Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Another market bounceback: Once more, stocks opened lower and then switched to the upside. But the trading range has been quite narrow.
State recovering slowly: Don't expect strong job growth until the second quarter of 2012, according to the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast. That means double-digit unemployment in the state for the next couple of years. (OC Register)
Charlie Munger warns of more pain: The L.A. billionaire and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway tells CNBC that the job market will remain "lousy" for an extended period and that several sectors, including commercial real estate, are in for more trouble.
Good numbers at Port of Long Beach: Inbound cargo traffic was up 24.5 percent in August compared with a year earlier. But outbound traffic fell 3.5 percent, indicating a drop in exports. Earlier post has the Port of L.A. counts.
Egg farm's salmonella not new: There had been traces of the bacteria for two years at Iowa's Wright County Egg, the facility that recalled 380 million eggs last month. From Bloomberg:
Maggots, rodents and eight-foot piles of chicken manure were among the health violations found by the Food and Drug Administration at closely held Wright County Egg last month, according to an Aug. 30 inspection report. The agency also found rodents and manure at the Hillandale facility, and said both farms failed to fully implement plans to prevent contamination. Orland Bethel, president of Hillandale Farms, also is scheduled to testify at next week's hearing.
Gadget season: Electronics retailers are stocking up on e-readers and smart phones for the holiday season as consumers start OD-ing on TVs and laptops. From the WSJ:
The new priorities are plainly evident in the changing strategy of Best Buy Co., the nation's largest electronics retailer by revenue, which is now morphing into a mobile gadget specialist after decades of promoting the latest in big-screen televisions, desktop computers and high-fidelity stereos. Best Buy, which reported a 61% jump in second quarter profit Tuesday despite flat sales at stores open at least 14 months, said it will showcase devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle e-reader this holiday season.
Chase outage: Millions of online bank customers lost access to their accounts for more than a day because of a software flaw. JP Morgan Chase stressed that hackers were not involved. (WSJ)
Mozilo case needs more time: Lawyers for the former CEO of Countrywide Financial say that the three weeks being allotted in Mozilo's civil fraud trial are not enough. They're looking for eight weeks. The SEC plans to call 22 witnesses and introduce 2,000 documents. (LAT)
Steve Lopez on LAX concession battle: The LAT columnist is understandably disgusted.
"It seems like a simple thing to do," Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza said during a break in the brawl Monday. "Why can't they just get it done?" Just get it done? Oh, sweetheart. Welcome to City Hall, where council members couldn't make a pizza together without subcommittee hearings, visits from lobbyists, an environmental impact report, an ethics investigation and half a dozen lawsuits over the choice of toppings.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.