing pollution and global warming.
Daniels said Republicans prefer "a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills."
In a riff on Obama's own theme, Daniels said, "As Republicans our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume climb up life's ladder. We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have nots. We must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves."
Even before Obama spoke, Republicans in the Capitol and on the campaign trail accused Obama of three years of higher spending, bigger government and tax increases that have left the economy stuck in a ditch.
"This election is going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies," which have worsened the economy, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The politics of envy, the politics of dividing our country is not what America is all about."
Boehner said nearly 30 House-passed bills aimed at helping the economy have stalled in the Democratic-run Senate, most of them rolling back or blocking environmental, workplace and other regulations.
He also planned a symbolic move to underscore Obama's decision on Keystone. He invited three officials from companies he said would be hurt by the pipeline's rejection to watch the speech in the House chamber as his guests, along with a Nebraska legislator who helped plan a new pipeline route through his state, where environmental concerns have been raised.
"If the president wants someone to blame for this economy, he should start with himself," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "The fact is, any CEO in America with a record like this after three years on the job would be graciously shown the door."
Obama was delivering his State of the Union address during a rowdy battle for the GOP presidential nomination that has ended up playing directly into Obama's theme of economic fairness.
That fight has called attention to the wealth of one of the top contenders, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and the low ? but legal ? effective federal income tax rate of around 15 percent that the multimillionaire has paid in the past two years. Romney, who is in Florida campaigning for that state's Jan. 31 primary, released his tax documents for the two-year period on Tuesday.
"The president's agenda sounds less like `built to last' and more like doomed to fail," Romney said in Tampa, Fla. "What he's proposing is more of the same: more taxes, more spending, and more regulation."
Romney's chief rival so far, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said in a written statement that the top question about Obama's speech was whether he "will show a willingness to put aside the extremist ideology of the far left and call for a new set of policies that could lead to dramatic private sector job creation and economic growth."
The Republican National Committee was airing a television commercial in North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan and Washington, D.C., blaming Obama for 13 million people out of work and citing the bankruptcy of California energy company Solyndra, which received more than $500 million in federally backed loans.
The ad shows an Obama interview from 2009, in which he said about the faltering economy, "If I don't have this done in three years, then this is going to be a one-term proposition," a reference to his presidency.
fire in reno kelly ripa reno wildfire reno wildfire osu osu reno news
Kim Kardashian's brief marriage to Kris Humphries has been the topic of much public ridicule, but former Beverly Hills, 90210 actress Shannen Doherty completely empathizes with the Keeping Up the Kardashians star. Doherty, 40, has experienced two short-lived marriages, and she praises Kardashian for having the strength to extricate herself from a failing relationship.
san diego chargers san diego chargers j.r. martinez snl lance ball lance ball kansas city chiefs
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Yemeni vendors sit in side their shop decorated with posters showing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the old city of Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
A Yemeni blacksmith works in his shop at al-Melh marketplace in the old city of Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? A year of Yemen's turmoil has exacerbated the number of malnourished children under the age of five to around 750,000, UNICEF said Tuesday, appealing to the government and the international community to help develop the country's infrastructure to tackle the problem.
In some parts of this country of 20 million people, the number of children suffering from malnutrition has doubled from what it was in 2000, said Maria Calivis, the UNICEF director for Middle East and North Africa.
Calivis told The Associated Press the figure crosses the "emergency threshold," an international standard calling for urgent action.
"The number itself says it's a crisis," Calivis said. "The crisis can be an invisible one because it is (mostly) outside, in remote areas."
Calivis met with the country's new prime minister and Cabinet officials who she said were "not only surprised but shocked" by the figure.
Yemen has for years experienced localized insurgencies, and the number of displaced people has increased during the year-long uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts.
According to UNICEF, 60 percent of internal refugees or, around 300,000, are Yemeni children.
Before the uprising against Saleh, Yemen was already the most impoverished country in the Arab world.
UNICEF said that in the capital of Sanaa alone, 82 schools were attacked by armed forces or groups since the beginning of protests early last year.
Yemen's Education Ministry said at least 54 schools had been occupied by military forces and militias from both the pro and anti-Saleh camps during the height of clashes.
Daily protests demanding Saleh's ouster and mounting international pressure eventually forced the president to sign a deal to pass power to his vice president. Saleh flew to Oman late Sunday in the first stop of a trip that is to eventually take him to the U.S. for medical treatment, some two months after signing the power transfer accord. He was badly burned during a June attack on his compound in Yemen.
Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has taken advantage of the political instability of the past year to increase its foothold throughout parts of the country, particularly in the south.
The militant takeover of main towns in Abyan province forced over 100,000 people to flee the violence.
Despite the political and security upheaval, Calivis said children must remain a priority for the new government.
"There are obviously many competing priorities and there will be always be in the future competing priorities, but ours is an appeal that protecting your children will also ensure security, peace and economic recovery in the long run," she said.
Separately from the violence gripping Yemen, malnutrition resulting from waterborne diseases, unsanitary conditions and little access to vitamin-rich food has put 500,000 more children in danger of dying or suffering from physical disabilities due to malnutrition.
UNICEF has vowed to spend 140 million dollars in the next four years in Yemen, but Calivis said it is "a drop in the bucket when you look at the needs."
"UNCIEF plays an important part, but it needs government commitment and international commitment in order to make a difference," she said.
___
Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy contributed to this report from Cairo.
Associated Pressmichael turner split pea soup land of the lost cleveland cavaliers cleveland cavaliers war horse k cups
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The strongest geomagnetic storm in more than six years was forecast to hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it could affect airline routes, power grids and satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center said.
A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth on Sunday, driving energized solar particles at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second), about five times faster than solar particles normally travel, the center's Terry Onsager said.
"When it hits us, it's like a big battering ram that pushes into Earth's magnetic field," Onsager said from Boulder, Colorado. "That energy causes Earth's magnetic field to fluctuate."
This energy can interfere with high frequency radio communications used by airlines to navigate close to the North Pole in flights between North America, Europe and Asia, so some routes may need to be shifted, Onsager said.
It could also affect power grids and satellite operations, the center said in a statement. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may be advised to shield themselves in specific parts of the spacecraft to avoid a heightened dose of solar radiation, Onsager said.
The space weather center said the geomagnetic storm's intensity would probably be moderate or strong, levels two and three on a five-level scale, five being the most extreme.
(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
giants game rick santorum santorum atlanta falcons new hampshire debate brandon jacobs brandon jacobs
