Business Highlights
Roundup of top economy stories
Amazon won’t be forced to restore web service to Parler after a federal judge ruled Thursday against a plea to reinstate the fast-growing social media app favored by followers of former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said she wasn’t dismissing Parler’s “substantive underlying claims” against Amazon but said it fell short in demonstrating the need for an injunction forcing it back online. Amazon kicked Parler off its web-hosting service last week, and in court filings said the suspension was a “last resort” to block it from harboring violent plans to disrupt the presidential transition.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Facebook is passing the buck for its indefinite suspension of former president Donald Trump to a quasi-independent oversight board, setting up a major test of the recently established panel. The social media giant said Thursday that it believes it made the right decision to suspend Trump after he incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a deadly assault on Jan. 6. But it said it’s referring the matter to the oversight board for what it called an “independent judgment” on on upholding the decision. Twitter, by contrast, has permanently banned Trump from its platform.
CASPER, Wyo. — The U.S. government has approved routes for a potential system of pipelines that would move carbon dioxide across Wyoming. The greenhouse gas could be captured from coal-fired power plants, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it causes global warming. The captured gas would instead be pumped underground to boost production from oil fields. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management designated 1,100 miles of federal land for pipeline development through the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed the plans Friday, days before leaving office with the rest of President Donald Trump’s administration.
WASHINGTON — U.S. long-term mortgage rates slipped this week while remaining at record-low levels. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reports that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixedrate home loan eased to 2.77% from 2.79% last week. The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate loans declined to 2.21% from 2.23%. The damage from the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. and global economies suppressed home loan rates through most of 2020. Economists forecast modest increases in mortgage rates this year. But they likely will remain relatively low as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero as needed until the economy recovers, Freddie Mac’s chief economist says.
WASHINGTON — U.S. home construction jumped 5.8% in December to 1.67 million units, a 14-year high, as housing wrapped up its best year since 2006. The better-than-expected December gain followed an increase of 9.8% in November when housing starts climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.58 million units, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The December pace was the strongest since a building rate of 1.72 million units in September 2006.