LOCAL BUSINESS
Manufacturers ranked
Goodyear was listed as the sixth-largest Northeast Ohio manufacturing company in a new ranking published by Crain’s Cleveland Business in its May 20 issue. The rankings, which include companies based in Summit, Portage, Stark, Medina and Wayne counties, were compiled based on number of local employees.
Akron-based Goodyear says it has 3,000 workers and produces race car tires.
The other ranked companies in the five-county area were: Timken, of Canton, with 4,500 workers, No. 2; Babcock & Wilcox of Barberton, with 2,455 workers, ranked No. 8; Parker Hannifin, of Cleveland with Akron, Kent, Fairlawn and Ravenna operations and 2,300 regional workers, No. 9; Republic Steel, of Canton, with 1,720 workers, No. 15; Bridgestone Americas Inc., of Akron, with 1,657 workers, No. 16; Alcoa, with operations in Barberton and 1,575 regional workers, No. 17; Smucker, of Orrville, with 1,500 workers, No. 18; Luk USA of Wooster, with 1,186 workers, No. 21; Shearer’s Foods of Massillon, with 1,087 workers, No. 24; GE Lighting, with Ravenna operations and 1,027 regional workers, No. 26; and Newell Rubbermaid of Mogadore, Fairlawn and Brimfield, with 1,000 workers, No. 27.
Automaker General Motors, with several facilities in the region, was No. 1.
RPM handles claims
Asbestos-related claims against Medina-based RPM International Inc.’s bankrupt Bondex International Inc. and Specialty Products Holding Corp. total nearly $1.2 billion, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court has determined.
The $1.17 billion estimate by U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware is another step in the legal proceeding to determine how much money to pay into an asbestos fund, RPM said.
The company said the court opinion “substantially overstates the amount of their liability and is not supported by the facts.” An appeal will take another two to three years, RPM said.
RPM created SPHC as the corporate parent for Bondex; both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2010 because of asbestos liability lawsuits. The company said the Chapter 11 process is intended to lead to paying claims out of a specially created trust fund.
Export awards in area
Seven Northeast Ohio companies were given what are called presidential “E” Awards for exports.
They were: Miller Weldmaster Corp., Navarre; U.S. Chemical & Plastics, Massillon; Venture Products Inc., Orrville; Quality Thermodynamics, Mayfield Village; AplusB, Richmond Heights; and Superior Holding LLC and Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc., both in Cleveland. They were among 57 companies and organizations nationwide receiving an E Award, first established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.
The award recognizes contributions to increasing American exports. U.S. Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank oversaw the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.
WALL STREET
Dow up 52 points
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 52.30 points Tuesday to 15,387.58, a gain of 0.3 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up 2.87 points to 1,669.16, a slight increase of 0.2 percent. Both the Dow and the S&P are at record highs. The Nasdaq composite rose 5.69 points to 3,502.12, a 0.2 percent gain.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. gained 1.4 percent. Shareholders of the country’s biggest bank voted to allow Jamie Dimon to keep his two titles, CEO and chairman. Home Depot surged $1.95, or 2.5 percent, to $78.71. TiVo gained 2 percent, or 26 cents, to $12.92.
Crude oil sank 55 cents to $96.16 a barrel. Gold fell $6.50 to $1,377.60 an ounce,
EARNINGS
Best Buy has loss
Electronics retailer Best Buy said its net loss for the three months ended May 4 after paying preferred dividends totaled $81 million, or 24 cents per share. That compares with net income of $158 million, or 46 cents per share, last year.
Excluding restructuring costs and costs related to selling its stake in Best Buy Europe, it earned 36 cents per share. That beat the 24 cents per share that analysts expected, according to research firm FactSet.
Revenue fell nearly 10 percent to $9.38 billion, excluding European revenue.
Home Depot earns more
For the three months that ended May 5, Home Depot Inc. earned $1.23 billion, or 83 cents per share. That was up from $1.04 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts predicted earnings of 76 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey.
Revenue for the Atlanta company rose 7 percent to $19.12 billion from $17.81 billion. Wall Street expected $18.62 billion.
Compiled from staff and wire reports