By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Friday so "It's Only Money," a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
Ooh, last night was the Full Moon, tomorrow is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and today is the first-ever "quadruple witching" in the market. So, unless you've been REALLY good this year and you know Santa personally, I wouldn't make any major investing decisions today. "Quadruple witching" is the "simultaneous expiration of stock options, index options, index futures and (for the first time), single-stock futures." And if you don't know what any of that means then you'll probably stay away from the market anyway. In a couple of words, expect EXTREME volatility today.
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan gave his cautiously optimistic statement yesterday; the economy is in a soft patch, he said. He finally sees some business spending and reiterated that we are "nowhere near" deflation or generally falling prices.
Don't tell McDonald's or Burger King that. Of course, it was their choice to enter into a price war with each other. First, McDonald's lowered two of its most popular sandwiches to one dollar. How did Burger King compete? They lowered the Whopper to 99 cents. This is very nice for the I-don't-care-what-I-put-in-my-stomach consumer, but not so good for profits. Last week, Diageo sold Burger King to a consortium of investors lead by local Texas Pacific Group for one-third of its original asking price. Then this week, for the first time since McDonald's went public 37 years ago, it announced it would be reporting a loss for its fourth quarter.
But McDonald's and Burger King can take care of themselves. I just wish there was better news on the North Texas employment front. For November, the Dallas-area unemployment rose to 6.6%. The national average is 6%. Fort Worth/Arlington also saw a tenth of a percent rise to 5.8%. Businesses might be spending, but it's not for new employment. Please stay healthy and happy. For KERA Marketplace Midday, 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.