Keeping the dream alive: Our Cousin’s Vinny’s Pasta Sauce has made it into 100 stores in Louisiana and Mississippi and will go onto the shelves in Texas supermarkets next week, Jack Warner says. “As it goes into each store 10 cases at a time, two weeks later another 10-case order, and two weeks later another 10-case order,” says Warner, friend and marketer for the late Vincent Joseph Sotile, the sauce’s namesake. Sotile died earlier this year just as the sauce began making onto shelves in the Baton Rouge metro area. Warner says they are working through the protocol to get the sauce into Whole Foods and Rouses Supermarket.
Up two: Two more rigs started exploring for oil and gas this week in Louisiana, while the count for the U.S. dropped by two. According to numbers from Houston-based oilfield services firm Baker Hughes, Louisiana’s rig count rose to 58 this week. Overall, the week ended with 698 rigs operating across the country. Baker Hughes says 536 rigs sought oil and 162 explored for natural gas amid depressed energy prices. A year ago, 1,811 rigs were active. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999. The count, normally released on Fridays, came early this week because of the New Year’s Day holiday.
Big jump: The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits rose more than projected during the Christmas week, reaching the highest level in almost six months, perhaps reflecting typical swings during holidays, Bloomberg reports. The jump could have been caused by the volatility introduced when the numbers are adjusted for seasonal variations, a Labor Department spokesman says as the figures were released to the press. Limited firings, steady hiring and an unemployment rate at more than a seven-year low underscore job market improvement that allowed the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates this month for the first time since 2006. Read the full report.
Editor’s note: The offices of Business Report will be closed on Friday in observance of New Year’s Day and Daily Report will not be published. Daily Report will return on Monday, Jan. 4. Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.
