Business news in brief

Border-tax talk a 'concern' for Wal-Mart

The possibility of a border adjustment tax on imported goods is a "concern" for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs.

Biggs offered the Bentonville-based retailer's first public comments about the proposal during a conference call Tuesday. The border adjustment tax is one part of a U.S. House Republican plan and would tax retailers for the products they import and sell in the United States.

Wal-Mart is opposing the tax as part of a 150-member coalition called Americans for Affordable Products. The retail-led coalition believes the tax would affect the bottom line for companies and increase the price of products for consumers.

"Anything that would potentially raise prices on our customers in the U.S. would be a concern for us," Biggs said. "We want to be helpful in the process. We're engaged in the process as you might imagine and we're staying very close to it."

-- Robbie Neiswanger

Farmer fights Turner Grain settlement

A farmer in Portia (Lawrence County) has objected to a court filing in which a Benton grain dealer would pay $35,000 to get out of a $532,923 dispute with the bankruptcy estate for Turner Grain Merchandising Inc.

Lyndsey Dilks, a Little Rock attorney, filed the objection Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on behalf of Penn Farms, one of the many creditors in Turner's multimillion-dollar collapse in 2014.

Randy Rice, the trustee for Turner's estate, filed the proposed settlement Feb. 1 between KBX Inc. of Benton and Turner Grain, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2014. Its Chapter 11 filing, later converted to Chapter 7, listed assets of $13.8 million and liabilities of $24.8 million. KBX has contended for a year that it is owed $532,923 by Turner for corn that the Brinkley firm bought from KBX but paid for with an insufficient check. KBX paid $354,882 into the Turner estate last fall in another part of the dispute.

Rice said the settlement was fair and reasonable and that the outcome of any litigation was uncertain.

Dilks said the settlement wasn't in the best interest of Turner's creditors. "KBX has the means" to pay, and Turner's bankruptcy trustee would likely prevail if the case went to trial, she wrote. "The creditors have an interest in seeing KBX pay into the estate," she wrote.

The proposed settlement is before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Phyllis Jones.

-- Stephen Steed

30-year fixed mortgage rate barely rises

Mortgage rates remain stuck in a holding pattern.

The latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., the 30-year fixed-rate average inched up to 4.16 percent with an average 0.5 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount.) It was 4.15 percent a week ago and 3.62 percent a year ago. Since jumping 10 basis points -- a basis point is 0.01 percentage point -- in late January, the 30-year fixed rate has hovered between 4.15 percent and 4.19 percent.

The 15-year fixed-rate average rose to 3.37 percent with an average 0.5 point. It was 3.35 percent a week ago and 2.93 percent a year ago.

Long-term bonds are usually the best indicators of whether rates will rise or fall. But despite the yield on the 10-year Treasury fluctuating, mortgage rates have been steady.

Wednesday's release of the Federal Reserve minutes from last month's meeting seemed to hint that the central bank could increase its benchmark rate as soon as its next meeting in March. However, most experts are predicting the Fed will hold off until May or June. Whenever the central bank raises short-term interest rates, a brief spike in home loan rates often occurs.

-- The Washington Post

Jobless-aid claims up 6,000 to 244,000

WASHINGTON -- More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but claims remained at a low level consistent with a healthy job market.

The Labor Department said Thursday that 244,000 Americans applied for joblessness aid last week, up by 6,000 from the previous week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell by 4,000 to 241,000, the lowest level since July 1973.

Overall, 2.06 million people are collecting unemployment checks, down 7.7 percent from a year ago.

Unemployment claims have come in below 300,000 a week for 103 straight weeks, the longest such streak since 1970. The low levels of claims suggest that employers are confident enough in the economy to hang on to their workers and perhaps know it would be difficult to find replacements in a tight job market.

Employers added a healthy 227,000 jobs in January after averaging 187,000 a month last year. The nation's unemployment rate in January was 4.8 percent, which the Federal Reserve considers full employment. The unemployment rate in Arkansas was 3.9 percent in December, the latest information available.

-- The Associated Press

Restaurants stew over tax-refund delay

Jack in the Box Inc. saw sales abruptly turn negative this month, and the slowdown may be partly because of delayed federal income tax refunds, Chief Executive Officer Lenny Comma said Wednesday.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. also have cited anxiety over the tax refunds for weak demand.

The worries stem from legislation passed in 2015 that was aimed at preventing fraud but which also may postpone funds remitted to 25 million to 30 million U.S. households this year. All told, the income tax delay may crimp consumer spending by as much as $21 billion in February, Goldman Sachs said earlier this month.

"They all seem to be anxious about different things, whether it is increasing health care cost, the potential for increasing health care cost, the timing of tax refunds, the size of the tax refunds," Cracker Barrel Chief Executive Officer Sandra Cochran said on a conference call Tuesday after the chain lowered its sales guidance for the year.

At Jack in the Box, same-store sales may fall as much as 2 percent in the current quarter, while sales at its Qdoba chain may drop as much as 3 percent. The company's stock fell 6.90 points, or 6.66 percent, to close Thursday at $96.70.

Red Robin also has struggled to attract customers lately. Same-store sales plummeted 4.3 percent in the most recent quarter.

"February has certainly been challenging for the industry," Chief Financial Officer Guy Constant said earlier this week. "The lateness of the income tax refund has certainly had a contributing impact to that."

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 02/24/2017

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