QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We could see some faster and sustainable growth now in Japan.That will obviously help the global economy.”
Bernard Baumohl, Economic Outlook Group, chief global economist Article, 1D
30-year mortgage rate dips to 3.54%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed-rate mortgages crept closer to their historic lows this week, a trend that could help the housing recovery strengthen.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year fixed loan edged down to 3.54 percent from 3.57 percent last week. That’s near the 3.31 percent reached in November, which was the lowest on records dating from 1971.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage declined to 2.74 percent from 2.76 percent last week. The record low of 2.63 percent also was reached in November.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday 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 mortgages was unchanged at 0.8 point. The fee for 15-year loans also was steady, at 0.7 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged up to 2.63 percent from 2.62 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable-rate loans rose to 0.4 point from 0.3.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 2.65 percent from 2.68 percent. The fee declined to 0.5 point from 0.6.
- The Associated Press
Boeing gears up for Japan battery fixes
TOKYO - Boeing Co. has sent several teams of engineers to Japan, home to the biggest operators of the grounded 787 Dreamliner, to get ready for battery upgrades as the plane-maker escalates efforts to return the jets to service.
Each 787 will take about five days to equip with new battery kits, Rob Henderson, a Tokyo-based Boeing spokesman, said Thursday. He didn’t say how many engineers were dispatched. ANA Holdings Inc. of Japan and Japan Airlines Co. account for almost half the 49 Dreamliners in service.
Boeing probably will start refitting the battery systems even before final Federal Aviation Administration approval, said Michel Merluzeau, a consultant at G2 Solutions in Kirkland, Wash. Getting the 787 flying by June may enable Boeing to make up any grounding-delayed deliveries by year’s end, he said.
The FAA ordered 787s to be parked after a battery caught fire on a Japan Airlines jet parked at Boston’s airport on Jan. 7 and the unit on an ANA flight began smoldering and giving off smoke in Japan the next week, prompting an emergency landing.
Boeing said this week that it’s planning a certification flight for the reworked 787 battery system with FAA officials aboard “within the next several days” and then will seek clearance to make changes to the planes.
- Bloomberg News
OPEC says oil-price level ‘comfortable’
OPEC considers oil prices to be at a “comfortable” level for producers and consumers, and the group has no need to announce members’ individual output limits, the organization’s secretary-general said Thursday.
Prices are sufficient to ensure investment in future supplies without being high enough to derail the economic recovery, Abdalla el-Badri, secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said at a conference in Paris.
“The price at this time is comfortable for consumers and producers,” el-Badri said at the International Oil Summit.
Brent oil futures traded at about $106 a barrel in London today, having dropped 11 percent from this year’s peak amid concern a revival in Europe’s debt crisis may hurt fuel demand. OPEC will meet in Vienna on May 31 to review the target of 30 million barrels a day it has held since December 2011. The group hasn’t disclosed each country’s share of that total.
- Bloomberg News
Mississippi to get rail-car upkeep facility
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. - American Railcar Industries is locating a rail-car maintenance facility in Brookhaven.
The Brookhaven facility will provide light-maintenance activities, cleaning and simple repair for up to 100 rail cars at a time and is designed to provide “quick turn” light-repair capabilities geared towards expediting rail cars back into service.
Gov. Phil Bryant and company and local officials made the formal announcement Thursday.
Officials said the new Brookhaven facility represents a company investment of $7 million and will create 30 new jobs.
The company has had operations in Bude since 1974.
Activities at the Bude facility include wreck repair, wheel and axle repair, cleaning, interior lining and painting, and it has the capacity to house 250 rail cars at a time. The Bude facility currently employs about 100 workers.
American Railcar has manufacturing plants in Paragould and Marmaduke in northeast Arkansas.
Chiquita Brands sues SEC to veil probe
Chiquita Brands International Inc. sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to block disclosure of documents from a probe of payments to a Colombian paramilitary group, saying their release would subject the company to unfair criticism.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, Chiquita said the SEC hasn’t properly assessed documents it turned over to the government during the investigation of payments made through its former Banadex unit to the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The documents were sought under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a Washington based nonprofit group.
Disclosure of the documents “will make them available to the general public, including members of the press and individuals and organizations that seek to distort the facts surrounding the payments that Banadex made to the AUC under threat of force,” Chiquita’s lawyer, James Garland of Covington & Burling LLC, said in the complaint.
The Cincinnati-based company was fined $25 million after pleading guilty in March 2007 to engaging in transactions with a terrorist group for paying Colombian paramilitary militias $1.7 million from 1997 to 2004.
John Nester, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Business, Pages 26 on 04/05/2013