Financial thoughts

Millions of jobless Americans are getting their unemployment benefits back.

Hours after the House voted Thursday to push back the deadline to file for extended unemployment benefits until the end of November, President Obama signed the measure into law.

The approval came a day after the Senate voted 59 to 39 to restore the payments, ending a seven-week stalemate.

Some 2.9 million people were scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of the week. The jobless stopped getting their checks in early June, after Congress failed to extend the deadline to apply for unemployment insurance.

Senate Republicans, as well as Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, prevented the legislation’s passage, saying it should be paid for first. They suggested covering the $34 billion tab with unused stimulus money, a step the Senate Democratic leadership rejected.

Federal unemployment payments, which last up to 73 weeks, kick in after the state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. These federal benefits are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier Online payday loans.

The payments will be retroactive to the previous deadline of June 2. But it could take up to a month for states to start sending the checks again, experts said.

Lynda Kahn of Coral Springs, Fla., can’t wait to get that check. She stopped getting benefits last week and applied for Medicaid, only to be turned down because she doesn’t have dependent children. But she did get a supermarket gift card from a local charity to supplement her $200 a month food stamp allotment.

Kahn depends on her unemployment check, which was $275 a week plus a $25 stimulus-funded supplement that will be discontinued for those newly unemployed. She lost her job as a manager for a doctor’s office last August.

"It covers my mortgage payment," she said. 

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Sensor technology developed by Southwest Research Institute has been named one of the 100 most significant technological achievements by R&D Magazine.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) created an underwater cave-mapping sensor that has the capability of traveling down a cave to gauge the path, dimensions and morphology of the tunnel. SwRI officials say these remote neutrally buoyant sensors work by injecting a dye in the water that can be used to determine the path and travel time of water through caves. The sensors are designed to float through the cave or conduit to measure the path by using an array of ultrasound sensors.

Local scientists say cave diving is extremely dangerous and is limited to large passageways, relatively shallow caves and limited distances.

“The information captured from these sensors is critically important for water-resource management and geotechnical risk assessment,” says Ronald Green, a scientist in the geosciences and engineering division at SwRI and a principal developer of the sensor paperless payday loans. “Adequate management of karst aquifers requires knowledge of water flow through caves and conduits, including location, size and morphology of the complex interconnected voids.”

SwRI officials say there could be applications in pipelines or sanitary sewers. Also, there could be future applications in flooded underground mines, tunnels or conduits that are not safe for manned entry.

San Antonio-based SwRI is an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization. It has more than 3,200 employees and an annual research volume of more than $564 million. The institute has won 35 R&D 100 Awards since 1971. SwRI will accept its 2010 R&D Award Nov. 11 in Orlando.

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U.S. stocks were set for a lower open Tuesday, ahead of another batch of corporate earnings.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were all down ahead of the opening bell.

Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Stocks ended Monday’s session with gains, although economic worries tempered positive earnings results.

"Earnings are a mixed picture right now, and people are still trying to determine whether we are seeing signs of the economy recovering," said Derek Hoffman, founder of The Wall Street Cheat Sheet. "There’s a lot of uncertainty, so investors are sitting on the sidelines and buying into companies based on these earnings, and that’s really what is moving the market from day to day."

Earnings: Companies due to report their results Tuesday include Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and tech heavyweights Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

After U.S. markets closed Monday, IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) posted a jump in second-quarter earnings, but the tech bellwether’s sales fell short of estimates.

Economy: A reading on housing starts and building permits from the Department of Commerce comes out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect permits to have edged down to an annual rate of 572,000 in June from 574,000 in the previous month, while housing starts are forecast to have dropped to a 575,000 rate from 593,000.

A state unemployment report from the Department of Labor is due out at 10 a.m. ET.

World markets: European shares were lower in midday trading. The FTSE 100 in Britain lost 0.5%, France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.1% and Germany’s DAX fell 0.9%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite rallied 2.2% but Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 1.2%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.9%.

Dollar and commodities: The dollar was up against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

U.S. light crude oil for August delivery edged down 2 cents to $76.52 a barrel.

COMEX gold’s August contract fell $2.60 to $1,179.30 per ounce.

Bonds: Treasury prices rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 2.95% from 2.96% late Monday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

How much of a hit did you take in the recent correction? Are you worried about a bear market? What changes have you made in your portfolio and what changes do you plan on making for the rest of the year? E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be featured in an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

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Community Bank of the Bay raised more than $7.7 million and added five directors to its board.

The Oakland bank, which expanded into Danville and San Jose in recent months, raised the money from local residents, primarily in the bank’s new markets in the greater Bay Area. CEO Brian Garrett didn’t mince words in discussing the challenge community banks face in raising money today.

“It was a herculean effort to raise capital in this environment,” Garrett said. “Most of the capital came from the new markets we have entered. This is a confirmation of the reputation of the bankers who have joined us from these markets.”

The new board members are William Purcell, president of Walnut Creek-based Purcell International, a food importer and brokerage; Dr. Eddie Cheung, a clinical professor at the U.C. Davis School of Medicine; Gunter Unruh, president and owner of Metric Design and Manufacturing in Campbell; Arthur Lund, an attorney with the San Jose law firm Hoge Fenton Jones and Appel and a former director of Greater Bay Bancorp, now part of Wells Fargo; (NYSE: WFC) Tracey Enfantino, general manager of Environmental Systems Inc no faxing payday loans. and a founder of Heritage Bank of Commerce, (NASDAQ: HTBK) serving on that bank’s board from 1994 to 2003.

Community Bank of the Bay (OTC BB: CBYAA.OB) plans to use the new capital to boost lending.

“We anticipate that the additional capital will be used to increase lending to small and medium-sized businesses,” said William Keller, president and chief operating officer of the bank.

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New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has died, Bay News 9 is reporting.

The 80-year-old Steinbrenner had been the owner of the New York Yankees since 1973. During that time, the Yankees won 11 pennants and seven World Series titles. Steinbrenner is also known for his philanthropy in the Tampa Bay area paydayloans.

Earlier Tuesday Bay News 9 reported that Tampa Fire Rescue responded to a call at Steinbrenner's house and that someone was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital.

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North Carolina corporate boards have fewer women and minority members than those of the Fortune 100, a fact that hasn’t escaped the notice of state Treasurer Janet Cowell.

As a remedy, Cowell is encouraging lawmakers, business executives and minority leaders to participate in the Director Diversity Initiative, DDI, at the University of North Carolina School of Law.

It’s a joint project of the Center for Banking and Finance and the Center for Civil Rights at UNC Law.

According to a recent survey conducted by the school, female members, in 2009, held 12 percent of NC board seats and minority members 7.1 percent of seats.

By contrast, woman accounted for 17.6 percent of Fortune 100 boards (in a 2006 study) and minorities, 15 pay day advance.4 percent.

North Carolina’s population is 51 percent female and 32 percent minority according 2008 census data.

Cowell says women currently make up 25 percent, and minorities 18 percent, of the various pension system boards and commissions she manages.

“The Department of State Treasurer continues efforts to diversify our own boards,” says Cowell. “Additionally, as institutional investors, we are encouraging North Carolina corporations to have boards that match the diversity of our state.”

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AirTran Airways reported that passenger traffic grew by 7.4 percent for June and 7.9 percent for the second quarter of 2010, both up from the year-ago periods.

The Orlando-based airline’s traffic and load factor — how full its planes were — represent new all-time records for the month of June and the second quarter, according to an AirTran release. June traffic grew by 7.4 percent to more than 1.8 billion revenue passenger miles. The company’s load factor for the month was 86.4 percent.

For the second quarter, traffic grew by 7 payday loans guaranteed no fax.9 percent to more than 5.2 billion revenue passenger miles, and the airline’s load factor was 83.1 percent.

Enplaned passengers also represent a new second-quarter company record. The airline enplaned more than 6.5 million passengers, a 5.3 percent increase from the second quarter of 2009.

AirTran Airways is a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AAI) and a Fortune 1000 company.

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Hawker Beechcraft Corp. has sent out 130 layoff notices, according to paperwork filed with the Kansas Department of Commerce.

Shelly Thompson, adult services coordinator with the department, says the state received the paperwork Friday, but that it was dated Thursday. That means, she says, the 60-day notices will take effect August 31 cash advance flexible payments.

Hawker spokesperson Nicole Alexander confirmed that WARN notices had gone out to hourly employees, but said the company would not offer further details.

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Comedian Chris Rock, hard-edge rockers Nine Inch Nails and alternative pop band Maroon Five have joined the list of artists boycotting Arizona over its new immigration law.

The three were added to the list of boycotting artists compiled by a group called the Sound Strike (www.thesoundstrike.net).

Vocalist Ben Harper and alternative band Throwing Muses also joined the Arizona boycott. Sound Strike was formed in May by Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha in protest of Arizona’s immigration law, which gives police more authority to question detain suspected illegal immigrants empire payday loans.

Cypress Hill, Kanye West and Rise Against already previously announced boycotts. Critics of the law say it unfairly targets Hispanics. Supporters, including Gov. Jan Brewer, say it will help police combat Mexican drug cartels and smugglers.

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