In brief: AmericanWest quitting Nasdaq

AmericanWest Bancorporation on Thursday notified Nasdaq it will voluntarily delist its shares as of March 24, six months after the exchange told the Spokane bank holding company its stock no longer met criteria for continued trading.

Specifically, the stock has not traded above the $1-per-share threshold since last April.

The company said it expects trading will continue on the OTC Bulletin Board, where spokeswoman Kelly McPhee said other regional banks have found success.

She said the high cost of maintaining the listing did not justify the expense of undertaking a reverse split of shares or other measures that would have brought AmericanWest back into compliance with Nasdaq requirements.

She said a decision to seek relisting on a national exchange will be made after consultation with future investors in the bank, which does not meet FDIC guidelines for adequate capital.

The announcement was made after the close of trading. AmericanWest shares closed down one cent at 42 cents. Trading volume was slightly above the three-month daily average of 60,000.

Bert Caldwell

Retailers report increasing sales

Los Angeles – The retail industry’s slow but steady recovery picked up the pace in February, with the nation’s merchants posting the best sales results in more than two years.

Despite severe snowstorms in the East, shoppers still turned out at the nation’s malls to buy spring merchandise and other goods, helping retailers report a 4 percent year-over-year sales increase last month, according to Thomson Reuters’ tally of 28 major chains.

It was the strongest gain since November 2007, a month before the recession began, and the sixth-consecutive month of increases.

Los Angeles Times

Mortgage rates below 5 percent

McLean, Va. – Mortgages rates have dipped below 5 percent again, four weeks before a government program that is helping keep rates low is scheduled to run out.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.97 percent this week, down from 5.05 percent a week earlier, mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent in December and have hovered around 5 percent since, kept down by a Federal Reserve campaign to spur homebuying by lowering how much it costs to get a home loan.

The central bank’s $1.25 trillion program to buy up mortgage securities is set to expire March 31. But the Fed has held the door open to extending the program if the economy weakens.

Associated Press