Economy to grow slowly in early 2007: Blue Chip
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The U.S. economy will grow slowly  during the first half of the year, but pick up strength as the  months pass, a survey of top forecasters showed on Saturday.
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The economy grew at a 0.7 percent annual pace in the first three months of this year, the weakest in more than four years but slightly better than previously estimated, data showed  on Thursday.
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The U.S. economy appears to be  getting on a sustainable growth path with GDP expected to grow  2.8 percent in 2007, and the risks of inflation are slightly  higher than those of an economic slowdown, according to a  survey of economists released on Monday.
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A think tank at People's University has forecast China's economic growth will slow to about 9.25 percent in 2007 and remain near that rate through 2010, the Beijing News reported on Sunday.
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U.S. blue-chip stocks trimmed gains in   thin trading on Wednesday as comments from a Fed official that   slowing economic growth may not be enough to reduce inflation   offset a GDP report showing an upward revision in growth.
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NEW YORK  - The U.S. economy is forecast to slow slightly next year, and inflation is expected to ease from this year's pace, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said on Tuesday.
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Few major changes in hardware and software are expected until 2006, experts say.
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Ongoing weakness in the housing market will push the national economy to the brink of recession, but growth in other areas should put the country back on a slow road to recovery by 2009, according to an economic forecast released Wednesday.
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The economy grew at a 0.7 percent  annual pace in the first three months of this year, the weakest  in more than four years, but a closely watched inflation gauge  unexpectedly accelerated, data showed showed on Thursday.
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The economy grew at a 0.7 percent  annual pace in the first three months of this year, the weakest  in more than four years as businesses sold off inventories but  consumer spending remained strong, a Commerce Department report  on Thursday showed.
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Forrester Research predicts the year ahead will be a slow one for IT spending, both in the U.S. and globally.
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Earnings reports from IBM, Intel, and AMD and acquisition news from Oracle and Sun did nothing to calm IT investor fears about an uncertain U.S. economy this week.The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has gotten off to its slowest start in years. Even though the Nasdaq finished 2007 up by 9.8 percent for the year, it has been sliding steadily in the past few weeks.More analysts are starting to forecast a recession. U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, testifying Thursday before the House Budget Committee, warned that the risks of an economic downturn are growing. Though he said an economic stimulus package, including low interest rates, could help avoid recession, IT investors are clearly worried. After President George Bush endorsed some of Bernanke&#39;s comments about stimulus, a Friday morning market rally fizzled out by the end of the day.IBM, which issued a preliminary earnings report Monday and its full results Thursday, had good news for its investors.&#160;IBM said that it would post $28.9 billion in revenue for the 2007 quarter, a 10 percent jump from the same period one year earlier. Fourth-quarter earnings are $2.80 per share, up 24 percent and above analyst expectations. But the company said results were helped mainly by strong sales in Asia, Europe, and emerging markets -- not the U.S.IBM shares rose $5.26 to close at $102.93 Monday when it issued its preliminary report and sparked a temporary jump in tech stocks overall. But ultimately most technology companies did not fare well on the market this week.AMD on Thursday reported a loss for the fourth quarter&#160;due mostly to charges connected to its acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI. AMD had a net loss of $1.8 billion and revenue of only $1.8 billion. Because the loss was smaller than expected, the beleaguered chip maker was rewarded in a down market Friday, when its shares rose by $0.70 to close at $7.04Meanwhile,&#160;Intel Tuesday announced a revenue increase for the fourth quarter that fell short of analysts&#39; estimates, in part due to weak prices for memory chips. The company said revenue was $10.7 billion, up 10.5 percent, but missed the $10.8 billion estimated by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Intel shares lost $2.81 Wednesday to close at $19.88, further declining during the rest of the week.The Intel first-quarter revenue outlook is particularly disappointing, according to CitiGroup Capital Markets analyst Glen Yeung. Yeung expects a downward revision of the 2008 revenue outlook because while Intel is benefiting from market share gains against AMD, the U.S. economy is having a worse impact than expected.Acquisitions did provide some excitement this week.&#160;Oracle Wednesday announced a deal to buy BEA Systems for about $8.5 billion. Oracle shares gained $0.61 to close at $21.92 Wednesday on the news, flattening out over the rest of the week in the down market. The deal makes Oracle the biggest player in middleware, ahead of even IBM, pointed out JMP securities analyst Patrick Walravens in a research note.Sun&#39;s $1 billion acquisition of MySQL, also announced Wednesday, was looked on favorably by traders as well. Sun is buying an open-source database used by some of the most widely trafficked Web sites in the world, such as Facebook and Google. Sun also said that next week it expects to report net income of $89 million for the quarter ending Dec. 31, compared to a loss of $56 million for the same period in 2006. Sun shares gained $0.55 Wednesday to close at $15.53, and rose slightly over the rest of the week even as most other stocks declined.
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U.S. economic growth should rebound in the course of 2007 after hitting a soft patch in the first quarter and the main threat to the economy is inflation, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday.
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Growth in the final quarter of 2007 slowed to half the pace Wall Street was expecting, new figures show
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US economic growth is expected to slow in 2005 due to rising interest rates and high crude oil prices, according to a forecast of participants at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago conference released on Monday.
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Business & money: Like-for-like sales grow at slowest rate for a year as consumers rein in spending.
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U.S. blue chips looked to open flat on  Friday, weighed down by a report showing lower-than-expected  economic growth in the fourth quarter.