Saturday, April 03, 2004 :::
 
in today's orlando sentinel:
US adds 308,000 jobs--even in manufacturing
For the first time in more than two years, the nation's economy is acting as if it is finally putting Americans back to work.

Businesses last month created 308,000 new jobs, a figure that surprised economists -- who had expected about 100,000 -- when the Labor Department released it Friday.

The biggest gains were in construction; health care; dining and drinking establishments; and financial services. And for the first time in more than 3½ years, the reeling manufacturing sector improved.

This was, however, but one month at the end of a long string of disappointments. In fact, it would take seven months just like March to get back to where we were before terrorism and recession ravaged the economy, claiming more than 2 million jobs.
Also during the month, unemployment edged up slightly to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. The average length of unemployment slipped slightly from February's 20.3 weeks -- the longest average in more than 20 years -- to 20.1 weeks in March.

BUT
In Orlando, the latest numbers are old news because the area has long resisted the national trend and instead has regularly produced jobs.

did we not see this coming: As jurors apparently neared guilty verdicts Friday in the corruption case against two former Tyco International executives, the judge declared a mistrial because of outside pressure on a juror.

State Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus announced his decision as the jury conducted its 12th day of deliberations in the 6-month-old trial.

"The court has decided it has no choice but to grant a mistrial, clearly arising from pressure that has been brought to bear on one woman whose name and background was widely publicized -- lawfully but in violation of the convention that is ordinarily and wisely observed," he said.

District Attorney Robert Morgenthau immediately issued a statement saying his office will seek a retrial of former Chief Executive Officer Dennis Kozlowski and former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz.



::: posted by mai at 3:36 PM



Thursday, April 01, 2004 :::
 
important business news to note today:


AP: AT&T, Kodak Booted From Dow IndustrialsThree longtime components of the Dow Jones industrial average -- AT&T Corp., International Paper and Eastman Kodak -- will be removed from the index of the top 30 industrial stocks, Dow Jones & Co. announced Thursday.

They will be replaced by financial services company American International Group Inc., Baby Bell Verizon Communications and pharmaceuticals maker Pfizer Inc. The change will take place at the start of trading April 8.

"Our main focus in this particular group of changes was not who do we kick out or replace. It was to recognize the trend of the growth of the financial or healthcare sectors," said John Prestbo, editor of Dow Jones Indexes and markets editor of The Wall Street Journal. "When it came to selecting companies to leave the Dow to make room for the new ones, we took recognition of another trend, and that is basic materials stocks have become less important, less weighty in the market."

Surburbia vs. City Electronic Arts, a video game company is still in the process of deciding where to go.
Video game giant Electronic Arts Inc. has said it would choose downtown Orlando over a Seminole County site if it decides to locate a major hub in Central Florida, Mayor Buddy Dyer said Wednesday.

He said plans for upscale condominiums, a movie theater, shops and offices were among the factors that swayed the company in the city's favor.

"I don't view us as competing against Seminole County," said Dyer, who is leading the charge to assemble an incentive package worth more than $40 million. "In the last couple of months [EA] made the decision to come downtown versus any other site in Central Florida."

But a company spokesman said he knows of no such commitment, and Seminole County officials say they continue to aggressively pursue EA. The county has its own incentive proposal, which it is keeping under wraps.

Seminole is playing up its serene suburban setting -- "the idea of stepping out of an office, standing in a field, looking at trees, going for a jog at lunchtime," said Seminole County Commissioner Randy Morris.

"We believe our proposal has relative advantages and merits that are superior to a downtown proposal," he said.

EA reiterated it also was still considering cities outside of Florida for the center that could create 775 new high-wage jobs.

The idea of Orlando and Seminole County facing off for California-based EA, the maker of the popular Madden NFL and NBA Street video games that helped register $2.5 billion in sales last year, would seem counter to the spirit of "regional cooperation" -- often touted by elected officials as a key to economic development.

stock changes:
Board pushes stock-options reform
High-tech firms' earnings would be particularly hit hard
Sentinel Staff Writer

April 1, 2004

Corporate America's accounting rule-maker moved closer Wednesday to forcing companies to deduct employee stock options from their profits, setting the stage for a congressional showdown pitting Silicon Valley against Wall Street.

Heeding the call for accurate income statements, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed a reform that would force publicly held businesses to treat all stock-based compensation as an expense -- a change that would dramatically reduce the earnings of many well-known companies, particularly in the high-tech industry.

Under the current rules, companies simply must disclose the estimated costs of issuing stock options in footnotes to their financial statements. These obscure notes often reveal eye-opening swings of fortune.

For instance, the collective profits of high-tech bellwethers Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Oracle Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. would have been reduced by a combined $3.3 billion last year had they been required to expense options.




::: posted by mai at 1:45 PM



Wednesday, March 31, 2004 :::
 
march 31.

OPEC to raise prices.
airlines are not doing well.

consumer confidence has not changed. ---sharply down from january reading.
The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index slipped to 88.3 this month from a revised 88.5 in February. The February figure was sharply lower than the revised 97.7 reading in January.

disney milltary resort, opens with out union After a $92 million expansion, the U.S. Army will reopen its military-only Walt Disney World resort today with twice as many hotel rooms -- and almost no traces of its once-unionized work force.

Before the Army shut down the Shades of Green resort in 2002 and laid off almost all of its staff, between 60 and 100 members of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 509 changed soldiers' sheets, poured their drinks and carried their luggage.

things to do:
update portfolio
research orlando companies and stories about it.
find out everything you can about it...

figure out: consumer issues, real estate and technology.

::: posted by mai at 9:15 PM

ARCHIVES :::

a digest of a struggling journalist. a writer? a reporter. definitely both.