IN BRIEF

Deal signed to build Crowne Plaza locally

InterContinental Hotels Group has signed a licensing agreement with local developer Andrew Lai to build a 386-room Crowne Plaza hotel-casino on Spring Mountain Road and Polaris Avenue east of Chinatown. The hotel is expected to open in 2010.

The new Asian-themed property will include three restaurants, three lounges, a spa and outdoor swimming pool, a fitness center, business center, shops and 16,000 square feet of meeting space.

A statement by the hotels holding company didn't give a price for the project. Lai was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment.

Lai will own and manage the hotel under a license agreement with a subsidiary in the Atlanta-based InterContinental Hotels Group.

WASHINGTON

Interest rates decline in Treasury auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction to their lowest levels since late 2004.

The Treasury Department auctioned $23 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.23 percent, down from 2.335 percent last week. Another $21 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 2.16 percent, down from 2.31 percent last week.

COLUMBUS, Ohio

Wendy's earnings surge from year ago

Wendy's International said Monday that fourth-quarter earnings more than quadrupled from a year ago, when it took major charges for discontinued operations, and restaurants reported better margins despite high commodity prices.

Wendy's fell just short of Wall Street expectations, however, and warned that it faces strong economic headwinds as it considers putting itself up for sale. While Wendy's beat the $592 million in revenue expected from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, it fell 2 cents shy of analyst's per-share expectations.

The nation's No. 3 burger chain said it made $14.1 million, or 16 cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 30, compared with $3 million, or 3 cents a share, a year-earlier when it recorded charges from the spin off of the Tim Hortons chain and the sale of Baja Fresh Mexican Grill.

Sales fell 0.1 percent to $596 million from $596.4 million.

CHICAGO

United will charge for checking extra luggage

United Airlines will begin charging passengers $25 to check in a second piece of luggage for domestic travel if they are not part of its most-frequent-flier programs, the airline said Monday.

The charge will generate more than $100 million in revenue and cost savings each year, UAL Corp. said. The change takes effect May 5 and applies to tickets purchased on or after Monday.

Travelers would have to log at least 25,000 miles in a year on United to ensure they can check their second bag for free.

SAN ANTONIO

AT&T will raise prices for broadband services

Beginning next month, AT&T will raise the price of its most common broadband Internet services in many of the states in which it operates, a company spokesman said Monday.

The $5-per-month boost will apply in March in all but the states acquired with the buyout of BellSouth. It will affect customers who have the company's three slowest broadband tiers, ranging from 768 Kpbs to 3 Mbps, said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe.

The 1.5-Mbps service is the most common among AT&T's 14.2 million broadband customers.

The increase doesn't affect new customers who sign up for the slowest broadband service, Coe said.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices drop; investors rethink future

Long-term Treasury prices closed lower Monday, as investors pulled away from safe investments and reassessed the economic outlook.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 0.22 points to 104.63 with a yield of 3.64 percent, up from 3.63 percent late Friday, BGCantor Market Data reported. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year long bond fell 0.84 points to 110.31 with a yield of 4.37 percent, up from 4.28 percent late Friday.