The U.S. Navy has awarded Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp. a five-year contract to perform long-term overhaul and maintenance work on the USS Lincoln and three other aircraft carriers based in Puget Sound. The company said some of the on-board work may be done at Naval Station Everett and at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton. The estimated value of the contract is approximately $133 million. Todd, which has operated a shipyard in Seattle since 1916, employs more than 800 people.
Three longtime components of the Dow Jones industrial average – AT&T Corp., International Paper and Eastman Kodak – will be removed from the index of the top 30 industrial stocks, Dow Jones &Co. announced Thursday. They will be replaced by financial services company American International Group Inc., Verizon Communications and pharmaceuticals maker Pfizer Inc. The change will take place at the start of trading April 8. Verizon joins another “Baby Bell,” SBC Communications Inc., which was added to the index in 1999. It also replaces its former parent, AT&T, which had been a consistent Dow component since 1939. International Paper had been included in the index since 1956, while Kodak had been part of the Dow since 1930.
The nation’s manufacturing sector continued to expand strongly in March, an industry group reported Thursday. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index registered 62.5 in March compared with a reading of 61.4 in February. The new reading was above the expectations of analysts, who had forecast a figure of 59.5. An index reading above 50 indicates expansion, while one below 50 indicates that manufacturing activity is contracting. All the 20 industries that comprise the manufacturing sector reported growth, ISM said. The group’s measure of new orders declined 0.7 to 65.7 in March, still quite strong.
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service acted Thursday to stop businesses from partnering with charitable organizations to generate improper tax deductions. The announcement marked the first time tax officials have designated tax-exempt organizations, such as charities, as participants in a tax shelter. The transaction involves businesses organized as corporations that pass income, and thus taxes, through to their shareholders. The Treasury Department and IRS acted to stop those businesses from partnering with a charity and shifting income to the tax-exempt organization to generate improper tax deductions.
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