Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, May 22, 1997
WASHINGTON -- Interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged just under 8 percent for the second consecutive week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said today. Mortgage rates stay
below 8 percentThe average edged up to 7.92 percent this week from 7.91 percent, leaving it about a 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, a popular option for those refinancing mortgages, averaged 7.45 percent this week, up from 7.44 percent a week earlier.
On one-year adjustable rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.80 percent this week, up from 5.78 percent.The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.
American Savings Bank has become the lead sponsor of this year's Better Home Show. American Savings
sponsors home showThe bank, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., said the June 18-20 show at the Neal Blaisdell Center has been renamed the American Savings Even Better Home Show.
Bank of America, sponsor for the past four years, announced late last year that it would no longer be involved.
This year's show will feature more than 300 exhibits promoting home improvement products and services. Admission will be $3 for adults and $2 for children seven to 12 years old. Children under seven will get in free if accompanying a paying adult.
Davidoff of Geneva, maker of fine cigars and tobacco products, will open its first Hawaii store at Ward Centre on May 29. Cigar maker opening
first Hawaii storeThe Swiss company said the new store will carry over 35,000 premium cigars, including Davidoff and other top brands. The store will operate under a franchise agreement with Lifestyle Enterprises Inc.
Davidoff has over 80 franchises worldwide and operates two company-owned stores in the United States. The company-owned stores are in Beverly Hills and New York.
Liberty House said it will open a Home Outlet store at the former Ross Stores site at Ward Gateway Center in Kakaako. Liberty House adds
Home Outlet storeThe 21,302-square-foot store, scheduled to open in July, will be Liberty House's third Home Outlet shop and its first in Honolulu's urban core.
Liberty House operates Home Outlets at the Waikele Center and the Maui Marketplace.
The new store -- which will retail housewares, bed and bath items, cookware, luggage and kitchen appliances -- is located next to the Sports Authority on Ward Avenue.
Founded in 1849, Liberty House operates 10 department stores and 31 resort and specialty shops in Hawaii and Guam.
SEATTLE -- Boeing Co. has received a letter of objection to its $13.3 billion takeover of McDonnell Douglas Corp. from the European Union's executive agency. EU objects to merger
of Boeing, McDonnellNeither Boeing nor European Commission officials released the list of objections.
The EU's antitrust chief, Belgian socialist Karel Van Miert, has said the merger was unacceptable, fearing it will harm air competition in Europe.
But Phil Condit, Boeing's chief executive, said McDonnell's share of the commercial airplane market has been declining as European rival Airbus Industrie's has grown, so the deal would not threaten competition.
The EU can impose fines of as much as 10 percent of the combined companies' revenues if it finds a merger violates antitrust guidelines.
U.S. antitrust officials are expected to rule on the Boeing-McDonnell deal this summer.
Vice President Al Gore has said the administration would take "whatever action is appropriate" to prevent the EU from imposing unfair restrictions.
DALLAS -- American Airlines plans to go ahead with some kind of partnership with British Airways even if U.S. and European regulators block a broader alliance, the chairman of American's parent company said Wednesday. American, British Air
will accept 'partnership'Robert L. Crandall, chairman of parent AMR Corp., told shareholders that regulators were "taking longer than we had hoped" to approve the deal announced a year ago.
"We continue to expect that our partnership in some form or fashion will take place in the not too distant future," he said. He added that under the current bilateral agreement between the United States and Britain, "We can do a big piece of what we seek to do, without any new approvals."
American and British Airways are seeking antitrust immunity from the Transportation Department to coordinate their networks and offer better services to consumers.
Immunity has been granted in three other cases involving U.S. and European carriers, but lawmakers and rival carriers have voiced concern that an American-British Airways alliance would lead to a trans-Atlantic monopoly.
The regulatory delay was about the only glitch in the rosy scene Crandall painted for shareholders. He said the airline is adding gates, airplanes and routes to take advantage of the healthy U.S. economy and favorable industry conditions.
In the next six weeks, he said, the company will make a long-anticipated move to start buying regional jets, the 50- to 70-seat aircraft that ultimately will replace turboprops as commuter planes and that were at the heart of American's recent labor dispute with its pilots.
Under the agreement American's pilots ratified on May 5, they failed to get the right to fly the regional jets. They did get various limits on flight distance, jet size and fleet size, as well as job guarantees that allow furloughed American pilots to fly the jets at American Eagle.
The deal was reached after the pilots rejected a previous offer in January, resulting in a brief strike that ended when President Clinton stepped in.
AMR's first-quarter earnings slipped 3.2 percent in the three months ended March 31 because of the dispute.
"We expect our results to improve month to month," Crandall told shareholders. "We think we are getting the unrest behind us."