Money world

The number of first-time filers for unemployment insurance rose to the highest level since late February last week, according to a weekly government report released Thursday.

There were 484,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Aug. 7, up 2,000 from an upwardly revised 482,000 the previous week, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report.

That’s the highest number since the week ended Feb. 20, when 486,000 people filed for first-time benefits.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected new claims to fall to 465,000.

Initial claims have been stuck in the the mid- to upper- 400,000s since November.

"It’s just more of the same," said John Canally, an economist with LPL Financial. "This data doesn’t break out of the range, and that’s going to continue until companies can see their way to adding some jobs."

Canally points to the latest productivity numbers released in a separate report on Tuesday that show companies may have stretched their employees too thin. The Labor Department said worker productivity fell 0.9% in the second quarter, the first decline in 18 months.

That data may mean employers need to start hiring again. But instead, companies have been spending on new equipment and capital - rather than their payrolls - as they remain skeptical of the economic outlook, he said.

"Companies have the cash. Their profits are good. They have credit if they need it. They just haven’t been willing to step up new hiring," Canally said.

Continuing claims: The government said 4,452,000 people continued to file unemployment claims for their second week or more, during the week ended July 31, the most recent data available.

That’s down from an upwardly revised 4,570,000 the week before.

Standard unemployment benefits usually last 26 weeks, and the continued claims number does not include those who have moved into state or federal extensions, or people whose benefits have expired but may still be without a job.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for weekly initial claims was 473,500, up from 459,250 the previous week.

The Labor Department tracks the four-week moving average of the weekly figures to smooth out the volatility of the measure.

The national unemployment rate currently stands at 9.5%.

State by state: Jobless claims in six states increased by more than 1,000 in the week ended July 31, the most recent state data available. Claims in Wisconsin increased the most, by 1,901. 

Source

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

Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) bounced back from a loss of $39.9 million, or 26 cents per share, during the second quarter last year to a profit of $9.1 million, or 6 cents per share, this past quarter, the company announced Monday night.

Total revenue for the quarter was $224.8 million, a 25 percent increase from the comparable period last year.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Range has its regional base in Canonsburg, Pa., and is one of the most active drillers in the Marcellus Shale. According to the earnings release, by the end of June the company “had drilled 146 horizontal Marcellus wells to date of which 29 are awaiting completion and four are awaiting pipeline hook up easy payday loans.”

The company stated that Marcellus production “continues to exceed expectations.”

“Drilling rigs are becoming more efficient as are completions and production operations,” the report stated. “These efficiencies, coupled with being ahead of schedule on production volumes, are allowing us to add an additional $210 million of capital to the Marcellus project in 2010.”

Source

Now you are not supposed to compromising with your needs just lack of few funds as payday loans are available to you.

The "Keep Austin Weird" campaign must have worked, because the Texas capital is among the country’s oddball cities that bucked the downturn.

In fact, Texas cities starred on the new list of recession-proof metro areas, with six of 21 spots, according to MetroMonitor, a quarterly report released by Brookings Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

These 21 large metro areas were singled out by Brookings for keeping their labor and housing markets stable and posting robust economic activity during the past few years.

In fact, all but five of the 21 leading cities have economic output levels that top records set just prior to the recession.

"Most of these cities have some general characteristics in common," said Howard Weil, author of the report and a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program. "They didn’t experience huge housing bubbles followed by a crash, and their economies weren’t rooted in the auto industry."

Weil added that a number of cities are also government centers, like Austin, where job cuts have been limited and spending remains healthy.

Gross metropolitan product, a broad measure economic activity, has surged the most in the nation’s capital. In first quarter of 2010, the economy in Washington D.C. expanded by 6.3% from its pre-recession peak. Austin also touts considerable growth at 5.3%.

"We’ve seen a significant increase in government spending since the start of the recession, and even though it has been spread throughout other parts of the country, some of that extra spending stays in the D.C. metro area," Weil said. "But if government hawks succeed in cutting spending, we could see the growth in Washington slow down."

Meanwhile, as unemployment rates climbed higher in every major city across the nation during the recession, the jobless rate in Austin only rose to 7.1% in March 2010 from 3.5% three years earlier. During the same period, the U.S. unemployment rate spiked to 9.7% from 4.4%.

"We have a stable base of employment with the University of Texas, one of the largest universities in the country, and the second largest state government with 65,000 employees," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

Similarly, job losses were muted in Austin, as employment in Texas’s capital city dropped by 2.3% from its pre-recession peak through the first quarter of 2010.

Leffingwell said that a decade ago, Austin worked to attract high-tech companies, and while some manufacturing jobs in the sector have since diminished, companies are still expanding their workforce, including Samsung Electronics, which recently announced a $3.6 billion project that boosts the company’s payroll by 500 permanent positions.

And during the last two quarters, Austin welcomed job growth, adding nearly 8,000 new jobs during the period and increasing payrolls by more than 1%. Augusta, Ga.; Jackson, Miss.; Dallas; and Honolulu also posted similar gains.

"We’ve worked hard to diversify our economy and are aggressively targeting companies focused on renewable energy, medical technology and digital media," Leffingwell said.

Earlier this year, Texas invested $1.4 million through its Texas Enterprise Fund to lure Facebook into opening its first office outside of Palo Alto, Calif., in Austin. The social media giant opened the office last month and is actively hiring for its online sales and operations team. Facebook said it plans to hire over 200 employees in Austin over the next four years.

Meanwhile, further south, McAllen, Texas, which also made the top 21, has been boasting job growth for the past four straight quarters, and employment in the city has only declined by a modest 1.1% during the recession.

Houston, another Texas city, is included among the recession-proof metro areas for enjoying the smallest slide in housing prices at just 0.5% through the first quarter of 2010 compared to three years earlier. Austin followed close behind with a 0.6% dip during the same period.  

Source

Intel Corp. said Monday that it is in talks with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on a possible settlement of the government's antitrust case against the giant chipmaker.

The Santa Clara-based company (NASDAQ:INTC) said in a regulatory filing that both sides have filed a motion to suspend proceedings until July 22 in the antitrust trial while both sides work on the potential settlement.

The FTC sued in December, saying Intel had illegally stifled competition for a decade. The action came after Intel settled similar charges in a civil case brought by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) and was fined by the European Union in a separate antitrust case.

A settlement with the FTC is expected to prompt another one with Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), which also claims that Intel has illegally used its dominant market position to cut off competition.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has also filed antitrust allegations against Intel.

Source

As the economy recovers, energy prices are rising and that is placing extra strain on families’ budgets.

Each spring brings a familiar ritual in gasoline markets, rising prices, and this year won’t be an exception. But motorists aren’t likely to pay much more than $3 a gallon, on average, during the peak summer driving season.

Lingering effects of the recession, such as high unemployment, reduced shipping and limited business travel, are keeping a lid on energy demand in the U.S. And global oil supplies are on the rise. For now, these trends are providing energy markets with enough of a cushion to prevent geopolitical tensions from causing severe price volatility.

On Tuesday, the Energy Department’s statistical arm predicted that oil prices would average $80 a barrel this spring, and rise to about $82 a barrel by the end of the year, influenced by robust growth in China. This is consistent with the agency’s past four monthly outlooks. Last year, oil prices averaged about $62, trading in a range between $33.98 and $82.66.

The average nationwide price for regular gasoline was $2.76 a gallon on Tuesday. Because of the anticipated bump in crude prices, the government estimates that gasoline prices will average $2.84 a gallon this year, up from $2.34 in 2009. It’s enough for families to take notice, economists say.

Gasoline accounts for about 4 percent of a typical family’s budget free credit report and score. But consumers tend to pay the increase at the pump instead of driving less. That leaves less to spend on clothing and other discretionary purchases.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Smith School of Business at California State University, lowered his forecast for U.S. economic growth to 3 percent, from 3.2 percent, because of the anticipated rise in energy costs.

"Higher gasoline prices are like a tax that depresses overall consumer spending," he said.

The more gradual the pump-price increase the more manageable it is for family budgets, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz said. Given time to adjust, people "can decide what to do," Davidowitz said.

Or maybe people will remain tentative about getting behind the wheel more than is necessary.

Americans used 377.5 million gallons of gas per day in 2009, according to Oil Price Information Service, down from 378 million gallons in 2008. Tom Kloza, publisher and chief analyst, expects demand to rise by a fraction of 1 percent this year.

There are other factors keeping Americans off the road beyond high gas prices. Chief among them: lack of job security. Unemployment is 9.7 percent in the U.S., meaning fewer people commuting to work or driving on vacation.

Source

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

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

Sales of existing U.S. homes plunged more than anticipated in December, showing the dependence of the housing market on a government tax credit.

Purchases slumped 17 percent the month after a government tax credit was originally due to expire, the biggest decline since records began in 1968, to a 5.45 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median sales price increased for the first time in two years.

First-time buyers rushed to complete deals before the $8,000 government incentive was due to end, pushing sales up 28 percent in the three months to November. The subsequent extension and expansion of the credit to include closings through June signal demand will strengthen in the first half of 2010, while raising the risk the market will then slow anew should jobs remain scarce.

“We’ll see a pickup in existing home sales in the next couple of months,” said Adam York, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, who forecast a 5.4 million sales pace. Although “we’re past the bottom,” he said, “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of buyers out there looking for a home outside of the tax-induced effects until they feel more comfortable with the labor market.”

Stocks trimmed earlier gains following the report. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to close at 1,096.78. The S&P Supercomposite Homebuilder Index was up 0.2 percent.

Less Than Forecast

Economists forecast existing home sales would fall to a 5.9 million rate in December from a 6.54 million pace the prior month, according to the median of 61 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 5.4 million to 6.75 million.

For all of 2009, existing home sales rose 4.9 percent to 5.16 million, the first gain in four years, from 4.91 million in 2008. The median price last year was $173,500, down 12 percent from 2008, the biggest annual drop on record and probably the largest since the Great Depression, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a news conference.

The median value in December was $178,300, up 1.5 percent from the same month in 2008. The increase was the first since August 2007 and the biggest since May 2006, the agents’ group said. A decline in the number of first-time buyers, who usually purchase less expensive houses, helped push up the median value last month, Yun said.

First-Time Buyers

The share of homes sold to first-time buyers fell to 43 percent in December from 51 percent the prior month, Yun said, indicating the expected end of the tax credit played a role in the drop in sales no fax payday loans.

President Barack Obama and Congress extended the first-time buyer credit in early November to cover deals signed by April 30 and closed by June 30, and expanded it to include current homeowners. Even so, some economists believe the original measure pulled sales forward, restraining demand for a few months.

Yun said he was “generally pleased” with the December outcome since he feared an even larger drop following the expected expiration of the tax credit. “There is an increase in home-buyer confidence,” he said, adding “there is some sustainable momentum” in sales. Even with the decline, sales were still up 15 percent from the same month last year, signaling a general improvement, he said.

The number of previously owned homes on the market decreased 6.6 percent to 3.29 million, the lowest level since March 2006. At the current sales pace, it would take 7.2 months to sell those houses, compared with 6.5 months at the end of November.

Fed Action

The end of Federal Reserve purchases of mortgage-backed securities aimed at keeping borrowing costs low represents a challenge for the industry. The program is scheduled to expire by March 31.

Policy makers are scheduled to meet this week to discuss the direction of the benchmark lending rate between banks. The emergency programs were being wound down “in light of ongoing improvements in the functioning of financial markets,” central bankers said in their Dec. 16 statement.

Joblessness and foreclosures are other concerns. Unemployment is forecast to average 10 percent this year, the highest level in seven decades. A record 3 million U.S. homes will be repossessed by lenders this year, RealtyTrac Inc. forecast on Jan. 14. That is up from 2.82 million in 2009, the most since the company began compiling data in 2005.

Competition with foreclosures has been especially daunting for homebuilders. KB Home, the Los Angeles-based homebuilder that sells to first-time buyers, said Jan. 12 that fourth- quarter revenue dropped 27 percent.

KB Home’s orders rose 12 percent to 1,446 from 1,296 in the year-earlier quarter, while completed sales dropped 22 percent to 3,042. The company is “not going to make money in the first quarter” and plans to “restore profitability” in the second half of 2010, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Mezger said Jan. 12 in a conference call with analysts and investors.

Source

Consumer credit in the U.S. dropped a record $17.5 billion in November as unemployment close to a 26- year high discouraged borrowing and banks limited access to loans.

The slump in credit to $2.46 trillion was more than anticipated and followed a revised $4.2 billion drop in October, Federal Reserve figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a decrease of $5 billion. The figures track credit card debt and non-revolving loans, such as those to buy autos.

A labor market that’s shed 7.2 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007 is restraining consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Fed policy makers have said tighter bank lending standards and reductions in credit lines are hampering the recovery.

“Double-digit unemployment is eroding consumer confidence and the uncertainty is prompting consumers to pay down their credit card debts,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “We have not seen such a wholesale reduction in consumer credit since the last time we had double-digit unemployment rate following the early ‘80s recessions.”

The series of 10 straight declines in consumer credit was the longest since record-keeping began in 1943.

Treasury two-year notes gained the most in three weeks after the Labor Department said today that companies reduced payrolls in December by 85,000 workers after adding 4,000 a month earlier. The unemployment rate held at 10 percent.

Stocks, Yields

Two-year Treasury yields dropped below 1 percent, to 0.97 percent at 4:52 p.m. in New York, from 1.02 percent late yesterday.

Consumer credit in October was revised from a previously reported $3.5 billion decline, and the forecast for November was based on the median of 32 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from decreases of $2 billion to $10 billion. Credit dropped at an 8.5 percent annual rate in November.

Revolving debt, such as credit cards, plunged by a record $13.7 billion in November, the Fed’s statistics showed. Non- revolving debt, including loans for autos and mobile homes, declined by $3.8 billion. The Fed’s report doesn’t cover borrowing secured by real estate.

Auto sales in the U.S. climbed in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10.92 million, up from 10.45 million in October. The pace increased to 11.23 million in December, the strongest since 14.09 million in August, when Americans took advantage of government incentives.

Consumer Spending

Consumer spending increased in November for the sixth time in seven months as Americans took advantage of discounts during the holidays, Commerce Department figures showed Dec fast payday loans. 23. Faster growth in sales and improvement in households’ balance sheets depends on job creation.

“U.S. consumer credit quality remains under considerable stress due to persistently weak labor market conditions,” said Michael Dean, managing director at Fitch Ratings. A report from Fitch on Jan. 5 showed delinquent balances on credit cards at a record level.

At American Express Co., defaults and delinquencies fell to 2009 lows. AmEx was the only one of the “Big 6” credit-card issuers to post November declines in write-offs and delinquencies, the New York-based lender said in a Dec. 15 regulatory filing.

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan has said the largest U.S. lender needs to reduce the loss rate on credit cards, which ranked highest among the nation’s six biggest card companies in November. Bank of America’s card defaults are “still very high,” Moynihan, 50, said.

‘Significant Bubble’

“As an industry, we over-lent and customers over-borrowed, and that led to a fairly significant bubble,” Moynihan said Jan. 4 in an interview on Bloomberg Television in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We have to help lead the economic recovery. At the same time, we have to be responsible lenders.”

Banks have responded by tightening credit standards, for consumers and companies. Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke said in a Jan. 4 speech that total loans on banks’ books fell at an annual rate of more than 11 percent in the third quarter. While banks are reducing lines of credit and tightening lending standards, small businesses are also losing their business relationships with banks as firms fail, merge or reduce their loan portfolios, Duke said.

Broken Relationships

“When existing lending relationships are broken, time may be required for other banks to establish and build such relationships, allowing lending to resume,” Duke said.

Britt Beemer, chairman of consumer polling firm America’s Research Group, said in a Dec. 21 interview that if lenders weren’t cutting customer spending limits and rejecting more credit-card applications, holiday sales would have been stronger.

December same-store sales climbed 3 percent, the biggest gain since April 2008, Retail Metrics Inc. said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Source

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle on Monday released two lists of judicial nominees given to her by the Judicial Selection Commission to fill one vacancy each on the state Intermediate Court of Appeals and 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu.

The nominees for associate judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals are Sabrina S. McKenna, 1st Circuit Court judge; Steven M. Nakashima, partner, Marr Jones & Wang; Karen T. Nakasone, deputy public defender in Honolulu; Lawrence M. Reifurth, director of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; and Michael K. Tanigawa, adjunct professor, Kapiolani Community College.

The nominees for circuit judge in Honolulu are R saving account pay day loan. Mark Browning, district family court judge; Colette Y. Garibaldi, district judge; Ed Kubo Jr., former U.S. Attorney; Lanson K. Kupau, partner, Kobayashi Sugita & Goda; Steven M. Nakashima, partner, Marr, Jones & Wang; and Dean E. Ochiai, vice president and managing attorney, First Insurance Company of Hawaii.

Lingle has 30 days to make her choice, which still must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Source