The Economic Data Global Express (e-EDGE)
v.4 n.52 Released Dec. 26, 2000
Produced
by the Los Angeles County
Economic Development Corporation as a public service to the global
community.
HOUSING STARTS UP A LITTLE IN NOVEMBER
Housing starts rose slightly to 1.56 million dwelling
units in November from 1.53 million units in October. Starts had
stabilized in a range of 1.52 million to 1.54 million units between July
and October after declining irregularly during the first six months of
2000. [All figures in this paragraph are seasonally adjusted annual
rates.] Single-family starts were down by 0.4% to 1.22 million units
last month, while construction of multiple family homes surged by 12.9%
to 342,000 units. Looking at November's performance by region, total
housing starts declined by 5.2% in the southern U.S., by 10.9% in the Northeast,
and by 1.9% in the Midwest. Meanwhile, the West registered a substantial
increase of 28.1%.
For the first 11 months of 2000, housing starts
were off by 3.8% compared to the same period in 1999. [Figures in
this paragraph are actual counts, not seasonally adjusted.] Single-family
starts have declined by 5.2% year-to-date, accounting for all of this year's
dropoff in activity. Multiple-family construction was up for the year,
but only by 1.7%. Fixed mortgage rates have been falling in recent
weeks; so housing construction activity should provide some support to
the economy even as manufacturing activity slows down. (Nancy
D. Sidhu)
PR: http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/housing.html
PERSONAL INCOME AND SPENDING UP IN NOVEMBER
U.S. personal income rose by a moderate 0.4% in
November following October's decline of 0.1% and September's huge 1.1%
increase. Government income support payments to U.S. farmers accounted
for most of the volatility in personal income during the past three months.
Farm proprietors' income surged by $48 billion in September, dropped back
by $46 billion in October, and edged up by $0.9 billion last month.
Importantly, wage and salary payments, the biggest element in total personal
income, was more stable, increasing by $30 billion, $34 billion and $17
billion over the same three months.
Consumer spending increased by 0.3% in November,
compared to growth rates of 0.4% in October and 0.8% in September.
Spending for durable goods declined sharply, by 1.2%, during each of the
past two months. Most of the dropoff was due to falling purchases
of cars and light trucks. Growth in spending for nondurable goods
has slowed as well, showing no increase in November after rising by 0.9%
in September and by 0.4% in October. However, spending on consumer
services, which makes up half of total consumption expenditures, continued
to grow at a healthy pace, up by 0.8% last month after a 0.7% rise in October.
(Nancy D. Sidhu)
PR: http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/newsrel/pi1100.htm
RETAILERS RE-THINK HOLIDAY STRATEGY, BUT IT'S TOO LATE TO SAVE THIS CHRISTMAS
While official large chain-store retail reports
are more than one week away, the talk on the street is not too rosy.
Shoppers postponed much of their purchases until the very last minute,
and with bad weather in many parts of the country, some consumer might
have been stuck in their homes with cash on their hands. Many retailers
also have overstocked because they based their holiday sales projections
on this past spring's strong consumer spending. Shoppers also have
gotten smarter and postponed their purchases to take advantage of last-minute
discounts. Watch out for heavy post-holiday discounting at your local
stores and on-line stores. The best gift this holiday season might
have been cold, hard cash or gift certificates which allow the recipients
to buy more of what they want (and save the givers some headache at the
same time). Interestingly, on-line holiday spending more than doubled
this holiday season. Shoppers started early this year after experiencing
some disappointments last year with delayed shipments. Many used
on-line retailers to save time and trips to the post office. (George
Huang)
NOVEMBER PORT TRAFFIC OK
The November container numbers from the Port of
Long Beach reflected the end of the peak shipping season. The number
of loaded inbound containers was down from October, and posted a modest
1.7% increase over the year. The number of loaded outbound containers
was up from October to November. However, there was a 0.5% decrease
from a year ago. A total of 410,897 containers were handled at Long
Beach in November.
Combined with the Port of Los Angeles, a total
of 824,926 containers were handled at San Pedro Bay in November, up 11.4%
over the year. The year-to-date total is 8.7 million containers.
(Jack Kyser)
NORTHRUP GRUMMAN - LITTON MERGER
Century City-based Northrop Grumman has just announced
that it will acquire Woodland Hills-based Litton Industries. This
will create a $15 billion entity that will be a major player in aerospace/defense
along with Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
What are some of the other aspects to this
merger? In the latest "Fortune 500" ranking, Northrop placed 190th,
while Litton was 333rd, so Los Angeles County's count of 16 Fortune 500
firms will be reduced by one. On the local employment front, Northrop
has 10,303 employees in the five-county area, while Litton has 3,400.
There will be job losses at the latter's headquarters, but the resulting
company should have around 13,000 workers in the five counties, which would
move them into the ranks of the top 30 local employers. (Jack
Kyser)
PR: http://www.northgrum.com/news/news_releases/1200-184_Litton.html
TAX CUT COMETH!
California's state sales tax rate will be cut
by 0.25 percentage point effective on Monday. For example, LA County's
rate will drop from 8.25% to 8.00% and Orange County's from 7.75% to 7.50%.
PR: http://www.boe.ca.gov/news/pdf/sp111500.pdf
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