Market Watch: UPS Data Breach, Car Recalls and Welfare Stats

Payment card information for United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) customers may be at risk, and more than a third of all people in the U.S. live in households on welfare.

Stocks were up Wednesday for the third consecutive day. The S&P 500 is sitting just a point away from its record close, and the Dow popped 59 points yesterday even after the Federal Reserve said it’s willing to raise interest rates sooner rather than later.

UPS says 51 of its retail stores in 24 states may have had customers’ payment card information exposed by a computer virus. Names and card numbers, as well as mail and email addresses, from about 100,000 transactions between Jan. 20 and Aug. 11 were potentially at risk.

Want to know if your car has any recalls that haven’t been completed? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a new tool on its website where you can look up just that. All you have to do is type in your vehicle identification number. You might not believe it, but about one in four recalled cars never get their recall work done.

You might not believe this either. Nearly 110 million Americans live in households on welfare. That’s 35% of all people living in the U.S. Yet most paychecks are getting fatter. New research shows median household income climbed 3.8% in the past year to almost $54,000.

And your boss apparently doesn’t like vacation. Recruiter Korn/Ferry says just 3% of executives are able to completely unplug when away from the office.