100 unemployed people to get jobs

Express Employment Professionals in Columbia is working to put 100 unemployed people to work for the holidays with its Pay it Forward Hiring Drive. The employment agency is working with local businesses to put people to work in short- and long-term positions for the holidays. For each company that participates, Express will make a donation to Harvest Hope Food Bank. Administrative, professional and commercial positions are available. For more information: expresspros.com, (803) 788-8721 or 9557 Two Notch Road.

BofA to help customers with mortgages

Bank of America customers who are struggling to pay their mortgages can get face-to-face assistance from a bank specialist during an event from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Embassy Suites on Greystone Boulevard. Customers should expect to spend at least two to three hours at the event, reviewing their file and status with a bank specialist. Customers are asked to bring documentation of their financial situation. Find a list of documents to bring and register: bankofamerica.com/homeownerevent or 1-855-201-7426.

Storm drives down stocks

Waterlogged from Superstorm Sandy and unmoved by a solid October jobs report, U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 139 points as details about the storm’s costs began to trickle out. Verizon Communications, whose downtown Manhattan facilities are still without power, said the storm would have a “significant” effect on its fourth-quarter earnings. Verizon said it could not yet estimate the cost of the storm, which downed cell towers across the region. Its stock fell 62 cents to $44.52. Insurers, the group that will feel the storm’s effects most acutely, plunged en masse as analysts warned that the storm will eat into their income. Raymond James analysts lowered their estimates for Allstate; Barclays analysts cut theirs for Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. Hartford fell 66 cents, or 3 percent, to $21.26. Allstate dropped 49 cents to $38.56. American International Group Inc. plunged $2.52, or 7 percent, to $32.68. Genworth Financial Inc. dropped 16 cents, or 3 percent, to $6.06. After a day of steady selling, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 139.46 points, or 1.1 percent, at 13,093.16. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 13.39, or 0.9 percent, at 1,414.20. The Nasdaq composite index lost 37.93 points, or 1.3 percent, to 2,982.13.

Sandy was tough on Delta

Delta Air Lines estimates Hurricane Sandy snagged away $45 million in revenue and will ultimately amount to a $20 million hit to the carrier’s bottom line for October. Delta canceled more than 3,500 flights last month in response to Sandy, amounting to a 2 percent reduction in its flying. The storm’s impact also will spill into November, but it’s expected to result in a smaller toll than in October. The airline has a hub at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, is building a domestic hub at New York’s La Guardia Airport and employs 7,000 in New York. Delta is still recovering from the disruption Sandy wrought. It operated close to its full schedule at JFK and Newark on Thursday, but only about 80 percent at La Guardia. The airline expected to resume its full operation at La Guardia on Friday.

The Associated Press and Cox Newspapers contributed.