Business digest

DOW GAINS CALLED MEANINGLESS: The Dow Jones industrials rose 100 points, but analysts say investor sentiment hasn't turned around. Investors were cautious after the big sell-off Tuesday. Allegations of unethical business practices by ImClone's former chairman added to the uneasiness, as did profit warnings from companies including Safeway and Monsanto. "The market's a mess," said Charles White, portfolio manager at Avatar Associates. Analysts say the Dow's gains were meaningless and attributed them to "short covering," where investors are forced to buy stock to replace shares they had borrowed and sold on the expectation that the market would fall further. The Dow closed up 100.45 at 9,617.71. Broader indicators also finished higher.

LARGER FLORIDA CITRUS CROP EXPECTED: The 2001-02 Florida citrus crop is expected to be 2.1 percent higher than last year's according to latest estimates by the U.S. Agriculture Department. The government said Florida growers will harvest 228-million boxes of oranges this season, compared with 223.3-million boxes a year ago. A box of oranges weighs 90 pounds. Growers said irrigation has helped a crop damaged by hot and dry weather. A record 244-million boxes of oranges were harvested in the 1997-98 crop year.

E SOLUTIONS BUYING APERIAN: E Solutions Corp., a Tampa Web hosting company, said it is buying the Aperian data center in downtown Tampa for $500,000 and plans to invest up to $500,000 expanding use of the facility. E Solutions will begin operating the center Monday. E Solutions vice president and co-owner Michael Morizio said his company was once Aperian's biggest customer but pulled out when Aperian experienced financial problems. Aperian last year merged with Fourthstage Technologies, a technology integrator. Morizio plans to retain four employees working at the center and build on its 30-client roster.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY MODEST, UNEVEN: The economy's recovery from last year'srecession is shaping up to be choppy. That appeared to be the main message from the Federal Reserve's snapshot of business activity across the country in late April and May. The Fed report -- commonly referred to as the beige book for the color of its cover -- said growth was "modest but uneven," with services and manufacturing improving but retail sales sluggish. Economists said the report makes it all but certain Fed policymakers will leave short-term interest rates, now at 40-year lows, unchanged at their meeting this month and probably through the summer.

MICROSOFT MOTION DENIED: Nine states fighting to bring stronger antitrust sanctions against Microsoft cleared a legal hurdle as a federal judge decided they have the right to seek penalties that would apply nationwide. Microsoft had asked for a dismissal, saying the states, including Florida, could not show specific harm to their residents and that their pursuit would clash with a federal settlement reached in November. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington agreed with the states' argument that an appeals court already considered whether they have antitrust authority and did not question it.

SOUTHWEST UNION DEADLOCKED ON PAY: Southwest Airlines pilots will vote on a company proposal to boost their pay 35 percent over the next four years but won't get any direction from their union. After deliberating for two days, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association board was unable to agree on whether to recommend members accept the offer when they vote July 3 through Aug. 19, Bloomberg News reported. The pilots can't strike because their 10-year contract has two years remaining. Southwest agreed to renegotiate the contract last year when the union argued its members' pay lagged far behind competitors after United Airlines and Delta Air Lines gave pilots large raises.

UNITED MAY SEEK LOAN GUARANTEES: The chairman and chief executive of United Airlines said the nation's second-largest carrier will apply for a loan guarantee from the federal government by the June 28 deadline if it receives unspecified concessions from workers. John Creighton said the airline has made "considerable headway in securing employee commitments." A component of the airline bailout package passed by Congress after Sept. 11 made $10-billion in loan guarantees available to airlines that could meet stringent financial criteria. United, which lost $510-million in the first quarter and is losing millions of dollars a day, would be the third major airline to seek a portion, after America West and US Airways. Creighton said the survival of United "is not in doubt," regardless of whether it gets the loan guarantees.

SEC PROPOSES DISCLOSURE RULES: Public companies would have to tell investors more quickly about significant corporate events, and their top officers would have to certify quarterly and annual reports under rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The two proposals, part of a larger reform effort to enhance corporate reporting, address criticisms that current disclosure rules allowed Enron to hide its true financial condition. One rule would expand the list of significant corporate events that would require filing of 8K disclosure forms, and would shorten the filing deadline to two days from the current five to 15. The public will have 60 days to comment on the rules before the SEC votes on whether to adopt them.

JANUS FOUNDER BOWING OUT AS CEO: Tom Bailey, who launched the Janus Fund with a handful of investors in 1969 and helped make it into a major mutual fund family, will step down as chief executive and president of Janus Capital Management LLC at the end of the month. A successor has not been chosen. Bailey, 64, will remain as chairman of the board of trustees. Janus' five-member management committee will continue to run its day-to-day operations, the company said.

MICROSOFT DISCLOSES FLAW: Microsoft acknowledged a serious flaw in its Internet server software that could allow sophisticated hackers to seize control of Web sites, steal information and use vulnerable computers to attack others online. The Internet Information Server software, which runs about one-third of the world's Web sites, is used by millions of businesses and organizations but less commonly by home users. Microsoft made available a free patch for customers using versions of the software with its Windows NT or Windows 2000 operating systems. The server software included within Microsoft's newer Windows XP operating system is not affected.

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