LOCAL BUSINESS
Seminar scheduled in Hudson
Bob Cohen, chief executive officer of the Braintree Business Development Center in Mansfield, will discuss Financial Resources for Launching and Sustaining Your Business: From Microfinance to Crowdfunding at a free workshop at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hudson Library & Historical Society.
The Braintree Business Development Center is one of 12 business incubators supported by the state. Akron’s Global Business Accelerator is among the dozen. Register for Cohen’s talk online at http://crowdfunding-microfinancing.eventbrite.com/# or call 330-653-6658. The library is at 96 Library St. in the First & Main shopping complex.
B&W wins nuclear contracts
Babcock & Wilcox Co.’s Barberton campus will be getting additional nuclear-related work as the result of federal contracts worth more than $510 million.
Charlotte, N.C.-based B&W subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group Inc. was awarded contracts totaling more than $510 million to make U.S. submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear power systems.
Work will be performed at facilities in Barberton and Euclid, Ohio; Lynchburg, Va.; and Mount Vernon, Ind. The manufacturing will take place over eight years; work began in January.
WALL STREET
Dow Jones increases 99 points
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day 99.22 points higher at 13,979.30, erasing a large part of its loss from Monday. The index traded above 14,000 during the day before falling back in the last hour.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 15.59 points to 1,511.29. The Nasdaq composite was up 40.41 points to 3,171.58.
Estee Lauder rose $3.66, or 6 percent, to $64.71 after reporting earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. Profits surged 13 percent at the beauty products company as sales in the U.S. and emerging markets rose. Computer Sciences Corp., an information technology services company, was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500. CSC rose $3.84, or 9.2 percent, to $45.75 after the company said it was raising its earnings outlook.
FINANCE
MasterCard doubles dividend
MasterCard Inc., the second-biggest U.S. payments network, doubled its quarterly dividend to 60 cents a share and approved a stock-repurchase program of as much as $2 billion.
MasterCard posted fourth-quarter profit last week that beat analysts’ estimates. The company is fending off competitors Visa Inc. and Shanghai-based China UnionPay as it seeks a larger share of the electronic payments-processing market.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Turbo engines draw criticism
Consumer Reports magazine is warning car buyers that turbocharged engines may not deliver the speed or fuel economy they expect.
It said tests showed turbocharged models from Ford, Hyundai and Kia are less efficient than competitors. It also said the turbocharged Chevrolet Cruze, which is assembled at a General Motors plant in Lordstown, got little extra power or fuel economy than a nonturbocharged engine. The magazine did praise a turbocharged four-cylinder from BMW.
Turbochargers pump extra air into engines so more fuel can be added to boost power. Carmakers charge more for them, promising extra power.
Consumer Reports said a new Ford Fusion with an optional 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine was slower and got lower fuel economy than a Toyota Camry, Honda Accord or Nissan Altima with regular engines.
Ford said it can’t speak for Consumer Reports’ tests, but its surveys show EcoBoost customers are satisfied with their fuel economy. A spokeswoman for General Motors said the Cruze turbocharged engine provides more power and better acceleration. She said people who drive with a heavy foot on the accelerator of a turbocharged engine won’t see a lot of gas mileage benefits.
TOYS
Lego will eliminate 380 jobs
Lego A/S said it will cut 380 jobs as Europe’s biggest toymaker closes some of its production in Denmark over the next 2½ years to save costs. Lego will move its Danish packaging and brick decorating functions to existing sites in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Mexico, the closely held company, based in Billund, Denmark, said.
Lego in August said its share of the global toy market rose to more than 8 percent as it unveiled plans to hire 1,000 more workers, including some in Denmark, to meet demand for its bricks.
The company said it has tripled sales in the last eight years.
Compiled from staff and wire reports