Wal-Mart offers cash as prize for saving
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has unveiled a program that will use monthly cash prizes as an incentive for shoppers to put money in savings accounts.
The retailer said "Prize Savings" is the first national and retail prize-linked savings program, and is available to Wal-Mart MoneyCard holders. Customers who use the retailer's reloadable prepaid debit cards can transfer money from the balances into a free savings "vault" feature to enter the monthly drawings.
Each dollar moved into the vault will equal one entry into that month's drawing. No money is lost for participating.
Wal-Mart said 500 cash prizes will be awarded every month through the program, which officially started in August and has awarded cash to 1,500 customers. The grand prize each month is $1,000, while the average is $25.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Rule on sleep time for truckers changed
President Barack Obama recently signed a continuing resolution that includes a long-awaited change to disputed hours-of-service regulations on truck drivers.
Drivers no longer are limited to using their 34-hour "restart" break once every 168 hours. The restart also no longer must include two 1-5 a.m. time periods. The past regulation required drivers to rest overnight and drive during the day, when roads are most congested. Many drivers choose to drive at night for safety reasons, but the stipulation had forced them to switch their sleep schedules and drive in heavy traffic.
A study by the American Transportation Research Institute found an increase in truck volumes during the day and on weekends after those requirements.
The Arkansas Trucking Association released a statement calling the change a "significant victory in advocacy and safety, allowing drivers to rest when needed and avoid forcing traffic flow on the nation's highways during times of high traffic."
-- Emma N. Hurt
As 11 issues climb, 7 fall; index off 0.59
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.59 to 30.47 Thursday.
Eleven stocks advanced and seven declined.
Murphy USA rose 3.1 percent on average volume.
Bank of the Ozarks was up 2.4 percent in light trading.
Simmons First National lost 4.5 percent on eight times its normal volume.
Dillard's was down 1.8 percent on average volume.
Total volume for the index was 22.6 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 on 12/16/2016