LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas ranked 9th in bankless residents
Arkansas ranks ninth among states with the highest percentage of unbanked residents, according to a nationwide survey.
More than 10 percent of Arkansas households are unbanked and another 22 percent are underbanked, according to the survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released earlier this month. Information on the survey appears in the current issue of the Arkansas State Bank Department’s newsletter.
Households were identified as unbanked if no one in the house has a checking or savings account. Those underbanked were defined as having a checking or savings account, but relying on alternative financing such as nonbank money orders or check-cashing services, payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, or pawnshops.
Mississippi had the highest percentage of unbanked households at 16.4 percent, followed by Georgia, Kentucky, Texas and Alabama, according to the survey.
Christmas sales lift Apple stock to record
Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone and Macintosh computer, climbed to a record $211.61 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday after a report that sales of its devices surged during the Christmas shopping season.
Apple rose $2.57, or 1.2 percent, marking the sixth straight day of increases.
The shares have more than doubled this year, compared with a 61 percent rise for the Standard & Poor’s 500 information technology index.
Software downloads for Apple’s iPod Touch media player grew more than 1,000 percent on Christmas Day, signaling that sales of the media player jumped during the shopping season, according to research firm Flurry Inc.
Arkansas Index drops 0.25 as 8 stocks fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 0.25 to 169.93 on Monday.
“The major U. S. stock market indexes managed to hold onto gains despite news that al-Qaida claimed responsibility for last week’s attempted airplane bombing and that the Federal Reserve announced a program for removing liquidity from the banking system,” said Chris Harkins, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index fell as 10 stocks moved higher and eight declined.”
Windstream, Dillard’s and Acxiom hit 52-week highs Monday, Harkins said.
Volume was 16.7 million shares, compared with average volume of 27.3 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 25 on 12/29/2009