5A AGGIEU THE ITION [e battalion ids face market omy would turn aroi companies restructured, This time, it is harder when things will shake ott Douglas Buchanan, dira career services at the Uw of Missouri-Kansas City. “Now it's like eveiyfoi waiting on something,’’® said. “Everything depem everything else." That inability to pret urnaround also weigh jardner. Because ofil llf " ‘in all my (20) years his, 1 haven't been aessimistic.” .S. economy hits itfalls in February |By Jeannine Aversa THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ASHINGTON — Bad ither and prewar jitters took bll on the economy in iruary: New-home sales llnged to the lowest level in early three years and manufac- R rs saw their demand drop. ’he pair of reports released il the Commerce Department 1(1 Idnesday highlighted the lat- ■ batch of potholes the econo- in August, a smvw™j s hitting. National Association olCoM-jhe reports suggest that md Employers showed ■ )1 . uai .y was a ver y W eak mployers expected to l®M nt h f or ,| ie g enera i econo- laccnt ,t -“ w s-' r graduate!*- ^ Ly nn R easer chief pi mg. When the smve) M nonl j st at g anc 0 f America ipdated in December,oieMjj^^ Management. “We saw t the respondents san ■ ne g at j ve e ff ects 0 f g ac j lather, worries about an ending war with Iraq, an rease in oil prices and a . , . —line in the stock market.” ssocmnons emplo)« :| New . home sa , es himmeted percent to a seasonally usted annual rate of 854,000, l lowest level since August 0. That came on top of an fcn steeper, 12.6 percent line in January. There was a huge, 36.8 per- pt drop in the Northeast, ich was hard hit by snow ms during the month. That Here is a look at new orders for durable goods. Seasonally adjusted $180 billion lanned additional cutbacks “A lot of kids are trying ard and still coming up ito] aid Camille Luckenbaui lation manager. “Last year people werekp te first quarter of this year ti e a turning point, but than appening. We keep hoping :e a spark somewhere, in ist haven't seen it yet.” The average offer to crajs ience graduates sank 111 :nt, from $51,429 in )02 to $44,678 this Jffl ailing salaries slipped in igineering disciplines i creased about I percent foil al arts graduates. Although the overall cturc looks glum, graduate lucation, health care an cxl industry are among lo should fare betterthani ntrol issued an alert, the Texas Department of ea universities repotf alth has notified its regional offices and local •aduates in computer scifiiealth departments that people with cardiovascu- ahnology and consulting ft disease should not be vaccinated for smallpox, eaker prospects. fthe CDC issued its warning Tuesday night. bccinators also were told to inform those SI :eivingthe immunization that myopericarditis pushed sales in the region down Durable goods to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 48,000, the lowest since January 1996. Sales in the South fell by 8.6 percent to a rate of 395,000, and in the Midwest they went down by 6.3 percent, to a pace of 149,000. In the West, sales were flat — at a rate of 262,000. “The weath er is a problem and so is the weight of uncer- tainty on con- Departmentof ^ ommerce sumer behav ior,” said David Seiders, chief economist at the National 170.2 billion III llllllll F MAMJ J ASONDJ 2002 2003 AP dieted orders for durable goods — prod ucts expected to last at least three years — would fall as companies put off buying new equipment with war imminent. The weak ness in orders to factories was broadbased, with losses reported for computers, cars and metals. ‘‘There does not seem to be enough traction in the economy for the manufac- Association of Home Builders. “I’m assuming both are quite temporary.” In the manufacturing report, orders to factories for big-tick et goods fell 1.2 percent in February, unwinding part of the 1.9 percent gain reported in January. Private economists had pre- NEWS IN BRIEF turing segment to sustain for ward momentum,” said Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist at the Manufacturers Alliance, a research group. On Wall Street, Wednesday’s economic reports offered no comfort to investors. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 50.35 points to close at 8,229.88. warns against smallpox Bccinations for heart patients I, iUSTIN (AP) — After the Centers for Disease an inflammation of a heart wall and sac - may be a potential complication of the vaccination. Federal authorities are investigating whether there is an association between smallpox vaccina tion and reports of heart problems in seven health care workers who have been vaccinated. None of the seven is from Texas. Some 1,711 public health response team mem bers, hospital-based medical care employees and federal employees in Texas had been vaccinated through March 21. Vaccinations in Texas began in the state Feb. 13. 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