Money world

Sales at U.S. retailers probably declined in February as blizzards kept Americans away from malls and auto-dealer showrooms, economists said before a government report this week.

Purchases dropped 0.2 percent after a 0.5 percent gain the prior month, according to the median estimate of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before Commerce Department figures on March 12. Other reports may show the trade gap widened in January and consumers grew more confident this month.

Figures last week showing the U.S. lost fewer jobs in February than anticipated, overcoming the effects of the snowstorms that caused some companies to temporarily close, signals employment is on the verge of accelerating. More hiring and wage increases will be critical in lifting consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy.

“Retail sales likely would have squeaked out a modest gain if not for the severe snowstorms,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, “consumers will have to spend more freely for the recovery to sustain itself.”

A Labor Department report March 5 showed the economy lost 36,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent for a second month, indicating the labor market is stabilizing.

President Barack Obama, speaking at a Washington-area energy company, said the job report was “actually better than expected.” Even so, he said the number of unemployed is “more than we should tolerate” and urged Congress to pass a jobs bill to help lower unemployment.

Auto Sales

Auto sales fell last month to an annual pace of 10.4 million vehicles from 10.8 million in January, according to industry data last week. Toyota Motor Corp. sales fell 8.7 percent from a year earlier as it struggled with global recalls that halted demand for some models. Ford Motor Co., overcoming the snowstorms that curbed showroom traffic, beat General Motors Co. in monthly sales for the first time since 1998.

Excluding automobiles, retail sales were probably little changed after a 0.6 percent gain the prior month, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Chain stores turned in a better-than-forecast performance last month, compared with a low point last year, industry figures showed last week. Macy’s Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Gap Inc. beat analysts’ estimates in February as holiday sales and spring collections tempted consumers to go shopping in a month of record snowfalls.

Same-Store Sales

February comparable-store sales climbed 4.1 percent, topping the Retail Metrics 3 percent estimate. It was the sixth straight monthly gain and the biggest in 27 months. Purchases fell 4.1 percent in February 2009, Ken Perkins, president of Swampscott, Massachusetts-based Retail Metrics, said last week.

TJX Corporation Inc., an off-price apparel chain, reported a 16 percent sales increase in the four weeks ended Feb. 27 from a year earlier.

“We achieved these sales despite the harsh snowstorms that affected many regions in the country,” said Sherry Lang, investor vice president, in a teleconference on March 4. “The month ended on a stronger note than we had anticipated.”

Households are feeling less pessimistic. The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment for March probably rose to 73.8 from 73.6 a month earlier, according to the Bloomberg survey before the March 12 release.

Fewer Claims

In a sign that job losses are abating, a report from the Labor Department on March 11 may show initial jobless claims fell to 460,000 last week from 469,000 the previous week, according to economists surveyed.

Stocks have recovered from a January slump prompted by concerns of a possible Greek default and government plans to boost oversight over banks. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has gained 6 percent since the end of January.

The economy grew at a 5.9 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, the strongest showing in more than six years as companies tried to stabilize inventories, the government reported last month. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg early last month forecast growth will slow to 3 percent in this quarter.

A Commerce Department report on March 12 may show business inventories rose 0.2 percent in January after dropping 0.2 percent the prior month, according to economists surveyed.

Source

Get free life insurance quotes for All Types of Life Insurance. Find rates for term, whole, veriable, universal life insurance.

Snail mail might soon get even slower.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will incur about $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years if Congress doesn’t permit it to revamp its outdated business model.

The agency is proposing an adjusted mail service schedule, which will likely cut Saturday delivery, and eliminating its prepaid retiree health benefits. That alone, it says, will cut $90 billion in costs over the next 10 years.

The challenges hurting USPS’s bottom line reflect a "macro change in society," Postmaster General Jack Potter said at a press conference Monday previewing the proposed changes. "All posts around the world are challenged, just as we are, by the diversion of hard copy to electronic medium."

USPS unveiled a list of cost cutting measures, including closing some branches and raising its prices, two moves which would both require Congressional approval. The agency also said that it expects to save another $123 billion between now and 2020 by renegotiating transportation contracts, cutting work hours, and expanding use of self-service kiosks in grocery stores and other popular retail spots — measures that don’t require Congressional approval.

USPS is trying to curb steep losses. It posted a $3.8 billion loss in its 2009 fiscal year, the latest in a multiyear string of whopping losses. Mail volume was down 12.7% for the year, a trend the agency expects to continue over the next decade as more consumers opt for online bill payments and message delivery.

The Post Office was $10 billion in debt as of Sept. 30 — not far off from its $15 billion debt limit, which the agency expects to hit in its 2011 fiscal year.

USPS spent $4.8 million on studies by outside consultants, Accenture, the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Co. to forecast a 10-year outlook and present a plan that the agency calls both "ambitious and aggressive." Any changes to the government agency’s business model would have to be reviewed by the Postal Regulatory Commission, presented in a series of public hearings and approved by Congress.

The Post Office, an independent government agency, does not receive taxpayer dollars and is funded entirely by its own revenue. However, the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 constrains the agency’s operations. It prohibits USPS from closing small branches based solely on economic factors, and prevents the agency from expanding its services beyond postal delivery free credit report online.

Post offices in some countries, including Italy and Japan, have boosted their sales by offering ancillary services, like banking. But unless Congress steps in, USPS cannot expand beyond the postal-mail realm.

Postmaster General Potter said relaxing some of the agency’s stringent regulations could allow it to tap into its strengths as one of the largest retail networks in America, as well as "The Most Trusted Government Agency" — a title USPS has won the last five years in a row.

With 32,000 post offices throughout the country, USPS has more retail locations than McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500), Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500), Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) and Walgreens (WAG, Fortune 500) combined, Thomas Dohrmann, partner at McKinsey & Company, said in the presentation Monday. That said, the average foot traffic for a post office is about one tenth of that at Walgreens — a mere 600 weekly customers.

USPS has already begun taking the axe to its budget. The agency made $6 billion in cuts last year, reducing its workforce by about 40,000 employees and chopping overtime hours, transportation costs and other expenses. Congress passed legislation allowing the organization to cut retiree health benefit payments by $4 billion.

Despite those measures, the agency still expects a net loss of $7.8 billion in fiscal 2010.

USPS employs about 600,000 workers and currently has a nationwide hiring freeze. Additionally, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett says he expects to reduce its payrolls by the equivalent of 50,000 full-time employees in fiscal 2010 through natural attrition and by reducing overtime hours. The agency also wants to renegotiate its contracts with four unions in order to gain greater flexibility in scheduling part-time workers and moving employees across departments.

A significant postal price hike is also under consideration, although the price most consumers care about — the rate for a first-class stamp — is locked in at 44 cents for 2010.

"At the end of the day, I’m convinced that if we make the changes that are necessary, we can continue to provide universal service for America for decades to come," Potter said. "We can turn back from the red to the black, but there are some very significant changes that are going to have to be made." 

Source

Quote and apply online or speak with an agent in your area. Compare health insurance plans for individuals and families.

Apple Inc. said in a report posted on its Web site Saturday that an audit of its suppliers found that three hired 11 underage workers to help build its iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer in 2009.

“Apple discovered three facilities that had previously hired 15-year-old workers in countries where the minimum age for employment is 16,” the company said about its onsite audit of 102 factories.

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) said the underage workers were “no longer in active employment at the time of our audit easy payday loans.”

The company said it also found eight cases where excessive recruitment fees were paid, three situations involving hazard waste disposal and three involving falsified records.

The company didn't name the suppliers where violations were found.

Source

Payday loans online from $100 to 1000 loan payday with no faxing. Get cash advance loans now. Click here for immediate funding.

Martek Biosciences Corp., fresh off its $200 million acquisition of Amerifit Brands Inc., is expanding its Columbia headquarters.

The company has leased an additional 22,000 square feet at the Columbia Business Center. Martek (NASDAQ: MATK), in taking the additional space, has also renewed its lease of 66,000 square feet at 6480 Dobbin Road.

The firm, which has other facilities in Colorado, Kentucky and South Carolina, was represented in its lease by Manekin LLC broker Adam Nachlas cash advance. Preston Partners brokers Danielle Schline and Athan Sunderland represented the landlord.

Lease terms were not disclosed.

Source

Solve your money worries and apply for a faxless payday loan today!

For all the right reasons, John Higdon bought into the dream of being the first in his immediate family to earn an undergraduate degree.

"All through high school and college, I thought, ‘I’ll get this piece of paper and it will open up doors that weren’t open to my parents, because they didn’t go to college,’" Higdon, 24, said over a cup of coffee last week.

Instead of opening wide, however, the door cracked after Higdon earned his bachelor’s in finance from Missouri State University in December 2008.

"I’m not where I thought I’d be almost a year after graduating," said Higdon.

Nor are thousands of others in the classes of 2008-09, who marched from the commencement stage into the teeth of the worst job market since the Great Depression.

Higdon did manage to land a job in his chosen field.

But earning a commission cold-calling potential commercial insurance clients is a far cry from employment as an analyst with a prominent financial or investment firm in the St. Louis area — the objective the Hannibal, Mo., native set for himself as an undergraduate.

Nor did his short-term goal include a plan to stay afloat financially by moonlighting behind a bar a few nights a week.

"That’s the norm now," he said. "All my buddies (from Missouri State) are working two jobs, too."

Adding insult to the insult of dual employment that netted him less than $20,000 in 2009 are the bills now coming due: The $315 monthly payments on his $42,000 student loan.

His college education, Higdon said dryly, "is definitely not paying dividends right now."

His won’t be the only one, according to some experts. Look for an exponential increase in the ranks of underemployed graduates struggling to cover an education they hoped would boost their earning potential, said Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University and executive director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. "It’s going to be a long-running crisis independent of the recession," Vedder predicted in a telephone interview from his office in Athens, Ohio.

The economic downturn, he continued, "exacerbates the fact that beginning salaries are lower and the ratio of the amount of (student) loans to those salaries is getting higher and higher. When that happens, you’re getting into problems."

The lag in processing comprehensive higher education data makes it impossible to know how many underemployed 2008-09 graduates are wrangling with student debt.

But the U.S. Department of Education announced in September that the default rate, 6.7 percent, was already on the rise in 2007 — a year before the recession took hold.

More and more students, Vedder said, are deferring payment (and incurring additional debt) by pursuing advanced degrees. The latest statistics from the Council of Graduate Schools bear him out.

From 2007 to 2008, the council said, first-time graduate school enrollment among U.S. students jumped nearly 5 percent — the largest increase since 2002 — according to its survey of schools serving 1.7 million grad students in 2008.

John Drenkhahn of Collinsville opted for graduate school after evaluating the odds of getting a job in electrical engineering following his 2008 graduation from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

"If I hadn’t gone back to school, I would have been competing with other (graduates) along with (experienced) people," said Drenkhahn, 25, who planned to graduate this summer.

While the market hasn’t improved much for graduates, Drenkhahn’s decision appears to have paid off: He landed a job.

"They agreed I’m a little overqualified in terms of education for this position," said Drenkhahn, who will handle customer support for a technical product sold by a company he did not want to name.

Although the master’s degree may not have been the difference in getting the job, Drenkhahn said he found the education useful and expects the advanced degree will help as he tries to move up the ladder. He said his new employer indicated there may be opportunities for advancement.

"That’s all I’m looking for," Drenkhahn said. "That’s all anybody who is graduating right now is looking for."

He said he was thankful to find a job with a local company. Otherwise, he was prepared to expand his search outside the area where he has lived his entire life.

Higdon, meanwhile, is staying put.

He and his girlfriend, a teacher, recently scraped together the down payment on a small condo in Valley Park. A wedding, Higdon said, will start taking shape once his employment situation is settled.

A year into the business, Higdon doesn’t rule out continuing in the insurance field, perhaps as a broker.

As he considers his options, Higdon’s eyes are on two components of the employment market — job openings in the local financial sector and the influx of graduates poised to compete for those positions.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers reports the job outlook for the Class of ‘10 is slightly better than it was for the two preceding classes. Then again, it couldn’t get any worse than 2009, when campus hiring dropped more 20 percent from the year before.

Higdon hopes there’s room in the slightly improved market for him.

"I know it’s a matter of timing, but it’s also a matter of increasing costs," he said. "I didn’t go to Dartmouth or Harvard, I went to a school that cost about $13,000 a year. I thought it was affordable, but it doesn’t pay for itself if your job prospects are poor."

Michele Munz of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Source

Instant online cash advance with next-day cash direct deposit.

Manufacturing will remain at the forefront of a U.S. economic recovery that’s likely to extend at least through the middle of the year as companies invest in new equipment, reports today indicated.

The New York-based Conference Board’s measure of the outlook for the next three to six months increased 0.3 percent in January. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index rose to 17.6 in February from 15.2 as a measure of orders surged to the highest level in more than five years. Readings greater than zero signal growth.

The gains in production aimed at rebuilding inventories and satisfying increased global demand are leading to higher producer prices, a separate report showed. The strength in manufacturing has yet to translate into the hiring necessary to provide more impetus to the economic expansion.

“The manufacturing sector continues to be the sole bright spot in the economic recovery,” said Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies & Co. Inc. in New York. “Until employment picks up, the consumer will still be reluctant to make major purchases.”

U.S. stocks rose for a third day as a rally in commodity shares and the improvement in manufacturing offset disappointing sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a rise in jobless claims. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.7 percent to 1,106.75 at 4:10 p.m. in New York. The 10-year Treasury note fell, pushing up the yield six basis points to 3.8 percent.

Jobless Claims

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly rose last week, indicating improvement in the labor market will be uneven. Initial jobless claims rose by 31,000 to 473,000 in the week ended Feb. 13, the Labor Department in Washington said today.

Economists forecast claims would fall to 438,000, according to the median of 42 projections in a Bloomberg News survey.

Prices paid to factories, farmers and other producers accelerated more than anticipated in January, Labor Department figures showed. The 1.4 percent rise in the producer price index followed a 0.4 percent increase in December and reflected in part higher energy costs.

Raw materials prices surged 9.6 percent in January, the biggest increase since November 2006. Intermediate goods prices, such as lumber and steel mill products that require further processing, also rose.

Economists forecast the Philadelphia Fed’s factory gauge would rise to 17, according to the median of 58 projections in a Bloomberg survey. Estimates ranged from zero to 23.

The Fed bank’s gauge of factory employment rose to 7.4, the highest level since October 2007, while its new orders measure rose to the highest level since September 2004.

Sentiment Gauge

The overall index number isn’t composed of the individual measures, so some economists consider it a gauge of sentiment among manufacturers.

“Business is back in business,” Caterpillar Inc. Chief Executive Officer James Owens said Feb. 11 at a news conference for the Business Council’s survey on CEO sentiment. “While we may be expecting a bit of a sluggish recovery, at least solid economic growth, stability in compensation and maybe some growth there, and increasing investment,” is occurring.

Five of the 10 indicators in the Conference Board’s leading index contributed to the gain, led by the yield curve, supplier deliveries and the factory workweek. Four of the components fell. Higher jobless claims, a drop in the money supply and fewer building permits weighed on the index.

Helping fuel the gain in the leading index last month was an increase in hours worked at U.S. factories, to 40.8 in January, from 40.6 in December, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department. That was the highest since August 2008.

Manufacturing Jobs

Manufacturers added 11,000 jobs in January, the first increase in three years, Labor Department figures showed on Feb. 5. Overall payrolls declined by 20,000 during the month as construction companies and state and local governments cut back.

The world’s largest economy will probably expand at a 3 percent annual rate this quarter and 2.8 percent from April through June, according to the median estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg earlier this month.

Eaton Corp. is seeing demand increase in its auto and trucks unit, which Chief Executive Officer Sandy Cutler said is typical early in an economic cycle. The global recovery will be a more muted rebound with higher-than-normal growth from underdeveloped countries, he said.

“I think 2010 in many ways is a transitional year,” Cutler said in an interview. In the U.S., “part of what we are seeing now is the early cycle businesses are recovering.”

Source

Get quick cash with no faxing required!

Tyson Foods and the League of United Latin American Citizens are donating 15 tons of meat and other protein-rich food to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

The more than 30,000 pounds of meat donated Feb. 12 will be distributed to partner agencies in six counties and are part of Tyson’s and LULAC’s three-year commitment to fight hunger.

The new donation brings Tyson’s total in-kind donations since 2000 to more than 71 million pounds.

“Donations of poultry and other high protein foods are especially valuable as they allow us to provide our member agencies with more healthy, nutritious options,” said Dave Krepcho, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. “Every year, our agencies are seeing an increase in need. This significant donation will help local agencies feed our many hungry neighbors.”

S 2010 study on hunger in Central Florida showed there was a 152 percent increase in people receiving food assistance since 2006. Approximately 54,000 Central Floridians are in need of food assistance each week business card.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a member of Feeding America, which is the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S. It serves about 500 agencies that feed the hungry throughout Central Florida, providing enough food for 14 million meals annually.

The League of United Latin American Citizens has approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. It is the largest and oldest Hispanic organization, advocating for Latino civil rights, in the United States.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN), based in Springdale, Ark., is one of the world’s largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef and pork, the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500 and a member of the S&P 500. It provides products and services to customers throughout the United States and more than 90 countries with approximately 117,000 employees at more than 400 facilities and offices worldwide.

Source

Save up to $500 on your auto insurance! Compare car insurance rates, or get an insurance quote online.

Stocks struggled Wednesday as investors weighed the Greek debt situation, a strong dollar and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s plan for eventually withdrawing some of the trillions of dollars used to bolster the nation’s financial system.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 20 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 index (SPX) lost 2 points, or 0.2% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 3 points, or 0.1%.

Stocks rallied Tuesday as growing bets that the European Union will rescue Greece from its debt problems reassured investors after a four-week selloff. But stocks were choppy Wednesday on concerns that Greece is just the first of many countries that is feeling the pressure of a growing deficit.

Stocks also remain vulnerable to a retreat in the aftermath of 2009’s big rally, in which the S&P 500 gained 23%. In the last nine months of 2009, it gained 65%, bouncing off 12-year lows hit in March.

"Greece’s issues will get addressed, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bigger market pullback in the weeks ahead anyway," said Tim McCandless, senior equity analyst at Bel Air Investment Advisors.

However, he said that a larger retreat would probably be met with buyers stepping in at lower levels. Since hitting a rally high on Jan. 19, the S&P 500 is down almost 7%, as of Wednesday’s close.

Bernanke’s comments on the Fed’s plans to wind down its extraordinary measures to bolster lending and the strengthening of the dollar versus the euro were also in play Wednesday.

Bank shares bounced up after several down sessions, countering some of the broader weakness in the market. The KBW Bank (BKX) index gained 1%.

Thursday brings reports on January retail sales, December business inventories and weekly jobless claims.

Bernanke: The Federal Reserve chairman said that while the U.S. economy continues to require the support of emergency programs the Fed enacted at the height of the financial crisis, "at some point the Federal Reserve will need to tighten financial conditions."

He said that the Fed will pull cash from the system before it lifts interest rates, and that its decision to boost the emergency "discount" rate is not the same as a shift in policy. The prepared testimony was meant to be delivered at a House Financial Services Committee hearing that was postponed due to snow.

Debt crisis: Reports late Wednesday said France and Germany may present a rescue plan for Greece at Thursday’s meeting of euro zone countries. Meanwhile, Greece has vowed to press forward with cutbacks, despite an ongoing worker strike.

Although Greece’s impact is small, the threat of a default there has intensified worries about other debt-challenged European countries, including Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy paydayloans. A crisis overseas would set back the still-fragile global economic recovery and hurt U.S. financial institutions. Investors are also keeping an eye on the growing U.S. budget deficit.

"Even if the EU comes in and stabilizes the debt issue in Greece, my concern is that we still have so much debt around the globe that hasn’t been addressed," said Dean Barber, president at Barber Financial Group.

The debt crisis has sparked something of a flight from risk over the last few weeks, with investors choosing government bonds and the dollar over stocks. Investors have fled the euro in favor of the greenback and have sold dollar-traded commodities, commodity stocks and a broad swath of securities in other sectors.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have all declined the past four weeks, despite improved quarterly earnings and revenues, and some positive signs in the economic reports.

Despite Tuesday’s rally, the market is likely to stay a "choppy mess" for a while, Barber said.

Economy: The December trade gap widened to $40.2 billion in December from a revised $36.4 billion in November, the government reported Wednesday morning. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would narrow to $35.8 billion. The widening reflected a pick-up in imports amid the recovering economy.

Walt Disney: The media behemoth reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue in a report released after the close of trading Tuesday. Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) shares rose 0.6%.

World markets: European markets mostly ended higher, while Asian markets ended with strong gains.

The dollar and commodities: The U.S. dollar rallied versus the euro and the Japanese yen.

U.S. light crude oil for March delivery rose 77 cents to settle at $74.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery fell 90 cents to settle at $1,076.30.

Bonds: Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.68% from 3.64% late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers narrowly edged winners on volume of 1 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers on volume of 2.04 billion shares.  

Source

Payday loans no faxing fall on the less risky side simply because the money loaned to you is a percentage of your next paycheck.

Good news for Zhu Zhu fans: The fuzzy electronic hamsters have quickly multiplied from just four last year to more than 40 new ones that will hit stores by summer.

The $10 Zhu Zhu Pets, which scurry around the floor making squeaks and interact with each other in separately sold habitats, were the hottest-selling toys of 2009.

According to Cepia Inc., the company that launched the toys last year, more than 7 million U.S. households are already owners of Zhu Zhu hamsters such as the hugely popular "Mr. Squiggles" and "Pipsqueak."

Bruce Katz, vice president at Cepia, said the company has so far raked in about $70 million from worldwide sales of these toy rodents.

But that was last year. The buzz ahead of the upcoming annual Toy Fair in New York is all about what Cepia has in its toy chest for this year.

Katz provided a sneak peek on Thursday. Among the new Zhu Zhus is a line of four hamsters called Rockstars names "Pax," "Kingston," "Rider" and "Roxie." The names are inspired by the children of celebrities, including Angelina Jolie and Gwen Stefani.

"Rockstars are the first long-haired hamsters with attitude," said Katz. Although the hamsters don’t interact with each other, Katz said a smart chip in each toy gives it its own unique personality.

Katz said the new "Wild Bunch" collection extends the brand beyond hamsters. "There’s a skunk, hedgehog, raccoon and a bunny," he said.

"The appeal of this new collection is that these are animals that every child wants to have but parents won’t let them have it," said Katz

There’s also a much-anticipated Kung Zu line of fighter hamsters geared primarily for boys aged 8 to 12.

Cepia will introduce 40 new Zhu Zhu characters in total this year, launching a new line every six weeks, said Katz.

And if that isn’t enough Zhu Zhu for you, Katz said Cepia is introducing new "play environments" that include cars, boats, an elevator and a beauty salon for these toy hamsters.

"The car, boat and other toys are all hamster powered," said Katz, explaining that the running wheels on each Zhu Zhu toy powers the car, boat and elevator into action.

But given that kids can easily become bored with one type of toy, isn’t Cepia worried about a Zhu Zhu overkill?

"We think that with what we shipped last year, we’re not even close to fulfilling demand in the marketplace," said Katz. "Kids love to collect, and there’s a strong collectible aspect to Zhu Zhu." 

Source

When faced with a financial crisis, consumers more often are opting to pay their credit-card bills first before turning to their mortgage payments, according to a report released by Trans Union Wednesday.

In the past, strapped consumers typically would let their credit cards slide and make sure their mortgages were covered, said Sean Reardon, the study’s author and a consultant at the Chicago-based credit bureau. But those priorities flipped in the first quarter of 2008, according to the study, and the trend has been picking up steam.

In fact, 6.6% of consumers were delinquent on their mortgages, but current on their credit cards in the third quarter of 2009, according to the most recent data available. Meanwhile, just 3.6% were behind on their credit cards and current on their mortgages.

Why the change? A "perfect storm" of deteriorating housing prices and rising unemployment is likely the reason, Reardon said. It’s much easier for consumers to walk away from mortgage payments when their homes aren’t building equity, he said, than to neglect their credit cards when that may be the only way they’re covering daily expenses.

Just two years earlier, in the third quarter of 2007, the situation was reversed: 3.95% of consumers were delinquent on their mortgages, and current on their credit cards, while 4.6% were behind on their credit cards and current on their mortgages.

In California and Florida — two of the states hit hardest by the burst housing bubble — consumers were even more likely to pay their credit cards before their mortgages.

In California, 10.2% were delinquent on their mortgages but current on their credit cards in the third quarter of 2009, vs. 2.7% in the reverse situation. In Florida, 12.4% were behind on their mortgages and current on their credit cards, compared to 3.9% in the opposite situation.

Trans Union conducted the study among consumers that had at least one credit card and one mortgage, and examined 30-day credit card and mortgage delinquency data between the second quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009.  

Source