Global finance blog - news, jokes, life…

Last minute shoppers gave merchants a solid lift during the final week before Christmas, according to a report from a mall trade group Wednesday.

Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 0.9 percent for the week ended Saturday compared with the previous week. That is also up 3.4 percent from the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index.

Revenue at stores opened at least a year for the week ended Saturday rose 4.5 percent compared with the same period a year ago. The index serves as a sales proxy to 24 major stores including Macy’s Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.

“The downs and ups were much more accentuated,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the council. “It just shows how cautious the consumer is. Consumers are bargain hunters more today than ever before personal loan for poor credit.”

For the week ended on Nov. 26, which included the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, stores had the biggest sales surge compared with the prior week since 1993, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs weekly index. The cumulative two-week-sales drop-off that followed marked the biggest percentage decline since 2000. Then, during the final two weeks before Christmas, sales surged again, by the highest rate since 2005, Niemira says.

“The holiday season was good but uneven,” Niemira said.

ICSC expects that holiday sales for the November and December combined will be in line with its forecast of 3.5

Source

The road has been heavily patched, and there’s no room to pull over to change a tire.

Welcome to the twin Interstate 270 bridges over the Chain of Rocks Canal, the 8½-mile, manmade bypass to the Mississippi River.

The Illinois Department of Transportation will soon replace the aging spans in Madison County. Built in 1963, the truss bridges are in need of repair and are too narrow to accommodate more lanes in the future.

Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago has been awarded a $104 million contract to build the new four-lane bridge, which will be just north of the existing bridges.

Traffic will remain on the existing bridges while the new span is built, said Paul Grabowski, an engineer at the Illinois Department of Transportation. He predicted “minimal” effects on traffic while construction is under way. The new bridge should be open to traffic by December 2013.

The plan stands in sharp contrast to the one being used by the Missouri Department of Transportation to renovate the westbound Blanchette Bridge span over the Missouri River between St. Charles and St. Louis counties.

That project, which is also being carried out by Walsh Construction, will require eastbound and westbound traffic to temporarily share the current eastbound span.

For the Illinois bridge, Grabowski said, some earthwork already has begun on Chouteau Island, between the Mississippi River and the canal, in preparation for temporary lanes. Earth is also being moved near the western abutment.

The new bridge will have room for a third lane in the future. Until then, the bridge will have two lanes and an extra merging lane cash advance loan no fax.

Grabowski said the deck was in poor condition and the structural steel needed repair.

The truss spans over Chain of Rocks Canal are similar to the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis in 2007. But Grabowski said it was structurally adequate.

The new bridge will be a single span and will resemble the Poplar Street Bridge.

Glenn Scott of Wildwood drives over the two bridges every day while making his 49-mile commute to work in the Metro East.

Although he travels in the opposite direction of the heaviest commuter traffic, he has been caught in traffic jams when highway crews make frequent repairs. That kind of work is usually done at nonpeak times of day.

“It definitely is one of the worst sections of road I drive on on any kind of regular basis,” Scott said. “As often as they’ve worked on that section of roadway, you’d think it would be in pristine shape. But it’s really pretty rough.”

The new I-270 bridge will cross the Chain of Rocks Canal, which opened in 1954. The canal allows barge traffic to bypass a treacherous reach of the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis.

Illinois is awaiting necessary permits from the Army Corps of Engineers. Mike Petersen, a spokesman for the corps, said the agency was reviewing the project before granting IDOT a temporary easement to begin construction.

The current I-270 bridges over the Chain of Rocks Canal carry nearly 55,000 cars a day.

Source

Declaring Japan has turned a corner in the battle to stabilize its tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced Friday the facility has achieved a stable state of “cold shutdown,” a crucial step toward lifting evacuation orders and closing the plant.

Noda’s announcement was intended to reassure the nation that significant progress has been made in the nine months since the March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

But the plant 140 miles (230 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo remains vulnerable to problems, its surroundings are contaminated by radiation and closing the plant safely will take 30 or more years.

“The reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant have reached a state of cold shutdown,” Noda said. “Now that we have achieved stability in the reactors, a major concern for the nation has been resolved.”

Noda said he hopes conditions will improve quickly so that the people who have been displaced by the crisis can return home “even a day sooner.”

“There are many issues that remain,” Noda said. “Our battle is not over.”

The government’s official endorsement of the claim by Tokyo Electric Power Co. that the reactors have reached cold shutdown status is a necessary step toward revising evacuation zones around the plant and focusing efforts from simply stabilizing the facility to actually starting the arduous process of shutting it down.

But Noda acknowledged the assessment has some important caveats.

The government says Fukushima Dai-ichi has reached cold shutdown “conditions”_ a cautious phrasing reflecting the fact that TEPCO cannot measure temperatures of melted fuel in the damaged reactors in the same way as with normally functioning ones.

Even so, the announcement marks the end of the second phase of the government’s lengthy roadmap to completely decommission the plant.

Officials can now start discussing whether to allow some evacuees to return to less-contaminated areas _ although a 12-mile (20-kilometer) zone around the plant is expected to remain off limits for years to come. The crisis displaced some 100,000 people.

Noda said the government will step up decontamination efforts and will ready 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) for urgently needed projects next year. He also said 30,000 workers will be trained.

A cold shutdown normally means a nuclear reactor’s coolant system is at atmospheric pressure and its reactor core is at a temperature below 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius), making it impossible for a chain reaction to take place.

According to TEPCO, temperature gauges inside the Fukushima reactors show the pressure vessel is at around 70 C (158 F). The government also says the amount of radiation now being released around the plant is at or below 1 millisievert per year _ equivalent to the annual legal exposure limit for ordinary citizens before the crisis began.

Akira Yamaguchi, a nuclear physicist at Osaka University, said that the government’s definition of cold shutdown is disputable.

“But what’s most important right now is that there aren’t any massive radiation leaks any more,” he said.

Putting longer-term issues aside, he warned that much of the backup equipment installed at the plant since the crisis began is makeshift and may break down. He said winter cold could test their strength.

Source

TNK-BP, a Russian joint venture of British oil giant BP, said Wednesday it will invest up to $10 billion in developing Arctic oilfields.

The company, half-owned by BP and Russian billionaires, said in a statement that up to $10 billion will be spent on building infrastructure at the fields and a pipeline that will link them with the export pipeline.

Russian oil companies have been drawing up plans to move to the oil and gas-rich Arctic as mature fields in Western Siberia are getting depleted.

TNK-BP said an agreement with Russia’s pipeline monopolist Transneft will allow it to connect its Arctic oil fields to the export pipeline in Russia’s Far East mainly aimed at Chinese customers.

TNK-BP will be able to ship oil through the Zapolyaryev-Purpe pipeline, which is expected to be built by 2016 to become a key link between Arctic resources and the main east and westbound pipeline routes.

The company said it expects to start shipments from new fields in the Yamal region in 2015. Its fields in the region are estimated to hold 5 billion barrels of oil.

TNK-BP’s executive German Khan described in the statement cooperation between oil companies and state-owned Transneft as “one of the most important conditions for putting new fields into development and efficiently developing the abundant resources of the region.”

Source

Applause and cheers rang out after Unionized Boeing Machinists voted overwhelmingly to approve a four-year contract extension _ a deal that grants the company labor peace and likely ends a federal complaint that had become a hot topic for Republican presidential candidates.

Boeing promised that if workers approved the pact, the company would build the new version of the popular 737 in the Puget Sound region, while the Machinists said they’d drop their allegations that Boeing opened a nonunion assembly plant in South Carolina in retaliation for previous strike.

“This contract signifies jobs throughout the Northwest, throughout the region,” said the union’s aerospace coordinator, Mark Blondin. “The message of this contract is … Boeing is acknowledging we have the deepest pool of skilled aerospace workers in the country.”

Dozens union members sounded their approval with cheers Wednesday night as Tom Wroblewski, president of Machinists District Lodge 751, announced that 74 percent of voting members chose to approve the deal.

The union represents 28,000 workers in Washington, Oregon and Kansas.

Machinists went on strike in 2005 and 2008. The latter strike helped delay delivery of Boeing’s first 787, costing the company dearly.

“This contract will help secure a better future for our employees, our customers, our communities and our company,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “It reflects an effort on the part of the company and the union to find a better way to work together and achieve common ground.”

The deal guarantees Chicago-based Boeing a stretch of labor peace at a time when it badly needs it. Competition with European rival Airbus is tight, and looming budget cuts at the Defense Department are likely to cut into the company’s defense business.

In a lawsuit filed this year, the National Labor Relations Board claimed Boeing violated labor laws by opening the South Carolina line. The case became a political issue, with Republican presidential candidates using it to bash the Obama administration. South Carolina Gov cash advance. Nikki Haley and the state’s congressional delegation said the NLRB lawsuit threatened thousands of jobs and millions of dollars invested in the new Boeing facility in Charleston.

The labor board is an independent agency dominated by the president’s appointees. As part of the deal, the Machinists said they’d drop the matter. If the NLRB follows suit, it would remove a potentially damaging element for Obama in the 2012 campaign.

The deal extends the Machinists’ contract to September 2016. It calls for annual wage increases of 2 percent, cost-of-living adjustments, an incentive program intended to pay bonuses between 2 percent and 4 percent, a ratification bonus of $5,000 for each member, and improvements in the pension program. But it also would raise workers’ share of health costs.

Blondin said Boeing’s pension is the most generous in the country, and he hoped the fact that Boeing is retaining it for new hires would prompt other companies to do likewise: “As we all know pension plans have gone away,” he said. “We can get pensions back. They are affordable.”

Crucially for the union, it would ensure that jobs for Boeing’s updated 737 line _ the 737 Max _ stay in the Puget Sound region. Boeing said in July it was studying other locations for the new 737.

“It’s jobs for the people and not having to worry about a strike _ it’s beautiful,” said Gabrielle Rogano, a third-generation Boeing employee who works at a shipping and receiving center in SeaTac.

Wilson Ferguson, a delivery mechanic, wore a Santa suit as he helped count votes Wednesday night _ having come straight from volunteering to pose for photos with children of union members. The 24-year Boeing veteran has participated in the last four strikes, and said it’s a huge relief not to face another.

“Nobody wins, you never recover,” he said. “With this economy, it’s not the time to go on strike.”

Source

Markets were boosted again on Tuesday by hopes that the 17 countries that use the euro will finally come up with a plan to deal with their crushing debt crisis.

As the 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters in a desperate bid to save their currency _ and to protect the global economy from a debt-induced financial tsunami _ investors were reminded of the urgency of the task at hand.

Italy’s borrowing rates shot up Tuesday to above 7 percent, an unsustainable level on a par with rates that forced the others to seek bailouts.

The fear is that the crisis _ which already has forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ could engulf bigger economies such as Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest. If Italy were to default on its debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion), the fallout could spell ruin for the euro project itself and send shock waves throughout the global economy.

Though no specific details have yet emerged of what will likely result from a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders, the ministers are thought to be discussing ideas that would have been taboo only recently: countries ceding fiscal sovereignty to a central authority; some kind of elite group of euro nations that would guarantee one another’s loans _ but require strong fiscal discipline from anyone wanting membership.

On Tuesday, finance ministers also were likely to discuss the options _ plus a possible way to boost the region’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, at a meeting in Brussels.

“Global equity markets have started the week hopeful that EU policymakers are actually moving closer to resolving the eurozone debt and banking crisis, with hopes pinned on reports that France and Germany are planning a ‘fast-track’ updated Stability Pact to both tighten budget rules and provide fiscal policy oversight,” said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

On Monday, stocks advanced strongly, particularly in Europe, with the CAC-40 in France up a massive 5 percent or so.

As a result, the gains Tuesday were not as marked but did provide some further evidence of the hopes that European leaders will finally get their act together in around 10 days time.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX was up 0.2 percent at 5,747, while the CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent at 3,026. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 percent higher at 5,320. The euro, meanwhile, was up 0.4 percent at $1.3346.

Wall Street was poised for further gains, too, amid ongoing evidence of a strong start to the U.S. holiday shopping season. Dow futures were up 0.5 percent at 11,555, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.6 percent at 1,198.

Earlier, most Asian markets ended higher, with the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo climbing 2.3 percent to close at 8,477.82.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.3 percent to 1,856.52 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.2 percent to 18,256.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Australia were also higher.

Mainland Chinese shares advanced, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.2 percent to 2,412.39.

Oil prices tracked equities modestly higher _ benchmark crude for January delivery was up 49 cents to $98.70 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source

By the time the sun rose Friday morning, exhausted shoppers were dozing, slumped over in chairs at area malls, surrounded by shopping bags.

It was one sign that the midnight Black Friday sales were a hit with many deal-hungry consumers who took retailers up on their promotions and literally shopped until they dropped.

By 8 a.m. Friday, marathon shoppers and sisters Tina Hamilton of Bridgeton and Lisa Gray of Overland had already been shopping for about 10 hours. They started at Walmart around 10 p.m., then went to a Target opening at midnight, followed by Kmart at 5 a.m. and then to West County Center.

You have to have a strategy, Hamilton said. And, apparently, a lot of endurance.

“Your body is so broken down after cooking all day and then you stood in line to get a TV that didn’t go on sale until midnight,” Gray said.

There were few signs of consumer backlash to the midnight openings other than some shoppers who showed up later Friday morning because they said they were unhappy that stores made employees work on the holiday.

Black Friday, considered the start of the holiday shopping season, is closely watched by economists because of the important role retail sales play in fueling the economy.

Last year, the Thanksgiving shopping weekend accounted for 12.1 percent of overall holiday sales, according to ShopperTrak, a research firm. Black Friday made up about half of that no fax payday loans.

Greg Maloney, chief executive of retail for commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, said he thinks this will end up being an even better Black Friday than originally anticipated. He saw more customers leaving the stores with bags in hand this year. The relatively good weather around the country helped, too, he said.

“It’s a great start to the holidays,” he said. “If I had to predict, I would say next year you’ll see most if not all retailers opening up (Thanksgiving night) and staying open all night.”

Sean Phillips, regional marketing director for CBL & Associates, which operates many shopping malls in the region, said the midnight openings seemed to be a big success for those mall-based stores with special doorbuster deals such as Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, and Bath & Body Works.

“A lot of the stores I talked to this morning did think the midnight opening was going to help them meet or exceed their sales,” he said Friday afternoon. “They felt it brought in a lot of new sales.”

A record number of shoppers are expected this weekend. For three days starting on Black Friday, 152 million people are expected to shop, either online or in stores, an increase of about 10 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

The midnight sales seemed to draw more of a younger crowd

Business orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell for a second straight month in October.

While much of the weakness came from a big drop in demand for commercial aircraft, a key category that tracks business investment spending fell by the largest amount since January.

The Commerce Department says that orders for durable goods fell 0.7 percent in January following a September decline of 1.5 percent. Orders for core capital goods, considered a good proxy for business investment spending, dropped 1 payday loans for bad credit.8 percent, the biggest decline since a 4.8 percent fall in January.

Manufacturing has been one of the strongest sectors in the economy in this sub-par recovery, but this sector slowed this year as consumer demand faltered and auto factories had trouble getting parts following the March natural disasters in Japan.

Source

ST. PETERS

TORONTO