Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 6

6A Thursday, January 13, 1983 Gazette-Journal Car sales push total retailing figure down appliances and other home furnishings in addition to the car-sales decline. Sales of non-durable items rose 0.3 percent to $62.8 billion. That included a 1.2 percent gain for department stores and a 0.8 percent increase for groceries. There were declines of 1.2 percent for clothing outlets, 0.5 percent for gasoline stations and eating and drinking places and 0.2 percent for drug stores. "It looks like people did not travel as much as usual in December," Semprevio said.

"They stayed close to home and bought Christmas presents on sale at department stores. While department store sales did not exactly soar during the month, he said, "at least it was not the disaster some people were expecting." He said the gain for home furnishings seemed reasonable in light of recent reports that home sales were rising rapidly. Many people buy at least some new appliances, carpets or furniture when they move into new homes. Sales of building materials should also begin rising soon, he said, in light of reports of recently rising applications for permits to build new houses. gain if riot for the drop in car sales of 4.1 percent, with the end of some special financing deals.

Auto sales had soared 12.5 percent in November, helped along by relatively low-cost financing. Total retail sales are still expected to rise at a moderate pace in coming months, helping, if hardly leading, recovery from the long recession, economists say. Many auto dealers have restored below-market-rate financing offers, and that should push car sales higher again. The new report said total sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted $92.3 billion in December after rising 2.6 percent in November. The figures were adjusted to discount the fact that sales always shoot up during the Christmas season.

Excluding cars, both November and December would have shown moderate gains 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. In December, the report said: Sales by durable goods stores dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.8 percent to $29.5 billion. That included a 1.8 percent decline for building materials and hardware and a 2.2 percent gain for furniture, WASHINGTON (AP) In a relatively lackluster Christmas selling season, U.S. retailers' sales dropped 0.4 percent in December as car sales fell from November's levels, government figures indicated Wednesday. The decline from November's overall sales level was the first monthly drop since August.

Retail sales for all of 1982 totaled $1.07 trillion, up 3 percent from 1981, the report said. That increase, which could be more than accounted for by inflation alone, was about one-third the sales gain of 1981. It was about half the 6.2 percent increase in 1974, the worst sales year of the severe 1973-75 recession. Retail sales make up about one-third of the nation's total economic output. So a decline last month at a point when at least the beginning of recovery from the recession seemed near was hardly likely to be welcomed.

However, the expected, perhaps inevitable drop in car sales was the main reason for the overall decline. The report said there would have been a 0.5 percent Reno stockbrokers see bumpy, rising road ahead for Dow By TIM ANDERSON The early-year surge on Wall Street hasn't surprised at least two Reno stockbrokers. But like others in the investment community, they caution that the bull market will probably suffer a few setbacks during 1983 before establishing a steady upward trend. Over the course of the year, they agree with other analysts that the market will remain strong. Evidence of that strength surfaced Wednesday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed the 1,100 level for the first time.

However, the widely watched indicator dropped to 1,083.61 at the close of Gaming Board chairman hints at toughness LAS VEGAS (AP) Nevada's newly-constituted Gaming Control Board met for the first time Wednesday, with two board members presiding over the session while the third watched from the audience. Board Chairman James Avance and member Patricia Becker presided over the monthly agenda, but Richard Hyte, appointed only Tuesday by Gov. Richard Bryan, was merely an observer. Hyte assumes his post Jan. 31.

Avance, who said at the time of his appointment that he intended to strengthen the board's enforcement activities, began that task by telling two slot machine licensees that any future expansion would warrant more intensive investigations. Avance said he was concerned that some slot operators, who have restricted gaming licenses, are eclipsing those licenses by adding more machines or locations. He said restricted licenses have been subject to only "cursory" investigations, and promised more intensive probes of restricted licensees who come for additional machines or locations. Avance said after the meeting that the firm stance' forwarded by the board on the restricted licensees can be taken as an indication of the board's determination to be firm on licensing and investigations. "We've indicated to people that we're going to be tough and we are," he said.

The board chairman said changes will be made in staffing "in the next two weeks" to free up additional manpower for investigations. He said the manpower will be gained by a "rearranging" of board staffers. In other action, the board: Recommended denial of a license for slot machines at an ice cream parlor in Pahrump, saying that gaming was incompatible with the ice cream Recommended approval of a license for Robert and Jacqueline Vreeken to operate the Red Garter in Virginia City. Recommended approval of a license for Alan Maiss as president and chief executive officer of Bally Distributing Co. in Reno.

Recommended approval of a reorganization plan for Elsinore Corp. and the Hyatt Corp. Under the reorganization, attorneys for Elsinore said Hyatt would eventually sever its relationship with the gaming company. New jobless benefit applications up slightly WASHINGTON (AP) New applications for unemployment compensation rose in the week ending New Year's Day, reversing a month-long decline in these claims, the Labor Department reported today. The Employment and Training Administration said that in the week ending Jan.

some 550,000 jobless' Americans applied for unemployment compensation benefits for the first time, an increase of 35,000 over the previous week's level, according to the seasonally adjusted figures. Private economists say that while the weekly first-time claims figures indicate relative health or weakness-in the labor market, these statistics tend to bounce up and down from week to week, making it difficult to interpret them as clear indicators of whether joblessess will rise or fall. Nonetheless, the new applications in the week ending Jan. 1 were the highest since the week ending Dec. when 544,000 such claims were placed with slate employment agencies.

Japan approves wide tariff cuts TOKYO I AP) The Japanese government today approved wide-ranging tariff cuts and pledged to revise other import procedures as part of an effort to deal with complaints that Japan is an unfair international trading partner. The moves are designed to make Japanese markets nore open to foreign products, and include revisions 0f 16 specific import procedures that were seen as roadblocks to market access. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the changes are "designed with the overall aim of firmly maintaining the free trading system and contributing to the revitalization of the world economy through achieving an expansion of trade on a balanced basis." Nakasone, who travels to Washington on in a written statement: "I also hope that our trading partners, on their part, fully appreciate these ongoing and continuing efforts of Japan and cooperate with us for the maintenance and strengthening of the free trading system." European and U.S. exporters have complained that their products are shut out of Japanese markets iy high tariffs and complicated regulations that them out of Japanese consumers' Jersey casinos win $1.5 billion in '82 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) Gamblers lost a record single day total of $4.8 million at the Golden Nugget during December as the city's nine casinos closed out 1982 with an annual win of $1.5 billion, officials said Wednesday.

The! Golden Nugget scored the industry's best day yet on Dec. 8, when Frank Sinatra was performing at the casino hotel. The; day's win doubled the previous one-day record of $2.4 million set at Caesars Boardwalk Regency on Dec. 23, 1981, said Ben Borowsky, a spokesman for the Casino Control Commission, whi'cK released the figures Win figures are not profit. They represent the amount lost by gamblers and do not take into account casino hotel expenses.

Golden Nugget also led in winnings during taking in $18.5 million from gamblers. Other casino hotels and their wins for December were: Resorts International Hotel Casino, $16.3 million; Bally's Park Place, $16.1 million; Caesars, $14.3 million; Harrah's Marina, $12 3 million; Tropicana, $11.2 million; Sands Hotel Casino; $10.2 million; Playboy Hotel Casino, $9.4 million; andJCiaridge Hotel and Casino, $6.3 million. Oil company opens credit drive CHICAGO (AP) During the next six weeks, Anjoc.o Oil says it will mail 10 million credit card applications to pre-selected motorists who now do not have them. The major drive to open a flow of Amoco credit cards' is a throwback to the 1970s when oil companies routinely sent unsolicited credit cards through Ihe mail. The practice was dropped in recent years.

Applictions will be pre-approved for credit, requiring only minimal information from the customer in order to obtain the card, a Amoco spokesman Circus Circus resort purchase plan approved LAS VEGAS (AP) Circus Circus Hotels Inc. won approval from the state Gaming Control Board Wednesday for the purchase of the Edgewater Hotel and Casino in Laughlin. Circus Circus, which operates resorts in Las Vegas and Reno, paid an estimated $15 million for the 162-room resort on the Colorado River south of Las Vegas. The purchase still must be approved next week by the Gaming Commission. "I'm happy to see you expanding in this state rather than going elsewhere," board member Patty Becker told Circus Circus Chairman William Bennett.

1 Along with the purchase of the Edgewater, the company has also tenatively agreed to buy the Colorado Belle casino, adjacent to the other resort. Circus Circus also bought a nearby 18 acre parcel. Bennett said the company's new resort will differ from its Las Vegas and Reno properties because the Laughlin area caters to an older crowd. Bennett said Circus Circus plans to invest as much as $60 million in the small community during the next two years. Preliminary plans call for an 800-room hotel and casino in the shape of a "great big river boat" on the 18-acre parcel, said Bennett.

He said the company hopes to take over the Edgewater by Feb. 1 and will close some areas of the property for demolition as remodeling continues. In other action, the board also recommended approval for California businessman William O. Fleischman to buy the Hotel Nevada and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. trading.

Analysts believe this kind of pause will be repeated on numerous occasions during the year as a robust stock and bond market takes shape. "This is going to be another good year. It won't be another 1982 that kind of year comes along only once in a lifetime but it will be very healthy for investors," said Don Bernard, senior vice president and general manager of Birr Wilson and Co. Bernard said the Dow Jones industrial average is likely to continue moving higher during the year, even though it could be a bumpy ride at times. But while this is happening, especially early in the year, economic conditions in general will be shaky.

"In some respects, market conditions this year will reflect those of 1982. There are times when the market is going to look very good, but the economy will still be ragged," Bernard said. "There are still a lot of disasters out there, but there are also some solid signs that conditions are changing. Stock and bond activity should be very strong mis year even if there isn't an economic boom." Riley McHugh, vice president and investments manager for the Moana Lakeside office of Dean Witter Reynolds, agrees. "Economically, we're still dragging our feet.

But the market is saying that we're bottoming out, that things will get better later in the year," McHugh said. "All the bad news isn't out of the way, but improvements are likely to continue coming in small doses." McHugh said the company's top investment analysts have forecast a rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to the 1,300 level by year's end. Historically, that forecast looks good. The market has advanced 33 percent to 48 percent in each two-year period between the midtern elections and the presidential elections. y)y State Mortgage Company ZjZl JZ3 nCFirJAWCE Sounds like multiplication? Guess Real Estate Loans again.

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