DIGITAL TV TRANSITION
After weeks of debate, Congress is giving consumers four more months to prepare for the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting. The House voted to postpone the shutdown of analog TV signals to June 12, to address growing concerns that too many Americans won’t be ready by the Feb. 17 deadline that Congress set three years ago. The Senate passed the measure unanimously last week and the bill now heads to President Barack Obama for his signature. The Nielsen Co. estimates that more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals still are not ready. People who subscribe to cable or satellite TV or have a newer TV with a digital tuner will not be affected.
RETAIL SALES
January sales fell 1.6 percent, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally — not as bad as the 2 percent to 3 percent drop expected but still the fourth consecutive monthly decline. The index was helped by the better-than-expected results from Wal-Mart, which accounts for just over half the index. Excluding Wal-Mart, January same-store sales fell 4.8 percent. The tally is based on same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, which are a key indicator of a retailer’s health. The sales figures capped the final month in the industry’s fiscal year, which saw a meager 0.9 percent sales increase, the slowest pace since at least 1969 when the ICSC index began.
JOBLESS CLAIMS
New jobless claims jumped far more than expected last week in an already dismal labor market, and there’s no relief in sight for workers as mass layoffs persist. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of newly jobless workers seeking benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 626,000, from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 591,000. The latest total is far more than analysts’ expectations of 583,000. That’s also the highest since October 1982, when the economy was in a steep recession, though the work force has grown by about half since then.
– AP
