Mortgage rates fall; 30-year at 4.85 percent
Long-term U.S. mortgage rates dipped slightly this week, taking a pause after weeks of steady increases stoked by rising interest rates.
Home borrowing rates remain at their highest levels in more than seven years, with the key 30-year rate approaching 5 percent. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages declined to an average 4.85 percent this week from 4.90 percent last week.
Last week’s average was the highest level for the benchmark rate since spring 2011. A year ago, it stood at 3.88 percent.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans eased to 4.26 percent this week from 4.29 percent last week.
CBL sells center in Fort Oglethorpe
CBL Properties on Thursday announced that it has sold Parkway Plaza, a community center located in Fort Oglethorpe, for $16.5 million in cash.
The center was purchased by United Properties Corp., a privately held real estate investment group based out of East Meadow, N.Y. Proceeds from the sale were used to reduce outstanding balances on the company’s lines of credit, according to Chattanooga-based CBL.
“We are pleased to close on the sale of Parkway Plaza, bringing our total disposition activity year-to-date up to nearly $80 million,” said Stephen Lebovitz, CBL’s chief executive officer. “Our non-core property sales have provided an attractively priced source of equity to supplement our strong cash flow.”
Parkway Plaza is anchored by Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, Petco, Rack Room Shoes and Ross Dress for Less. The center is located on Battlefield Parkway next to the Walmart shopping center.
Coke taps veteran as new president
Coca-Cola Co. has named longtime company executive Brian Smith as its new president and chief operating officer.
Smith joined the company in 1997. He has led Coke’s operations in Brazil and Mexico and most recently was the head of its Europe, Middle East and Africa division.
Smith will report to CEO James Quincey. Quincey served as Coke’s president and COO from 2015 to 2017, when he was named CEO.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola said the new leadership structure will help Quincey focus on long-term strategy while Smith leads day-to-day operations.
Coke also said Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Kathy Waller will retire in March 2019. John Murphy, who leads Coke’s Asia Pacific group, will become the company’s new CFO.
Kleenex to end ‘mansize’ tissues
Kleenex will re-brand its “Mansize” tissues after consumers complained the name was sexist – touching off a social media conversation about what’s in a name.
The company behind Kleenex, Kimberly-Clark, said Thursday that the product, which is sold only in the U.K., will now be called “Kleenex Extra Large.” Packages for the tissues describe them as “confidently strong” and “comfortingly soft.”
Kimberly-Clark told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that it in “no way suggests” that being both soft and strong was “an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.”
“We are always grateful to customers who take time to tell us how our products can be improved, and we carefully consider all suggestions,” the company said in a statement.
The tissues, which had been on shelves for 60 years, were launched at a time when large cotton handkerchiefs were still very popular and the brand offered “a unique disposable alternative,” the company said. It remains one of their most popular products, with over 3.4 million people buying the tissues every year.
VW adds incentives to remove diesels
German automaker Volkswagen says it is offering more incentives to trade in older diesel models in an effort to improve air quality.
The company said Thursday it would offer trade-in incentives for people who want to replace old diesels that met formerly looser emissions standards, and additional premiums for people who want to offload more recent diesels in 14 German cities with high pollution levels.
The German auto industry is under pressure to address higher levels of pollution from diesels after Volkswagen’s 2015 scandal over cheating on emissions tests. Diesels from several manufacturers were found to have much higher emissions in real driving than during testing. New test procedures reflecting everyday driving conditions came into effect Sept. 1.
An earlier Volkswagen incentive program took 210,000 older diesels off the roads.
Mnuchin won’t go to Saudi conference
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.
Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account , saying that the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mnuchin said in his tweet, “I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Araba.”
His announcement comes after Pompeo told reporters at the White House that the administration would await the outcome of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before deciding how the U.S. will respond.
The Future Investment Initiative conference takes place Oct. 23-25 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was set up last year as a kind of “Davos in the Desert” for the world’s business elite to network.
Mnuchin joins a growing number of global leaders who have decided to pull out of the summit, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, as well as senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands.