BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2000
Sales of new homes continued at a torrid pace last month, as the housing
market remained strong despite a series of Federal Reserve interest-rate
increases. New-home sales hit a brisk annual rate of 919,000 in February,
the Commerce Department reported. The performance greatly exceeded
analysts' expectations, though it actually amounted to a 0.5 percent
decrease from the previous month after massively revised figures for January
were released. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2).
OPEC's move to boost oil production is expected to lower gas prices in the
U.S. by as much as 18 cents a gallon -- though the bulk of the savings is
unlikely to appear until after the peak of the summer driving season. ...
(USA Today, page 1B).
A growing number of utilities, businesses, and consumers are switching from
oil to natural gas, to escape spiraling oil prices, says Business Week
(April 3, page 48). This has helped to send natural gas prices soaring --
up more than 30 percent over a year ago. Although regulatory protection
keeps consumers from absorbing all of that increase right away, prices have
jumped 9 percent. Costs are likely to increase an additional 6 percent by
next winter.
A handful of Internet start-ups are being very literal about using bricks
and mortar to lure customers in cyberspace. They are creating Web portals
customized for employees in the same office building, a single place where
workers can go to call a messenger, order a pizza, stock up on business
cards, or even turn up the heat in their cubicles. More than merely
high-tech amenities, these targeted Web sites offer dot-coms and their
commercial landlord customers entree into the billions of dollars of
purchasing that takes place within office walls every year. ... Under the
business model used by one Web site for three buildings in Toronto, the
dot-com and the landlord share a cut of as much as 5 percent of the revenues
from purchases made on the sites. ... (Wall Street Journal, page B1).
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