Stock indexes close higher as Federal Reserve meets

The stock market is closing broadly higher as investors await the results of a key meeting by the Federal Reserve.

All 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose Tuesday, led by health care, utilities and energy companies.

The Dow rose 100 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 17,131. The S&P 500 climbed 14 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,998. The Nasdaq rose 33 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,552.

Corinthian Colleges sued over private student loans

Corinthian Colleges is being sued by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for what it calls a “predatory lending scheme.”

The CFPB is seeking more than $500 million for borrowers who used the for-profit education company’s private student loans. Corinthian charged as much as $75,000 for a bachelor’s degree and pushed students into private loans with interest rates of roughly 15 percent, more than double the rate for a federal loan, the CFPB said. More than 60 percent of Corinthian students with those loans defaulted within three years.

Department of Labor sends surveys on job training

Maine officials want to know which jobs businesses have a hard time filling. The Department of Labor’s Center for Workforce Research and Information is sending a survey to 3,500 Maine businesses this month. Officials hope the results will help the department tailor its worker training programs to ensure Mainers have the skills they need to get open jobs. Employers are being asked about job openings this month and whether the positions are tough to fill.

UPS hiring up to 95,000 for busy holiday season

UPS plans to hire up to 95,000 workers to help deliver packages during the busy holiday season – an increase from last year, when the company was caught unprepared for a boom in online shopping.

Last year, UPS underestimated the surge in deliveries during the holiday shipping season. UPS originally planned to hire 55,000 seasonal workers but wound up adding 30,000 more to handle the surge in deliveries.

Natural gas companies plan to expand pipelines

Northeast Utilities and Spectra Energy Corp. have announced plans to expand natural gas access to New England and end bottlenecks that have driven up prices when demand spikes in the winter. The companies said Tuesday the $3 billion project expanding a network of pipelines is expected to begin operating in November 2018.

 

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