Federal Way
Washington credit unions add 173,000 customers
Washington credit unions added 173,464 customers in the third quarter, boosting membership 9.4 percent for the year, according to a new report by Callahan & Associates Inc. in Washington, D.C.
And the Washington Credit Union League expects new membership to rise more than 10 percent by the end of 2009, said David Bennett, a spokesman for the league, which is based in Olympia.
The latest tally shatters all previous quarterly membership increases and brings Washington state’s total credit union membership to 2,795,489 in the third quarter.
ATLANTA
Costco drops Coca-Cola products as feud worsens
Costco customers will have to look elsewhere for Coca-Cola products now that the retailer has stopped carrying them because the pair are fighting over prices.
As shoppers continue to grapple with the recession, retailers want to win their favor by giving them low prices. But that has been creating tension between product makers like Coca-Cola Co., who are working hard to maintain profit margins while meeting retailer demands.
NEW YORK
Home Depot profit fell 9 percent in third quarter
Home Depot Inc., the nation’s largest home-improvement retailer, said Tuesday that third quarter profit fell 9 percent as demand remained soft amid the weak housing market. No. 2 home-improvement chain Lowe’s also reported a third-quarter drop in revenue and profit a day earlier.
Cost cuts helped Home Depot top expectations and led it to raise its full-year earnings guidance, but the company did not raise its revenue outlook.
Net income was $689 million, or 41 cents per share, for the quarter ended Nov. 1, topping analyst predictions of 36 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters poll.
NEW YORK
Mortgage delinquency rate hits record as pace slows
The pace at which people fell behind on their mortgages slowed during the summer for the third consecutive quarter, but the overall delinquency rate hit another record, a new report shows.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, 6.25 percent of U.S. mortgage loans were 60 or more days past due, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion. That’s up 58 percent from 3.96 percent a year ago.
Being two months behind is considered a first step toward foreclosure, because it’s so hard to catch up with payments at that point.
The rate was up 7.6 percent from the second quarter. That’s a much smaller jump than the 11.3 percent rise in the second quarter from the first, and the 14 percent leap seen in the quarter before that.
