Reports create concern about economic rebound

America’s shoppers kept a tighter grip on their wallets in October for the second month in a row, and wholesale prices registered the biggest jump since March, raising questions about the shape of the economic rebound in coming months.

National retail sales fell by 0.3 percent last month, after a 0.4 percent decline in September, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The back-to-back declines came after consumers, aided by extra cash from tax relief and home-mortgage refinancing, went on a buying binge during the summer, which economists had predicted couldn’t be sustained.

Analysts expect that consumers’ recent belt tightening will be a factor in slower but still healthy economic growth of around a 4 percent rate in the October-to-December quarter.

Wall Street

Charles Schwab Corp. admits improper trading

Charles Schwab Corp. disclosed Friday that a handful of its mutual funds engaged in improper trading practices, becoming the first major discount brokerage linked to an industrywide scandal. The company’s stock fell 8 percent.

The inappropriate trades, which allowed institutional investors to rapidly trade in and out of mutual funds at the expense of longer-term shareholders, occurred in the Excelsior family managed by Schwab’s U.S. Trust subsidiary, the company said in its quarterly shareholder report.

A “limited number” of trades in Schwab’s broader mutual fund service, which includes offerings managed by the company and other vendors, may have been improperly processed after closing, the company said.

Investment groups

Putnam, parent firm face class-action lawsuits

Boston-based Putnam Investments and parent company Marsh & McClennan face at least 16 lawsuits seeking class action status over allegations of improper mutual fund trading, according to a filing Friday.

Marsh & McLennan said in its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it also faced two direct shareholders actions and three “derivative” actions that named combinations of Marsh, Putnam, its trustees and others related to the company.

On Thursday, Putnam reached a partial settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations it committed civil fraud by failing to crack down on in-and-out fund trading, also called market timing, by some customers and employees.