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Show ‘The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Friday, May 28. 1999 Consumers Keep Zest 52 Week Tawny In Economy Dy Prices are expressed in fractions. Common fractions: Vy =105¢ 14 =25¢ 34 = 3756 4 =625¢ Bie Investors worry Fed ss may raise interest rates THEia ASSOCIATED PRESS vAS WASHINGTON — The biggest consumer spending spree in 11 @ Stock Name: Tiss ne aboreviion ss took a nose dive on investor wor- ries that the fast growth would trigger higher inflation fant Fast 82 wees. Hehonage ears ni er the entre 52-We jdend _ 25 percent The high-low rangeis adusted from 3 eee dinghalted on the primary mar Special payments not designated as regular are identified in the folowing footnotes a — Asoextra or extra. b — Annual rate puss he economygrewat asolid annual rate of 41 percent, even ¢—Liqudating divdend e —D thoughthe country’s trade deficit vas a bigger drag on growth than ‘aken al last divdend meetin sumilatve issue with dividends in thought, the Com- sick, The symboluses no spaces. Il you see a space, it's to set aside a footnote @ Footnotes: u — Anew 52-week high. d — Anew 52-weeklow g — Dividends or eamings in Canadian money. Stock trades US. dollars. No yield or PE unless statedin U.S. mone years kept the economy growing at a robustrate in the year's first quarter, the government said Thursday. But financial markets previously B3 Utah Stocks ¥ padi ick dividend merce Department said. } The government's new figure for gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic health — represented a slight h ; < 3 downward revision from a 4.5 warrants. vj — In bankruptcy or receive Saibns 19a percent figure released a month ago nized under the bankruptcy fn But the newnew figurestill S| v showed a remarkably strong economy. nowin its longest peacetime ex pansion, The GDP report also showed that corporate profits, which had been in the doldrums, had sizable rebound forthefirst quarter “Theeconomyis healthy, infl or secures assumedby such Q PE: Price/Eamings ratio. The current market price of a com pany’s stock expressed as amuttiple of its total per share earnings for the previous 12 monttis. Q Vol: Number of shares, in hu ds. thal traded hands. s stock sold for. or the clusing pice @ Ust 7 ay's closing¢ a ihe hg: The previous day's ¢ PUR oft ROC Fa Rekom 13 Rastur RangeRscod : 03254, 6 56 8 $05 18: 612 45)~ tion is largely absent and earnings are picking up. Not a bad combi- nation,” Merrill Lynch economist Bruce Steinberg said. Consumer spending. which poweredthe 4.1 percent increase, grew at an annual rate of 6.8 per- cent — the fastest increase since early 1988. That was even hetter thanthe original estimate of a 6.7 percent increase in consumer spending. An inflation gauge tied to the GDP rose 1.1 percent in the first quarter, showing price pressures have grown increasingly nervous about inflation, were not impressed with the figure. The Dow Jones industrial average closed ante remained well contained But financial markets. which Sirens Ye las? wh 25 Swings down 235.23 points to close at 10,466.93 — the biggest point drop since last September — though the 2.2 percent decline was not amongthelargest historically in percentage terms. Investors were focused on the fact that economic growth re- mainswell above the comfort level of the Federal Reserve, which only a week ago indicated it is edging closer to raising interest rates because of worries the economyis growing toofast (he bottomline is that the Fed probably would view this asstill excessive growth.” said econo- mist David Jones of Aubrey G Lanston & Co. Manyanalysts believe that the central bank could start raising interest rates as soon as its next meeting June 29-30. : In the January-March quarter. economic growth was reduced by 2.53 percentage points by record E tradedeficits tied to the global fi- nancial crisis that has pushed onethird of the world into recession. That, in turn, has cut sharplyinto American export sales and gener- ateda flood of cheaper importsin the United States Shareholders OK The Mergerof Exxon and Mobil DALLAS Shareholders of E xon approved an $822 billion merger with Mobil Corp. in a mar riage of the two largest U.S. oil companies More than 99 percent of the shares that were voted at the Ex xon meeting favored the merger Mobil shareholders also meetingin Dallas approvedthedeal Regulators in the United States and Europe muststill approve the deal before the companies could effect the merger The shareholders’ approval thedeal had been expected by com pany officials and independent an said i il alysts It's in everyone's interest,” vith Petersen of Salomon Smith 6 feos A eo ge ° NASDAQ Index muster if the companies agreeto sel] some gas stations where they CBOT 5.000 bu minimum most of the major oil companies don’t own their own retail stations CBOT 5.000 bu mininum— “And there's an ex ee aoa Paun ne ; CME $0,000 tn cents ver & COME 40.000 tn centy oer b CME ©. bs conn ow why they're having negative oper ating nares Sait je deal is expected to lead to the loss of about 9,000 jobs — 7 FEEDER CATTLE HOGS Lean PORK BELLIES wide work force The combined company would be called Exxon Mobil Corp "BOT 1.000 or cents per C0) MtA VER GRADE COPPERCOMX 25.08 bx. cats er B ei 120-250 Pe aoe a a8 tay 2 mw 2 + ‘a +? Aw 0 14% MAH 217 mmo IN -1 ne 1 as MAW WOH OhIS -125 10 ae Bo] ae = “ee EAS = percent of the companies world. ’ cats oer pean 9 1 Ta CBOT S000 bu mintnum- cents per rahe — they're owned by individuals. Petersensaid. a0)oe eee ~ cents oer baht ot ~ sed T rarwrum cents oer bushel 2 leemer caren sae) i pase iit)ne tea) Cont Gait be= tok cee cess of refining capacity, whichis we bw ms ae ya ne Galt ompete head-to-head They can't exert undueinflueon the retail market because 5 Barney in New York, whopredict ed the deal will also pass antitrust A i i snes wears : ' |
