But Robert Rosenberg, president of the New Jersey based Insight Research Corporation, says it's especially well positioned to take advantage of deregulation. Finally, First Union stock jumped about 2 percent on today's improved earnings report, and yesterday's preliminary Federal Reserve approval of First Union's merger with Corestates Financial. I'm Eric Roy, for Marketplace. If you spent a restless day jittery about inflation, let me assuage your concerns. The latest Consumer Price Index is unchanged.
Economists like to take out food and energy and look under the hood.
Do that and the core retail inflation rate in March rose just a tenth percent. This shows inflation during the first quarter of 98 running at a tiny 0.2 percent annual rate. Meanwhile retail sales were down in June by a tenth percent. Car sales, building materials and furniture showed some weakness. From the Washington desk, Cynthia Ingle reports.