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PVT Solar Inc. on Tuesday named Vikas Desai CEO and said it raised $13.7 million in a second round of funding.

Desai was previously vice president and general manager of San Jose-based SunPower Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SPWRA SPWRB) residential and light commercial business unit.

Sigma Partners led the round, with participation from Khosla Ventures. Both firms have offices in Menlo Park. Also joining in the round was Energy & Environment Investment, Japan guaranteed payday loans.

Last year Khosla Ventures led PVT Solar's first round of funding.

The Berkeley company makes Echo, a solar energy system it says delivers twice the energy of conventional solar electric systems.

Click here to read the press release.

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Stocks stumbled in the final hours of a lackluster session and ended near session lows, as nervous investors weighed a surprise jump in weekly jobless claims with a better-than-expected reading on the housing market.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) dropped for a second straight day, falling 77 points, or 0.7%. The blue-chip index had tumbled as much as 94 points during the first hour of the session, then recovered to add 23 points before slumping just below the breakeven line for a majority of the trading day.

The S&P 500 (SPX) ended 9 points lower, or 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP) slipped 8 points, or 0.3%, after spending most of the day in positive territory.

Stocks took a slide at the open after a surprise jump in jobless claims, but clawed back from the deep losses following reports that showed a bounce in existing homes and an improvement in the index of leading indicators, which gauges the economy’s performance over the next three to six months.

Trading remained in a tight range most of the day as worries about the job market and the broader economy continued to weigh on sentiment, but stocks lost steam in the late afternoon.

"We got a bit of good news in housing and the overall economy, but there’s still a great amount of uncertainty about the labor market," said Peter Tuz, president at Chase Investment Council.

And though the rebound in home sales was a welcome change since they plunged 30% to a record low the previous month, the housing market recovery remains sluggish.

"The housing report is helping, but investors know that as soon as there’s one good report on housing, there will be a bad one two days later," said Gary Webb, chief executive of Webb Financial Group.

Webb said trading will remain choppy as investors react to each piece of economic news. But he expects the market to trend upward for the remainder of the year.

So far, the S&P is up almost 1%, while the Dow and the Nasdaq are more than 2% higher on the year. Much of that comes from the market’s recent performance, with stocks on track to log the biggest monthly gains since April 2009.

Stocks slumped Wednesday amid concerns about the economy and after gold prices touched a new all-time record just shy of $1,300 an ounce.

Investors continued to eye gold prices, which settled at another all-time high Thursday.

Economy: The weekly report on initial jobless claims was worse than expected. The number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time jumped by 12,000 to 465,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were looking for claims to drop to 450,000 from 453,000 the previous week.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 7.6% 4.13 million units in August. That’s just slightly better than economists’ predictions. And compared with a year earlier, sales are down 19%.

Meanwhile, the index of leading economic indicators — a measure of the economy’s future performance — rose 0.3% in August, the Conference Board said. Analysts had forecast a 0.1% increase for the month.

Companies: Shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) climbed for a fourth straight session, nearing $300 per share. The company’s market capitalization became the world’s second largest with a market value of $267 billion, surpassing PetroChina (PTR) which is worth $264 billion. Apple still lags behind Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), which boasts a market cap of $313 billion.

Blockbuster (BBI, Fortune 500) filed for its much-anticipated bankruptcy as it tries to recover from nearly $1 billion of debt. Blockbuster has struggled for survival ever since media conglomerate Viacom (VIA) spun off the company in 2004. Shares of Blockbuster tumbled 22%.

McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500) announced an 11% dividend hike to 61 cents per share for the fourth quarter. This is equal to $2.44 per share annually. Shares of the fast food chain fell 0.7%.

Avis (CAR, Fortune 500) boosted its offer to buy Dollar Thrifty (DTG) to $1.52 billion, or about $53 per share, beating Hertz’s (HTZ, Fortune 500) most recent offer of $1.45 billion, or $50 per share. Avis rose the cash portion of its bid by 12% to $45.79. Shares of Avis and Hertz fell about 4%, while Dollar Thrifty’s advanced 1.9%.

Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) said late Wednesday that it was hiking the price of its "labor-intensive" drinks because of rising coffee bean prices. Shares of the coffee giant lost 1.9%.

World markets: European shares fell Thursday. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.1%, Germany’s DAX slipped about 0.4% and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7%.

Major stock markets in Asia were closed in observance of mid-autumn festivals.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, and slipped versus the British pound and Japanese yen.

Gold for December delivery rose $4.20 to settle at a record high of $1,296.30.

Oil prices for November delivery rose 47 cents to settle at $75.18 a barrel.

Bonds: The price on the 10-year Treasury note was higher, pushing down the yield to 2.55% from 2.56% late Wednesday. 

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Criminal investigations, "phantom" recalls and executive oustings are exposing a dark side of Johnson & Johnson, once considered a pillar of American industry.

Here’s the latest intrigue:

J&J’s double whammy: First, lawmakers investigating J&J’s (JNJ, Fortune 500) string of drug recalls announced a second hearing to ask executives to explain inconsistencies in testimony of what they knew about problems with drugs like Tylenol and Benadryl and why they were yanked off store shelves. Those over-the-counter drugs were made by the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.

Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon was invited to testify at the first hearing but he didn’t appear due to illness. It’ll be harder for him to give lawmakers the run around a second time. Colleen Goggins, chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s global consumer products division, who stood in for Weldon in May, announced her retirement last Thursday.

However, Peter Luther, the president of the troubled McNeil division, is still employed by the company.

"Goggins’ exit is worrisome. It’s another black eye for Johnson & Johnson because she was touted as the next CEO of the company," said Damien Conover, analyst with Morningstar.

Secret recalls: Lawmakers unveiled documents in May that showed Johnson & Johnson hired contractors to conduct a clandestine recall of more than 88,000 Motrin tablets.

To conduct clandestine recalls products are removed from store shelves without notifying consumers of potential problems.

Johnson & Johnson has maintained that its executives never authorized such a broad based recall of Motrin but e-mails released last Thursday indicate that despite assertions to the contrary, Luther may have approved the "phantom" recall of Motrin.

On May 27, 2009, Luther writes to other McNeil executives and seems to be pushing the secret Motrin recall:

"Group, given our current financial situation, I hope we’re not really going to double our cost to do this. Let’s make this happen ASAP."

An email dated June 30, 2009, from WIS, a "phantom" recall subcontractor hired by Johnson & Johnson, indicates that the companies may have also been planning a secret recall of children’s Tylenol and that Johnson & Johnson knew about problems with those drugs months before they were officially recalled.

"We are exploring another similar but potentially larger recall for July involving children’s Tylenol. WIS will look to explore next week the potential quantities in 400 geographically dispersed stores to ‘assess’ the quantities on shelves ….this across mass, grocery, drug and convenience [stores]. (Wal-Mart is on the list.)"

"J&J could ask Inmar/WIS to move ahead on a scope to purchase product that would make our Motrin project look small." [Inmar and WIS are the contractors involved in the Motrin recall.]

Hits keep coming. Morningstar’s Conover says the investigations are making Johnson & Johnson vulnerable on two fronts: Its bottomline and the reputation of its brands.

"The financial impact can be quantified but the hit to the brand is less quantifiable," he said. J&J has said that its recent drug recalls will cost the company $600 million in sales this year, or about 1% of J&J’s total sales.

"J&J has three big groups. It’s branded drugs, its consumer products division which includes McNeil and its medical device units. So when its OTC division keeps getting the black eyes, it hurts the entire reputation of the company," he said.

Johnson & Johnson’s over-the-counter drugs are more dependent on brand image than any of its other products, Conover said.

"Right now, the negative hits are rapid but the magnitude from the financial aspect is not overly dramatic. But if there are even more hits coming, that will further tarnish the brand." 

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A former Twin Cities account executive with Sprint Nextel admitted in federal court Friday that he defrauded the company out of nearly $145,000 by acquiring cell phones and selling them on eBay.

Christopher Destasio, 42, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.

Destasio defrauded Sprint Nextel between October 2007 and Octover 2009 by ordering hundreds of phones that were supposed to be for his customers, but were in fact for him payday loans direct lenders. The phones each showed up as a 99-cent bill on customers’ bills, so most customers didn’t notice.

Destasio kept the phones himself and sold them on eBay, usually fetching $200 to $409 apiece for them.

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Bakers Footwear Group Inc., which is struggling to survive, said Tuesday its loss widened to $2.1 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $1.7 million in the second quarter last year.

The women's shoe retailer said net sales totaled $43.3 million for the 13 weeks ended July 31, down 1 percent from $43.7 million for the prior-year period.

Comparable store sales, which measure sales at stores open at least a year, remained flat.

"Our second-quarter performance was disappointing driven by a lackluster response to our sandal offerings, which led to increased promotional activity during the quarter," Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Edison said in the earnings release. "That said, we ended the quarter in a solid inventory position with improving sales trends during the latter part of the quarter."

Last month, Bakers received a $5 million loan from shoemaker Steven Madden Ltd fast cash advance., giving Edison and his team enough cash to cover their needs through the end of this year. Bakers also landed a loan default waiver from its senior lender, Bank of America.

In exchange for the loan, Edison and his board of directors agreed to give Steven Madden a 20 percent stake in Bakers and to pay the money back at 11 percent interest over the next decade.

"We were … pleased to increase our financial flexibility following quarter end with a $5 million investment by Steve Madden, which we believe represents a strong vote of confidence in Bakers by one of our largest suppliers," Edison said Tuesday.

Looking ahead, Edison said he was optimistic about the fall and holiday seasons, particularly for boot and dress shoe sales.

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The New Mexico Department of Public Safety is to receive a $410,730 grant to help local law enforcement reduce DNA backlogs in criminal cases.

The funds are from the National Institute of Justice and are designed to increase the capacity of existing crime laboratories that conduct DNA analysis.

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., announced the funding and called DNA the “fingerprint of the 21st century,” adding it’s essential to keeping communities safe.

“We must ensure our crime laboratories have the resources they need to quickly process cases,” he said.

Teague is pushing to make New Mexico’s Katie’s Law a national law. He has introduced the Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act in Congress. It would encourage states to maximize the potential of forensic DNA for certain felony crimes by collecting a sample upon arrest at the same time as fingerprints.

Sepich was 22 when she was raped and murdered in Las Cruces. If a DNA sample had been taken upon arrest, her killer would have been caught three months after the murder when he was arrested for another predatory crime need a personal loan with bad credit. Instead, he was released back onto the streets and it was three years before he was apprehended and linked to Sepich’s murder.

Human Rights Watch estimates there are up to half a million unprocessed rape kits in police facilities and crime labs across the country. It is pushing legislation called the Justice for Survivors Sexual Assault Act.

Teague is holding a Katie’s Law summit in Albuquerque on Sept. 13 with representatives from law enforcement, legal and victim’s rights communities. It will include an update on the progress of the federal version of the law.

It will take place at the New Mexico Bar Association, 5121 Masthead NE in Albuquerque, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

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A Texas investor with Western New York roots is planning to demolish an abandoned Lockport factory, according to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.

Scott Krzyzanowski of Dayton, Texas, acquired the plant at 89 Mill St. in August. He says the 1.6-acre parcel would be ideal for a strip plaza.

"I'll have this one cleaned up in a month," Krzyzanowski told the newspaper. "It'll be on the ground in a few weeks, I guarantee it."

Krzyzanowski is a native of Dunkirk, and his wife is from Newfane.

The Union-Sun & Journal's Web site has the full story on the project.

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Sunoco Inc. said Thursday that a former CEO at General Motors, Frederick A. “Fritz” Henderson, has joined it as a senior vice president to help the company prepare for the previously announced spin-off of its SunCoke Energy business.

Henderson, who was president and CEO at GM for five months last year, will become chairman and CEO of SunCoke after the spin-off.

Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) plans to spin off SunCoke Energy in the first half of next year, but hasn’t decided how.

Michael Thomson, who has been SunCoke’s president since 2008, will retain that role and become the company’s chief operating officer.

SunCoke makes coke for steel manufacturers.

Sunoco is a Philadelphia-based oil refiner and fuel provider.

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The American home is shrinking. Toll the bell for the McMansion.

After years of growth, the Census Bureau recently reported that median new home size fell to 2,135 square feet in 2009 after peaking at more than 2,300 earlier in the decade.

"Home buyers are asking for less, cutting back on options and reducing square footage," said Steven Pace of the North Carolina-based Pace Development Group, which builds both custom and tract houses ranging in price from below $250,000 to more than $2 million.

"They’re saying, ‘Maybe we don’t need that 5,000 square footage;" he said. "’Maybe our bath doesn’t need to be big enough for our whole family and all our neighbors to take a shower at the same time.’"

Kermit Baker, chief economist for the American Institute of Architects, pointed out that consumers don’t ask for as much for spaces devoted to single purposes, such as media rooms for watching videos and game rooms for shooting pool. Instead, the requests are for rooms with shared uses.

"We continue to move away from the ‘McMansion’ chapter of residential design," he said.

Now, the typical U.S. owner-occupied home has six rooms, with three of them being bedrooms, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Housing Survey cheap business cards. The most common number of baths is two or more.

For those who remember the days of long, hot summers. Those are over, too. Nearly 90% of all new homes now have central air conditioning. And 63% of all homes are now cooled.

These are a big increases from even 10 years ago, when only 52% of owner-occupied homes — i.e. non-rental properties or second homes — boasted central air.

More than three-quarters of all homeowners now load up dishwashers, up from 65% a decade ago. And garbage disposals can be found in nearly half of owner-occupied homes, up from 46%.

On a broader scope, the survey revealed that, despite the recent hoopla about the new urbanism and return to cities, most Americans still lead a "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle.

Of the more than 76 million owner-occupied homes in 2009, 63 million were traditional detached, single-family residences. And city dwellers, you’re outnumbered: Far more homeowners live in the suburbs than in cities.

Regionally, the South, held the largest number of owner-occupied units, followed by the Midwest, then the West and finally the Northeast.  

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