30-year mortgage rate inches up to 3.86 percent

WASHINGTON » Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week yet remained near historic lows reached in May 2013.

Long-term rates resumed their upward trend of recent weeks after declining last week. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.86 percent from 3.75 percent last week.

The average rate for a 15-year mortgage, popular with homeowners who refinance, rose to 3.10 percent from 3.03 percent last week.

A year ago, the average 30-year mortgage stood at 4.37 percent and the 15-year mortgage at 3.38 percent. Mortgage rates have remained low even though the Federal Reserve in October ended its monthly bond purchases, which were meant to hold down long-term rates.

BioEnergy Hawaii to build treatment plant

BioEnergy Hawaii LLC, a designer, developer and operator of waste treatment and alternative energy systems, said Thursday it is planning to develop a waste treatment plant on the west side of Hawaii island near the Puuanahulu Landfill. The $50 million facility will accept municipal solid waste delivered by local waste collection companies, diverting 70 percent of incoming waste from the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill.

Recycling materials will be recovered and sent to local recycling markets. Wet organic waste will be processed into fertilizer and compost. The facility also will recover biogas that can be used to generate electricity or compressed to create an alternative transportation fuel. The residual solid fuel portion such as mixed paper, textiles, low-value plastic and wood will be processed into a post-recycled engineered fuel.

Construction is set to begin in the summer of 2016.

Google targets ‘unwanted software’

SAN FRANCISCO » Get ready to see more red warning signs online as Google adds ammunition to its technological artillery for targeting devious schemes lurking on websites. The latest weapon is aimed at websites riddled with "unwanted software" — a term that Google uses to describe secretly installed programs that can change a browser’s settings without a user’s permission. Those revisions can unleash a siege of aggravating ads or redirect a browser’s users to search engines or other sites that they didn’t intend to visit.

Google already had deployed the warning system to alert users of its Chrome browser that they were about to enter a site distributing unwanted software. The Mountain View, Calif., company just recently began to feed the security information into a broader "safe browsing" application that also works in Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers.

U.S. household wealth hits record $83 trillion

WASHINGTON » Fueled by higher stock and home values, Americans’ net worth reached a record high in the final three months of 2014.

Household wealth rose 1.9 percent during the October-December quarter to nearly $83 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Stock and mutual fund portfolios gained $742 billion, while the value of Americans’ homes rose $356 billion.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill to be sold at loss

After only two years of ownership, Ignite Restaurant Group Inc. said Thursday that it would sell Romano’s Macaroni Grill to Phoenix-based Redrock Partners for about $8 million in cash. The deal marks a huge loss for Houston-based Ignite, which bought Romano’s in 2013 for $55 million in cash from private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill, founded in 1988, has about 150 restaurants nationwide, including in Honolulu and Waikoloa on Hawaii island, as well as a handful outside the U.S.

On The Move

» Starwood Hotels & Resorts has named Stephanie Dowling as director of communications for the Hawaii region. She has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing, communications and public relations, including joining Starwood Hotels in August 2006. In September 2013, Dowling was named regional director of public relations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii.

» Hawaii National Bank has hired Stephanie Chan as a loan officer for its commercial real estate department. She has five years of banking experience and was previously serving as a commercial banking officer specializing in business development and loans, customer service and portfolio management.

Ship Ahoy!

Friday’s ship arrivals and departures: