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AC gambling slides again
Revenue for the 11 casinos in Atlantic City decreased 9.4 percent last month from the same month a year ago.
The casinos generated $321.4 million in total gambling revenue, according to figures released today by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which regulates the Atlantic City gaming market.
Of that, nearly 66 percent of total revenue, or $211.6 million, came from slot machines. The remainder, $109.8 million, came from table games.
By comparison, the seven operating slots parlors in Pennsylvania, including two in the Philadelphia suburbs, generated $132.3 million last month. PhiladelphiaPark led among the seven with $28.9 million in gross slots revenue. Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs recorded $16.5 million in slots revenue last month, compared to $13 million in January 2008.
Intel plans $7B upgrade
Intel Corp. plans to spend $7 billion upgrading its U.S. factories over the next two years, a sign that the recession hasn’t extinguished chip makers’ lust for cutting-edge equipment.
The company’s investment, announced Tuesday by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at a speech in Washington, speaks to the semiconductor industry’s need to keep investing heavily, regardless of the poor economic climate that has led Intel to cut jobs.
The investment could be a boon to companies that produce chip-making equipment, like Applied Materials Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corp.,
Buying into ethanol
Valero Energy Corp. became the first conventional energy company to test the ethanol waters last week, bidding $280 million for five ethanol plants owned by VeraSun Energy Corp., which is now under bankruptcy protection.
It would be the largest ethanol buyout in U.S. history in terms of production capacity, according to Raymond James & Associates.
The nation’s renewable fuel standard ensures demand for ethanol by calling for 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into gasoline this year, with that number climbing to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
China is #1 in auto sales
China’s monthly vehicle sales surpassed those in the United States for the first time in January, moving this country closer to becoming the world’s biggest auto market, data released Tuesday showed.
China’s ascent in the global auto market has been hastened by the plunge in U.S. auto sales, which tumbled 37 percent in January to a 26-year low of 656,976 units.
Chinese vehicle sales also have cooled, but not as dramatically. In January, 735,000 vehicles were sold, down 14.4 percent from a monthly record 860,000 in January 2008, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.