Jan 6, 2009 2:25 pm US/Eastern
Businesses Caught Flat-Footed By Deep Recession
Economists Say The Contracting Economy Makes The Timing Of Any Recovery A Moving Target
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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South Florida feels the pain of U.S. home sales falling to their lowest level on record in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.
CBS
The U.S. economy ended the year in a steep decline, with factory orders, home sales and service industries all contracting further, according to reports released on Tuesday.
The data, covering three separate parts of the economy, showed the broad-based nature of the slump and may put pressure on Congress to quickly enact President-elect Barack Obama's fiscal- stimulus plan.
The drop in pending home sales exceeded economists' median forecast of a 1 percent fall. The report showed declines of 7.2 percent in the Northeast, 6.7 percent in the Midwest and 2.4 percent in the West. Pending sales fell 2.2 percent in the South.
Factory orders fell for a record fourth straight month in November, the Commerce Department said, and analysts believe the manufacturing sector will continue to suffer for months to come.
New manufacturing orders reached their lowest levels since record-keeping began in 1948, and prices slid the most since 1949.
In minutes released by the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, officials feared the economy would be stuck in a painful rut for some time despite their decision to slash interest rates to a record low and pledge to use other unconventional tools to fight the worst
financial crisis since the 1930s.
In the first action of its kind in the Fed's 95-year history, the Fed chairman
Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues created a target range for its rate, putting it at zero to 0.25 percent.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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