The Ticker

Rosengren: No rush for Fed to raise rates

Federal Reserve officials shouldn't be in a hurry to unwind monetary stimulus because elevated slack in the U.S. job market is keeping inflation below the Fed's target, said Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren.

"Significant excess capacity remains in labor markets," Rosengren said yesterday in a speech at an annual conference held by the New Hampshire and Vermont Bankers Associations in Boston. "It seems to me appropriate for monetary policy to continue to be patient in the interest of ensuring that the economy reaches full employment and the 2 percent inflation target as quickly as possible."

S&P sets another record high

U.S. stocks ended higher yesterday, lifting the S&P 500 to a fresh closing high, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report was taken as a sign that the Federal Reserve will not begin raising interest rates anytime soon. Stocks had traded lower after the government reported fewer U.S. jobs were created in August than expected. By early afternoon, however, major indexes turned positive, led by utilities. Fed officials have made it clear that they see the labor market as still struggling, which partially justifies keeping rates at rock-bottom levels.

Foes of Mass. bottle deposit expansion bill have already spent $5.4 million

Opponents of proposed expansion of the state's deposit law have already pumped more than 
$5.4 million into a campaign to defeat the question on the November ballot.

Nearly all the money — $5 million — came from the Washington-based American Beverage Association, a trade association representing the non-alcoholic beverage industry.

The ballot question would expand the current law to include bottled water and other non-carbonated beverages not included in the original law. It is Question 2 on the ballot.

Supporters of the question have raised about $293,000. The bulk of that has come from the Massachusetts Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club and other environmental groups say updating the decades-old law will reduce litter and encourage recycling.

Critics say it will hurt small businesses by forcing them to handle an increase in bottle returns.

L Rockland Trust announced that Elizabeth K. Souza, left, has joined its investment management group as vice president and financial consultant. She serves clients in the New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Rochester, and Wareham areas. Prior to joining Rockland Trust, Elizabeth served as a senior financial advisor at Santander Investment Services for the past 12 years.

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Wynn eyes way in with T land

The MBTA is "aiding and abetting" Wynn Resorts' plans to develop a casino in Everett by offering to sell a combined two-acre block of land that would give the casino giant a new way to access the proposed site, allowing it to skirt using any land in Boston, a casino opponent charged yesterday.

But T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said that while Wynn officials approached the transit agency — the company in an Aug. 26 letter to the T offered to pay 
$6 million for the three parcels surrounding the MBTA's Everett repair facility — the property will be on the market in "an open and competitive bidding process."

"The T will sell it to the highest bidder," Pesaturo told the Herald in an email, adding,"The MBTA was approached by Wynn, who is interested in acquiring the land for casino-
related purposes. The MBTA met with Wynn representatives in order to hear Wynn's plans. The MBTA informed Wynn that it would be open to a land transaction but that it must be an open and public process."

Celeste Myers, a co-founder of No Eastie Casino who is running for state representative, said the MBTA should not be selling its parcels just to help out Wynn.

"It's aiding and abetting the developer and enabling them to remove themselves from their responsibility as a host community," she said. "This is just another jab at the city of Boston."

Pesaturo described the parcels, which are on the edges of the T's 21-acre maintenance and repair yard, as "surplus property."

A Wynn spokesman yesterday declined to discuss the land sale, saying simply that its letter to the MBTA is "self-explanatory."

Kate Norton, a spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, also declined to comment on the T's willingness to sell its land but she pointed out that Wynn had refused to furnish the city with any documents that would show the location of its entrances and exits and whether they encroached the Boston city line.

After striking a lucrative surrounding community agreement with Wynn competitor Mohegan Sun for its $1.3 billion proposed Suffolk Downs casino in Revere, Boston withdrew from talks with Wynn, saying the developer was withholding key information, and ceded the decision on community impact fees to the state Gaming Commission.

The state Gaming Commission then yanked Boston's surrounding community status with the Wynn casino project in a controversial move last month that Walsh slammed as a snub to the city's taxpayers.

One of the parcels Wynn wants to buy — it's currently the near entrance to the T yard on Horizon Way — would be used for the casino's main four-lane entrance, and would allow the developer to avoid crossing the Boston city line. Another parcel would be used to create a service road for delivery trucks and employee vans.

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Updates have duplex seeming brand new

This Beacon Hill duplex near the State House is newly redone, thanks to many improvements the current owners have made in the past year.

The first-floor and basement Unit 47 at 47 Mount Vernon St. is one of 14 condos in two adjoining brick buildings. The two-
bedroom, 2,286-square-foot duplex, on the market for $1,750,000, has three full bathrooms, one of which is completely new and another just renovated.

A private vestibule entrance leads from Mount Vernon Street through a French door into an oak-floored foyer with a coat closet. To the right is a spacious living/dining area with two large windows, refinished walnut-stained oak floors, a stainless steel fan and a woodburning fireplace. The dining area has a rope-suspended chandelier.

The adjacent recessed-lit galley kitchen has just been redone with 30 white cabinets, gray granite counters and glass mosaic tile backsplashes. The stainless steel Jenn Air appliances are only a few years old.

On the other side of the living/dining area is a newly carpeted bedroom with paneled wainscoting. Across the hall sits a newly redone bathroom with gray porcelain tile floors, a pedestal sink and glass mosaic tile surround for a tub/shower.

Oak stairs lead down to a large newly carpeted master bedroom suite on the basement level with recessed lighting and a stainless steel fan above. The current owners combined two closets into one large walk-in with a centerpiece built-in dresser with wardrobe spaces on either side.

A en-suite master bathroom features double green granite-topped vanities, a granite-topped raised whirlpool tub and a ceramic tiled walk-in shower.

Down a carpeted hallway are several closets, one of which holds a stacked Samsung washer/dryer.

Off the hallway is a carpeted study, currently used as a nursery, that doesn't count as a third bedroom because it lacks a window. There's a utility area off this room that holds the central heating and air-conditioning systems with enough room left over for a workshop.

At the end of the hall, the current owners have installed a new full bathroom with a gray porcelain tile floor, a white ceramic sink and porcelain-tiled tub and shower.

The unit doesn't come with an on-site parking space, and spaces at nearby garages such as Boston Common and on Cambridge Street will run around $300 a month.

Home Showcase

• Address: 47 Mount Vernon St., 
Unit 47, Beacon Hill
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: Three full
• List price: $1,750,000
• Square feet: 2,286
• Price per square foot: $766
• Annual taxes: $13,238
• Monthly condo fee: $390
• Location: Near corner of Mount Vernon and Joy streets, about a quarter mile down Beacon Hill to retail and restaurants on Charles Street. Several blocks from offerings on Cambridge Street, including Whole Foods market.
• Built in: 1850; converted to condo 1982, updated 2012-14
• Broker: Melinda Sarkis of Hammond 
Residential at 617-587-4609

Pros:

• Spacious living dining area with fireplace
• Newly added full bathroom on lower level
• Redone kitchen and refurnished hardwood floors

Cons:

• Master bedroom on basement level without windows
• No on-site parking

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Job growth hits yearly low

The nation's job growth last month slipped to its lowest level of the year, as fewer people sought work and the food industry took a hit from the Market Basket dispute.

Employers added 142,000 jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — less than the 225,000 economists had expected and well below the 212,000 average of the previous 12 months. Job numbers from June and July were also revised downward by 28,000.

And while the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, that was because more people without jobs stopped looking for one.

"The fact that the labor force shrank in August is not particularly good," said Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. "We need the labor force to grow to continue to drive growth."

Handler said it is difficult to say what is behind the decline in the labor force.

"Some of it could just be flat-out discouragement," he said.

Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve, called the report "disappointing" in a speech yesterday, pointing out that while 7.3 million people are considered employed, many of them are part-timers who are unable to find full-time work.

The food and beverage industry lost 17,000 jobs last month, a decline attributed at least in part to part-timers at Market Basket whose hours were eliminated as worker protests calling for the reinstatement of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas brought the grocery chain's business to a virtual standstill.

Those jobs will show up in the employment report for September as new jobs.

Still, economists noted month-to-month volatility in job numbers is not unusual, and other indicators point to an improving economy.

"It's still one month," said Robert Murphy, a Boston College economics professor. "We need to see what might happen over the rest of the year."

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Starbucks debuts at Hub Star Markets

Shoppers at two Star Markets in Boston can now turn to Starbucks to fuel their trips through the supermarkets' aisles.

The Seattle coffee chain debuted its first locations inside Star Markets yesterday in the Fenway neighborhood and on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. Both serve its full menu.

The openings are part of a larger relationship that Starbucks already has with 
Albertsons and Jewel Osco, two of the other grocery chains operated by AB Acquisition LLC, the parent company of the West Bridgewater-based Star Market and Shaw's Supermarkets since last year.

They're also part of an effort to restore the 99-year-old Star Market brand. Its new owners have been expanding the chain — which has grown from 14 locations to 21 after former Shaw's were rebranded — and repositioning it with expanded all-natural products and new services, such as carrying groceries out to customers' cars.

"Starbucks has a great brand, great company and story, and we wanted to be partners with them to make their products available to our customers," said Jeff Gulko, spokesman for Star Market and Shaw's. "We do have plans for additional locations and will share information … as it becomes available."

The Starbucks deal comes with no restrictions on the other brands of coffee that Star can sell, Gulko said.

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Tesla CEO: "Nevada is it;" $1.3B package offered

RENO, Nev. — The Biggest Little City in the World is about to get a new neighbor: the biggest lithium battery factory in the world that Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval asserted will create more than 22,000 new jobs and pump $100 billion into the state's economy over the next 20 years.

Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk declared the Silver State the winner Thursday of a high-stakes battle with California and three other states for the $5 billion "gigafactory" he says they need — and need fast — to mass produce cheaper batteries for its next line of more-affordable electric cars.

Sandoval unveiled the package of tax breaks and incentives worth as much as $1.3 billion that his economic development team negotiated with Tesla in secret for nearly a year to bring the plant to an industrial park 15 miles east of Sparks, a Reno suburb founded along the Union Pacific Railroad a century ago.

The package still must be approved by lawmakers during a special session of the Legislature, which appears inclined to do so and could take action as early as next week. But Sandoval called it a "monumental announcement that will change Nevada forever."

Musk confided Nevada's wasn't the most lucrative among the offers from California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

But "it wasn't just about incentives," he said, citing Nevada's pro-business regulatory climate and his "high confidence" the plant will be ready to open in 2017. "That was truly the most important thing."

Later, Musk told reporters that Tesla would stop looking for another state as a backup, as the company had said earlier it would do in case Nevada did not come through.

"Nevada is it," he said.

Musk, who had just flown in from London, briefly bungled the pronunciation of "Nevada" during the ceremony — a big no-no for locals — but recovered and twice received standing ovations from more than 200 dignitaries on the Capitol lawn.

"It's a real get-things-done state," Musk said, explaining how Nevada prevailed in a "relatively close" competition.

Steve Hill, executive director of Sandoval's Office of Economic Development, drew a laugh from the crowd when he said:

"That's the first I've heard incentives weren't the most important thing."

Earlier Thursday, at least a half-dozen road graders, bulldozers and dump trucks were working at the site at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center along I-80 where Musk said the plant would cover an area equal to 174 football fields and produce more lithium batteries than all the existing factories in the world combined last year.

"It's difficult to describe in words, but it's a heck of a big factory," he said.

Also a heck of a lot of jobs for a state that had the nation's worst unemployment rate during the depths of the Great Recession.

Hill said the 22,000 jobs would include 6,500 permanent ones at the factory with hourly wages above $25 and a peak of 3,000 construction jobs before the 2017 opening.

But Greg LeRoy, executive director of the research group Good Jobs First, said the factory would bring a total of 19,500 jobs, and not the 22,000.

Tesla's choice for the facility takes it a big step closer to mass producing an electric car that costs around $35,000 and can go 200 miles on a single charge. That range is critical because it lets people take most daily trips without recharging, a major barrier to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

A man who stopped at an I-80 truck stop Thursday to refuel across the street from the access road to the site told a reporter he'd consider buying an electric car someday.

"But right now they don't have enough of those places to charge," said Donald Hopkins, headed from his home in Rio Vista, California to vacation in Indianapolis. "Maybe if they get one where you can drive from here to Detroit."

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Motorola emphasizes design in circular smartwatch

NEW YORK — Motorola rolled out a circular smartwatch Friday, counting on a more traditional design to win over consumers who have so far shunned other computerized wrist devices.

Smartwatches so far have had rectangular faces, a shape that has turned off many consumers, said Steve Sinclair, Motorola's vice president of product management. Motorola's Moto 360 is round and has an all-metal frame, making it look more like a regular watch.

"People don't want to wear a shrunken-down smartphone on their wrist," Sinclair said.

Reshaping the smartwatch still might not be enough to sway consumers' attitudes. Apart from design, smartwatches have had limited appeal because of their small displays and a requirement to have a companion smartphone nearby. Technology companies have yet to make a compelling case for why everyday consumers need them.

Nonetheless, mobile device makers are still pinning their hopes on smartwatches spurring more sales to consumers who already have smartphones and tablet computers and aren't looking to upgrade right away. Samsung and Sony already have smartwatches out, and new models are coming this fall. Apple is also believed to be working on one that could be announced Tuesday.

Friday's debut of the Moto 360 comes a week after LG Electronics Inc. announced its own circular smartwatch, the G Watch R. LG's watch won't be available for at least a month, though, and its price wasn't immediately announced.

Both watches use Google's Android Wear operating system. The system uses voice controls for basic functions, such as reading messages, checking the weather and getting reminders on calendar appointments.

The Moto 360 costs $250 and starts shipping Friday. That comes with a leather band. A metal-band version will come out this fall for $300.

Motorola also announced updates to two of its phones.

The Moto G will grow to 5 inches, from 4.5 inches in last year's model. The camera is also improved to 8 megapixels, rather than 5 megapixels. It will start at $180 in the U.S. with no contract requirement. The new version will have 3G cellular access only. Motorola will continue selling a 4G version of the old model for $219.

Meanwhile, the flagship Moto X will enlarge to 5.2 inches, from 4.7 inches, and will start at $500. It will have a 13 megapixel camera, up from 10 megapixels. The Moto X distinguishes itself from rival phones by allowing people to customize the backs when ordering. Wood and leather backs will be available for a higher price.

There's also a new Bluetooth headset, the Moto Hint. Headsets have typically been limited to phone calls. The Moto Hint will also allow users to control the Moto X phone with voice commands.

Motorola is currently owned by Google, though Lenovo plans to complete its purchase of the business this year.

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Most fines upheld for Irene outages

The state's highest court yesterday reduced fines against two utilities for their handling of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and a subsequent October snowstorm, but upheld the standard state regulators used to assess the companies' response to widespread power outages.

After the storms left hundreds of thousands of people without power — some for more than a week — the Department of Public Utilities fined National Grid $18.7 million and Nstar $4.1 million for the two storms, and Western Massachusetts Electric Co. $2 million for the snowstorm only.

The Supreme Judicial Court ordered the fine against National Grid reduced by $900,000, saying the only violations DPU did not prove were those alleged during the last two days of efforts to restore power after both storms. The SJC ordered the fine against Nstar cut in half, saying regulators failed to prove that the utility did not repair downed power lines quickly enough.

Krista Selmi, a spokeswoman for DPU, called the court's decision a "clear signal DPU acted within its authority," an opinion seconded by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

"Our investigation found that the utilities' preparation and response to these storms was woefully inadequate," Coakley said. "We recommended record penalties against the utilities, and the fines upheld today send a clear message that customers deserve better."

National Grid said in a statement it was disappointed with the decision.

Northeast Utilities, the parent of Nstar and Western Massachusetts Electric, said in a statement: "We are pleased that the court invalidated penalties where there wasn't enough evidence to warrant them."

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Rules loosen for casinos

The state Gaming Commission has softened its requirement that the subcontractors that casino vendors hire automatically submit to criminal background checks, a change the commission says will streamline permitting but gaming critics fear will add a layer of secrecy.

The commission voted yesterday to change its regulation that originally required casino vendors to submit "Subcontractor Identification Forms" before the vendors are licensed to do work for casinos. Now, subcontractors will only have to submit the forms if specifically targeted by the commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau.

The identification forms require subcontractors to list, among other things, who owns them, and to authorize courts, law enforcement agencies, probation departments, banks and other institutions to release any information about them that the commission requests.

Catherine Blue, the commission's general counsel, said the need for the change became apparent as the panel has begun processing vendors looking to work on an approved slots parlor in Plainville and an MGM casino in Springfield.

"We have a better understanding of what we need to see in certain situations, and have a better understanding how to make the process streamlined and how to make it work better," Blue said.

Subcontractors typically hire the actual workers who perform on-the-ground tasks on behalf of vendors. According to regulations, a factor the commission can weigh in deciding to permit a vendor to do work for a casino is the "integrity, honesty and good character of any subcontractor."

John Ribeiro, chairman of the Repeal the Casino Deal campaign that is working to overturn the state's casino law in November, said he's worried the change will embolden vendors — who could provide a casino everything from security to cleaning to maintenance services — to hire questionable subcontractors because they won't be subject to the same automatic disclosure requirements as mainline casino employees.

"They can always hire subcontractors to get around the regulations," Ribeiro said. "I think if you're going to regulate anything, I think you should be making sure that we don't have criminals working at the casinos. I think that would be a basic regulation that you'd want to enforce."

Blue said the change creates no greater risk of a criminal element in casinos because the IEB retains the right to demand background information and authorization.

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SiriusXM to broadcast 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'

SiriusXM announced Friday that it will start broadcasting syndicated daytime talker "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" beginning Sept. 8 along with the new season.

The satellite radio provider will air the audiocast on channel 109 at 10 a.m. weekdays, with a rebroadcast of each episode the following day at 9 a.m. The broadcast will also be available on via the SiriusXM Internet Radio app and siriusxm.com.

"'Ellen' is the most popular nationally syndicated daytime talk show, and we know our listeners, whether they are in the car, at home or on the go, will love being able to tune into the daily show through satellite radio, and not miss a minute," said Scott Greenstein SiriusXM's president and chief content officer.

DeGeneres' premiere week will include interviews with "The Voice" hosts Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams, as well as appearances by Kim Kardashian, Channing Tatum and Nicki Minaj. Music performances include Maroon 5, Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora, and Megan Trainer.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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