Mortgage rates up to seven-year high
Long-term U.S. mortgage rates jumped this week, marking their highest levels in seven years amid the peak home buying season.
The benchmark 30-year rate pushed toward the significant 5 percent level. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 4.61 percent, up from 4.55 percent last week. The new average rate was the highest since May 19, 2011. By contrast, the 30-year rate averaged 4.02 percent a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans climbed to 4.08 percent from 4.01 percent last week.
The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. The fee on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 0.4 point from 0.5 point last week. The fee for 15-year mortgages was unchanged at 0.4 point.
China OKs sale of Toshiba unit
In a prelude to an easing of trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, Chinese officials ended a monthslong delay by approving Toshiba’s sale of a majority stake in its lucrative microchip unit to a U.S.-led group.
A lack of approval by Chinese regulators had held up the deal in what was widely seen as a signal from Beijing about how it might punish U.S. businesses if the Trump administration followed through on threats to impose tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese-made goods.
In a statement Thursday, Toshiba said it had received “all required antitrust approvals” for the deal with a consortium led by the U.S. investment firm Bain Capital. Bain confirmed in its own statement that Chinese authorities had approved the deal.
The approval of the Toshiba deal came just days after the White House appeared to make its own peace offering to Beijing.
President Donald Trump, in a surprise tweet Sunday, said he had asked U.S. officials to find a way to help ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company. Officials in Washington last month prohibited U.S. companies from selling much-needed technology to ZTE to punish the Chinese company for violating U.S. sanctions against selling goods made in the United States to Iran, North Korea and other countries. ZTE’s factories ground to a halt, spurring anger from Beijing.
Bain and Toshiba are not Chinese companies, but antitrust regulators in China still had considerable say over whether the deal would go through.
North Carolina vies for Apple
North Carolina legislative leaders said Thursday they’re committing to a big expansion of tax breaks to attract employers promising thousands of jobs, a move that comes as people familiar with recruitment efforts tell The Associated Press tech giant Apple is strongly considering the state for a new corporate campus.
The top two leaders in the state’s General Assembly said they would lower the threshold so-called “transformative” companies must meet to get massive state subsidies. Companies investing at least
$1 billion and generating 3,000 jobs could get cash payments based on the taxes paid by their employees for up to 40 years.
A North Carolina government official and an economic development official told The Associated Press that Apple is close to deciding whether to build a planned hub in the Raleigh-Durham area. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of business recruitment. The project could create 5,000 North Carolina jobs, with a later target of 10,000 jobs, the economic development official said.
Apple declined comment Thursday. Apple also has explored the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., as the potential site of its new campus, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The maker of iPhones and other tech gear employs about 23,000 at its Cupertino, California, headquarters and a second campus in the Silicon Valley city, with salaries averaging about $125,000, according to a report the company submitted to the city. More than 6,000 work at Apple’s second-largest site in Austin, Texas, in customer service, the company’s online store and other functions.
United Nations: Economy to grow 3 percent
The United Nations is forecasting that the global economy will expand by more than 3 percent this year and next year – but it warns that increasing risks could trigger “a shock to investment and trade” and a sharp drop to 1.8 percent growth in 2019.
The U.N.’s mid-year report on the World Economic Situation and Prospects launched Thursday says growth in the world economy is surpassing expectations, reflecting further economic expansion in developed countries and broadly favorable investment conditions.
However, the report said, “downside risks” have increased including “a rise in the probability of trade conflicts between major economies.”
Dawn Holland, chief of the U.N.’s Global Economic Monitoring Branch, cited the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs in January and proposed new tariffs against China as well as the renegotiation of the U.S. trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, which has left “a void of uncertainty.”
But the U.N.’s assessment was generally upbeat citing continued economic improvements over the last several months including accelerating wage growth, improved investment prospects, and the short-term impact of the U.S. fiscal stimulus package.