Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to open on Maui

The Sullivan Family of Companies, operators of Foodland Super Market, said it will open its first The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store on Maui today, when it will offer free food and beverage samplings. The store is at the Shops at Wailea.

It’s the 15th Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store in Hawaii. A second store on Maui is scheduled to open in 2013 at the Kehalani Village Center in Wailuku, the company said.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf started in Los Angeles in 1963 and now has more than 750 cafes in 22 countries from Shanghai to Dubai.

Dow and S&P have best January since ’97

NEW YORK » It’s the best start for stocks in 15 years.

In what was mostly a slow and steady climb, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 3.4 percent in January, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 4.4 percent, the best performances for both indexes to open a year since 1997.

Investors were encouraged by modest but welcome improvement in the U.S. economy, including an 8.5 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in almost three years. Aside from Apple Inc.’s, corporate profits didn’t wow anyone, but they were good enough.

Cruise bookings fall after Concordia wreck

NEW YORK » The frightful images of a sinking Italian cruise ship have scared off some cruise passengers, at least temporarily, during the industry’s peak booking season.

Travel agents — who book more than two-thirds of cruise passengers worldwide — have been nervously watching bookings ever since the Costa Concordia, which is owned by Carnival Corp., ran aground on Jan. 13.

And on Monday they learned they had reason to be nervous: Bookings fell significantly for Miami-based Carnival Corp. after the accident. Attention is now focused on Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which reports Thursday on its earnings. An increase there could show that passengers are fleeing Carnival over safety fears. A decrease could indicate an overall distrust of all cruise lines.

Home prices tumble in most U.S. cities

WASHINGTON » U.S. home prices fell for a third straight month in nearly all cities tracked by a major index. The declines show that most homeowners are not reaping the benefits from some signs of an improving housing market.

Prices dropped in November from October in 19 of the 20 cities tracked, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday. The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Phoenix was the only city to show an increase.

The declines partly reflect the typical fall slowdown after the peak buying season.

Consumer confidence falls in January

NEW YORK » It looks like Americans are starting to doubt that the economy in 2012 will be that much better than it was last year.

Consumer confidence fell in January after two straight months of big gains as Americans became more worried about their incomes, rising gas prices and overall business conditions, a private research group reported.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index is at 61.1, down from a revised 64.8 in December. That comes after the index rose by more than 20 points last month from 40.9 in October amid growing signs of an improving economy.

Fourth-quarter corporate earnings:

» Exxon Mobil: Soaring oil prices helped the company post a slightly higher fourth-quarter profit. But a slowdown in production and lower natural gas prices are worrying investors.

Exxon’s oil and natural gas production fell 9 percent during the quarter. The drop came even after the company spent a record $36.8 billion last year to explore for more energy.

» UPS: Earnings at the world’s largest package delivery company are now being powered by an economic uplift in the U.S., while growth in the red-hot international division has slowed.

UPS said a stronger than expected U.S. economy and a surge in online holiday sales led operating profit higher in the fourth quarter. While net income fell from a year earlier due to an accounting charge, UPS said its adjusted profit rose 21 percent. It topped Wall Street’s expectations. UPS expects to see the U.S. economy grow faster this year than in 2011. In other parts of the world, UPS predicts growth will slow.

» Amazon.com Inc.: The Seattle-based firm said that its net income was $177 million, or 38 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. That’s down 57 percent from $416 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue grew 35 percent to $17.4 billion. Though it was buoyed by solid holiday sales, the figure fell below the $18.3 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

UnitedHealthcare to provide coverage through Quest

Minneapolis-based UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest managed-care company by revenue, said it was awarded a contract to provide health coverage to lower-income Hawaii residents through the state’s Quest program, beginning July 1.

This is in addition to the coverage UnitedHealthcare provides for about 21,000 aged, blind and disabled Medicaid members in Hawaii’s Quest Expanded Access program and 19,000 Medicare members in Hawaii.

The new contract will enable UnitedHealthcare Community Plan to offer a health plan option to the more than 225,000 individuals enrolled in Quest.

ON THE MOVE

Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union has hired Yu-Jen Wang as branch manager of the Wai­malu branch. He joined the company in November as a branch manager in the relief pool; he was previously a branch manager at American Savings Bank and has also worked at Wells Fargo Financial in Hawaii. The Hawaii Lumber Products Association has announced its 2012 board of directors: Ken Laughlin, president; Jeff Brow­ning, vice president; Robert B. Kayser Jr., treasurer; and Connie Smales, secretary. Directors are Keith Cuthbert, Michael K. Fujimoto, Jim Keller, Scott Loomer, Art Owada and Hap A. Person.

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The County of Hawaii Water Board confirmed Keith Okamoto as deputy manager of the Department of Water Supply. He joined the department in 1996; he has served as a licensed civil engineer in the Water Resources and Planning Branch of the Engineering Division, supervisor of the Water Quality Assurance and Control Branch in the Engineering Division and assistant to the Engineering Division head, and also oversaw the status of the department’s CIP projects and professional services procurement.