Investor’s Business Daily Investor’s Business Daily

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Fri Jan 8, 5:59 pm ET

TECHNOLOGY

Cleantech Deals

Surged in 2009

The tally of cleantech investment deals in key global markets hit a record in 2009, though investment amounts appear to have slipped from 2008.

The survey by researcher Cleantech Group and consultant Deloitte says the number of deals jumped despite the adverse effects of a nonbinding Climate Change Accord in Copenhagen in December.

Preliminary results show that cleantech investment ventures in North America, Europe, China and India totaled 557 deals worth $5.6 billion in 2009. The final tally is expected to rise by 5%-10% when investors fully state their activity for the year.

If so, this will make 2009 a record year for the number of cleantech VC deals. But the final investment amount is expected to trail the $8.6 billion in deals posted in 2008.

“Record levels of activity from investors, governments and corporations in 2009 demonstrated that the market for clean technologies continues to strengthen regardless of any nonbinding global climate change agreement,” said Cleantech Executive Chairman Nicholas Parker.

CONSUMERS

Bad Credit Cards

Hit Record Level

Delinquent balances on U.S. credit cards hit record levels in December. Defaults also jumped higher.

Credit card index results from Fitch Ratings hint that credit card charge-offs will trend even higher in coming months as consumers struggle with debts.

Charge-offs are the point 20 which a bank or credit card firm writes off an account balance as a bad debt.

Fitch says the 60+ day delinquency rate hit an all time high of 4.54% for its December 2009 index, which is based on data for November. This exceeded the previous high of 4.45% in June.

Charge-offs edged up to 10.68% from 10.09% in the prior month. But they stayed below the record high of 11.52% set in September.

Monthly payment rates, a gauge of how quickly card balances are being paid, fell to 17.64% last month from 18.57% in November.

“U.S. consumer credit quality remains under considerable stress due to persistently weak labor market conditions,” said Fitch’s Managing Director Michael Dean. “As a result, charge-offs will retest their recent highs throughout the first half of 2010.”

HIRING

Online Job Listings

Surge In December

Employers searching for job candidates in health care, sales, office work and technical fields caused advertised online job vacancies to swell by 255,000 in December.

The survey by the nonprofit Conference Board says the December rise is consistent with a mildly positive trend in online job demand since it hit a low point 14 April 2009.

Average monthly increases have been averaging less than 60,000 since April. The 2009 annual average for online job listings stands at about 3.36 million, a figure that’s about 1.1 million below the 4.48 million annual average for 2008.

“Employers’ modest increase in demand for labor in the second half of 2009 is a nice way to end what has been a very challenging year,” said the Conference Board’s senior economist Gad Levanon. “The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies is still very high, but the recent six months indicate that things are moving in the right direction.”