Business Briefing
30-year mortgage rate climbs
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.01% this week, up from 4.98% last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said.
The average rate on 15-year fixed mortgages rose to 4.40% from 4.39%. Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.27%, up from 4.25%. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.22% from 4.29%.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 point for 30-year and 15-year mortgages. It averaged 0.6 point for five-year loans and 0.5 point for one-year loans.
First-time jobless claims increase
More Americans unexpectedly filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, indicating that companies lack confidence that the economic recovery will be sustained.
Initial jobless applications increased to 480,000 in the week ended Jan. 30, the most in seven weeks, from 472,000 the previous week, Labor Department figures showed.
The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly fluctuations, rose to 468,750 from 457,000 the previous week. Continuing claims were little changed at 4.6 million in the week ended Jan. 23.
Factory orders top expectations
Orders to U.S. factories posted a big gain in December, far exceeding expectations and adding to evidence that the manufacturing sector is supporting the economic recovery.
The Commerce Department said orders rose by 1% last month, double the 0.5% forecast by economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. It was the eighth increase in the last nine months.
EUROPE
Bank of England keeps rate steady
The European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1% for the ninth month running while the Bank of England called a halt to its policy of pumping money into the British economy.
The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 0.5% and said it would not ask the government for the authority to pump more newly created money into the barely recovering British economy.
CONGLOMERATES
Berkshire’s credit rating lowered
Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, plans to sell $8 billion of senior unsecured notes to finance part of its purchase of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the company said in a regulatory filing.
Berkshire Hathaway also was stripped of its last AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, which cited the acquisition in announcing a downgrade by one level to AA-plus.
Buffett, 79, is using debt, equity and Berkshire’s cash to finance the biggest purchase of his four-decade career as the company’s chief executive.
-- times wire reports
