Briefcase

Red Lion adding California properties

Red Lion Hotels Corp. will add two California properties early next year, the Spokane-based company said Wednesday.

A Fairfield Inn in Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento, will reopen as a Red Lion in January. The 111-room hotel built by Marriott as a Fairfield Inn does not have a restaurant.

The Red Lion brand will also be adopted by an independent, 189-room property at Oakland International Airport that offers full service, including a restaurant.

“Red Lion has been a very strong brand in California, and these hotels strengthen our footprint,” interim President Jon Eliassen said.

Red Lion, with 43 hotels in eight states and one Canadian province, wants to add 11 more properties in the Western U.S. and British Columbia, he said.

Bert Caldwell

Automobile sales strong in October

DETROIT – U.S. auto sales put in their strongest performance of the year in October as buyers grew more confident in the economy and new models lured them into dealerships.

Every major automaker but Toyota chalked up better results last month. Overall industry sales climbed 13.4 percent to 950,165.

October’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate – which shows what sales would be if they stayed at the same rate all year – was 12.26 million vehicles. That’s the best monthly rate since August 2009, when Cash for Clunkers spurred Americans to buy more cars and trucks.

Associated Press

Two reports claim economy growing

WASHINGTON – The economy is picking up a bit from its late summer doldrums, according to two reports Wednesday, with both the service and manufacturing sectors showing better health. Yet the gains aren’t likely to be enough to reduce high unemployment soon.

The service sector, which employs about 80 percent of Americans, grew faster in October than in the previous month, a trade group said. It also posted its 10th straight month of expansion.

A separate report Wednesday showed that orders to U.S. factories rose broadly in September. Business spending on big-ticket goods such as airplanes and heavy machines produced most of the demand for factory orders, the Commerce Department said. But consumer spending also rose 1 percent, after running flat in August.

Associated Press

Freddie Mac reports slimmer loss

WASHINGTON – Government-controlled mortgage buyer Freddie Mac managed a narrower loss of $4.1 billion for the third quarter and asked for an additional $100 million in federal aid – far less than the $1.8 billion it sought in the second quarter.

But while the slimmer loss, and recent glimmerings such as a slowing rate of new soured loans coming onto Freddie’s books, may be positive signs, they don’t mean the end of the company’s travails, experts say.

“The fact that losses are better is good. But it’s not necessarily a forecast for future earnings growth,” said Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “The problem still remains that we are faced with a deteriorating housing market.”

Over the next year, lawmakers plan to review the nation’s mortgage-lending system and consider a potential replacement for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Associated Press