Byline: Compiled from Rocky Mountain News staff and wire service reports.
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CORRECTION PUBLISHED AUGUST 9, 1997 FOLLOWS: An item on page 2B Friday incorrectly reported the headquarters of Evergreen Media Corp., which is located in Irving, Texas.
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NATIONAL
GOODS PILE UP: Inventories of goods at the nation's wholesalers piled up in June at the fastest pace since the recession year of 1982, as businesses coped with a lull in sales. Wholesale inventories rose a larger-than-expected 1.9 percent during the month to $263.931 billion, Commerce Department figures showed.
Analysts expected a 0.3 percent increase.
June sales, meantime, rose 0.3 percent to $210.69 billion, the first increase since February.
INTEREST JUMPS: U.S. interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages jumped to 7.46 percent this week after hitting a 17-and-a-half-month low the week before.
The average increased from 7.36 percent a week earlier, the lowest since Feb. 22, 1996, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
It was the first increase in 10 weeks.
Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for those refinancing mortgages, averaged 7 percent this week, up from 6.9 percent a week earlier, which was the lowest since March 7, 1996.
On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.53 percent this week, up from 5.49 percent last week.
BONDS FALL: Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds fell in Thursday's auction to the lowest level in 18 months. The average yield was 6.445 percent, down from 6.640 percent at the last auction on Feb. 13. It was the lowest rate since 30-year bonds sold for 6.119 percent on Feb. 8, 1996.
The bonds will carry a coupon interest rate of 6.38 percent with each $10,000 in face value selling for $9,907.60.
MORE COMPANIES: In another sign of the strong U.S. economy, the number of for-profit business incorporations increased 3 percent last year, topping the previous year's record, Dun & Bradstreet reported Thursday.
There were 790,569 domestic incorporations in 1996, besting the record of 768,180 set a year earlier. The Mountain states, up 12 percent, had the most dramatic growth.
BORROWING STALLS: Borrowing by U.S. consumers unexpectedly stalled in June, as demand for auto and other personal loans declined. It was the first month without an increase in consumer borrowing in more than four years.
Borrowing was unchanged at $1.217 trillion after rising a revised $2.5 billion in May, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
NEW APPLE IMAGE: Apple Computer Inc., moving quickly after making peace with industry rival Microsoft, is expected to rehire the advertising agency responsible for the famous ``1984'' commercial that introduced its Macintosh personal computer.
Apple is expected to announce today that it has hired TBWA Chiat / Day for its domestic advertising account.
LOCAL
EVERGREEN BUYING: Boulder-based Evergreen Media Corp. and Chancellor Broadcasting Co. said they paid $3 million for an option that allows them to buy radio stations in New York and Houston from Bonneville International Corp. for $57 million.
The option also gives the broadcasters the right to take the format and signal of one of Bonneville's Los Angeles stations in exchange for Evergreen's WTOP-AM station and Chancellor's WGMS-FM, both in Washington, D.C.
The companies will also swap Chancellor's KZLA-FM format and signal for the same as Bonneville's KBIG-FM, as well as Chancellor's WGMS-FM and Evergreen's WTOP-AM stations in Washington.
BANKRUPTCY: Denver-based Western Fidelity Funding Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company announced Thursday.
The company had previously said that if it was unable to make arrangements with creditors, obtain additional financings or enter into a business combination, it would likely file for bankruptcy protection.
RETAIL UP: Colorado retail sales rose 11.8 percent in May, blossoming back to double-digit growth compared with the same month last year, according to a state report.
Retail sales for the six-county metropolitan area rose 11.4 percent.
The growth rates reported Wednesday have not been seen since September 1994, when retail trade sales hit 14 percent over the previous year.
HOSPICE CARE: Hospice of Metro Denver, a nonprofit group that cares for the terminally ill, will open a large inpatient center next year at the former Mercy Medical Center in Denver. Precedent Health Partners, a physician group that bought the Mercy property last month for $8 million, will allow the hospice to occupy 17,000 square feet rent-free, said board chairman Dr. Richard Abrams.
APPOINTMENT: Pacificare of Colorado has appointed Dr. Leigh Truitt vice president for medical management and quality improvement.
Truitt, a past president of the Colorado Medical Society, will be in charge of quality improvement, utilization control, disease management and health promotion for the HMO.
Currently Truitt is a health care consultant and publisher of the Rocky Mountain Health Care Observer.
