Feds making money: The Federal Reserve released its 2009 financial results on Tuesday, and the results are encouraging: It posted a record profit of $46.1 billion, which will be paid to the U.S. Treasury. That's more than the expected combined profits of Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and J.P. Morgan (JPM). At least the Fed doesn't depend solely on its loan portfolio. It also makes money from the fees it charges for operating the financial system, such as clearing checks and electronic payments between banks. In fact, the Fed pays the costs of its operations from its revenue rather than from taxpayers. Any profits after paying employee salaries and other general operating expenses are turned over to the Treasury. Prior to 2009, the most money the Fed sent to the Treasury was $34.6 billion in 2007. (Wow, I had no idea)
Tech Spending to Increase in 2010: The technology sector is poised for a comeback in 2010, according to a report released Tuesday morning by Forrester Research, an industry analysis group. IT firms will benefit as companies and governments restart their spending on tech infrastructure and software, the firm predicts. (I like more spending.....it spreads the money around and benefits all)
From GM's Whitaker: GM plans to repay $6.7 billion in loans at the end of June. The remainder of the $50 billion worth of support will be repaid as the government cashes out its shares of GM sometime after the auto maker goes public again. “We did talk about repayment, but I’ve already said it will come in June or July,” he says. “We’ll polish that off in June or July. I told (Pelosi) I thought they made a good investment and it would pay off for them.” (Big things coming from GM and just more good news)
Economist HIGHLIGHTS
• The Zions Bank Small Business Index for Utah was 80.2 in December 2009, up from a revised 79.0 in November 2009
• Utah’s unemployment rate was estimated at 6.3% in the latest month, down from the 6.5% rate of the prior month. Total Utah employment fell an estimated 38,800 jobs during the past 12 months
• Utah’s small business sector will benefit from stronger U.S. economic growth during 2010, as the Great Recession has run its course
-The initially reported loss of 11,000 jobs during November was revised to a gain of 4,000 jobs, the first monthly employment rise in two years. The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 10.0% in December (Oh ya, all good stuff)
Economic Growth: The U.S. economy grew at a 2.2% real (after inflation) annual growth pace during 2009’s third quarter. Moreover, most forecasting economists see growth in the October-December quarter at a 4.0%-5.0% real annual pace, with numerous forecasts seeing even stronger growth. Most forecasts for 2010’s first half are near 2.8%-3.0%, again with various forecasts for both stronger and weaker growth. (Growth baby Growth)
Real Estate in Utah: The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS released its 2010 Housing Forecast. After two very difficult years, existing home sales in Salt Lake County are poised for a rebound. The increase in home sales in 2009 suggests that 2008 was the bottom of the downturn. In 2010, as many as 10,000 homes could be sold in Salt Lake County, a nearly 10 percent increase compared to sales in 2009. (Real estate rebounding)
Gas Prices: Utah seems to be bucking the national trend when it comes to gas prices. Utah is the only state to show a month to month decrease in price, according to the latest report from AAA Utah, which tracks gas prices as a service to consumers. (Yea another bonus)
Telecom spending to be big in 2010: U.S. telecom and cable operators are likely to increase their capital expenditures this year according to estimates from Avian Securities. In a research report released last week the firm estimates that telecom service providers will increase their spending by 1.5% to $57.7 billion.Avian estimates that the largest spenders will be AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) ($17.5 billion), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) ($16.6 billion), Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) ($5 billion), and T-Mobile USA ($3.5 billion).
Avian's estimates may be conservative. Several weeks ago Dick Lynch, chief technology officer for Verizon said, "It's no accident that again [in 2009], Verizon's consumer and business services won major industry awards." Lynch asserted that those awards were the direct result of network spending in 2009. "The better the network, the better the performance of the applications that ride on them. It's as simple as that," he said. Accordingly, it is likely that communications providers will spend much of their 2010 capital budgets on technologies that increase the efficiency of their high speed wireless networks. (Sounds like good news to me.)
Raymond James Success: True to the title of the report – Built to Endure – Raymond James reported profits for every quarter during a 2009 fiscal year that was one of the most stressful in recent times. One reason for the success rests on the firm’s adherence to its long-standing conservative and judicious business principles. (Good on ya Raymond James)
Rut Row section:
DETROIT -- Toyota will install brake override systems on all Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles by year end as a way to prevent unintended acceleration. The new system will be put in all vehicles globally, said Yoshi Inaba, president of Toyota North America Inc., in an interview at the Detroit auto show today. The initiative follows a recall last fall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the United States to correct the problem. Inaba said installation began this month on the Toyota Camry and Lexus ES 350 models, which account for the largest number of models included in the recall.
Several instances of runaway Toyota and Lexus vehicles have been reported in the United States, causing injuries and some deaths. (Finally they made admittance of severe quality and safety issues that were hurting Americans. I wonder why they are putting quality ads all over TV.......huh to over come the 4 Million recalls just last year???)
The Weird News of the Day: to smile about:
While reporting on Britain's oldest newlyweds in November (husband 94, wife 87), the Daily Telegraph also noted that in 2008, Bertie Wood and her husband, Jessie, of Falmouth had decided to end their 36-year marriage, evidently at a point where they felt they needed a fresh start. Both were 97 years old at the time. Jessie has since died, and Bertie lives in a nursing home. [Daily Telegraph, 11-9-09] (I guess it is never to late to start fresh eh?)
Now everyone have a great day, be successful and look forward to all the Good around you and coming at you from every direction. Yehaw...........smiles everyone.
sy
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