U.S. mortgage rates slip amid stock skid

This Jan. 22, 2018, photo shows a sold sign in front of a home in Mount Lebanon, Pa. Freddie Mac reports on the week's average U.S. mortgage rates on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. ( (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
This Jan. 22, 2018, photo shows a sold sign in front of a home in Mount Lebanon, Pa. Freddie Mac reports on the week's average U.S. mortgage rates on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. ( (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

U.S. long-term mortgage rates slipped this week, reflecting the stock market decline and rush by investors to Treasury notes.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell slightly to 4.62 percent from to 4.63 percent last week. Rates averaged 3.94 percent a year ago.

The rate on 15-year fixed-rate loans held at 4.07 percent for the second straight week, up from 3.38 percent a year ago.

Higher mortgage rates over the past year have caused home sales to drop. But mortgage rates have declined in recent weeks as fears about an economic slowdown have caused more investors to sell stocks and buy Treasury notes.

Wall Street losses continue with sell-off

Another miserable day on Wall Street knocked 464 points off the Dow Jones Industrial average, bringing its losses since Friday to more than 1,700 points.

The index is now down more than 10 percent for December, putting it on track for its worst monthly loss in almost a decade.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq is now down almost 20 percent from the peak it reached in August.

After steady gains through the spring and summer, stocks have fallen sharply in the fall as investors worry that global economic growth is cooling off.

Sanofi to lay off 20 more workers

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical giant that purchased longtime Chattanooga company Chattem in 2010, filed an official notice with the state this week that it will cut 180 jobs, or 20 more than it estimated last month.

The Times Free Press reported last month that Sanofi was cutting 160 jobs at its Chattanooga location at 1715 West 38th St. Sanofi spokeswoman Suzanne Jacobson said Tuesday the 20 other jobs are field representative positions in other areas and not in Chattanooga.

The layoffs are effective June 28, 2019, according to a WARN notice, or "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification," filed with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce this week.

In November, Sanofi said the jobs, which include marketing, sales, research and development and some support functions, were going to New Jersey as it restructures its consumer health care business there. Jacobson said Sanofi is seeing which local employees can relocate to New Jersey.

Huntsville auto plant reaches agreement

Environmental groups say they've reached an agreement with Mazda Toyota Manufacturing to protect an endangered fish near the company's planned automobile plant near Huntsville, Ala.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Tennessee Riverkeeper said Thursday the $6 million agreement will protect endangered spring pygmy sunfish that live in waters near the $1.6 billion factory in Limestone County.

The groups had threatened to sue under the Endangered Species Act.

The Mazda Toyota factory will be built beside Beaverdam Creek west of Huntsville. The waterway is one of only two places where the spring pygmy sunfish lives.

A vice president of the joint manufacturing venture, Mark Brazeal, says in a statement that environmental sustainability and conservation are global priorities for Mazda and Toyota.

Judge denies bid to nix J&J verdict

A Missouri judge denied Johnson & Johnson's bid to overturn a $4.7 billion jury verdict awarded to nearly two dozen women who said the company's talcum powder contributed to their ovarian cancer.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison, in a ruling Wednesday, cited evidence of what he called "particularly reprehensible conduct" by Johnson & Johnson.

Burlison wrote that "defendants knew of the presence of asbestos in products that they knowingly targeted for sale to mothers and babies, knew of the damage their products caused, and misrepresented the safety of these products for decades."

A jury in July awarded $4.14 billion in punitive damages and $550 million in compensatory damages to 22 women and their families after a six-week trial.

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