The US Economy

... The US Federal Reserve said it its 'beige book,' a snapshot of economic conditions around the country, that the pace of economic expansion had picked up in most regions, helped by robust consumer spending and an increasingly buoyant manufacturing sector ...
... highlighting an increase in demand for temporary workers in New York, Chicago, Dallas and other cities ... seen as a sign that companies are starting to hire again ... The Fed also highlighted evidence that the manufacturing sector may also be beginning to emerge from the doldrums ... The central bank said orders for machine tools had risen ... On the consumer side, spending remained robust and demand for new houses was also buoyant, the Fed said.

IBM hits mark, eyes adding 10,000 jobs

By Shawn Langlois, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 5:39 PM ET Oct. 15, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- IBM matched third-quarter earnings targets Wednesday and said it would look to add 10,000 new jobs next year, providing further evidence of a healthy earnings season and reinforcing views of a broad-based technology rebound ...

"Looking ahead, Palmisano added that in 2004 customer spending would ramp up and "while demand is not yet across the board, it is strongest in the areas where we have positioned the company and strengthened our capabilities."

Big Blue will look to add new jobs in key skill areas such as Linux and open-standards-based hardware and software.

Armonk.
N.Y.-based IBM said Wednesday that net income rose to $1.8 billion, or $1.02 a share, in the quarter, from $1.7 billion, or 99 cents a share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 9 percent to $21.5 billion, below Wall Street's consensus estimate of $21.9 billion, according to First Call. Excluding currency factors, IBM said sales growth would have been just 4 percent in the quarter. IBM, like other multinationals, has benefited from a weaker dollar.

[...]

Like Intel, which reported earnings on Tuesday, IBM showed stronger revenue growth outside of the U.S., where companies continue to show few signs of increasing their spending on technology. Sales in IBM's Americas division increased just 4 percent from last year compared with an 11 percent gain in Asia-Pacific and a 19 percent increase in European sales.

It is very clear to me that some people in this discussion are desperate to deny any suggestion of improvement in the economy.

CEOs See 4th-Quarter Sales, Growth Pickup
Thu October 16, 2003 09:52 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. corporate leaders expect economic growth to pick up modestly in the final quarter of 2003, and a majority expect sales to grow, according to a survey of chief executive officers released on Thursday.
CEOs surveyed by the Business Roundtable earlier this month expected gross domestic product growth of around 3.3 percent for the fourth quarter, above the 2.3 percent growth they forecast in a July survey about the following six months.

Seventy-one percent of executives expect sales to climb through the end of this year, although only 23 percent expect capital spending to climb.

"This survey shows that CEOs are more optimistic about economic prospects through the end of the year, amid signs that the U.S. economy continues to regain its footing," Philip Condit, chairman of the Roundtable and chairman and CEO of Boeing Co., said in a news release.

The corporate executives in the survey report a steady firming in business conditions since the start of the Iraq war in the spring of 2003, Condit said.

The U.S. economy has been growing at a modest pace since late 2001, with GDP rising 2.4 percent in 2002.

Regarding jobs, while only 12 percent of CEOs see a rise in employment in the final three months of this year, the percentage of executives who expect to cut their payrolls in the months ahead has continued to decline, the survey showed. Fifty-two percent expect no change in employment in the fourth quarter.