News In Brief

By Robert Kilborn, Judy Nichols, and Noel Paul

August 2, 2000

Consumer spending posted a strong rebound of 0.5 percent in June after two months of lackluster growth, the Commerce Department reported. The increase outpaced workers' gains in incomes, which were up 0.4 percent. The personal savings rate, meanwhile, slipped to 0.1 percent. The report was a further sign that the economic slowdown many analysts have been expecting has yet to materialize.

Interest rates on three-month Treasury bills hit their highest level in more than nine years Monday. Some $9.5 billion in the notes was auctioned at an average discount rate of 6.090 percent - up from 6.01 percent last week and the highest since three-month bills averaged 6.22 percent on Jan. 28, 1991.

Union leaders and government regulators were raising concerns about a $2.4 billion deal in which the No. 2 commercial broadcaster in Canada would take over more than 200 publications as well as the Internet properties of the country's largest newspaper group. Winnipeg, Manitoba-based CanWest Global Communications Group Corp. said Monday it was buying the properties from Hollinger International Inc. of Chicago. But the deal is expected to draw close scrutiny from the government's Competition Bureau because it would concentrate ownership of most media outlets in many Canadian cities in one company.