Business news with words department+major+prices. 13 news.

WALL Street skidded yesterday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the US economy. The major indexes each lost well over 1 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 192 points. Bhutto's assassination raised the possibility of increasing political unrest abroad, always an unsettling prospect for investors who have already been contending with domestic economic concerns for months. Oil prices rose following the news, and that unwelcome inflationary trend only added to Wall Street's uneasiness. Meanwhile, the government said orders for durable goods, big-ticket items from commercial jetliners to home appliances, rose by just 0.1 percent last month. Economists had been looking for a rise of 2.2 percent. Still, November saw the first rise in durable goods orders in the last four months. The Labor Department said the number of workers seeking unemployment

HOUSING prices in 70 major Chinese cities jumped by 10.5 percent in November, according to an official with the country's top economic planning body. The growth rate was the largest monthly rise since July 2005 when China started to cover more cities in its monthly housing price survey. From January to November, housing prices grew by 7.3 percent year on year, with the cost of new homes jumping 7.9 percent, Cao Changqing, director of the pricing department under the National Development and Reform Commission, said in an online interview. Rising property prices, driven up by speculation, have become a major concern for Chinese citizens. "Despite falling sales, housing prices in parts of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen still remain high," he said. Prices are expected to remain stable as macro-control policies are starting to yield results, Cao said. The government introduced a string of policies to cool off the red-hot real estate market.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The dollar strengthened against other major currencies early Friday, getting a boost after the Labor Department reported hotter-than-expected consumer price inflation for November. The dollar rose 0.7% against the yen at 113.07 yen. The euro gave up 1% at $1.4491. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, rose 0.8% at 77.145. The consumer price index increased 0.8%, driven by a 5.7% gain in energy prices, the biggest gain in consumer prices in more than two years. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.3%, the biggest gain since January. The numbers were worse than expected. Economists were forecasting the CPI to rise 0.7% and the core rate to rise 0.2%, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch.

THE year-on-year growth rate of China's home prices last month hit a two-year high, a senior official in the nation's top planning body has said. The average home price in 70 major cities rose 10.5 percent last month compared with a year ago, and average new home prices grew 12.2 percent year-on-year, Cao Changqing, head of the pricing department at the National Development and Reform Commission, said yesterday in an online interview. But Cao did not reveal last month's growth rate over October. The average housing price in these cities has increased six consecutive months, including November. In the first 11 months of this year, home prices in 70 cities increased 7.3 percent from the previous year, while new residences jumped 7.9 percent. Shenzhen and Guangzhou's home prices began to drop gradually after hiking in previous months, while home sales in popular areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou have decreased, Cao said. Property policies will meet the

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. retail sales rose a better-than-expected 1.2% in November, the best gain in six months, the Commerce Department estimated Thursday. The sales gains were widespread across most kinds of retail outlets, including gasoline, department stores and hardware stores. Auto sales were the only major source of weakness, falling 1%. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists was for retail sales to rise 0.7%. Excluding autos, sales rose 1.8%. Wall Street had expected a increase of 0.7%. Higher prices at the pump contributed to the November sales gain. Excluding gasoline, sales increased 0.6%.

Less than four months since subprime mortgages became a full-blown financial crisis, major lenders may be willing to forgo billions in increased payments on loans they granted while home prices were still surging. The plan, being coordinated by Treasury Department officials, could be unveiled as early as next week. It would extend the current low-interest terms on some of the $500 billion in subprime mortgages that are resetting to much higher rates in the past three months of this year and through 2008. In Minnesota, lenders doled out $5.8 billion in new subprime first and second mortgages f

Unless you measure success by the number of people arrested, the failure of the war on marijuana is becoming more obvious than ever before. A new Department of Justice report, Drug Threat Assessment 2008, reveals that increased indoor cultivation is flooding the U.S.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. economy shook off the worst housing downturn in a generation to grow at a 3.9% annual pace in third quarter, the best performance in six quarters, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. The increase in gross domestic product was better than the 3.4% gain expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Growth was well-balanced in the period from July to September, with strong contributions from consumers, exports, capital spending, military spending, and inventory building. Housing investments continued to be a major drag. Despite rising worries about commodity prices, the GDP price index, the broadest measure of price changes in the economy, rose just 0.8% annualized, matching a nine-year low. Consumer prices rose 1.7%, while core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, rose 1.8%, just within the Federal Reserve's target zone.

A SERIES of international sports events helped boost Shanghai's retail sales by a fifth during last week's National Day holiday, the city's economic commission said yesterday. Sales generated by the 425 retailers surveyed jumped 20.5 percent to 5.1 billion yuan (US$680 million) between October 1 and 7 from the same period last year, the Shanghai Economic Commission said in a report. The growth rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than the pace registered during the Labor Day holiday in May and 6.1 percentage points higher than February's Spring Festival. Chen Yuxian, author of the report, attributed the Golden Week spending boom partly to the FIFA Women's World Cup soccer championship, the Special Olympics and the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, which all brought large numbers of athletes and sports fans to town. "Several local shopping and tourism events coincided with the holiday, plus the good weather also pushed up sales," Chen said. Hundreds of theme events were held citywide as part of the Shanghai Shopping Festival, including the Luwan District's imported food show, an international shopping carnival in Jing'an District, Huangpu's jewelry fete and a wine-tasting gala in Hongkou District. Hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores were the leading contributors to the consumption boom, accounting for 41.2 percent of the total retail sales, the report said. Sales in department stores and shopping malls also rose. But sales in the restaurant sector fell 16.4 percent to 137.8 million yuan from the same period a year earlier, and receipts for hotels and related service businesses dropped 3.2 percent to 97.2 million yuan, the report said, without stating a reason. Local retail powerhouse Shanghai Brilliance (Group) Co generated 1.69 billion yuan in sales over the weeklong holiday, up 20.7 percent year on year and topping the eight major business groups surveyed by the commission. Meanwhile, retail sales in the suburbs totaled 763 million yuan, up 16.6 percent, led by Nanhui, Songjiang, Jinshan, Qingpu and Baoshan districts, which reported a rise of more than 25 percent. The report also said food prices remained stable during the holiday, with meat prices falling from the pre-holiday period while prices of green-leaf vegetables were up slightly.

COMMODITIES had the biggest monthly gain in September in 32 years, led by wheat, crude oil and gold, as the US dollar's slump enhanced the appeal of energy, grains and precious metals as a hedge against inflation. The 19-commodity Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was up 8.1 percent last month, the most since July 1975. Wheat climbed to a record in September amid a global grain shortfall, boosting corn and soybeans. Oil also hit a record, and gold reached a 27-year high. The Federal Reserve cut borrowing costs to bolster the American economy, sending the US dollar tumbling. "The Fed has signaled pretty clearly that (it) will answer the problem of a slowing economy with greater liquidity," said Chip Hanlon, who manages US$1 billion at Delta Global Advisors Inc in Huntington Beach, California. "We're in a bullish phase for commodities." The CRB Index rose to 333.67 from 308.76 on August 31. Wheat reached a record US$9.5125 a bushel on Friday. Crude oil climbed to US$83.90 a barrel, the highest ever, on September 20 and approached the record on Friday. Gold rose as high as US$752.80 an ounce on Friday, the highest since January 1980. The US dollar fell to a record against a weighted basket of six major currencies, including the euro, yen and pound. The Fed on September 18 cut its benchmark rate by 0.5 percentage point, more than economists forecast, to 4.75 percent in an attempt to shore up an economy threatened by a housing recession, according to Bloomberg News. The rate cut sparked inflation concerns. Some investors buy commodities to hedge against rising consumer prices, and the falling dollar makes raw materials priced in the United States currency cheaper for buyers holding other currencies. The cut in US borrowing costs will continue to weaken the dollar and lead to "skyrocketing" prices for commodities, Jim Rogers, chairman of Beeland Interests Inc, said in an interview last week. He co-founded the Quantum Hedge Fund with George Soros in the 1970s. Wheat rose on Friday after the US Department of Agriculture said US production and supplies were smaller than analysts expected. Global inventories are poised to decline to the lowest level in 26 years. Wheat futures for December delivery rose six US cents, or 0.6 percent, to US$9.39 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price was up 22 percent this month and has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

Stocks dipped a bit Friday, the last trading day of the third quarter, with Wall Street relieved about solid readings on the economy but cautious ahead of October's corporate earnings reports. The market's losses were small, thanks to positive reports on consumer spending, construction spending, inflation and Midwest manufacturing. Though strong economic data might lower the chance that the Federal Reserve will further reduce rates, the tame inflation measure kept hopes of a rate cut alive. Last week, the Fed, reacting to August's tightening credit and plunging stocks, helped restore confidence in the financial markets by decreasing the federal funds rate target by a half-point to 4.75 percent. The central bank's rate decrease, the first in four years, helped the major stock indexes finish in positive territory for the quarter. "A second Fed cut will go a long way in reassuring the stock market that the worst is over. The focus going forward will be whether the Fed is going to lower rates to shore this up, or decide the risk of inflation is too high," said Janna Sampson, director of portfolio management at Oakbrook Investments. Though energy and food prices are surging, core inflation has been within the Fed's comfort zone of 1 to 2 percent. The Commerce Department's consumer spending report showed that a key core inflation gauge logged a year-over-year rise in August of 1.8 percent -- the smallest increase since 2004.

STOCKS dipped a bit yesterday, the last trading day of the third quarter, with Wall Street relieved about solid readings on the economy but cautious ahead of October's corporate earnings reports. The market's losses were small, thanks to positive reports on consumer spending, construction spending, inflation and Midwest manufacturing. Though strong economic data might lower the chance that the Federal Reserve will further reduce rates, the tame inflation measure kept hopes of a rate cut alive. Last week the Fed, reacting to August's tightening credit and plunging stocks, helped restore confidence in the financial markets by decreasing the federal funds rate target by a half point to 4.75 percent. The central bank's rate decrease, the first in four years, helped the major stock indexes finish in positive territory for the quarter. "A second Fed cut will go a long way in reassuring the stock market that the worst is over. The focus going forward will be whether the Fed is going to lower rates to shore this up, or decide the risk of inflation is too high," said Janna Sampson, director of portfolio management at Oakbrook Investments. Though energy and food prices are surging, core inflation has been within the Fed's comfort zone of 1 percent to 2 percent. The Commerce Department's consumer spending report showed that a key core inflation gauge logged a year-over-year rise in August of 1.8 percent _ the smallest increase since a similar rise in February 2004. But continuing to weigh on investors is the concern that corporate profits dropped off in the third quarter. Yesterday is the last trading day of one of the most volatile periods in years, one that pulled stocks sharply lower after the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record 14,000.41 in mid-July. Wall Street now is bracing for signs, ahead of the mid-October onslaught of earnings reports, of how companies fared during the summer's tumult. The Dow slipped 17.31, or 0.12 percent, to 13,895.63. The blue-chip index ended the third quarter 3.6 percent higher, and is up 11.5 percent for the year. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.63, or 0.30 percent, to 1,526.75, finishing the quarter up 1.6 percent. The S&P is up 7.7 percent for the year. The Nasdaq composite index fell 8.09, or 0.30 percent, to 2,701.50, and closed the quarter with a gain of 3.8 percent. The Nasdaq is up 11.9 percent for the year. But the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies has not recover

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The dollar took a breather from its recent drop Wednesday, gaining on its major counterparts as stock prices rose on news of a tentative deal ending a two-day United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Corp. Currencies markets largely shrugged off dismal data released by the Commerce Department revealing that durable goods plunged 4.9% last month, the biggest monthly decline in orders for big-ticket items since January. A sharp fall had been expected, with the consensus forecast calling for a 4.5% drop. The dollar was at 115.55 yen, up from 114.68 yen in late U.S. trading Tuesday. The euro was at $1.4122, below $1.4144 Tuesday and down from a fresh record high of $1.4162 hit overnight.