Rise in 30-year mortgage rates marks third week in a row

WASHINGTON » Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates are up for the third straight week. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.85 percent this week from 3.8 percent a week earlier. The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 3.07 percent from 3.02 percent. Both rates were the highest since mid-March.

Still, mortgage rates remain low by historic standards. A year ago the 30-year rate was 4.2 percent, and the 15-year was 3.29 percent.

Long-term mortgage rates are rising along with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes, which is up to 2.24 percent from less than 1.9 percent in mid-April. The higher rates reflect some signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate tumbled last month to 5.4 percent, its lowest since May 2008.

NextEra to stream shareholders meeting

NextEra Energy, the Florida-based company looking to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries, will stream a live webcast of its annual shareholders meeting at 5 a.m. Thursday. Participants can access the webcast on NextEra’s website, www.NextEraEnergy.com, by clicking the link on the home page. A replay of the NextEra Energy meeting webcast will be available on the website through the first week of June.

Takata air bag recall reaches 33 million

TOKYO » Honda’s new recall of vehicles with Takata air bags Thursday has brought the total recalls for the potentially deadly devices to more than 33 million. Honda recalled an additional 4.89 million vehicles around the world, a day after Toyota and Nissan announced similar recalls.

On the Move

» HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union announced that Josh Thompson has joined the credit union as a business loan officer. He will be responsible for loan acquisition and processing of business requests.

» Planning Solutions announced that Jim Hayes has joined its Hono­lulu office as a principal environmental planner. He previously served as a senior supervising planner at Parsons Brinckerhoff and has more than 20 years’ experience in the environmental planning field.

Ship Ahoy!

Today’s ship arrivals and departures: