According to a weekly survey by Freddie Mac, that’s down from 3.83 percent last week, compared with 4.64 percent a year ago. 

The 15-year mortgage dropped to 3.04 percent. That’s down from last week’s previous record of 3.05 percent, according to survey. 

Rates on 30-year loans are below 4 percent since December last year. 

U.S. home constructions rose 2.6 percent to a 717.000 annual rate in April, compared to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 699.000 in March, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.  

Construction rose for both single-family homes and apartments. 

Meanwhile, building permit declined last month from a 3 1/2 year high to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000, according to sources. 

When doing accounting, chances are that you would be dealing with various types of entities, each with their unique needs. The vast majority of accounting is done for businesses which are for profit entities. They can be individuals, partnerships or corporations, but their main goal is to carry out business activities that would generate a profit. The stakeholders who would be interested in knowing about the finances of a business are numerous. They can include shareholders, members of the management team, investors, creditors and government agencies. In the case of a publicly traded company, the general public might also have an interest in the finances of a certain company. This is often the case with people who invest in stocks, so that they can make a decision whether they would want to invest in a certain publicly traded corporation or not.

What sets nonprofit accounting apart is the type of organization that it serves. A not-for-profit organization can have different purposes. What defines a non profit will vary depending on jurisdiction, but generally these organizations have goals that could be charitable, religious, social or educational. But the main element is that the leaders of the organization, as well as those who contribute to it, would not expect to receive any financial benefit as the result of actions of the organization.

In a business, the stakeholders main concern would be the profitability of the enterprise. The more revenue that a business is able to generate, the better it is for them. But a non profit entity, by definition, would have a different goal. Its stakeholders do not actually want the organization to amass large amounts of fund. Rather, they are focused on maximizing the amount of contributions made to the organization as well as watching how these contributions are spent, to ensure that they benefit the cause that the organization is about.

In nonprofit accounting there are also different terms used in business accounting. An income statement is called a statement of operations; a balance sheet is a statement of financial position; a statement of retained earnings becomes a statement of changes in net assets; net income is excess of revenue over expenditures. 

Therefore, there are certain differences between doing accounting for a business and for a not-for-profit organization. This is why non profits often hire accountants that are experienced in working for not-for-profit organizations, as well as use specially made accounting software that is better adapted to their reality.

“We are happy to accept there is a political agreement,” U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. “There will still be technical changes that need to be discussed.” 

“We are reaching a point where we have got to make a decision to see the euro zone stand behind their currency.  A very important part of that is strengthening the entire European banking system.” 

During 16 hours meeting, EU ministers divided on whether countries would need to seek permission when imposing extra loss buffers. 

Compelling banks to raise their capital reserves is intended to prevent another financial crisis in the hope of protecting taxpayers from paying for expensive bailouts. 

According to sources, the new rules require lenders to gradually increase their highest-quality capital — such as equity and cash reserves — from 2 percent of the risky assets they hold to around 7 percent after 2015.

The Galaxy S III will be equipped with the company’s own Exynos 4 chip, a quad core processor running at 1.4GHz.  However, the U.S. version is expected to have Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor instead. 

Also, the new smartphone will have a high-resolution 4.8-inch screen, a 12 megapixel camera, and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Other possible specs include 16GB onboard storage with a microSD expandable up to 32GB, and 1GB of RAM.

According to sources, Samsung Galaxy S III will be launched in two different colors: blue and white.  

The company said that the big sales of iPhone, especially in China, helped Apple to increase its profit in the second quarter. 

According to company, it sold $35 million iPhones during the quarter, an increase of 88% from the same period a year ago. It sold 11.8 million iPads, more than double the number it sold in the same quarter last year. 

In 2011, Apple’s sales hit $13.3 billion in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. For first quarter of 2012, Apple’s sales in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan grew to $7.9 billion. 

“It was an incredible quarter in China,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It is mind-boggling that we could do this well.” 

Apple is expected to double its sales in China over the course of 2012 but these numbers could drop because of recent problems with iPad trademark. 

The world’s most valuable technology could lose actually lose the right to use the iPad name in China, said a senior Chinese official. 

“According to the … provisions of the China Trademark Law, currently Shenzhen Proview is the legal registrant of the iPad trademark,” said Fu Shuangjian, a deputy director of China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce. 

“This case has a huge impact and the final court ruling would directly influence who owns the iPad trademark. The commerce department will (take the matter) very seriously.”

The company said that the big sales of iPhone, especially in China, helped Apple to increase its profit in the second quarter. 

“It was an incredible quarter in China,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It is mind-boggling that we could do this well.” 

Mr. Cook said that company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, an 88 percent increase from the period a year ago. It sold 11.8 million iPads and 4 million Macs. Analysts predicted sales of 31 to 32 million iPhones, 12-13 million iPads and about 4 million Macs. 

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter. The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver,” said Mr. Cook. 

According to sources, Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors will use a new tri-gate transistor technology to boost processing power while reducing the amount of energy needed. 

The initial release includes 13 quad-core processors, designed primarily for desktops. 

“The momentum around the system design is pretty astonishing,” said Intel’s PC business chief, Kirk Skaugen.

“There are more than 300 mobile products in development and more than 270 different desktops, many of which are all-in-one designs. 

Skaugen said that Ivy Bridge chips will improve performance and power efficiency by 20 percent compared to Sandy Bridge. 

“This is the world’s first 22 nanometre product and we’ll be delivering about 20% more processor performance using 20% less average power.”

“There will be 50% more supply than we had early in the product cycle of our last generation, Sandy Bridge, a year ago. 

According to sources, Ivy Bridge feature improvements over Sandy Bridge include:

• Tri-gate transistor technology (less than 50% power consumption at the same performance level as 2-D planar transistors).
• PCI Express 3.0 support.
• Max CPU multiplier of 63 (57 for Sandy Bridge).
• RAM support up to 2800 MT/s in 200 MHz increments.

Dual core desktop processors will arrive in Q3 2012.

According to Peter Voser, the Shell expected the projects to be completed by 2015. 

“Shell is assessing new projects for onshore Nigeria, which will add new production and reduce flaring. These projects could cost some $4 billion,” Voser said.

“We expect these to be completed in the 2014 to 2015 timeframe.”

“SPDC flared some 20 percent less gas in 2011 than in 2010, while increasing its oil and gas production by 7 percent in 2011,” Voser added.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses.

Instead of paying money, customers have to squeeze the sides of the drinks machine to receive a free can of Coke. 

The Coca cola campaign was created by advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather.

“Happiness is contagious. The Coca-Cola Hug Machine is a simple idea to spread some happiness,” said Leonardo O’Grady, a spokesman for The Coca-Cola Company. 

“Our strategy is to deliver doses of happiness in an unexpected, innovative way to engage not only the people present, but the audience at large.”

O’Grady said that the Hug me machine has a great success and there are plans to locate more machines across Asia. 

“The reaction was amazing – at one point we had four to five people hugging the machine at the same time as well as each other! In fact, there was a long line of people looking to give hugs, “explained O’Grady.

“China’s gradual slowdown is expected to continue into 2012, as consumption growth slows somewhat, investment growth decelerates more pronouncedly and external demand remains weak,” said Ardo Hansson, the World Bank’s lead economist for China. 

The bank estimated that China’s growth rate could come in at 8.2% in 2012 and then rebound to 8.6% percent in 2013.

According to World Bank, the world’s second largest economy will eventually move to be more dependent on domestic consumption rather than exports, a healthier balance that could lead to more modest growth over the long term.