An owner of Alderwood mall has secured a two-week extension on $900 million in debt, which had been scheduled to come due last week. General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago continues to negotiate longer-term extensions with lenders to avoid bankruptcy, the company reported on Sunday. The $900 million mortgages cover two shopping malls owned by General Growth in Las Vegas. The nation’s second-largest mall owner struggles with its debts, as the financial crisis chokes the credit market. The company owns seven malls in Washington state, including Alderwood and Westlake Center in Seattle. Alderwood mall covers about 1.3 million square feet and is the biggest shopping mall in Snohomish County.
Shoppers kick off Cyber Monday
Retailers who saw Thanksgiving holiday sales drop off as the weekend progressed stepped up online promotions on the day known as Cyber Monday to try to get consumers tired of the crowds at stores to keep shopping. The Monday after Thanksgiving was dubbed Cyber Monday by the National Retail Federation trade group in 2005 to describe the unofficial kickoff to the online retail season.
Ford CEO will drive today to lobby D.C.
Ford Motor Co. says CEO Alan Mulally will travel by car for 520 miles when he makes his return trip to Washington, D.C., to seek $25 billion in government loans. Mulally, General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner and Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli were criticized last month when they flew to Washington in separate private jets to seek the bailout. Chrysler and GM say their CEOs will not fly by corporate jet. Automakers are to present business plans to Congress today.
Consumers can cut off ‘robocalls’
Federal Trade Commission rules took effect Monday saying telemarketing calls that are recorded in advance — also known as “robocalls” — from businesses or charities must include ways to opt out of future calls. Consumers are already supposed to be protected from unsolicited commercial calls if they’re on the national Do Not Call registry, but calls from businesses with which consumers have a relationship are permitted. They still are. But under the new rules, consumers must be given a way to cut off robocalls and to stop them from being sent again.
T-bill rates hit record lows Monday
The Treasury Department auctioned three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.05 percent, down from 0.15 percent last week. Six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.43 percent, down from 0.49 percent last week. Both the three-month rate and the six-month rate were at all-time lows. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,998.74 while a six-month bill sold for $9,978.26. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.051 percent for the three-month bills and 0.437 percent for the six-month bills. Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 0.93 percent last week from 0.96 percent the previous week.
From Herald staff and news services
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