BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ), a leading warehouse club operator in the United States, recently reported sales for the four-week period ended August 29, 2009. The sales for the month declined 1.9% to $757.6 million from $772.6 million reported in the same month last year. Comparable club sales fell 6.0% for the month of August versus an increase of 15.4% in the same month last year, hurt by lower gasoline prices and volumes compared to the prior year. BJ’s Wholesale Club currently operates 184 wholesale clubs and 103 gasoline stations in 15 states. Gasoline sales for the month of August dipped 8.2% compared to a 7.7% rise in sales last year. Excluding gasoline, merchandise comparable club sales climbed 2.2% versus an increase of 7.7% last year. Merchandise comparable club sales increased in the first three weeks but slid in the fourth week. Excluding gasoline sales, ...

July 10, 2009 ndash; Another mixed week of economic data, which left Wall Street in doubt about whether the economy is going to rebound any time soon. Fridayrsquo;s downtick in consumer sentiment was a stark reminder that Main Street is not doing well and isnrsquo;t particularly optimistic. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Consumer Sentiment ndash; The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (preliminary) index decreased to 64.6, the lowest level since March, from 70.8 in June. The forecast was for a reading of 70. With respect to Americanrsquo;s perceptions about their financial situation, and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, the reading fell to 70.4 from 73.2. The index of consumer expectations for six months from now fell to 60.9, the biggest drop since October, from 69.2. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; US Import and Export Price Indexes - The U.S. Import Price Index rose 3.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of ...

From the close of trading in New York on Wednesday afternoon at 5:15 Eastern Time…and the close of trading 24 hours later on Thursday at the same time…the U.S. dollar lost about 90 basis points. That’s a big drop. Gold’s response? Up three bucks…and silver was actually down on the day.

Yesterday’s low tick on the U.S. dollar occurred around 2 p.m. in New York at 79.72 cents…plus or minus a couple of ticks. Gold’s peak price in the first few days of June was around $990…when the dollar printed a low of about 78.70 cents. In five weeks, the U.S. dollar has gained a full cent [one percent and change], while the US$ gold price has been hit for 77 big ones. That’s a drop of 7.8%.

The point I’m making here is that this decline in the gold and silver price over the last five weeks has had

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The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce has released its latest test results on paper products sold in the city, which show that 35 kinds of paper goods, including facial tissues and disposable paper cups sold by Beijing MerryMart Supermart Hufangqiao Store, are substandard. It is reported that BAIC conducted a spot check on paper goods [...]

The Census Bureau Reported Wholesale Inventories decreased by 1.1% in October to the $438.2 billion level, expected to fall by only 0.2%, after decreasing a downwardly revised 0.4% in September from an originally reported -0.1%.  From October 2007, Wholesale Inventories are up 8.0%.  Over the past month, Inventories in Nondurable goods decreased 2.6%, with the highest decrease in Petroleum (-18.22%) and Farm Products (-8.5%) Inventories in Durable goods decreased by -0.2%, Decreasing 3.5% in Miscellaneous Durables and increasing 1.4% in Computer Equipment.  Wholesale Sales declined 4.2% in October from the upwardly revised September level to $377.469.2 billion, but up 8.0% from October 2007.  Over the past month, sales in Nondurable goods decreased 4.1%, with the highest decrease in Petroleum (-11.2%) and Farm Products (-6.2%), while Sales in paper products increased 1.1%.  Sales in Durable goods decreased by -4.2%, with the largest decrease in Miscellaneous Durable Goods (-20.7%) and

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a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SSzhuXNGTuI/AAAAAAAAAl8/tRtxMxNVyqA/s1600-h/Memphis.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SSzhuXNGTuI/AAAAAAAAAl8/tRtxMxNVyqA/s320/Memphis.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272837450363195106" //abr /If there is half as much future as there is history for Tennessee, then it is a bright future. And according to several independent organizations, Tennessee is one of the best states in the country to do business. The future is looking bright! Here are some interesting facts about the state:br /br /1. The state offers several incentives for new businesses and businesses relocating to Tennessee. They include, tax credits and tax exemptions.br /2. 80% of the state land is used for agricultural and forestry purposes.br /3. Tennessee most important crops are tobacco, soybeans, and cotton.br /4. The agricultural industry produces more than $2.5 billion in cash receipts.br /5. In a report issued by the American Legislative Exchange Council Tennessee is the 5th best economy in the country.br /6. Tennessee mining ...

NYT: A Sea of Unwanted Imports November 19, 2008

By MATT RICHTEL NYTimes

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times.

For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property.

And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril.

“This is one way to look at the economy,” Art Wong, a spokesman for the

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CleanTech BioFuels, Inc. will be featured in upcoming Daily Newsletters, Daily Blogs, Message Boards, and the Small Cap Daily Internet broadcasts put out by QualityStocks. QualityStocks has over 740,000 subscribers to The Daily Stock Newsletter, which is a free service that collects data from hundreds of Small-Cap and Micro-Cap online Investment Newsletters and puts it all into one Free Daily Newsletter Report.

Ed Hennessey, CEO of CleanTech, has the company focused on developing ground-breaking technologies to convert cellulosic material found in municipal solid waste (MSW) into ethanol. Americans throw away over 250 million tons of garbage every year. Out of all that garbage, approximately 32 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 14 percent is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining 54 percent (or 135 million tons of garbage) is disposed of in landfills. The demand for the production of ethanol has grown

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I’ve clearly laid out my reasons why the U.S. dollar has rallied sharply versus most of the world’s currencies … and why it’s got a lot of room left to climb. But in case you missed my previous analysis, here’s a recap: Contagion from major credit market illnesses has gone global … Global economies big and small are taking a hit … Demand for natural resources and everyday exports has shriveled up … Global investors are pulling capital out of riskier, foreign markets and bringing it to the U.S. … And demand for U.S. dollars and safer, dollar-based assets has risen. In short, a major foreign exchange rebalance is underway. During this rebalancing, a lot of attention was paid to the euro and the ...

Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. (NADVF) announced that it is conducting bulk commercialization trials with an unnamed but leading U.S. apparel company, as well as a large pulp and paper producer.

The results for Crailar Fiber Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, and its apparel division HTnaturals are expected by the end of November and will help guide the future of the company’s CRAILAR organic fiber and advanced materials technology. This was developed in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada and the Alberta Research Council

“These trials are a significant milestone in our long-term strategy to commercialize the patented CRAILAR Technology Platform,” said Ken Barker, Naturally Advanced Technologies CEO. “We are very excited to reach the final stages of the trials and look forward to discussing the results and our preliminary plans to apply this technology on a large commercial scale.”

A company news release states that CRAILAR technology “capitalizes on

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