Economic Committee Report February 7, 2006

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April 11, 2006
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• iTUNES
• Apple Computer Inc. is defending companys right
  to use its apple logo in a series of TV ads. The
  advertisement is for its iTunes Music Store and
  lawsuits are coming from the Beatles Apple Corps
  Ltd. Recording label.
• HIGHER PRICES AT THE PUMP
• Oil prices rise above 66 a barrel. This is
  ahead of the US Petroleum inventories data which
  is expected to show another increase in
  commercial crude inventories but a decline in
  gasoline stocks.
• MONSANTO
• With the addition of a recently acquired fruit
  and vegetable seed business along with higher
  sales of corn seed Monsanto posts 18 jump in
  second quarter profit.

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• MA
• Five years after walking away from a previous
  agreement, Alcatel, based in Paris, and Lucent,
  based in New Jersey, said they will merge to
  create a network-equipment manufacturer rivaling
  Cisco Systems in size.
• APPLE COMPUTER
• Apple Computer released software that allows its
  latest Macintosh computers, based on Intel
  chips, to run Microsoft Windows in addition to
  Apple's own operating system, Mac OSX. Its share
  price surged on the news.
• NETFLIX V.S BLOCKBUSTER
• Netflix, which pioneered online DVD rentals,
  launched a lawsuit against Blockbuster, accusing
  its rival of infringing two patents relating to
  its business methods in the United States.
  Blockbuster, responding to Netflix's growing
  popularity, launched its own online service 20
  months ago.

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• Real gross domestic product The output of goods
  and services produced by labor and property
  located in the United States -- increased at an
  annual rate of 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter
  of 2005, according to final estimates released by
  the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The last report
  had GDP at 1.6 percent. In the third quarter of
  05, real GDP increased 4.1 percent.

Latest Release (3/30/06) According to
http//www.bea.gov/bea/dn1.htm Personal income
increased 31.5 billion, or 0.3 percent, and
disposable personal income (DPI) increased 21.7
billion, or 0.2 percent, in February. Latest
Release (3/31/06) According to http//www.bea.gov/
bea/dn1.htm
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• The U.S. economy should bounce back strongly in
  the first quarter of this year but inflationary
  pressures appear to be under control for now, a
  top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on
  Wednesday.
• "There are always risks on both sides. There are
  risks that we would stop too soon and risks we
  would stop too late, and what we have to do is
  find the best balance we can between those two
  risks," St. Louis Fed President William Poole
  said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

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• National Debt
• As of April 7th, the National Debt is 8.3
  trillion
• For the current year, the running total is 194
  billion spent on interest payments.
• Budget Deficit
• As of April 7th, the U.S. government ran a
  budget deficit of 305 billion in the first half
  of the fiscal year, 10 billion more than a year
  earlier, the Congressional Budget Office
  estimated
• Trade Deficit
• Current news to be released Thursday April 12,
  2006 by the U.S. Census Bureau

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Dollar to EURO Five Day

• HEADLINES
• -Early in the week, EURO hits a record high
  against the Yen
• -EURO continues to struggle as the banks board
  (ECB) disagrees with the market

Dollar to Yen Five Day
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• The unemployment rate for the month of March was
  4.7 because 212,000 non-farm payroll jobs were
  added while the economy was expecting a job
  increase in the range of 180k-200k. The drop in
  unemployment is a bad sign for investors because
  the Fed will likely continue to raise interest
  rates (due to inflationary pressure). Higher
  interest rates generally have a negative affect
  on stock prices.
• The biggest areas that will negatively be
  affected by another increase in interest rates
  include the consumer discretionary industry and
  financial institutions. Consumer staples (like
  Proctor and Gamble, Wal-Mart, AB, etc.) will
  likely not be heavily affected and may in fact
  see increases in stock prices.

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Industry Report Paul Damon and Jason Althoff

• The Independent Oil Gas Industry, in which
  Apache Corp. is found, went down 18.73 (1.32)
• The Cement Industry, in which Texas Industries is
  found, went up 1.08(.2)

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Industry Report Paul Damon and Jason Althoff

• Graph below compares the Cement industry (blue),
  the Independent Oil Gas industry (red), and the
  SP 500 (green) over the last 5 days.