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Nucor Corp. reports a 68 percent increase in second-quarter earnings to $580.8 million, or $1.94 per diluted share, up from $344.9 million, or $1.14 per diluted share, a year ago.

Sales grew 70 percent to $7.09 billion from $4.17 billion in the second quarter of 2007.

The Charlotte-based steel maker says its average sales price per ton increased 24 percent for the year. Total tons shipped grew 38 percent to 7.73 million.

Nucor (NYSE:NUE) attributes the increase in sales and earnings to acquisitions during the last 18 months, including Harris Steel Group Inc. in March 2007 and The David J. Joseph Company in February.

Nucor incurred a $214 million charge to value inventories using the last-in, first-out method of accounting. In last year’s second quarter, the company incurred a LIFO charge of $66.5 million.

The company expects third-quarter earnings of $1.80 to $1.85 per diluted share. Nucor earned $1.29 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2007.

North Hawaii Community Hospital officials said late Tuesday they are laying off 59 employees in an effort to stem operating losses that could reach $7.4 million this year.

The hospital notified 45 full- and part-time employees Tuesday that they were out of a job. Another 14 employees at the Waimea Women's Center, on the North Hawaii Community campus, also are losing their jobs.

The layoffs take effect immediately and the employees were spread across multiple departments, according to North Hawaii Community Hospital CEO Jeff Comer.

"This is one specific part of it and we need to have a more concerted focus on communicating to the public and getting the message out that the hospital is in a serious situation," Comer told PBN. "There is a cash flow problem and because of that we are forced to take this difficult and painful action…"

The hospital has approximately 460 employees.

The Waimea hospital, which came under new management in late 2007 and hired Comer as its new chief executive in May, has implemented what it calls the "Get Well Plan," which is designed to ensure financial viability.

North Hawaii officials called the layoffs an "unfortunate but necessary action" because the hospital lost $7.5 million last year and stands to lose an estimated $7.4 million this year.

North Hawaii Community Hospital is a 40-bed, privately funded facility. It was established in 1996 and serves some 30,000 Big Island residents.

The U.S. Air Force will rebid the $35 billion contract to build new refueling tankers, Congressman Todd Tiahrt's office says.

A decision is expected by Dec. 31 from the office of the Secretary of Defense — not the Air Force.

The awarding of the contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. earlier this year was met with criticism both nationally and locally, where hundreds of jobs would have been created under Boeing's proposal.

Last month, a Government Accountability Office report said Boeing Co. might have won the contract if the Air Force had not made mistakes in evaluating the competing bids. The GAO recommended the service hold a new competition.

The contract, one of the largest tanker deals in Pentagon history, is the first of three Air Force contracts worth up to $100 billion to replace nearly 600 refueling tankers over the next 30 years.

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts and Tiahrt were among lawmakers from Washington who have pressured the Air Force to reopen the bidding process and cancel the contract with Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.

On Tuesday, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced a Senate resolution calling on the Pentagon to rebid the flawed tanker contract.

The resolution was cosponsored by Sens. Roberts, Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

On June 25, the Government Accountability Office issued a report saying that Northrop Gruman Corp.'s $35 billion tanker bid to the U.S. Air Force may have been ineligible.

And a week earlier, the GAO upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's decision.

The GAO's 67-page report said Northrop missed key Defense Department parameters. It also said the Air Force had penalized Boeing. The report explains the details of the GAO's ruling that the bidding may need to be reopened because of numerous flaws in how the Defense Department contract was awarded.

XeroCoat Inc. said Monday it entered the solar energy market with an anti-reflective coating designed to increase solar system conversion efficiency.

The company said it targets the solar thermal and solar photovoltaic segments.

Founded by two University of Queensland, Australia researchers, XeroCoat is headquartered in Redwood City and maintains its research and development base in Brisbane, Queensland.

The company said it has "an international team of leading optical materials and solar energy scientists and engineers who are focused on continuous innovation of coatings for the solar energy industry."

XeroCoat also said it signed a contract "with a large solar thermal manufacturer to provide the anti-reflective coating for their demonstration line."

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde welcomed as “encouraging'' comments by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet this week playing down prospects of further interest-rate increases.

Speaking a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked if it was “reasonable'' for the ECB to have raised its benchmark rate, Lagarde said it was vital European policy makers “be attentive to the economic growth situation.''

The ECB raised its benchmark rate to 4.25 percent, the highest in seven years, on July 3 after inflation accelerated to a 16-year high in the 15 euro nations. With growth slowing, Trichet today repeated he has “no bias'' on further moves.

“What seems encouraging to me are the comments of Trichet,'' Lagarde said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at an economic forum in Aix-en-Provence, southern France. “He has said clearly that with the rate as it is he thinks the goal of price stabilization can be attained.''

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly attacked the Frankfurt-based bank for focusing too much on inflation and not enough on growth, yesterday asked delegates at a Paris meeting of his Union for a Popular Movement party “if it was reasonable to raise rates while the Americans have rates at 2 percent.''

Fed, ECB Gap

The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut its key rate seven times since September to 2 percent in a bid to avert recession, while the ECB left its unchanged until the past week amid surging consumer prices. Lagarde today called the gap “considerable'' and blamed it for leaving the euro “overvalued'' against the dollar. The euro has climbed 8 percent against the dollar this year.

The comments of French officials carry greater weight after France on July 1 took over the presidency of the 27-nation European Union, meaning it will help shape the EU's agenda and policies for the rest of this year.

Speaking at the same forum as Lagarde, ECB President Jean- Claude Trichet today rebuffed the criticism of politicians and said the bank would do what is necessary to control prices and anchor inflation expectations.

“We're not pre-committed and will do what is necessary to ensure price stability,'' he said. “We have a mandate that was given to us by European democracies, of price stability.''

Still, Lagarde noted German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck's July 1 comment that the ECB should consider the effect on growth of higher interest rates. “I rejoice that my German counterpart, who was considered an apostle of the orthodoxy of monetary policy, also started believe that the risk to growth of too-high interest rates has to be taken into account,'' she said.

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Fourth of July travelers are paying the highest prices ever for a gallon of gasoline this week, according to AAA Texas.

In Texas, the average price for regular self-serve gasoline hit $3.96 a gallon, up 3 cents from last week. Nationally, the average price gained 3 cents to a new record of $4.10 a gallon.

The average price rose to $3.95 a gallon in both Dallas and Fort Worth, up 2 cents in Dallas and nearly 3 cents in Fort Worth.

The highest price was in Beaumont, where it jumped 6 cents to a record $3.99 a gallon. Both Houston and Galveston City tied for the cheapest fuel at $3.93 a gallon, up nearly 2 cents and 3 cents, respectively.

Prices averaged $3.95 a gallon in Austin and $3.93 a gallon in San Antonio, up 3 cents for both cities.

"Despite the record high fuel prices, almost 2.8 million Texans are expected to venture out for the holiday," said AAA Texas spokeswoman Rose Rougeau. "Although down 2 percent compared to last year, that is still a great deal of travelers."

Web site: www.aaa-texas.com

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The Denver law firm of Fife and Associates now is called Fife, Charles, Mangall & Mossinghoff, the company reported Monday.

The names of attorneys Christ Charles, Darin Mangnall and Dan Mossinghoff were added to the firm's name.

The firm focuses on criminal law and DUI defenses.

Charles has been with the firm since 2004, and Mangnall and Mossinghoff have been with it since 2005.

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Japan's credit rating was raised one level to Aa3 by Moody's Investors Service, which said the government will keep trying to restrain spending to reduce debt.

The increase on long-term, local-currency debt from A1 “was prompted by expectations of continued fiscal restraint and consolidation, coupled with an easing-out of the debilitating effects of deflation,'' Thomas Byrne, senior vice president of Moody's, said in a statement. “The government and ruling party is firmly committed to fiscal consolidation.''

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda last week reaffirmed his pledge to balance the budget by 2011 so that the government can cut the world's largest public debt. Economists say Japan hasn't done enough to pare its borrowings, which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates stand at 182 percent of gross domestic product.

“I wonder why Moody's is upgrading now while Japan still faces a harsh fiscal environment,'' said Seiji Adachi, a senior economist at Deutsche Securities Inc. in Tokyo. “On the top of that, they probably downgraded too far before.''

The increase to the fourth-highest investment grade brings Moody's assessment in line with Fitch Ratings' AA- and one notch below Standard & Poor's AA, and puts Japan on a par with Taiwan and Cyprus. Moody's raised the rating to A1 eight months ago.

Moody's assigned Japan the top Aaa rating in 1993, and since 1998 made four cuts as the nation's borrowings swelled. Even with today's upgrade, Japan is still the lowest among the Group of Seven industrialized nations by Moody's measurement. Within the G-7 only Italy and Japan have ratings below Aaa.

Four Cuts

The yen traded at 106.01 per dollar at 2:04 p.m. in Tokyo from 106.28 before the announcement. The yield on Japan's 10- year bond fell 1.5 basis points to 1.595 percent.

“News on Moody's upgrade was a big surprise,'' said Yuji Saito, head of foreign-exchange sales at Societe Generale SA in Tokyo. “This is all because we Japanese think the Fukuda administration is reluctant to cut spending and the Japanese economy is slowing.''

Japan's budget deficit is set to widen for the first time in five years as social-security costs rise in one of the world's most rapidly aging societies.

Investors have purchased more default protection on Japan's debt this year to guard against the risk that the government will become unable to repay it. Credit-default swaps on Japanese government debt were at 16.5 basis points on June 27 compared with 8.5 at the end of 2007, according to CMA Datavision prices.

By comparison, contracts on South Korea were quoted at 106 basis points on June 27, indicating a higher risk of default.

Bank of Japan

Moody's said Japan's economy is “resilient'' to a global slowdown and added that it didn't expect any “preemptive'' interest-rate increases by the Bank of Japan because inflation in the world's second-largest economy is still lower than in other countries.

The central bank's benchmark overnight lending rate is 0.5 percent, the lowest in the industrialized world. Consumer prices excluding fresh food climbed 1.5 percent in May, the fastest pace in a decade.

Further improvement in the nation's debt rating hinges on government efforts toward “sustained fiscal consolidation'' and debt reduction, and a falling birthrate and rising welfare costs will be headwinds for Japan, Moody's added.

Japan's banks are “in a relatively favorable position,'' having avoided the worst of the subprime mortgage collapse that made financial institutions less willing to lend money in the U.S. and Europe, Moody's said.

Stable Financial System

“The Japanese financial system is stable, especially compared to U.S. and European markets,'' said Hidetoshi Ohashi, a credit analyst with Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. He said the higher rating may lead to upgrades at banks and public entities.

Moody's was criticized by the government and summoned to parliament in 2002, when it cuts its rating to A2, the sixth highest. Masajuro Shiokawa, then the nation's finance minister, called Moody's “out of touch with reality.''

Overseas investors held only 5.1 percent of outstanding government bonds as of the end of September 2006, according to the Ministry of Finance.

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