Daily News 01/23/2015
January 23, 2015
Friday – January 23
The National Association of REALTORS® reported on Friday that December Existing Home Sales in December rose by 2.4% from November to an annual rate of 5.04 million units, which was below the 5.10 million expected. The report did have some negative news: sales in 2014 fell 3.1% from 2013 totaling 4.93 million units. Within the report it showed that there was a 4.4 month inventory supply, while the median price was $209,500 in December, up 6% from a year earlier.
In earnings news, fast food giant McDonald’s reported that fourth quarter sales fell 7% with profits declining by 21%. Revenues came in at $6.6 billion for the quarter, while profits fell to $1.1 billion from the same period a year ago. The world’s largest restaurant chain saw sales drop across all markets, most notably here in the U.S. as it loses customers to more upscale burger stops such as Five Guys and Chick-fil-A. McDonald’s operates 36,000 restaurants around the globe.
On the lighter side, with Super Bowl Sunday fast approaching, consumers looking to have chicken wings on their menu will have to shell out a few extra bucks, but the wings will be a little fatter. Due to the recent drop in corn and soybean, farmers will be fattening up their chickens with extra feed. The cost of wholesale wings have risen by 8.2% this month to $1.72 a pound, the biggest jump to start a year since 2012. The reason, the number of actual chickens slaughtered last year fell, which has caused a decline in the juicy wings by 50 million this year. Super Bowl Sunday is typically the biggest wing consumption day of the year.
