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Latest Articles: Business
Industrial Production Unexpectedly Shows Modest Increase In February
Post Date: 2010-03-15 13:08:32 by Brian S
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(RTTNews) - With mining output showing a notable increase, the Federal Reserve released a report Monday morning showing a modest increase in industrial production in the month of February. The report also showed a slight uptick in capacity utilization. The report showed that industrial production edged up by 0.1 percent in February following an unrevised 0.9 percent increase in January. The modest increase came as a slight surprise to economists, who had expected production to be unchanged compared to the previous month. A jump in mining output contributed to the unexpected increase in industrial production, with mining output surging up by 2.0 percent in February following a 1.1 percent ...
Real-Estate Recovery Signaled by Homebuilders' Surge as Fed Unwinds Credit
Post Date: 2010-03-15 12:53:56 by Brian S
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By Kathleen M. Howley and Rich Miller March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. housing market is poised to withstand the removal of government and Federal Reserve stimulus programs and rebound later in the year, contributing to annual economic growth for the first time since 2006. Increases in jobs, credit and affordable homes will help offset the end of the Fed’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities this month and the expiration of a federal homebuyer tax credit in April. Sales will rise about 6 percent this year, and housing will account for 0.25 percentage point of the 3.6 percent growth, according to forecasts by Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist for Barclays Capital in New York. ...
Meet The New Car Of Your Nightmares: A First Look At The 2012 Ford Police Interceptor
Post Date: 2010-03-12 13:44:42 by Brian S
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March 12, 2010, 11:35AMFord Motor Co.The 2012 Ford Police Interceptor Meet the new car of your nightmares: The 2012 Ford Police Interceptor -- coming soon to a rear view mirror near you. Ford is scheduled to officially introduce the vehicle today at a private event in Las Vegas, but images made their way onto the company's Web site this morning. The Detroit Free Press reports the new Interceptor is based on the Taurus, ending the Crown Victoria's multi-decade run with the boys in blue. Additional details and specifications are not yet known. Ford announced last year it would discontinue production of the Crown Vic in late 2011 and began warming officers to the idea of a ...
New Round Of Foreclosures Threatens Housing Market
Post Date: 2010-03-12 12:27:49 by Brian S
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Friday, March 12, 2010; A01 The housing market is facing swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but have yet to lose their homes, and this is threatening a new wave of foreclosures that could hit just as the real estate market has begun to stabilize. About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they ...
U.S. Auto Sales: SAAR Jumps To 12.5 Million, Highest SAAR Since September 2008
Post Date: 2010-03-12 12:14:10 by Brian S
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The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) for U.S. auto sales bounded to 12.5 million in early March. Aside from last August, when Cash-for-Clunkers sales were in full swing, that's the highest SAAR on record since September 2008. The bounce is credited to the vast number of sales incentives currently being offered by automakers. Many of those have come from companies like Ford and General Motors, in hopes of capturing would-be Toyota customers concerned about the safety of Toyota vehicles thanks to the company's high-profile recalls. To defend its territory, Toyota is offering its own set of incentives, including 0% financing for 60 months for qualified buyers on rides like the 20 ...
U.S. Consumer Sentiment Slips in This Month's Gauge Rather Than Increasing
Post Date: 2010-03-12 12:08:35 by Brian S
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March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly declined for a second month in March, a sign Americans are discouraged about the labor market. The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 72.5 from February’s final reading of 73.6. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected the gauge would increase to 74, according to the median estimate. Gains in confidence that may encourage Americans to pick up the pace of spending depend on payroll growth after the loss of 8.4 million jobs the last two years. Retail sales unexpectedly increased last month, a separate report from the Commerce Department showed today. “Spending will ...
Retail Sales in U.S. Unexpectedly Rose in February as Shoppers Braved Snow
Post Date: 2010-03-12 12:07:20 by Brian S
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March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly climbed in February as shoppers braved blizzards to get to the malls, signaling consumers will contribute more to economic growth. Purchases increased 0.3 percent, the fourth gain in the past five months, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Figures for the prior two months were revised down, taking some of the shine off of today’s data. Sales excluding autos rose 0.8 percent, exceeding all estimates. A report last week showing the economy lost fewer jobs than anticipated in February signaled employment is on the verge of accelerating, a development that would spur spending in coming months. Macy’s ...
'Smoking gun' memo reveals Toyota workers' safety fears
Post Date: 2010-03-12 10:54:06 by reaganisright
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Toyota was forced today to turn over to United States congressional investigators a “smoking gun” memo produced by its own factory workers that warned management as far back as 2006 of systemic threats to car safety. The two-page memo, which was drafted by a group of long-term Toyota employees and sent directly to Katsuaki Watanabe, the president of the company in 2006, condemns “safety sacrifices” made by the company in pursuit of profit. The memo highlights the inadequate development times for new vehicles and the general decline of craftsmanship at Japan’s most famous manufacturing business. It concludes that vital processes were now in the hands of ...
U.S. Stocks Gain, Driving S&P 500 to Highest Level Since 2008
Post Date: 2010-03-11 16:33:11 by war
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March 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since October 2008, as Citigroup Inc. and Zions Bancorporation led a bank rally and investors speculated that health-care reform will be harder to pass. Citigroup advanced 5.6 percent as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said the bailed-out bank should be consistently profitable. Zions rose 4.6 percent after telling investors it would make more money lending this quarter. Coventry Health Care Inc. and Aetna Inc. increased more than 3.2 percent after a Senate parliamentarian made it harder for Democrats to use a process known as reconciliation to bypass Republican opposition ...
Americans' Net Worth Up For 3rd Straight Quarter
Post Date: 2010-03-11 12:21:49 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON – American households saw their wealth increase at the end of last year, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios. The Federal Reserve says household net worth rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $54.2 trillion. It marked the third straight quarter of gains. Net worth had risen 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009 and an even stronger 5.5 percent in the third quarter. Net worth is the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments minus debts like mortgages and credit cards. Even with the gain, Americans' net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent to get back to its pre-recession peak of $65.9 trillion. That ...
Big Majority Of Americans Wants Wall Street Regulation
Post Date: 2010-03-11 12:06:25 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An overwhelming majority of Americans wants Wall Street subjected to tougher regulation in the aftermath of the bank bailout and the bonus scandals that have rocked the U.S. financial sector, according to a Harris poll released on Thursday. The findings suggest that 82 percent of Americans want the government to clamp down more strongly on Wall Street excesses, with a particular emphasis on bonus schemes that have rewarded employees at loss-making companies such as American International Group. A Harris release on the February 16-21 telephone survey of 1,010 adults did not specify how financial regulation should be applied but said three-quarters of Americans ...
Foreclosure Rates Up By Smallest Amount In 4 Years
Post Date: 2010-03-11 11:36:30 by Brian S
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(03-11) 07:10 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The foreclosure crisis isn't over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down. RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from a year ago, the smallest annual increase in four years. On the state level, foreclosures declined on a monthly and yearly basis in the hard-hit states of Nevada, Arizona and California, but still grew rapidly in Florida. More than 308,000 households, or one in every 418 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listings company reported. That was down more than 2 percent from January Still, fears remain ...
Biggest Rally in 76 Years Not Dead Yet as Seers See More to Come for Obama
Post Date: 2010-03-11 11:21:34 by Brian S
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March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Laszlo Birinyi will never forget the moment a year ago when the last ounce of confidence disappeared. Everyone from billionaire Warren Buffett to New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini was convinced that the economy was in a free-fall, that exploding deficits would devastate the dollar and that home prices were heading down as much as 20 percent. “At turning points, the mood is always in one direction,” says the 66-year-old Birinyi, who characterized the “total conviction” of pessimists as the start of an advance that would end up making Barack Obama’s first year in office the best for shareholders in 76 years. What’s more, the ...
GM CEO Says On Track For Pre-June Loan Repayment ($8 billion in debt to the United States and Canada)
Post Date: 2010-03-10 17:26:27 by Brian S
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SAN ANTONIO, March 10 (Reuters) - General Motors Co [GM.UL] will pay back roughly $8 billion in debt to the United States and Canada before June, its chief executive said on Wednesday, more quickly than the automaker had promised. CEO Ed Whitacre said in December that GM would pay back government loans extended to finance its restructuring in bankruptcy by June. "I believe we're going to beat that date," Whitacre said on Wednesday in remarks to the Rotary club in San Antonio, Texas, where he lives. "We have restructured and the progress that we've made, I believe, is sustainable," he said. "We're not being crushed under a mountain of debt. We have a ...
Dollar Optimism Soars to 18-Month High as U.S. Outpaces Europe
Post Date: 2010-03-10 13:06:50 by Brian S
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March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Investors are the most bullish on the dollar since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on speculation the U.S. economy will expand at a faster pace than in Europe and Japan, a survey of Bloomberg users showed. The world’s reserve currency will rise over the next six months, according to respondents in the Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index. Sentiment toward the U.S. economy rose among the 1,612 participants in the survey, even as the outlook for global growth fell for a second consecutive month. The dollar strengthened this month to the most since May against the euro on concern Greece’s struggles to close the biggest deficit in the ...
Obama Proving Pessimists Wrong as Rebounding Economy Converges With Stocks
Post Date: 2010-03-10 11:47:37 by Brian S
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March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal. One year after U.S stocks hit their post-financial-crisis low on March 9, 2009, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen more than 68 percent, and it’s up more than 41 percent since Obama took office. Credit spreads have narrowed. Commodity prices have surged. Housing prices have stabilized. “We’ve had a phenomenal run in asset classes across the board,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for ...
Cash for Clunkers: Better Than We Thought
Post Date: 2010-03-10 11:44:23 by Brian S
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government's Cash for Clunkers program resulted in a far bigger boost to car sales than was previously estimated, even by the government, according to a new analysis by Maritz Research, an automotive market research company. Maritz estimates that a total of 765,000 new vehicles were sold because of the program. Those cars wouldn't have rolled off dealer lots without the offer, they say. That's more than double the Department of Transportation's estimate of 346,000 sales that wouldn't otherwise have been made. Maritz' estimate of additional new car sales resulting from the program is actually even larger than the total number of ...
Job Openings in U.S. Climb for Second Month as Employers Gain Confidence
Post Date: 2010-03-09 18:25:43 by Brian S
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March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Job openings in the U.S. rose in January to the highest level in almost a year, signaling employers are gaining confidence as the economic recovery takes hold. Openings increased by 193,000 to 2.72 million, the most since February 2009, the Labor Department said today in Washington. More people were hired and the number of workers fired decreased to the lowest level in almost two years, the report also showed. The figures indicate that the world’s largest economy, which expanded in the second half of 2009, is poised to add workers after payrolls dropped less than anticipated last month. Nonetheless, the labor market will take time to overcome the loss of 8.4 ...
U.S. Economy Could Add 300,000 Jobs This Month, First Trust's Wesbury Says
Post Date: 2010-03-09 12:08:14 by Brian S
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March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy could add 300,000 jobs this month as businesses rebound from blizzards last month that prevented hiring in parts of the country, said Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Portfolios in Wheaton, Illinois. “We could easily see that,” Wesbury said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “I don’t expect to see consistent gains of that size, but clearly March could be that number.” In February, the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent and payrolls fell a less-than-forecast 36,000, the Labor Department reported March 5. Snowstorms prevented an estimated 1 million people from getting to work during the week that the ...
U.S. Employers Anticipate Hiring to Inch Ahead in Second Quarter, According to Manpower Employment Outlook Survey [More Bad News For The Blood Dancers]
Post Date: 2010-03-09 07:51:18 by war
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MILWAUKEE, March 9, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----U.S. employers have modest hiring plans for Quarter 2 2010, according to the results of the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, conducted quarterly by Manpower Inc. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060221/CGTU012LOGO) This quarter's research concludes: Year-Over-Year Increase: With a seasonally adjusted Outlook of +5%, employers indicate a moderate increase in hiring expectations compared to one year ago, when the seasonally adjusted Outlook was -2%. Stability Continues: 73% of employers, a record-tying high, expect to keep staff levels stable, which is good news for the currently employed. Industries ...
Short-Sale Program to Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
Post Date: 2010-03-08 00:29:09 by borntoweardiamonds
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In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions. More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry ...
Labor Market in U.S. Is Poised for Gains as Unemployment Rate Stabilizes
Post Date: 2010-03-06 12:38:19 by Brian S
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March 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. held at 9.7 percent in February and employers cut fewer jobs than anticipated, indicating improvement in the labor market even as East Coast blizzards forced temporary closings of some businesses. Payrolls dropped by 36,000 last month after a revised 26,000 decrease in January, a Labor Department report showed yesterday in Washington. The jobless rate, which has not increased since October, held at 9.7 percent, even as more people entered the workforce. Stocks and the dollar rallied while Treasuries fell as investors reckoned the economy would have added jobs were it not for seasonal snowfall records in cities including Baltimore ...
U.S. Stocks Climb as Job Losses Trail Estimates; Metals Rise
Post Date: 2010-03-05 16:13:08 by war
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By Craig Trudell March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained for a sixth day after a smaller-than-estimated loss of jobs boosted confidence the economic recovery is strengthening. American Express Co and Boeing Co. climbed at least 3.4 percent to help lead gains after the Labor Department said payrolls dropped by 36,000 last month, compared with a decrease of 68,000 estimated in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Alcoa Inc. climbed the third-most in the Dow Jones Industrial Average as metal prices increased. All 40 companies in the S&P 500 Energy Index gained as oil surged to a seven-week high. “The underlying job market is getting healthier, and the ...
GM Plans to Reinstate 661 Dealers to Shore Up U.S. Market Share
Post Date: 2010-03-05 16:01:56 by war
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March 5 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. said it plans to reinstate 661 dealers as the automaker attempts to shore up declining market share. GM offered franchise agreement letters to the dealers, North America President Mark Reuss said today in a statement. “We are eager to restore relationships with our dealers, and get back to doing what we do best -- selling cars and taking care of customers,” Reuss said. “The arbitration process creates uncertainty in the market. We believe issuing these Letters of Intent is good for our customers, our dealers and GM.” The Detroit-based automaker is trying to increase U.S. sales and market share while trimming four of its eight ...
Crude Oil Surges, Gasoline Rises to 17-Month High on U.S. Payrolls Report
Post Date: 2010-03-05 12:41:12 by Brian S
1 Comments
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil surged and gasoline rose to a 17-month high after U.S. employment declined less than forecast in February, bolstering optimism that fuel demand will climb in the world’s biggest energy-consuming country. Oil rose as much as 2.3 percent after the Labor Department reported that payrolls dropped 36,000 last month. The total was forecast to fall by 68,000, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. U.S. fuel use, averaged over the past four weeks, was 19.3 million barrels, up 3 percent from a year earlier, an Energy Department report on March 3 showed. “The employment numbers were quite good relative to expectations, so I’m surprised ...
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