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See-saw stocks: Materials and energy companies brought down the market in early trading, but the indexes seem to be coming back.
Toyota's latest problem: Officials say that the automaker saved $100 million by working out a limited recall of floor mats. An internal document is titled, "Wins for Toyota -- Safety Group." Ouch. (AP)
NBC scores on Olympics: Higher-than-expected ratings have led to higher-than-expected ad revenues - and that means the network might lose less than the earlier forecast of $250 million. (WSJ)
Recovery under way: New survey of economists shows job gains resuming this quarter, but no significant drop in the unemployment rate for another year. Consumer spending will be relatively sluggish. (AP)
More hiring at ports: Way more longshoreman found work on the docks during the first three weeks in February than they did a year earlier. Boost in cargo traffic could reflect a replenishing of inventories rather than a significant increase in business. (LAT)
Fewer mass layoffs: CA lost 65,000 jobs in the fourth quarter through mass layoffs (companies firing 50 or more workers), but that was a lot better than the 117,000 that were lost during the previous three months. (LAT)
Why Anthem is raising rates: Short answer is that the cost of medical care for individual policyholders exceeds the premiums coming in. But overall Anthem earned more than $500 million in 2009. From the LAT:
Critics say some of those gains should have been kept in California and used to cover the losses on Anthem's individual policies. Instead, the company turned to individual policyholders to make up the losses with rate increases of up to 39%. WellPoint Executive Vice President Brad Fluegel said the company cannot dip into profit from one insurance line to keep another line afloat.
LAX groundbreaking: Big show at the airport today. Expanding the Bradley international terminal by 1.25 million square feet will cost $1.55 billion, making it the most-expensive in the city's history.
OneWest buys failed bank: This time it's La Jolla Bank, which was closed by regulators late Friday. LaJolla's 10 branches will reopen today under new ownership. (Business Journal)
"Hurt Locker" a lock:? More awards over the weekend for the low-budget war drama, but The Wrap's Steve Pond isn't convinced it's over.
"Avatar" would be beating all the odds if it won; no film has been named Best Picture without a single acting or writing nomination since "Grand Hotel" in 1931-32, when the makeup of the Academy was so dramatically different as to make precedent meaningless. But "Avatar" has already beaten all the odds at the boxoffice, and it's picked up a good chunk of voters who view it as such a transformative, groundbreaking experience that it'd be crazy to vote for anything else.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.