Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, May 15, 1997
The parent of City Bank today said its first quarter 1997 income more than tripled from the year-earlier period as expenses fell. City Bank parent gains
on lower expensesCB Bancshares Inc. said it netted $1.85 million for the three months ending March 31, compared with first quarter 1996's $574,000. The company said it earned 52 cents a share, up from 16 cents in the 1996 quarter.
The company said its salaries, benefits, office and equipment leases and other expenses declined 15.8 percent to $13.02 million during the first quarter from $15.48 million in year-earlier period. CB Bancshares, which operates 24 branches in Hawaii, said its expenses were higher in first quarter 1996 due to payments it made for its voluntary retirement program.
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.91 percent this week, the lowest level in two months and down from 7.94 last week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said today. Thirty-year mortgage rates
drop to 7.91 percentThe decline to a nine-week low was the fourth in a row and brought the weekly average more than one-quarter percentage point below a seven-month high of 8.18 percent the week ended April 3. That was the week after the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy for the first time in two years.
Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 7.44 percent this week, also a nine-week low and down from 7.47 percent a week earlier. On one-year adjustable rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.78 percent, down from 5.82 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.
NEW YORK - The dollar lost the remnants of its 1997 gain against the yen today, dropping for the ninth straight day despite comments by senior Japanese officials suggesting the U.S. currency has fallen enough. The dollar ended mixed in other foreign-exchange dealings. Dollar falls for ninth
straight day; at 116 yenTraders said remarks today by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin reaffirming the United States wants a strong dollar may have helped stabilize the currency temporarily. But in remarks at an Investment Company Institute trade group meeting in Washington, Rubin also said he wasn't concerned by the dollar's daily or weekly movements, which suggested it could fall further.
"Against the yen, it's difficult to buy the dollar at any level," said Thomas Benfer, director of foreign exchange at the Bank of Montreal's New York branch. "I don't think the dust has settled yet."
The dollar fell as low as 115.85 yen in intraday dealings before settling in New York at 116.10 yen, down from 117.20 Wednesday. It was the weakest since Jan. 10 and left the dollar barely above its 115.93-yen level at year-end 1996. Two weeks ago, by contrast, the dollar hit a 41/2-year intraday high of 127.47 yen.