New Everett bank already in the black
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 10, 2007
Everett’s Mountain Pacific Bank earned a $25,000 profit for the quarter ending March 31. The new bank started earning a profit in its sixth month of operation and recorded positive earnings for each of the three months in the past quarter, officials said. It’s also exceeded $50 million in assets in March, which officials said was a significant milestone. It had an initial stock sale of $16.5 million.
Gas prices dip just below $3.50 mark
Just as the average cost of fueling up threatened to bump over $3.50 a gallon at local service stations, it finally edged down slightly. From Wednesday to Thursday, the average cost of regular unleaded fuel in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area fell a half-penny – from $3.453 a gallon to $3.448, according to AAA. Washington state’s average of $3.41 still is second only in the 50 states to California’s $3.49.
Viacom earnings hit by steep drop
Viacom Inc.’s earnings fell 36 percent in the first quarter, weighed down by higher marketing expenses for movies and a restructuring charge at its MTV group, the media company reported Thursday, but the results still beat analysts’ estimates. Viacom earned $202.9 million, or 29 cents a share, in the three months ended March 31, down from $317.2 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier.
Oil imports spike U.S. trade deficit
The trade deficit shot up in March to the highest level in six months, driven by a big jump in imported oil. The politically sensitive deficit with China shrank as U.S. exports to that country hit an all-time high. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gap between what the United States imports and what it sells to the rest of the world rose to $63.9 billion in March, up 10.4 percent from the February level.
Tax collections hit record high
Federal revenue collections hit an all-time high in April, contributing to a further improvement in the budget deficit for the year. So far this year, tax revenues total $1.505 trillion, an increase of 11.2 percent over the same period last year. So far this year, tax revenues total $1.505 trillion, an increase of 11.2 percent over the same period last year. That figure includes $383.6 billion collected in April, the largest monthly tax collection on record. Tax collections swell in April every year as individuals file their tax returns.
Dairy costs blamed for Hershey slump
The Hershey Co. blamed a sluggish domestic business and higher dairy costs for lowering its earnings growth estimate for this year to 4 percent to 6 percent, down from the 7 percent to 9 percent range it forecast last month. It maintained its forecast of sales growth in the 3 percent to 4 percent range. The maker of Reese’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Ice Breakers gum has pledged to put more muscle into advertising and marketing to invigorate sales after it stumbled in late 2006.
From Herald staff
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