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Stocks taking off: Wall Street is choosing to focus on better-than-expected earnings and a surprise drop in unemployment claims. Dow is up 160 points in early trading. (AP)
Tracking L.A. foreclosures: One in 42 households have received at least one foreclosure notice in the first half of 2009, which ranks 26th on RealtyTrac's list of metro areas - or a rate of 2.41 percent. Vegas was again the top spot, at one in 13 homes. Six of the top 10 cities are in CA.
Mass layoffs: California had 714 layoffs of 50 or more people in June, by far the largest of any state (the entire country had 2,519). It's also a 72 percent jump from a year earlier. (OC Register)
PennyMac goes public: The investment trust started by former Countrywide Financial executives raised $320 million in an initial public offering, short of the hoped-for $400 million. It's the first local IPO since January 2008. (Business Journal)
Clunkers driving car sales: Folks are trading in their gas-guzzling heaps in order to get a deep discount - courtesy of the federal government - on a new car purchase. From the Daily News:
Administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the CARS program started with $1 billion and by Wednesday afternoon was down to $858 million, according www.cars.gov. With 17,000 dealerships nationwide participating, some analysts and industry observers believe the fund will be depleted well before the program's end date of Nov. 1.
How airlines clean up: Those cancellation fees due to illness, family emergencies or rescheduled meetings are turning into a hefty revenue source - as in $2 billion a year. From the WSJ:
Industry revenue from change fees is going up--even though fewer people are traveling--because several airlines have raised penalties. Amid high fuel prices last year, several big airlines pushed up the change fee on domestic tickets to $150 from $100. Even JetBlue Airways Corp. imposed a $100 change fee, up from $40, for reservations made online. Fees collected in the first quarter this year jumped 29% at JetBlue to $32.2 million from $25 million a year earlier.
Hooray for Hollywood: NYT finds a Massachusetts couple who turned over their house to the producers of "The Proposal" - and they seem to have enjoyed it.
An effervescent young location scout made multiple visits to the Kanebs. "She was so nice," Mrs. Kaneb said. "But at first we thought, 'No way.' " It was just too much upheaval. Mr. Coates had let them know that their airy, light-colored interior was all wrong for the rough-hewn Alaskan look he was after, so he would have to build his own interior set. He was honest with the family about the disruption. "You try not to sugar-coat it," he said. "It does seem like a bomb went off in your house."
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.