Investing and Global Finance News

Monthly Archives: December 2016

Business Orders Exceed Predictions in November

Analysts are hopeful that the economy is rebounding steadily as corporate investment is stabilizing, signaled by a better than expected uptick in business equipment orders.
November’s figures for non-defense capital goods, not including aircraft, climbed by 0.9 percent, the highest since August, and higher than was forecast. A Bloomberg survey predicted 0.4 percent growth.

“There’s some early evidence that business investment may be stabilizing,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “Investment has been a sore spot for the U.S. economy for a little bit now. Going forward we should see investment pick up.”

November posted orders for communications equipment growth by 6.7 percent, which was the highest since the beginning of 2015. Orders for machinery went up by 1.3 percent, the most since January.

Bookings for military capital equipment went up by 29.1 percent. Non-defense durable goods (items that are meant to last at least three years) fell by 6.6 percent.

Healthier Eating Trends Forcing Companies to Re-Brand and Re-Formulate

As consumers begin to move away from prepared and processed foods and towards fresher, more wholesome ingredients, giant companies like General Mills and ConArgra Brands have had to make changes to keep market share. General Mills has been steadily removing synthetic dyes from their breakfast cereals such as Trix for years, and are finally seeing… Continue Reading