News Briefs - Jan. 15
The Latest Headlines:
- Mineta to Undergo Major Back Surgery
- High Winds Blow Crude Prices Higher
- Eaton to Close Several Plants, Cut Jobs
- Economist Group Less Inclined to Declare Recession Over
- High Winds Blow Crude Prices Higher
Mineta to Undergo Major Back Surgery
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will have major surgery next week to relieve chronic back pain, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.Mineta is slated to undergo the surgery Jan. 24 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, AP said. The procedure will last up to 18 hours and keep the secretary in intensive care for up to a week.
The AP story said that Mineta is not expected to leave the hospital until at least mid-February. Public Affairs Director Chet Lunner told Transport Topics that Mineta may not return to work until early March.
High Winds Blow Crude Prices Higher
High winds and rough seas in the North Sea delayed some oil shipments from Nor-way, Bloomberg reported, pushing oil prices to a two-year high.The rough weather raised concerns that oil supplies could be further threatened, even as tensions in the Middle East and a general strike in Venezuela continue to garner most of the headlines, Bloomberg said.
Crude oil is distilled down to motor fuels like diesel and gasoline. Increases in the cost of crude are often passed down to consumers at the pump.
In electronic trading Wednesday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude rose as much as 47 cents a barrel to $32.84, Bloomberg reported.
Geopolitical events have pushed crude oil prices up 58% in the past year, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
Eaton to Close Several Plants, Cut Jobs
Parts manufacturer Eaton Corp. said Tuesday that it is planning on closing several plants it acquired in 2002 deal with Dana Corp.The Cleveland-based manufacturer purchased Dana’s Boston Weatherhead business in November 2002, but will now begin folding it into its own fluid power systems division, the company said.
Eaton said it would close plants in Norwood, N.C. and Ludlow, Mass., as well as Boston Weatherhead’s corporate offices in Brentwood, Tenn. Production will be consolidated into other pre-existing Eaton plants.
In 2002, Boston Weatherhead had sales of $207 million and employed 1,049 people. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
Economist Group Less Inclined to Declare Recession Over
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said on its Web site Monday that it is not yet ready to declare the recession over based on poor employment reports from the final two months of 2002.“Recent data confirm our earlier conclusion that additional time is needed to be confident about the interpretation of the movements of the economy last year and this year,” the committee said.
The group is waiting for employment reports to show a trough in unemployment data before it declares the recession, which began in March 2001, over.
The group had earlier said that the recession “may have come to an end.”
The NBER is the group that officially labels business cycles as recessions or expansions. Transport Topics
