Foundation to give $2.8M for community projects
The Harold K.L. Castle Foundation has approved $2.8 million in grants for a variety of community and environmental projects.
One of the grants will provide $450,000 to the Hawaii Community Foundation that will be combined with other funding to support at least 25 coastal and marine conservation projects statewide, according to a news release from the foundation.
The foundation also has committed $50,000 a year through five years to the Boys & Girls Club Windward Clubhouse.
The grants were among a dozen approved at the first board of directors meeting since it was announced last month that the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation would be selling almost all of its land assets to Alexander & Baldwin.
U.S. durable goods orders up 3.5 percent
WASHINGTON » Businesses stepped up their orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in November. And a key category that signals business investment plans climbed at the fastest pace in 10 months.
The surge in orders for durable goods, which are products expected to last at least three years, was the latest evidence of a rebound in manufacturing. The gains will likely provide support for the economy into 2014.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that orders for durable goods jumped 3.5 percent last month compared with October, when they had fallen 0.7 percent. The increase was led by a 21.8 percent surge in demand for commercial aircraft, which can be volatile.
Core capital goods, a category that tracks business investment, rose 4.5 percent, the biggest gain since January. This category is seen as a gauge of business plans to expand and modernize and as a measure of business confidence.
Sales of new homes slip 2.1 percent
WASHINGTON » New-home sales dipped in November, but the government released more positive figures for the previous three months, a sign that housing may be regaining strength after a summer lull.
Sales slipped 2.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The slight drop occurred after sales had surged to a rate of 474,000 in October. That was the fastest pace since 2008 and was 17.6 percent above the September level — the biggest one-month jump in 21 years.
The annual pace of new-home sales remains well below the 700,000 generally consistent with a healthy market. But economists are encouraged by a pickup in sales after a slowdown likely caused by higher mortgage rates.
Top investor considers bid for company
Cracker Barrel’s largest shareholder urged its board on Tuesday to consider selling the company – to him.
In a letter to the board, Sardar Biglari, who owns nearly 20 percent of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., based in Tennessee, through his investment firm, the Biglari Capital Corp., said it would take an "entrepreneurial mind" to improve the company’s earnings.
Biglari, whose previous attempts to gain a seat on Cracker Barrel’s board have failed, doesn’t just want the board to sell him the company.
He also wants it to help him amend Tennessee law, which he says restricts such a deal.
China’s credit tensions cause anxiety
BEIJING » For the second time in six months, a shortage of cash in one corner of China’s banking industry has stirred anxiety in financial markets.
Though tensions eased somewhat Tuesday after China’s central bank provided billions of dollars in short-term funding to banks, financial market analysts are keeping a close watch on developments in China’s credit markets. Because China is now the world’s second-largest economy, tensions there could have repercussions worldwide.
On Monday the interest rate charged on seven-day loans from one bank to another spiked to nearly 9 percent this week, well above the usual 2 to 3 percent. That came even after the Chinese central bank injected 300 billion yuan ($50 billion) of extra credit into the interbank market last week. On Tuesday the People’s Bank of China injected a further 29 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) into Chinese banks. This time the injection worked, and the rate banks pay each other on a one-week loan eased to 6.2 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.
On the Move
Hawaiian Airlines has appointed Lisa Parker director of the shared services, training and development division. She has more than 10 years of instructional design, curriculum development and strategic planning experience in higher education.
D.R. Horton-Schuler Division has announced:
>> Bob Bruhl will run the company’s Hawaii operations. He has worked for D.R. Horton-Schuler Division since 2003, serving in several management positions.
>> Tracy Nagata has been promoted to a senior executive position and will oversee their statewide development. She joined the company in 2003 and was previously working as an architect in local firms.
>> Alan Labbe has been promoted to a senior executive position and will oversee all construction statewide.
>> Cameron Nekota will oversee all of the company’s real estate acquisition efforts and was previously responsible for the Hoopili development in West Oahu.
