U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow went on a whirlwind shopping excursion Monday, after telling reporters, “I am feeling confident, so I am going to make some purchases.” At a book store and coffee shop next to the Treasury Department, he spent $476.06 on gifts ranging from “The Best of Bob Dylan” CD to a collection of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis and several copies of “One Christmas in Washington” about a wartime meeting between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt.
More discounts expected this week
The nation’s retailers are expected to increase discounting in the final days before Christmas after a late-buying binge this past weekend in the stores turned out strong, but not as frenetic as needed. That’s fueling some concern about the health of profits among some Wall Street analysts.
Bankruptcy judge OKs Delta hedges
A bankruptcy court judge on Monday allowed Delta Air Lines Inc. to enter new agreements, or hedges, to protect against sharp spikes in fuel prices and approved the rejection of a lease for a hangar at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
T-bill rates rise in Monday auction
The Treasury Department auctioned $18 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 3.895 percent, up from 3.82 percent last week. Another $16 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.220 percent, up from 4.180 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable rate mortgages, edged down slightly to 4.34 percent last week from 4.35 percent the previous week.
Circuit City profit beats expectations
Circuit City Stores Inc. surprised Wall Street by reporting another larger-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday – perhaps signaling that a long-awaited turnaround at the nation’s second biggest chain of consumer electronics stores has taken hold. Its shares rose nearly 7 percent in early trading as it also boosted its revenue guidance for the fiscal year. With the company’s future looking brighter, chief executive officer W. Alan McCollough on Monday announced his plans to retire next year. He will leave Circuit City in the hands of president Philip Schoonover, a former executive with Best Buy Co. Inc., Circuit City’s bigger rival.
From Herald staff and news service reports
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