Rates fall for 15-, 30-year mortgages
WASHINGTON -- Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the second straight week, but relatively lower rates are failing to spark home sales.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dipped to 4.53 percent from 4.59 percent last week. Long-term loan rates have been running at their highest levels in seven years. The average benchmark 30-year rate reached a high this year of 4.66 percent on May 24. By contrast, the rate stood at 3.89 percent a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans fell to 4.01 percent this week from 4.05 percent last week.
Mortgage rates have remained mostly steady since late spring despite higher rates of inflation and unease in world financial markets. But the pause in borrowing rates "is not leading to increasing home sales," said Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater.
-- The Associated Press
Housing starts rise a tepid 0.9% in July
WASHINGTON -- U.S. housing starts ticked up just 0.9 percent in July, a sign that higher construction costs might be weighing on homebuilders.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that housing starts last month rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million, not nearly enough to reverse the steep 12.9 percent plunge seen in June as rising lumber, land and labor costs appeared to constrain new construction. Lumber prices have shot up by about $7,000 per home since the start of 2017, largely due to tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber by President Donald Trump's administration, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Housing starts have risen 6.2 percent year-to-date. Solid job growth and a dearth of existing homes for sales have increased demand for new properties.
Groundbreaking fell last month in the two priciest regional markets: the West and Northeast. But starts increased in the more affordable markets of the Midwest and South.
Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 1.5 percent in July.
-- The Associated Press
Louisiana shuns banks, cites gun policy
BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana officials blocked two of the nation's largest banks Thursday from involvement in a $600 million road-financing plan because they have policies restricting gun sales and manufacturing by their commercial customers.
In a narrow 7-6 vote, the State Bond Commission refused to allow Citigroup and Bank of America to work as underwriters on the interstate highway financing deal.
The effort to ban the banking giants from the borrowing transaction was led by Attorney General Jeff Landry and Treasurer John Schroder, both Republicans, and opposed by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration.
Those pushing to exclude Bank of America and Citigroup from the financial work said that by enacting firearm restriction policies for their corporate customers, the banks were violating Second Amendment rights.
Representatives of both banking firms defended the policies in Thursday's meeting, saying they don't believe the policies infringe on Second Amendment rights. Brandee McHale, with Citigroup, said the firearms still are available for purchase and customers can use their individual debit and credit cards to buy such weapons.
-- The Associated Press
Court orders study of new oil-line route
LINCOLN, Neb. -- A federal judge has ordered the U.S. State Department to conduct a more thorough review of the Keystone XL pipeline's proposed pathway after Nebraska regulators changed the route, raising the possibility of further delays to a project first proposed in 2008.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris of Montana said in a ruling Wednesday that the State Department must supplement its 2014 environmental impact study of the project to consider the new route. Morris declined to strike down the federal permit for the project, approved by President Donald Trump in March 2017.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission rejected pipeline developer TransCanada's preferred route in November 2017, but it approved a different pathway that stretches farther to the east. The "mainline alternative" route is 5 miles longer than the company's preferred route, cuts through six different Nebraska counties and runs parallel to an existing TransCanada-owned pipeline for 89 miles.
It's not clear whether the additional review will delay the 1,184-mile project.
-- The Associated Press
Bayer vows to robustly defend Roundup
Bayer vowed to step up its defense against a wave of U.S. lawsuits over the herbicide Roundup as it began the formal integration of Monsanto Co., acquired for $66 billion in June.
The German drug and chemical giant said it will formally absorb the U.S. company after selling some crop-science businesses to competitor BASF to resolve regulatory concerns. Because U.S. authorities insisted that the businesses operate separately until that sale was complete, Bayer said it previously had been barred from steering Monsanto's legal strategy.
That will now change as the stakes mount in the U.S. battle over Roundup. Bayer is facing $289 million in damages after Monsanto lost the first court case stemming from claims that the weedkiller causes cancer. Even if a judge overturns or reduces the award, the trial will probably be the first of many: More than 5,000 U.S. residents have joined similar suits.
-- Bloomberg News
Kroger tests driverless grocery delivery
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- At a time when big-box retailers are trying to offer the same conveniences as their online competitors, the biggest U.S. grocery chain is testing the use of driverless cars to deliver groceries in a Phoenix suburb.
Kroger's pilot program began Thursday morning with a robotic vehicle parked outside one of its Fry's supermarkets in Scottsdale. A store clerk loaded the back seat with grocery bags. Meanwhile, a person sat in the driver's seat to monitor the car's performance.
Under the self-driving service, shoppers can order same-day or next-day delivery online or on a mobile app for a flat rate of about $6. After the order is placed, a driverless vehicle will deliver the groceries curbside, requiring customers to be present to fetch them. The vehicles will probably be opened with a numeric code.
Currently, Kroger is operating with Toyota Prius vehicles. During the next phase of testing in the fall, deliveries will be made by a completely autonomous vehicle with no human aboard.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 08/17/2018