Icahn urges Apple to buy back more shares
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn said Apple Inc.'s shares could double in value and urged the company's board to buy back more shares using its $133 billion cash pile. "We believe Apple is dramatically undervalued in today's market, and the more shares repurchased now, the more each remaining shareholder will benefit," Icahn said in a letter to Apple's board. Icahn, who pledged to keep his own stock out of any repurchase, said Apple stock should be trading at $203. In an interview Thursday on CNBC, Icahn urged Apple to buy back as much as $100 billion in stock and said he hoped other investors would also press for a buyback. Apple shares rose less than 1 percent to close Thursday at $101.02.
Initial jobless claims dipped last week
Slightly fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, pushing the average number of applications in the past month to an eight-year low. The Labor Department said that weekly applications fell 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 287,000 in the week ended Oct. 4. That is the fourth straight week that applications have been below 300,000, a clear sign of a job market on the mend. Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have fallen 9 percent in the past month. That suggests employers are keeping their workers, likely because they expect continued economic growth and may be contemplating more hires. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, dropped 7,250 to 287,750, the lowest level since February 2006, nearly two years before the Great Recession began.
Bank of England keeps interest rates low
With the red-hot housing market showing signs of cooling, the Bank of England voted again to keep rates at historically low levels. Britain's central bank said it would keep its benchmark interest rate at 0.5 percent, where it has been since March 2009, as officials wait to see more robust wage growth. The central bank also left unchanged a stimulus program of holding 375 billion pounds, or about $603 billion, in government bonds that it has purchased over the past five years. The Bank of England had not been expected to act, but in August, two members of the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voted to raise rates.
Wells Fargo mortgage unit to pay $5 million
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said it has reached a $5 million settlement with Wells Fargo's home mortgage unit over allegations that the lender discriminated against women who were pregnant or had recently given birth and on maternity leave. The complaints included allegations that Wells Fargo, the nation's largest provider of home loans, made loans unavailable based on sex and familial status or forced female applicants to end their maternity leave and return to work before closing on their loan. HUD said Wells Fargo will distribute a total of $165,000 among six families who filed complaints, create a fund of at least $3.5 million to compensate Wells Fargo applicants claiming discrimination in the loan process, and pay 175 other claimants $20,000 each.
Sony launches new, waterproof smartphone
Sony is launching its new Xperia Z3 waterproof smartphone through Verizon and T-Mobile. The phones are hitting U.S. stores on the heels of their unveiling last month at a trade show in Berlin, as Sony ramps up efforts to expand its tiny market share by getting to the American market faster. Its Xperia Z1 phone took months to arrive, by which time it felt old. Sony never found a U.S. wireless carrier for the Z2 this spring. The Verizon phone comes out Oct. 23, just a month after Apple's new iPhones and a week after the Oct. 17 release of Samsung's new Galaxy Note 4. A release date for the T-Mobile version hasn't been announced.
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