Business news in brief

Economy gaining steam, Fed survey says

WASHINGTON -- A Federal Reserve survey shows the U.S. economy strengthening over the past two months in areas such as manufacturing, construction, retail sales and bank lending.

Seven of the Fed's 12 regions -- Boston, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco and Richmond, Va. -- reported "moderate" growth during the early spring, while the remaining five described growth as "modest," according to the Beige Book survey released Wednesday.

Retail sales were reviving, helped by pent-up demand for new cars after the harsh winter, the survey found. Manufacturing was expanding in all regions, along with lending. One weakness was home sales, held back in large part by a tight supply of available homes.

The Beige Book is based on anecdotal reports from businesses and will be considered along with other data when Fed policymakers meet June 17-18.

Home sales, new and previously owned, fell in most of the largest metropolitan areas in the Fed's St. Louis District. Compared with the same period last year, home sales fell 12 percent in Little Rock, 5 percent in Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, and 14 percent in St. Louis. Permits issued to build single-family homes fell 26 percent in Little Rock, 17 percent in Louisville, and 4 percent in Memphis and St. Louis.

-- The Associated Press

Jonesboro's Nordex plant finds a buyer

JONESBORO -- A closed factory that once had the promise of employing more than 700 people in Jonesboro is to be sold.

Officials won't identify the buyer of the Nordex USA site, which made wind turbines until it closed last year. The sale of the $40 million plant is to become official today.

Nordex attorney Anne Parker of Little Rock told The Jonesboro Sun that she isn't allowed to discuss the buyer.

Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said he was told a large, publicly traded company wants to buy the site but says he wasn't told the name.

Nordex officials complained that a lack of a federal wind-energy tax credits stifled its business and forced the closure.

The company pledged to repay state incentives for not meeting hiring targets.

-- The Associated Press

Carefully, Heathrow debuts terminal

London's Heathrow Airport welcomed its first passengers to a $4.2 billion terminal Wednesday, aiming to avoid the chaos of its last major opening and bolster its case for remaining a major hub.

More than 2,400 passengers had arrived on flights at Terminal 2 as of 12:30 p.m. U.K. time while 1,800 had checked in for departures. The first flight to use the building, which replaces facilities from the 1950s, was a United Airlines Boeing Co. 767 from Chicago. Flights are initially capped at 10 percent of capacity to allow time to work out any system snags, after the debut of Heathrow's Terminal 5 in 2008 led to a baggage-handling glitch.

With undulating ceilings and a plazalike departure zone, Terminal 2 adds no new capacity and instead will help Heathrow counter the glitz of newer hubs in the Persian Gulf, according to Chief Executive-designate John Holland-Kaye. The biggest challenge may be an experiment in scrapping dedicated check-in desks for the 23 Star Alliance airlines that will use the building.

"It's never been done before at any airport where you have so many carriers working together to implement common check- in," said Justin Erbacci, the alliance's vice president for customer experience and technology.

-- Bloomberg News

U.S. to review Pandora royalty rules

The Justice Department will review decades-old agreements that govern songwriter royalties after court battles emerged between rights holders and the Internet radio firm Pandora Media Inc.

The review will "examine the operation and effectiveness of the consent decrees" dating back to 1941 with two major songwriter groups, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc., the department said in a notice Wednesday. Pandora shares fell as much as 6.1 percent in New York trading.

The review could lead to changes in the rules governing how much Pandora, the leader in Internet radio, pays songwriters each time their works are played. The two songwriter groups, both based in New York, represent hundreds of thousands of songwriters, composers and publishers. They've argued in court disputes with Pandora that the agreements with the Justice Department don't take into account the rise of digital media.

The review will explore whether changes are appropriate, the department said. It is seeking public comment on possible modifications.

-- Bloomberg News

Jack Daniel's drives parent's profit bump

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Spirits-maker Brown-Forman Corp. said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 17 percent to cap a strong year led by its flagship Jack Daniel's brand, which showed its muscle in the highly competitive whiskey market.

The company behind such other brands as Southern Comfort, Finlandia and el Jimador predicted another round of higher overall sales in the next fiscal year, driven by the continued global growth of the Jack Daniel's brand.

"I believe that our leadership position in premium American whiskey, led by the one and only Jack Daniel's trademark, and a very balanced geographic contribution, underpin the company's differentiated performance," said Brown-Forman Chief Executive Officer Paul Varga.

Net sales for the entire Jack Daniel's brand increased 8 percent for the full year, excluding currency swings, the company said. Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey crossed the 1 million case milestone during the year, it said.

For the three months ended April 30, the company reported net income of $132 million, or 62 cents per share, up from $113 million, or 52 cents per share, a year ago. Quarterly net sales rose 3 percent to $893 million.

-- The Associated Press

Russia readying heavy-rocket tryout

Russia is poised to launch its first new rocket capable of carrying heavy payloads since the Soviet era, and a success would bode well for the future of the country's space industry.

The launch of the Angara rocket will take place in the last week of June at the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday in emailed comments.

Russia, which put the first man into space with Yuri Gagarin's flight 53 years ago, has relied on the Proton rocket, its largest booster, which entered into operation in 1965. It's planning to use the Angara at Plesetsk and a new cosmodrome in the country's far east.

The national space program has $60 billion of spending planned for 2013-20, including the completion of the Vostochny cosmodrome near the border with China. Russia currently uses the Soviet-era Baikonur base in Kazakhstan for manned missions.

"Angara is destined to be the main workhorse of the Russian space program," said Yuri Karash, a member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics.

Angara rockets have a modular design with a variety of configurations. The rocket will be used for civilian and military purposes, including carrying people into space, Karash said.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 06/05/2014

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