The advance>??

In the week ending Aug. 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 312,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week''s revised figure of 322,000. The 4-week moving average was 311,250, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week''s revised average of 309,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending Aug. 5, unchanged from the prior week''s unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 5 was 2,507,000, an increase of 34,000 from the preceding week''s revised level of 2,473,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,469,250, an increase of 2,250 from the preceding week''s revised average of 2,467,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 255,031 in the week ending Aug. 12, a decrease of 20,347 from the previous week. There were 257,151 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent during the week ending Aug. 5, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,354,247, a decrease of 12,595 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9 percent and the volume was 2,436,846.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending July 29.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,149 in the week ending Aug. 5, a decrease of 109 from the prior week. There were 2,250 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 199 from the preceding week.There were 15,295 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 29, an increase of 433 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,005, a decrease of 33 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 29 were in Puerto Rico (4.4 percent), Michigan (3.2), New Jersey (2.9), Pennsylvania (2.9), Alaska (2., Rhode Island (2.7), Connecticut (2.5), Arkansas (2.4), Massachusetts (2.4), Oregon (2.2), South Carolina (2.2), and Wisconsin (2.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Aug. 5 were in Puerto Rico (+4,556), Kentucky (+3,046), North Carolina (+2,053), Pennsylvania (+1,963), and Ohio (+1,720), while the largest decreases were in Missouri (-2,634), Virginia (-1,449), California (-1,042), Tennessee (-947), and Alabama (-765).

WOW~~Here it comes!!~~

Countrywide, one of the largest lenders in the US with strong ties in California has lost 20% of its business and is laying off 500 people in California while San Diego County is being called the Enron of public finance, and the condo market there has imploded.

HP SHARE SOAR

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s stock surged Thursday after the computer and printer maker reported a third-quarter profit that beat expectations, raised its fourth-quarter and full-year guidance and said its board had authorized a $6 billion share buyback.

HP shares rose $2.62, or almost 8 percent, to $37.05 in pre-market trading. If that price holds when the stock market opens, it would be above the stock's previous 52-week high of $36.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.

CEO Mark Hurd said an aggressive cost-cutting campaign would wind down in the current quarter, when several thousand employees would lose their jobs.

But Hurd, who oversaw the elimination of 1,900 jobs last quarter, said he would continue to reduce bureaucracy in the 67-year-old company. The low-key Midwesterner, who took over HP in March after the ouster of Carly Fiorina, said he spent much of the past year talking to employees and customers about how to make the 150,000-employee company more efficient.

"We're a very big company and still are - and that created a lot of complexity," Hurd said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. "The feedback I got was that this is a company with great technology, great people and great services, but frankly it was hard to deal with - there was a lot of bureaucracy."

Hurd was bullish about HP's prospects after announcing fiscal third-quarter profit that easily beat Wall Street's expectations. The results were announced Wednesday after financial markets closed.

For the three months ended July 31, HP earned $1.38 billion, or 48 cents a share, compared with $73 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

The year-ago numbers were dramatically lower because of a tax charge that resulted when the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company pulled $14.5 billion from foreign earnings and "repatriated," or reinvested, those profits in the United States.

Sales in the fiscal third quarter rose 5 percent to $21.89 billion from $20.76 billion last year. If not for currency fluctuations, sales would have increased 6 percent.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.48 billion, or 52 cents per share, up nearly 40 percent from the same quarter last year.

On that basis, which does not comply with generally accepted accounting principles, HP beat Wall Street expectations by 5 cents per share. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.37 billion, or 47 cents a share, on sales of $21.8 billion, according to a Thomson Financial survey.

Analysts were impressed that HP managed to report relatively strong sales in each of the company's three divisions.

"It looked really good - it's nice to see this consistency from HP," said Martin Reynolds, vice president of research firm Gartner Inc.

He added that the only "dark spot" was the company's "enterprise storage and servers" category, which only inched up 3 percent to $4.1 billion.

HP competes fiercely against IBM Corp. for corporate clients that spend billions of dollars on giant computer servers and data storage.

"They're struggling against IBM's initiative," Reynolds said. "It's been that way for several quarters, and I'm a little disappointed they haven't addressed it yet. They need to be more focused."

Revenue from HP's printer division grew 5 percent to $6.2 billion. HP sales of laptops increased 14 percent, as the overall "personal systems" division sold $6.9 billion in desktops, laptops and other computers, 8 percent more than the same quarter last year.

Software sales were particularly strong, with 30 percent year-over-year growth. The company, which sold $318 million in software last quarter, will likely complete the acquisition of management software company Mercury Interactive Corp. in the current quarter.

Hurd vowed that the $4.5 billion acquisition - HP's biggest since the $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002 - wouldn't be saddled with HP's legacy of superfluous bureaucracy.

"I don't think the Mercury Interactive acquisition will do anything to increase bureaucracy at HP," Hurd said. "We met the enemy and it was us. We need to go simplify."

For the fourth quarter, HP now expects to earn 57 cents to 59 cents per share, or 61 to 63 cents per share excluding items. For the full year, the company expects earnings in a range of $2.14 to $2.16 per share, or $2.31 to $2.33 per share excluding amoritization charges. Analysts, on average, were expecting 59 cents per share for the fourth quarter and $2.07 for the full year, according to Thomson. Those estimates typically exclude unusual items.

ABOUT Random Bank Fees

I got a returned check a while ago, my bank charged me $6. I thought it was kind of steep. I have no experience with how much other banks charge though. One time I got an overdraft charge, a whopping $25 fee. Then I wanted to write a money order, there’s another $5 charge. With some accounts, if you don’t have enough money in there, bam another monthly service charge. I guess when they said free checking, they didn’t really mean free did they.

ABOUT Wire Transfer Fees

I got to thinking of all of these bank fees that banks charge, and one of the steepest of them all is the wire transfer fee. That one can be avoided though. Google has a new service, GPay I believe it’s called. You can send money through that if I’m not mistaken. You can send money with PayPal as well. You could write an old fashioned check and just wait until it clears. If time is of the essence, a money order mailed overnight might even be cheaper than a wire transfer.