’06 bright as Utah’s record economic boom continues
Salt Lake City – Utah’s economy, which hurtled forward at a record pace for the first half of 2006, is expected to keep humming for another six months, economists said Wednesday.
A forecast from Wells Fargo says Utah’s population of nearly 2.6 million will increase by 79,000 people this year, driven by gains in employment, construction and retail spending. Net in-migration accounts for 52 percent of the population gains, the report said.
Job growth – 4.7 percent for the first half of the year – is expected to dip slightly to 4.5 percent for the rest of the year, but that’s still strong, said Kelly Matthews, executive vice president and economist for Wells Fargo.
The report projected that homebuilders would take out 20,330 construction permits during 2006, nearly equal to last year’s rate. Total retail spending is expected to finish the year with a 9 percent increase.
DENVER
Decline in DIA fares among the largest
Denver International Airport ranked among the airports with the largest fare decreases from the first quarter of 2005 to the first quarter of 2006, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Denver had a 2.2 percent year- over-year decline in the air-travel price index in the first quarter, when Southwest Airlines began flying to Denver and increased competition against Frontier and United Airlines.
Denver also had the smallest fare increases from the first quarter of 1995 to the first quarter of 2006. Denver had a 3.1 percent increase in air fares in the period. Other cities in the top five of that category of the largest decreases and smallest increases also were cities that Southwest serves.
DENVER
Portfolio manager launches company
Mike Gerding, a veteran portfolio manager, on Wednesday announced the launch of his own firm, Rio Asset Management LLC. Rio Asset will focus on international small-cap investing.
Gerding, with more than 20 years’ experience in managing international portfolios, was formerly with Denver-based Founders Asset Management, Denver Investment Advisors and, most recently, Wasatch Advisors.
DENVER
Opportunity fair coming in August
Some of the largest purchasing organizations and many of the region’s minority businesses will meet next month for the 32nd annual Business Opportunity Fair 2006. The fair will be held Aug. 11 at the Colorado Convention Center.
The event, hosted by Rocky Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council, will include its annual meeting and awards presentation. Keynote speaker will be CU football coach Dan Hawkins.
WASHINGTON
Lockheed, 3 others win NASA contracts
NASA said Wednesday it has awarded a 90-day study contract to four companies, including Lockheed Martin’s Jefferson County-based Space Systems Co., to separately examine long- term ground processing and infrastructure planning for the agency’s Constellation Program.
The other groups that received the contract, worth $150,000 each, are ATK Launch Systems Group of Corrine, Utah; Boeing Space Operations Co. of Titusville, Fla.; and United Space Alliance in Houston.
WASHINGTON
U.S. drilling gushes on high oil prices
High oil prices continue to stoke U.S. drilling activity, the American Petroleum Institute reported Wednesday.
According to API’s second- quarter well-completion report, an estimated 24,729 oil wells, natural-gas wells and dry holes were completed in the first half of 2006. In the second quarter of 2006, an estimated 12,681 wells were completed, the highest single-quarter estimate since the first quarter of 1986.
SEATTLE
Amazon.com stock plunges 21 percent
For years, Amazon.com Inc. has insisted that its hefty investments in cheap shipping deals, mysterious technology or new retail offerings would please its customers and pay off for its long-term shareholders.
But nine years after the company went public, some investors are getting fed up. Amazon.com shares plunged more than 21 percent Wednesday after the company reported a sharp drop in quarterly profits and laid out fresh spending plans and deeper price cuts.
NEW YORK
Antitrust suits over currency fees settled
Visa International Inc., MasterCard Inc. and banks, including Citigroup Inc., have agreed to pay $336 million to their customers to settle antitrust lawsuits over currency conversion fees charged on foreign transactions.
MasterCard will pay $72.5 million as its share of the settlement, the Purchase, N.Y.-based company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
NEW YORK
Spitzer squeezed by political, legal dates
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will have to plead his case against former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso a week before Spitzer seeks the Democratic Party nomination for governor.
State Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos moved the trial date for the lawsuit to Sept. 5 from Oct. 30, rejecting a request by Grasso for a delay until at least December. A Spitzer deputy argued that the decision leaves little time to prepare.
NEW YORK
Stewart’s own stock a good thing for her
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. announced a 50-cent- a-share special dividend Wed nesday morning, in what appears to be a windfall for its namesake founder.
Martha Stewart owns all 26.9 million of the company’s super-voting Class B shares and another 2.1 million of its Class A common stock. That means she will get about $14.5 million of the $26.1 million the company will empty from its coffers.
NEW YORK
Judge tosses evidence in feds’ KPMG probe
Federal prosecutors used excessive economic pressure to coerce two partners at the KPMG accounting firm into cooperating in an investigation of illegal tax shelters, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he wouldn’t allow statements made by the two men to be used at their upcoming trial. The decision was the judge’s second targeting what he said were improper efforts by the government to get KPMG to force employees to cooperate in the probe, which led to charges against 18 people.
