Number Use
HSBC Raises $17.7 Billion in Stock Sale is a story that I found that uses numbers in at least 3 ways. The article uses percentages, whole numbers, and dollar amounts. The reporter has used numbers to tell the story because the story is about HSBC selling shares to existing stock holders, so numbers are needed to understand why the fact that they sold shares is important; the amount that HSBC raises is a very large amount. I do not think the numbers are overwhelming even though I don't know a lot about stocks. The reporter used whole numbers and percents to put the numbers in perspective, for example the reporter says, "To strengthen its finances, the bank sold 4.9 billion shares, or 96.6 percent of the stock offered." This is also a good example of how the reporter may have to to crunch numbers to tell the story more effectively. They most likely had to take the number of bank shares divided by the amount that they sold. The sources of the numbers that the reporter used are from HSBC directly.