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New rule will help workers get insurance

WASHINGTON » For U.S. workers who change or lose their jobs, a new rule issued by the Bush administration just before the end of 2004 could provide better access to group health plan coverage -- in keeping with changes Congress agreed to eight years ago.

The new rule, which becomes effective for health care plans starting July 1, is meant to implement more of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by making it easier to obtain group health coverage.

It limits when pre-existing medical conditions can be excluded from coverage and requires group health plans and group health insurance issuers to offer "special enrollment" in certain cases.

The law, pushed through Congress by President Clinton, was intended to guarantee access to health insurance for small businesses with 50 or fewer employees, and to require that insurers renew coverage for a person or group regardless of the health status of any member of the group.

Online sales zoom 29 percent

Holiday sales may have been ho-hum at shopping malls this year, but on the Internet, they boomed.

Online holiday sales grew by about 29 percent from a year ago, according to some estimates -- much better than the 2 to 5 percent gains expected at traditional stores.

Shoppers spent about $15.8 billion on the Internet during November and December, according to the latest projections from Web tracking company comScore Networks. This year's increase in online sales was better than many analysts had expected, almost matching last year's 30 percent annual gain.

To be sure, e-commerce is enjoying large percentage gains because the industry, almost nonexistent a decade or so ago, is still in its infancy. Online commerce still accounts for only about 5 percent of retail sales.

And even with this shopping season's strong showing, it's becoming more clear that Internet "e-tailers" are not even coming close to replacing traditional stores, as some suggested they would a few years ago amid all the dot-com hype.

Money managers get it wrong

NEW YORK » At this time last year, money managers were betting that growth equities would outpace value, and that large company stocks would produce better returns than small caps.

Instead, over the last 12 months, the opposite has happened. The value stocks of the Russell 3000 total market index surged 14.4 percent in 2004, according to the iShares exchange traded fund that tracks it, while growth stocks logged a much less impressive 5.3 percent gain.

The comparison by size is even more dramatic: The small-cap Russell 2000 index soared 17 percent, while the large-cap Russell 1000 index -- which correlates closely with the Standard & Poor's 500 -- rose just 9.49 percent.

How could Wall Street have gotten it so wrong? Most analysts insist their forecasts weren't incorrect -- just premature. The continued strong performance of small-cap and value stocks surprised many professional investors during 2004, but the vast majority remain firmly convinced a style shift to large-cap growth still lies ahead.

U.S. blocked from limits on textiles

WASHINGTON » The Bush administration is being temporarily barred from imposing new limits on imported clothing and textile products flowing into the United States from China.

The action by a federal court in New York comes as U.S. textile makers brace for an even greater surge of Chinese apparel imports when decades-old, worldwide quotas expire today.

U.S. textile and clothing manufacturers, worried about more competition coming from China, are seeking protections from the administration to limit Chinese imports.