ECONOMY

CONSUMER SPENDING POINTS TO REBOUND IN EARLY 2006 Americans flocked to retailers and auto showrooms in December to take advantage of discounts and promotions, pointing to a rebound in consumer spending that will reenergize the economy early this year.

Retail sales increased last month by the most since July, economists said a Commerce Department report January 13 will probably show. A rise of 1%, the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey, would follow 0.3% gains in each of the previous three months.

The creation of 2 million jobs in 2005 helped propel worker earnings as the year drew to a close. The combination of rising wages and deeper discounts enticed Americans to spend more on autos and electronics, giving retailers such as Best Buy Co. reason to celebrate after the holidays. The pickup in spending bodes well for economic growth in the first three months of 2006, economists said.

– Bloomberg News

PHARMACEUTICALS

PFIZER BEGINS ATTACHING RADIO FREQUENCY ID TAGS TO VIAGRA GROTON, Conn. – Drug maker Pfizer has begun attaching high-tech radio identification tags to packages of its anti-impotence drug Viagra in an attempt to thwart counterfeiters, the company announced on Friday.

The tags send out a signal that pharmacists in America will be able to pick up on specially-designed electronic scanners to verify that packages of Viagra are authentic. The product code detected by the scanner is sent over the Internet to a secure Pfizer Web site to confirm its authenticity. Pfizer joins Stamford-based Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of pain reliever OxyContin, which has been using RFID tags since November 2004 to combat counterfeiting.

– Associated Press

HOLLYWOOD

‘HOSTEL’ IS NO. 1 AT BOX OFFICE Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s “Hostel,” produced by Quentin Tarantino, opened in first place in American and Canadian theaters this weekend with $20.1 million in ticket sales, displacing Walt Disney Co.’s “Chronicles of Narnia.”

“Hostel” extends Lions Gate’s success with horror and thriller films. The studio’s “Saw II” opened in the top spot on Halloween weekend with $31.7 million in sales and has grossed more than $119 million worldwide.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” dropped to no. 2 with $15.4 million, Encino, Calif.-based box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. said yesterday in a statement. Universal Pictures’s “King Kong” fell to no. 3 with $12.5 million, based on estimates of sales during the three-day period that ended yesterday.

– Bloomberg News