QUOTE OF THE DAY “It was a really, really great quarter.” Bob Shanks, Ford Motor Co. chief financial officer Article, 1DTyson halts shipping cattle from Canada
Tyson Foods Inc. will stop the purchase of cattle shipped directly to the company from Canada because of changes in the rules on country-of-origin labeling.
Costs associated with the labeling changes led Tyson to end its direct purchases of Canadian cattle, the company said in a statement. Spokesman Worth Sparkman declined to disclose how much of the company’s beef purchases originated in Canada.
“Like many others in the North American beef industry, we’re very disappointed by the changes made in the U.S. country of origin labeling rules,” the Tyson statement read. “These new rules significantly increase costs because they require additional product codes, production breaks and product segregation, including a separate category for cattle shipped directly from Canada to U.S. beef plants without providing any incremental value to our customers.”
Tyson pointed to a lack of warehouse capacity to “accommodate the proliferation of products requiring different types of labels due to this regulation.”
“We remain hopeful that these new rules will eventually be rescinded and we’ll be able to resume buying cattle directly from Canadian cattle feeders.”LR airport gets ‘A’ credit rating from S&P
Standard and Poor’s Rating Service has affirmed the ‘A’ rating of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
The rating service gave the airport a stable credit outlook because of what it calls a low indebtedness of $12 million and “historically stable traffic,” even though it was down 3.3 percent in the first eight months of 2013 because of the slow economy.
Annual operating revenue has grown on average by 6.6 percent since fiscal 2008, while expenses grew 3.7 percent, S&P reported Oct. 18.
“We take great pride in being fiscally responsible,” Kay Kelley Arnold, chairman of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, said in a news release. “The rating reflects the consistent hard work, talent and dedication of airport leadership and staff.”
The airport’s $60.9 million capital plan through 2018, which involves taxiway and runway improvements, will be done without taking on more debt, the airport stated.
St. Louis chain settles security lawsuit
ST. LOUIS - A suburban grocery-store chain has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from a computer-system breach that compromised the credit and debit cards of about 2.4 million customers.
In a preliminary deal presented Wednesday to Circuit Judge David Dowd, Schnucks Markets would pay customers up to $10 for each credit or debit card that was compromised and had fraudulent charges posted on it that were later credited or reversed, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The chain also would pay customers for certain unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses such as bank, overdraft and late fees, along with paying $10 per hour up to three hours for documented time spent dealing with the security breach. There would be a cap on those expenses up to $175 per class member.
From December 2012 through March of this year, the grocery chain’s systems were breached by hackers. The class-action suit, filed on behalf of Susan McGann and other Schnucks customers, is one of several lawsuits brought against the chain because of the breach.
- The Associated Press
30-year mortgage rate drops to 4.13%
WASHINGTON - Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages dropped this week to their lowest levels in four months.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., said the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.13 percent. That’s down from 4.28 percent. The average on the 15-year fixed loan declined to 3.24 percent from 3.33 percent.
Both averages are the lowest since June 20.
Mortgage rates have been falling since September, when the Federal Reserve held off slowing its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. The bond buys are intended to keep longer-term interest rates low, including mortgage rates.
And a slowdown in hiring in September makes it more likely that the Fed will continue its stimulus into next year.
Mortgage rates tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The 10-year note traded at 2.5 percent Wednesday, down sharply from 2.61 percent Oct. 17.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac 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 ticked up to 0.8 point from 0.7 point. The fee for a 15-year loan declined to 0.6 point from 0.7 point.
- The Associated Press
Business, Pages 28 on 10/25/2013