FACTORY ORDERS SLIDE: Orders to U.S. factories, after posting two months of solid increases, fell by 1.4 percent in November, the biggest decline in seven months. But analysts viewed the drop as a temporary blip. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that while a number of sectors suffered declines in orders, the weakness was concentrated in communications, which saw orders plunge by 41.1 percent. A second report showed that sentiment in the services sector of the economy remained in positive territory for the ninth straight month although the Institute of Supply Managers' nonmanufacturing index took a slight dip to 58.6 in December.
SYKES SHUTS OKLA. CENTER: Sykes Enterprises is closing another domestic call center. The Tampa company, which handles customer service calls for its clients via a global network of call centers, will shut down its 440-employee center in Ada, Okla., on March 8. The closure will leave Sykes with 12 U.S. locations. Citing customer demand for lower-priced services, the company has been moving operations to new call centers in lower wage countries, most recently El Salvador. Spokesman Subhaash Kumar said the Ada call center is closing because a major contract is being phased out, not because jobs are being sent overseas.
SCRIPPS NAMES FLA. LEADER: The Scripps Research Institute has hired Charles Weissmann, an internationally known Swiss scientist, to lead its new Florida biotechnology center. Weissmann, 72, is senior research scientist at the University College in London, a top medical research institution. Weissmann was director of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Zurich from 1967 to 1999 before leaving to join University College. For two decades he has studied prions, the agents that cause mad cow disease and its human cousin Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
RED LOBSTER CHIEF QUITS: Darden Restaurants Inc., owner of Red Lobster, said president and chief operating officer Dick Rivera has resigned, three months after taking charge of the seafood chain where sales and profit have been declining. CEO Joe Lee will assume operating responsibilities for Darden and Red Lobster, Darden said in a statement. Darden, which also owns Olive Garden restaurants, expects to name a new Red Lobster president by May. Rivera replaced Edna Morris at Red Lobster in September.
ENRON ROAD MAP GAINS GROUND: Enron Corp.'s road map for emerging from bankruptcy received a New York judge's initial blessing Tuesday and will be sent to creditors to accept or reject. The 1,400-page disclosure statement Enron prepared for its more than 24,000 creditors explains how the company imploded in 2001 and how it aims to carry on after emerging from Chapter 11. The plan offers most creditors about one-fifth of the approximately $66.4-billion they are owed. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez addressed creditor objections one by one in a hearing Tuesday. He held off on signing the final product pending a hearing Thursday.
SEARS, EMERSON SETTLE: Sears, Roebuck & Co. will collect $10.8-million from Emerson Electric Co, in resolving claims that Emerson used machines that had been set up to make Sears products to make power tools for Home Depot Inc. Sears claimed in its federal lawsuit filed in August 2002 in Chicago that it spent $35-million to equip an Emerson factory in Paris, Tenn., with machines for making Craftsman brand tool parts.
