Financial Mines

News and notes from the business reporters for the Connecticut Media Group.

Archive for 2012

Ruger shares run hot on down day on Wall Street

Monday, July 23, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

Shares in Fairfield-based gun maker Sturm Ruger &Company Inc. gained almost 4 percent in Monday trading, despite the Dow’s plunge of more than 100 points.

Gun makers saw mixed results Monday. While Ruger gained 3.88 percent to close at $44.23, National Presto Industries was down more than 3 percent to $68.46 and rival Smith and Wesson saw its shares rise just 8 cents, or 0.84 percent to $9.65.

Gun makers and second amendment supporters are once again gearing up for a fight over gun control in the wake of the mass murder of 12 people in a Colorado theater last week. As calls for stricter gun control ramp up, including from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gun sales are expected to increase as people fear the right to buy them might be impinged upon.

While Ruger shares surged, it wasn’t the only company to post a positive gain in a day that saw the major indexes all fall. The Dow and S&P were both down nearly 1 percent and the Nasdaq lost more than 1 percent.

Other area stocks that fared well, United Rentals, which gained 1.81 percent to $30.94; GE up 1.11 percent to $20.09 and Acme United was up more than 1 percent to $10.70.

Ethan Allen, WR Berkley and Xerox all hung on to gains of less than 1 percent Monday.

Acme United overcomes Europe’s ills to post record profits

Friday, July 20, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

Shares in Fairfield-based Acme United Corp. increased more than 5 percent Friday after the company reported strong U.S. sales help second quarter profit to increase 18 percent despite problems in Europe.
“The results were the best the company has ever achieved,” Walter C. Johnsen, Acme’s chairman and chief executive officer of the company that makes school supplies, knives, gardening shears and health care kits.
Net income at Acme rose to $2 million, or 66 cents a share, in the second quarter of 2012, compared to $1.7 million, or 56 cents a share a year ago. Net sales for the most recent quarter were $27.6 million compared to $24 million, despite a 21 percent drop in sales in Europe primarily due to the bankruptcy of a major customer, Acme reported during a conference call with analysts Friday.
Shares in the company, traded in the New York Stock Exchange’s AMEX rose 52 cents to close at $10.89.
Despite reports of sluggish back-to-school sales, Johnson said Acme’s Westcott branded pencil sharpeners and other classroom tools had strong sales in America.
“We’ve gotten market share gains in the mass market and the office super store market,” Johnsen said. “We’ve gained in erasers and the smaller items we don’t talk about much. It led to a record back to school.”
Johnsen said the company sells through retailers and doesn’t do much direct business with school districts, which are struggling with tight budgets.
“The parents who are buying our products have been spending the way they have in the past,” he said.
Acme reported record sales across all five its major divisions: Westcott, Clauss cutting implements, Camillus knives, Physicians Care and Pac-Kit.
The company said a major European customer is in bankruptcy, but the accounts receivable from that customer are covered by insurance. The focus going forward, Johnsen told analysts, is to replace about $200,000 in revenues in Europe and the said the company already had potential source for that, but would know by the end of the third quarter where it stood on that matter.
Overall, Johnsen said the company is now expecting full-year revenue to come in on the higher end of its earlier guidance of $80 million to $85 million.
Part of that gain is expected to come from Camillus, its knife making division, when sales for the fall hunting season and the holidays pick up he said.
Camillus has a deal with Les Stroud, star of the television show Survivorman. Stroud is designing survival tools and knives with Camillus and the company is now looking to expand its sales to the European military market.

Bridgeport-Stamford suffers mediocre economic recovery

Friday, July 20, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

Of the 100 largest metropolitan regions in the U.S., the Bridgeport-Stamford area ranks 57th for the pace of economic recovery since the recession.

Brookings rated the metropolitan regions based on improvement on employment and unemployment figures, output in gross metro product and home prices.

Bridgeport-Stamford ranked 86th for job recovery, 63rd in unemployment levels, 18th in output and 28th for the recovery in home prices.

Hartford and New Haven regions both received a higher recovery ranking than Bridgeport-Stamford. Hartford was 44th and New Haven was 50th over all.

The number one rated metro region was New Orleans and Little Rock was ranked 100.

State Labor market a mix of hardship and hope

Thursday, July 19, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

Hope and hard times in labor market

The State Labor Department reported Thursday that Connecticut employers added 1,400 jobs in June raising the number of people with jobs by 8,800 compared to last year.

The numbers alone paint an odd picture of growth and hardship, however as more people find jobs at a time when wages have dropped, reflecting what looks like a change in the mix of employment opportunity.

The unemployment rate, reflecting a growth in the labor force as more people are back looking for jobs, increased to 8.1 percent from 7.8 percent in May.

Meanwhile, as more people landed jobs, weekly paychecks got squeezed. The average weekly paycheck in the state dropped to $937.95 from $942.25 the month before. It is down a similar amount from a year ago.

The best paying industries showed a mix of hiring and job cuts in the month and through the year.

Construction workers, who have been hit harder than any other sector in the state, finally saw their numbers climb past 50,000 employed, while financial services continued a downward trend losing 500 jobs in the month and now are down 3,000 compared to a year ago.

Manufacturing, which suffered some layoffs last year, showed an overall increase of 400 for the month, with most of it coming in nondurable goods production. Defense contractors in Connecticut trimmed their job rolls last year in preparation of a slowdown in defense spending, which hurt the sector overall.

The bulk of jobs found were in accommodation and food service, which showed a gain of 1,100 for the month and in health care and social assistance professions, which added 2,900.

Here’s some highlights:

Positive Moves

Monthly increase was 1,400

Yearly increase 8,800

10 of 18 sectors reported net new jobs

Construction employment topped 50,000

Seven of 8 Labor Markets reported more workers than a year ago

Labor Force grew

Negative Moves

Weekly pay checks got smaller

Durable Goods down 300 for the month and 1,700 for the year

Finance and Insurance down 500 for the month and 3,000 for the year

Number of unemployed increased by 4,200 over May

Average Weekly unemployment claims rose to 5,353 in June from 4,872 in May

BPA baby bottle ban official, now for soup?

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has officially banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups after the industry stopped using it.

In a federal notice published Tuesday, the FDA said the industry has verified it no longer uses the plastic additive Bisphenol A in those products.

Several years ago, the baby products makers were facing a full blitz of bad press over use of BPA in bottles, which some studies have linked to developmental issues. While a public relations war between the chemical industry and people concerned about the leaching of the BPA resin into formula and other liquids in the bottles, the industry eventually stopped using the material in deference to customers.

The soup canning and other food packaging products industry is now the primary target for the ban of BPA, putting Stamford-based Silgan Holdings on the front lines of this fight. The company has already said it expects BPA to be phased out eventually despite the FDA rejecting a petition to ban it from adult food packaging.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who backed the banning of BPA from baby products and advocates to further limit human exposure to it, offered a modest endorsement of the decision.

“I am encouraged by today’s notice, but it is long overdue, as the FDA has known for at least two years that there is concern about the effect of BPA on infants and children,” DeLauro said. “We must do more to protect our children from this dangerous chemical and the FDA must continue to aggressively pursue further research and action on BPA to protect the public health.”

DeLauro is a senior Democrat on the House of Representatives committee that funds the Food and Drug Administration.

Connecticut among leaders on digital access Census finds

Monday, July 16, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

Connecticut households had the fifth highest access to the internet at a time when finding a job and staying in touch with family and friends have become dependent on the world wide web.

The Census Bureau reported Monday the results of the 2010 survey on internet access. It said 83 percent of individuals in Connecticut live in a household with access to the web, either at home, at work or some other location. Only Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Utah and Washington households reported higher percentages of access.

When it comes to having digital access at home, Connecticut actually ranked second to New Hampshire. New Mexico edged out Mississippi for having the least connected populations, both under 65 percent. Nationally, only 44 percent of households have access to the internet, according to the Bureau and the digital divide continued to be clearly demarcated by income, race, age and sex.

Internet access becomes more and more important for the future of individuals as employers increasingly look to make first contact via the net and more and more government services and business activity gets carried out on line. Not having access to the web can put some people at an extreme disadvantage and the new survey shows the boundaries of the digital divide continue to be set along income, race, age and sex.

Nationally, only 29 percent of those making less than $50,000 a year had access to the internet, while more than 60 percent of those in every other bracket had access. More than 84 percent of those making $150,000 or more a year had access, the Bureau said. Asian households had the highest percentage of access of any racial group at 55.6 percent. More than 46 percent of whites had access, while 34.1 percent of Hispanic households and 34.1 percent of black households had it.

Those who are 55 and older are the least likely to have access to the internet, with 27.9 percent of those households plugging in. More than 48 percent of all other age brackets had access, with those 35 – 44 being the most likely to surf the web as 58.8 percent had the internet.

Men were also more likely than women to have access. The Bureau said 46.2 percent of men had a line into the digital world compared to 41.8 percent of women.

NY Fed launched blog tackling evolution of banking

Monday, July 16, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

The New York Fed has unveiled a new blog where it is discussing the evolution of banking and regulatory policies.

Looks timely and well thought out and should be a conversation piece as we look for impacts from the oft-maligned Dodd-Frank Act.

One area that should be interesting is the impact of regulations on what is known these days as “innovation.”

We here in The Mines have come to think of regulations not as job killers, but as a spark for the more creative bankers to find a way around them and give birth to new products, that hopefully will not crash the global economy.

Anyway, check out the NYFed’s blog Liberty Street Economics at:

http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/

Keep your govt. hands off my Nectarine!

Thursday, July 12, 2012 by:Rob Varnon

A colleague at The Mines recently quipped as he damaged his nectarine pulling off that country of origin sticker, “the presidential candidate that pledges to get rid of these is going to win.”

This little complaint got the Mines thinking, why stickers?

While it’s true, America’s labeling problem goes deeper than fruit. Everywhere you turn, someone or something has to have a label. Liberal. Conservative. Socialist. Autocrat. Sanitary… etc. Well, we’re not going to solve the problem overnight, but we feel we can help the situation by creating a sane labeling system for our fruits and vegetables.

For those looking for an immediate sticker solution, check out a local CT Farmers Market.

As for our government sticker problem, it’s an issue we feel many Americans can sink their teeth into.

So where did this come from, the fruit labeling?

Turns out it came out of a Bush II era law that wasn’t actually implemented fully until 2009. So, you can blame both a Democrat and Republican. (Bipartisan) Lots of reasons for the slowness in implementation, including the avalanche of costs that were expected to grow from producer, importer to retailer, though that seems to have been mitigated according to some studies.

But as we understand it, there’s no actual reason to label each individual fruit. And as our colleague said, why not just have a bin with a flag on it for gosh sakes? Why not indeed. We haven’t had time to see what kind of money the sticker lobby threw at the authors of the bill or continue to spend in Congress.

According to the US Department of Ag, which administers the Country of Origin Labeling, or “COOL” (We’re not kidding), members of the supply chain just have to have proper records showing where the fruit is from and has to provide information to consumers so they know where they’re food comes from.

Anyway, we’re tired of stickered fruit. Except banana’s where its appropriate and fun. There’s no reason for it. Stop the madness we say.

And we’re not alone, the Canadians, Mexicans and other nations have a beef before the WTO over COOL’s impact on, well beef imports.

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