IN BRIEF
Investors pay fee for Hooters Hotel buy
The investment group working to buy Hooters Hotel made a $500,000 nonrefundable, nonapplicable fee payment Monday to retain exclusive purchase rights for the property.
Hedwigs Las Vegas Top Tier had hoped to close the deal by Monday, but decided to activate a one-month extensions because of the of late-year downturn in the capital markets.
The investment group will have to make monthly $500,000 nonapplicable payments until June 30 if the deal does not close before then to prevent other parties from negotiating a sale with Hooters Hotel, according to a purchase agreement signed with the hotel's parent company, 155 East Tropicana, last year.
Hedwigs paid $3 million in nonrefundable deposits towards the purchase price in 2007.
Hedwigs principal Richard Bosworth said the lending community will re-evaluate the transaction, which is approximately $235 million with debt, in the first quarter of 2008.
Power rates declining; gas prices up in valley
Electric rates are declining slightly, and natural gas rates are slated to increase a little in Southern Nevada.
Nevada Power filed a notice that it intends to lower rates for single-family residential homes by 1.18 percent starting today. The average monthly bill for 1,250 kilowatt hours will decline $1.80 to $152.90.
The electric company is making the change to reflect changes in the cost of wholesale power and fuel costs.
Southwest Gas Corp. late Friday filed a notice that it was raising rates by 0.4 percent effective Feb. 1 to offset rising prices for natural gas purchased for customers in Southern Nevada.
The winter bill of the typical residential customer will increase 20 cents to $78.66. The average monthly increase, which factors low gas use periods during warm weather, will be 13 cents.
The rate adjustment will increase annual revenues in Southern Nevada by $1.2 million, but it includes no profit for the gas utility, only dollar for dollar recovery of the cost of the fuel, spokeswoman Cynthia Messina said.
NEW YORK
Painful market year closes with down day
Wall Street ended a painful year with another steep loss Monday as investors glumly anticipated that 2008 would bring more of the uncertainty and turbulence of 2007.
The Dow Jones industrials fell 101 points, the latest in a string of triple-digit moves that became common in the just-ended year amid a continuum of bad news about housing, faltering mortgages and shrinking credit. Thanks to a big first-half advance, they managed to finish 2007 with a respectable increase of 6.43 percent -- not as large as the 16.29 percent jump in 2006, but a better performance than the modest loss in 2005.
The Dow fell 101.05, or 0.76 percent, to 13,264.82. The blue-chip index remains below its Oct. 9 record high of 14,164.53, at which point it was up more than 13 percent year-to-date.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index also declined Monday, but both posted annual gains for the fifth straight year.
The S&P 500 index fell 10.13, or 0.69 percent, to 1,468.36, to end 2007 with a gain of 3.53 percent. It had reached a record close of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9.
ST. PAUL, Minn.
Travelers settlement to total $6 million
The Travelers Cos., one of the nation's largest commercial insurers, has settled a lawsuit and separately will pay $6 million to settle several state investigations over how it paid brokers, the company and the Florida Attorney General said on Monday.
Travelers did not disclose how much it was paying to settle the 2004 shareholder lawsuit over contingent payments to brokers and allegations that it rigged bids. The company had lost an earlier effort to dismiss the lawsuit, which sought class action status.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum alleged that Travelers conspired with brokers to submit fake bids even though the brokers had already determined which insurer would get business from a policyholder. Travelers paid "contingent commissions" to these brokers, and these commissions were not disclosed to policyholders, according to a complaint signed by McCollum.
Vonage Holdings settles patent lawsuit
Vonage Holdings Corp., the second-largest Internet phone-service provider, resolved a patent dispute with Nortel Networks Corp. that threatened to shut down some of Vonage's calling features.
The companies will each license three patents to the other, Nortel spokesman Mohammed Nakhooda said today in a statement. They'll drop claims of past damages, and dismiss those related to other patents, Vonage and Nortel said. Vonage shares rose the most since October.
The agreement leaves Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage with one major patent dispute left to fight, according to a list of cases the company included in a Nov. 14 regulatory filing. Vonage settled at least four other patent suits this year.
WASHINGTON
Interest rates mixed in Treasury auction
Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction.
The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 3.310 percent, up from 3.280 percent last week. Another $19 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 3.39 percent, down from 3.49 percent last week.
NEW YORK
Treasury prices rally as year comes to close
Treasury prices rallied in the final session of 2007 as investors who turned to the safety of government bonds throughout a turbulent year hedged once more against a variety of risks. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 0.34 points to close at 101.78 with a yield of 4.02 percent, down from 4.12 percent late Friday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The 30-year long bond gained 0.5 points to 117.59 with a yield of 4.45 percent, down from 4.50 percent late Friday.
