Mortgage ratesrise to 4.16%
Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose slightly last week but remained near historically low levels.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 4.16 percent from 4.10 percent last week, which was the lowest level in four months.
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage rose to 3.27 percent from 3.20 percent.
Rates have been falling since September when the Federal Reserve surprised investors by continuing to buy $85 billion a month in bonds. The purchases are intended to keep long-term interest rates low.
HemaSource buys Knoxville business
A Salt Lake City, Utah, distributor of medical devices has purchased the blood supplies operations of the Knoxville-based Medical Supplies of America.
HemaSource, which is the largest supplier of medical disposables to the blood plasma collection industry, bought MSA in a deal brokered, in part, by FourBridges Capital Advisors in Chattanooga.
"HemaSource has the platform and resources to further the success of our blood plasma supplies operations," said Mike Hatcher, the largest shareholder of MSA. "We couldn't be happier with the outcome of this transaction, and we're grateful for the guidance that FourBridges provided as we navigated the deal process."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
UAW nominates new president
The United Auto Workers has nominated a longtime union organizer as its next president to succeed retiring UAW President Bob King.
Dennis Williams, the UAW's secretary-treasurer for the last three years, was nominated for the top union job by the UAW's leadership.
Williams, a Marine Corps veteran, joined the union in 1977 as a welder in Rock Island, Ill.
UAW members will elect a new president at the union's national convention in Detroit in June. Other candidates may choose to run, but no one has ever become president of the UAW without the leadership's endorsement.