Business news in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The eurozone economy will continue its decline in Q4 and probably well into 2013 too - a good backdrop for another debt crisis.”

Michael Taylor,

an economist at Lombard Street Research Article, 1D

30-year mortgage rate hits 3.34%

WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell to fresh record lows this week, a trend that has helped the housing market start to recover this year.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate on the 30-year loan dipped to 3.34 percent, the lowest on records dating back to 1971. That’s down from 3.40 percent last week and the previous record low of 3.36 percent reached last month.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage also dropped to 2.65 percent. That’s down from 2.69 percent last week and also a new record.

The average rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent all year. It has fallen further since the Federal Reserve started buying mortgage bonds in September to encourage more borrowing and spending.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also remained at 0.7 point.

  • The Associated Press

FDA probes deaths, energy drinks

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of 13 deaths possibly linked to socalled “energy shots” and is cautioning consumers to talk to their doctors before they take them or other energy drinks.

The agency has received 92 reports that cite illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths after consumption of a product marketed as 5-Hour Energy. The FDA has also received reports that cited the highly caffeinated Monster Energy Drink in five deaths and one nonfatal heart attack.

Agency officials said the reports to the FDA from consumers, doctors and others don’t necessarily prove that the drinks caused the deaths or injuries, but said they are investigating each one.

In a statement, FDA officials said they will take action if they can link the deaths to consumption of the energy drink. Such action could include forcing the company to take the drinks, often found at convenience store checkout counters, off the market.

  • The Associated PressChrysler to hire 1,250 in Detroit area

DETROIT - Chrysler plans to add up to 1,250 jobs at three Detroit-area factories as it prepares for pickup sales to increase.

The company said Thursday that it will invest $238 million at engine plants in Detroit and suburban Trenton, Mich., and add a third shift at a pickup factory in nearby Warren, Mich.

The hiring is another step in Chrysler’s comeback from its 2009 government-funded bankruptcy. The company, majority-owned by Italian carmaker Fiat SpA, now has about 62,200 employees worldwide, including more than 41,000 in the U.S. It is profitable again and has hired 12,000 workers since leaving bankruptcy protection in 2009.

The new hires would raise Chrysler’s total employment to 63,450.

About 1,000 of the jobs will be at the Warren plant.

That factory produces a newly redesigned Ram pickup and will add the third shift in March.

Another 250 jobs could come to the Mack 1 Engine Plant in Detroit, which will be retooled to make V-6 engines instead of V-8s. Those jobs will be added “subject to market conditions,” Chrysler said in a statement.

The Trenton plant will get additional equipment so it can make a four-cylinder engine along with the V-6 that it produces for the Ram and other vehicles.

Chrysler said it has invested $4.75 billion in the U.S.

since June 2009.

  • The Associated Press

Groups pressure Obama on pipeline

OMAHA, Neb. - The fight over a proposed pipeline to transport crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries is picking up again as groups urge President Barack Obama to either approve or reject the pipeline.

The American Petroleum Institute held a conference call with reporters Thursday to emphasize the virtues of the Keystone XL pipeline that TransCanada wants to build.

The American Petroleum Institute is the oil and gas industry’s main lobbying group, and spokesman Marty Durbin said Obama should approve the pipeline as soon as possible to help the economy.

Environmental groups plan a protest outside the White House on Sunday. They want Obama to reject the pipeline because they worry that it could contaminate water supplies, increase air pollution around refineries and harm wildlife.

  • The Associated Press

Spain eases homeowner evictions

MADRID - The Spanish government on Thursday passed a decree suspending evictions of the most vulnerable homeowners unable to pay their mortgages, a bid to ease a trend that has seen hundreds of thousands of people lose their homes.

Evictions have become one of the most sensitive topics in the country’s economic crisis, particularly in recent weeks after two homeowners facing such a fate committed suicide.

The property market collapsed in 2008 after a decadelong boom. Since then, unemployment has been swelling and currently claims 1 in 4 workers.

The government, which is still preparing a broader overhaul of the country’s mortgage and property laws, said that with Thursday’s decree it hoped to shield the most needy.

The decree suspends evictions for two years of people whose unemployed benefits have expired or who have monthly incomes of less than $1,527 after tax and whose mortgage takes at least 50 percent of total household income.

The measure applies only to those who, on top of these conditions, have more than three children or children under 3 years of age. Those with elderly or certain types of disabled people dependent on them would also qualify, as would single parents with two children and victims of domestic violence.

Business, Pages 28 on 11/16/2012

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