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Latest Articles: Business
Jobless Claims Drop, Retail Sales Improve Modestly Encouraging Economic Reports
Post Date: 2010-09-02 13:34:20 by Brian S
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New applications for unemployment benefits declined for a second straight week after rising in the previous three. Retailers reported surprisingly strong sales in August. And more people signed contracts to buy homes. Economists were mildly encouraged by the news, which followed several downbeat reports on housing and weaker economic growth last week. But few saw signs that the economy is gaining momentum. "It's encouraging that we're not seeing further deterioration as we have in recent months," said Julia Coronado, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas. "But we're not turning around and moving in the direction of stronger growth." New claims for unemployment aid ...
U.S. Pending Home Sales Climb as Market Steadies After End of Tax Credit
Post Date: 2010-09-02 13:32:30 by Brian S
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Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Pending sales of existing houses unexpectedly climbed in July from a record low, indicating the real-estate market is steadying following the end of a government tax credit. The index of purchase contracts rose 5.2 percent after a revised 2.8 percent drop the prior month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. Combined with data showing claims for unemployment benefits dropped and orders to factories increased, the reports allayed concern the economy was tipping back into a recession. “We’re growing at a mediocre clip,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. ...
Chrysler Says Sales Rise 7 Percent On Demand For Many Of Its Cars
Post Date: 2010-09-01 13:26:30 by Brian S
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DETROIT (AP) - Chrysler Group LLC says its August sales rose 7 percent over July as many of its models saw gains. The automaker's sales also increased 7 percent over August of 2009. But last year the company was just restarting factories after closing them during its stay in bankruptcy court. Chrysler got only a small sales boost last August from the government's Cash for Clunkers program. That program offered up to $4,500 in rebates for people to trade in older cars and trucks for more fuel-efficient models. Sales of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee nearly doubled over July.
U.S. Planned Layoffs In Aug Hit 10-Year Low
Post Date: 2010-09-01 12:01:05 by Brian S
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell 17 percent in August from the prior month and hit the lowest level in 10 years, a report on Wednesday showed. Employers announced 34,768 planned job cuts last month, down from 41,676 in July, outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said. It was the first month-on-month decline since April, when planned job losses had hit a seven-year low, and the lowest level since June 2000. Although unemployment remains high, at 9.5 percent in July, job security appears to be strong, the report said. "To put this in perspective, job cuts never fell to these levels following the 2001 recession, not even ...
Stocks Rise, Treasuries Decline as Manufacturing Reports Boost Confidence
Post Date: 2010-09-01 11:57:35 by Brian S
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Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Global stocks surged the most since May, Treasuries tumbled and copper rallied as manufacturing in the U.S. and China grew faster than economists estimated. The dollar, yen and Swiss franc weakened. The MSCI World Index climbed 2.8 percent at 10:56 a.m. in New York, its best gain since May 27, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped the same amount. Ten-year Treasury yields rose 12 basis points to 2.6 percent. Copper and nickel advanced more than 2 percent to pace gains in metals. The Australian dollar strengthened against all but one of its 16 major counterparts after the nation’s economic growth topped forecasts. Equities rebounded from the ...
GM Reports 7 Percent Sales Dip Compared With July
Post Date: 2010-09-01 11:56:19 by Brian S
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DETROIT — General Motors says its August sales dropped 7 percent compared with July, as the shaky economy discouraged customers from buying new cars and trucks. U.S. auto sales in July were a strong point for the economy, helping to boost consumer spending. But high unemployment and a declining stock market have made people afraid to spend money on big-ticket items, industry analysts say. Sales last month also fell 25 percent from August of 2009. But last year's sales were boosted by the government's Cash for Clunkers rebates. GM says sales from its four remaining brands - Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac - fell 11 percent compared with August of last year. Buick, GMC and ...
Construction Spending in U.S. Declined Twice as Much as Forecast in July ("Unexpectedly")
Post Date: 2010-09-01 11:09:24 by Nebuchadnezzar
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Construction Spending in U.S. Declined Twice as Much as Forecast in July By Shobhana Chandra - Sep 1, 2010 9:00 AM CT Construction spending in July fell twice as much as forecast, led by a slump in homebuilding that will depress U.S. economic growth. The 1 percent drop brought spending to $805.2 billion, the lowest level in a decade, after a revised 0.8 percent drop in June that wiped out a previously estimated gain, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Spending on federal government projects fell by the most in a year. Builders are facing a slump in demand following the end of a homebuyer tax credit, even with mortgage rates at a record low, while mounting ...
Karl Case Sees `A Lot of Positive Stuff' in Housing-Price Data
Post Date: 2010-08-31 11:16:17 by Brian S
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Karl Case, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, said he sees a “lot of positive stuff” in a report today on home prices in June that may indicate a market beginning to recover. U.S. housing may stabilize or possibly weaken a “little” in the next year, depending on the economy’s performance, Case said in a radio interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene. Home prices in 20 cities rose more than forecast in June from a year earlier, reflecting the influence of a government tax incentive and a sign the market was stabilizing before sales plunged in July. “There’s an awful lot of positive stuff here in our ...
FDIC's Bair Says Does Not See Double-Dip Recession
Post Date: 2010-08-31 11:12:58 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. bank regulator Sheila Bair said on Tuesday that she does not anticipate a double-dip recession in the United States. "I think it's something we're watching very closely, and we don't see it happening," Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said during a quarterly briefing.
Consumer Confidence Improves Modestly in August
Post Date: 2010-08-31 11:09:43 by Brian S
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In the latest bit of mildly positive economic news, consumer confidence increased in August, according to the Conference Board. Its index rose to 53.5 from a slightly upwardly revised 51.0 in July. That was better than the 50.0 that economist expected and reverses the downward trend beginning to form over the prior two months. Confidence still has far to go, however. First, here's the chart for the trailing twelve months: You can see that, had confidence continued to decline in August, then it would have begun flirting with its 12-month low. Its rise in August was pretty small, and not large enough to surpass the index's value of 54.5 recorded a year earlier. This shows that in ...
Obama Calls On Republicans To 'Drop The Blockade' On Small Business Aid Package
Post Date: 2010-08-30 13:54:32 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama exhorted Congress on Monday to make passing a long-languishing small business aid package its first order of business when it returns next month from its summer break. "I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade," Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers. Acknowledging that the economy still remains extremely fragile, the president said he'd also have other specific ideas in the days ahead. He mentioned extending Bush tax cuts due to expire this year for households making under $250,000 a year, upping the nation's investment in clean energy, rebuilding more roads and highways and tax cuts ...
Weekly Rail Intermodal Volume Sets 2010 Record; Container Volume Sets New All-Time Record For The Second Consecutive Week
Post Date: 2010-08-30 12:52:23 by Brian S
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports rail intermodal volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending Aug. 21, 2010 set a new 2010 record for the second consecutive week, with 236,404 total trailers and containers, up 22.4 percent from the same week in 2009, and up 2.6 percent compared with 2008. Weekly container volume, a subset of intermodal, was the highest on record, also for the second consecutive week, up 24.2 percent compared with the same week in 2009, and up 11.5 percent with the same week in 2008. Trailer volume, the other subset of intermodal, rose 12.4 percent last week compared with the same week in 2009, but fell 30.5 percent compared with 2008. In order to offer a ...
Consumer Spending and Incomes Rise in July
Post Date: 2010-08-30 11:51:21 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose at the strongest pace in four months in July, supported by a small gain in incomes, offering hope that consumers will be able to keep contributing to a modest recovery. The Commerce Department said on Monday spending increased 0.4 percent, the largest gain since March, after being flat percent in June. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected consumer spending to rise 0.3 percent.
Depression Next Down Leg Unfolding, The Financial and Economic Crisis No Spin Zone
Post Date: 2010-08-28 17:02:47 by Capitalist Eric
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Depression Next Down Leg Unfolding, The Financial and Economic Crisis No Spin Zone As the next leg down in the unfolding depression and global, financial crisis intensifies we all sit on a keg of dynamite known as the developed world's economies and financial systems and wait for some fool in government to light a match. In April I spoke about black swans taking flight, now they are about to land. An explosive event is unfolding as we speak. What you are about to read is the embodiment of the Cloward-Piven strategy -- economic collapse written into law, on purpose, by radical Marxist Socialist progressives inside the Capital of the United States: Washington DC. Bubbles are still ...
This Economy Is Ripping The Dignity Of Millions Of Unemployed Americans To Shreds
Post Date: 2010-08-28 15:46:08 by Capitalist Eric
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This Economy Is Ripping The Dignity Of Millions Of Unemployed Americans To Shreds If you can still put a roof over your head and food on the table for your family, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate. There are millions of Americans out there right now that are really, really suffering. The cold, hard reality of it is that there aren't even close to enough jobs out there for everyone right now. It is almost as if we are all caught in a really bizarre game of musical chairs where the losers get stripped of their tickets to the middle class. What this horrible economy is doing to the dignity of millions of middle class Americans is incredibly saddening. There are a lot of ...
Bernanke: Fed will take action if economy falters [Translation: "Call in the Helicopters"]
Post Date: 2010-08-27 16:27:55 by Capitalist Eric
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JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the Fed will consider making another large-scale purchase of securities if the slowing economy were to deteriorate significantly and signs of deflation were to flare. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, right, and Donald L. Kohn, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, walk along the veranda of the Jackson Lake Lodge at the start of the annual Federal Reserve conference, in Jackson, Wyo., Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) Bernanke acknowledged that the recent pace of growth is "less vigorous than we expected." He described the outlook as uncertain and said the economy ...
Deflation Delusion Continues as Economies Trend Towards High Inflation
Post Date: 2010-08-26 11:05:59 by Capitalist Eric
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Deflation Delusion Continues as Economies Trend Towards High Inflation Delusional deflationist right from the Bank of England MPC, to the mainstream press for well over a year have pushed the mantra of ongoing debt deleveraging deflation everywhere, everywhere that is than appears in where it counts i.e. the actual INFLATION indices, where inflation is on the rise right across the world as illustrated in the UK by the persistent failure of the Bank of England to control UK inflation that remains above the banks CPI 3% upper limit. Even Greece that really is in an depression is experiencing inflation at above 3%, whilst the US CPI continues to inflate at a more modest 1.2% as summarised ...
Durable Goods Orders Downside Surprise; Details Range from Weak to Abysmal (Disaster Summer Rolls On!!!)
Post Date: 2010-08-25 16:38:24 by Nebuchadnezzar
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Durable Goods Orders Downside Surprise; Details Range from Weak to Abysmal Spending on durable goods rose slightly in July but only on the back of an unsustainable spike in aircraft orders. The rest of the data ranged from weak to abysmal. As has been the case recently, economists missed the mark by a mile. Economists expected a 3% rise, what they got was a .3% rise. The Washington Post discusses the situation in Durable goods orders disappoint in latest sign of economic weakness Overall, orders for durable goods rose 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, well below the 3 percent that analysts had expected. But even that slight rise was driven by a spike in aircraft ...
Why US Treasury Notes Will Eventually Yield Nothing
Post Date: 2010-08-25 14:18:57 by Capitalist Eric
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Why US Treasury Notes Will Eventually Yield Nothing Interest-Rates / US Bonds For all investors seeking income, I have some bad news for you. US Treasury notes and bonds will eventually yield nothing. That ‘ s right, I said it. “Zero percent interest coupons “ . Many pundits would argue the opposite. And yes, the argument for higher interest coupons in the future is valid and sound. The US is currently following a strategy of debt destruction such that as I write, the nation is closing in on $13.5 trillion in debt. To see the number is quite startling. It is: $13,500,000,000,000.00. Mercy! The number is so large, most calculators can ‘t account for all the numeric ...
Seniors Filing For Bankruptcy At Accelerated Rate
Post Date: 2010-08-25 12:02:04 by Brian S
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Seniors filing for bankruptcy at accelerated rate By Jay Heflin - 08/24/10 09:30 AM ET Americans 55 and older are filing for bankruptcy at an increasing rate, according to the study Aging and Bankruptcy Revisited. Americans 55 and older are filing for bankruptcy at an increasing rate, according to the study Aging and Bankruptcy Revisited. The report will appear in the September issue of the ABI Journal by the American Bankruptcy Institute. It shows that while middle-aged Americans make up the bulk of bankruptcies, for those 55 and over, filings increased 61 percent from 2002 to 2007, the most recent year examined by the study. The findings show Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and ...
Credit Card Debt Drops To Lowest Level In 8 Years
Post Date: 2010-08-25 11:48:19 by Brian S
4 Comments
The amount consumers owed on their credit cards in this year's second quarter dropped to the lowest level in more than eight years as cardholders continued to pay off balances in the uncertain economy. The average combined debt for bank-issued credit cards — like those with a MasterCard or Visa logo — fell to $4,951 in the three months ended June 30, down more than 13 percent from $5,719 in the same period a year ago, according to TransUnion. The credit reporting agency said it was the first three-month period during which card debt fell below $5,000 since the first quarter of 2002. Credit card debt remained the highest in Alaska, but slid 7 percent there to $7,148. A total ...
Intel CEO Blasts Obama and Democrats
Post Date: 2010-08-25 10:54:26 by jwpegler
7 Comments
It costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States... ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose The U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business, Otellini said, that there is likely to be "an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we're seeing today in Europe--this is the bitter truth." Not long ago, Otellini said, "our research centers were without peer. No country was more attractive for start-up capital... We seemed a generation ahead of the ...
AAR Reports Total Weekly Rail Intermodal Volume Sets 2010 Record; Weekly Container Volume Reaches Highest Level on Record
Post Date: 2010-08-23 13:21:53 by Brian S
16 Comments
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports that rail intermodal volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending Aug. 14, 2010 was the highest of 2010, with 233,767 total trailers and containers, up 20.8 percent from the same week in 2009, but down 1.4 percent compared with 2008. Weekly container volume, a subset of intermodal, was the highest on record up 22.4 percent compared with the same week in 2009, and up 6.4 percent with the same week in 2008. Trailer volume, the other subset of intermodal, rose 12.3 percent last week compared with the same week in 2009, but fell 31 percent compared with 2008. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR reports 20 ...
Bonds Showing No Economy Spoils for Republicans as Rates Point to Recovery
Post Date: 2010-08-23 12:34:19 by Brian S
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Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Barack Obama’s policies are “artificially extending the recession.” Congressman John Boehner, the party’s leader in the House, says “stimulus policies aren’t working.” Republican Senator Jim Bunning calls Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s tenure “a failure.” The U.S. bond market disagrees. The economy has never contracted with the difference between short- and long-term Treasury yields as wide as it is now. That gap, at 2.11 percentage points for 2- and 10-year notes, signals a 15.5 percent chance of a recession in the next year, according to the Federal ...
Fancy That! Job Growth Better Than ‘01, ‘91 Recessions?
Post Date: 2010-08-23 12:33:26 by Brian S
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In case you were worried about last Thursday’s positively chilling jobless claims number, or the prediction by the Congressional Budget Office the same day that unemployment will still be at 8.8% by the end of 2011, take heart! Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas this morning issued a statement saying that its “Labor Day Outlook” shows the job market is actually improving faster than the 1991 and 2001 recessions. Challenger submits as evidence the fact that in the 13 months since the presumptive end of the recession in June of 2009, job cuts have averaged 56,208 per month, less than the average of 125,262 in the same period following the 2001 ...
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