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American Express is the credit card issuer of choice for the fourth year in a row, a report released Thursday showed.

Based on a 1,000-point scale, AmEx received a customer satisfaction rating of 769, which was 55 points higher than the industry average, according to a survey conducted in March and April by information services provider J.D. Power and Associates.

"They have a strong awareness among customers of the benefits and rewards of having that card," said Michael Beird, director of banking services at J.D. Power. While other issuers might offer similar rewards, AmEx uses aggressive marketing and communication to get the message across, he said.

Discover Card was the second highest rated issuer, with a score of 757. Customers were especially happy with its customer service and the ease of navigation on its site. U.S. Bank followed as the third highest ranked company with 727 points, as customers reported fewer changes to terms and smaller interest rate increases.

The lowest ranked issuer this year was HSBC, with 686 points, followed by Citi Cards and Capital One, with scores of 692 and 699 respectively.

"The folks who typically rank at the bottom have more of the riskier customers," said Beird. "Many of the customers who have lower credit scores end up paying higher fees, which means they might be complaining more."

The least-satisfying issuers were also given lower ratings because of poor communication — failing to help many customers understand their credit card terms, he said.

But overall, the survey showed that customers are happier with their credit card issuers this year, and customer satisfaction rose 9 points, to 714 from a 3-year low of 705 in 2009.

"There has been higher satisfaction with credit card terms, a reduction in complaints about payment or billing problems, and issuers seem to be doing a better job interacting with customers," said Beird payday loans no teletrack.

Another driver of satisfaction has been the CARD Act rule rolled out this year requiring issuers to warn customers in advance of any changes to their accounts, said Beird.

But aside from knowing when issuers are going to raise interest rates or make account changes, customers are still foggy about how many of the other new rules will affect them.

"The communication aspect of the CARD Act — requiring issuers to inform customers in advance of changes — is really the only part that has been seen immediately," said Beird. "It’s too early to tell what the impact of some of the other rules will be."

This uncertainty came across in the survey, with 16% of customers saying they hadn’t even received CARD Act disclosures and of those who did, only two-thirds said the information helped them understand what all the changes would mean for them.

Customers also said they are more optimistic about the economy and their own financial situations this year, according to the survey. This increase in confidence has made customers increasingly likely to shop around for a new bank, said Beird.

As a result, customers are more likely to dump their banks. The number of cardholders who say they "definitely will not switch" primary cards in the next 12 months fell to 22% from 25% last year and 30% in 2008.

"Even though overall satisfaction has improved, customers are feeling more empowered to explore other providers, since their outlook on the economy and their own personal finance has gone up," said Beird. 

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Gallery Furniture is launching a new online shopping site on August 7.

The new GalleryFurniture.com online shopping site will feature the store’s full furniture inventory along with an Internet-only section that provides discounts on products not found in Gallery Furniture’s I-45 and Galleria locations.

Gallery Furniture originally invested $1 million into an e-commerce site in 1999 but got rid of it in 2000 after an incident with a hacker wreaked havoc on the company’s banking system, according to a spokesperson for Gallery Furniture.

“We want our online theme to follow our in-store theme: only the best available products at the best prices, utilizing advanced technology to help customers in their purchasing decisions,” said Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale.

Gallery Furniture initially plans to offer its e-commerce site to those within a 200-mile radius of Houston, with plans to expand in the future.

For those shopping in-store, Gallery Furniture will be placing Microsoft Meta Tags that are similar to barcodes on all furniture, allowing customers with compatible smart phones to scan items and instantly be provided with product information.

Gallery Furniture has also secured the right to sell Tempur-Pedic products to its online customers–a first in the Houston area.

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General Electric Co. backed away Thursday from comments reportedly made by its CEO critical of President Obama and China.

The company said Jeffrey Immelt’s remarks to Italian executives in Rome were taken out of context and didn’t reflect GE policy.

The company responded to an article in the Financial Times in which Immelt is said to have told the audience that Obama doesn’t like business and business doesn’t like Obama.

"People are in a really bad mood (in the U.S.)," the paper quoted Immelt as saying. "We (the U.S.) are a pathetic exporter … we have to become an industrial powerhouse again but you don’t do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in synch."

Immelt also said China is becoming increasingly protectionist and doesn’t want any non-Chinese businesses "to win," according to the newspaper payday loans.

"The comments attributed to GE CEO Jeff Immelt by the FT were taken out of context and, in some instances, inaccurately reported," GE spokeswoman Anne Eisele said in a statement. "Mr. Immelt’s comments at a private dinner focused on the relationship between business and government in general and did not single out President Obama."

Eisele also said the "reporting of Jeff’s comments don’t reflect GE policy."

A Financial Times spokeswoman said "we stand by the accuracy of the report." 

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The Arizona Diamondbacks are hoping Edwin Jackson’s no-hitter Friday will boost merchandise and jersey sales.

Jackson threw the second no-hitter in D-backs history against the Tampa Bay Rays even though it took him 149 pitches, a highlight in an otherwise disappointing season thus far for the D-backs. This is Jackson’s first year with the Diamondbacks. He was with the Detroit Tigers last year and the Rays in 2008.

“We have ordered a number T-shirts through Majestic with his name and No lowest fee payday loans. 36 on the back,” said said team spokeswoman Tina Manzo. “MLB.com has also been promoting customized authentic jerseys with Jackson’s name and number on dbacks.com. It’s been too soon to realize the demand but we will have merchandise available when the team returns from the road for a 10-game home stand starting on Friday against the Dodgers.”

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KBR Inc. has been awarded a contract by Tierra Del Fuego Power & Chemical Co. Ltd.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Houston engineering construction and services company will provide licensing and process design for a grassroots ammonia plant in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.

The plant will use natural gas to produce high-yield fertilizer. KBR (NYSE: KBR) plans to begin work on the project in July.

Tierra Del Fuego Power & Chemical is the largest Chinese investment in Argentina, made up of a joint venture between Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co. Ltd., Shaanxi Xinyida Investment Ltd. and Jinduicheng Molybdenum Group Co. Ltd.

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Continental Airlines is recalling some of the pilots it furloughed several years ago, as the company ramps up international flights and replaces retiring older pilots.

Continental (CAL, Fortune 500) spokeswoman Julie King said the airline is recalling 15 of the 147 pilots it furloughed in 2008. In addition, it is putting more than 100 pilots back on active status from the voluntary leaves of absence that they took in 2008.

Some of these pilots will be flying the company’s two recently acquired Boeing 777s, which will be used for international flights, King said.

Continental furloughed the pilots during a particularly tough year for the airline industry, which has struggled to cope with stagnant business and vacation travel thanks to the recession, as well as volatile fuel prices.

"We are pleased to see our pilots returning," said Capt. Jay Pierce, a Continental pilot and a chairman for the Continental chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. "With the anticipated delivery of new aircraft, the improvements in the economy and the expectations for increased passenger travel during the upcoming summer vacation season, the return of our furloughed pilots — all of them — is needed to maintain the level of service that Continental is known for."

Hunter Keay, senior airline analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co payday lenders., said the recall is a small but positive sign for the airline industry.

"Clearly, the industry is recovering, but I think certain regions are performing better than others, and certain airlines are outperforming others," said Keay. "I think that’s a bullish indicator for the demand that Continental sees in its core markets."

The recall is occurring as Continental prepares to merge with UAL Corp.’s United Airlines.

UAL Corp. (UAUA, Fortune 500) announced on May 3 that United will merge with Continental in a deal worth $3.2 billion, creating the world’s largest airline.

The combined company, which will fly under the United moniker and Continental logo, will be larger than Delta Air Lines (DAL, Fortune 500), which became the country’s largest airline when it merged with Northwest Airlines in 2008.

Helane Becker, airline analyst for Jesup & Lamont Securities Corp., said the airlines pledged that they would not lay off pilots as part of the merger.

She cast Continental’s pilot recall as a sign that the airline recognized that its latest staff cuts were "more muscle than fat." 

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Long-term mortgage rates fell to the lowest level of the year this week, after falling for five consecutive weeks.

Freddie Mac's (NYSE: FRE) weekly rate report puts the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.93 percent in the week ending May 13, down from 5 percent last week.

A one-year adjustable rate mortgage was 4.02 percent, down from 4.07 percent.

With the homebuyer tax credit now expired, low borrowing rates remain the most attractive incentive for buyers.

The National Association of Realtors this week reported year-over-year housing prices rose in 91 of the nation's 151 largest metropolitan areas. In the Washington area, median prices last quarter were up 4.7 percent from a year ago.

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Federal Reserve policymakers are worried that the economic recovery may lose steam going forward, despite recent moderate improvements, according to minutes from their recent policy meeting released Tuesday.

Though the latest data suggest an uptick in economic activity, Fed members believe that some sectors of the economy could stifle overall growth, the minutes from the March 16 meeting said.

"While participants saw incoming information as broadly consistent with continued strengthening of economic activity, they also highlighted a variety of factors that would be likely to restrain the overall pace of recovery, especially in light of the waning effects of fiscal stimulus and inventory rebalancing over coming quarters," the minutes said.

But Fed policymakers indicated that they could raise rates as soon as they see continued signs of life in the economy, according to the minutes.

The minutes indicated that Fed members believed the central bank’s policy of "exceptionally low rates" for "an extended period" is explicitly contingent on the evolution of the economy rather than on the passage of any fixed amount of calendar time." The central bank’s current guidance does not limit the Fed from tightening or maintaining its monetary policy, they said.

Fed members previously said that the use of "extended period" referred to three or four meetings, but the new explanation suggests that the Fed’s language "could legitimately be used until just before tightening is set to start, and thus does not convey much information about the likely start date of Fed tightening," said Barclays Capital economist Dean Maki in a research note.

At the meeting, the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee continued to hold the target for the key interest rate, the federal funds rate, between 0% and 0.25%, and repeated that economic conditions are likely "to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period." The key rate is used as a benchmark for how much banks charge consumers and businesses for loans.

For the second straight meeting, Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig voted against the decision to use that language. In the minutes, he reiterated that it would be more appropriate for the Fed to promise "a low level of the federal funds rate for some time."

Such a change, Hoenig said, would allow the Fed to increase that benchmark rate modestly sooner rather than later and avoid "the buildup of future financial imbalances and increase the risk of to longer-run macroeconomic and financial stability."

But Hoenig was alone in his view of altering the language, and the Fed maintained a cautious in its view of the current economic situation.

"Nobody else jumped on the ‘We need to tighten’ bandwagon, and that says a lot," said John Canally, economist at LPL Financial. "There’s not a lot of energy on the committee to raise rates."

Since the last meeting, most economic data, with the exception of the reports on the housing sector, have met or beat expectations, and the Fed will have to acknowledge that, Canally said.

At the meeting, a number of policymakers "pointed out that the economic recovery could not be sustained over time without a substantial pickup in job creation, which they still anticipated but had not yet become evident in the data."

Last week, however, the Labor Department said the economy gained 162,000 jobs in March, more than any other month in the last three years.

Fed members also highlighted concerns about the housing market, where gains are "leveling off" despite government support such as the homebuyer tax credit, and said commercial and industrial real estate markets continue to weaken.

"The housing market is still tenuous. The last thing the Fed wants to do is torpedo any improvements," Canally said. "The Fed does not want to raise rates and be responsible for squashing the recovery and killing the housing market."

But Canally said the market will be listening closely to comments from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke set to be delivered Wednesday in Dallas and Thursday in Washington to understand how the central bank will weigh the recent firm economic data in future policy meetings.  

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The parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co. and American Savings Bank posted lower earnings for fiscal 2009 compared to 2008.

Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE: HEI) reported a profit of $102.3 million for fiscal 2009, an 18.7 percent decrease from the $125.9 million it earned in fiscal 2008.

That figure, however, includes $19.3 million in after-tax charges related to a previous sale of the bank’s mortgage-related securities portfolio.

Total revenue was down for the year to $2.3 billion, compared to $3.2 billion the previous year.

HEI attributed the decrease to lower kilowatt-hour sales at its electric utilities, increases in utility operations and bank credit expenses.

“It was a challenging year and we made difficult decisions to curb spending and reduce risk, while continuing to progress forward with long-term strategic initiatives to move Hawaii toward a clean-energy future and improved performance and profitability at both our utility and bank,” said Constance Lau, HEI president and CEO, in a prepared statement payday advance.

Electric utility earnings were $79.4 million for the year, compared to $92 million the previous year. Kilowatt-hour sales were off 2.5 percent while operating expenses increased by $5.3 million.

Income from American Savings Bank was up 22 percent for the year to $21.8 million. But, the company said adjusted net income from the bank was $41.1 million and $53.4 million in 2009 and 2008, respectively, a 23 percent decrease for the year. The non-adjusted figures include the after-tax charge in 2009 and a balance sheet restructuring charge in 2008.

“Like many banks across the country, our bank was affected by the economic pressures in 2009,” Lau said. “However, as we have done throughout the economic crisis, we kept capital healthy and depositors’ money safe.”

Shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries stock were up 1.4 percent to $42.78 on Thursday.

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The top transit official for President Barack Obama’s administration will be in Denver Friday announcing major funding for the FasTracks project.

Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, is to join U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Phil Washington, the head of the Regional Transportation District, at Denver Union Station on Friday afternoon.

He may be here to talk about a $300 million federal loan to help cover the cost of redeveloping Denver Union Station, the hub of the FasTracks project. The Denver City Council last week gave its approval to using city money to repay a portion of the loan if tax revenues couldn’t.

This week, three lines that are part of FasTracks received word of federal money, through Obama’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2011, to help pay for construction. Obama’s proposal included:

• $40 million for the West corridor from downtown to Golden, part of an existing $308 million commitment by the federal government to help pay for the line.

• $40 million for the Gold line from downtown to Wheat Ridge, and $40 million for the East line from downtown to Denver International Airport — via a line item listed as “New Full Funding Grant Agreement Funding Recommendations,” which Rogoff said Tuesday, during a conference call with reporters, signaled the government’s intention to help pay for the line.

The Gold and the East line are on a list of “projects that we’re including in the budget, and we’re signaling our intention to sign a full funding grant agreement on these projects before Sept. 30, 2011,” Rogoff said Tuesday during the call.

Still outstanding is the status of the $300 million loan for Denver Union Station.

Paul Griffo, spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration, wouldn’t confirm or deny that Rogoff would discuss the loan in Denver on Friday.

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