Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, September 29, 1997

Consumer spending
slowed last month

WASHINGTON -- American consumers curbed their spending in August despite a healthy income gain.

Personal incomes rose 0.6 percent last month, triple the 0.2 percent July gain, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $6.92 trillion, the Commerce Department said today.

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $5.52 trillion. That followed a 1 percent spurt in July, the biggest in six months.

Economists said the income advance reflected solid gains in wages and hours worked.

Aetna stock declines
on earnings forecast

Hartford, Conn. -- Aetna Inc. said its third-quarter earnings will fall short of estimates because of higher managed health-care costs and unpaid claims, sending its shares down as much as 9.4 percent.

Its shares fell $8.87-1/2 to $81.62-1/2 after trading as low as $80.75.

The insurance and health-

care services company will take a charge of as much as $105 million for higher medical claims reserves.

Analysts said the announcement highlights the competitive managed-health care industry, where companies are hard pressed to increase prices, and the troubles Aetna is having in integrating its 1996 purchase of U.S. Healthcare Corp.

Home ownership up
among minorities

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As the nation's housing market continues to grow under a strong economy, there's a trend emerging: more minorities and immigrants are buying their own homes.

Minority households have grown to account for nearly 30 percent of the nation's new homeowners and in many areas are anchoring the first-time home-buyer market, according to an annual Harvard University housing study.

"What many forecasters have failed to recognize is the emergence of this important minority home-buying market," said Harvard's William Apgar.