LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “After a fairly substantial period of constantly lower [joblessness] claims, a new,
more unwelcome trend higher has taken
hold.A meaningful pickup in monthly job additions looks unlikely.”
Dan Greenhaus,
chief economic strategist at BTIG LLC Article, 1D
30-year rate an all-time low again
WASHINGTON - The average U.S. rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell this week to a record low for the seventh time in eight weeks. Cheap mortgages have helped drive a modest recovery in the weak housing market this year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., said the average on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.66 percent. That’s down from 3.71 percent last week and the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, declined to 2.95 percent. That’s down from 2.98 percent last week and just above the record 2.94 percent reached two weeks ago.
The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since December.
Merrill Lynch fined for overbilling
Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch wealth-management unit was fined $2.8 million Thursday by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for overbilling customers by $32.2 million over an 8-year period.
Merrill Lynch charged the fees to about 95,000 accounts between April 2003 and December 2011, the regulatory agency said in a statement.
New York-based Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2009, lacked an adequate supervisory system to ensure that customers were billed in accordance with their contracts and disclosure documents, the regulator said.
“Investors must be able to trust that the fees charged by their securities firm are, in fact, correct,” Brad Bennett, the agency’s chief of enforcement, said in the statement.
“When this is not the case, investor confidence is threatened.”
Bill Halldin, a spokesman for Charlotte, N.C.,-based Bank of America, said the charges were largely “the result of improper coding of accounts,” which the firm discovered on its own.
“We have improved our systems to address these issues and we have reimbursed affected clients,” Halldin said.
The agency also faulted Merrill Lynch for failing over a four-year period to send 10.6 million trade confirmations to 230,000 customers.
USDA offers aid to zap immune weeds
Farmers who need help dealing with pigweed - a fastgrowing weed that is developing a resistance to herbicides - can apply for federal-assistance money to develop a plan to eradicate it and other herbicide-resistant weeds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Arkansas received additional funding to help farmers who are experiencing problems combating pigweed. Producers have until July 6 to apply for financial assistance.
“The overreliance on one class of herbicide for the control of weeds has accelerated the resistance issues seen in multiple states in the South,” said John Lee, a Conservation Service agronomist. “In Arkansas, heavy infestation of glyphosate-resistant pigweed has been reported in multiple counties.”
Lee said that while producers may opt for a mechanical means of weed control to address this problem, reverting back to conventional tillage methods could affect the benefits gained from conservation tillage systems.
Growers interested in applying for assistance can visit their USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service field service center. To locate the nearest office, visit www.nrcs. usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/contact/local.
More information about Conservation Service programs is available at www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/.
Walmex cuts expansion, falls 5.1%
Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, the unit under investigation after reports that it bribed Mexican officials to get stores open faster, tumbled the most since May on Thursday, a day after cutting its expansion plan for this year.
The shares fell 5.1 percent in Mexico City, after earlier declining as much as 5.5 percent, the biggest intraday drop since May 31. The benchmark IPC index of 35 Mexican companies slipped 1.2 percent.
Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Mexico subsidiary will open between 325 and 335 locations in Mexico and Central America this year, down 23 percent from its previous estimate of as many as 436, according to a statement to the Mexican stock exchange Wednesday. New steps required to open a store set back development plans by 60 days to 90 days, Wal-Mart de Mexico said.
“It’s bad news” and the delays are likely to hurt the stock’s performance, said Raul Ochoa, an analyst at Interacciones Casa de Bolsa in Mexico City. “We’re talking about a whole quarter. That’s a lot of lost sales days.”
In April, the world’s largest retailer confirmed it had started a probe into its Mexican operations in response to allegations that executives bribed officials to accelerate expansion. The U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are also investigating.
Moody’s lowers ratings on big banks
NEW YORK - Moody’s Investors Service lowered the ratings of some of the world’s largest banks on Thursday, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
The ratings agency said the banks were downgraded because their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.
The ratings agency said it was especially concerned about banks with significant capital market activities during a time of increased volatility in markets.
A downgrade usually means that it becomes more costly for banks to raise money by selling debt. Investors demand higher interest for riskier debt, which is what the downgrades represent.
Moody’s had said in February that it was considering downgrading the credit ratings of 17 major banks.
Among the banks downgraded Thursday: Bank of America’s debt was downgraded to Baa2 from Baa1. JPMorgan Chase’s debt was downgraded to A2 from Aa3, Citigroup’s to Baa2 from A3, Morgan Stanley’s to Baa1 from A2, Goldman Sachs’s to A3 from A1, HSBC’s to Aa3 from Aa2 and Barclay’s to A3 from A1.
Business, Pages 26 on 06/22/2012