BUSINESS BRIEFS
Grand opening for Don Quijote
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Retailer Don Quijote plans a grand opening of its Kaheka Street store on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m. to mark the completed transformation of the former Daiei outlet. A ceremony with a blessing, food sampling and entertainment is planned at the remodeled store.
Don Quijote, a Japan-based retailer that bought The Daiei U.S.A. Inc. in February, said conversions of its three other O'ahu stores in Pearl City, Waipahu and Kailua will follow.
FED HOLDS LINE ON INTEREST RATES
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve gave America's borrowers a break and held interest rates steady for a second straight month, part of a strategy to put the economy and inflation on an even keel.
In a 10-1 vote yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues decided to leave rates alone, suggesting that slowing economic activity eventually will lessen inflationary pressures.
With economic growth moderating and once-surging energy prices now receding, all but one of the Fed's voting members felt comfortable holding a key interest rate at 5.25 percent.
That meant commercial banks' prime interest rate — for certain credit cards, home-equity lines of credit and other loans — would stay at 8.25 percent.
DIALOGUE MARKS CHINA TRADE TIES
BEIJING — On his first official visit to China, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. struck a conciliatory tone yesterday, saying high-level economic dialogue, not quick-fix solutions, was the answer to solving vexing trade tensions.
Between visits with top Chinese leaders, the former Goldman Sachs chairman held a news conference to announce that the U.S. and China would begin holding twice-yearly Cabinet-level talks aimed at developing an economic strategy that would help defuse protectionist sentiments in both countries.
