Top Biz News of '06

[Adam in CO]

The nation's house party ended with a thud in 2006, leaving everyone from condo flippers to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke waiting to see what would happen next.

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The sudden stall in home sales, home construction and home prices _ and what that will mean for the economy _ was voted the top business story of the year by U.S. newspaper and broadcast editors surveyed by The Associated Press.

1. HOUSING SLIPS: Moody's Economy.com, a private research firm, projected that the median sales price for an existing home will decline in 2007 by 3.6 percent _ the first decline for an entire year in U.S. home prices since the Great Depression. One reason: Speculators fled the market. Not only did they stop buying, they put properties they owned up for sale.

2. ENRON'S FINAL ACT: Convictions of former CEOs Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay looked like the final act of the Enron drama, but Lay died in Aspen before he was sentenced and federal judge vacated his conviction, halting a federal effort seeking millions from Lay's estate. Skilling, 53, reported to a Federal prison in Minnesota Dec. 13 to begin a sentence of 24 years and four months.

3. AUTO WOES: Demand for U.S. auto makers' vehicles, especially sport utility vehicles, shrunk and their market share eroded. About 38,000 unionized Ford Motor Co. workers, more than half the company's U.S. hourly work force, said they would take buyouts. Through buyouts and early retirement, General Motors Corp. cut 35,000 jobs, nearly one-third of its hourly U.S. workers. Companies' bonds sunk into 'junk' ratings and they were reduced to using plants or inventories as loan collateral.

5. OIL PRICES: War in the Middle East and soaring demand sent oil prices above $78 a barrel, an all-time record. The big winner from the sky-high prices were oil companies, whose profits hovered near their 2005 records. Oil prices have since fallen, but the summer's run has renewed rumblings about conservation and oil dependency.

6. GAS PRICES: Summer gas prices hit highs of $3.04 a gallon thanks to soaring crude oil prices, tight refining capacity and fears of another disastrous hurricane season. Increased prices began to sour the U.S. romance with gas-guzzling SUVs, hitting U.S. auto makers with another blow. Gas prices have since dropped, too, but drivers remain nervous.

7. HP SPYING: HP's boardroom infighting ended in humiliation. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was hauled before Congress, ousted from her office and indicted for her role in a boardroom spying scandal in which private investigators lied and schemed to obtain the phone records of directors and reporters. Now the company's CEO is being asked to tell Congress about the $1.37 million worth of options he exercised just before the scandal became public.

8. CHINA TIGER: China's economy continues to grow more than 10 percent a year and its trade surplus with the U.S. is the largest ever. While officials are trying to slow growth and questions linger about whether Chinese banks are too loose with loans, the economy has showed only modest signs of slowing.

9. RECORD DOW: The Dow Jones industrial average climbed above 12,000 for the first time ever, outpacing broader indexes. The Standard & Poor's 500 edged closer to its 2000 high and the Nasdaq composite index was miles behind its own record.