QUOTE OF THE DAY “Interest rates are still extremely low, and housing and equity wealth have generally
been rising … I think we’ll continue to see solid growth once we get through the weather effects.” Jim O’Sullivan, High Frequency Economics chief U.S. economist Article, 1DCVS to add 3 Arkansas stores this year
CVS Caremark will open three new pharmacies in Arkansas later this year, spokesman Mike DeAngelis said in an email Thursday.
Pharmacies in Sherwood, Van Buren and Bella Vista will open in the fall, he said.
The Sherwood and Bella Vista stores will be about 13,225 square feet; the Van Buren store will be about 12,000 square feet.
The company employs about 20 people at each of its stores, DeAngelis said.
He said CVS opened its first store in Arkansas in 2012 at 3908 N. Stateline Ave. in Texarkana.
CVS announced recently that it would stop selling cigarettes and all other tobacco products at its stores by Oct. 1.
The company has more than 7,600 stores nationwide.
30-year mortgage rate rises to 4.33%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week but remained near historically low levels. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for the 30-year loan increased to 4.33 percent from 4.28 percent last week. The average for the 15-year mortgage edged up to 3.35 percent from 3.33 percent.
Mortgage rates have risen about a full percentage point since hitting record lows roughly a year ago. The increase was driven by speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce its $85 billion-a-month bond purchases. Deeming the economy to be gaining strength, the Fed proceeded last month with planned reductions of its bond purchases, which have helped keep long-term interest rates low.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country between Monday and 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 a 30-year mortgage was unchanged at 0.7 point. The fee for a 15-year loan also remained at 0.7 point.
SunEdison builds Air Force solar plant
SunEdison Inc., the solar developer and polysilicon supplier formerly known as MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., has completed the U.S. Defense Department’s largest solar installation.
The 16.4-megawatt project on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, southeast of Tucson, Ariz., will save the base $500,000 annually for the next 25 years, St. Peters, Mo.-based SunEdison said Thursday in a statement.
The solar farm will supply 35 percent of the base’s electricity, the equivalent of powering more than 5,000 homes, according to the statement. The Air Force wants to generate 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
SunEdison in April received a $35 million loan to construct the solar farm.
EU: U.S. rule risks splintering markets
Michel Barnier, the European Union’s financial services chief, said he would seek talks with U.S. authorities to prevent a planned rule for overseas-based banks from placing European Union lenders at a competitive disadvantage.
Standards adopted by the U.S. Federal Reserve this week would require the biggest foreign banks to hold more capital in the U.S. That could lead to fragmenting markets, Barnier said at a conference Thursday in Brussels.
“These U.S. measures are not a good signal,” Barnier said. “If we see unilateral measures in one direction, there will be measures in the other direction. But I want to avoid that.”
Foreign banks with $50 billion of assets in the U.S. will have to meet the standard under a revised rule approved this week, which raised the threshold from $10 billion proposed in 2012. The new standards take effect in July 2016.
While there are signs of improvement compared with an earlier version of the rule, further steps are needed, Barnier said.
Coherence between EU, U.S. rules is “in everyone’s interest,” he said.
U.S. officials said American financial institutions aren’t exempt from regulatory requirements around the globe.
U.S. banks and broker dealers are subject to capital requirements in the European Union and liquidity rules in Britain, Federal Reserve spokesman Barbara Hagenbaugh said in an email.
- Bloomberg NewsDeal set to resume Panama Canal work
Work on the planned expansion of the Panama Canal resumed Thursday after the construction consortium and the canal authorities reached a preliminary accord to pay suppliers and end their dispute over $1.6 billion of cost overruns.
The work was suspended earlier this month because of the cost issue, threatening a project scheduled for completion in 2015 and designed to increase global maritime trade by allowing larger container vessels and liquefied gas tankers to travel the 50-mile canal.
The dispute began Jan. 1, when the consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, said it would halt construction unless the Panama Canal Authority agreed to split the cost of the overruns. The authority, however, accused the consortium of violating its contractual obligations, five years after making the winning $3.1 billion bid for the contract to add a third set of locks to the waterway.
Companies in the consortium include Sacyr of Spain, Impregilo of Italy, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Constructora Urbana of Panama. The disagreement also put about 10,000 jobs at risk.
Under the agreement to resume work Thursday, the authority said in a statement that it would pay the consortium $36.8 million to cover December invoices and allow the builders to cancel “pending payments and obligations to suppliers.” - Bloomberg News
Business, Pages 29 on 02/21/2014