US home construction up 4.4 percent in December

WASHINGTON — Construction of new homes rebounded in December, helping to push activity for the entire year to the highest level since the peak of the housing boom nine years ago.

Builders started construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million in December, an increase of 4.4 percent from November when unusually severe weather pushed activity down a revised 4.5 percent, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

For all of 2014, builders started construction on 1.01 million new homes and apartments, an increase of 8.8 percent from 2013. It was the first time construction has topped 1 million since the height of the housing boom in 2005, when builders started work on 2.07 million homes. Construction activity plunged to 587,000 in 2010 and has been making a slow recovery since then.

Housing construction topping the 1-million mark for the first time since 2005 adds to signs that the world's largest economy is on solid footing. The economy created nearly 3 million new jobs last year, the best showing since 1999. Economists believe the reviving labor market will drive further gains in housing this year.

President Barack Obama highlighted the improving economy in his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night, describing 2014 a "breakthrough year for America."

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, called the housing report good news. While building permits fell for a second straight month, she said all the weakness in permits occurred in the apartment sector.

"The housing system has some good support systems in place," she said, noting that many banks have relaxed some requirements for home buyers. The unemployment rate for 25- to 34-year-olds, the biggest sector for first-time home buyers, has also dropped to a six-year low.

For December, construction of single-family homes rose 7.2 percent while the smaller apartment sector, which can be volatile from month to month, fell 0.8 percent.

Applications for building permits dropped 1.9 percent in December to 1.03 million after a 3.7 percent decline in November.

By region, housing construction rose 12.5 percent in the Northeast and was up 8.8 percent in the South and 5.8 percent in the West. The Midwest was the only region to record a decline in December, falling 13.3 percent.

Despite the recent weakness in building permits, economists are forecasting continued gains in home construction in 2015. That optimism stems from rising employment and favorable demographics that are expected to drive future construction as more young people decide to purchase a home.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index stood at 57 in January, down slightly from a revised reading of 58 in December. Readings above 50 indicate that more builders view sales conditions as good rather than poor.

Broader economic trends point favorably for future sales. The unemployment rate fell in December to 5.6 percent in December. Nearly 3 million jobs were created last year in the best performance since 1999.

And mortgage interest rates remain near historic lows. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage just dropped for a third consecutive week, falling to 3.66 percent, its lowest level since May 2013.

Though new homes represent only a fraction of the housing market, they have an outsized impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to data compiled by the home builders.

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APNewsBreak: Family of man killed in Morgan crash settles

NEW YORK — The family of a comedian killed in the New Jersey Turnpike crash that seriously injured Tracy Morgan last summer has settled a wrongful death claim with Wal-Mart, an attorney representing the family said.

The out-of-court settlement between the company and the estate of James McNair is the first stemming from the June 7 crash in which a Wal-Mart truck slammed into a limo van carrying Morgan and the others home from a show in Delaware.

Morgan, a former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident, according to his lawyer, and his lawsuit against Wal-Mart is proceeding in federal court. Criminal charges against truck driver Kevin Roper are pending in state court.

McNair, 62, of Peekskill, New York, was a friend and mentor to Morgan. He died at the scene.

Attorney Daryl Zaslow told The Associated Press that the terms of the settlement decree that the amount is to be kept confidential, but he said the family was pleased with the outcome.

Wal-Mart "accepted their responsibility by making this family more than whole," he said. "They caused extensive damage to this family and more than stepped up to the plate and took care of this family. Ultimately they did the right thing by the McNairs."

Zaslow added: "No amount of money can replace what they've lost, but what they've got will take care of them and allow them to move forward, and their father would be happy for that."

Zaslow said McNair's children, 19-year-old Danita and 26-year-old Jamel, purposely stayed out of the spotlight in the months after their father's death to avoid the media frenzy surrounding the case.

Under terms of the settlement, Wal-Mart admitted no liability in the crash, Zaslow said, adding that the settlement was reached before the formal filing of a lawsuit. A Wal-Mart spokesman didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Roper, the driver, has been charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto. According to the criminal complaint, Roper was operating the truck without having slept for more than 24 hours.

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board estimated that Roper was driving 65 mph in the 60 seconds before he slammed into the limo van. The speed limit on that stretch of the turnpike is 55 mph and was lowered to 45 mph that night because of construction.

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Oscar de la Hoya to launch boxing tv channel

MIAMI -- Oscar de la Hoya is planning to launch a TV channel designed to take viewers behind the scenes of the boxing biz.

De la Hoya, a 10-time World Champion boxer, has partnered with Mexican boxing mogul Pepe Gomez to launch de la Hoya TV: Beyond Boxing. De la Hoya made the announcement Tuesday night in Miami Beach at the NATPE TV programming convention.

Victor Hugo Montero, CEO of de la Hoya TV, said he was at NATPE to pitch the channel to cable operators and digital distributors. The plan is to launch it by next month as an OTT offering and later as a cable VOD and hopefully linear channel.

De la Hoya said the channel would be Spanish-language "targeting toward Hispanics here in the U.S."

Programming plans include following top fighters as they prepare for bouts and other aspects of training. It will also have a Mexico-centric lifestyle component focused on destinations and hot spots in the country.

De la Hoya and his partners were short on other details but said they were confident the channel would begin rolling out in the next two months. "This business venture really excites me," de la Hoya said.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Supreme Court may weaken housing bias cases

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court could knock out a decades-old strategy for fighting housing discrimination, a move that would make it tougher for people to win lawsuits claiming housing policies are biased.

When the justices take the bench on Wednesday, they will consider whether housing or lending practices that have a negative impact on minorities and other protected groups can be considered illegal, even if there is no proof of intent to discriminate.

Civil rights groups have tried desperately to keep the issue away from the high court, fearing that conservative justices are all too eager to quash the use of so-called "disparate impact" lawsuits.

Two similar cases out of Minnesota and New Jersey reached the court in recent years, but those were strategically settled in 2012 and 2013 just weeks before oral argument — in one case at the behest of the Obama administration.

Yet the court took up another case challenging the strategy last year, this time from Texas. Fair housing advocates say that's unusual because every appeals court to consider the issue has upheld the use of disparate impact claims. Hearing arguments over the new case suggests the high court wants to end the strategy, they said.

"I don't think we can kid ourselves that the court is not aggressively interested in this issue," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

There is no indication the latest case from Texas has a chance of settling. It involves an appeal from officials accused of awarding federal housing tax credits in a way that steered low-income housing into mostly poor, black neighborhoods in Dallas and generally kept the units out of wealthier white enclaves.

A Dallas-based fair housing group, Inclusive Communities Project Inc., sued the Texas Department of Housing and Community Development in 2008. The group alleged that agency policies were keeping Dallas neighborhoods segregated and denying blacks a chance to move into safer neighborhoods with better schools.

The housing advocacy group couldn't prove Texas officials were intentionally biased. But a federal appeals court said the group could use statistics to show the effect of the policies still harmed black residents, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Texas officials say disparate impact claims would essentially force them to make race-conscious decisions to avoid liability. And while disparate impact is allowed under employment discrimination cases, they say it is not explicitly mentioned in the Fair Housing Act.

Texas has won support from business groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, the American Financial Services Association and others arguing that federal housing law should punish only intentional acts of discrimination.

But fair housing advocates say eliminating such claims means courts will recognize only the crudest forms of intentional discrimination and not more subtle forms of bias that persist today.

The Obama administration has made disparate impact lawsuits a centerpiece of its efforts to target lending discrimination, winning hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements from financial companies accused of bias against black and Hispanic customers by charging them higher fees or steering them into higher-risk mortgages.

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Pharrell: 'Live Earth' concert to press for climate action

DAVOS, Switzerland — Pharrell Williams says he'll have all of humanity singing together at a worldwide concert June 18 to fight global warming.

The pop superstar is teaming with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore to produce a "Live Earth" concert on seven continents to build support for a U.N. climate pact in Paris among more than 190 nations in December.

On a stage Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos with producer Kevin Wall, Williams said "we literally are going to have humanity harmonize all at once" in support of a binding international accord to limit heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.

He said the purpose is "to have a billion voices with one message - to demand climate action now" from governments rather than to continue the world's reliance on fossil fuels.

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Hyundai sues over subway cars

A losing bidder is accusing the Patrick administration of illegally giving a rail enterprise owned by the repressive Communist Chinese government an "inside track" on a lucrative contract to manufacture Red and Orange Line subway cars last year.

In a blistering lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court yesterday, Hyundai Rotem Co. alleges China CNR Corporation, which now has a $566.6 million contract with the MBTA to produce 284 subway cars, unfairly benefited during the bid process when former Gov. Deval Patrick and former MassDOT head Richard Davey met privately with officials from a CNR joint venture during a "trade mission" to Hong Kong.

Patrick and Davey also relaxed previous bid requirements to favor CNR, the suit alleges.

Massachusetts awarded China CNR its first major North American subway car contract last year.

In a statement, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo defended the contract: "As part of a lengthy and thorough procurement process, the MBTA fully considered all materials submitted by each of the bidders, including Hyundai Rotem. Hyundai Rotem's bid was substantially higher than the successful bid and did not present the best value for the taxpayers of the Commonwealth, and so the MBTA did not award the contract to Hyundai Rotem. The MBTA does not believe that the complaint has any merit."

South Korea-based Hyundai Rotem, which claims it filed an administrative appeal with the state in November, demands in the suit that the contract be thrown out and that it be declared entitled to the contract because it produced the next lowest bid — $720.6 million.

"The procurement process was deeply and fundamentally flawed because the MBTA failed to put the bidders on equal footing, made arbitrary and capricious decisions, failed to adhere to the terms of the bid documents or do minimum due diligence of CNR, all in violation of Massachusetts General Laws," the suit contends.

Hyundai Rotem claims that during the December 2013 trade mission to Hong Kong, Patrick and Davey held "improper" private ex-parte discussions with officials from CNR's Chinese joint ventures regarding CNR's plans to build a North American headquarters in Springfield as part of the deal, but "no effort was made" to hold similar meetings with other bidders.

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Hong Kong airline has high hopes for Boston launch

Cathay Pacific Airways plans a full-court promotional blitz to get its brand and logo in front of New England travelers before its May 3 launch of nonstop flights between Boston and Hong Kong.

"The whole Cathay distribution machine will be out there telling people," corporate development director James Barrington said yesterday at a breakfast co-hosted by the Langham Boston and Hong Kong Association of Massachusetts. "It's been too long coming, because as we look at this market, it's going to be a pretty good one."

Boston is the largest U.S. market currently without direct Hong Kong service, and the new flights will open up business opportunities, leisure traffic — from tourists, students and their parents — and the flow of goods for New England, Barrington said.

"North America is where the future lies for our cargo business, and in particular capturing the huge two-way flows of goods between China and the U.S.," Barrington said. "While these trade lanes have been built largely on the outflow of goods from the key manufacturing regions in mainland China, now we are seeing more high-end consumer goods moving in the other direction as China's middle class grows in both numbers and spending power."

Larger and larger numbers of Asian investors are coming into Boston because of its high-tech sector and real estate, according to Johnny Ip, managing director of TW Capital Group LLC and president of the Hong Kong Association of Massachusetts. The group has been organizing trade missions from Hong Kong and China every quarter in the last few years to match businesses with U.S. corporations.

Cathay Pacific has seen 423 percent growth on its U.S. routes in terms of passengers carried to and from mainland China in the last eight years.

"Travel and tourism in the mainland are already substantial, and the projections for the future are staggering as urbanization continues and spending power continues to rise," Barrington said.

Chinese visitors are the biggest overseas spenders, plunking down $6,100 per person when they visit the United States, said Evan Saunders, CEO of Attract China, which helps hospitality businesses connect with independent Chinese travelers.

"It's a fantastically large deal," Saunders said of the Boston-Hong Kong flights. "It connects Boston and all of New England with a huge part of Asia, including much of southern China — cities below Beijing."

The Hong Kong airline's flights will leave both destinations four times a week.

"If it starts successfully and it works for us, we have the aircraft to move to daily (flights) in three to four months," Barrington said.

The direct Boston flights will shave about 4.5 hours off flights to Hong Kong that now stop in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Round-trip tickets for the inaugural 15.5-hour flight from Boston, returning May 30, yesterday started at $1,170 for economy, $2,185 for premium economy, $7,560 for business class and $18,850 for first class on Expedia.

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Japan central bank sees growth rebounding in coming year

TOKYO — Japan's central bank said Wednesday it expects the world's third largest economy to rebound in the coming fiscal year after contracting 0.5 percent this fiscal year, in an upbeat assessment that scuttled hopes for fresh stimulus.

The Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting without any major change to its ultra-loose monetary policy. Its massive asset purchases are injecting trillions of yen (billions of dollars) into Japan's economy each month to overcome deflation and economic stagnation.

"The bank's sanguine views suggest that the chances of near-term easing have diminished somewhat," Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

The central bank's decision to stand pat comes as the European Central Bank weighs whether or not to launch major stimulus measures of its own to ward off crippling deflation.

Japan's economy is in recession after a sales tax hike in April 2014 stifled demand. But the BOJ's statement said it was still on track for a moderate recovery.

The International Monetary Fund pointed to weakness in Europe and Japan, and the absence of a rebound in corporate investment in the advanced economies, as major concerns in an update of its economic outlook issued Tuesday.

"As for risks, the most obvious ones involve stagnation in the eurozone, or Japan or both," Olivier Blanchard, the IMF economic counsellor and director of research, said in a webcast.

"Sustained growth in Japan requires sustained demand and higher potential growth in the medium run, but at this stage potential growth is very, very low," he said.

Still, the BOJ said in a policy statement that it believes housing investment and manufacturing have "bottomed out."

Despite lower energy prices thanks to the drop in crude oil import costs in recent months, "inflation expectations" remain intact, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters. That will stimulate more economic activity, helping to push prices higher over time, he said.

The BOJ estimates the economy will contract 0.5 percent in the April 2014-March 2015 fiscal year. It previously forecast 0.5 percent growth. The bank cut its inflation forecast, excluding the tax hike, to 0.9 percent from 1.7 percent. It is targeting 2 percent inflation as part of its monetary stimulus goals.

The bank raised its growth forecast for the upcoming fiscal year to 2.1 percent from 1.5 percent.

Both the BOJ and the government are exhorting Japanese corporations, many of which are reaping record profits thanks to a weak yen and cheap credit, to boost wages. Such increases are needed to sustain growth by improving the purchasing power of Japanese households whose overall incomes have continued to fall.

"The upshot is that the chances of hitting the inflation target are slim without additional monetary stimulus," Thieliant said.

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Casinos, state lawmakers eye competition, see no consensus

HARTFORD, Conn. — Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot leaders and state lawmakers are trying unsuccessfully to figure out a way to confront the threat of casino competition from Massachusetts.

The Day of New London reports  that Kevin Brown, chairman of the Mohegan tribe, and Rodney Butler, his Mashantucket counterpart, met Tuesday with several members of the General Assembly's eastern Connecticut delegation.

Democratic Sen. Cathy Osten of Sprague said it's unclear the legislature can help the casinos fend off competition. She says the tribes weren't ready to say where they may want to expand and what they would need from the legislature.

Republican Rep. Mike France of Ledyard said another casino in Connecticut is possible, but lawmakers and tribal officials have yet to figure out the details of such a project.

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Information from: The Day, http://www.theday.com

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Microsoft to show off more Windows 10 features

REDMOND, Washington — Microsoft will use an event Wednesday to offer a wider glimpse of the next version of Windows.

The company is planning to show off new features of its flagship operating system — and possibly an improved Internet browser and more uses for Microsoft's voice-controlled digital assistant, Cortana. Executives will also demonstrate how the new Windows is designed to provide a more consistent experience and a common platform for software apps on different devices, from personal computers to tablets, smartphones and even the company's Xbox gaming console.

The company has invited journalists and industry analysts to Wednesday's event at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. CEO Satya Nadella plans to talk about the new system and the company's battle to stay relevant in a world where PC users are increasingly shifting to mobile gadgets and Internet apps.

Microsoft gave only a limited preview of Windows 10 last fall. More features will be announced as Microsoft gets closer to releasing it later this year.

The stakes are high for Microsoft. Its last Windows release alienated users with a new interface that many found difficult to navigate. Microsoft is hoping to win them back with an interface that is more familiar. Microsoft has said Windows 10 will resemble earlier versions of Windows for personal computers, while additional features will emerge automatically on touch-controlled tablets or other gadgets

"It can't be overstated how important this is for Microsoft," Gartner tech analyst Brian Blau said. "They've positioned Windows 10 as the solution to all the problems they created with Windows 8."

There won't be a Windows 9. Microsoft has skipped ahead in naming, from Windows 8 to Windows 10, as though to put more distance between them.

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