Stocks: Chipper after the long weekend

Click on chart to track premarkets

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher ahead of another round of quarterly earnings.

Kimberly-Clark (KMB, Fortune 500), a producer of consumer products including Kleenex, reported a loss that was smaller than the loss reported a year ago. The CEO blamed "cost inflation."

Toy company Hasbro (HAS) and energy producer Halliburton (HAL, Fortune 500) reported gains in net income, after reporting losses a year earlier.

Netflix (NFLX) will be reporting after the market closes. The stock has been one of Wall Street's big momentum plays and the top performer in the S&P 500 last year, with an incredible 269% rise. But tech stocks have been volatile over the past several weeks, and Netflix shares are down 6% this year.

Related: Fear & Greed Index gripped by fear

There are many other big earnings announcements set for later in the week. McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Facebook (FB, Fortune 500) will all be reporting.

But it's a slower week for economic data releases, with none set for Monday. The latest existing home sales report will be released on Tuesday.

Related: Here's what to expect this week in the stock market

All the major European markets were closed Monday for the Easter holiday.

Some Asian markets were open, but they weren't moving in unison. The Shanghai Composite index fell by 1.5% -- but other major indexes were little changed.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 5:15 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Second General Motors recall delayed by years

GM CEO Mary Barra recently faced questions on Capitol Hill about the automaker's delayed recall for an ignition switch flaw.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The first involved long delays in initiating a recall tied to defective ignition switches that could shut off a car's power while driving. General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) knew of the problem in 2004, but the recall that now totals 2.6 million cars was announced only this past February.

A second recall, announced in late March, involved problems with power steering and affected 1.3 million U.S. vehicles, including Saturn Ions from model years 2004 to 2007. Twelve accidents have been tied to the defect, though no deaths.

The first report of a Saturn Ion power steering issue was sent to the government's National Highway Traffic Safety Agency in June 2004.

Newly-released documents show NHTSA opened an investigation into the problem in September 2011.

The documents reveal thousands of customer reports of power steering issues: nearly 4,800 complaints and over 30,000 warranty claims.

It wasn't clear why the Saturn Ion vehicles were not included in a 2010 power steering recall of about 1 million GM vehicles. The documents show GM told regulators the power steering system in the Ions is the same as in those recalled vehicles.

Related: GM will ask court to halt lawsuits

A GM spokesman declined to provide additional comment, pointing CNN and the Associated Press, which first reported the new documents, to GM's statement in March announcing the power steering recall. "With these safety recalls and lifetime warranties, we are going after every car that might have this problem, and we are going to make it right," the automaker's vice president for vehicle safety, Jeff Boyer, said, adding past efforts had not been enough.

NHTSA said that when GM announced the recall, it "was actively working to bring this investigation to a resolution." The statement also touted the agency's safety efforts that contributed to bring "vehicle fatalities to historic, all-time lows."

The loss of power steering increases crash risk, although the vehicle can still be steered manually, NHTSA said. GM identified three possible causes, including faults with the power steering motor.

--CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report

First Published: April 21, 2014: 11:21 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Many recalled GM cars won't be repaired

Many of the recalled GM cars will never get repaired according to experts.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

That's because roughly a third of all vehicles recalled by automakers are never brought to dealers.

Experts say there are many reasons that people don't take advantage of free repairs for their cars. Many people believe the notices are junk mail solicitations from the automakers. Others minimize the safety risk, having never seen the problem prompting the recall. Still others can't give up their car for the time it takes to make a repair.

And there are two reasons that suggest more owners than average won't get the repairs done in this recall. Older model cars -- such as the ones involved -- are likely to have had multiple owners, making it more difficult for automakers to track down the current owners. And when the dealer or brand has gone out of business, as is the case with the Pontiac and Saturn cars, owners are sometimes not aware that they can go to any GM dealership.

GM says it gets more of its recalled cars to the shop than the industry-wide average. Spokesman Alan Adler said 80% of recalled GM vehicles are repaired within a year, and 85% are fixed within two years.

Related: GM - Steps to a recall nightmare

But even with higher fix rates, there will be a significant number of cars on the road with an ignition switch that can shut off and cause the airbag, power steering and anti-lock brakes to fail.

"You can't look at the percentages, you have to look at total number of vehicles," said Chris Basso, a spokesman of CarFax, the service that tracks accidents and repairs done to cars. "If they get to 90%, that would be great, but that would still leave more than 250,000 on the road."

The publicity in this case might not be enough to get a higher completion rate. In one of the most famous recalls in history -- the Ford Pinto that was at risk of an exploding gas tank -- only 52% of cars were brought in for the free repair, according to Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.

"That was the completion rate on a defect that everyone knew was horrible, so I doubt you'll get more than 52% on this one," he said.

Related: The car GM never wanted to build

The problem is not limited to GM or to this recall, Basso said. CarFax has done analysis that shows 36 million cars now on the road, or roughly one in seven, are subject to a safety-related recall but have never been repaired. CarFax has a free service at recall.carfax.com that allows owners to plug in their VIN number to see if there are any unaddressed recalls on their cars.

Ditlow said there is more that can be done to get the recalled cars in for repairs, including not letting a car pass state inspection or even be registered for a new year if there is an open recall. At the minimum, he says no car should be able to be sold without a recall being addressed.

"There's a lot of ways we can do better," he said.

Related: Cool cars from NY auto show

But there are few laws that require owners to bring a car in for a recall and none that require a car seller, even a dealership, to disclose or comply with a recall.

CarFax estimates that 3.5 million online car sale listings in 2013 were for vehicles with unaddressed recalls in place. At the very least, used car buyers should be checking for recalls before they buy, said Basso.

"Everybody needs to take responsibility to look for open recalls and then fix them," he said. "In almost every case, it's free to get them fixed."

First Published: April 21, 2014: 6:55 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Americans still don't trust the stock market

Despite a big rally, small investors remain skeptical of Wall Street.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The survey of over 1,000 households by Bankrate.com showed that 73% are "not more inclined to invest in stocks."

It was the third year in a row that individual investors expressed a negative view of the stock market.

The survey suggests that average Americans remain wary of Wall Street even though stocks have been in a bull market for more than five years.

After bottoming in 2009, the S&P 500 has more than doubled in value.

Individual investors have a history of buying stocks when prices are high selling when the market falls, often resulting in losses.

But they seem to be avoiding that fate this time around by not buying stocks at all, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

Related: Wealthy investors flock to fine art funds

The difference this time is that individual investors have experienced two major downturns in the past decade. First there was the technology bubble in 2000, then the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008.

"A lot of individual investors got burned twice and as a result they swore off investing in equities," said McBride.

Instead, he said small investors have been "hunkering down" in more conservative investments, such as bonds and cash, which have returned next to nothing in the past few years.

Data on how much money is flowing into and out of mutual funds reflects this cautious approach. While investors began adding exposure to stocks in the first quarter of 2013, the flow of money into equity mutual funds has since tapered off.

But this strategy is even more risky than investing in stocks for investors saving for retirement, according to McBride.

Related: The real economy is finally doing better than the money economy

"Individual investors are jeopardizing their long-term financial stability over concerns about short-term volatility," he said.

He said the number one risk for investors over the long run is not market volatility but inflation, which severely erodes the value of fixed income assets like bonds.

While stocks are prone to boom and bust cycles, experts say a well balanced portfolio is the best way to grow wealth over a long period of time.

"Investing over period of years in diverse portfolio is the pathway to financial stability," said McBride.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 7:03 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Medicare vs. private insurance: Which costs less

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Medicare has the bad rap of being a big, bloated government program, but it's not because it's overpaying doctors.

CNNMoney analyzed the "allowed charges" for five common procedures, using data provided the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Truven Health Analytics, a research firm.

The differences can be stark. Private insurers allow an average of $1,226 for low-back disc surgery, while Medicare will only permit $654, for instance.

And the gap can grow wider depending on where the patient is. In New York, insurers allow $1,352 for a gall bladder removal, compared to $580 for Medicare.

Some services are more comparable. For office visits by established patients, for instance, Medicare will allow 92% of what insurers do.

Overall, Medicare's allowed charges are roughly 80% of the charges allowed by private insurers - about the same as they have been since 1999.

Sometimes, however, the government does reimburse health care providers more. In Florida, for instance, a doctor doing a colonoscopy in his office will receive $395 for a Medicare patient, but only $342 for one covered by private insurance.

How does Medicare get away with paying less?

"Medicare doesn't negotiate rates. It sets them," said Stuart Guterman, vice president at The Commonwealth Fund, an independent health policy research group.

And doctors might be okay getting less per procedure because Medicare patients tend to need a lot of care. As a result, the total bill can add up. Nearly 4,000 doctors were paid more than $1 million from Medicare, according to data released this month.

Private insurers, meanwhile, can't cut rates that deeply or they risk a revolt by doctors, who may opt to leave the carrier.

"When you want to market your health plan, you want to say all the great doctors are in your network," said Anne Fischer, director of Truven's Center for Healthcare Analytics.

This balancing act became evident when the Obamacare exchanges launched in October. In order to keep premiums low, insurers offered plans with more limited access to doctors and hospitals. Many health care providers complained that insurers' rates for exchange plans were too low, so they opted not to participate.

Why, then, is Medicare considered bloated?

It's more about use than prices, with the government under more pressure to pay for whatever services the doctor prescribes or the patient wants, Guterman said.

Insurers, meanwhile, have more tools to limit potentially unnecessary procedures. These include pre-authorization requirements to determine whether a treatment plan is medically justified.

"Medicare spending goes up because people use it more," he said.

Related: Medicare doctors. Who gets the big bucks & for what

First Published: April 21, 2014: 8:19 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Millions slip into Obamacare 'coverage gap'

Hidalgo County, Texas (CNNMoney)

They earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, yet don't make enough to get federal subsidies to buy private insurance on an Affordable Care Act exchange.

The human toll of the coverage gap can be found all too easily in Hidalgo County, Texas, where less than half of non-senior adults had health insurance in 2012.

"If Obama did this market so we can get affordable insurance, why are we still having a lot of problems? What's going on?" asked Anna Covacevich, a 57-year-old home care provider and Hidalgo County resident who made $8,000 last year.

Related: Got Obamacare, can't find doctors

People like Covacevich were supposed to be helped by Obamacare.

The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to cover everyone with incomes up to 138% of the poverty line. But the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of the expanded federal program -- and 24 states have done just that.

Texas is one of them.

Governor Rick Perry has said Medicaid needs to be reformed to emphasize personal responsibility and that the expanded program will be too expensive.

In Texas, a childless non-disabled adult is not eligible for Medicaid, and a parent with two children is only eligible if he or she makes less than $3,737 a year.

At the same time, anyone who makes less than the poverty line ($11,490 for a single person and 23,550 for a household of four in 2013) does not qualify for an Obamacare subsidy for private insurance.

"Those people are caught in between. They're just going to stay the same. Nothing they can do," said Raquel Vargas, a Healthcare.gov application counselor at Nuestra Clinica Del Valle, a nonprofit medical clinic in the county.

One day in late March, more than half of the people Vargas met with fell into this category -- not qualifying for a subsidy but not poor enough for Medicaid.

Related: Who makes the big Medicare bucks

Nationwide, about 5 million people are in the "coverage gap," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Texas alone, the number is 1 million.

Raquel Calderon, 55, her arm in a sling after a recent injury, doesn't have insurance and falls just under the poverty line. She's paying for her treatment out of pocket. "I consider myself healthy, except for the fall."

Jose Canchola, a 50-year-old laborer who works in the onion fields, says he can't afford insurance. "I know that I need to see a doctor," he said.

Meanwhile, the uninsured continue to visit nonprofit medical clinics for their health care.

"I hope that one day everybody can receive the care that they need, and that's why we're here," said Rebecca Stocker, who runs the Hope Family Health Center, treating only uninsured individuals. "But it's scary, and it's sad to be on the front lines."

Danny Ordaz, who has 8-year-old twin boys, has never had health insurance. When his children get sick, he takes them to Reynosa, Mexico. "It's cheaper," he said.

Hospitals just south of the U.S.-Mexico border advertise medical treatments on their websites. A "basic check-up" at one hospital includes blood work, a urine analysis and chest X-rays for $160.

Covacevich, the home care provider, said she would be happy to pay something for insurance. "What I could afford would be from $70 to $100 a month. That would help me a lot," she said.

But for comprehensive coverage, that just is not an option for Covacevich, or for millions more across the country. The most affordable plan on the exchange that Covacevich found would cost her $227 a month because she does not qualify for the federal subsidy.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 10:17 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

UAW drops NLRB case to organize Volkswagen

Workers on the VW assembly line in Chattanooga.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The National Labor Relations Board was set to start a hearing Monday on the UAW's complaint that Republican politicians improperly interfered before the Feb. 14 vote at the Chattanooga, Tenn. plant, which the union lost 712 to 626.

But the union issued a statement Monday saying it was dropping its appeal because fighting the election through the NLRB could have dragged on for years.

"The UAW is ready to put February's tainted election in the rear-view mirror," said UAW President Bob King in a statement.

The union said even if the NLRB ordered a new election -- the board's only available remedy under current law -- nothing would stop politicians and anti-union organizations from again interfering.

Related: VW employees say 'No' to UAW

But some experts had suggested that the union stood little chance of winning a new vote, even if the NRLB ruled in its favor.

"Most people thought they'd win the first time around," said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University. "I think the chances of winning a second vote will be more difficult than winning the first vote."

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., one of the politicians the UAW accused of improperly interfering in the election, also claimed the union was dropping its effort because it knew it couldn't win a new vote.

"This 11th hour reversal by the UAW affirms what we have said all along -- that their objection was nothing more than a sideshow to draw attention away from their stinging loss in Chattanooga," he said.

The UAW's efforts to organize nonunion plants is seen as crucial to its long-term survival.

So far the UAW has been limited to representing plants operated by U.S. automakers General Motors, (GM, Fortune 500) Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) and Chrysler Group, as well as their suppliers. Plant closings over the last 15 years have cut into UAW membership. Meanwhile, automakers from Asia and Europe have opened more than 30 plants in the United States, and more than two-thirds of those plants are in the South.

Unlike most employers facing a union-organizing election, Volkswagen had stayed neutral on the vote. It even seemed to be encouraging workers to vote for the union, saying it hoped to set up a "works council" to improve productivity at the plant.

VW, which has German union members on its board, uses works councils at most of its plants worldwide. But U.S. labor law makes such councils difficult without an independent union in place

But Corker, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and other leading Republican elected officials suggested that if the union won the organizing election it would scare away other companies looking at opening factories in the state, where unions are relatively rare. There were even threats that the state would deny VW $300 million in tax breaks it is seeking to expand the plant if the union won the vote.

The UAW says it will ask Congress to examine the use of federal funds in the state's incentives threat.

"Frankly, Congress is a more effective venue for publicly examining the now well-documented threat," King said.

Related: Union membership at businesses grow

Chaison said it could cause problems for the UAW and other unions should the NLRB rule politicians can't weigh in on labor disputes such as organizing efforts or strikes.

"If opponents of the union can be told to refrain from interfering, friends of the union can be told the same thing," he said. "Chattanooga is an unusual place for unions to organize. Most of the places where unions would organize -- places like New York, Las Vegas or Detroit -- politicians would stand in line to support a union. That would provide ammunition to employers to object if they lost an organizing vote."

Opponents of the union say the workers decided on their own that they didn't want or need the union. Workers at the VW plant make roughly $19 an hour, compared with about $26 to $28 an hour for veteran hourly workers at the Detroit automakers, although new hires at the unionized plants are making closer to $17.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 8:37 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Nonprofits that pay top fundraisers $1 million (or more) a year

Universities led the pack among nonprofits that paid fundraisers $500,000 or more, the study found.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

When taking salary, bonuses, retirement, healthcare and other benefits into account, 29 nonprofit fundraisers earned more than $500,000 in 2011, while two executives took in more than $1 million, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy study of tax returns for nonprofit organizations for 2011, the most recent year available. More than 150 fundraisers earned $250,000 or more.

Many of them received large bonuses, which in some cases more than doubled their annual earnings.

Among the most highly paid: development directors at universities, medical research centers and hospitals, many of which are expected to spearhead increasingly ambitious fundraising campaigns with multimillion or even billion dollar goals, said Stacy Palmer, the Chronicle's editor.

At the same time, these organizations are all competing for the country's most talented fundraisers, she said.

Related: Top charity CEOs pay exceeds $1 million

"The kinds of people who oversee these ambitious [fundraising] drives are a very rare breed," she said. "Everybody says there is a shortage of people who are terrific so people will pay premium dollars."

Meanwhile, the Chronicle found that those raising money for the arts and environmental nonprofits were typically paid much less.

New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center employed two of the top five highest-paid fundraisers. The renowned cancer hospital and research center paid one executive $1.2 million in total compensation, including a $750,000 bonus, and another exec earned nearly $900,000.

Sloan Kettering received more than $300 million in private donations that year. It declined to comment.

Related: Where your donation dollars go

The second most highly paid fundraiser works at Columbia University and earned close to $1.1 million, including a $520,000 bonus, according to the study.

The university said the bonus was given after it reached a fundraising goal of $4 billion, which it said was the most ever raised by an Ivy League institution.

"It is hardly surprising that this success should be significantly reflected in her compensation for this extraordinary period for the university," Columbia President Lee Bollinger said in a statement.

The Chronicle analyzed the tax documents of nonprofits with $35 million or more in donations in 2011. In total, it examined the compensation of more than 430 people employed at 280 nonprofits.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 12:20 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks flat ahead of earnings deluge

Click for more market data.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all flat in early trading. Trading volume was anemic with many professional money managers taking the day off.

U.S. markets were closed Friday for Good Friday. European markets and some Asian markets are still closed Monday for the Easter holiday.

Corporate earnings will be the main focus this week, with 11 Dow companies and 161 of the S&P 500 scheduled to release quarterly reports.

Analysts expect overall earnings for the S&P 500 to have declined the first quarter, but results so far have been better than forecast. Of the 82 companies that have reported earnings as of last week, 66% have topped forecasts, according to Fact Set Research.

"This week should give us a better read on the earnings season," said Bill Stone, chief strategist at PNC Wealth Management.

Related: Americans still don't trust the stock market

Earnings released Monday painted a mixed picture.

Kimberly-Clark (KMB, Fortune 500), a producer of consumer products including Kleenex, reported a loss that was smaller than the loss reported a year ago. The CEO blamed "cost inflation."

Toy company Hasbro (HAS) and energy producer Halliburton (HAL, Fortune 500) reported gains in net income, after reporting losses a year earlier.

Netflix will report today after the market closes. The stock has been one of Wall Street's big momentum plays and the top performer in the S&P 500 last year, with an incredible 269% rise. But tech stocks have been volatile over the past several weeks, and Netflix shares are down 6% this year.

Related: Fear & Greed Index gripped by fear

There are many other big earnings announcements set for later in the week.GM (GM, Fortune 500), Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Stabucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) will all be reporting.

Shares of Newmont Mining (NEM, Fortune 500) rose after Bloomberg reported that it's in talks to be bought by rival gold mining company Barrick Gold Corp (ABX). The report said negotiations hit a snag over three days ago, but suggested that Barrick is willing to pay a significant premium.

Chinese social media company Weibo (WB), often compared to Twitter (TWTR), continued to rally following its initial public offering last week. The stock gained 12% in early trading to a high near $23 a share.

TransCanada (TRP), which builds pipelines and other energy infrastructure, was down 3% Monday after the U.S. again push back a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 9:46 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

$100,000 income: Three very different tax bills

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

One that stands out: People making the same money in each of those places can face very different tax bills.

CNNMoney asked the Tax Institute of H&R Block to compare the combined federal, state and local income tax bill on a gross household income of $100,000 in each of the three cities.

For a dual-earner married couple with two young children, the New York City borough of Queens would deliver the biggest tax bite at $8,719. (We had to make some assumptions about the taxpayer's situation; see them below.)

The Queens couple would pay the biggest bill largely because they would be subject to some of the highest state and local income taxes in the country.

By contrast, the same $100,000 couple in Seattle would pay the smallest total income tax bill -- just $3,286 -- because Washington has no state or local income taxes.

Related: Who pays most income taxes? People 45 and up

Queens would also be the priciest place tax-wise for childless singles making $100,000, followed by Topeka then Seattle.

But the order changes a little for everybody if one isolates just the federal tax burden.

In that case, Topeka tops the list. A family of four there could owe $4,066 to Uncle Sam versus $3,076 if they lived in Queens or $3,286 in Seattle.

Here's why: State and city income, sales and property taxes affect a person's federal tax burden because they are deductible on the federal income tax return. So the lower those taxes are, the smaller the federal tax deduction and the bigger a person's federal tax bill.

Home prices, too, play a role since they determine how big a mortgage one needs and how large one's federal mortgage interest deduction will be.

A key reason why Topeka takes the No. 1 spot among the three cities in terms of the federal income tax burden is because residents there are likely to pay less in mortgage interest and property taxes than they would in either Queens or Seattle.

This story is part of a CNNMoney series exploring Americans' real tax burden. We'd love to hear how you feel about yours at #YourEconomy.

First Published: April 21, 2014: 6:58 AM ET

23.11 | 0 komentar | Read More