Business news in brief

In this Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015 photo, a for sale sign is posted in front of a home in Miami. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.89 percent from 3.84 percent a week earlier.
In this Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015 photo, a for sale sign is posted in front of a home in Miami. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.89 percent from 3.84 percent a week earlier.

Average rate on 30-year mortgage rises

WASHINGTON -- Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week after a sharp drop the previous week.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.89 percent from 3.84 percent a week earlier. The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages advanced to 3.09 percent from 3.06 percent.

The rates remain well below their levels of a year ago, when the 30-year loan rate was 4.10 percent and the 15-year rate was 3.24 percent.

Mortgage rates have been tracking the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, as investors have fled turbulent stock markets in recent weeks for the safety of U.S. government bonds, and then markets have sharply recovered.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of 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 was unchanged from last week at 0.6 point. The fee for a 15-year loan also held steady at 0.6 point.

-- The Associated Press

General Mills to sell vegetable units

MINNEAPOLIS -- General Mills is selling its Green Giant and Le Sueur vegetable businesses to B&G Foods Inc. for about $765 million in cash.

The company has been trying to adapt to shifting U.S. tastes, including a move away from many packaged foods. It took a $260 million charge in the fourth quarter to write down the value of its Green Giant frozen and canned vegetables business.

The company said at the time that the frozen foods sales have been declining and that people also seemed to be shifting to traditional "blocks" of frozen vegetables, which cost less than the vegetable blends and packages with sauces that Green Giant makes.

General Mills is shifting its focus to cereal and yogurt, as well as driving sales for its small but growing organic and natural foods segment.

The Minneapolis company -- whose brands include Cheerios, Betty Crocker and Pillsbury -- will still run Green Giant's European business and certain other export markets under license from B&G Foods, but it's cutting free its Green Giant and Le Sueur businesses in the U.S., Canada and some other markets.

Shares of General Mills gained a penny to $56.82 in premarket trading.

-- Bloomberg News

French farmers stage protest in Paris

PARIS -- More than 1,000 tractors -- and a few cows -- crowded into Paris on Thursday in a protest by farmers who blocked highways to express their anger over falling prices for their goods and high taxes.

They're facing increasingly slim margins they blame on cheap imports and high payroll charges, which they say make them unable to compete against producers in Germany and eastern Europe. The farmers are seeking tax breaks from the French government and European Union action.

Andie Le Mellionnec, 59, has run a dairy farm in western France for 40 years. Sporting a red hat, traditional to his home region of Brittany, and a Breton flag as a cape, he said his problem "is not whether France is a competitor or not. My problem is simply to live -- meaning to feed my family, my kids."

Tractors spray-painted with "Anger" or "Enough Bureaucracy" trundled Thursday morning along major arteries to the French capital and headed toward the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris. Some farmers headed to Parliament later in the day.

Protest organizer FNSEA, France's largest farming union, said 1,733 tractors from around the country contributed to the show of force.

-- The Associated Press

Towboats collide; river barge spills oil

PADUCAH, Ky. -- The U.S. Coast Guard closed part of the Mississippi River on Thursday as crews investigate and clean up an oil spill caused by the collision of two towboats.

The Coast Guard said the collision Wednesday evening near Paducah, Ky., damaged at least one barge carrying clarified slurry oil. The cargo tank was ruptured, causing an unknown amount of oil to spill into the river.

Officials say the river is closed from mile markers 938 to 922.

The Coast Guard said Thursday that the maximum amount of oil that could have spilled is 250,000 gallons. The agency says it's working with the barge owner and an oil spill response organization to determine the exact amount of oil that poured into the water.

The cause of the collision is being investigated.

-- The Associated Press

Venezuela leader to seek Chinese aid

Venezuela's best chance of avoiding a default next year lies with the country at the root of the current global turmoil: China.

The Asian nation, a key ally during the commodities boom years, has become Venezuela's lender of last resort as an oil rout threatens to bankrupt the world's 11th-biggest crude producer. President Nicolas Maduro announced a surprise trip to Beijing last Friday to ensure that China's economic woes won't derail a pipeline of loans he has said total $20 billion.

"If China gives Venezuela $20 billion, we don't see them defaulting in 2015 or 2016," Barclays PLC analyst Alejandro Grisanti said from New York. If it doesn't, "Venezuela will have very strong cash constraints to make its payments."

Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA are on the hook for $5.8 billion of interest and foreign-debt bond principal this year, with an additional $10.8 billion coming due next year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Maduro said in January that he obtained promises from China for the loans to shore up Venezuela's economy, battered by falling oil prices and recession. It wasn't clear at the time if China had fully approved the funding or when the money would be dispersed.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 09/04/2015

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