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By MATT OTT, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage ticked up for the second straight week following a string of declines that had brought down home borrowing costs to their lowest level in nearly a year.

The average long-term mortgage rate rose this week to 6.34% from 6.3% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.12%.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year yield was at 4.10% at midday Thursday, down from 4.19% the same time last week. Much of that decline has come in the past few days, driven by discouraging reports on the U.S. economy, particularly the job market.

In late July, mortgage rates started declining in the lead-up to the Federal Reserve’s widely anticipated decision last month to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid growing concern over the U.S. job market. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shutdowns of the federal government usually don’t leave much economic damage. But the one that started Wednesday looks riskier, not least because President Donald Trump is threatening to use the standoff to permanently eliminate thousands of government jobs and the state of the economy is already precarious.

For now, financial markets are shrugging off the impasse as just the latest failure of Republicans and Democrats to agree on a budget and keep the government running.

“Everyone seems quite complacent about the shutdown, assuming the Democrats and Republicans will come to terms and life will go on, as has been the case in past shutdowns,” the independent economist Ed Yardeni wrote in a commentary Thursday. “History could certainly repeat, especially with a man known for dealmaking sitting in the Oval Office.”

But given the chasm separating the two political parties, Yardeni added, “the lack of caution is somewhat surprising.” read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TED SHAFFREY, Associated Press

VALHALLA, New York (AP) — Pepsi has a new challenge: keeping products like Gatorade and Cheetos vivid and colorful without the artificial dyes that U.S. consumers are increasingly rejecting.

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PepsiCo, which also makes Doritos, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Funyuns and Mountain Dew, announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to using natural colors in its foods and beverages. Around 40% of its U.S. products now contain synthetic dyes, according to the company. read more

By Lane Gillespie, Bankrate.com

Katey Davern, a 46-year-old in St. Paul, Minnesota, has learned firsthand just how much paperwork is involved when planning someone’s last years.

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Davern, along with her three siblings, started planning for their elderly parents’ end-of-life needs about three years ago. As the parent of five children herself — three of whom are under 18 and still live at home — Davern is increasingly navigating two different financial worlds. In one, she’s helping her parents with end-of-life financial planning. In the other, she and her husband are managing their own immediate family’s spending, saving for their children’s college, contributing to their retirement accounts and adding to their health savings accounts (HSA). read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged up to more records on Thursday as technology stocks kept rising and as Wall Street kept ignoring the shutdown of the U.S. government.

The S&P 500 added 0.1% to its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4%. Both also hit records.

Thursdays on Wall Street typically have investors reacting to the latest weekly tally of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits. But D.C.’s shutdown meant this week’s report on jobless claims has been delayed. An even more consequential report, Friday’s monthly tally of jobs created and destroyed across the economy, will likely also not arrive on schedule.

That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession. read more