Business in brief May 16

| The New Mexican and wire services

5/15/2008 - 5/16/08

Insurance firm celebrates first year

Monte Sol Insurance will celebrate its one-year anniversary May 23.

The agency is at 804 S. Riverside in Española, which is the same location the previous owners of the agency, Alfonso and Feliz Salazar, operated from.

The Salazars ran the agency for 18 years. It has been in the Española Valley since the 1960s.

Prior to it being the A.F. Salazar Agency, the business was the DeVargas Agency.

The business is owned and run by Robert E. Chavez, a Santa Fe native. Chavez sells primarily personal lines — auto, home and life insurance. Notary public services are also available in both English and Spanish.

The agency is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon. The telephone is 505-753-2161.

Stocks rise on oil price drop

NEW YORK — The stock market notched its second straight daily advance Thursday, with investors assuaged by a pullback in oil prices and some better-than-expected economic data.

Wall Street has been worried about cash-strapped consumers paring back their spending, so it was pleased the energy markets gave up early gains that briefly drove crude oil above $125 a barrel.

In other positive signs, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said regional manufacturing activity is contracting in May at a much slower pace than in April, while major companies including General Electric Co. and CBS Corp. were making deals.

Industrial output falls for second time

WASHINGTON — Industrial output plunged in April as factories making everything from autos to heavy machinery felt the adverse effects of the weak economy.

Analysts held out hope that production will revive in the second half of the year, helped by the government's economic stimulus checks.

Industrial production dropped 0.7 percent last month, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday, more than double the decline that economists had expected.

Manufacturing output dropped 0.8 percent, with half of that weakness coming from large cutbacks in auto production.

Bernanke: Banks must get better at foreseeing risk

WASHINGTON — Commercial banks and other financial institutions need to beef up their ability to detect and protect themselves against risks like the credit and mortgage debacles, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

The trio of crises — housing, credit and financial — have exposed weaknesses in financial firms' so-called risk-management practices. That is their ability to sufficiently detect and hedge against risks.

Banks and other financial players have racked up multibillion-dollar losses when investments in complex mortgage-backed securities soured with the collapse of the housing market.

Department stores hurt by slumping sales

MILWAUKEE — Department store stalwarts J.C. Penney Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Kohl's Inc. reported steep drops in first-quarter profits Thursday as Americans snubbed apparel to focus on basic necessities at discounters in a challenging economy.

The three department store chains all predicted the softening sales environment would continue this year as consumers grapple with soaring food and fuel costs.