4B *USA TODAY — THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2015

MONEYLINE

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Boss sent a Facebook friend request

My bosswantsto keeptabs on me

51%

49%49%49%

My boss is making My boss is making My boss is making an effort to getan effort to getan effort to getto know me to know me to know me personallypersonallypersonally

Source Ultimate Software Workplace Survey of 1,005 adultsJAE YANG AND PAUL TRAP, USA TODAY

INDEX CLOSE CHANGENasdaq composite 4995.98 x 21.41Standard & Poor’s 500 2102.06 x 10.88Treas. note, 10-year yield 1.95% y 0.01Oil, lt. sweet crude, barrel $51.67 x 0.90Euro (dollars per euro) $1.0606 y 0.0034Yen per dollar 120.19 y 0.49SOURCES USA TODAY RESEARCH, MARKETWATCH.COM

uUSA MARKETS,

17,900

17,950

18,000

18,050

18,100

18,150

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVG.

98.92

9:30 a.m.17,959

4:00 p.m.18,058

FRIDAY MARKETS

NEWSMONEY

AUTOSTRAVEL

SPORTSLIFE

Pre-orders for the AppleWatch kicked o� Friday withshoppers being greeted with ship-ment dates stretching into sum-mer, a sign of strong demand forthe first major new product sinceTim Cook took over the company.

Apple began taking pre-ordersFriday at 3:01 a.m. ET. Soon after,wait times for pre-order ship-ments ranged from four to sixweeks to as late as August.

Je� Perkins, 41, of Atlanta, sayshe got up before 7 a.m. to pre-or-der the 42-millimeter watch. Itships in May. “It’s the perfectsports watch,” said Perkins, whoplans to wear it jogging, for meet-ing notifications and as a conver-sation piece. “I’ll be ‘that guy.’”

Shoppers flocked to Applestores worldwide. It o�ciallygoes on sale April 24, is availablefor pre-order online and to try

out in stores by appointment.The only way to pre-order: onlineat home or from an Apple storeterminal.

S&P Capital IQ analyst AngeloZino says, “They’re not gettingthe long lines ... but overall thestrategy (of the) online approachand spending additional timewith the consumers is a good onegiven that this is a new entry inthe category and that it’s viewedmore as a luxury item than as anecessity.”

Cook made an appearance Fri-day at Apple’s flagship store in Pa-lo Alto, Calif., saying orders are“great.”

Sales estimates for 2015 salesof the watch vary. Wall Streetanalysts estimate Apple will sellanywhere between 8 million and40 million watches. Much of thesuccess will depend on whetherApple can maintain enthusiasmfor the new product.

An hour before Apple was setto open its doors at its Fifth Ave-nue flagship store in New YorkCity, the scene was eerily quiet, aa dramatic contrast to an iPhonelaunch event there when lineslooped around the block.

About 20 people tried on thewatch Friday morning at an Ap-ple store in the Jordan CreekTown Center mall in West DesMoines, Iowa. Two police o�cersmanned the front door but therewere no long lines or big crowds.

S&P Capital IQ’s Zino says itwill take time even for Apple tosway behavior. He estimates Ap-ple will sell north of 1 millionwatches “out of the gate” and 10million in 2015. The danger, hesays, is if sales fall o� in three tosix months.

Prices range from $349 to$17,000.

Contributing: Jon Swartz in Palo Alto,Calif., Ed Baig in New York, LauraMandaro in San Francisco, Rick Nealein Brevard County, Fla., Joel Asch-brenner in Des Moines.

AppleWatchgood outof gateIt’s no iPhone launch,but pre-orders showearly, strong interestBrett Molinaand Jessica GuynnUSATODAY

ROBERT HANASHIRO, USA TODAY

“They’re notgetting the longlines (but the)strategy ... is agood one.” Angelo Zino, S&P Capital IQ

We buy insurance to protectagainst the things we fear, andwe’re more likely to buy insur-ance if we’ve experienced thosethings. If your home has beenburgled, you’re more likely toget theft insurance. If you’vedriven with your sister, you’remore likely to get life insurance.

And if you lived through the1970s, you probably want infla-tion insurance, as well as insur-ance against anyone puttingyour prom pictures on Face-book. Consumer prices soaredan average 7.4% a year from1970 to 1979, scarring an entiregeneration.

The consumer price index

has gained just 2% a yearthe past decade, and cen-tral bankers are moreworried about fallingprices than they are risingones. But anyone who has livedthrough the 1970s probablyfeels the need for a bit of infla-tion insurance. So today we’lltalk about the warning signs ofrunaway inflation and which in-vestments help when pricesrise.

The consumer price index,the government’s main gauge ofinflation, hasn’t risen a speck inthe 12 months ended February,according to the Bureau of La-bor Statistics. That’s largely be-cause of oil and gas prices. Theaverage price of a gallon of gashas fallen to $2.40 from $3.60 ayear ago, according to AAA.

If you take out food and ener-gy, inflation has risen 1.7%, theBLS says. Now, you may dis-agree with that, because someitems near and dear to yourwallet have risen more. But ifyou’re an investor, your per-sonal rate of inflation doesn’tmatter one bit. Your invest-

ments will only react tosome third-party measure,and in most cases, thatwill be the CPI.

What are the earlywarning signs of inflation?

uStrong economicgrowth. A roaring economy in-creases demand, which putspressure on prices. U.S. grossdomestic product rose at a lack-luster 2.2% in the fourth quar-ter of 2014, down from 5% inthe third. “GDP above 3%should get increased demand,”says Gemma Wright-Casparius,principal, senior portfolio man-ager and head of the Treasury/Inflation team at Vanguard.

uRising commodityprices. Oil, of course, is one ofthe big warning signs, becauseit’s so vital to modern life. Cop-per, once called the metal withthe Ph.D. in inflation, is downsharply from its 2011 highs, al-though it has rallied this year. “Idon’t see commodity prices go-ing through the roof as long asChina’s economy is slowing,”

Don’t fear inflation:Prepare for it insteadFor those left scarredby it, hedges can help

v STORY CONTINUES ON 5B

John Waggonerjwaggoner@usatoday.comUSA TODAY

INVESTINGEVERYSATURDAY

General Electric said Friday itis selling the bulk of its GE Cap-ital business in its latest attemptto simplify the conglomerateand concentrate on the best-performing segments.

GE kicked o� the announce-ment with the sale of its real es-tate assets — a hodgepodge offactories, commercial loans andapartment complexes — for$26.5 billion.

The news boosted GE stock,jumping 10.8% to $28.51 as WallStreet applauded the move asevidence the company is gettingserious about its strategic shiftaway from financials and backto manufacturing.

“We needed to see that man-agement was serious about exit-ing this part of the business —leaving behind the old GE andmoving forward,” said BarbaraNoverini at Morningstar.

Shareholders also welcomedthe plan because it will returnmoney to investors. The compa-ny’s board has already autho-rized a new buyback program of

up to $50 billion, and GE said itwill return up to $90 billion toinvestors in the form of buy-backs and dividends by 2018.

In a letter to shareholders OnFriday, GE CEO Je� Immeltannounced plans to whittledown GE Capital — a legacy ofGE’s former and sometimescontroversial CEO Jack Welch.It’s “a big change forGE,” but, “right for thecompany,” he wrote.

“Creating a simplerGE will position us todeliver superior out-comes around our corecapabilities,” he said.

Welch also said hesupports the plan, call-ing it “a smart moveand right for the chang-ing financial landscape,”according to a statement.

The conglomerate, with amarket value of $259 billion,has been slowly selling o� itsmedia, financial and appliancesassets and doubling down on itsindustrial manufacturing busi-ness to simplify and boost thestock price, which is down 16%since 2000, the year Immelttook charge from Welch.

GE, which was founded byThomas Alva Edison in 1876,sold news and entertainmentcompany NBCUniversal in 2011,for example. And last year, GECapital spun o� its private labelcredit card company, SynchronyFinancial, in an initial public of-fering that raised $2.9 billion.

The financial side of the busi-ness has been weigh-ing on the stock due torisks in the businessexposed during the fi-nancial crisis, as wellas the greater regula-tory burden it has car-ried since themortgage meltdown.

As part of the exit,GE will seek to get ridof GE Capital’s desig-nation as a Systemical-

ly Important FinancialInstitution, a title that places itunder enhanced governmentscrutiny.

In addition to real estate, GEwill also sell the bulk of its com-mercial lending business, itsleasing segment and all con-sumer platforms, including allU.S. and international bankingassets.

GE A VERY DIVERSE COMPANY

General Electric is selling most of its GE Capital lending businesses to focus on its industrial manufacturing business. The company currently is composed of 8 different business sectors.

2014 revenue by sector

SOURCE: General Electric

Power and water 18%

Oiland gas 12%

Energy management 5%

Aviation 16%

Health care 12%

GE Capital 28%

Appliances 5%

4%Transportation

Kaja WhitehouseUSA TODAY

GE gets back to itsindustrial roots

AFP/GETTY IMAGESJe� Immelt

IN THE NEWSBIG PAYDAYS

CAROL KLINOBrian Roberts

AFP/GETTY IMAGESLloyd Blankfein

Goldman Sachs CEO LloydBlankfein only saw his compen-sation rise 4.3% in 2014, but thatstill enabled him to take home$24 million in 2014. His bonusjumped 16% to $7.3 million andthe value of his stock award rose12% to $12.5 million. ComcastCEO Brian Roberts also had avery good year. With the valueof his pension and deferredcompensation jumping nearly$6.5 million, his overall comprose 5% to nearly $33 million.

76,242 Number of2014 Rogue

crossovers that Nissan is recall-ing to fix a problem that couldcause the engine to stall or notstart. Over time, the nickel plat-ing on the vehicle’s fuel pumpcan come loose, Nissan said in afiling with the National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration.BMW also is recalling 18,054 2, 3and 4 Series cars from the samemodel year for the same reason.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

WIECK

GETTY IMAGES

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING:GAS AT $2.35 THIS SUMMERWith crude oil prices likely toremain low for the rest of 2015,U.S. drivers could see the lowestsummer gasoline prices in thepast decade. GasBuddy.comexpects the average cost ofgasoline to be $2.35 a gallon,says senior petroleum analystPatrick DeHaan. Gas currentlyaverages $2.40 a gallon, 33%cheaper than year-ago levels.

As Wednesday’s deadline ap-proaches, the IRS reports it hasprocessed 77.2 million refundsfor the 2014 tax season throughApril 4, averaging $2,815 — a0.8% increase. About 66.2 millionrefunds were delivered via directdeposit, up 1.3% from a yearearlier. Average direct depositrefund: $2,979, up 1.9%.

DONE YOUR TAXES YET?