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Monday business briefs

Posted: Oct 8, 2012 8:34 AM by KPAX News Staff
Updated: Oct 8, 2012 9:29 AM

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Earnings season gets underway on Wall Street this week. The aluminum company, Alcoa, will kick things off on Tuesday and investors aren't overly optimistic. Analysts expect that profits at U.S. companies fell 1.5% last quarter, that would be the worst profit performance since 2009.

Five years ago this week the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high of 14,165 less than a year before the financial crisis of 2008. The Dow closed at 13,610 on Friday, up about 35 points. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ lost 13 points. Stocks finished mixed after a larger than expected drop in the unemployment rate to 7.8%, its first dip below 8% in nearly four years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Greece this week for the first time since the debt crisis began. She'll be meeting with the Greek prime minister who warns that the government will run out of money by the end of November if it doesn't receive the next part of its bailout loans. Meantime the main trade unions in Greece plan to strike in Athens this week to protest a new wave of austerity measures.

It costs more to get a higher education this year. New data shows tuition and fees at private colleges and universities rose 3.9%, but the good news, as this year's increase in private college tuition is the smallest on record.

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