Principle 1: Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure ...

This is going to be the first of a series of posts which discuss Julia Cameron?s Basic Principles of Creativity. I have printed these principles out on a sheet of white paper, and tonight (after illustrating them with pretty pictures) I am going to post one up beside my bed, and one up on my desk. I believe these principles are important first because they are true, and second because they are so open to interpretation. Each one will resonate with you differently, depending on who you are as a person and as a creator. Even if you?ve heard something a thousand times, sometimes there?s a specific wording that you?re just going to get.

So, without further ado, here is the first of Julia Cameron?s BASIC PRINCIPLES:

1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.

If you?re not a creative person, or if you?re not partaking in a ?creative career? you might disagree with this statement. First, let?s look at some definitions (courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary).

Creativity:? ?as relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something.?

Imagination: ?the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses?

Natural: ?existing in or derived from nature; not made or caused by humankind?

Energy: ?the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity?

Order: (1) the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method. (2)a particular social, political, or economic system.

Pure: not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material.

My scene study coach would love that I did this. You can learn a lot from looking words up.

What does this first sentence even mean? Creativity is the natural order of life. By ?order of life? I think that she is referring to the way the world is run. What actually causes the hierarchy between individuals? What allows one person to make $100,000 a year, while another lives in poverty? Creativity. There is a lot involved in this word.

Even if you say that you?re not creative, I believe that every single person has the ability to be creative in the field which interests them. Creative people are not restricted to jobs in the story-telling industry. You can be creative in just about every job out there: design, business, engineering, law. Creativity has to do with thinking in a different way, which will allow you to happen upon a solution that no one has ever thought of before.

The only way we can move forward is by the invention of new ideas, new products, and new systems or beliefs. It takes creativity to come up with all these things. It took creativity for Steve Jobs to come up with the idea for the Ipad. J.K. Rowling required huge stores of creativity when she wrote the ?Harry Potter? books and inspired a generation of young-adult readers. Walt Disney needed creativity when he came up with the idea for his theme parks.

Along with creativity, you must also possess the confidence to share your ideas with the world. The perseverance to say no when people try to shut you down, and an uncompromising belief in yourself which will allow you to push through (even when you feel like giving up). Creativity means demanding more out of your life, and not being content with mediocrity and living a certain way just because that?s the way the person before you lived their life. To use your imagination means to believe/see things that are not there. I want to work as an actor. There is no sure thing in my future. All I can do is use my imagination, and imagine the life I would like to have for myself. Then I must trust, and believe (with all that I have) that this imagined reality is possible for me. You must see it first. No one else will see, and they may not understand, but we do not live this life for other people. We live this life for ourselves. If this sounds selfish, I?m sorry? but it?s what I believe. You cannot help the world, if you do not first fulfill your own needs.

This is going to sound harsh, but obesity rates are rising every year. The self-help industry is worth billions of dollars. People are not happy. People are not fulfilled. This is because people are not creating. We?re told that working 9-5 for the majority of our life, saving for retirement, abandoning our dreams in favor of survival: we?re told that this is normal. IT?S NOT NORMAL! The only way you can ever be happy, is if you go after what you love. The only way to enjoy any success in your field, is to let go of control. Open yourself up to the creative powers of the universe. Quiet your mind of all the noise so that you can listen to your creative muse.

Creativity is natural in that you can?t create by thinking. Those true moments of inspiration occur when you don?t think. When you allow for magic and wonder to enter into your life. Life is supposed to be magical. Life is supposed to be amazing. You are supposed to be creative.

Life is pure creative energy. Money is not what we trade. Money is paper. It doesn?t mean anything. What we trade is ideas. That is the currency of life, and that is the currency that will fulfill you as a person. Sitting with a group of passionate people. Bouncing ideas and concepts and theories off of one another. That?s what creates abundance. This is what life is all about.

?Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.?

- Eleanor Roosevelt.

I thought this quote was a good way to end this little rant. What do you think about the first principle?

Source: http://the-positivity-project.com/2013/01/01/principle-1-creativity-is-the-natural-order-of-life-life-is-energy-pure-creative-energy/

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Countdown begins for 2013 CRE Forecast | REJournals.com

Less than three weeks remain until Illinois Real Estate Journal and the Real Estate Publishing Group put on their 11^th Annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference. The venue for this year?s event is new, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, which is located at 301 E. North Water St.

More than 1,000 people again are expected to register for the Annual Forecast Event that will feature approximately 55 industry experts speaking on a variety of topics of interest to the real estate community.

The half-day event begins with registration, continental breakfast and networking with sponsors at 7 a.m.

Kicking off the 2013 forecast will be an intimate fireside chat with Dan Ryan of Jones Lang LaSalle talking with Chris Kennedy of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises about a variety of topics, including Wolf Point, the Merchandise Mart and the role of government in the real estate development and economic development process.

The three general sessions include:

• The Big Picture in Chicago Real Estate ??A panel of the leading names in development, ownership, brokerage and capital markets ? covering all property segments ? take a closer look at the issues, trends and outlook for commercial real estate in Chicago and the suburbs.
• Legal Issues Impacting Real Estate ??A new year almost always means new laws and regulations, from lease accounting to tax rates, etc. In this panel, some of Chicago?s leading commercial real estate attorneys address the legal issues that are and will continue to impact real estate in 2013.
• Repositioning, Refocusing and Revitalizing Chicago Real Estate ? Across the area, buildings and campuses are going through complete repositioning/repurposing programs. Developers, owners and financial sources discuss the strategies behind these efforts in this session.

Following these presentations, attendees will have their choice of six different specialty topics including the downtown and suburban office markets as well as the multifamily, industrial, retail and investment markets.

The Annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference is the largest and longest running event of its kind in the industry. Last year the event attracted more than 1,050 registrants.

Registration for the event is $99. People can register by going to www.rejournals.com/conferences. Additional information is available on the website or by calling Michael Millar or Debbie DeWolf at 312-644-7800.

Other confirmed speakers include:? Shawn Mobley, Cushman & Wakefield; Andrew Davidson, MB Real Estate; Steve Schnur, Duke; Dan Arends, Colliers; Bruce Miller, Jones Lang LaSalle; Joe Cosenza, Inland; John Picchiotti, NAI Hiffman; Janet Johnson, Schiff Hardin; Michael Kurtzon, Dykema;? Marcia Owens, Edwards Wildman; Brian Liston, Liston & Tsantilis; Susanne Cannon, The Real Estate Center at DePaul University; Greg Warsak, Associated Bank; Jeff Patterson, Prime Group Realty Trust; Andy Gloor, Sterling Bay; David Stein, Steinco; Dave Liebman, OP2MIZE; Mark Goode, Venture One Real Estate; John Coleman, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank; Mark Moran, NAI Hiffman; Don Shapiro, Foresite Realty; Laura Auwerda, PNC Real Estate; George Pandaleon, Inland Institutional Capital Partners; Steve Weinstock, Marcus & Millichap; Suzanne Martinez, Avison Young; Marc Boorstein, MJ Partners; Mike Mallon, DKMallon; Scott Carr, Inland; Andy Hochberg, Next Realty; Charley Margosian III, Highland Management Associates Inc.; Christian Domin, GlenStar Properties; John Przbyla, Marcus & Millichap; Dave Trumpy, GlenStar Properties; Thomas Borow, BMO Harris; Doug Fisher, Essex Realty; and Justin Ross, Interra Realty LLC.

Tags | Chris Kennedy, Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference, Illinois Real Estate Journal, Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Real Estate Publishing Group

? 2013 Real Estate Communications Group. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from the Real Estate Publishing Group. For information on reprint or electronic pdf of this article contact Mark Menzies at 312-644-4610 or menzies@rejournals.com

Source: http://www.rejournals.com/2013/01/02/countdown-begins-for-2013-cre-forecast/

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Great Barrier Reef corals found at 410 feet

Even four times as deep as most scuba divers venture, the Great Barrier Reef ?blooms. A new exploration by a remote-operated submersible has found the reef's deepest coral yet.

The common coral Acropora is living 410 feet (125 meters) below the ocean's surface, a discovery that expedition leader Pim Bongaerts of the University of Queensland called "mind-blowing." The group had previously seen the coral living in the reef at a depth of about 200 feet (60 m).

Coral reefs are made of colonies of polyps which secret a rock-like exoskeleton. The polyps have a symbiotic relationship with algae that provide them nutrients using photosynthesis. Because this process requires light, coral reefs thrive in clear, relatively shallow water.

"The discovery shows that there are coral communities on the Great Barrier Reef existing at considerably greater depths than we could have ever imagined," Bongaerts said in a statement.

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Coral colonies
The 410-foot distance is surprising for the Great Barrier Reef, where scuba divers find stunning coral displays at depths down to 100 feet. But corals are known to live deep elsewhere. In the Gulf of Mexico, researchers have found the coral Lophelia pertusathriving 2,620 feet (799 m) down. Lophelia doesn't need sunlight to survive. In Puerto Rico, light-dependent corals survive as far down as 500 feet (150 m).

Bongaerts and his colleagues received funding from insurer the Catlin Group Limited to explore the Great Barrier Reef as part of an effort to understand how climate change is altering the oceans.

On the outer edge of the Ribbon Reefs, off the northern Great Barrier Reef, the researchers hit unusually calm seas and were able to deploy a remote-operated vehicle, or ROV, off the edge of the Australian continental shelf, where the ocean floor plummets hundreds of feet. It was a tough dive, said expedition member Paul Muir, a taxonomist from the Museum of Tropical Queensland. [ See Photos of the Deep Reef Corals ]

"With more than 250 meters of cable out to provide power and communications with the ROV, it was a real struggle to collect a specimen of one of these corals," Muir said in a statement.

The deep reef
The team persevered and brought one precious coral sample back to sea level. The specimen was Acropora , a type of coral that makes up the majority of most of the world's reefs. Typically, such corals peter out in the Great Barrier Reef above 330 feet (100 m), replaced by non-light-dependent sponges and sea fans.

"These discoveries show just how little we really know about the reef and how much more is yet to be discovered," Bongaerts said. "This poses lots of questions for us, but now we have specimens, we'll be able to analyze them much more closely and can expect our findings to reveal a far greater understanding of just what is going on to enable reef corals to survive at such extreme depths."

The Great Barrier Reef has been in decline, with half of it vanishing in the last 27 years, according to a study released in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last October. Climate change is boosting the temperature of the oceans, causing some of the damage. Another reef foe is the crown-of-thorns starfish, which eats coral. The starfish populations have exploded because of nutrient runoff from agricultural fertilizers.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50346746/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Despite deal, taxes will rise for most

WASHINGTON (AP) ? While the tax package that Congress passed New Year's Day will protect 99 percent of Americans from an income tax increase, most of them will still end up paying more federal taxes in 2013.

That's because the legislation did nothing to prevent a temporary reduction in the Social Security payroll tax from expiring. In 2012, that 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax was worth about $1,000 to a worker making $50,000 a year.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington research group, estimates that 77 percent of American households will face higher federal taxes in 2013 under the agreement negotiated between President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans. High-income families will feel the biggest tax increases, but many middle- and low-income families will pay higher taxes too.

Households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will face an average tax increase of $579 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center's analysis. Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will face an average tax increase of $822.

"For most people, it's just the payroll tax," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

The tax increases could be a lot higher. A huge package of tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush was scheduled to expire Tuesday as part of the "fiscal cliff." The Bush-era tax cuts lowered taxes for families at every income level, reduced investment taxes and the estate tax, and enhanced a number of tax credits, including a $1,000-per-child credit.

The package passed Tuesday by the Senate and House extends most the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 and married couples making less than $450,000.

Obama said the deal "protects 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small business owners from a middle-class tax hike. While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country."

The income threshold covers more than 99 percent of all households, exceeding Obama's claim, according to the Tax Policy Center. However, the increase in payroll taxes will hit nearly every wage earner.

Social Security is financed by a 12.4 percent tax on wages up to $113,700, with employers paying half and workers paying the other half. Obama and Congress reduced the share paid by workers from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for 2011 and 2012, saving a typical family about $1,000 a year.

Obama pushed hard to enact the payroll tax cut for 2011 and to extend it through 2012. But it was never fully embraced by either party, and this time around, there was general agreement to let it expire.

The new tax package would increase the income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for married couples. Investment taxes would increase for people who fall in the new top tax bracket.

High-income families will also pay higher taxes this year as part of Obama's 2010 health care law. As part of that law, a new 3.8 percent tax is being imposed on investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.

Together, the new tax package and Obama's health care law will produce significant tax increases for many high-income families.

For 2013, households making between $500,000 and $1 million would get an average tax increase of $14,812, according to the Tax Policy Center analysis. Households making more than $1 million would get an average tax increase of $170,341.

"If you're rich, you're almost certain to get a big tax increase," Williams said.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/despite-deal-taxes-rise-most-americans-080605126--finance.html

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Document business realities, performance criteria that led to job ...

During tough economic times, businesses often have to cut labor budgets and eliminate positions. Smart employers make sure they document that process with facts and figures?just in case an affected employee decides to sue and tries to parlay a few stray, insensitive comments into the ?real? reason she lost her job.

With clear business reasons to counter suddenly remembered slights, those random comments won?t sink you in court.

Recent case: Kelley, who is black, was in a management training program with Otis Elevator Co. She frequently ranked near the bottom of her class in the training program and missed sales targets.

When the economy didn?t improve as fast as Otis thought it would, man??agers prepared a list of employees to cut in a reduction in force. Kelley was placed on the list because of her less-than-stellar performance and the company?s need to reduce the head count in her department.

After she was terminated, Kelley sued, alleging she had worked in a racially hostile environment.

She cited two incidents, both occurring during a training program at a hotel.

In the first, Kelley ran into her supervisor as he was entering the hotel from the pool. Kelley commented that it looked like the supervisor had gotten some sun. The supervisor observed that that was a problem black people like Kelley didn?t have to worry about.

The second incident occurred when Kelley was walking down a hall with two fellow black trainees.

A supervisor commented, ?Hey, it?s the dreamgirls,? an apparent reference to the popular movie ?Dreamgirls? about the Motown group The Supremes.

Among Kelley?s other complaints: That she had been assigned to a cubicle toward the back of the office, that a supervisor called her ?Ms. Smartypants,? and referred to her as ?slob-ola? for having a messy cubicle. She also said her supervisor hadn?t invited her to lunch on her first day in the office.

In short, Kelley cited every incident she could recall that she perceived as an indignity, claimed the underlying motivation was really racism and tried to use them to prove she had been terminated because of bias.

Otis argued that none of the incidents were overtly racist. While the hotel incidents may have been mildly insensitive, the rest were just ordinary slights that shouldn?t be grounds for a lawsuit.

None, Otis argued, trumped its otherwise legitimate termination reasons. It had plenty of solid evidence that the economy meant fewer sales and created an urgent need to cut the payroll. Plus, because Kelley was the lowest performing trainee, she was the natural and logical person to cut.

The court agreed and dismissed the case. (Benson v. Otis Elevator Com??pany, No. 10-Civ-3246, SD NY, 2012)

Final note: Otis also argued that the supervisors responsible for the insensitive comments weren?t in??volved in the RIF planning and didn?t make the final termination decision. Plus, months passed between the incidents and Kelley?s termination, and she never complained about any of the slights until after she lost her job.

The court sensibly explained that not every slight is evidence that an employer discriminated and that no federal law guarantees that a supervisor won?t sometimes offend someone.

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Some simple financial resolutions for 2013

8 hrs.

Linda Stern , Reuters

WASHINGTON - Make resolutions if you must: When you vow to track every dollar and never waste money again, you feel all clean and shiny for at least a few hours into the new year.?

But that doesn't usually last. Resolutions get broken because they are too lofty and too ill-defined. It is better to break your resolutions down into a specific to do list: here are the money moves to make now and in the coming weeks that will insure you're in a better financial place before 2013 ends.?

• Analyze your entertainment budget. Television service used to be free, except for the electricity to run it. Now you have to choose cable versus satellite dish and then add on movies from a host of services (like Amazon, Hulu and Netflix)?via a host of devices (like Roku, Apple TV and internet-enabled Blu-ray players). Monthly budgets for a family run well over $100, just for television, so it's worth figuring out what you watch and how you watch it and comparison shop for the cheapest way to do that. Often, cable and satellite providers will cut you a better deal if you say you're ready to quit their service. In today's fast-shifting environment, re-do this analysis once a year at contract renewal time.?
  
• Put one savings on auto-pilot. There is nothing new or revolutionary about this particular exercise, but it works. Choose a low-cost stock mutual fund from a direct-seller like Vanguard, Fidelity Investments or T. Rowe Price. Authorize the fund to sweep a set amount out of your checking account every month. Even $100 will make a difference over time. Just ignore this fund, except to watch it build over time.
  
• Max out your credit cards -- not with borrowing, but with rewards. After five years of tight credit, card issuers are coming back at consumers with a new waves of rewards. Look at all of the cards you already have -- if you haven't paid them off, send all of your available money to the highest rate card until you kill the balances, one at a time, as quickly as possible. Then compare the rewards they pay for travel, groceries, gas and any other categories that are important to you. Check the best offers out there now at Nerd Wallet.?
  
• Refinance your mortgage. Make your move now if you expect to be in your home for at least five years. Rates hover near historic lows, and bankers are still willing to lend money for 30 years at 3.25 percent and for 15 years at 2.5 percent. Nobody can predict when rates will rise, but they aren't likely to go down. At some point over the next 10 years, those rates are likely to look excellent. Furthermore, many people who were unable to refinance before because they didn't have enough equity in their homes may get relief from recent increases in home prices. To shop for a good rate, check the listings at MortgageMarvel.com and Bankrate.com, and compare with a couple of local mortgage lenders and your own credit union.?
  
• Buy life insurance. If you have a family that depends on you, and you don't already have six times your income in term coverage, it's time to buy. Rates have been falling for more than a decade, but now that's over and some are heading back up, says Byron Udell of Accuquote.com. Furthermore, some life insurance companies are giving up on some product lines that they believe are unprofitable in today's low interest rate environment. Shop for term life at Accuquote.com, Intelliquote.com and term4sale.com, and compare rates with independent firms like Geico and -- if you have a military connection -- USAA.?
  
• Adjust your 401(k) settings. If you just let your company auto-enroll you in the program, there's a good chance you aren't saving enough. Bump up your regular contributions at least to the level your company will match, and higher if you can afford it. Authorize the company that manages your 401(k) to rebalance your assets once a year, to keep your mix of stocks and bonds where you want it to be. That will automatically have you buying lower and selling higher.?
  
• Update your resume. Many workers have been stalled at work for five years or more. But the economy is improving, so it's a good time to brush up on needed skills, rewrite your resume and start networking via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and your own personal connections. Even if you want to stay where you are, it's a good career move to stay abreast of what's going on all around.?
  
• Organize your info and look at your money. All good financial planning starts here. If you have balances on your credit cards, make a list of all of your cards, with their effective interest rates and balances. Your debt-payoff strategy will become clear. If you don't know how you spend your money, embrace a program like Quicken or an online aggregator like Mvelopes or Mint. Investing for retirement or otherwise? Find a program or system that allows you to track your investment mix and your returns on a quarterly basis. Set it up now, and your investment decisions will be made easier all year long.?
  

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/some-simple-financial-resolutions-2013-1C7782786

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Stocks turn up on hints of 'fiscal cliff' deal

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market shot higher on Monday afternoon, in the year's final hour of trading, signaling that investors believe the politicians in Washington will work out a budget compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

The Dow was up 137 to 13,075 in the late afternoon, more than 1 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite were up by more, with the Nasdaq rising nearly 2 percent.

It was a high note in what had been a choppy day for the market, as choppy as the "fiscal cliff" deal-making that has been yanking it around.

Stocks opened lower and struggled for direction in the morning. They jerked higher at midday, on reports that the bare outline of a deal to avoid the "cliff" had been knit together. Then, they lost some of those gains when President Barack Obama made an early afternoon appearance to say that a compromise was "within sight," but not finalized. Then, in the late afternoon, they shot higher.

The market's indecisiveness overlaid a day of dramatic budget negotiations in Washington. If Republicans and Democrats can't agree to a new budget deal by midnight, then higher taxes and lower government spending will automatically kick in Tuesday ? the so-called fiscal cliff.

That would hurt the economy and could even send it back into recession, many investors believe. But what might hurt more, they add, is the psychological impact of knowing that the government can't agree on a budget.

"We're having a fragile recovery, with the pain of 2008 still fresh on everybody's mind," said Joe Heider, principal at Rehmann Group outside Cleveland. "It's fear of the unknown. And fear is one of the greatest drivers of the financial markets."

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 99 points in midday trading after The Associated Press reported that Republicans and Democrats had agreed on some key aspects of a compromise budget plan. They cooled after Obama made it clear that a deal wasn't done. Then, around 2:45 p.m. EST, they started shooting higher again.

Shortly after 3 p.m. EST, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 21 to 1,423 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 57 to 3,017.

Investors' opinions about the "fiscal cliff," and how much it matters, are varied.

Some are unruffled: They're confident that politicians will work out a last-minute deal, as they often do. Or they think that even if the U.S. does go over the "cliff," it would be more akin to the anti-climactic Y2K scare than a true Armageddon. The "cliff's" impact would be felt only gradually, they reason. For example, workers might get more taxes withheld from their first couple of paychecks in the new year, but it's not as if they'd have to pay all their higher taxes up front on Tuesday. And Congress could always retroactively repeal those higher taxes.

Others are more concerned. The higher taxes and lower government spending could take more than $600 billion out of the U.S. economy and send it back into recession. Politically, the U.S. would send a message that its lawmakers can't cooperate. And investors would have no good read on the country's long-term policy for taxes and spending, or how the government plans to eventually trim its deficit.

That's made the fiscal cliff's impact on the stock market uneven. From mid-November through roughly mid-December, the stock market rose more or less steadily, despite the "cliff" looming on the horizon. It wasn't until shortly before Christmas, with still no deal in sight, that the "cliff" finally scared investors enough to send the market down.

Tim Speiss, partner in charge of the personal wealth advisers practice at EisnerAmper in New York, followed the "cliff" negotiations on Monday and wondered if the U.S. would get its debt rating cut again. The Standard & Poor's ratings agency cut its rating of the U.S. government amid similar negotiations in August 2011, when lawmakers were arguing over the government's borrowing limit. S&P said at the time that the "political brinksmanship" highlighted how "America's governance and policymaking (is) becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable." Its rating cut sent the stock market into a tailspin.

The other major ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, have suggested that they might lower their ratings of the U.S. because of the "fiscal cliff."

"That is, unfortunately, the big story," Speiss said.

It's also one of the only stories. There's been little other news to trade on during the holiday season, giving the "fiscal cliff" drama outsized influence. No major companies are scheduled to report earnings this week. The most significant economic indicator scheduled for this week, the government's monthly jobs report, won't be released until Friday.

Trading volume has also been light, with many investors still on vacation. That also makes the market more volatile: With fewer shares trading hands, it can be moved by relatively small trades.

Last week, about 2.2 billion shares traded hands each day on average. Throughout the year, the average has been closer to 3.6 billion.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.76 percent from 1.70 percent late Friday, a sign that investors were moving money into stocks.

Some of the best-performing stocks for the year were those that had been hammered in 2011. Homebuilder PulteGroup, appliance maker Whirlpool and Bank of America all more than doubled over the year, after falling by double-digit percentages in 2011.

Some of the worst performers of the year were Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard and J.C. Penney. All are struggling to keep up with competitors who have adapted more quickly to changing technologies and changing customer tastes. They were all up Monday, but were each down at least 45 percent for the year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-turn-hints-fiscal-cliff-deal-180751053--finance.html

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