2008-11-06 News
The Business End A look at the week's economic winners and losers...
by Jacob Shafer	write the author
November 06, 2008 Halloween was a less spooky day than many that preceded it for a number of Hawaii-based companies. The big winner was perennial Business End whipping boy Maui Land & Pineapple—ML&P saw its stock rise almost 15 percent on Friday to close at $15.50 per share. Other in-state outfits—including Hawaiian Holdings Inc. and its subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines, Alexander & Baldwin, Central Pacific Financial Corps. and Bank of Hawaii—enjoyed more modest, but still significant, gains. Considering the ongoing volatility of the market, nobody's calling this anything more than a pleasant blip. But when you're hemorrhaging money and the economy's teetering on the brink of full-blown recession, you take good news where you can find it. Given the love fest currently taking place between Gov. Lingle and Gov. Palin (we're writing this ahead of the election and praying that doesn't need to be amended to "VP-elect Plain"), it seems only fitting that Alaska Airlines is launching direct service from Anchorage to Kahului. The seasonal flights are set to run Friday, Saturday and Sunday through April 25. An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told Pacific Business News that the maiden voyage carried 145 passengers, just 12 shy of capacity.  With oil prices on a steady downward trajectory, Hawaii shipping companies continue to slash their rates. Earlier this week, Horizon Lines and Matson Navigation dropped their fuel surcharges to 25 percent; for Matson, that's the fourth reduction in the past month-and-a-half. Effective November 9, Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines will also lower its surcharge, from 24.5 percent to 22.5 percent, as reported in PBN.  Though its lone Hawaii operation appears safe for now, Circuit City, the nation's second largest electronics retailer, announced plans to close 155 stores nationwide. That represents nearly one-fifth of the company's locations and will surely lead to massive layoffs. Or, as Circuit City put it in a statement quoted in PBN: "restructuring alternatives." Man, if depressing euphemisms were dollars (or, better yet, euros), the national debt would be paid off with cash to spare.  Not unlike a battered spouse giving her husband one more chance after he buys her flowers, Americans ran back into the arms of the mortgage industry this week in the wake of an interest rate cut. CNNMoney.com reports that home loan applications leapt almost 17 percent nationwide after the rate on a 30-year fixed was lowered from 6.46 percent to 6.06 percent. We're hoping this rocky relationship ends happily ever after, but divorce court seems like a real possibility. MTW

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