LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Over the past 18 months, new-home sales have been on the gentle rising trend although they remain at a very depressed level.”
Steven Wood,
chief economist at Insight Economics Article, 1D
Jobless rate falls in all Arkansas cities
The unemployment rate for every metropolitan area in Arkansas fell in October, led by Northwest Arkansas, which had a rate of 5.0 percent, down from 5.7 percent in October 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday.
Arkansas’ unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in October, and the national rate was 7.9 percent.
The Little Rock metropolitan area had an unemployment rate of 6.0 percent, down from 6.6 percent in October last year.
Other October unemployment rates in Arkansas’ metropolitan areas, compared with October 2011, were:
Texarkana, 5.9 percent, down from 7.2 percent.
Jonesboro, 6.5 percent, down from 6.8 percent.
Hot Springs, 7.1 percent, down from 7.5 percent.
Fort Smith, 7.9 percent, down from 8.3 percent.
Pine Bluff, 8.5 percent, down from 9.3 percent.
- David Smith
Cyber Monday online sales rise 17%
Online spending rose 17 percent on the Monday after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest days of the year for Internet retailers, as tablets and smart phones let customers shop anytime and anywhere.
Consumers spent about $1.46 billion on so-called Cyber Monday, compared with $1.25 billion a year ago, making it the heaviest online spending day in history, research firm ComScore Inc. said in a statement Wednesday.
The convenience offered by mobile devices, especially tablets, is boosting sales for online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and EBay Inc. Consumers no longer wait for Black Friday to shop, starting on Thanksgiving evening, which will help Internet sales reach $43.4 billion this holiday season, or 10 percent of U.S. retail spending, excluding gas, food and cars, according to ComScore.
“Mobile commerce as a whole has clearly gone beyond what it’s traditionally been, which is something primarily for the research phase,” Clark Fredricksen, vice president at research firm EMarketer Inc., said in an interview.
“Tablets are the key driver in terms of the sales element.
They’ve extended the length of the shopping day.” - Bloomberg NewsDuPont targeting seed-saving farmers
DuPont Co., the world’s second-biggest seed company, is sending dozens of former police officers across North America to prevent a practice generations of farmers once took for granted.
The provider of the best-selling genetically modified soybean seed is looking for evidence of farmers illegally saving them from harvests for replanting the following season, which is not allowed under sales contracts. The Wilmington, Del.-based company is inspecting Canadian fields and will begin in the U.S. next year, said Randy Schlatter, a DuPont senior manager.
DuPont is protecting its sales of Roundup Ready soybeans, so called because they tolerate being sprayed by Monsanto Co.’s Roundup herbicide. For years enforcement was done by Monsanto, which created Roundup Ready and dominates the $13.3 billion biotech seed industry, though it’s moving on to a new line of seeds now that patents are expiring. That leaves DuPont to play the bad guy, enforcing alternative patents so cheaper “illegal beans” don’t get planted.
“The biotech industry has trumped the legitimate economic interests of the farmer again by raising the ante on intellectual property,” said Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources.
- Bloomberg News
Toyota sets 18% goal on RAV4s in ’13
Toyota Motor Corp., headed for its best U.S. sales in four years, wants to boost deliveries next year of its RAV4 by 18 percent as it pits a restyled version of the crossover against rivals Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co.
The goal for the 2013 RAV4 model, with a sleeker exterior and improved fuel economy, is 200,000 unit sales in the U.S.
next year, up from about 170,000 in 2012, Bill Fay, group vice president of U.S. sales, said Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The new sport utility vehicle, which goes on sale in early January, is available only with a 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder engine and won’t have an optional V-6 engine, he said.
“Primary competitors are everybody in that small SUV segment,” Honda’s CR-V, Ford’s Escape and Mazda Motor Corp.’s CX-5, Fay said. “I’m not so sure there’s going to be a V-6 left in that segment,” as competitors move away from larger engines, he said.
Sales of the current RAV4 jumped 36 percent this year through October as Toyota accelerated production at the Woodstock, Ontario, plant after a slowdown last year related to Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Honda’s CR-V, revamped last year, is the top-selling SUV in the U.S. with sales up 30 percent to 233,586 through October, followed by Escape at 219,907.
- Bloomberg News
Police deployed in bus drivers’ strike
SINGAPORE - Singapore responded to its first strike in nearly three decades with riot police and strident official criticism of the disgruntled Chinese immigrant workers, highlighting strains from an influx of foreign labor.
Many of the 171 striking bus drivers returned to work Wednesday after a government minister warned them that they had “crossed the line” and riot police were stationed near their hostel. They went on strike Monday in protest at being paid nearly a quarter less than Malaysian bus drivers who work for the same Singapore transport company.
Strikes are almost unheard of in Singapore where the ruling party has been in power since 1959 and maintains strict control over political dissent. The previous strike was in 1986 by shipyard workers.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 28 on 11/29/2012