Business memo 08/11/03

Celebrations honored with wine award

Celebrations Restaurant and Bar in Cape Girardeau has been honored with the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for 2003. There are only 3,360 restaurants in the world, representing more than 40 countries, to be honored with this award.

To wine a Wine Spectator Award, a restaurant must offer a wine list that includes wines appropriate to its cuisine and an ambience that will appeal to a wide range of wine lovers. The wine list must provide complete and accurate information. It must include vintages and appellations for all selections.

Award winners are announced in the Aug. 31 issue of Wine Spectator and are listed on its Web site for the year, beginning Sept. 1.

Best Buy raises its earnings estimate

RICHFIELD, Minn. -- Best Buy Co. Inc. last week raised its earnings estimate for the second quarter and fiscal 2004, citing strong sales and cost controls.

The consumer electronics retailer's shares surged 14 percent.

Best Buy now expects earnings to range from 37 cents to 42 cents a share in the three months ending Aug. 30. That is 10 cents higher than its previous estimate and beats the consensus estimate of 30 cents by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Unemployment rate climbs to nine-year high

WASHINGTON -- Consumers turned into cautious borrowers in June as the nation's unemployment rate climbed to a nine-year high.

The Federal Reserve reported that consumers trimmed their borrowing by a seasonally adjusted $400 million from May, or an annual rate of 0.2 percent. That pushed down total consumer debt to $1.76 trillion.

"The job situation was disturbing in June and consumers just decided to be more prudent and pull back on their borrowing," said Richard Yamarone, economist with Argus Research Corp.

The unemployment rate rose to 6.4 percent in June, a nine-year high. The jobless rate edged down to 6.2 percent in July, mostly because people streamed out of the civilian labor force.

The slowdown in consumer borrowing came after the figure had risen at a brisk rate of 5.6 percent in May from April, an $8.1 billion increase.

-- From staff, wire reports