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Market opening: The Dow is up after an hour of trading, but not by that much - about 80 points. This could be the kind of day when comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the state of the economy will be widely watched. AP
More economic worries: It turns out that the national economy grew at just a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter - not the 3.5 percent initial estimate reported some weeks back. (The Gross Domestic Product goes through several revisions; this is the second of the quarter - and it's unusually sharp.) Lower inventory investment, higher imports and slightly weaker consumer spending are said to be the culprits - and the numbers will no doubt add fuel to the belief among many analysts that the economy is slowing down. That's probably why the market is not up by much this morning. Not helping matters were two additional pieces of economic news: The Commerce Department reported sales of new single-family homes dropped to a lower-than-expected pace in January and the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said its index of Midwest manufacturing was at its lowest since October 2002. So are we headed into a recession? Ah, the big question of the day. The prevailing view is no - at least it's considered very unlikely (even though former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan raised it as a possibility in a speech on Monday). But people are starting to worry - about the housing market, about an increasingly vulnerable subprime market, about a steep downturn in the manufacturing sector - and about freelance worries like Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.Smart Money NYT
Dealmaking goes on: Venice-based Vantage Media, which is one of the leading Web marketing outfits, just completed a $70 million preferred financing round led by Montgomery & Co. (just down the block in Santa Monica) and also hired a new CEO who is talking about an initial public offering next year. Montgomery was instrumental in MySpace being sold to News Corp. and has been active in all kinds of big media deals. Vantage has made its money (over $1 million per employee per year) by reselling hot search terms from pay-per-click advertising providers like Google and Yahoo. Vantage manages more than 40 million keywords on Web search advertising systems.Reuters
Airbus, LAX make up: The superjumbo A380 will be landing in Los Angeles next month after all. The new plan will have one plane coming into LAX, the other into JFK. You might recall that LAX officials went ballistic after Airbus reneged on its promise to have the first A380 U.S. test flight land in L.A., instead choosing NY's JFK. The airport had already spent more than $51 million preparing for the A380, including renovating gates to accommodate the large aircraft. Daily Breeze
Housing report: Well, it remains slow - certainly slower than a year ago. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home in California last month was 75, compared with 48 a year earlier. The unsold inventory index also rose. Los Gatos had the highest median home price in the state last month, at $1.4 million. That was followed by Manhattan Beach, $1.27 million; Danville, $970,000; Morgan Hill, $907,000; Santa Barbara, $900,000; Santa Monica, $880,000; Yorba Linda, $819,000; San Ramon, $760,000; Laguna Niguel, $759,000; San Rafael, $758,000.
Bizjournals
Martha's China mission: NY Post's Keith Kelly says that Martha Stewart, along Martha Stewart Living CEO Susan Lyne, will be leaving on a fact-finding mission to China to see about the potential for expanding the empire. The plan is to one day introduce the flagship magazine to the country, along with other Martha stuff.
Oscar nixes YouTube: The video Web site complied with a "request" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to remove all unauthorized clips of Sunday's show, including host Ellen DeGeneres' opening monologue and musical numbers featuring Will Ferrell and Beyonce. An official for the Academy said the request was made "to help manage the value of our telecast and our brand." The official Oscar.com Website, which features a five-minute clip of highlights from the three hour, 51 minute broadcast. That footage, along with "Thank-You Cam" videos from backstage, are preceded by ads. Variety
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.