Myer chairman Howard McDonald has told shareholders at the department store’s annual meeting this morning that while there were no clear short-term indicators of when consumer confidence would return to more normal levels the business remained highly leveraged to an upturn.

He said the recent cut in official interest rates by the Reserve Bank was “certainly a step in the right direction” to improving consumer confidence in the lead-up to the crucial Christmas trading period.

The relatively upbeat assessment of the trading environment is in stark contrast to the poorer picture of retail painted yesterday at the Woolworths annual meeting and by rival David Jones at the release of it’s first-quarter sales performance.

Mr McDonald said Myer’s first-quarter sales of $681 million, down 3.5 per cent, was in line with expectations and assuming no further deterioration of the trading environment the company reaffirmed that it anticipated full-year 2012 sales to be flat and net profit to be up to 10 per cent below 2011.

Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes said the business had remained profitable during very tough economic times, characterised by high savings rates and conservative consumers.

The department store had exited a number of lines including segments within home entertainment and electronics to capture better value for shareholders.

Mr Brookes said flat screens televisions, for example, had dropped in price by more than 20 per cent and the department store owner was focusing on areas it could target effectively, such as coffee machines and smaller electrical appliances, rather than categories such as home entertainment that remained highly price competitive.

Florida’s jobless rate dropped to 10.3 percent in October, the lowest rate in more than two years, state officials said Friday.

The unemployment rate dipped 0.3 percentage points from September’s 10.6 percent.

The number is the lowest it has been since June 2009 when it was 10.2 percent.

For Metro Orlando, the rate fell from 10.2 percent in September to 9.8 percent in October.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dubai’s fast-growing airline Emirates kicked off the Middle East’s biggest airshow Sunday with an order for a whopping 50 Boeing 777s, marking the U.S. aircraft maker’s biggest-ever single order in dollar terms.

Emirates and Boeing Co. valued the unexpectedly large deal for an extended-range version of the 777-300 at $18 billion – the total by list price – though the carrier is unlikely to pay that much for the planes. Airlines typically negotiate big discounts, especially when buying in bulk.

Emirates has an option to buy another 20 777s as part of the order. Doing so would push the deal’s value to $26 billion.

The deal further establishes Emirates as Boeing’s best customer for the twin-engine 777, a workhorse of the carrier’s long-haul fleet.

Emirates already has 95 777s in service and had another 40 already on the order books.

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NEW YORK (AP) — It’s moving day for bank customers.

A grassroots movement that sprang to life last month is urging bank customers to close their accounts in favor of credit unions by Saturday.

The spirit behind “Bank Transfer Day” caught fire with the Occupy Wall Street protests around the country and had more than 79,000 supporters on its Facebook page as of Friday. The movement has already helped beat back Bank of America’s plan to start charging a $5 debit card fee.

It’s not clear to what extent the banking industry’s about-face on debit card fees will extinguish the anger driving the movement.

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Qantas Airways has grounded its entire fleet over a labour dispute, prompting the government to ask a tribunal to stop the conflict out of concern it is putting both the airline and the economy at risk.

Tens of thousands of passengers and almost 20 world leaders were affected by the unprecedented decision on Saturday, which came a day after a stormy shareholder meeting and clearly took the government by surprise.

It came as an embarrassment for Prime Minister Julia Gillard who was hosting a summit of Commonwealth leaders in the western city of Perth, 17 of them booked to fly out on Sunday with Qantas.

Unions, from pilots to caterers, have taken strike action since September over pay and to oppose Qantas plans to cut its soaring costs, as it looks at setting up two new airlines in Asia and cutting back financially draining long-haul flights.

It plans to cut 1,000 jobs and order $9 billion of new Airbus aircraft as part of a makeover to salvage the loss-making international business.

“They are trashing our strategy and our brand.

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Florida led the nation in job creation in September, as the state added more than 23,000 new jobs and saw its unemployment rate dip slightly to 10.6 percent, down just a bit from the August rate of 10.7 percent.

The jobless rate in Metro Orlando also fell, dropping from 10.4 percent to 10.2 percent.

Gov. Rick Scott touted the state’s job gains, personally announcing the numbers in a conference call Friday. Scott, who is on a trade mission to Brazil, also pointed out that the state has seen a net gain of 92,400 jobs since January.

“Florida is on the right track,” said Scott, who ran on a campaign slogan of “Let’s get to work.” He predicted Florida would soon overtake Texas as state with the strongest job growth.

“It’s not long until we’ll be the winner,” Scott said.

The state, however, has a long way to go.

The 23,000 new jobs are a healthy addition, said Rollins College economist William Seyfried, similar to what the state saw in 2004 and 2005. Read all…