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Surprised, not surprised, and surprised

By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator

Dallas, TX – Surprised, not surprised, and surprised. Housing starts were up, airlines post really large loses, and those weekly initial jobless claims, higher than expected. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.

September might have been the worst month for the stock market, but home building surged to a sixteen year high. Shocked economists, surveyed by the Dow Jones newswire, were expecting an increase of 2.6%. It was up 13.3% - this after three months on the decline. I'd be shocked, too. I know it's beginning to sound like a broken record - or scratched CD, whatever they say now - but how can anyone not look at buying a new home with mortgage interest rates at a historical low? Last week, the mortgage company Freddie Mac reported rates at 5.9%. Existing home sales come out on the 25th. I don't think they're going to fare as well - especially in the Metroplex.

So let's see, for the third quarter, Continental Airlines had a loss of $37 million; Northwest - $46 million; Delta's net loss - $326 million; and for the world's largest airline, American - $924 million. Continental claims that if it wasn't for the price of security, and taxes, and a lot of other government imposed costs since 9/11, they would have shown a profit. And Southwest Airlines announced a 50% decline in profits. Attempting to keep its 20 years of consecutive profitability intact, I'm sure, Southwest is pleased as punch to post a profit of almost $80 million. This industry not only has to deal with residual effects of 9/11 and the threat of war and terrorism throughout the world, but those of us still traveling are getting really cheap fares online.

The Labor Department reported an increase last week of 22,000 workers filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits. Economists were only expecting 16,000 new claims. And the market's up. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.

 

Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.