News Briefs - Dec. 24
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The Latest Headlines:
- Eight Nations Ban U.S Beef After Discovery of Mad Cow Disease
- November New Home Sales Fall 2.4%
- Jobless Claims Fall by 1,000 in Latest Week
- OPEC's Silva Says Oil Market Is Adequately Supplied
- 'Six Days on the Road' Singer Dudley Dies
- November New Home Sales Fall 2.4%
Eight Nations Ban U.S Beef After Discovery of Mad Cow Disease
Eight nations, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, halted U.S. beef imports after the Agriculture Department announced Tuesday that a cow at a farm near Yakima, Wash., tested positive for mad cow disease, news services reported.Trucking companies that haul beef are likely to see smaller profits because of these bans. Japan is the largest overseas market for U.S. beef, the Associated Press reported.
The apparent discovery of mad cow disease comes at a time when the U.S. beef industry is flourishing, in part because imports from Canada dried up after a single case of the disease was found there last spring. Transport Topics
November New Home Sales Fall 2.4%
Sales of new homes declined 2.4% in November to a 1.082 million annual rate, the slowest since May, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.Falling home sales likely means less business for flatbed trucking companies that haul building materials and dry van freight could that haul household appliances and furniture. New homes account for 15% of all house sales.
Housing starts rose last month to the highest level in almost 20 years, helped by low mortgage rates and backlogs of
rders from earlier in the year, Bloomberg said.
Sales rose 0.4% in the South, 10% in the Midwest, 6.5% in the Northeast and 1.3% in the West. Transport Topics
Jobless Claims Fall by 1,000 in Latest Week
Initial applications for state unemployment insurance dropped 1,000 to 353,000 in the week ended Dec. 20 from a revised 354,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said Wednesday.Claims have been below the 400,000 level economists see as a divide between improving and deteriorating labor markets for 12 consecutive weeks, Reuters said. That is the longest stretch since April 2001.
Labor also said the four-week moving average of initial claims fell for the second straight week to 361,750 from 362,000.
The number of unemployed workers who continued to draw benefits fell 38,000 to 3.27 million in the week ended Dec. 13. Transport Topics
OPEC's Silva Says Oil Market Is Adequately Supplied
OPEC Secretary-General Alvaro Silva said world markets have enough oil and prices will probably decline in the months ahead, Bloomberg reported.Silva said a decline in prices could force the cartel to consider cutting output quotas when it meets to review policy in early February, Bloomberg said.
OPEC's benchmark oil price has been above $28 a barrel, the top of OPEC's desired range, for 15 days. Under an informal accord, OPEC has said it will consider pumping more oil should its benchmark price stay above $28 a barrel for 20 consecutive days. Transport Topics
'Six Days on the Road' Singer Dudley Dies
Dave Dudley, who had a hit record in the 1960s with the truck-driving song "Six Days on the Road," died Monday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 75, the Associated Press reported.Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dudley recorded "Dave Dudley, American Trucker," a hard-edged tribute to truckers that included two songs talking to terrorists who might want to tangle with the folks who drive the big rigs.
Dudley recorded more than 70 albums during his career, AP said. Transport Topics
