Jobless claims fall to 9-month low

Business
SATURDAY BUSINESS
� Business Profile
� Market Wrap-Up
Antelope Valley Press, Friday, December 9, 2011
Jim Skeen, Editor, (661) 267-4138, jskeen@avpress.com
NewsLine
From Valley Press wire services
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McDonald’s sales up
OAK BROOK, Ill. — McDonald’s Corp. said Thursday a key
revenue figure rose 7.4% in November on strong demand from
markets around the world.
In the U.S., sales were boosted
by sales of breakfast items and
the seasonal addition of the peppermint mocha to the company’s
coffee menu.
The world’s largest fast-food
chain says revenue at stores
open at least 13 months rose
6.5% in both the U.S. and Europe
and 8.1% in the region covering
Asia Pacific, the Middle East and
Africa.
The figures are a snapshot
of money spent on food at both
company-owned and franchised
restaurants. They do not reflect
corporate revenue. The comparison is a key measure of a
restaurant chain’s performance,
because it excludes the impact of
recently opened or closed stores.
IBM to buy DemandTec
ARMONK, N.Y. — IBM is
buying DemandTec Inc., a pricemanagement software company, for $440 million in cash
to expand its commerce service
offerings aimed at businesses.
It’s the latest in a series
of large tech deals focused on
cloud-based software, which is
delivered to businesses over an
Internet connection rather than
by installing it on computers.
International Business Machines Corp. said Thursday that
it is paying $13.20 per share for
San Mateo, Calif.-based DemandTec. That’s a 57% premium
to DemandTec’s closing stock
price of $8.43 on Wednesday.
By BOB WILLIS
Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications
for unemployment benefits last
week, reflecting a pullback following the Thanksgiving holiday and
fewer seasonal firings which signal
the labor market is on the mend.
Jobless claims dropped by 23,000
to 381,000 in the week ended Dec.
3, the fewest since February, Labor Department figures showed
Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists in a
Bloomberg News survey called for
a drop to 395,000. The number of
people on unemployment benefit
rolls and those getting extended
payments also decreased.
Companies are firing fewer workers yet may be reluctant to ramp up
staff until demand picks up and
there’s more clarity on tax breaks
due to expire at year-end. While the
jobless rate last month unexpectedly fell to 8.6%, the lowest in more
than two years, faster job growth is
needed to push the rate lower and
spur consumer spending.
“The labor market is improving,” said Brian Jones, a senior U.S.
economist at Societe Generale in
New York, who forecast a drop to
380,000. “The numbers are moving
in the right direction. You have to
be careful because we’re around the
Thanksgiving holiday and the Department of Labor has a hard time
adjusting around floating holidays.”
Jobless benefits applications
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JOB
MARKET
EASES
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Joyce Redmond,
left, talks Oct.
28 with Helen
Venes, right,
about job
opportunities at
a career fair, in
Brookpark, Ohio.
The number of
people seeking
unemployment
benefits fell last
week to the
lowest level in
nine months,
evidence that
the job market is
improving.
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were projected to decrease from
402,000 initially reported for the
prior week, according to the survey
median. Estimates ranged from
375,000 to 410,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s
figure, which included the Thanksgiving Day holiday, up to 404,000.
A Labor Department spokesman
said there was nothing unusual in
the state level data last week.
The seasonal-adjustment factors
projected claims would jump by
about 182,000, the biggest upward
adjustment for the year, representing a rebound from the shortened,
Thanksgiving holiday workweek.
Associated
Press files
Instead they climbed by about
151,000, pushing down the adjusted reading, the spokesman said. It’s
often difficult to account for the effect of holidays on weekly claims.
The decrease may also reflect
fewer year-end seasonal dismissals, the spokesman said.
Thursday’s data showed the
four-week moving average, a less
volatile measure than the weekly
figures, dropped to 393,250 last
week from 396,250.
Valley Press
PALMDALE — The former Super 8 at 200 West Palmdale Blvd. is
being rebranded as a Red Roof Inn.
The transfer occurred after the
owner contacted Red Roof Inn after
an agreement with Super 8 ended.
The negotiations lead to a 20-year
franchise agreement, a Red Roof
spokesman said. Terms were not
disclosed.
The hotel, built in the 1980s, is
in good shape and requires mostly
cosmetic renovations, the company
spokesman said. The rebranding
effort will also involve swapping
CHARLES F. BOSTWICK/Valley Press
GALLERY GAZING — A recent sculpture exhibit at the Arbor Lofts gallery featured works by children
participating in the Clayhouse Sculpture Project run by the nonprofit Housing Corp. of America in partnership
with Encino-based InSite Development at the Village Point apartments in Lancaster and Arbor at Palmdale.
Kids get life lessons in
art and financial literacy
Valley Press
LANCASTER — A recent sculpture exhibit at the Arbor Lofts gallery was more than the culmanation
of hard work by artists — it was
also a lesson in financial literacy.
The exhibit featured works by
children participating in the Clayhouse Sculpture Project run by the
nonprofit Housing Corp. of America
in partnership with Encino-based
InSite Development at the Village
Point apartments in Lancaster and
Arbor at Palmdale. The participants
ranged in age from 8 to 18.
The classes were taught by two
art students. For 10 weeks on two
afternoons a week the children
learned how to sculpt, but the program also had a “financial literacy”
211,600 to 3.31 million in the week
ended Nov. 19.
Financial institutions are accelerating job cuts amid fears a European default may trigger a crisis
and a global slowdown.
Citigroup Inc., the third largest
U.S. bank by assets, will cut about
4,500 jobs in coming quarters to
trim costs amid slumping revenue,
Chief Executive Officer Vikram
Pandit told an investors’ conference this week.
component with the youngsters
earning $2 an hour for attending
the classes.
“We’re totally blown away by
what was accomplished in 10
weeks,” said InSite spokesman Corey Heimlich.
At the end of the project, the
kids get a gift card for 60% of the
money they earned from attending classes. Another 20% went to
pay for the classes — electricity,
clay, and the instructors’ time. The
other 20% went to two Third World
business development projects they
picked out, aiding a fisherman in
the Philippines and a pig farmer in
Cambodia.
“It’s a nothing-is-free concept,”
Hemlich said. “They are getting
exposure to the arts, getting exposure to great mentors, learning to
invoice, and they are learning to
give back.”
Encino-based InSite Development is the company that built
the Arbor Lofts on Lancaster
Boulevard and several apartment
buildings for seniors: The threestory, 116-unit Arbor Gardens on
Kettering Street and Elm Avenue;
Arbor Grove apartments on 10th
Street West; and Arbor Court, the
former Essex House hotel, also on
10th Street West near the Antelope
Valley Senior Center.
InSite also built a complex that
includes 100 apartment units and
offices for the Mental Health Association on Sierra Highway.
*in millions of dollars
Consumer spending on
preferred provider health
plans in the Antelope
Valley is estimated at
$37.398 million annually.
Source: 2011 Bureau of Labor Statistics, EASI, AdMall
93536
Lancaster
$6.58
93551
Palmdale
$5.70
93550
Palmdale
$5.43
93535
Lancaster
$5.34
93534
Lancaster
$3.19
93552
Palmdale
$2.81
93560
Rosamond
$1.90
93543
Littlerock
$1.14
93505
California City $1.07
93510
Acton
$1.01
out items with the former Super 8
for the new Red Roof logo.
The hotel is expected to re-open
as Red Roof Inn in January.
The 87-room hotel has a pool
and offers free WiFi and a continental breakfast, has an on-site
guest laundry room, and has a micro-refrigerator and coffee maker
in each room.
With hotels being converted to
the Red Roof Inn brand, the chain
generally looks for hotels with at
least 50 rooms.
The Red Roof chain has 345
inns in 36 states, and employs over
6,000 people.
Wells Fargo settles
bid-rigging lawsuits
By PALLAVI GOGOI
AP Business Writer
Wells Fargo will pay $148.2
million to settle federal and state
charges that it rigged dozens of
bidding competitions to win business from cities and counties.
The U.S. Department of Justice,
along with the federal and state
regulators, had been investigating
the actions of employees at Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Bank,
which Wells Fargo & Co. acquired
in 2008.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission said Wachovia generated millions of dollars in illicit
gains during an eight-year period
when it fraudulently rigged at least
58 municipal bond transactions in
25 states and Puerto Rico.
“Wachovia won bids by playing
an elaborate game of ‘you scratch
my back and I’ll scratch yours,’
rather than engaging in legitimate
competition to win municipalities’
business,” said Robert Khuzami,
Director of the SEC’s Division of
Enforcement.
Banks help states and municipalities raise money for projects
like building roads and schools by
selling bonds to investors. Portions
Demographic Update Smart Story
by ZIP code
2011
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The number of people continuing
to receive jobless benefits dropped
by 174,000 in the week ended Nov.
26 to 3.58 million, the fewest since
September 2008.
The continuing claims figure
does not include the number of
Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
Those who’ve used up their
traditional benefits and are now
collecting emergency and extended
payments decreased by about
Super 8 converts
to a Red Roof Inn
Spending on
preferred provider
health plans
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A12
Jobless claims fall to 9-month low
TI lowers outlook
DALLAS — Semiconductor
maker Texas Instruments Inc.
lowered its outlook for its fourthquarter revenue and profit on
Thursday, saying demand had
weakened for a variety of products that use its chips.
Its shares were down more
than 6% in extended trading.
The weak economy in the
United States and elsewhere
has hurt demand for electronic
devices that use TI’s semiconductors. Dallas-based TI said it saw
“broadly lower demand across a
wide range of markets, customers and products” except for
wireless-applications processors,
which are used in smartphones
and tablets.
The company said that it
expects to earn between 21 and
25 cents per share in the fourth
quarter, down from an earlier
forecast of 28 to 36 cents per
share.
It forecast revenue of $3.19
billion to $3.33 billion, down
from a previous range of $3.26
billion to $3.54 billion.
SUNDAY BUSINESS
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of those proceeds may not be spent
immediately, and banks will help
the municipalities invest those
funds until they’re needed. The
SEC said the banks rigged the bidding process for some of those investments, forcing the municipalities to pay prices for securities that
were above fair market value.
The SEC said Wachovia won
some bids through a practice
known as “last looks,” in which it
obtained information from agents
about competing bids. It also won
bids through “set-ups,” in which
the bidding agent deliberately obtained non-winning bids from other
providers in order to rig the field in
Wachovia’s favor.
As part of the settlement, Wells
Fargo will pay the Securities and
Exchange $46.1 million; the Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency
will be paid $34.5 million; the Internal Revenue Service gets $8.9
million; and a group of state Attorneys General will be paid $58.75
million.
Wells Fargo settled a separate
civil case in federal court in New
York last month over similar allegations. The bank paid $37 million
to settle that case, which had been
brought by several states.