Wednesday morning headlines

Big jump in stocks: Wall Street normally keeps quiet in the hours before a Fed interest rate announcement, but for whatever reason the Dow is up around 125 points in early trading.

Waiting for the Fed: It's all but certain that policymakers will leave interest rates alone. The economy is starting to turn around, but certainly not to the point that would require any tightening up of the money supply. (AP)

Kaiser cuts: The health care giant will eliminate more than 1,800 positions over the next few months, just under 2 percent of the company's total work force (650 in Socal). Many of the positions are temporary, on-call or short-hour. (LAT)

Macy's bolsters outlook: Restructuring charges bit into second-quarter profits, but CEO Terry Lundgren said recently that he didn't expect a repeat of last year's panic promotions because supply and demand are "relatively at parity again." (WSJ)

Coastal resorts struggling: Without much demand for $400-a-night lodging, a bunch of OC luxury properties are struggling this summer. From the LAT:

The five hotels that make up the core of the high-end Orange County market were less than half full in June, with occupancy of about 46%, according to a Smith Travel Research analysis for The Times. In June 2008, hotels in the area were about 71% full, but that was before Pelican Hill opened, flooding the market with even more accommodations. "It's an absolutely gorgeous site and a fabulous facility -- and empty as a ghost town," said Bruce G. Willison, former chairman of First Interstate Bank of California and former dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, who stayed at Pelican Hill in the spring.

Better in Nevada?: It's a questionable claim, what with Vegas having the nation's highest foreclosure rate, but the Nevada Development Authority is sticking with its story in a series of ads aimed at CA businesses. From the LAT:

The Nevada campaign touts the fact that the Silver State has no corporate or personal income tax, no inventory tax, and lower workers' compensation costs. A light-industrial facility that costs $405,478 a year to operate in Las Vegas would cost $625,774 to operate in Los Angeles County, according to the Nevada Development Authority.

He's going on vacation?: The new CEO of AIG, Robert Benmosche, plans to spend part of his first month on the job in Croatia, Bloomberg reports. He'll be away for about two weeks. "From a public relations standpoint it's probably not the wisest thing to do," said an executive recruiter.

C-17 handed over: Boeing's big cargo plane is formally delivered to the Qatar Emiri Air Force, the first C-17 delivered to any nation in the Middle East. More orders are possible. (Press-Telegram)

Leno cleared by WGA: You might recall that the late-night host had been accused of violating guild rules against writing for struck companies when he returned as host of "The Tonight Show" during the strike. (Variety)

All about Paula: NYT offers a blow-by-blow account of why Paula Abdul left Fox's "American Idol," and what kind of future she has doing whatever she does. She's supposedly being courted by ABC and NBC.

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