Rate increases finally benefiting savers
The Federal Reserve started raising interest rates three years ago, and savers are finally starting to reap meaningful benefits, but only if they're willing to shop around.
The top money-market accounts are now giving consumers annual percentage yields of 2.25 percent or more, according to Bankrate.com. That's enough to keep up with the Fed's inflation target of 2 percent.
Typical Americans, though, are still getting pennies on their savings. The average money-market account is yielding just 0.22 percent, Bankrate's weekly survey found Wednesday. That's up 0.02 point since June.
The very highest rates on Bankrate tend to come from smaller banks seeking capital. The top money-market rate on the platform is 2.4 percent. Rates on certificates of deposit can approach 3 percent on one-year CDs, and can go even higher if savers are willing to lock up their money for at least two years.
A few of the banks offering more than 2 percent on savings deposits are higher-profile brands trying to win new business. TIAA Bank offers an account yielding 2.15 percent. State Farm Bank is offering 2.1 percent, while Barclays and Goldman Sachs' retail-banking unit Marcus each offer 2.05 percent. TIAA requires a minimum deposit of $5,000, while the other banks don't.
Investing startup Robinhood Financial is entering the arena as well, with a new checking and savings product that promises a 3 percent interest rate. Robinhood's offering, however, isn't a traditional banking product. It's not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which backs bank deposits up to $250,000. Instead, it's insured for the same amount by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. as brokerage accounts are.
-- Bloomberg News
$144B in fishing sales reported for 2016
PORTLAND, Maine -- U.S. commercial fishing generated more than $144 billion in sales in 2016, buoyed by growth in key species such as sea scallops and American lobsters, the federal government reported on Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the $144.3 billion in sales from commercial fishing in 2016 was up about $100 million from the previous year. The agency released the figure as part of its annual Fisheries Economics of the United States report, one of two reports about the health of fisheries that came out on Thursday.
The economics report states that the industry was boosted by growth in value of some economically critical species, also including shrimp, but other big-money species such as Alaska pollock and Pacific salmon were down from the previous year.
The economics report also said commercial fishing supported nearly 1.2 million jobs, a figure that is about in line with 2015, but slightly less than 2014.
NOAA officials also released the annual Fisheries of the United States report, which is a broader look at the nation's seafood industry and its recreational and commercial catches. That report stated that U.S. per-capita consumption of fish and shellfish grew 1.1 pounds, to 16 pounds, in 2017.
-- The Associated Press
Punitive award blocked in hog-farm suit
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A federal judge in North Carolina is shutting down a lawsuit against a Smithfield Foods hog-feeding operation by some neighbors who complained of odors, flies and noises.
U.S. District Judge David Faber on Thursday declared there wasn't enough evidence for those neighbors to pursue punitive damages.
Jurors in Raleigh determined Wednesday that eight neighbors of a Smithfield Foods animal-feeding operation in Sampson County should be compensated with between $100 and $75,000 each. The neighbors had complained about Sholar Farm, which houses up to 7,000 swine.
Jurors in three related cases previously decided Smithfield Foods should pay nearly $550 million in penalties, which were reduced under a state law limiting punishment.
Smithfield Foods said it believes the lawsuits are an abuse of the legal system.
-- The Associated Press
Tribune Publishing, McClatchy end talks
Tribune Publishing has terminated negotiations to sell the Chicago newspaper company to McClatchy, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The decision, reached by the Tribune Publishing board Thursday, followed several months of negotiations with the California-based McClatchy Co. The source said potential antitrust issues in Florida, where McClatchy owns the Miami Herald and Tribune Publishing owns the nearby Sun Sentinel, ultimately derailed a deal between the two companies. Putting both those newspapers under the McClatchy corporate umbrella would have created economic synergies important to the deal but there were concerns it wouldn't pass muster with federal regulators, multiple sources said.
Both Tribune Publishing spokesman Marisa Kollias and McClatchy spokesman Jeanne Segal declined to comment Thursday.
Tribune Publishing, formerly known as Tronc, also owns the Baltimore Sun; Hartford Courant; Orlando Sentinel; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.; the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. The company reverted to its legacy name in October.
-- Chicago Tribune
U.S. fines cryptocurrency bank $2.7M
AriseBank claimed to have raised an eye-popping $600 million at the height of cryptocurrency craze, making it a high-profile target when U.S. regulators accused the company of fraud in January.
Almost a year later, the case has ended in a whimper, a reflection of the fact that most of the money never existed. AriseBank in Dallas and its founders agreed to pay about $2.7 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday.
The SEC had obtained a court order in January freezing the assets of AriseBank. At the time, the agency accused the company of illegally raising funds through an initial coin offering without registering the token sale with regulators. The case was one of the first targeting alleged cryptocurrency misconduct in what would evolve into a broad crackdown on the industry.
Among AriseBank's notable claims were that it operated the world's first "decentralized" bank and that it could handle transactions involving more than 700 virtual currencies, according to the SEC.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 12/14/2018