Superstorm, anxiety eat into retail sales
WASHINGTON » Superstorm Sandy combined with cautious consumers to lower retail sales in October and raise concerns about weaker economic growth and a tepid holiday shopping season.
Consumers may also be holding back because of anxiety over big tax increases and spending cuts — known as the "fiscal cliff" — that will take effect in January unless Congress and the White House reach a budget deal by then.
Retail sales dropped 0.3 percent last month after three months of gains, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales at auto dealers fell 1.5 percent, the most in more than a year.
Fed minutes hint at new bond-buying plan
WASHINGTON » The Federal Reserve may be preparing to take further steps to stimulate an economy that remains too weak to reduce high unemployment.
Minutes of the Fed’s Oct. 23-24 policy meeting released Wednesday suggest that it might unveil a bond-buying program in December to replace a program that expires at year’s end.
The bond purchases are intended to lower long-term borrowing rates to encourage spending and strengthen the economy. The hope is that more hiring will follow.
California starts program to cap emissions
SAN FRANCISCO » California began auctioning permits Wednesday for greenhouse gas emissions, launching one of the world’s most ambitious efforts to cut heat-trapping gases from industrial sources.
The California Air Resources Board said it began selling the pollution "allowances" in a closed, online auction expected to create the world’s second-largest marketplace for carbon emissions.
Under the program, the state sets a limit, or cap, on emissions from individual polluters. Businesses are required to either cut emissions to cap levels or buy allowances through the auction from other companies for each extra ton of pollution discharged annually.
Abercrombie stock jumps on strong quarter
NEW YORK » Abercrombie & Fitch Co. delivered a pleasant pre-Christmas surprise to investors: The teen retailer raised its full-year earnings guidance on a strong third-quarter performance, sending shares surging over 34 percent.
The company, based in New Albany, Ohio, reported a 41 percent increase in net income for the third quarter as international, domestic and direct-to-consumer sales strengthened. The results beat Wall Street expectations.
The strong quarterly performance is welcome news for A&F, which has been struggling to sell its preppy jeans and T-shirts as fashion trends are shifting and a rough economy has left teens around the world on tighter budgets.
Shares soared $10.74, or nearly 34.5 percent, to close at $41.92 Wednesday. At Tuesday’s closing price, the company’s stock had been down more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year and had lost more than half their value in the past 12 months.
Pinterest splits personal, business accounts
NEW YORK » Pinterest is allowing small businesses and corporations to create official accounts, a move that could be an early step toward profitability.
Pinterest Inc. burst onto the tech scene last year, appealing to designers, wedding planners, chefs and anyone else who likes to collect and share images from the Web.
The San Francisco company said it is offering businesses free tools for their Pinterest content. Companies already use Pinterest to share photos of clothes, recipes and designs.
With Wednesday’s changes, businesses can officially link their websites so they are listed on their Pinterest profiles. For example, Home Depot can now verify that its Pinterest page is company-sanctioned and linked to www. homedepot.com.
Companies can also add buttons to their own websites to make it easier for visitors to "pin" items on Pinterest (using a "pin it" button) or follow their feeds on Pinterest.
Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 positions
NEW YORK » Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. says it will eliminate about 1,700 jobs as it trims spending in its wireless business.
The cuts will reduce Texas Instruments’ staff positions by almost 5 percent.
Texas Instruments expects the job cuts and other changes will save about $450 million per year by the end of 2013. The Dallas company expects to take $325 million in one-time charges connected to the moves. Most will come in the current quarter.
ON THE MOVE
Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties has announced that Christopher Noa Teves, a Realtor associate, has joined the firm’s Leeward office. Teves was previously working for Prudential Locations.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has hired Dr. Harold Barnard as a specialist in family medicine; he has joined the Kihei Clinic on Maui. Barnard was previously a physician at Memorial Hospital of South Bend in Indiana.
Dr. Toby Smith
last month received the Physician of the Year Award in Life Care Centers of America’s Mountain States Division. Smith is an on-site physician at Ka Punawai Ola in Kapolei.
