QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Little Rock has such a stable industrial base in the public sector and health care that it gives a stability to the economy but it doesn’t make it such a dynamic place in terms of job creation.”
Greg Hamilton, a senior UALR economist Article, 1D
30-year mortgage rate rises to 3.81%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages jumped this week to their highest levels in a year, signaling slightly higher costs for home buyers. But rates still remain low by historical standards.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year loan rose to 3.81 percent, up from 3.59 percent last week. That’s still not far from the 3.31 percent rate reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971.
The average on the 15-year loan rose to 2.98 percent, up from 2.77 percent last week. The record low of 2.56 percent was reached in early May.
Mortgage rates are rising because they tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield rose to 2.17 percent on Tuesday, its highest level in 13 months.
It has since fallen slightly to 2.11 percent in early trading Thursday. Still, that’s up from 1.63 percent at the start of the month.
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 edged up to 0.8 point from 0.7 point last week. The fee for 15-year loans was unchanged at 0.7.
- The Associated Press
Express Scripts to add center in Joplin
JOPLIN, Mo. - St. Louis-based Express Scripts said Thursday that it will build a new patient-service call center in Joplin, creating 100 new jobs.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced Thursday that the company’s new patient-service center will mean a $960,000 investment in Joplin’s economy.
Express Scripts is a pharmacy benefits company that manages more than a billion prescriptions each year for millions of patients in the U.S.
Missouri provided a $325,000 Community Development Block Grant to Express Scripts as part of its expansion in Joplin.
- The Associated Press
BH Media Group to buy Roanoke Times
OMAHA, Neb. - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is adding The Roanoke Times in Virginia to its growing group of small and medium-sized newspapers.
Berkshire said Thursday it will acquire The Roanoke Times from Landmark Media Enterprises on today. It will be Berkshire’s 30th daily newspaper.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Berkshire says The Roanoke Times has daily circulation of 76,000 and Sunday circulation of 90,000.
Buffett did not immediately respond to a message Thursday, but earlier this month he told shareholders that Berkshire should earn decent returns of about 10 percent on the newspapers because it is buying them at such cheap prices.
Most of Berkshire’s newspapers are overseen by executives at the Omaha (Neb) World-Herald as part of BH Media Group, but the Buffalo (N.Y.) News, which Berkshire has owned for decades, operates separately.
Besides daily newspapers, Berkshire owns 40 other newspapers that publish less frequently and other monthly publications and regional magazines. The growing media chain owns newspapers in Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida.
Ship fire cuts profit 10 cents per share
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said a fire this week on the company’s Grandeur of the Seas will reduce annual profit by 10 cents a share.
Repair to the ship will take about six weeks, with the vessel expected to return to service by July 12, the world’s second-largest cruise operator said in a statement after financial markets closed Wednesday.
The Grandeur of the Seas began sailing out of Baltimore this month after a $48 million renovation, according to a May 3 statement. The fire that broke out in a rear area forced the company to cut a trip short on Monday, according to the Miami-based company. Guests were flown back to Baltimore from the Bahamas, given a full refund and a 100 percent credit toward another sailing. Six future sailings were canceled.
“The extent of the financial impact was relatively high because the affected sailings were during the premium summer season,” Jason Liberty, the company’s chief financial officer, said in the statement.
The incident is the latest of several for the cruise industry, including a fire on the Carnival Corp. ship Triumph in February that left 3,100 passengers at sea with limited food and toilet service.
- Bloomberg News
Massachusetts challenges fishing limit
New U.S. fishing regulations threaten to drive the industry into extinction, Massachusetts said in a lawsuit against federal agencies filed Thursday.
The state sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Commerce Department, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the individuals who run them, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Boston by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Massachusetts claimed that new federal rules, called Frameworks 48 and 50, have reduced by 77 percent the amount of certain fish that can be caught in New England. The state said the regulations are “threatening the extinction of an industry” and violate the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs fishing management.
“The devastating impact of the Frameworks on the families and small businesses that earn their living fishing groundfish, and on the communities where they reside, is beyond dispute,” the state said in its complaint.
The Commerce Department, which administers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had no immediate comment.
The case is Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Rebecca Blank, 13-cv-11301, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
Business, Pages 32 on 05/31/2013