BIZWATCH : MARKETS.MARKET LOGIC: The Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. chugged Thursday to its third record high this week, benefiting from an apparent contradiction: tame inflation and soaring energy prices. The Dow rose 76.19 to 6,625.67, beating Tuesday's record of 6,600.66. MEMO LOW-COST AIRLINE: USAir Group Inc. and its pilots union are hammering out details of a low-cost airline service that would compete against Southwest Airlines This article is about the American airline. For the former Japanese airline, see Japan Transocean Air. For the British airline, see Air Southwest. Southwest Airlines Co. and other budget carriers. USAir, the nation's sixth-largest airline, must convince the union to accept flexible work rules, lower wages and longer hours. Both union and company spokesmen declined to comment on the negotiations. PRICES UP - A LITTLE: Soaring energy costs drove wholesale prices to a 12-month high in December and the biggest yearly increase since 1990. But excluding energy, there were scant scant adj. scant·er, scant·est 1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture. 2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. signs of accelerating prices. The Labor Department The Department of Labor (DOL) administers federal labor laws for the Executive Branch of the federal government. Its mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working said Thursday that when energy costs are removed, its Producer Price Index rose a barely perceptible per·cep·ti·ble adj. Capable of being perceived by the senses or the mind: perceptible sounds in the night. [Late Latin perceptibilis, from Latin perceptus 0.1 percent in December and just 1.4 percent in all of 1996. WEB SITE: Great Western Financial Corporation, the nation's second-largest thrift, launched a Web site Thursday to offer the public access to news and company information on line. The Chatsworth-based company hopes the site, http://www.gwf.com, will help link customers with the firm's stock quotes and investment advice. The site also offers a year-old archive of news releases, company history and investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. information, as well as profiles of company executives. LOW-CHARGE HOLIDAYS:Consumers kept their promise to go easy on credit cards during the holidays, helping to slow growth in Christmas sales and disappointing retailers. Preliminary figures from RAM Research, a credit-card research firm in Frederick, Md., show that, from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, the dollar amount of charges rose 6.5 percent over the comparable period in 1995. That is half the 13 percent growth retailers had hoped for, and less than a third of the 20 percent growth in 1995 and 25 percent logged in 1994. DISAPPOINTED RETAILERS: The nation's retailers reported disappointing sales for the month of December as consumers, who had spent freely over the Thanksgiving weekend, grew more cautious as the season wore on. A number of apparel chains and department stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. , including Dayton Hudson Corp. and Limited Inc., reported sales were weak. But there were some bright spots, especially at discounters and upscale retailers. TOBACCO DOCUMENTS: Tobacco stocks fell as much as 3 percent amid reports that Liggett Group Liggett Tobacco, formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company is the 4th largest tobacco company in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Durham, North Carolina. Its CEO is Bennett S. LeBow. is breaking ranks again with cigarette makers and offering internal documents to states suing the industry. The documents, which include Liggett's lawyers' notes from about 30 years of meetings with attorneys from other tobacco companies, could give states new information to use in lawsuits against the industry. Stock in Philip Morris, RJR Nabisco RJR Nabisco, Inc., was an American conglomerate formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. RJR Nabisco was purchased in 1988 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in the second largest leveraged buyout in history, adjusted for inflation. and other tobacco companies initially fell sharply in response to the reports. But the prices recovered during the day and tobacco stocks finished Thursday with a slight gain. CAPTION(S): 2 Charts Chart: (1--Color) DOW INDUSTRIALS (2--Color) BIZ FACTS EATING OUT Sales at restaurants will hit an all-time high of $320.4 billion this year, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an industry group. Expectations for these types of restaurants: Full service - Fast Food SOURCE: National Restaurant Association; research by PAT CARR Knight-Ridder Tribune Graphics Network |
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