MONDAY December 9, 2019
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Wells Fargo economist shares optimistic forecast
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Mark Vitner offers upbeat views on U.S. recession threat, the trade war with China and state of the housing market.
Daily Record Daily Record
Photo by Katie Garwood
JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis spoke Dec. 6 with the JAX Chamber Downtown Council.
Davis: City beat Ohio for FIS HQ
JAX Chamber president also talks about effort to bring more people Downtown, The District development and First Baptist Church property. BY KATIE GARWOOD STAFF WRITER
JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis said the past year was “incredible” for Jacksonville in terms of developing the city and attracting jobs, but there’s still work to be done. He highlighted several deals in a speech and Q&A session with the JAX Chamber Downtown Council on Dec. 6, including the $145 million Fidelity National Information Services Inc. headquarters, the FIS acquisition of Worldpay and the push by Gov. Ron DeSantis to increase fintech workforce development statewide. Davis said convincing FIS to keep its headquarters in Jacksonville wasn’t easy. The city was competing with Ohio for the company. “They were enticing Gary Norcross,” Davis said of the compaSEE DAVIS, PAGE 2
JACKSONVILLE
BY MARK BASCH
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Even after an unprecedented 10-year expansion, Wells Fargo Securities Senior Economist Mark Vitner isn’t worrying about a recession. “I’m more worried about LSU,” Vitner said Friday morning before the weekend’s SEC football championship game between Louisiana State University and the University of Georgia. Speaking to 170 people at the quarterly breakfast of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Council, Vitner expressed optimism that the nation’s economy will continue to grow. His presentation began just as the U.S. Labor Department reported unemployment fell to a 50-year low of 3.5% in November, with 266,000 jobs added in the month. That was better than forecasts of about 180,000 jobs, Vitner said. “The economy seems to have some pretty strong momentum,” he said at the event at the Renaissance World Golf Village Resort. Negotiations over trade deals have made many people nervous about a possible recession. Growth, as measured by the U.S. gross domestic product, has fallen from 3% last year to 2.3% this year, Vitner said. “Almost all of the slowing is things that are tied to international trade,” he said. Despite the trade war with China that is grabbing headlines, Vitner expects the U.S. to reach an agreement. “I do think we’re going to get a deal with China,” he said. “China needs a deal more than people realize.” A major factor that might push China to make a deal is its need for pork and other meat imports, Vitner said. China’s domestic pork production has been hurt by African swine flu, he said, increasing
JACKSONVILLE
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Wells Fargo Securities Senior Economist Mark Vitner spoke at the Dec. 6 quarterly breakfast of the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Council.
the need for imports. Although the trade war might be a drag on the economy, Vitner doesn’t see it as enough to cause a U.S. recession. “We’re mostly a domestically driven economy,” he said. Several signs point toward continued growth, he said, including surveys by Wells Fargo showing businesses need to restock inventories after several years of oversupply. “I think they underestimate this inventory swing,” he said.
Vitner also thinks the housing market is in good shape, unlike 2007 before the last recession began. “In the last cycle it was really easy to see,” he said. “If you look at the economy today, we haven’t built too many houses.” Vitner lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he knows the Northeast Florida economy well, having worked as an economist at Jacksonville-based Barnett SEE VITNER, PAGE 2
Sears at The Avenues mall closed Sears has closed at The Avenues after leasing the anchor department store space at the north end of the 10300 Southside Blvd. shopping center since the mall opened in 1990. A spokesman for Transform Holdco LLC, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, said in September the Avenues store would close by mid-December. The struggling retailer has been closing stores in phases. One in Northeast Florida remains open in the Orange Park Mall.
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