A Democratic official says President-elect Barack Obama will name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary.
The official says Obama plans to announce Richardson’s selection after Thanksgiving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
Richardson was energy secretary and U business card.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton. Richardson would be the most visible Hispanic named to Obama’s Cabinet.
Richardson dropped out of the Democratic presidential contest in January and endorsed Obama.
Massachusetts is the state best positioned for growth when the current economic turmoil recedes, according to the 2008 State New Economy Index released Tuesday.
Washington, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, California, New York and Colorado rounded out the top ten.
The study, issued by the nonpartisan think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF),measures how effectively states operate in order to compete nationally and globally. It notes that states should be focused on whether their economies are well positioned for robust growth in the next decade, pointing out that innovation is central to state economic success.
"We had to go back a full year to get data, but I do think these results will, to some extent, be able to predict how each state will do in the current economic turmoil," said Dr. Rob Atkinson, president of the foundation.
"In recessions, there are higher levels of entrepreneurship because people who are laid off will use that opportunity to start a business," he said. "We won’t be in this predicament forever. States that foster risk-taking and treat this time as an opportunity will be in a better position when they emerge - they’ll be growing, instead of replacing the investments they slashed."
Funded by entrepreneurship boosters the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, ITIF considers 29 factors in determining which states are the most - and least - "New Economy." These indicators included, among other things, start-up activity, education, venture capital investment, IPOs, patents and alternative-energy cash loan in one hour.
Those data points were then grouped into five meta categories that the ITIF says embodies the New Economy: knowledge jobs, globalization, transformation into a digital economy, technological innovation capacity and economic dynamism.
"The index is a composite of variables," said Atkinson. "But economic dynamism, which measures factors such as the number of fast-growing gazelle companies and value of IPOs, is more important than, say, globalization or a digital economy at influencing the new economy leadership."
Based on past observation, states that foster startups, particularly fast-track tech ventures, are also those that adapt best in economic downturns and emerge from them with higher standards of living, according to the the survey, which was also released in 1999, 2002 and 2007.
Utah, Massachusetts, Colorado, Georgia and New York placed at the top of the ITIF’s list in the economic dynamism category, while Alabama, West Virginia, Hawaii, South Carolina and Kentucky ranked lowest.
Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Wyoming, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Iowa and Louisiana were seen by the foundation as the least prepared to rejuvinate themselves.
Three big city mayors asked the federal government Friday to use a portion of the $700 billion financial bailout to assist struggling cities.
They sought help with the pension costs, infrastructure investment and cash-flow problems stemming from the global financial crisis.
The mayors - Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Shirley Franklin of Atlanta and Phil Gordon of Phoenix - made their request in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Nutter said cities are facing an economic crisis not seen since the Depression and need help just like financial institutions.
"I want to make sure that cities and metro areas are at the table, that their voices are being heard, that our challenges and problems are well understood, so that we can get relief," Nutter said.
President-elect Barack Obama has also called for some sort of aid to state and local governments so they don’t have to raise taxes or lay off workers while the federal government is trying to revive the economy, but he hasn’t proposed or endorsed a specific aid plan.
On Thursday, groups representing the nation’s mayors and governors asked Congress to jump-start the economy by increasing food stamp payments, extending unemployment insurance and boosting funding for Medicaid.
Chris Hoene, director of policy and research at the National League of Cities, said Friday that revenue is down 4.3% from last year in American cities. He said cities are in what looks like the first wave of a three- to four-year financial decline. He said revenue from property, income and sales taxes are all down at the same time for the first time in a survey taken since 1985, and widespread cuts in services are likely.
"What we’re seeing happening right now in the economy is going to be playing itself out for the next several years," Hoene said.
The three mayors proposed providing loans to help cities pay pension costs creditscores. They also want $50 billion in loans for investment in infrastructure, and additional one-year loans to cities unable to borrow cash because of the tight credit markets.
Nutter said he met with Phillip Swagel, Treasury’s assistant secretary for economic policy. He said Swagel "completely understood that we have major problems, in big and small and medium-size cities all across America and they want to be helpful. It’s just a matter of figuring out what’s the best way to do it and what works best."
Asked about the request, a Treasury spokeswoman referred to Paulson’s statement Wednesday that assistance to local and state governments wasn’t the purpose of the bailout funding.
"The focus … is to stabilize financial institutions and strengthen the financial system, promote lending and so on," Paulson said then.
The Philadelphia pension system lost more than $650 million in the first nine months of the year. Last week, Nutter announced Philadelphia would be laying off city employees, cutting salaries, closing most of its swimming pools and shutting nearly a dozen library branches to cope with a $108 million shortfall this year caused by lower business and real estate tax revenue. The deficit could grow to a total of $1 billion over five years.
Phoenix’s budget deficit is at least $200 million and could reach $250 million by June if tax revenues keep sliding. The figure represents up to 22% of the city’s $1.2 billion general fund, which pays for most city services.
Franklin said this week that city employees in Atlanta will have their hours and pay cut by 10% each week. The cuts are being made to help the city weather an expected budget shortfall of $50 million to $60 million.
Diversified manufacturer Tyco International Ltd. said Tuesday that per-share profit for fiscal 2009 will fall short of Wall Street estimates.
In releasing its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings,Tyco (TYC) said it expects earnings per share for the new year to be $2.20 to $2.50.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect per-share earnings for 2009 to be $3.01.
Shares tumbled $3.36, or 13%, to $21.98 in early afternoon trading.
Edward D. Breen, chairman and chief executive officer, told analysts in a conference call that currency translation could cut per-share earnings about 38 cents and that per-share earnings at the electrical and metal products business could drop by 35 cents.
"While this estimate may be too harsh, we think it’s prudent to be conservative in this environment," he said.
Tyco said its electrical and metal products business that manufactures steel tubes and pipes, electrical conduit, armored wire and cable, metal framing systems and building components, will feel an impact from declining steel prices short term cash loans.
More than 50% of Tyco’s revenue is generated outside the United States, the company said. At current exchange rates, Tyco said it has seen about a 20% devaluation in non-US currencies, which it said will cut revenue by about 10 percentage points in 2009.
However, Tyco said it will benefit next year from improved operating performance, additional restructuring and a lower tax rate, Breen said.
Tyco said per-share earnings in 2008 were $3.06, above the $2.99 expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.
The dollar fell against the euro Friday after a dismal unemployment report increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would cut its key interest rate to 0.5% in order to bolster the economy.
Employers cut 240,000 jobs in October, according to the Labor Department, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5%. The report sparked concern that the U.S. central bank may have to extend its efforts to keep the economy afloat.
"Everyone is just looking forward to a larger rate cut by the Federal Reserve," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research with Global Forex Trading in New York.
The Fed’s next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for Dec. 16.
The dollar fell against the 15-nation euro, which rose 0.47 cents to $1.2763 from $1.2715 late Thursday. The dollar also lost ground against the British pound, which rose 0.49 cents to $1.5673 from $1.5626, but gained against the Japanese yen, rising ¥0.64 to ¥98.39.
Economy still sour: The jobless report was the latest in a long line of poor economic signals this week.
On Thursday, a Thomson Reuters monthly report on retail sales showed another huge decline in October, marking yet another sign that Americans are putting off non-essential purchases.
Another report earlier this week showed the nation’s services sector contracted in October to its lowest level in at least 10 months.
However, even as currency investors anticipate another Fed rate cut, the dollar, which is often purchased by investors as a hedge against economic risk, will probably continue to gain strength as the global economy slows, according to Lien Faxless pay advances.
"In no way do I think the dollar rally is over," she said. "Everyone knows the global economy is headed for a recession, and that tougher timer are ahead."
Europe rate cuts: As the global economy slows, central banks of Europe will be able to cut interest rates much deeper than the Federal Reserve, meaning greater weakness is possible for the euro and pound.
The Fed’s key interest rate is currently at 1%, and another deep cut could take it down to 0.5%, but the rates of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are much higher.
On Thursday, the ECB cut its rate by a half-percentage point to 3.25%, while the BoE slashed its rate by 1.5 percentage points to 3%.
"They can keep cutting their rates just a little bit longer," said Nick Bennenbroek, chief currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
Rate cuts by the ECB and BoE weakened the euro and pound against the dollar on Thursday. By late Thursday, the pound had lost 1.3% against the dollar, while the euro was down 2%.
Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy previously owned homes in September, indicating the credit crisis will inflict more damage on the housing market.
The index of signed purchase agreements, or pending home resales, fell 4.6 percent, more than forecast, to 89.2, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington.
The housing slump may extend well into a fourth year as banks turn away borrowers, foreclosures worsen the glut of unsold homes and job losses climb. Lower property values will keep eroding home-equity, causing consumers to retrench further and reinforcing the risk of a deeper recession.
“The outlook has deteriorated,'' said David Sloan, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, who estimated a 5 percent drop. “The tightening of credit conditions will push pending home sales lower. We're in quite a sharp recession, and housing is part of it.''
Economists expected pending sales to fall 3.4 percent, according to the median forecast of 30 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a drop of 6 percent to a gain of 1 percent. The jump in August was revised up to 7.5 percent from an originally reported 7.4 percent gain.
A Labor Department report today showed the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent in October, the highest level since 1994, and payrolls plunged by 240,000. Economists said the figures indicate the economy is heading for the steepest decline in decades.
The Realtors' group, whose data on pending sales go back to January 2001, started publishing the index in March 2005.
Northeast Slump
Three of four regions saw a drop, led by a 17 percent slump in the Northeast and a 7.9 percent decline in the South same day cash advance. They rose 3.7 percent in the West.
Compared with September 2007, pending resales increased 1.6 percent.
Pending resales are considered a leading indicator because they track contract signings. Closings, which typically occur a month or two later, are tallied in the existing-home sales report from the Realtors.
An earlier report from Realtors showed purchases of existing homes jumped 5.5 percent in September to a 5.18 million annual pace, the highest level in a year. Foreclosure-related sales accounted for 35 percent to 40 percent of the total, it said.
Sales of new houses also increased in September, according to a Commerce Department report on Oct. 27.
Extended Slump
Today's report signals the improvement in sales may be short-lived. The lending crisis worsened last month and persistent job losses have led consumers to retrench further. Home prices will likely keep falling, extending the housing recession well into 2009, economists predict.
Housing-related companies are bracing for prolonged weakness. Illinois Tool Works Inc., the maker of Duo-Fast nail guns and Wilsonart countertops, predicts home construction won't hit bottom until 2010 because of large inventories and tight lending.
“There are too many issues to be sorted out with both the inventory of existing homes as well as the mortgage market for us to see much change,'' Chief Executive Officer David Speer said in a Webcast yesterday. “We're going to be in a reasonably long period — four to six quarters — before we would see the bottom.''
The Bank of Korea lowered interest rates for the third time in four weeks and signaled it's ready to act again to prevent the economy from sinking into the first recession in a decade. The nation's shares and currency rose.
The bank reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 4 percent, the lowest since 2006, adding to 100 basis points of cuts in October. Policy makers are focused on keeping “the economy from weakening too much,'' Governor Lee Seong Tae said, adding he's prepared to “take bigger actions if necessary.''
Lee has undertaken the most aggressive round of cuts since the bank began setting a policy rate a decade ago, striving to limit economic damage from the global credit crisis that has sent Korea's won down 30 percent this year and the stock index plunging 41 percent. India, Japan and Australia lowered rates in the past week as the financial turmoil that has pummeled the U.S. and Europe threatens to engulf Asia's export-dependent economies.
“The Bank of Korea is joining global efforts to prevent a recession and can't afford to be an outsider,'' said Park Sang Hyun, an economist at HI Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul.
The Bank of England slashed its benchmark rate by 1.5 percentage points yesterday and the European Central Bank lowered its rate by a half-point. The International Monetary Fund yesterday predicted economic contractions in the U.S., Japan and euro region next year, calling for further interest- rate cuts and fiscal stimulus.
Further Reductions
Twelve of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected Korea to cut borrowing costs today. Economists from Capital Economics Ltd. and SC First Bank Ltd. forecast the benchmark rate will be reduce to 2 percent by mid-2009 as the economy falters.
“The committee will do what's needed to ward off the risk of a severe slowdown in economic activity brought about mainly by financial-market unrest,'' the Bank of Korea said today, adding inflation pressures are moderating.
The Kospi stock index rose 3.9 percent to 1,134.49 at the close of trading in Seoul. The won climbed 0.2 percent to 1,328.7 per dollar.
“The central bank probably will cut rates further because, like other countries, Korea is clearly under a lot of pressure going through this financial turmoil,'' said David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. That said, South Korea has been “very aggressive'' in taking steps to aid its economy compared with Asian neighbors, he added direct payday loan cash advance.
Liquidity Measures
South Korea has pumped funds into the banking system, guaranteed lenders' debts and secured an Oct. 30 agreement from the Federal Reserve to provide $30 billion in U.S. currency as the nation tackles its biggest crisis since needing an IMF bailout in 1997.
The measures are aimed at easing the freeze in credit markets and a shortage of U.S. dollars that has stoked concern the nation's banks wouldn't be able to refinance their offshore borrowing.
Korea's won rebounded after the Fed swap deal was announced from the lowest level in 10 years and default protection costs on government debt fell by the most in more than four years.
“Concerns about foreign-currency liquidity seem to have mostly diminished and now is the time to take more close care of the real economy,'' President Lee Myung Bak said this week.
Finance Minister Kang Man Soo unveiled a 14 trillion won ($10.5 billion) package of extra spending and corporate tax breaks this week, adding to almost $20 billion in income-tax reductions announced in September.
Slowdown Deepens
South Korea's slowdown is deepening. Economic growth cooled to the weakest in four years last quarter as exports declined the most in almost seven years and consumer spending stagnated.
Exports, the main engine of the economy's expansion, rose at the weakest pace in 13 months in October as shipments to China, South Korea's biggest market, fell for the first time since 2002. Retail sales gained by the least in nine months in September.
Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's second-biggest exporter, on Oct. 23 slashed its global vehicle-sales forecast for the year. Posco, the region's biggest maker of stainless steel, said last month it will cut output by about a third this quarter to cope with slowing demand.
“The central bank probably didn't cut rates more than 25 basis points today because more reductions are on the way,'' said Lee Sang Jae, an economist at Hyundai Securities Co. in Seoul. “You don't want to use up all your bullets at once.''
Consumer prices rose 4.8 percent in October, the smallest gain in six months. Inflation peaked at 5.9 percent in July.
Google Inc canceled plans for a search advertising partnership with Yahoo Inc amid opposition from antitrust regulators and advertisers, Google’s chief legal officer said in a blog posting on Wednesday.
Yahoo expressed dismay at Google’s decision, saying it was “disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court.”
The U.S. Justice Department, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said it had told Google that it planned to file a lawsuit to block the deal on antitrust grounds.
“Had the companies implemented their arrangement, Yahoo’s competition likely would have been blunted immediately with respect to the search pages that Yahoo chose to fill with ads sold by Google rather than its own ads,” the Justice Department said.
Google shares were down 2.05 percent in late-morning trade at $359.30, while Yahoo was up 4.34 percent at $13.93. Both are traded on the Nasdaq market.
Google and Yahoo, Nos. 1 and 2 in the Internet search market, announced the planned partnership in June but delayed implementation to allow the Justice Department to scrutinize it for antitrust issues.
Google said it pulled out of the deal rather than face a protracted legal fight.
“After four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it’s clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement,” the Google legal officer, David Drummond, said in his Internet posting bad credit pay day loans.
“We’re of course disappointed that this deal won’t be moving ahead,” he said.
Between them, Google and Yahoo had more than 80 percent of the web search market in August, according to comScore Inc.
In some ways, Google’s decision to scrap the deal comes as a surprise. In August, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the company would move forward with the partnership in October, with or without approval from the Justice Department.
Advertisers — who apparently had the ear of regulators — hotly opposed the deal, arguing that Google and Yahoo’s dominance of the market could mean they would rise prices.
Part of the impetus for Google’s decision could be Yahoo’s talks on buying the content and advertising operations of Time Warner Inc’s AOL unit. Yahoo initially struck a deal with Google as a way to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft Corp.
There had been hints that the Justice Department was prepared to challenge the Google-Yahoo deal: The department hired litigator Sandy Litvack to work on its probe of the agreement.
Litvack was the department’s antitrust chief under President Jimmy Carter.
U.S. voters are heading to the polls with stock and bond markets mired in the worst slump in three decades.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped farther and faster than any time since the administration of Gerald Ford, losing 38 percent from an all-time high last year. Corporate bonds slid the most last month in at least 32 years as bank losses topped $680 billion and consumer confidence hit an all-time low.
The winner between Democrat Barack Obama, who leads in national polls, and Republican John McCain will contend with an economy battered by declining corporate profits and the highest unemployment in five years. Concern growth is slowing sent the S&P 500 down 17 percent last month, the most since 1987.
“October was a slow-motion crash,'' said Joseph Keating, chief investment officer at RBC Private Asset Management in Birmingham, Alabama, who oversees $3 billion. “The economic reality is going to set in for whichever gentleman is elected. They'll both be looking at the worst recession since 1980.''
Stocks plunged since last year as a nationwide decline in U.S. home prices spurred record foreclosures and saddled banks with bad mortgage loans. Money markets seized up, sending the so-called TED spread, a gauge of credit-market stress, to 4.64 percentage points Oct. 10, the highest level on record.
The S&P 500's drop since its peak is the steepest for a comparable period since it declined 43 percent in the 13 months ended in October 1974, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jobs, Futures
Shares fell as the U.S. unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in September, the highest since September 2003.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December gained 1.9 percent at 12:02 p.m. London time today. The benchmark for U.S. equities rose 14 percent since reaching a five-year low Oct. 27.
Investment grade corporate bonds lost 7.4 percent in October, their worst month as measured by Merrill Lynch & Co.'s bond indexes since the firm began compiling monthly data on the debt in 1976. The spread between investment grade company bonds and Treasury debt of similar maturity is the widest since 1932, according to Moody's Investors Service.
S&P 500 companies are on pace for their fifth straight quarter of declining profits, with companies from Texas Instruments Inc. to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. reporting earnings and revenue that failed to meet analysts' estimates.
`Can't Do Much'
Earnings are down 8.9 percent for the 352 companies that have reported third-quarter results so far. The U.S. economy contracted 0.3 percent in the July-September period, and growth is expected to slow to 1.15 percent in 2009 from 1.6 percent this year, economists' estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.
“It's particularly likely that this new president can't do much, because they're going to get so saddled with the things they inherit,'' said Kenneth Fisher, who helps oversee over $32 billion as chief executive officer of Fisher Investments Inc cash till payday advance. in Woodside, California. “Presidents can only do so many things at once.''
Credit markets started to loosen up last month as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson began deploying $700 billion to recapitalize banks and purchase mortgage-related securities.
The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks charge each other for three-month loans in dollars slid 15 basis points to 2.71 percent today, the lowest level in almost five months, data from the British Bankers' Association showed.
`Much More Optimistic'
“You're starting to work off a lot of the risk parameters,'' said Andrew Brenner, co-head of structured products in New York at MF Global Inc. “Having this election behind us, I think the country will be much more optimistic.''
After pulling ahead of Obama in some polls following the Republican National Convention in the first week of September, McCain's support slid as the financial crisis deepened, with voters considering Obama better able to manage the economy.
Obama has an average lead of 7 percentage points over McCain, according to surveys compiled by Real Clear Politics. Obama has been ahead between 5 and 8 points since the beginning of October, the political Web site said.
Should either party have an edge in reviving the stock market, history suggests it is the Democrats.
Democratic Difference
Since 1928, the S&P 500 climbed 9.3 percent in the 12 months after the Democratic Party captured the White House, based on the median change following the election of six Democrats from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.
Only once did the benchmark for American equities decline, after Jimmy Carter's victory in 1976.
Among the six newly elected Republicans, five — including Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush — preceded stock-market declines, with a median retreat of 4.3 percent for the group, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The data excludes incumbents that won re-election.
Overall, the S&P 500 generated a median 62 percent advance from the time a Democrat is elected in November or elevated from the vice presidency until the next president is chosen. For Republicans, the gain is 28 percent.
History may not be an accurate indicator this time.
“In a normal year, you would expect some kind of relief rally after the election is over with, just because we won't be talking about this anymore,'' said Brian Barish, the Denver- based president of Cambiar Investors LLC, which oversees about $6 billion. “But I would throw in that there's been nothing normal about 2008.''
Japan's inflation slowed in September and employment prospects worsened, giving the central bank more scope to cut interest rates.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food climbed 2.3 percent from a year earlier, after rising 2.4 percent in August, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. The unemployment rate fell to 4 percent from 4.2 percent as job seekers stopped looking for work amid the economic slowdown.
The Bank of Japan will probably halve the benchmark lending rate to 0.25 percent today, economists say, joining overseas counterparts in lowering borrowing costs to stave off a global recession. The government yesterday promised to pump 5 trillion yen ($51 billion) into the economy to help households and small businesses cope with the fallout from financial turmoil.
“To move and cut interest rates was already a done deal,'' said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief Japan economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Tokyo. “It's difficult for the Bank of Japan to disregard the need for coordination with the government and the international authorities.''
There is a 60 percent chance the central bank will lower its benchmark rate a quarter point today, according to calculations by JPMorgan Chase & Co. using overnight interest- rate swaps. Fifteen of 17 economists surveyed predict a reduction, which would be the first in seven years.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his board came under pressure to take action after the yen surged to a 13-year high last week, driving the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to the lowest level since 1982.
Stocks Drop
Japan's currency traded at 98.36 per dollar as of 10:44 a.m. in Tokyo from 98.73 before the economic data were released and as high as 90.93 a week ago. The Nikkei snapped a three-day winning streak, falling 2.4 percent.
Household spending fell for a seventh month in September and the ratio of jobs to applicants slid to a four-year low, separate reports showed. Any relief to consumers from slowing inflation may be outweighed as weakening global demand compels companies to fire workers and cut wages, economists said freecreditreport.com.
“Companies have no choice but to lay people off,'' said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Profit has already started to decline.''
Nissan Motor Co. will fire 780 temporary workers at two domestic factories for large vehicles shipped to the U.S., Jiji Press reported today, citing unidentified company officials.
The number of people in the workforce shrank by 200,000 from August, today's report showed, causing the decline in the jobless rate. The number of people employed fell by 110,000, the report said, the fourth drop in five months.
In a Recession
The government last week acknowledged Japan has probably entered its first recession in six years as exports, production and spending slow.
Governor Shirakawa and his colleagues are expected to deliver their rate decision early this afternoon in Tokyo, before issuing their twice-yearly outlook for the economy and prices at 3 p.m. Fallout from the financial turmoil will probably prompt the board members to cut their inflation and growth forecasts.
Data released this month show commodity-driven inflation is already peaking. Producer-price gains slowed for a second month in September and the costs companies pay for services cooled to the slowest in two years.
Crude oil prices have halved in the past three months, and soybeans, corn and wheat have slumped after climbing to records earlier in the year.
Core prices in Tokyo, where one in 10 Japanese lives, rose 1.5 percent in October from a year earlier, after climbing 1.7 percent in September, today's report showed. Price trends in the capital tend to indicate future changes in nationwide inflation.
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