Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, July 9, 1998
Davies Pacific Center hailed by building group
The Davies Pacific Center has been named the best managed building for 1998 by the Building Owners and Managers Association of Hawaii.The center, at 841 Bishop St., is owned by the California State Teachers' Retirement System and managed by Kirk Horiuchi of COMPASS Management & Leasing Inc. Other winners in the 18th annual office building competition were: Pan Am building, for landscape maintenance; Grosvenor Center, tenant relations; and the Financial Plaza of the Pacific, community involvement.
Davies Pacific Center won the categories for efficiency of operations, janitorial maintenance and equipment maintenance.
Thirty-year mortgages fall to 6.91 percent
WASHINGTON -- The benchmark U.S. mortgage rate dropped this week to its lowest level in more than five months, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp reported today.The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.91 percent this week from 6.98 percent last week, according to a weekly survey of mortgage rates from Freddie Mac.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has stayed below 7 percent for four weeks in a row. Moreover, this week's level is the lowest since the week ended Jan. 16, when the 30-year mortgage rate was 6.89 percent, according to Freddie Mac. The highest level so far this year for mortgage rates was 7.22 percent, reached during the week ended May 1.
Today's report also showed that the average rate on an adjustable mortgage was at 5.60 percent -- the lowest in five months -- down from 5.66 percent, And the 15-year mortgage rates fell to 6.60 percent from 6.65 percent, also the lowest in five months.
Safeway's earnings beat Wall St. expectations
PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Safeway Inc., the No. 2 U.S. supermarket chain, said its fiscal second-quarter earnings rose a better-than-expected 44 percent, aided by strong sales growth and effective cost-saving measures.Net income rose to $193.2 million, or 38 cents a diluted share, compared with a profit before a charge of $134.1 million, or 27 cents, in the year-earlier period. Per-shares results beat the average estimate of 36 cents from analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.
Sales for the quarter ended June 20 rose 6.5 percent to $5.58 billion from $5.25 billion.
In other news ...
PLANO, Texas -- J.C. Penney Co. shares fell as much as 12 percent today after the fourth-largest U.S. retailer said fiscal second-quarter earnings will be less than expected because weak June sales forced it to slash prices. The markdowns didn't draw enough customers to offset the lower profit margins.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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