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Latest Articles: Business
U.S. Home Prices Fell 3.4% in October as Foreclosures Dragged Down Values
Post Date: 2010-12-22 11:17:18 by Brian S
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Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices fell 3.4 percent in October from a year earlier as sales of foreclosed properties dragged down values, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. The decline was led by an 8.1 percent slump in the region that includes Nevada and Arizona, the agency said today in a report from Washington. Prices decreased 5.7 percent in the area that includes Mississippi and dropped 5.6 percent in California and other West Coast states. Foreclosures reduce real estate values because they sell at cut-rate prices. U.S. homes in the default process sold for about 32 percent less than non-distressed properties in the third quarter, the biggest discount in five years, ...
Crude Oil Climbs to Two-Year High on U.S. Supply Decline, Economic Growth
Post Date: 2010-12-22 11:16:21 by Brian S
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Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to the highest level in more than two years after government reports showed that U.S. supplies dropped and the country’s economy grew more than previously estimated in the third quarter. Stockpiles fell 5.33 million barrels to 340.7 million, the lowest level since February, the Energy Department said. A 3.4 million-barrel decline was forecast, according to the median of 14 responses in a Bloomberg News survey. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product expanded 2.6 percent in the third quarter, up from a previous estimate of 2.5 percent. “We’re seeing another dramatic drop in U.S. oil storage,” said Sean Brodrick, a ...
S&P 500 Index Climbs to Pre-Lehman Bankruptcy Level
Post Date: 2010-12-21 11:44:11 by Brian S
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Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks rose, completing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s recovery from the plunge that followed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse in 2008, and commodities gained as U.S. retail sales and earnings forecasts fueled optimism in the world’s largest economy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained as much as 0.4 percent to 1,252.62 at 10:09 a.m. in New York, above its level on Sept. 12, 2008, the last session before Lehman filed a record bankruptcy and intensified the financial crisis. Copper and cotton rose to records. The cost to insure Portuguese bonds against default climbed after Moody’s Investors Service said the ...
Eerie Chinese Ghost Cities
Post Date: 2010-12-20 21:53:00 by Capitalist Eric
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Reports of Chinese ghost cities have been trickling in for over a year. Previously, these reports were nothing more than abstract statistics but new images put a very real face on those figures. City of Chenggong – devoid of human life. China’s most famous ghost city: Ordos Detail of Ordos with no signs of life. An empty museum in Ordos. Empty roads in Zhengzhou Erenhot, a vacant city built in the middle of a desert. Like a cheesy sci-fi flick where the human population has mysteriously vanished, these ghost cities sit eerily vacant while dead leaves collect in unswept and unused foyers. This is not Hollywood’s latest blockbuster but a stark reality. Finance ...
Wikileaks Warns on Bank Of America: ‘Place Your Funds Somewhere Safer’
Post Date: 2010-12-20 18:28:21 by Capitalist Eric
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Do you have an account at Bank of America? If so, you may want consider the latest warning about the bank’s stability from Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. In a series of tweets this morning, Wikileaks warns that Bank of America may be unstable and that users should consider moving their money to another banking institution. The warning from Wikileaks comes on the heels of Bank of America’s reported refusal to process payments for the web whistleblower, joining Paypal, Visa and Mastercard in making it more difficult for the organization to raise funds for day-to-day operations and legal defense. According the the tweets posted on Saturday, account holders should start taking ...
Food Prices Rise Sharply - And There's More To Come
Post Date: 2010-12-17 12:50:10 by Brian S
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For the first time since 2008, inflation is hitting consumers in the stomach. Grocery prices grew by more than 1 1/2 times the overall rate of inflation this year, outpaced only by costs of transportation and medical care, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists predict that this is only the beginning. Fueled by the higher costs of wheat, sugar, corn, soybeans and energy, shoppers could see as much as a 4 percent increase at the supermarket checkout next year. "I noticed just this month that my grocery bill for the same old stuff - cereal, eggs, milk, orange juice, peanut butter, bread - spiked $25," said Sue Perry, deputy editor ...
Unemployment Rate Rises In 21 States, Falls In 15
Post Date: 2010-12-17 12:45:28 by Brian S
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(12-17) 08:44 PST WASHINGTON, CA (AP) -- Unemployment rates rose in 21 states last month, the highest number to report an increase since August. The report is a reminder of the job market's struggle to rebound even as the economy is improving. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in 15 states in November and remained the same in 14 states. That's the fewest to see a drop in unemployment since August. Georgia and Idaho endured the largest increases in unemployment. Georgia's rate rose to 10.1 percent from 9.8 percent. Idaho's jumped to 9.4 percent from 9.1 percent. Michigan and Pennsylvania saw the biggest declines in unemployment last month. ...
U.S. Leading Indicators Index Gains Most in Eight Months in Recovery Sign
Post Date: 2010-12-17 12:26:40 by Brian S
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Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The index of U.S. leading economic indicators increased in November by the most in eight months, a signal the recovery will strengthen early next year. The Conference Board’s gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months rose 1.1 percent after a revised 0.4 percent gain in October, the New York-based group said today. The reading matched the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Americans grew more confident last month, stocks rose and fewer people filed for unemployment benefits, boosting the prospects for consumer spending in coming months. Until growth picks up and sparks bigger job gains, Federal Reserve policy makers will ...
Banks Push Fed to Curb Borrowers’ Right to Rescind Mortgages
Post Date: 2010-12-16 18:17:16 by Brian S
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Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Mortgage firms are pressing the Federal Reserve to curb homeowners’ right to invalidate loans based on flawed documents -- a right consumer groups say is one of the few weapons borrowers have to battle unfair lending. Consumer groups and industry lawyers say a rule under consideration by the central bank would make it harder for borrowers to exercise their right of “rescission,” which forces a lender to relinquish a lien on a mortgaged property. They said the number of rescissions has grown in recent years as a result of the foreclosure crisis and allegations that mortgage documents were fabricated or processed improperly. Ken Markison, regulatory ...
U.S. Economy: Drop in Firings Points to Improving Job Market
Post Date: 2010-12-16 15:45:24 by Brian S
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Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Fewer workers than forecast filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, pointing to a drop in firings that signals the U.S. job market is improving. Applications for jobless insurance payments fell by 3,000 to 420,000, sending the average over the past four weeks to the lowest level since August 2008, according to data from the Labor Department issued today in Washington. Other reports showed work began on more houses last month and manufacturing picked up in the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia region in December. A decrease in firings would be a harbinger of bigger gains in payrolls that will help bring down the jobless rate, which has been at 9.5 ...
Boeing to Add 4,000 to 5,000 Jobs Next Year, CEO McNerney Says
Post Date: 2010-12-16 15:43:34 by Brian S
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Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. plans to hire 4,000 to 5,000 workers next year at its commercial hubs in Seattle and South Carolina as exports drive growth, Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney said. Business executives encouraged U.S. President Barack Obama in a meeting today to sign more bilateral trade agreements with countries including China and India, McNerney said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Obama is committed to agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and “there was a sense in the room that Korea is the beginning, not the end,” McNerney said of today’s meeting. The group agreed to “move beyond the rhetoric” of whether the Obama ...
GM Buys Back Preferred Shares, Repays $2.1 Bln To Taxpayers
Post Date: 2010-12-16 12:59:34 by Brian S
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(RTTNews) - Automaker General Motors Co. (GM: News ,GMM.TO: News ) said Wednesday that it has completed the repurchase of all GM preferred stock issued to the U.S. Department of Treasury under a federal government bailout, repaying taxpayers $2.1 billion. The Treasury had invested $49.5 billion in taxpayer money into the once-struggling GM under the federal government's bailout program, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP. GM emerged from bankruptcy on July 10, 2009. In November 2010, the company came back to the market with its public offer and raised $23.1 billion, making it the second largest offering in U.S. history. GM said it completed the purchase of 83.89 million ...
Homebuilders Pessimistic About Housing Market
Post Date: 2010-12-15 11:55:25 by Brian S
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U.S. homebuilders remain uneasy about the housing market's prospects in the months ahead, discouraged by weak job growth and millions of foreclosures. The National Association of Home Builders said Wednesday that its monthly reading of builders' sentiment remained unchanged in December at 16. While it remains the highest reading since June, any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the market. The index hasn't been above that point since April 2006. The low index reading reflects concern on the part of developers over the weak housing market. New home sales have fallen four times in the past six months. New home prices slid last month to the lowest point in ...
U.S. Industrial Output Rises, Inflation Slows as Recovery Gains Momentum
Post Date: 2010-12-15 11:29:32 by Brian S
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Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Industrial production in the U.S. increased more than forecast in November and consumer prices slowed, indicating the recovery is gaining momentum without generating inflation. Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 0.4 percent, the biggest gain since July, after a revised 0.2 percent drop in October, a Federal Reserve report showed today in Washington. The consumer-price index climbed 0.1 percent in November after a 0.2 percent gain the prior month, the Labor Department said. Assembly lines are speeding up as business investment and exports grow and consumer spending accelerates, helping to buoy an expansion that Fed policy makers said yesterday isn’t ...
Stocks in U.S. Rise as Economic Data Send S&P to Longest Rally Since 2006
Post Date: 2010-12-15 11:27:01 by Brian S
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Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a seventh day in its longest rally since 2006, as growth in industrial production and New York manufacturing overshadowed concern Europe’s debt crisis will worsen. Caterpillar Inc. and 3M Co. led the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher after Federal Reserve gauges of U.S. industrial output and manufacturing in the New York area topped economists’ estimates. Chipmakers fell the most among 24 industry groups after researcher Gartner Inc. predicted spending on semiconductor equipment will drop 1 percent next year. The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 1,243.33 as of 10:14 a.m. in ...
The U.S. Economy is Recovering and Employment is Growing - WHO’S LYING?
Post Date: 2010-12-14 17:18:35 by Capitalist Eric
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Have you noticed the latest sound bites coming from the punditry in the corporate mainstream media? Here is the latest wisdom flowing from the lying mouthpieces of the ruling oligarchy (Wall Street, Washington DC, Mega-corporations):The economy is recovering and employment is growing. Consumers are deleveraging, saving and using cash for purchases. Retailers are doing fantastic as consumers increase spending. These are the three themes being proclaimed simultaneously by the mainstream media. Every time I hear these themes proclaimed, I want to shout out like Joe Wilson - “YOU LIE!!!” How can consumers be deleveraging, saving and increasing spending at the same time? Let's ...
Automotive Engineers in Short Supply as U.S. Production Rebounds
Post Date: 2010-12-14 13:29:10 by Brian S
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Ricardo Plc, a service provider to auto companies, is turning to billboards to find engineers as the industry, battered by last year’s bankruptcies of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, regains sales and production. Ricardo for the first time put up billboards along Detroit- area highways yesterday and started running radio ads touting the engineering-services company as an employment destination as fuel-economy standards drive demand for efficient powertrains. General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC among others, are hiring as vehicle output recovers from more than 40-year lows. Competition for skilled employees is heating up even in Michigan, where the unemployment rate was ...
U.S. CEOs in Survey Are Most Optimistic Since 2006
Post Date: 2010-12-14 12:03:23 by Brian S
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Optimism among U.S. chief executives in the fourth quarter rose to the highest level since the start of 2006 as business leaders projected increased sales, investment and hiring, a private survey showed. The Business Roundtable’s economic outlook index climbed to 101 after falling in the previous quarter for the first time since the beginning of 2009, the Washington-based group said today. Readings higher than 50 coincide with an economic expansion. The gauge, which increased from a third-quarter reading of 86, rose to 102 in the first quarter of 2006. Forty-five percent of respondents said they will add to payrolls, an increase of 14 percentage points, while 80 percent said they ...
Economic Stress Falls To 18-Month Low
Post Date: 2010-12-13 12:32:09 by Brian S
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Job gains around the country offset higher foreclosures and helped reduce the nation's economic stress in October to an 18-month low, according to The Associated Press' monthly analysis. Stress fell in 56 percent of the roughly 3,100 U.S. counties analyzed and in 28 of the states, the AP's Economic Stress Index shows. Demand overseas for U.S. semiconductors and strength in technology companies have helped lower unemployment in New England, for example. And higher exports and inventory rebuilding for heavy equipment have boosted manufacturing, distribution and wholesale jobs in the Midwest, said William Testa, a vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The ...
Fewer Homeowners Underwater In The Third Quarter
Post Date: 2010-12-13 12:28:30 by Brian S
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The number of homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth fell for the third straight quarter this summer. About 10.8 million households, or 22.5 percent of all mortgaged homes, were underwater in the July-September quarter, housing data firm CoreLogic said Monday. That's down from 23 percent, or 11 million households, in the second quarter. The decline came mainly because more homes had fallen into foreclosure and not because home prices had increased. In a healthy housing market, about 5 percent of homeowners with a mortgage owe more than their homes are worth, CoreLogic's economist Sam Khatar estimates. The firm does not have historical data before the ...
A&P, Century-Old U.S. Grocery Store Owner, Files for Bankruptcy
Post Date: 2010-12-13 12:08:00 by Brian S
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Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., which operates almost 400 supermarkets under the Waldbaum’s, The Food Emporium and Pathmark names, sought bankruptcy protection after failing to successfully compete with wholesale clubs and drugstores. The retailer had $8.8 billion in sales for the year ended in February, according to its website. Yesterday, it listed assets of $2.5 billion and debt of $3.2 billion in a Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York. A shift in consumer spending to wholesale clubs, supercenters and drugstores hurt sales in the quarter ended Sept. 11, A&P said in a regulatory filing. The Montvale, New ...
Wall Street Sees Record Revenue in '09-10 Recovery From Government Bailout
Post Date: 2010-12-13 12:04:16 by Brian S
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Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street’s biggest banks, rebounding after a government bailout, are set to complete their best two years in investment banking and trading, buoyed by 2010 results likely to be the second-highest ever. The five largest U.S. firms by investment-banking and trading revenue -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley -- will likely have a better fourth quarter than the previous two periods, driven by equity underwriting and higher volume in stock and bond trading, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Even if this quarter only matches the third, the banks’ revenue will top that of any ...
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
Post Date: 2010-12-12 13:48:20 by Brian S
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On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk. In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of ...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Climbs to a Six-Month High, Benefiting Retailers
Post Date: 2010-12-10 11:24:41 by Brian S
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Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers increased more than forecast in December to the highest level in six months at the same time Americans began stepping up holiday spending. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 74.2 from 71.6 at the end of November. Economists projected a December reading of 72.5, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The increased optimism may be tied to rising stock prices and an agreement between President Barack Obama and Republicans to keep tax rates from rising next year. Higher confidence is being reflected in increased holiday sales that are benefiting retailers such ...
Americans' Wealth Grew 2.2 Pct. Last Quarter
Post Date: 2010-12-09 12:47:50 by Brian S
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(12-09) 09:19 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- After losing ground in the spring, Americans' wealth grew 2.2 percent in the July-September as stock portfolios surged. The Federal Reserve says household net worth rose to $54.9 trillion last quarter, even though the value of real estate holdings fell 3.7 percent The bounce-back came after net worth had dropped 2.6 percent in the spring, the first decline since early 2009, as Wall Street's fears over Europe's debt crisis shriveled stock portfolios. The financial turmoil had caused wealth to shrink after four straight quarterly gains. Since then, stocks have risen. Net worth is the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and ...
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