LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Any partnership where I don’t have to do the work is my kind of partnership.”
Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO, on a deal with 3G Capital to purchase H.J. Heinz Co.
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U.S. fixed mortgage rates unchanged
WASHINGTON - The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was unchanged for a second week, remaining near historic lows. The average rate on the 15-year mortgage also stayed the same.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year low stayed at 3.53 percent. That’s near the 3.31 percent reached in November, which was the lowest on record going back to 1971.
The rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage stayed at 2.77 percent for a second week. The record low is 2.63 percent.
The one-year adjustable mortgage was the only rate to change this week. It averaged 2.61 percent, up from 2.53 percent last week.
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 0.8 point, the same as last week. The fee for 15-year mortgages was 0.8 point, up from 0.7 point last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate mortgages was 0.3 point, down from 0.4 point last week.
Freddie Mac said that the average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages edged up to 2.64 percent this week from 2.63 percent last week. The fee stayed the same at 0.6 point.
EU recession deepens as Germany falters
BERLIN - The recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro deepened in the last three months of 2012 as Germany faltered in the face of anemic demand across the debt-ridden region.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Thursday the eurozone economy shrank by 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012 from the previous three-month period.
The decline was bigger than the 0.4 percent drop expected in markets and represented the biggest fall since the first quarter of 2009.
The eurozone has now contracted for three straight quarters - a recession is officially defined as two quarters of negative growth. It’s not alone in struggling to post growth - figures earlier showed Japan in recession, too, and the U.S. economy has shown signs of weakness, with its economy flat in the final quarter of 2012, according to Eurostat.
The worry for European policymakers is that output is declining not just in the weaker, debt-laden economies such as Greece and Spain, where governments have been aggressively increasing taxes and cutting spending. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, shrank by a quarterly rate of 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter as demand for its exports fell. France, Europe’s second-biggest economy, also saw output drop by 0.3 percent. Both economies are now one quarter away from recession.
- The Associated Press
Judge OKs oil-spill deal for $400 million
NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge has approved Transocean Ltd.’s agreement with the Justice Department to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and pay $400 million in criminal penalties for its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo accepted Transocean’s plea and imposed the agreed-upon sentence during a hearing Thursday. The Swiss-based drilling company could have withdrawn from the deal if she had rejected it.
Milazzo said she had received no letters objecting to the settlement.
Transocean agreed last month to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act. The company also agreed to pay $1 billion in civil penalties. A different judge will decide whether to accept that part of the settlement.
Transocean owned the rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded and sank over BP’s Macondo well in April 2010.
The accident killed 11 men and sparked the nation’s worst offshore oil disaster.
- The Associated Press
Reports: Publisher eyes Time Warner deal
LOS ANGELES - Meredith Corp., the publisher of magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens and Fitness, is in early talks with Time Warner Inc. about buying several magazines from it, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, according to published reports.
The reports by Fortune magazine and other news outlets cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Fortune is also owned by Time Inc. and said in its report that it might not be part of a sale. Time and Sports Illustrated also would be excluded under a scenario under discussion. The New York Times added that Money magazine would remain with Time Warner and said $1.75 billion was being discussed as a sales price. According to Fortune, one of the advisers involved was Chicago merchant bank BDT Capital Partners, which is run by former Goldman Sachs executive Byron Trott.
Time Warner and Meredith officials declined comment. A message left at BDT Capital was not returned.
- The Associated Press
PepsiCo profits jump 17% in 4th quarter
Investors in PepsiCo Inc. saw glimmers at the end of the tunnel on Thursday when the company reported a 17 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit after a long lackluster performance.
Net income was $1.66 billion, or $1.06 a share, lifted by higher prices for the company’s products, significant investments in marketing of crucial brands like Pepsi and Lay’s and strong sales in Latin America and other emerging markets. Earnings were $1.42 billion, or 89 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter dipped 1 percent to $20 billion.
Signs that PepsiCo is moving out of what Indra K.
Nooyi, the chief executive, called a transition year - as well as her announcement on a call with analysts that the company plans to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of a new, lower-calorie sweetener - moved the price of its stock up more than $2 by midday before it closed at $72.28, up 78 cents.
The picture for the full year that ended in December was less uplifting. Earnings of $6.18 billion, or $3.92 a share, failed to match profits of $6.44 billion, or $4.03 a share, in 2011. Revenue slipped to $65.49 billion from $66.5 billion.
Business, Pages 28 on 02/15/2013