US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%

US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent

Twitter Facebook Linkedin
US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.

Source: Comex

Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers

Source: Nasdaq

Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.

Accuracy and Attention to Detail – Key Requirements for a Pharmacy Technician

Many Americans are looking for a recession proof job, which is fulfilling and rewarding. The pharmacy industry experienced a surge in growth lately. The projected growth rate of a particular kind of technician is especially promising. Pharmacy techs are indispensable in the day to day operations of the pharmacy. Many jobs are available, and a pharmacy technician can work in many different work places. Many pharmacies are open 24 hours, which can result in odd work hours for the technician.A pharmacy tech is often considered the right hand of the pharmacist. He/she has a variety of duties in the pharmacy. The particular duties of a pharmacist technician depend largely on the place of employment, experience, and seniority. Online and retail pharmacies operate in many ways similar to pharmacies located in drugstores and grocery stores. In most work environments, the technician’s duties include data entry for storing and sorting purposes, labeling bottles, filling prescriptions, as well as dispensing medications to patients/customers.Keeping an accurate count of stored medications, and maintaining the stock, are also duties of a pharmacy technician. This includes all over-the-counter medications as well. Filling out insurance claims, and contacting insurance companies are the responsibility of a technician. Questions related to prescriptions sometimes require a technician to contact the patient’s physician for verification. The preparation of IV solutions, creams, and ointments can also be done by the pharmacy technician.As an assistant to the pharmacist, clerical and administrative duties are also fulfilled by the pharmacy tech. This mainly includes answering the phone, and managing the financial operations of the pharmacy. Customer service is a big part of the daily duties of any pharmacy technician. Regardless of the size of pharmacy, dealing with customers, or patients if your workplace is a hospital or clinic, is a requirement.Filling prescriptions and dispensing medications are tasks that need attention to detail. Accuracy is important, as filling a prescription incorrectly can ultimately cause a lot of harm to a patient/customer. Adverse reactions can even cause death. Medications are often named very similar. Double-checking the medication and the dosage ensures, the patient/customer receives the right medication for his/her condition. It is also important to be aware of exchanging brand name medications with equivalent generic medications, as these may contain additional ingredients.Pharmacy techs are not allowed to advise patients/customers. For any questions regarding medications, they have to refer the patient/customer to the pharmacist. The pharmacist is the person, who has to give information about possible adverse reactions or general information about medical issues to the patient. Technicians can only refer to the pharmacist for question, even though they may know the answer.A career in this field is rewarding. Someone, who likes to deal with people, enjoys responsibility, is diligent, and has the required attention to detail, will find this occupation very fulfilling. The predicted job growth rate is higher than average. Pharmacy technicians can advance by being certified. A CPR certificate is an example for such a certification. The median salary of a pharmacy technician is around $ 25,000-30,000 annually.

Friendly Advice on How to Start a Farmers Market

If you would of told me that I would be managing a farmers market a year ago I would of thought you were crazy. The opportunity arose quite suddenly to be the manager of our local farmers market. I am no expert on how to run a farmers market, but the following are important concepts to consider when you are thinking of starting a farmers market for your community or taking over one as a manager.Before you even begin to formulate your location, vendors, layout, marketing strategies you need to have a board of directors. This board will be the governing entity of your market. You will need people who are experienced in urban planning, business, the agricultural scene, and active with your community. It is also a good idea to talk to other farmers markets; how did they start their market? What advice do they have? Would they be willing to help you? Once you have your board members selected, you need to come up with a mission for your market. What do you stand for? What do you want your community to gain by your presence?You can’t have a farmers market without vendors. The type of vendor for your market really depends on your location. Here in Asheville, artisan vendors don’t do great. Produce vendors those are the vendors you want. You need to make sure that they are not all selling the same crops. Variety is key. At our market we have five produce vendors. They all have different items for sale. With the new craze of food trucks, it would be a great idea to recruit one or many for your market. My market is a smaller farmers market and I found that it’s best to try to reach out to food trucks that are just starting out. The ones that have been around for a longer period of time may consider your market – if it’s on the small scale or just starting up – a waste of their time because they may not make what they would consider to be a good profit for their time.Marketing is a deal. Based off data the best way to market is using social media; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,etc. These are valuable assets to any business. You can also use Google Business to let people know about your market. Social media posts are free, which is great when you are just starting out. Once you get your market sustainable cash flow, you can look into boosting posts on Facebook and Twitter. Both Facebook and Twitter offer you to set your advertising budget which allows for less stress; once your budget has been spent the advertising stops until you reset it. Another great idea is to partner up with local businesses that are willing to promote your market using their social media. From my experience going and talking to local restaurants, breweries, kitchen supply stores that do food demos are all great prospects.Location! Location! Location! This is very important to farmers markets. Last year my market was behind a church in their parking lot. There was no road visibility. We lacked new customers due to no visibility. During the off season we worked diligently to find a new location that was more visible, had walk ability, as well as good parking. We are now partnering with a local business to use their parking lot which has road visibility, parking as well as walk ability for our neighborhood. This move was a win-win for everyone involved. Our customers are now their customers, and their customers are now our customers.If you want to start your own farmers market here are some resources to consider reviewing before starting the process. There is a course you can take through the Farmers Market Federation of NY, Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Broome County and SUNY Cobleskill and funded by NYS’s Fresh Connect Program. This program costs $200, after taking the certification course you will be a certified Farmers Market Manager. It is an online course. I plan on taking it in the near future. Another great resource is ASAP. They have a section dedicated to how to become a farmers market manager with Powerpoint slides, PDF’s on farmers market rules and regulations. The best part is that this is a free resource.Resources:http://www.nyfarmersmarket.com/fmm-pro-suny-farmers-market-managers-certification-programhttp://www.asapconnections.org