Cranes tower over the World Trade Center site in New York's lower Manhattan, December 12, 2012.

WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 2, 2013 10:12am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Construction spending fell in November for the first time in eight months, as an extended bout of weakness in the business sector outweighed modest growth in outlays on residential projects.

Construction spending dropped 0.3 percent to an annual rate of $866 billion, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 0.6 percent gain.

Businesses have shown signs they are holding back on investments because of worries over federal austerity plans, and the construction data could be another sign of flagging confidence.

Private spending on nonresidential projects slipped by 0.7 percent, the fourth decline in six months.

Spending on private residential projects, however, rose 0.4 percent, a reflection of the country's improving housing market.

Home building likely added to economic growth in 2012 for the first time since 2005, although the housing sector remains a shadow of what it was before the 2007-09 recession.

Public sector construction spending fell 0.4 percent. State and local spending edged 0.1 percent higher, while outlays on federal government projects - a relatively small component of overall construction spending - declined 5.5 percent.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

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Washers and dryers are seen on display at a store in New York July 28, 2010.

WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:38am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gauge of planned U.S. business spending rose much more than expected in November, a hint that worries over tighter fiscal policy may not be holding back the factory sector as much as feared.

The Commerce Department said on Friday that non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for investment plans, jumped 2.7 percent last month, the second straight month of solid gains.

Economists had expected so-called core capital goods orders to rise just 0.3 percent. The reading for October was upwardly revised to a 3.2 percent gain from a previously reported 2.9 percent increase.

Shipments of non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, used to calculate equipment and software spending in the gross domestic product report, gained 1.8 percent.

The Commerce Department gave no indication that Superstorm Sandy, which lashed the East Coast in late October, had any impact on the data.

Many economists believe businesses are cutting back on capital spending, wary of automatic government spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to kick in early next year unless the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration can agree on a plan to avert this so-called "fiscal cliff."

Going over the cliff could drain about $600 billion from an already fragile economy.

Overall durable goods orders rose 0.7 percent in November, with increases posted for machinery, fabricated metal products, and computer and electronic products offsetting a drag from aircraft.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders for durable goods, items from toasters to aircraft that are meant to last at least three years, rising 0.2 percent last month.

Excluding transportation, orders rose 1.6 percent in November. Transport orders were down 1.1 percent. Previously, U.S. manufacturer Boeing reported new orders for its aircraft fell in November to 124 from 152 in the prior month.

New orders for autos jumped 3.5 percent. U.S. auto sales in November raced to a five-year high for that month on a rebound from storm-ravaged October and the need to replace aging vehicles.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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A family of Osprey are seen outside the NASA Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday May 13, 2010.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:12am EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is so sure there will be a December 22, 2012, it has already posted a YouTube video titled "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday."

Scientists say rumors on social media and the Internet of Earth's premature demise have been prompted by a misunderstanding of the ancient Maya calendar, which runs through December 21, 2012.

"It's just the end of the cycle and the beginning of the new one. It's just like on December 31, our calendar comes to an end, but a new calendar for the next year begins on January 1," Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a separate YouTube video.

According to the story circulating on the Internet, an enormous rogue planet called Niburu is on a collision course with Earth.

"If it were, we would have seen it long ago and it if were invisible somehow, we would have seen its effects on the neighboring planets. Thousands of astronomers who scan the night skies on a daily basis have not seen this," Yeomans said.

Still, thousands of mystics and New Age dreamers have descended on ancient Maya temples across Mexico and Central America hoping to witness the birth of a new era when the day dubbed "end of the world" dawns on Friday.

So is NASA covering up to prevent panic?

"Can you imagine thousands of astronomers keeping the same secret from the public for several years?" Yeomans said.

Initially, Niburu, also known as Planet X, was to impact in May 2003, but when that didn't happen the doomsday date was moved to coincide with the end of one of the cycles of the ancient calendar at winter solstice -- December 21, 2012.

Other celestial events that will not be happening: a planetary alignment causing a massive tidal surge or a total blackout of Earth; a reversal in Earth's rotation; an impact by a giant asteroid; a giant solar storm.

"Since the beginning of recorded time, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world," Yeomans said. "We're still here."

(Editing by Kevin Gray and M.D. Golan)

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1 of 4. Trader Fred Demarco works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, October 12, 2012.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:12pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks wrapped up their worst week in four months, led lower on Friday by financial shares as results from Wells Fargo and JPMorgan ignited concerns about shrinking profit margins for big lenders.

Shares of Wells Fargo (WFC.N) fell 2.6 percent to $34.25 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) lost 1.1 percent to $41.62 as concerns grew over their lower net interest margin - the difference between what a bank pays on deposits and what it makes on loans - which could narrow further as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero.

The lackluster market reaction came even though both Wells Fargo and JPMorgan, the two largest U.S. financial stocks by market value, reported record profits.

"Bank shares as a group have had a nice move (up) this year so far," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York. "Guidance is cautious so people are taking money off the table."

The results sparked a selloff in other bank shares. An S&P financial index .GSPF, down 1.4 percent, represented the worst performer of the S&P 500's top 10 sectors. The KBW Bank index .BKX lost 2.5 percent.

Polcari said the low volume that came with this week's decline indicated this was not a sign of panic. Since hitting a near five-year intraday high of 1,474.51 on September 14, the benchmark S&P 500 Index has fallen 3.1 percent.

"If we keep getting negative reports, selling will pick up," he said.

Expectations are low for S&P 500 companies' results. Quarterly earnings are forecast to fall 3 percent from a year ago, compared with a 2.1 percent drop estimated at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI edged up 2.46 points, or 0.02 percent, to 13,328.85 at the close. But the S&P 500 .SPX fell 4.25 points, or 0.30 percent, to finish at 1,428.59. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dipped 5.30 points, or 0.17 percent, to 3,044.11.

The S&P 500 closed right above its 50-day moving average, barely enough to avoid going into the weekend with a technical red flag hanging over the market.

Despite several encouraging data points this week, the benchmark S&P 500 fell 2.2 percent - its worst weekly performance since the week ended June 1.

Shares of Workday Inc (WDAY.N), a cloud computing company that has yet to turn a profit, soared nearly 74 percent to $48.69 in their market debut, driving some tech analysts to question the lofty valuation.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N) fell 14.4 percent to $2.74 a day after the chipmaker said its third-quarter revenue probably fell 10 percent from the previous quarter as a weak global economy and a growing preference for tablets slams the PC industry.

About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.52 billion shares.

On the NYSE, about seven issues fell for every four that rose. On the Nasdaq, almost two issues fell for every one that advanced.

Earlier in the session, the market was supported by Thomson Reuters-University of Michigan data showing U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to its highest in five years in October, in the latest in a string of encouraging signs about the economy.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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TOKYO | Thu Aug 2, 2012 2:09am EDT

TOKYO Aug 2 (Reuters) - Sharp Corp, which posted its worst net loss in a century in the last financial year, reported a first-quarter loss as waning TV demand and an overcapacity at its main liquid crystal display plant continued to weigh on earnings.

In the three months to June 30, Sharp swung to an operating loss of 94.1 billion yen ($1.20 billion) from a 3.5 billion-yen profit a year earlier. That was deeper than the average 44.4 billion-yen loss estimated by five analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The manufacturer of Aquos TVs also slashed its forecast to a full-year operating loss of 100 billion yen, from its earlier estimate for an operating profit of 20 billion yen. That compares with the average estimate for an operating loss of 18.2 billion yen in a poll of 16 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters since the company released its full year results in May.

Sharp is considering its first major layoffs that a source familiar with the matter told Reuters could be as many as 5,000 people.

The company in March also agreed to sell a 46.48 stake in its Sakai LCD plant to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries , part of the Foxconn Group, in a bid to isolate itself from the losses at the facility in western Japan.

Hon Hai, a major supplier to Apple Inc, is purchasing new shares in Sharp worth 66.9 billion yen, giving it an 11 percent stake in Japan's last major fabricator of LCD panels for TVs.

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