Enquirer wire report

BOSTON - Boston-based Putnam Investments, facing state and federal trading abuse charges, has dropped from being the fifth-largest mutual fund company in the country to sixth after investors withdrew $13 billion from the company in November.

The November outflow, believed to be one of the largest in the investment industry's history, was more than half of the total $24 billion Putnam has lost so far this year, Financial Research Corp. of Boston reported Tuesday.

Putnam allegedly allowed money managers to rapidly trade in and out of funds they supervised.

Toyota pulls plug on slow-selling Voltz

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will halt production of the Voltz, a sport utility vehicle manufactured jointly with General Motors Corp. at a U.S. plant, because of poor sales.

Production of the Voltz, which has been based in Freemont, Calif., will be terminated in the spring.

Toyota released the Voltz exclusively for the Japanese market in August 2002 hoping to sell 1,500 units per month. Sales fell far short.

Mortgage rates slightly lower this week

WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages dipped for the third week in a row.

For the week ending Friday, the average rate on 30-year mortgages nudged down to 5.81 percent, slightly lower than the 5.82 percent rate seen last week, Freddie Mac reported Wednesday.

For 15-year mortgages, rates this week were 5.13 percent, down from 5.14 percent the previous week.