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Big dip for stocks: Dow is down more than 100 points on not much news. Perhaps a sell-off is near. From Money & Co.:
Even if you believe that the rally since March 9 is a genuine new bull market rooted in expectations of an economic recovery, no such advance proceeds without sharp setbacks along the way. And we haven't had one. For the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index, the most significant decline so far was a 7% drop from June 12 to July 10. Blink, and you missed it.
Prices hold steady: No worry about inflation. July's consumer price index was unchanged from June, and prices were 2.1 percent lower than a year earlier (that's when soaring oil costs kicked up the price of gas). From the NYT:
Some economists have warned that the government's rescue plans and big stimulus spending would stoke inflation as the economy healed, setting off worries about the strength of the dollar and rising interest rates. But economists said that Friday's numbers showed that inflation remained subdued even as oil prices have more than doubled from earlier this winter and as interest rates on government bonds crept back from record lows.
But gas prices are back up: An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area is up about 7 cents from last week, according to the Auto Club, to $3.052.
Video games take big hit: July sales tumbled 29 percent from a year earlier, the industry's fifth straight monthly decline. Several new titles later this year may bump up sales, but some publishers are holding off until next year. (LAT)
Hotels still suffering: L.A. County saw a 21 percent drop in revenue per available room last week compared with the same period a year earlier. OC fell 17 percent. NY was the hardest hit of any big market. (LAT)
Meat recall: City of Commerce-based Sterling Meat is recalling more than 3,500 pounds of ground beef over concerns about E. coli contamination. The recalled beef patties were distributed to food service companies and then onto restaurants in California and Arizona. (LAT)
Condé Nast rumors: NY Post's Keith Kelly says there is a lot of chatter about Architectural Digest Editor-in-Chief Paige Rense being gone by the end of the year, even though the company denies it. The magazine is based in L.A.
Big home buy: Pimco bond guru Bill Gross has bought a bayfront home on Harbor Island in Newport Beach through a trust for $23 million. WSJ is hearing that Gross wants to tear the home down and build a new one on the site.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.