Energy experts predict a 50-cent rise in prices over the next few weeks as supplies tighten — an annual event as refineries scale back production for maintenance, California converts to the more expensive summer blend of gasoline, more drivers hit the road and oil-exporting countries boost crude prices to around $100 a barrel.
A cost comparison of the staples of American diets shows that San Francisco prices are on par with those in Washington, D.C., a city with a more distant and tenuous connection to farmers.
Nonetheless, other numbers paint a mixed picture for a holiday spending season that began with a disappointing Black Friday and later focused on hopes that retail momentum would rise with last-minute spending.
The U.S. Census Bureau said retail and food services sales increased 3.9 percent compared with the previous October.
The company attributed a third consecutive drop in U.S. comparable-store sales to a laundry list of macroeconomic headwinds when it reported earnings last week. Wal-Mart, which forecast continued gloominess through year-end, told analysts it would watch to see if the federal health-care law would take yet another chunk out of customers’ pocketbooks.
Throughout this summer and fall, California’s gasoline prices have hovered about 40 to 45 cents per gallon above the national average. The difference has sometimes reached 50 cents.
A new report from the financial services firm anticipates the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year to be the slowest and most promotion-heavy since 2008, which was the first holiday season affected by the recession.
But an expected softening in October—amid a collapse in consumer confidence due to the government shutdown and weaker labor market—suggests a long-awaited pickup in economic growth may have to wait until next year.
California’s Internet sales tax has brought in more than 260 million dollars since it was implemented about a year ago.
Amazon.com, Inc. today announced it is finalizing plans to open a new 1.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, Calif. Amazon will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs at the fulfillment center when it opens. This will be Amazon’s fourth fulfillment center in the state. The company’s other sites are located in Patterson, San Bernardino and Tracy.
The move to hire 18,000 fewer temporary holiday workers versus last year’s 88,000 comes as the Minneapolis-based chain saw that its own permanent employees wanted to get first dibs on working extra hours for the holiday season.
Back-to-school shopping failed to boost the pace of consumer spending last month and retal sales growth unexpectedly slowed, the Commerce Department said Friday.
Company: Edison CoCA Net Job Gain/Loss: -730Reason: LayoffCity/Region Losing Jobs: San Clemente, CA
Seduced by generous subsidies, Germans are embracing the ambitious project with such fervor – installing solar panels on church roofs and converting sewage into heat – that instead of benefiting from a rise in green energy, they are straining under the subsidies’ cost and from surcharges.
Over the past 18 months, a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers who got rich suing the tobacco industry have turned their litigious attention to what they hope will be the next big thing: challenges to healthy-sounding food labels they allege are misleading. Hailing from across the U.S., the lawyers decided to sue in federal courts in Northern California, where the consumer-protection laws are expansive and the jury pool nutrition-conscious.