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2005-09-05 |
Hurricane Katrina May Curb Economic Growth Into
2005 and 2006: Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the U.S. Gulf Coast will hit the world's biggest economy harder than any previous storm, economists say, but the blow to growth could be more than offset later by the boost from reconstruction.
Katrina's destructive journey across the southern United States last week wrecked New Orleans, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and may have killed thousands.
Damage is estimated at $25 billion and disruption to U.S. refineries pushed oil prices to record highs above $70 a barrel. The physical and psychological damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is likely to reverberate across the global economy in ways that will curb growth well into 2006, economists say.
A spike in already-high energy costs in the United States and around the world tops the list of risks, especially since oil prices are unlikely to return to the levels of early 2004 when they were 50 percent lower than they are today, according to International Monetary Fund
(IMF) Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato.
(International Monetary Fund:
http://www.imf.org) |
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2005-09-04
Dr. Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
He also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. |
Federal Reserve-Plans for Interest Rate Increases: The Federal Reserve is being forced to rethink its plans for interest rate increases in the face of the calamity spawned by Hurricane Katrina in a strategic economic region.
The bond and futures markets have shifted the odds of a further move by the US central bank, which has implemented 10 quarter-point increases as part of a gradual effort to normalize interest rates.
Yields on the bond market have fallen since the storm tore through the southeast as investors bet on a weaker economy.
(U.S. Federal Reserve
http://www.federalreserve.gov)
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2005-09-02 |
Report: US Congress approves $10.5 billion to cover the immediate rescue and relief efforts.
The United States and European nations tap
oil-and-gasoline stockpiles for 2 million
barrels a day, hoping to stem gas shortages.
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2005-09-01 |
Report:
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] announced today that it will donate $1 million to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and will match employee and retiree contributions to that organization through the company's Employees Community Fund. The match is dollar-for-dollar for employees and 50 cents-on-the-dollar for eligible employees retired from Boeing. It extends through September 26.
(Contact: Susan Birkholtz, Boeing World Headquarters, 1-312-544-2927)
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2005-08-31 |
Report: President Bush authorizes a draw-down from the nation's Strategic Petroleum reserve. Gasoline prices surge above $3 a gallon and shortages crop up. Five offshore Louisiana oil rigs are reported missing and two more are adrift.
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2005-08-26 |
Jobless Claims Fall to Four-Year Low: The number of people receiving unemployment benefits reached a four-year low last week, fresh evidence of a strengthening economy. The number of laid-off workers receiving jobless benefits averaged 2.58 million over the four weeks ending last week, the lowest four-week average since March 2001, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
(Labor Department Employment & Training Administration:
http://www.ows.doleta.gov )
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2005-08-23 |
Durable Goods See Biggest Fall in 18 Months:
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new bookings for "durable" goods — big-ticket items expected to last at least three years — declined by 4.9 percent in July from the previous month.
It marked the biggest drop since January 2004, when durable-goods orders fell by 5.7 percent.
The last time durable-goods orders fell was in March. Since then, manufacturers have been seeing bookings go up. In June, orders went up by 1.9 percent.
(New York Stock Exchange Information
on Yahoo! Finances)
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2005-08-15 |
Agilent to Sell Unit for $2.66B, Cut Jobs: Dramatically narrowing its corporate focus, Agilent Technologies Inc. is shedding its chip
unit and spinning off other assets as it
concentrates on the test-and-measurement
business at its historic core. About 1,300
jobs will be cut in the reorganization, which
will take the company back to roots that extend
to the earliest days of its former parent,
Hewlett-Packard Co. Agilent was spun off from HP
in 2000.
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2005-08-12 |
A New Deal for British Airways: British Airways PLC and the U.S. company that provides its in flight meals agreed Tuesday to a new deal, delaying the catering company from filing for bankruptcy. But talks between the caterer and a union, on which the deal hinged, hit a stumbling block.
Gate Gourmet, which prompted the cancellation of hundreds of BA flights earlier this month when the airline's ground staff joined a strike by the caterer's workers, had given a deadline of 5 p.m. local time (1800GMT) Tuesday to reach an improved commercial deal with BA or face a bankruptcy filing.
That deadline passed, but later Tuesday the airline and the caterer, which provides 80,000 in-flight meals to BA each day, confirmed they had agreed to terms of a new deal. As a result, Gate Gourmet said it had deferred its decision to enter into administration.
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| 2005-08-11 |
July Retail Sales Surge on Auto Buying: U.S. retail sales surged 1.8 percent last month as buyer incentives led to the biggest gain in auto sales since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when carmakers flying the flag put in place zero percent financing deals, a government report showed on Thursday.
July's retail-sales jump followed a similarly healthy 1.7 percent rise in June, the Commerce Department said. However, the increase fell short of Wall Street forecasts for a 2.2 percent gain.
Auto sales shot up 6.7 percent, their sharpest rise since October 2001, as Ford and DaimlerChrysler joined General Motors in extending employee discounts to all consumers. The unusual sales incentives led the department to alter the way in which it usually smooths the data for seasonal factors.
Excluding autos, retail sales rose a modest 0.3 percent last month - below forecasts for a 0.6 percent gain.
The non-autos increase reflected a rise in gasoline prices that gave a boost to gas station sales, which rose 2.4 percent. Excluding both autos and gasoline, retail sales would have been unchanged in July, the department said.
The report showed a sharp 1.3 percent drop in furniture sales after a 2.2 percent jump in June. Building material sales slipped 0.4 percent.
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2005-08-10
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Soaring Oil Prices Mute Wall Street Rally : Oil prices that soared to $65 a barrel choked off an early rally on Wall Street Wednesday, pummeling the market's optimism about the economy in the process. The tech-focused Nasdaq composite index also was hurt by a disappointing forecast from networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc.
Analysts said investors had begun the day confident that the U.S. economy will stay strong, absorbing both higher short-term interest rates and rising gasoline prices. But the erosion of stocks' early advance — the Dow Jones industrials had gained more than 100 points, extending a rally from Tuesday — was proof that many investors remained uneasy and inclined to sell when oil climbs higher.
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2005-08-08 |
Wal-Mart Asks Appeals Court to Block Suit :
Wal-Mart has repeatedly denied there is a pattern of discrimination, and argues the number of men in management positions reflects the higher number of applications it receives from men - a defense that has been successfully used in other discrimination cases.
Lawyers for Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. urged a federal appeals court on Monday to block a sex-discrimination lawsuit against it that could cost the retailer an estimated billions of dollars.
The retailer is seeking to overturn a June 2004 U.S. District Court decision certifying as class-action a lawsuit that now covers more than 1.6 million women and charges Wal-Mart with discriminating against female workers in pay, promotions and training.
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2005-08- 05 |
Consumer credit up $14.51 bln in June: U.S. consumer credit rose
an unexpectedly large $14.51 billion in June, the biggest increase
in eight months, as both credit card use and closed-end lending
surged, a Federal Reserve report showed on Friday. The central bank
said total consumer debt outstanding grew to a seasonally adjusted
$2.146 trillion, reversing direction after a revised $1.23 billion
decline in May.
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