Boulder – Colorado’s economy is growing at a slower pace this year than last but will likely pick up steam in the second half, according to a midyear update of an economic forecast by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The update was released Thursday.
“We went into the year predicting a little bit of a slowdown, a 1.9 percent job growth rate,” said Richard Wobbekind, an economist with CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. “Right now we’re slightly lower than that, but actually we’re pretty much on the mark because we think the second half of the year is going to be stronger.”
The state’s information sector, after languishing since the early 2000s, is turning upward more sharply than expected. Professional and business services, natural resources and mining, health care and tourism are also strong.
A sharp drop in new homes has left construction weaker than expected. Manufacturing also remains a disappointment, with the state shedding jobs in that sector at a rate faster than the national average.
Colorado’s unemployment rate in May stood at 3.6 percent, down from 4.5 percent a year earlier.
DENVER
DCPA trustees elect three new members
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts announced this week that the board of trustees elected three new members at its June meeting.
The new trustees are University of Denver chairwoman Joy Burns, philanthropist and active DCPA supporter Isabelle Clark and Jeffrey Dorsey, president and chief executive of HCA- HealthOne. Molson Coors CEO and president Leo Kiely was named vice president of the trustees.
In a separate meeting of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, the board of trustees elected attorney Martin Semple and philanthropist Judi Wolf to the board. They were then appointed to the DCPA board, according to bylaws of both entities.
REDMOND, Wash.
$1 billion expected to fix Xbox consoles
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it expects to spend more than $1 billion to repair widespread hardware problems in its Xbox 360 video-game console after many of them broke down.
Microsoft said it would extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 to three years after too many of the consoles succumbed to “general hardware failure,” but the company provided few details about the extent of the problems.
WASHINGTON
Two House panels to probe hedge funds
Hedge funds will come under scrutiny next week when two House panels hold hearings on the government’s oversight of the lightly regulated industry.
House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., on Thursday said he will hold a hearing Wednesday on hedge funds to learn how federal overseers “monitor systemic risk related to hedge funds and how that process might be improved.”
A separate Wednesday hearing planned by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee may yield more- pointed questions.
MILWAUKEE
Clothing factory agrees to alterations
A Guatemalan factory that makes some of Daisy Fuentes’ clothing for Kohl’s Corp. has agreed to make changes following allegations that it was a sweatshop, a workers’ rights group said Thursday.
The National Labor Committee issued a report on the Fribo factory last month, saying workers told a related group they are humiliated and forced to work unpaid overtime.
WASHINGTON
GAO issues warning on spot-cheese market
Thin trading on the spot- cheese market makes it ripe for manipulation, and that could affect the price of milk and other dairy, the investigative arm of Congress said Thursday.
The warning from the Government Accountability Office comes as block cheddar cheese reached $1.95 a pound Thursday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 67 percent from $1.17 a pound a year ago.
WASHINGTON
Two airlines to sell communications firm
Airlines including AMR Corp. and UAL Corp. agreed to sell the company whose communications systems link pilots with air-traffic controllers to buyout firm Carlyle Group. Terms of the sale of ARINC Inc. weren’t disclosed.
AMR, parent of American Airlines, will post a $140 million gain on the transaction, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company said Thursday in a regulatory filing. Chicago-based UAL, parent of United Airlines, will record a $40 million gain, according to a separate filing.
NEW YORK
S&P cuts Home Depot corporate credit rating
Home Depot Inc., the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, had its corporate credit rating lowered three steps by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service because of the company’s plan to repurchase 30 percent of its stock.
The cut to BBB+ from A+ puts the rating three levels above noninvestment grade. Home Depot’s plan to use cash and debt to buy back $22.5 billion of its shares makes its bonds a riskier investment, S&P said.
WASHINGTON
Ex-Fannie Mae chief needs approval for pay
Former Fannie Mae chief executive Franklin Raines won’t receive $39 million in performance-linked pay without the approval of regulators, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said.
Raines, who left the government-chartered company in 2004 because of a $6.3 billion earnings overstatement, sought in a July 2 filing to have U.S. District Court in Washington prevent the regulator from freezing an award of 58,812 shares.
NEW YORK
Ex-Morgan Stanley worker sues company
A former Morgan Stanley employee filed a lawsuit Thursday saying that the securities firm failed to take proper action and then fired her after she complained that her boss was sexually harassing her.
Lisa LaMacchia said in court papers that while she worked in the company’s branch in Melville, N.Y., her supervisor, Richard Dorfman, groped her and suggested she have sex with him if she wanted to get paid.
WILMINGTON, Del.
Pfizer settles federal suit over antibiotic
Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker, settled a lawsuit against Switzerland’s Novartis AG for alleged infringement of a U.S. patent for the antibiotic Zithromax.
Pfizer sued Novartis and its U.S. Sandoz unit in February 2006 in federal court.
