The United States housing market continued its long decline in the third quarter with home values falling for the 17th consecutive quarter, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. With home values 25 percent below their June 2006 peak, the current housing downturn is approaching Great Depression-era declines, when home values fell 25.9 percent in five years.
New EU-wide rules on the marketing of alternative investment funds overcame the final hurdle on Thursday when the European Parliament adopted the directive which will impose registration, reporting and initial capital requirements on these funds. Parliament successfully pushed through chapters on asset stripping and remuneration principles, as well as strongly influencing the rules on the passport system, depositary liability, capital requirements and the use of leverage.
There were 2.9 million job openings on the last business day of September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The job openings rate was little changed over the month at 2.2 percent. The hires rate and separations rate both remained at 3.2 percent in September. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and geographic region.
Online retail sales in the US will reach nearly $52 billion this holiday season, a 16 percent increase over last year’s weak numbers, according to a new forecast by Forrester Research, Inc. The 2010 growth rate is twice the rate in 2009, when online holiday sales grew 8 percent in the wake of the global recession. Forrester defines the holiday shopping season as the months of November and December.
Americans continue to see some real improvements in their economic outlook, financial difficulties and stress levels have declined and the employment numbers have climbed back into positive territory, according to the Consumer Reports Index for November.
As health care costs continue to significantly outpace the rate of inflation and increases in compensation, an affordability gap is placing increasing pressure on employees and eroding satisfaction with their health plans, according to a survey of employees conducted by Towers Watson, a global professional services company.
According to BDO USA, LLP, one of the nation’s leading accounting and consulting organizations, chief marketing officers (CMOs) at leading U.S. retailers expect comparable and overall sales to increase by 2.83 percent and 3.51 percent respectively, for the 2010 holiday season. This is a big jump in expectations from last year (comparable: 1.4% and overall: 2.6%) and would be a marked improvement from both the 0.4 percent uptick in actual holiday sales and the dismal 3.9 percent decline retailers experienced in 2008 (reported by the NRF).
While employers are encouraged to offer coverage under the new health care reform rules, they can choose not to and (starting in 2014) pay a penalty that may be less than what they currently spend on health benefits.
A national survey finds more Americans have bought energy efficient appliances, installed insulation, replaced their lightbulbs with CFLs, and adjusted their thermostats – yet, they say, their utility bills are still increasing.
A new Harris Poll finds that large numbers of people claim to be changing the foods and drinks they consume. Many of these changes are in line with the guidance provided by experts, such as eating more fruit, whole grains and vegetables and consuming less soda, white bread and processed food. However the data strongly suggest that many of these replies reflect wishful thinking and public knowledge of what people think they should be doing, rather than actual changes in behavior.
