Thursday, April 18, 1996
Last week's average was the highest since 8.27 percent during the week ended May 4, 1995, the last time rates topped 8 percent. Rates then dropped to a two-year low of 6.94 percent last October before starting a gradual rise.
One-year, adjustable rate mortgages averaged 5.75 percent, down from 5.80 percent last week. Fifteen-year mortgages hit 7.48 percent this week, down from 7.56 percent last week.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.
The Honolulu-based company said it made profits in most of its operations and substantially reduced its losses in sugar but no longer had the income from Matson Leasing Co., which A&B sold in mid-1995.
A&B had a first-quarter profit of $7.2 million, or 16 cents a share, down from $8.6 million, or 19 cents a share in the 1995 first quarter.
Revenues from continuing operations were $259 million in the latest quarter, up 5.4 percent from $245.7 million a year earlier, not counting Matson Leasing.
At its biggest subsidiary, Matson Navigation Co., A&B had an operating profit of $17.6 million, up 2.9 percent from $17.1 million. A&B's food business, including sugar, lost $888,000 in the latest quarter, a substantial turn around from a loss of $3.8 million in the 1995 quarter.