QUOTE OF THE DAY “We’re treating this almost like a hurricane response.The future of the citrus industry is at stake.” Kevin Shea, USDA inspection administrator Article, 1DRate on 30-year mortgage dips to 4.42%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages eased slightly this week, remaining near historically low levels.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan declined to 4.42 percent from 4.46 percent last week. The average on the 15-year fixed loan dipped to 3.43 percent from 3.47 percent.
Mortgage rates peaked at 4.6 percent in August and have stabilized since September.
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 a 30-year mortgage jumped to 0.7 point from 0.5 point. The fee for a 15-year loan rose to 0.7 point from 0.4 point.
Car-Mart director’s shares net $8 million
William Sams, a director for Bentonville-based America’s Car-Mart, sold shares worth $8.2 million, according to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sams sold 100,000 shares he directly owned, as well as 100,000 shares indirectly held by Marlin Sams Fund L.P, all for $41.01 per share. He still directly owns 400,000 shares of Car-Mart stock.
The shares were repurchased by Car-Mart as part of its stock repurchase program, according to the filing. Car-Mart shares have traded as low as $36.79 and as high as $50.59 over the past year.
Sams has served as a director since March 2005 and currently manages his personal investments and is a general partner of Marlin Sams Fund L.P., according to Car-Mart’s website.
Car-Mart is a buy-here-pay-here used-car dealer that operates 129 dealerships in 10 states.
Ex-J.B. Hunt CEO sells $832,124 in stock
Former J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. Chief Executive Officer and current board member Wayne Garrison sold $832,124.80 in company stock, according to a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Garrison, who served as CEO from 1995-2010 and has been on the J.B. Hunt board since 1981, sold 10,790 shares at an average price of $77.12 in a transaction dated Monday. Garrison, according to the filing, still has 20,368 shares of J.B. Hunt stock. His stock is worth an estimated $1.57 million.
Shares of J. B. Hunt closed Thursday at $74.61 and were trading between $73.70 and $75.49 on Thursday. J.B. Hunt’s 42-week high is $78.65.
BNSF President Ice becomes CEO Jan. 1
BNSF railroad will promote Carl Ice to chief executive officer on Jan. 1, the company announced Thursday.
Ice, who has served as president and chief operation officer, replaces Matthew Rose. After 13-plus years as CEO, Rose will serve as the railroad’s executive chairman with a focus on long-term planning and public policy.
BNSF hired Ice 34 years ago, and he took over as president in 2010. Ice was instrumental in the merger of Burlington Northern Railroad and Santa Fe Railway in 1995.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased BNSF in 2010. The railroad operates 32,500 miles of track in 28 states, including Arkansas, and Canada.
BNSF moves more intermodal containers than any other railroad. Typically, the company said, it handles 40 percent of the nation’s intermodal freight and this year it is on track to ship 5 million containers. BNSF and J.B.
Hunt have a relationship that stretches back more than two decades.
- Chris Bahn
Cars, trucks hit record gas mileage in ’12
DETROIT - New cars and trucks sold in the U.S. last year got an average of 23.6 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, a record that came mainly through improvements to engines and transmissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mazda led all automakers with a fleet average of 27.1 mpg, followed closely by Honda with 26.6 and Volkswagen at 25.8. Chrysler-Fiat, which relies more on trucks and larger cars for its sales, had the worst mileage at 20.1, followed by Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles, at 21.1. General Motors, which also sells a lot of trucks and SUVs, was third from the bottom at 21.7 mpg, according to the report.
The increase for 2012, the latest year for which full calculations are available, was 1.2 mpg above 2011’s number, the second-largest annual increase in 30 years, the agency said in an annual report released Thursday. The EPA is estimating that the average mileage of 2013 cars will rise another 0.4 mpg to 24. Final figures for 2013 won’t be available until next year.
Last year was the first year that automakers fell under more stringent government fuel-economy regulations that require them to sell cars and trucks that get a combined 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Carbon-dioxide emissions also are at a record low, 376 grams per mile.
- The Associated Press
U.K. bank to pay for sanctions violations
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will pay $100 million to settle U.S. and New York regulators’ accusations that it violated sanctions programs targeting Iran, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.
The bank, from 2002 to 2011, hid or failed to disclose information about the identities of sanctioned parties in 3,500 transactions valued at approximately $523 million, the New York Department of Financial Services said Wednesday in a statement. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Federal Reserve also were part of the settlement.
The bank said in a statement it “deeply regrets” its oversight failures and pledges to strengthen compliance controls.
The U.S. is cracking down on banks whose employees or executives concealed information about transactions involving parties in sanctioned nations. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and ING Bank NV also have settled allegations that they failed to give the U.S. details of financial transactions related to Iran.
Business, Pages 30 on 12/13/2013