Dow, S&P 500 End at Record Highs

U.S. stocks advanced on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 scoring
record closes, following a stream of mixed economic data. The Dow Jones industrial average rose
24.53 points, or 0.15%, at 16,097.33. The S&P 500 gained 4.48 points, or 0.25%, at 1,807.23. The
Nasdaq Composite added 27.00 points, or 0.67%, at 4,044.75.

Samsung Electronics Co is expected to spend around $14 billion – more than Iceland’s GDP – on
advertising and marketing this year, but it doesn’t always get value for money. Samsung spends a
bigger chunk of its annual revenue on advertising and promotion than any other of the world’s
top-20 companies by sales – 5.4 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The board of Spain’s Repsol (MCE:REP) unanimously agreed on Wednesday to start formal talks with
Argentina over a compensation offer for assets Buenos Aires seized last year that could end an 18
-month standoff between the two countries.

The euro zone’s future bank supervisor on Wednesday promised a warts-and-all probe into the bloc’s
still fragile financial system, conceding that she and other supervisors had made mistakes in the
past.