By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Friday so "It's Only Money," a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with Marketplace Middays.
News that should have weighed heavily on the opening of the market this morning, barely made a dent. September orders for durable goods, those big-ticket items, were down 5.9% last month. Economists and analysts were expecting a much much smaller decline. It was the largest drop since November of last year. Economists view this as an indication the economy is weakening.
Wednesday's release of the Fed's Beige Book, containing a survey of regional economic conditions, exposed more pessimism for the future. The Dallas Fed, in summarizing their findings, wrote: "This widespread uncertainty is leading consumer spending and business investment to be put on hold." Still, the stock market is reluctant to give back the gains it's made over the past two weeks. Fine by us, but it's still quite perplexing.
Prepare yourself, Southwestern Bell customers, for on November 15th, your local phone bill will be going up. That includes Fort Worth, Dallas, Austin and 29 other Texas markets. For the last five years, San Antonio-based SBC Communications, parent of Southwestern Bell, has been unsuccessfully requesting this increase from the Texas Public Utility Commission. The company finally had to sue to get it implemented.
Nobody really know if Dallas-based Halliburton Co. and Vice President Dick Cheney, its former chairman and chief executive, responded to Thursday's deadline to answer the charges brought in July by Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group. The lawsuit accused the company of accounting fraud from 1999 to 2001, the years Cheney reigned. By late yesterday afternoon, there was no response from Halliburton or the Vice President. Will they meet today's deadline for a second lawsuit?
And in the not so distant future, cell phones and e-mails on airplanes will be as second nature as four pretzels and a soft drink. Just don't be the one sitting next to me when you're on your cell phone. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.