March sales offer some hope that retail's worst may be over

Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009

March sales offer some hope that retail's worst may be over

Retailers' March sales results offered some glimmers of hope that the
industry may have endured the recession's worst.

ECONOMIC REPORT: INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS DIP; CONTINUING CLAIMS HIT NEW RECORD

First-time claims for state unemployment benefits dip a
seasonally-adjusted 20,000 to 654,000 in the week ended April 4,
reaching a level that is 83 higher than the same period in the prior
year, the Labor Department reports Thursday.

MIDDLE EAST GROUP REPORTEDLY EYES TEXTRON DEAL AT $21 A SHARE

Shares of Textron rally as a Kuwaiti newspaper reports a group of
United Arab Emirates companies and a Kuwaiti firm are interested in
buying the maker of Cessna jets and Bell helicopters.

JAPAN'S $154 BILLION STIMULUS EARNS MIXED GRADES

Japan's newest supplemental stimulus package, reported to total 15
trillion yen ($154 billion), is receiving mixed reviews from analysts,
many of whom say it
bears shades of the bridges-to-nowhere packages of the 1990s that left the
nation saddled with debt.