Wachovia Corp., which is now a part of Wells Fargo & Co., will pay a $2.52 million assessment fee for its involvement in the auction rate securities market, according to Zacks Equity Research. Wachovia will buy back $324.6 million in auction rate securities that it had sold to investors, the company announced Wednesday.

Meredith Corp.’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 22.5 cents per share, which is payable on Sept. 15, the company announced Wednesday. The media company, which has paid a dividend for 62 consecutive years, has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. The announcement comes on the heels of a loss of $2.28 per share recorded in its fiscal 2009 report on July 29.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines board of directors approved a second-quarter dividend at an annualized rate of 2 percent. Net income year-to-date was $70 million, compared with $79.3 million for the same period of 2008. Net income for the second quarter, however, was $75.9 million, up from $47.9 million in 2008. The bank’s total assets decreased by 2 percent to $67 billion from $68.1 billion at Dec. 31, 2008. The decrease is blamed primarily on decreased advances and a sale of mortgage loans that was partially offset by an increase in investments, according to a press release.

After two straight months of gains, retail sales fell in July, according to a CNNMoney.com report. Total retail sales declined 0.1 percent in July, compared with June’s revised gain of 0.8 percent, the Commerce Department said. If not for the Cash for Clunkers program, the numbers would have been worse. Economists predicted a 0.1 percent July increase in sales excluding auto purchases, but instead there was a decline of 0.6 percent.

The number of people receiving ongoing unemployment benefits fell two weeks ago, while first-time unemployment claims rose last week, according to a CNNMoney.com report. More than 6.2 million people had continuing claims in the week ended Aug. 1, which was down 141,000 from the week before. There were 558,000 initial claims filed in the week ending Aug. 8, which was an increase of 4,000 from the week before.