Markets closed today

Financial and commodity markets are closed today in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. They are scheduled to reopen Monday.

St. Joseph, Mo.

Hog plant expected to create 1,000 jobs

Premium Pork Allied Producers announced plans Thursday to build a $130 million hog processing plant in St. Joseph, Mo.

The plant, to be constructed in St. Joseph’s stockyards area, is expected to bring 1,000 jobs to the city — 800 in production and 200 in managerial and clerical positions, Mayor David Jones said. The plant would handle 8,000 hogs a day.

Premium Pork, a multistate hog farmers’ cooperative, also had been considering Albert Lea, Minn., and other sites for the plant. The company expects paperwork for the St. Joseph plant to be completed in 90 days and for the plant to be up and running by fall 2005.

Media

QVC shopping channel to shed cable owner

Liberty Media Corp. has agreed to buy Comcast’s majority stake in the lucrative shopping channel QVC for $7.9 billion, the companies said Thursday.

Liberty, which already owns 42 percent of QVC, told Comcast in March it wanted to end their joint ownership of QVC and negotiate a sale to one party or the other.

Comcast executives sharpened their pencils to decide whether to sell their 58 percent stake in QVC, a major revenue producer for the nation’s largest cable company, said Brian L. Roberts, president and chief executive.

QVC had revenues of $4.38 billion last year, accounting for more than a third of Comcast’s overall $12.46 billion in revenue for the year.

Liberty Media, based in Englewood, Colo., owns Starz Encore and has interests in Discovery Communications Inc., Court TV, AOL Time Warner Inc., and News Corp. Philadelphia-based Comcast is the nation’s largest cable operator.

Real Estate

Mortgage rates on rise

Rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages jumped to a seven-week high this week. But even with the increase, mortgage rates likely remain at sufficiently low levels to support the housing market, one of the economy’s few bright spots.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the week ending July 4 was 5.40 percent, a sizable increase from last week’s rate of 5.24 percent, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey.

Retail

Union wins Wal-Mart suit

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a ruling that had barred a union from recruiting members inside Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores nationwide.

In a 6-1 decision, the high court threw out an injunction issued by an Arkansas state judge, saying the world’s largest retailer failed to show that the union organizing caused irreparable harm. Two of the justices also criticized the judge for reaching beyond the state and imposing a coast-to-coast ban.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Sarah Clark said the Bentonville, Ark.-based company remains “committed to protecting our stores, associates and customers from aggressive and unsolicited actions.”

Wal-Mart sued after organizers went to about 300 Supercenters in 1999. The company said the union representatives were trespassing and harassing workers.