Boeing shares drop on China speculation

Shares in Boeing Co. sank 2.2 percent Wednesday amid confusion over a statement by Chinese officials that they would not approve any additional airplane deliveries for 2005.

The decision, consistent with government efforts to keep China’s sizzling economy from overheating, appears unlikely to have a major effect on manufacturers Boeing and Airbus SAS and their efforts to sell the country new planes still in development.

Boeing’s stock fell $1.18 to close Wednesday at $52.07 on the New York Stock Exchange. Boeing shares remain up 24 percent in 2004.

Real estate

Mortgage rates rise

Mortgage rates around the country moved up this week, but rates on 30-year mortgages for all of 2004 registered their second-lowest year on record.

Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, released Wednesday, showed that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.81 percent this week, compared with 5.75 percent last week.

For the year, rates on benchmark 30-year mortgages averaged 5.84 percent, second only to last year’s 5.83 percent, the lowest annual rate in Freddie Mac’s record keeping, a Freddie Mac spokeswoman said. The rate came in under 6 percent for the last 22 weeks of this year.

Markets

Crude oil prices top $43 a barrel

Oil prices surged nearly $2 a barrel Wednesday following two bombings in the capital of Saudi Arabia and after the U.S. government reported that winter fuel supplies shrank last week.

Light crude for February delivery rose $1.87, or 4.4 percent, to settle at $43.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Finance

Sallie Mae completes privatization plan

Student loan provider Sallie Mae completed its separation from the federal government Wednesday, nearly four years ahead of schedule, and set aside enough money to pay off the outstanding debt obligations from its government-sponsored enterprise subsidiary.

Sallie Mae, formally known as SLM Corp., has successfully refinanced more than $100 billion of government-sponsored enterprise, or GSE, assets in an accelerated privatization plan begun in 1997.

Software

Oracle takes control of PeopleSoft

Software giant Oracle Corp. said Wednesday that stockholders of rival PeopleSoft Inc. had tendered about 75 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, granting Oracle control of the company.

In addition, Oracle has designated four representatives to serve on PeopleSoft’s board, replacing PeopleSoft board members who have resigned and giving Oracle majority board representation.

The merger, which will create the world’s second-largest business applications software maker, is expected to close in early January.