Lowe’s Cos. on Friday introduced an incentive program giving customers paying with a store credit card a 5 percent discount on in-stock and special-order purchases. The discount applies to purchases made both in stores and online.
Under the program, customers with single-receipt purchases of $299 or more can choose between the 5 percent discount and a special financing offer. The deals can’t be combined, and the card carries no annual fee.
Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has a similar program that offers customers 5 percent off purchases made in stores and online with a RedCard.
Treasury’s toxic assets vehicle up $1.7B
The Treasury Department said an investment program set up during the financial crisis to buy toxic assets from banks is showing a $1.7 billion gain.
The department has committed $22.1 billion in taxpayer funds to the Public-Private Investment Program, which was created in March 2009. That money has been used to set up funds that have invested in mortgage-backed securities and other financial assets. The goal is to take those assets off the books of large banks that faced huge losses from bad real estate investments during the housing bubble.
The department has earned more than $500 million in dividends and other profits from the investments, Treasury said. And Treasury’s share of the securities held in the funds has increased in value by $1.2 billion.
FareCompare.com restores Delta data
FareCompare.com, a large airfare comparison shopping site, has restored fare and flight information for Delta Air Lines three months after the data disappeared in an ongoing dispute among airlines and online travel sites.
FareCompare, a “meta” search site that doesn’t sell tickets but rather culls fare and flight information and provides links to airlines and other sites for booking, was getting its Delta fare information from Orbitz, said CEO Rick Seaney.
He said Delta requested that Orbitz.com stop supplying fare information to “downstream affiliates” sites such as FareCompare as part of a move by it and other airlines to trim ticket distribution costs by cutting out some of the middlemen.
Delta also withdrew its fares from a dozen online sites including CheapoAir.com, OneTravel.com and Bookit.com.
Commercial, industrial loans decrease
U.S. banks’ commercial and industrial loans decreased $3.3 billion to about $1.245 trillion in the week ended April 13, the latest week for which data are available, the Federal Reserve said Friday.
That followed a $3.7 billion increase the previous week.
Jumbo certificates of deposit rose $16.3 billion to about $1.791 trillion in the latest weekly data, after rising $20.4 billion the previous week. Revolving home equity loans fell $500 million to $571.1 billion after rising $100 million the previous week.
Pfizer confirms drug-study death
Pfizer Inc. confirmed that one patient who was taking its drug candidate tofacitinib, a pill designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, died during a recent clinical trial and said the death was connected to the drug.
The world’s largest drugmaker said the patient died of respiratory failure. Three other patients who took tofacitinib died as well, but those deaths were not determined to be drug-related.
Tofacitinib, formerly called tasocitinib, is being tested as a treatment for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation, usually of the hands and feet.
More than 1,000 patients have taken tofacitinib during clinical trials. The New York company said the overall death rate in those studies is similar to what has been observed in other biologic treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
States settle with John Hancock Life
Nearly two dozen states have reached an agreement with John Hancock Life Insurance Co. to settle a dispute over how the Boston insurer pays life insurance policies and annuities.
John Hancock executive vice president and general counsel Jonathan Chiel said Friday the company would improve its claims practices under the agreement with 23 states. He said the settlement was reached Thursday.
The move comes after an audit by 35 states and the District of Columbia alleged abuses with life insurance policies and annuity contracts. Minnesota was not one of the states.
The values of more than 6,200 accounts will be restored.
John Hancock, a subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corp., denies any allegations or characterizations of wrongdoing under the settlement, which was revealed Friday by the California state controller.
Briefly National
American Apparel Inc. has secured rescue financing from a group of private Canadian investors that could pump as much as $43 million into the troubled clothing retailer. … Tenet Healthcare Corp.‘s board has unanimously rejected Community Health Systems Inc.‘s revised $3.3 billion bid, saying the cash offer “substantially undervalues” the hospital chain and that Tenet has grown more concerned about Community’s business practices. … A lawyer for bookseller Borders Group Inc. said a judge has approved paying executives up to $6.6 million in bonuses as the company works to reorganize under bankruptcy court protection. The Office of the U.S. Trustee objected to an earlier request to pay about $8 million in bonuses.
