BUSINESS BRIEFS
Gasoline prices may rise by 14¢
Advertiser Staff
Hawai'i's wholesale gasoline price cap will rise nearly 14 cents a gallon to $1.97 for regular on O'ahu starting Monday.
The cap level, announced yesterday by the Public Utilities Commission, only governs the wholesale price for gasoline before taxes and dealer markup. Retail pump prices have tended to rise and fall in conjunction with wholesale cap prices.
That means retail regular prices in Honolulu next week could rise to $2.79 a gallon, when about 62 cents in taxes and a 20 cents a gallon retail margin are factored in.
NCL NAMES 2 NEW CRUISE SHIPS
Miami-based NCL Corp. said yesterday its two newest ships will bear the names Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Gem.
The ships are being built at Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany and are scheduled to be delivered in February 2007 and October 2007, respectively. NCL has not yet announced the new ships' itineraries. NCL's Pride of Hawaii is to be launched in April.
POST-CHRISTMAS BLITZ A FIZZLER
NEW YORK — While the nation's retailers didn't get their hoped-for sales blitz the week after Christmas, they're still expected to generally meet their modest holiday sales forecasts.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS sales tally released yesterday, sales slipped 0.8 percent for the week ended Saturday compared with the prior week and rose 2.9 percent compared with the same year-ago period. The tally is based on same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, which are considered the best measure of a retailer's health.
FIRED CEO OWES $47M, COURT SAYS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Fired HealthSouth Corp. CEO Richard Scrushy must repay more than $47 million in bonuses he received while running the medical rehabilitation chain amid a huge fraud despite being acquitted in the scheme, a judge ruled.
The court-ordered repayment could help shore up the finances of HealthSouth.
