The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page A14

A14 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 2013 INQUIRER.COM Fed Economy rir irirta, it qb 7- dla li' i it .7 trt6i iti i lb i44t --U to 11111, I te MO 0 A i 4 11 1 7 Cell 1.1 A i AO, il i 10111- A scene on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to Larry Summers' withdrawal as a potential Fed chairman, investors were cheered by a rise in factory output. RICHARD DREW AP Continued from Al2 us expected to see about a one-year lag coming out of the recession." Sure enough, Petro said, loan growth was sharper nationally than regionally about a year ago. Only now is local growth in loans catching up.

A clear positive sign for the region's economy is a spike in commercial and industrial lending. According to the Banking Brief, released Friday, "nearly all total loan growth" at large banks came through commercial and industrial lending. For community banks, lending was up 4.5 percent locally and 7 percent nationally. lending is dependent on a company's financial health, as lenders use such information as revenue and inventory to determine loan size. Increased lending, then, is a positive measure of business activity.

"When loans are increasing in our region, it is a sign that business conditions are getting better," Petro said. "It is indicative of increasing sales, improving accounts receivables, and increasing inventories." By contrast, consumer lending remained weak, according to the Banking Brief, not surprising given that unemployment rates continue to run high. "With the continued weakness in employment, consumers are generally reluctant to borrow," Petro said. Instead, they are paying off debt, or "deleveraging." "With consumers looking to reduce their debt, I think we have two to three years of deleverage ahead of us," Petro said. Another sign of consumers' behavior affected by the financial climate can be seen in a slowing of bank deposits, according to the experts.

Where is the money going, if not banks? Into stocks, which have been rising steadily since bottoming out in March 2009. The Fed also reported a decrease in bank failures nationally. There were 12 in the second quarter, down from 15 in the year-ago period, but none in this region. Continued from Al2 only around 810 billion a month. That's especially true if it balances its action by underscoring its commitment to keep short-term interest rates low well into the future.

The Fed has kept its benchmark for short-term rates at a record low near zero since December 2008. And it has said it expects to keep it there at least until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent as long as the inflation outlook remains mild. The unemployment rate is now 73 percent. Vacancies Chairman Ben Bernanke's chair is one of several that will need to be filled in coming months. One board member, Elizabeth Duke, left in August.

Another, Sarah Bloom Raskin, has been nominated by Obama for the No. 2 job at the Treasury Department. The term of a third board member, Jerome Powell, expires in January. And a fourth, Jeremy Stein, must decide whether to remain at the Fed or return to his teaching post at Harvard University by May. Also, among the 12 regional Fed presidents, Sandra Pianalto, head of the Cleveland Fed, has announced that she will step down early next year.

After Bernanke Bemanke's second four-year term as chairman expires Jan. 31, and he's made clear he isn't interested in another term. The two leading candidates to replace him had been former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and current Vice Chair Janet Yellen. But in a surprise, Summers announced Sunday in a letter to President Obama that he wished to remove himself from consideration for the job. Financial markets rallied Monday.

Many investors had feared that if Obama chose Summers, who was thought to be his first choice, it could lead to a protracted Senate confirmation battle. Yellen, the No. 2 official at the Fed, is seen as likely to get the nomination now. But analysts said a dark horse candidate can't be ruled out. One could be former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is personally close to barna.

Geithner has said repeatedly that he isn't Summers' bowing out a good thing for stocks per month in bonds, which has had the effect of keeping interest rates low. The Fed has been saying for months that it will slow that stimulus once there is a better outlook for jobs. The question has been how soon and how much. The consensus with Summers was, sooner and more. That's why stocks rose once investors found out he would not be the next Fed chief.

The president is expected to nominate Bemanke's successor as early as this month. The frontrunner is Janet Yellen, the Fed's vice chair. The Fed is expected to take its first step toward reducing that stimulus in a two-day policy meeting that ends Wednesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined more than a tenth of a percent earlier in the day, but regained most of that and finished at 2.87 percent, down from 2.88 percent late By Joshua Freed ASSOCIATED PRESS Wall Street was happy to see Larry Summers go. Stocks rose Monday after Summers, who had been the leading candidate to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bemanke, withdrew his name from consideration.

Summers, a former Treasury secretary, was viewed as being more likely to rein in the government's massive stimulus program, which has kept interest rates low and boosted corporate profits. Stocks were also helped by news that U.S. factory output rose 0.7 percent in August, the most in eight months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 118.72 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 15,494.78. The Standard Poor's 500 index rose 9.61 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,697.60.

The Nasdaq composite fell 4.34 points, a fraction of a percent, to 3,717.85, pulled down by a loss in Apple. Nine of 10 sectors in the 500 rose, led by industrial stocks. Only technology stocks declined. At its highest point in late morning trading, the 500 was within five points of its previous record close of 1,709.67, set Aug. 2.

That worried Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial. McMillan said there are risks that investors don't seem to be accounting for in the prices they're paying. The Syria situation might not be resolved as easily as some are assuming. Europe's debt crisis isn't over. Investors seem to believe corporate profits will keep growing as fast as they have been, though cheap debt refinancing has driven much of that growth.

And there's another debate nearing in Washington about the U.S. debt ceiling. The Fed has been buying $85 billion Contact Chris Hepp at 215-854-2594 or cheppphillynews.com. Housing Medical publisher to close move workers Ambler office, The Ambler space being vacated is 54,000 square feet. Staff at the Ambler site had been reduced since 2011, when the company sold its pharma-related Marketing and Publishing Service business to Springer Science Business Media, Dekker said.

"We are excited to expand our footprint in Center City, given Philadelphia's rich medical publishing history," he said. Wolters Kluwer traces its local roots to the founding of the Lippincott publishing house in the city in 1796. By Joseph N. Di Stefano INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Wolters Kluwer Health, the U.S. medical publishing arm of the European-based Wolters Kluwer information-services group, is closing its Ambler office and relocating 119 employees to Center City or to work at home, spokesman Robert Dekker said.

"The goal of the move is not to reduce head count, rather, providing a more collaborative work environment," Dekker said Monday. The company is adding 8,000 square feet to its Medical Research and Professional and Education offices on the fifth floor of Two Commerce Square, at 20th and Market Streets. 0 i 1 .4 e- ilw-g91 -1- i---- Tr -1'10-. 1....... --I 1- I 11......1, 1-'431Z 1 -1 -4 MINI sEjmull 1 4411.) orm.m....a., itg.surmor, 0 II 1-1 MITZI 1 H140 i 'T.

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Di Stefano at 215-854-5194, JOeDphillynews.com or PhillyJoeD. Lutz Continued from Al2 Marcantuno, an agent with Century 21 Alliance of New Jersey who sells in all three counties, "but that could be that a lot of part-timers left the business during the downturn, and there are fewer people selling." Prices appear to be recovering modestly, but there is no consistency month to month. For example, Moorestown's sale prices are typically the highest of all South Jersey communities, followed closely by Haddonfield. The Realtors data show a decline in Moorestown's August median home price of almost $200,000 from the same month in 2012 from $634,000 to $445,000 based on sales of 27 houses vs. 24 in August 2012.

Yet it was $520,000 last week still less than the boomtime peak of well above $600,000, said David Lewis, brokerowner of B.T. Edgar Son Realtors, who tracks the median price. The danger of using median price half the houses will have sold for more, half for less is that hyperactivity at the low end of one period and then at the high end in a comparable period "skews actuality," said S. Clark Kendus, an agent with Weichert Realtors in Media. Marcantuno suggested that smaller increases or even declines in median price in a county or municipality could be attributed to the continued presence of short sales, in which a bank accepts less than the balance of the mortgage.

Because Gloucester County saw increased and higher-priced single-family home construction before and during the housing boom, it also saw a bigger drop in prices when the bubble burst in August 2007. Price depreciation in South Jersey was greater than in Pennsylvania, said economist Kevin Gillen of the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government, so the market there lags the rest of the region. North Jersey's performance was consistently better, the data show. As Gillen noted, "The New York area had been recovering more than a year ii--' ID SEPT 1 41- This two-bedroom, 212-bath townhouse on Congress Circle in Medford is listed at $209,900. APRIL SAUL Staff Photographer Continued from Al2 morning, about 12 hours before the end of the fund-raising period set to conclude at 11:59 p.m., the total had reached $31,900 from 233 funders.

"It feels great," a euphoric Lutz said just after hitting the $25,000 milestone. "We're going to get this place open. It's going to open in grand style." His new restaurant is expected to debut in mid-October. Able to seat 85, it is three times the size of the nearly three-year-old eatery on Powell Lane, the side street from which Lutz said he serves 1,600 dinners a month and turns away from 80 to 100 potential patrons weekly because of limited space. The fund-raising came with a cost: Indiegogo gets 4 percent of the donations.

But it would have gotten 9 percent if Lutz had not reached the $25,000 goal. Plus, Lutz estimated that perks granted to certain levels of donors rice ball appetizers for $25 donations, spaghetti-and-meatball dinners with house salad and cannoli dessert for four guests for $75 contributions will cost him close to $16,000. No matter, he said. "The amount of support is un With $31,900 in contributions, Angelo Lutz is aiming to open his larger restaurant in mid-October. DAVID WARREN Staff Photographer Roach agent in Mullica Hill whose "sweet spot" is $350,000 and less, with supply short.

Agents complain about a lack of homes to sell, but the data show the time required to sell all the listings is well above the six to seven months Gillen describes as a balanced market tipped in favor of sellers. "We have plenty of houses for sale," Settar said, "but we are still short of houses people want to buy." ago, before this area reached bottom." "The more desirable properties are jumping up in price at a faster rate," Marcantuno said, adding that sale prices are now at 95 percent of list, up from 92 percent earlier this year. But that shows multiple offers are being made for "specific homes," he said, because "the basic rule of being priced properly for the market still applies." "They are limited to certain price ranges, not to every house on the market," said Patricia Settar, a Prudential Fox believable," Lutz said. "I'm excited. I just want to prove everybody wrong." As in those who doubted he could be rehabilitated.

He had a question for all of them, including the bankers: "How long do I keep paying for my sins?" Contact Alan J. Heavens at 215-854-2472, aheavensphillynews.com or alheavens at Twitter. Contact Diane Mastrull at 215-854-2466, dmastrullphillynews.com or dmastrull on Twitter..