LOCAL BUSINESS
B&W receives honor
Babcock & Wilcox Co. said it was named Supplier of the Year for 2013 by Arizona Public Service Co. in the “Major Equipment” category. The award recognizes suppliers for customer service, community work and health, safety and environmental concerns.
B&W was one of six recognized among more than 4,000 suppliers.
The company has been a supplier to APS and its predecessors for more than a century, providing products and services for conventional and nuclear power plants.
Cable executive named
Time Warner Cable Inc. named former Insight Communications executive Dinni Jain as its chief operating officer, filling a role that will be vacated by incoming Chief Executive Officer Rob Marcus. Jain will take over the job on Jan. 13, following the elevation of Marcus to CEO and chairman on the first of the year. Jain had served as president and chief operating officer of Insight, a company Time Warner Cable acquired in 2012. Time Warner Cable’s third-largest division is based in Akron.
LEGAL
Government alleges fraud
The federal government is suing a Canton construction company, alleging the business defrauded a Small Business Administration program in order to get contracts worth millions of dollars.
The lawsuit alleges TAB Construction Co. Inc. and owner William E. Richardson III made false statements to the SBA in order to be certified as a Historically Underutilized Business Zone, or HUBZone.
The lawsuit alleges the company got the certification to obtain U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts worth millions of dollars. The suit said the company owner in 2000 applied for the HUBZone program certification, saying the business’s principal office was in a designated HUBZone when it was not. The company reapplied for certification in 2006, the government said.
The government said it filed its complaints under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.
WALL STREET
Dow drops 68 points
The Dow Jones industrial average fell for a fifth straight day on Thursday after encouraging news on the economy prompted investors to speculate that the Federal Reserve is getting closer to reducing its stimulus program.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest in nearly six years last week, and the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace since early 2012. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 68.28 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,821.51.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 7.78 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,785.03. The Nasdaq composite declined 4.84 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,033.16.
For the year: the Dow is up 2,717.37 points, or 20.7 percent; the S&P 500 is up 358.84 points, or 25.2 percent; the Nasdaq is up 1,013.65 points, or 33.6 percent.
REAL ESTATE
Mortgage interest rates rise
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the 30-year loan jumped to 4.46 percent from 4.29 percent last week. The average on the 15-year fixed loan increased to 3.47 percent from 3.30 percent.
Rates have risen a full percentage point since May after the Federal Reserve signaled it might slow its bond purchases by year’s end. Rates peaked at 4.6 percent in August.
Compiled from staff and wire reports