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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (45534)	1/31/2006 4:20:04 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

DJ Time Inc To Cut 100 More Jobs: Focus On Web Business -NYT . NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Time Inc., after eliminating 105 management jobs just before Christmas, is moving to cut about 100 more, including up to 10 at its flagship, Time magazine, a product of Time Warner (TWX) The New York Times reported in its Tuesday editions. Both editorial and business-side employees are being cut at several of the company's domestic magazines. About 40 business-side employees were notified yesterday that they were losing their jobs, as were 26 editorial employees who are not in the Newspaper Guild. The Times reports that about three dozen other editorial employees who are protected by the Guild are being offered buyouts and will have until Feb. 13 to decide whether to accept them. If not enough Guild-protected people take the buyouts, there will be layoffs, executives said. The company employs about 13,400 people. The company does not plan any other job cuts in the near term, said Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman. The paper reported that two of the titles most affected will be Time and Money magazines. But there will be cuts across the board, including at other Time Inc. brand names like Fortune, Sports Illustrated and Real Simple. At Time magazine, Jim Kelly, the managing editor, said he was asking "up to 10" employees to consider buyouts, or less than 5% of the magazine's domestic and foreign staff of 225. All are editorial assistants, writers or correspondents. He said that if he did not have enough volunteers, "I may have to make some involuntary layoffs." (END) Dow Jones Newswires January 31, 2006 00:43 ET (05:43 GMT)

To: mishedlo who wrote (45534)	1/31/2006 4:20:42 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

. TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Total construction orders received by Japan's 50 leading domestic contractors rose 13.2% on year to Y1.243 trillion in December, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday. The rise comes after a 5.2% decrease in November and a 0.6% increase in October. Orders from the private sector rose 11.2% to Y901.9 billion, while those from the public sector rose 3.8% to Y211.0 billion. Overseas construction orders rose 121.5% to Y81.9 billion, the ministry said. Web site: mlit.go.jp -By Stanley White, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929; stanley.white@dowjones.com -Edited by Tomoko Hosaka and Shawn Schroter (END) Dow Jones Newswires January 31, 2006 00:15 ET (05:15 GMT)

To: mishedlo who wrote (45534)	1/31/2006 4:20:58 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

DJ Japan December Housing Starts Down 0.9% On Year . TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan's housing starts fell 0.9% on year in December to 97,932 units, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday. The decrease missed expectations of economists surveyed by Dow Jones, who estimated on average that housing starts rose 6.1%. It was the first decline in three months. Housing starts jumped 12.6% in November and rose 9.1% in October. Annualized housing starts were at 1.17 million units. Private housing starts for individuals' homes in December fell 0.8% on year to 26,689 units, while rental housing rose 2.3% to 42,998. Multi-unit dwellings fell 3.1% to 27,823. Multi-unit starts include those of condominiums. Web site: mlit.go.jp -By Stanley White, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929; stanley.white@dowjones.com

To: mishedlo who wrote (45534)	1/31/2006 4:45:34 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

=DJ DATA SNAP: UK Consumer Credit Plunges To Five-Year Low . By Ilona Billington Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.K. consumers' appetite for unsecured debt plummeted in December to its lowest level in five years, data from the Bank of England showed Tuesday. Total consumer credit grew just GBP834 million in December - the lowest level since GBP767 million in December 2000 and compared with GBP997 million in November. The data come as a surprise, with economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expecting an increase of GBP1.0 billion. The data are in line with recent surveys from both the British Bankers Association and the Council of Mortgage lenders and suggest that consumers are no longer willing to take on massive amounts of credit card and other unsecured debt. Given the disproportionate importance of retail sales to the U.K. economy the numbers may prove to be a concern to policy makers who still rely heavily on consumer spending to support economic growth. Total consumer lending, meanwhile, grew GBP9.645 billion in December compared with growth of GBP9.639 billion in November. That was slightly above the consensus forecast for lending to slow slightly to a rise of GBP9.5 billion, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists. (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires Mortgage lending grew GBP8.812 billion in December compared with November's GBP8.642 billion. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a GBP8.5 billion rise. The data are again in line with the recent surveys reporting the strongest December lending total on record. Approvals for house purchase, meanwhile - a good indicator of future housing market activity - totaled 122,000 in December compared with the revised 116,000 in the previous month. The BOE previously reported approvals totaling 115,000 in November. The continued strong performance of mortgage approvals is in line with the current trend in U.K. house prices. U.K. lender Nationwide earlier Tuesday reported that house prices rose 1.4% on the month in January, and said the recent high level of mortgage approvals "suggests that the market will strengthen further over the next few months." Nationwide economist Fionnula Earley pointed out, however, that due to sub-trend economic growth and an expected increase in unemployment, a return to the double-digit price rises seen between 1999 and the first half of 2004 was unlikely. Separately, M4 broad money supply data released by the BOE showed a rise of 1.3% in December. It rose 12.6% in the year to December, up from the revised 12.0% rate of growth in the year to November. M4 lending rose 1.4% on the month and 10.2% in the year through December, the BOE said. (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires