The Markets April 4, 2007

M is For Macy’s

Looks like Bill Gates will have to 'shop around.'
Reported by
It had long been rumored that the New York Stock Exchange was holding “M’ in reserve for the day when Microsoft moved its listing from the NASDAQ to the Big Board. However, last week retailer Federated Department Stores said it plans to adopt “M” as its trading symbol when shareholders approve its proposed name change to Macy’s Inc.
Now the symbol “M”, which has been unused since 1989, when it represented Texas bank holding company M Corp. (which went under that year) will be associated with the Macy’s name.
Name Change
Federated management originally planned to ask shareholders to change the name to Macy’s Group, but shortened that to Macy’s Inc. when it found it could have the coveted single-letter stock symbol (90% of the retailer’s business reportedly now comes via the Macy’s brand).
Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the name change on May 18 and the stock symbol change would go into effect on June 1.
What’s Left?
Oh – while there are just 26 single-letter tickers to choose from, several are still available:
G, I, J, L, N, P, U, V, W, and Z.
Still “Single”
A – Agilent Technologies
E – Eni
M – Macy’s
S – Sprint Nextel
B – Barnes Group
F – Ford Motor
O – Realty Income
T – AT&T
C – Citigroup
H – Realogy
Q – Qwest Communications
X – U.S. Steel
D – Dominion Resources
K – Kellogg
R – Ryder System
Y – Alleghany
Products April 3, 2007

AXA Distributors Launches Retirement Savings Campaign

AXA Distributors is launching a new advertising campaign in an effort to help advisers who sell annuities spur interest in retirement savings among their clients.
Reported by

The marketing campaign includes education materials, free coffee and television spots featuring an 800-pound gorilla. The television campaign will use the 800-pound gorilla, a metaphor for retirement (something that’s on everyone’s mind, but nobody talks about) featured in AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co.’s campaign to try and reach financial professionals.

AXA Distributors has developed materials to help consumers examine potential sources of retirement income, including:

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  • mutual funds,
  • individual retirement accounts,
  • pension plans,
  • Social Security, or
  • full-time or part-time employment and other options.

The adviser representatives will then work with consumers to figure out their retirement expenses and how to use financial strategies to close any gap that might exist between income and expenses.

According to a survey by AXA Distributors, less than half of U.S. workers age 55 and up have any idea how much income they will have in retirement and only 26% of people began planning for their retirement between the ages of 45-54, while 32% didn’t start planning until they were 55 or older.

To initiate conversation, AXA Distributors’ Wake Up! campaign offers to buy their annuity product representatives and their clients coffee gift cards.

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