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Briefcase

GM income hits 10-year high

General Motors Co. reported net income of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, more than triple what it made in the first quarter of last year. It was the best quarter for the company in at least a decade.

New, fuel-efficient products like the Chevrolet Cruze compact and Equinox crossover helped push up GM’s revenue and profit. But it also had a $1.6 billion gain from selling a stake in Delphi Automotive LLC, its former parts division. Without one-time gains, GM still made a healthy $1.7 billion.

Associated Press

Fed official calls for hike

WASHINGTON – A Federal Reserve official says the central bank should raise interest rates this year to guard against inflation.

Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, is part of a vocal minority that thinks the Fed will need to reverse course this year and start tightening credit.

Kocherlakota says the Fed should raise its key interest rate, now near zero, by one-half percentage point. He says even with the increase, rates would still be considered low by historical standards.

Associated Press

Mortgage rates dip

Freddie Mac said the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.71 percent and the rate on the 15-year fixed loan slipped to 3.89 percent. It was the third straight decline.

The rate on the 30-year home loan matched this year’s low reached in January. The rate on the 15-year mortgage dipped to its lowest level this year.

Associated Press

Late Easter helped Nordstrom

SEATTLE – Clothing store Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday that revenue rose 7.6 percent in April at stores open at least a year, helped by the late Easter.

Still, that was less than the 8.1 percent that analysts had predicted.

Revenue in stores open at least a year is a key measure of a company’s health, because it excludes the impact of newly opened or closed stores. Total revenue, which includes that impact, rose 14 percent to $726 million.

Nordstrom, based in Seattle, is scheduled to report first-quarter results next week.

Associated Press