Consumers accelerate spending in September

Consumers, who substantially slowed their spending in late summer, roared back to life in September, boosting their purchases by 0.6 percent. The gain in spending reported Monday by the government far outpaced the 0.2 percent increase in incomes.

The Commerce Department attributed the spending surge to a big jump in purchases of big-ticket products such as cars, reflecting the fact that auto dealers brought back popular sales incentives.

Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity.

Wichita

Boeing to report plans for plant this month

Boeing Co. plans to announce the buyer of its Wichita commercial airplane operations sometime around Thanksgiving, the plant’s largest union told its membership Monday.

Boeing announced earlier this year it was considering the sale of commercial operations in Wichita and in Tulsa and McAlester, Okla. Boeing has about 8,400 workers at the three locations, 7,100 of them in Wichita.

Boeing’s defense business in Wichita, and its 3,400 workers, are not part of the sale.

Economy

Building activity flat

Construction spending was essentially flat in September, after big gains of 0.9 percent in August and July, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

The sharp slowdown reflected a 0.2 percent drop in residential construction, the first decline in this category since February 2003. Residential building activity, which still totaled $560 billion at an annual rate, has been red-hot in recent years, reflecting the lowest mortgages rates in four decades.

Nonresidential building activity posted a 0.3 percent increase in September, coming in at an annual rate of $453.9 billion, reflecting strength in hotel and motel construction, schools and churches.

Pharmaceuticals

Merck shares slump

Shares of Merck & Co. plunged more than 10 percent Monday after a media report said documents showed that the pharmaceutical giant hid or denied evidence for years that its blockbuster arthritis drug Vioxx caused heart problems.

Merck pulled the arthritis and acute-pain drug from the market Sept. 30, saying it was acting in patients’ best interest.

Merck shares closed at $28.28 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, down $3.03.