Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, November 25, 1998
Mortgage rates fall to five-week low
WASHINGTON -- The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to a five-week low of 6.78 percent this week, Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, said today.The decline, from 6.86 percent a week earlier, followed last week's reduction in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve. Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.44 percent this week, down from 6.51 percent. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.54 percent, up from 5.52 percent.
Hilton shareholders OK casino spinoff
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Hilton Hotels Corp. shareholders have voted to spin off the company's casinos in a move that will enable Hilton to focus on its more lucrative lodging business. Shareholders yesterday approved the plan to make the casino unit a separate company and to merge the new entity with the Mississippi operations of Grand Casinos Inc.
Fitch lauds state's financial security
A leading international credit rating agency has rated Hawaii's $3 billion worth of general obligation bonds AA-minus, saying the high rating reflects financial security."Financial operations, while under stress, have been maintained soundly and budgetary procedures are conservative," New York-based Fitch IBCA said.
The agency said tourism, the biggest segment of the Hawaii economy, has weakened but 1997 arrivals were only 2 percent below the 1990 peak.
Yankee deal dead; Cablevision jumps
WOODBURY, N.Y. -- Cablevision Systems Corp. shares rose as much as 5.1 percent after reports that the company ended an effort to buy a majority interest in the New York Yankees from George Steinbrenner. The shares rose $2.621/2 to $44 on the American Stock Exchange.
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