Regional Business Digest

REGION
Seeking grants, loans
LATROBE, Pa. -- The Latrobe Municipal Authority is seeking more than 7 million in state grants and loans on behalf of City Brewing, the new owner of the former Rolling Rock brewery plant, to build a new waste treatment plant at the brewery. The treatment plant is needed because City Brewing plans to make more and different kinds of drinks at the brewery.
The Latrobe plant has been closed since the end of July, when it stopped making Rolling Rock beer.
NATION
Economist: Growthwill continue in 2007
A bigger-than-expected slump in housing and a domestic auto industry bumping along in the slow lane have some economists grumping that the upcoming holiday shopping season will deliver a lump of coal. Indeed, as consumers haul out wallets or credit cards, their activity will be the No. 1 factor in determining the economy's growth path for the next few months. If they reduce their pace of spending, 2007 will begin on an unhappy note. Spending for the year-end festivities is expected to total 457 billion this year, a 5-percent increase from last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Don't expect an end to holiday partying just yet, says economist Peter Morici.
In fact, he believes growth of gross domestic product has accelerated from the glacial 1.6 percent rate reported for the third quarter. Morici expects a revision, due out Wednesday, to show expansion at a 1.8 percent rate.
Looking ahead, Morici, of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, believes consumers won't abandon their free-spending ways. "The combination of moderating, but not declining, consumer spending and more robust investment in commercial construction, equipment and technology should be enough to keep the economy growing at a moderate, but not robust, pace," he says. His bottom line: Growth in 2007 will push ahead at a 2.6 percent rate, after 3.3 percent growth for all of this year.
With Detroit cutting production to a point that it is having a worrisome effect on workers, fresh reports emerged Friday about November car and light truck sales.
Treasury bond prices rise
NEW YORK -- Treasury bond prices were up at the end of last week. The price of the Treasury's 10-year note was up 6/32 point, or 1.875 per 1,000 in face value, around midday Friday, while its yield fell to 4.54 percent from 4.56 percent late Wednesday.
The bond markets were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving. The 30-year bonds were up 14/32 point and yielded 4.62 percent, down from 4.65 percent late Wednesday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions. Two-year Treasury notes were up 2/32 point and yielded 4.72 percent, down from 4.75 percent late Wednesday.
Yields on three-month Treasury bills fell to 5.04 percent as the discount fell 0.02 percentage point to 4.91 percent. Yields are the interest bonds pay by maturity, while the discount is the interest at which they are sold.
Vindicator staff and wire reports