Arkansas Business Report

This week's report: West Furniture Timber Company, Ltd. has purchased two Arkansas saw mills last week; Bank of the Ozarks approved 23 cents per share dividends increasing it's quarterly dividend for the past 15 quarters consecutively; Economists are expecting Arkansas to see job growth in the next three to six months.

This week's Arkansas Business Report: The Annual Mid South Basic Economic Development Course is attracting record enrollment this year; AT&T has a new plan for wired and wireless bundles that benefits small businesses; A Birmingham developer has purchased land currently used as a soccer field in Little Rock's Riverdale area from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and plans a high-end complex including apartments.

This week's report: Arkansas's unemployment rate dipped in January; Highline Technical Innovations announced a project with the Department of Defense; Standard and Poor's ratings services affirmed its rating of Dillard's, Inc.

This week's report: Midcontinent Independent System Operator broke ground on a new regional operations center in Little Rock; Tyson execs say their company has adopted a no excuses mindset the last few years that has lead to sales and earnings growth; Homes sold in Arkansas this past January is 8.7 percent higher over a year ago.

The Arkansas Business Report for Mon., March 10: Bank of the Ozarks completes its acquisition of BancShares Inc. of Houston Texas; JB Hunt gets S&P BBB+ rating; Fortune Magazine calls Tyson Foods one of America's most admired companies.

This week:  CJRW is moving from Capitol Avenue to Main Street; Tyson's earnings report; Deltic Timber's earning report.

Windstream's IDR ratings gets downgraded; Murphy USA sells a North Dakota ethanol plant; Walmart board of directors approve annual cash dividend increase of 2 percent.

State revenues jumped up in January, unemployment rates in the state dropped and Arkansas Best Corp. is opening a primary care clinic for its employees. However, Arkansas based stocks suffered.

Arkansas Business Report for the week of Mon., Feb. 3: Tyson Fodds slows expansion in China, Murphy Oil Corp. sees quarterly earnings drop, Fayetteville NanoWatt Designs completes phase one of a federal research grant to improve battery life and vision processors.