LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Consumers were somewhat more positive about current conditions, but slightly more
pessimistic about the short-term outlook.
If this trend continues, spending may be restrained in the short term.”
Lynn Franco,
director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board Article, 1D
3-, 6-month T-bill rates unchanged
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were unchanged in Monday’s auction.
The Treasury Department auctioned $30 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.095 percent, the same as last week. Another $27 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.150 percent, also the same as last week.
The three-month rate for the past two weeks was the highest since the rate stood at 0.115 percent on Feb.
- The six-month rate for the past two weeks was the highest since the rate stood at 0.170 percent on March 28, 2011.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.60, while a six-month bill sold for $9,992.42. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.096 percent for the three-month bills and 0.152 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 0.19 percent last week from 0.18 percent the previous week.
Shell seen likely to get Arctic permit
WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that the agency would grant Shell permits to begin drilling exploratory wells off the North Slope of Alaska.
Salazar, while acknowledging that the Arctic presented unique environmental and safety challenges for oil and gas operations, said he was confident that Shell would meet the Interior Department’s new standards for offshore drilling. He noted that Shell had successfully tested a new oil-spill containment device in Washington state’s Puget Sound in recent days and said he believed the company’s claims that it could collect at least 90 percent of any oil spilled in the event of a well blowout.
“I believe there will not be an oil spill,” Salazar said in a telephone briefing from Trondheim, Norway, where he is participating in an international conference on Arctic drilling safety. “If there is, I think the response capability is there to arrest the problem very quickly and minimize damage. If I were not confident that would happen, I would not let the permits go forward.” Bill increasing drug inspections OK’d
WASHINGTON - A Food and Drug Administration bill designed to increase inspections of foreign drug-manufacturing sites, while also speeding up approvals of new drugs at home, is headed to the president’s desk after an overwhelming approval Tuesday in the Senate.
The Senate approved the must-pass piece of the legislation by a vote of 92-4, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law within days.
The core of the bill is critical to the FDA because it bolsters the agency’s budget with billions of dollars in drug-industry fees, which the government uses to hire additional scientists to review new medicines.
But lawmakers seized on the legislation to address recent concerns about the safety and quality of prescription medicines, especially those that are imported. The bill also gives the FDA new tools to combat drug counterfeiting and drug shortages, which have made headlines in the past year.
“This legislation will help bring critical drugs and medical devices to market faster, protect patients from drug shortages and manufacturing problems, and enhance the availability of low-cost generic drugs,” said Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who guided the bill through the Senate.
Public-health experts said the most significant changes for consumers involve how FDA inspectors oversee foreign drug-manufacturing facilities.
Business, Pages 26 on 06/27/2012