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Solutia’s prowess in developing chemicals found in everything from car tires to office windows throughout the globe drew the interest of Eastman Chemical Co. last summer. Now it’s buying the Town and Country-based company in a deal worth $4.7 billion.

Eastman, a chemical manufacturer based in Kingsport, Tenn., is acquiring Solutia for $3.4 billion in cash and stock, and assuming $1.3 billion in debt. The deal is set to close in mid-2012, pending shareholder approval.

Solutia makes specialty films and chemicals for the automotive and architectural industries, and employs 3,400 people worldwide, including 450 locally.

With $2.1 billion in revenue last year, Solutia is one of the largest public companies based in the St. Louis region.

Solutia has two local facilities - the Town and Country headquarters, with 300 employees, and a Sauget manufacturing plant where 150 people work.

A Solutia spokeswoman said there was no information yet on the fate of local workers, though headquarters jobs are often a cost-cutting target in mergers. On Friday, Eastman said the headquarters of the combined companies will be in Kingsport.

Menawhile, the Sauget plant - which makes chemicals for tire manufacturing - runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sauget Mayor Rich Sauget said he spoke with Solutia employees as recently as last week who were unaware that a sale was in the works.

“They mean a lot to us,” Sauget said of Solutia’s local workforce. “We hope, whoever comes in, that they see an opportunity with Solutia and their properties here.”

Despite the uncertainty, Eastman won’t be leaving the region, Solutia’s chairman, president and CEO Jeffry Quinn predicted.

“I certainly would expect the combined company to have a significant presence in St. Louis for some time,” Quinn said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. Quinn, who joined Solutia in 2003, will leave the company once the sale finalizes.

In the sale announcement, the companies did not disclose how much Quinn stands to gain when the deal closes. However, Solutia’s most recent proxy statement stated last year that Quinn’s compensation, including cash severance and stock options, would have totalled $21.6 million based on the company’s stock price at the end of 2010.

Under the deal, Solutia shareholders will receive $22 in cash and 0.12 shares of Eastman stock for each share of Solutia that they own. Based on Solutia’s closing price Thursday, Eastman offered a 42 percent premium for Solutia’s stock.

Eastman, which had $7.2 billion in revenue last year, plans to fund the cash portion of the buyout with available cash and debt.

After the early morning announcement, Eastman’s stock soared. Based on Friday’s closing prices, Solutia shareholders will receive cash and stock valued at $28.05 for each Solutia share.

Meanwhile, Solutia’s stock jumped more than 41 percent after the sale was announced, closing Friday at $27.52 a share.

Eastman expects about $100 million in annual cost savings by the end of 2013, as the acquisition is expected to help lower costs and help the company purchase raw materials at lower prices payday loans. The company said the deal will immediately boost earnings.

Global push

The original Monsanto Co. spun off Solutia in 1997 in an effort to focus on drugs and agriculture. Solutia, burdened with heavy debt loads and retirees’ benefits dating before the spin-off, floundered as raw material prices rose and environmental legal costs increased.

In 2003, Solutia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It didn’t emerge out of bankruptcy until 2008.

During the years in bankruptcy, Solutia grew its international reach while divesting underperforming or non-core brands and businesses such as nylon, acrylic fibers and feed ingredients.

In 2003, only 30 percent of Solutia’s revenue came from international sales. Today, that has jumped to 75 percent.

“We’ve really transformed the company into one of the preeminent specialty chemical companies in the world,” Quinn said. “Many of the products we make are expensive to ship, so we built around the world to serve our customers.”

Growth in the company’s technical specialties division, for example, paralleled the development of infrastructure in places such as China. With the new roads, demand for radial tires - which use a chemical made by Solutia - is on the rise.

That global reach drove the Tennessee company’s interests in Solutia, Eastman’s chairman and CEO Jim Rogers said in a conference call with analysts Friday.

“With the addition of Solutia, Eastman will be adding manufacturing capacity in Asia over the next couple of years to meet growth,” Rogers said.

Eastman, which has 10,000 employees globally, was itself a product of a spin-off. The company was spun-off from camera and film maker Kodak in 1994.

In the conference call, Rogers said Eastman began exploring acquisition opportunities last summer.

“Solutia was number one then, and it has stayed number one through this whole process,” he said.

Talks with Solutia’s board began in the fall and intensified in the past 30 days, Quinn said.

The deal came on the same day Solutia announced fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Solutia’s fourth-quarter net income rose 15 percent to $54 million, or 45 cents per share, from $47 million, or 39 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 8 percent to $526 million.

For the full-year, Solutia earned $262 million, or $2.16 per share. That compares with earnings of $78 million, or 65 cents per share, in the previous year. Annual revenue climbed 8 percent to $2.1 billion.

Tim Logan of the Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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It takes Mikael Ohlsson five minutes _ and the help of one other person _ to assemble IKEA’s Ektorp sofa.

After 33 years at the Swedish home-ware chain, the 54-year-old chief executive is an expert at configuring IKEA’s famous flat-pack furniture.

But Ohlsson is not bragging about the fact that he can beat the assembly time the company itself advertises by some 10 minutes. What makes him proud is that the Ektorp can be flat-packed at all.

Seated on a “Blekinge white” example of the Ektorp in a cozily furnished exhibition room at an IKEA store in Zaventem, Belgium, Ohlsson recounts how, until recently, the popular couch also came packed in one of the company’s biggest cardboard boxes _ a pain for customers to squeeze into their cars or carry up narrow staircases.

But then in 2010, IKEA’s product designers came up with a way of breaking the Ektorp into different pieces. The results was a package half its former size, which the company claims took some 7,477 trucks off the roads and cut its yearly CO2 emissions by 4,700 tons. Savings in production and transport costs knocked euro100 ($128) off the price IKEA charges its customers, Ohlsson pointed out.

It’s innovations like these, the CEO says, that make IKEA so successful even in the uncertain economic times that some of its biggest markets are facing.

On Friday, IKEA reported a 10.3 percent jump in net profit to euro2.97 billion ($3.81 billion) for the year ended Aug. 31, even though it cut prices by 2.6 percent. Revenue rose 6.9 percent to euro25.17 billion in the same period and Ohlsson says the sales pace has been accelerating since then _ even as stock markets around the world have taken a dive amid the worsening financial crisis in Europe.

“We are becoming a more natural choice when people are looking after their spending or are concerned about the future,” says Ohlsson, his black trousers, black sweater and half-rimmed glasses all possessing the understatement of a Billy bookcase.

“A lot of people see that home is a very important place, maybe the most important place in their lives.”

While sales have fallen in some Southern European countries like Greece, Ohlsson says IKEA has gained market share in all of them.

Over the past decade, the company expanded into big emerging markets like Russia and China, although 79 percent of its sales are still generated in Europe. In the next two or three years, IKEA wants to open stores in Serbia and Croatia and it has recently bought land in South Korea.

But the biggest opportunity may lie in India, a fast-growing country of around 1 bad credit unsecured personal loans.2 billion people, that Ohlsson says IKEA has been eyeing “patiently but also impatiently” for years.

“The impatience is that of course there are a lot of people that are moving into the city, have better incomes and want to furnish their homes and that’s why there is space for us,” says Ohlsson. “And patient because we wanted FDI (foreign direct investment) legislation to change.”

That change happened last week, when the Indian Commerce Ministry announced it would allow foreign companies that sell products under a single-brand name, such as IKEA, to own 100 percent of their stores there.

Ohlsson and his chief financial officer, Soeren Hansen, say the company is still studying the fine print, to make sure, for instance, that requirements to source a certain percentage of products locally won’t interrupt its cherished value chain, where it controls design, production, storage and retail.

In contrast to other companies, which are under pressure to quickly produce new value for shareholders, IKEA can move more slowly. The retailer is not traded on the stock market, but is owned by a foundation controlled by the family of its octogenarian founder Ingvar Kamprad.

That structure not only protects IKEA from being split up or taken over, but, says Ohlsson, allows him to make investments in new markets or store upgrades that may not pay off for several years.

Throughout the conversation, the CEO stresses IKEA’s eco-friendly policies and humble origins in a poor area of Sweden. In the Zaventem store on the outskirts of Brussels, solar panels on the roof provide up to 20 percent of the energy. The company owns several wind parks and one of its Berlin stores uses local wastewater to control internal temperatures.

IKEA has come a long way from its start in the Smaland region in Southern Sweden. Today it employs 131,000 people in 41 countries and its 287 stores drew in 655 million customers last year.

Ohlsson says he believes the urge to upgrade and become more comfortable does not seem to recede during an economic downturn. Asked whether IKEA’s business was “recession-proof,” Ohlsson laughs somewhat embarrassed.

“I wouldn’t say it like that and it would not be humble to say it,” he said.

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Ralcorp board OKs spinoff — Ralcorp Holdings Inc.’s board has approved the spinoff of its Post cereals business, the food maker said Tuesday, and the stock distribution is set to happen Feb. 3. The St. Louis company said it will complete the separation of the two businesses by giving at least 80 percent of Post Holdings Inc.’s outstanding stock to Ralcorp shareholders of record as of Jan. 30. Each stockholder will get one share of Post for every two shares of Ralcorp held on the record date. Ralcorp will maintain a stake in Post. Ralcorp’s stock will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the “RAH” ticker symbol. Post is expected to start trading on the NYSE under the “POST” ticker symbol Feb. 3.

Will new car sales rise? — That clunker in America’s driveway has reached a record old age, but there are signs that people may be growing confident enough in the economy to get a whiff of that fresh new car scent very soon. The average age of a car or truck in the U.S. hit a record 10.8 years last year as job security and other economic worries kept many people from making big-ticket purchases. That’s up from the old record of 10.6 years in 2010, and it and continues a trend that dates to 1995, when the average age of a car was 8.4 years, according to a study of state vehicle registration data by the Southfield, Mich.-based Polk automotive research firm. However, Polk Vice President Mark Seng says that a rebound in sales last year and expected growth for the next couple of years is likely to slow the growth rate in the age of cars as a whole in America.

Airbus touts record in orders — Airbus took in a record number of orders for new commercial aircraft last year as strong demand for its revamped single-aisle plane helped it best U.S. rival Boeing Co. in the race for orders for the fourth year running. The European jet maker said Tuesday that it took in 1,419 net new orders in 2011, worth $140 billion, well above Boeing’s total of 805 aircraft. That topped the previous record of 1,413 net orders recorded by Boeing in 2007. Airbus also delivered 534 aircraft last year, up from 510 a year earlier and keeping the title of world’s biggest jet maker that it has held since 2003. Boeing delivered 477 aircraft last year.

Yahoo co-founder leaves firm — Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling company’s board. The departure, announced Tuesday, comes just two weeks after Yahoo Inc. hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO. Yang expressed his support of Thompson in his resignation. He had been on Yahoo’s board of directors since the company’s 1995 inception. Yang also is stepping down from the boards of China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Yahoo is negotiating to sell its stakes in both companies.

earnings

Citigroup’s loan portfolio improved late last year, partly because Americans were better about paying down credit card debt. But choppy financial markets hurt its investment banking profits, and the bank missed expectations. Profit fell 11 percent in the last three months of last year. to $1.16 billion, or 38 cents per share, on revenue of $17.2 billion. A year earlier, Citigroup made $1.3 billion on revenue of $18.4 billion.

Lee Enterprises, owner of the Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, reported a profit of $14.6 million, or 32 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Dec. 25. That compares to $19 million, or 42 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2010. Lee, based in Davenport, Iowa, said the year-over-year comparison would be positive if not for refinancing costs and other unusual items. Excluding such matters, profits would equal 38 cents per share for the recent quarter, compared with 32 cents a year earlier. Operating revenue was down 3.9 percent in the quarter compared with a year earlier. As in earlier periods, Lee showed sharp gains in digital advertising while print ads, which make up the bulk of its advertising, continued to decline. Combined print and digital advertising was down 6.1 percent. Lee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, submitting a reorganization plan pre-approved by the vast majority of its creditors. Chief Financial Officer Carl Schmidt said Tuesday that the court will be asked to set Jan. 30 as the date to make the plan effective, allowing the company to exit bankruptcy. (Staff reports)

Pulaski Financial Corp., owner of Pulaski Bank, reported a slight decline in profit in the first fiscal quarter, compared with a year earlier. The bank earned of $2.525 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with $2.601 million, or 24 cents, a year earlier. CEO Gary Douglass said he expects “meaningful, year-over-year earnings improvement” for this year. (Jim Gallagher)

TD Ameritrade said its fiscal first-quarter net income grew 5 percent, though its revenue was almost unchanged. The online brokerage posted $152 million in net income, or about 27 cents per share, up from $145 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell less than 1 percent to $653.4 million.

A steadier mortgage business, higher commercial lending and an increase in deposits lifted Wells Fargo & Co.’s fourth-quarter profit by 20 percent. The bank reported that the amount of mortgages it wrote in the last three months of last year jumped 35 percent compared with the third quarter, to $120 billion. Overall loan balances rose to $769.6 billion, up 2 percent from a year earlier. The bank, the largest consumer lender in the U.S., reported a 2 percent increase in commercial loans, to $5.6 billion, reflecting direct lending and the purchase of portfolios from other lenders. The bank’s brokerage division, Wells Fargo Advisors, is based in St. Louis.

— Find full versions of these stories at stltoday.com/business

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A wave of explosions struck two Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and intensifying fears that insurgents are stepping up attacks after the U.S. troop withdrawal that was completed last month.

The attacks began with the explosion of a bomb attached to a motorcycle near a bus stop where day laborers gather to look for work in the Sadr city neighborhood. The blast killed eight people, police said.

One of those who witnessed the attack said it filled the area with thick black smoke.

“People have real fears that the cycle of violence might be revived in this country,” said Tariq Annad, a 52-year-old government employee who lives nearby.

That attack was followed by the explosion of a roadside bomb nearby that killed another person. Police found a third bomb nearby and defused it.

Less than two hours later, two blasts struck the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah in the north of the capital, killing 14 people.

Officials said the Kazimiyah blasts occurred almost simultaneously, with at least one caused by a car bomb.

Hospital officials confirmed the causalities, which included at least 60 wounded.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Iraqi leaders have warned of a resurgence of Sunni and Shiite militants and an increase in violence following the departure of U no credit check payday loans.S. troops.

The early morning blasts followed deadly attacks Wednesday that targeted the homes of police officers and a member of a government-allied militia. Those attacks, in the cities of Baqouba and Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad, killed four people, including two children, officials said.

The latest violence comes as Iraqi politicians remain deadlocked in a festering political crisis that threatens to re-ignite simmering sectarian tensions in the country.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, dominated by Iraq’s majority Shiites, issued an arrest warrant for the country’s top Sunni politician last month. The Sunni official, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, is currently holed up in Iraq’s Kurdish north _ effectively out of reach of state security forces.

Al-Maliki’s main political rival, the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, is boycotting parliament sessions and Cabinet meetings to protest what they say are efforts by the government to consolidate power and marginalize them.

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The last time Mark Stella went to the dentist he didn’t need an insurance card. Instead, he pulled out a Groupon.

Stella, a small business owner, canceled his health insurance plan more than three years ago when his premium rose to more than $400 a month. He considered himself healthy and decided that he was wasting money on something that he rarely used.

So when a deal popped up on daily deals site Groupon for a teeth cleaning, exam and an X-ray at a nearby dentist, Stella, 55, bought the deal _ which the company calls a “Groupon” _ for himself and another for his daughter. He paid $39 for each, $151 below what the dentist normally charges.

Daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are best known for offering limited-time discounts on a variety of discretionary goods and services including restaurant meals, wine tastings, spa visits and hotel stays. The discounts are paid for upfront and then it’s up to the customer to book an appointment and redeem a coupon before it expires. Merchants like the deals because it gives them exposure and a pop in business. Customers use them to try something new, to save money on something they already use, or both.

The sites are increasingly moving beyond little luxuries like facials and vacations and offering deals that are helping some people fill holes in their health insurance coverage. Visitors to these sites are finding a growing number of markdowns on health care services such as teeth cleanings, eye exams, chiropractic care and even medical checkups. They’re also offering deals on elective procedures not commonly covered by health insurers, such as wrinkle-reducing Botox injections and vision-correcting Lasik eye surgery. About one out of every 11 deals offered online is for a health care service, according to data compiled by DealRadar.com, a site that gathers and lists 20,000 deals a day from different websites.

“I was accustomed to going to the dentist every six months,” said Stella who owns SmartPhones, a store and wholesale business in Miami that sells mobile phone covers and accessories. “This filled the gap.”

The deals are popping up across the nation. In New York, a full medical checkup with blood, stool and urinalysis testing sold for $69 in December on Groupon _ below the regular price of $200. In Seattle, a flu shot was offered on AmazonLocal for $17, down from $35. In Chicago, LivingSocial sold a dental exam, cleaning, X-rays and teeth whitening trays for $99, a savings of $142.

About 9 percent of all offers on daily deal websites in November were for dental work or some kind of medical treatment, up from 4.5 percent in the beginning of 2011, said Dan Hess, CEO and founder of Local Offer Network, which runs DealRadar.com. The growth in health-related deals is good news for millions of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46.3 million Americans under 65 have no health coverage.

The number of health care deals began rising as copycat websites attempted to get a piece of the market. Search leader Google and shopping site Amazon.com have recently gotten into the game.

Not all have been successful. In August, social networking site Facebook dropped its plan to start a daily deal business, and Yelp, a site that allows customers to write reviews of restaurants and other businesses, scaled back its daily deal efforts business card design. Many smaller sites have closed. But the shakeout in the industry hasn’t hurt the number of health deals being offered since the industry leaders, like Groupon, are offering more deals and are moving into more markets, Hess said.

The health care deals may be attractive for people with gaps in their coverage or no insurance, but jumping from one health care provider to the next isn’t ideal. Visiting the same doctor or dentist makes it easier to monitor how a patient’s health is progressing, said David Williams, co-founder of medical consultancy group MedPharma Partners and author of HealthBusinessBlog.com.

Also, it’s important for patients to do their own research before buying a medical or dental deal, Williams said. “A referral from someone you trust is the best path,” said Williams.

Dental deals are the most popular among users of local deal websites _ likely because even more people lack dental insurance than health insurance. Among the 172 million people under 65 who have private health insurance in the U.S., about 45 million don’t have dental coverage, according to the CDC.

Dentists have traditionally offered deals by mailing out coupons, but paper coupons have a low redemption rate, Williams said. Local deal sites are more attractive to doctors and dentists because they get paid up front and they reach new clients.

“We reached a whole new demographic who otherwise wouldn’t find us,” said Dr. Gregg Feinerman, an ophthalmologist who runs Feinerman Vision Center in Newport Beach, Calif. He offered a 58 percent discount on Lasik eye surgery through Groupon. “It’s a better way to market,” he said.

He used Groupon as a way to bring in patients under 30-years old with the hope that they would recommend his services to friends and rate him on review website Yelp. A good review might persuade someone else to visit his office, Feinerman said. He charges $5,000 for the surgery on both eyes; a price that he said can be “overwhelming for 20-to 30-year-olds.”

Feinerman approached Groupon about listing the eye surgery for $3,000. Groupon, which is based in Chicago, pushed him to lower the price to $2,100.

Feinerman got exactly the type of patient he was looking for in Thomas Cho. Cho, 29, bought the offer and after the surgery wrote a review on Yelp. He gave the vision center five stars _ the highest rating on the website.

Cho said in an interview that his health insurance plan only covers 20 percent of the regular price of Lasik since it is considered a cosmetic procedure. He would have paid about $4,000 if he had used his insurance discount.

Cho decided to buy the Groupon, paying $2,100 initially. After consulting with the doctor, he upgraded his surgery to an all-laser procedure for $1,000 more. At the time, Cho’s credit card issuer was offering a 20 percent cash back promotion on Groupon purchases. In all, he saved more than $1,300.

“I had my post-op checkup and I am seeing 20/20,” Cho wrote on Yelp. “I couldn’t be happier.”

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Republicans yielded on policy affecting communist Cuba and Democrats gave way on new energy standards for light bulbs to seal an agreement Thursday evening on a massive $1 trillion-plus year-end spending package in time avert a possible government shutdown this weekend.

Under pressure from White House veto threats, House Republicans agreed to drop restrictions on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba, while Democrats conceded defeat on a GOP demand to delay energy efficiency standards that critics argued could effectively ban inexpensive incandescent light bulbs. In late stage talks, Democrats also agreed to ban the District of Columbia’s government from funding abortions.

These policy issues held up a final agreement on the must-do spending measure for most of the day. It came barely a day after Republicans said they planned to push the 1,200-plus-page legislation through the House with only GOP votes, which seemed like a bluff considering tea party opposition to the measure.

The measure funds 10 Cabinet agencies, awarding a slight increase to the Pentagon and veterans’ programs while trimming most other domestic agencies. It drops most policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives.

Thursday’s legislation implements the details of cost caps set under the August debt and budget accord between Republicans and President Barack Obama and adds to earlier agency savings enacted in April. It pays for programs ranging from border security to flood control to combating AIDS and famine in Africa.

The measure has bipartisan backing but is likely to encounter resistance from conservative tea party lawmakers seeking far more significant cuts to government agencies.

Days after saying that the measure was wrapped up, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., acknowledged that talks had been reopened, as power lawmakers quarreled over the Cuba provisions and other unresolved issues.

The bill chips away at the Pentagon budget, foreign aid and environmental spending but boosts funding for veterans programs. The Securities and Exchange Commission, responsible for enforcing new regulations under last year’s financial overhaul, won a 10 percent budget increase, even as the tax-collecting IRS absorbs more than a 3 percent cut to its budget.

Popular education initiatives for special-needs children and disadvantaged schools were basically frozen and Obama’s cherished “Race to the Top” initiative, which provides grants to better-performing schools, would absorb more than a 20 percent cut. The maximum Pell grant for low-income college students would remain at $5,550, but only after major cost-cutting moves that would limit the number of semesters the grants may be received and make income eligibility standards more strict.

Environmentalists scored clear wins in stopping virtually every significant GOP initiative to roll back Environmental Protection Agency rules. Most importantly, industry forces seeking to block new greenhouse gas and clean air rules, as well as a new clean water regulation opposed by mountaintop removal mining interests, were denied. But Republicans succeeded in blocking new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs and won delays to a new Labor Department rule requiring a reduction of coal dust responsible for black lung disease.

Drafted behind closed doors, the proposed bill would provide $115 billion for overseas security operations in Afghanistan and Iraq but give the Pentagon just a 1 percent boost in annual spending not directly related to the wars, though creative accounting such as mixing war funds with the core Defense Department budget is allowing billions of dollars more into Pentagon coffers.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would be cut by 3.5 percent. Foreign aid spending would drop and House lawmakers would absorb a 6 percent cut to their office budgets.

And with tensions plain in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, counterinsurgency aid for Pakistan would be cut to $850 million from Obama’s $1.1 billion request. All told, $11.2 billion in emergency foreign aid funding would be provided for counterterrorism, humanitarian aid and training of Iraqi security forces, among other anti-terror activities.

The measure generally consists of relatively small adjustments to thousands of individual programs. Agencies like the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will get a boost within the Homeland Security Department, while GOP defense hawks won additional funding to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. The troubled, over-budget, next-generation F-35 fighter plane program would be largely protected.

Social conservatives won a ban on government-funded abortions in Washington, D.C., and restored a longstanding ban on funding for needle exchange programs used to prevent the spread of HIV. But efforts to take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood failed, as expected.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko on Saturday, calling criticism by four other NRC commissioners “a politically motivated witch hunt.”

Reid’s defense of Jaczko, a former Reid aide, went far beyond statements of praise and included a sharp critique of the four NRC commissioners _ including two Democrats.

“It is sad to see those who would place the interests of a single industry over the safety of the American people wage a politically-motivated witch hunt against a man with a proven track record of ensuring that nuclear power is produced as safely and responsibly as possible,” Reid’s office said in a statement Saturday.

The four NRC commissioners said in a letter to the White House that they have “grave concerns” about Jaczko. They said his bullying style is “causing serious damage” to the commission and creating a “chilled work environment at the NRC.”

The letter was written Oct. 13 but was made public late Friday. It stops short of calling for the chairman to resign, but says Jaczko’s actions could adversely affect the agency’s mission to protect health and safety at the nation’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors.

Among other claims, the letter says Jaczko “intimidated and bullied” senior career staff, ordered staff to withhold information and ignored the will of the panel’s majority. The letter was signed by Democrats William Magwood and George Apostolakis, as well as Republicans Kristine Svinicki and William Ostendorff.

Jaczko, in a detailed response also sent to the White House, said problems at the agency were not his fault but instead stem from “lack of understanding” on the part of the other four commissioners.

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said Saturday that Jaczko should be fired.

Shimkus, who chairs an Energy and Commerce subcommittee on environment and the economy, said President Barack Obama “has a responsibility to correct deficiencies in the executive branch _ and obviously this is a clear deficiency payday loan lenders.” Shimkus led a hearing this spring that centered on Jaczko’s leadership style, and complaints that he is autocratic and ignores his fellow commissioners.

“I would have thought that would have given (Jaczko) an opportunity to kind of turn things around. It seems like things got worse, not better,” Shimkus said.

A spokesman for the White House declined to comment Saturday.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., supported Jaczko, saying Saturday that the NRC needs to move away from a “do nothing” culture.

Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, praised Jaczko for a “swift and effective response” to Japan’s nuclear crisis and said the NRC commissioners should support Jaczko “as he translates the lessons of Fukushima into an action plan that will make America’s nuclear plants the safest in the world.”

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., also backed Jaczko. Late Friday, Markey made public a 23-page report accusing the four NRC commissioners of trying to impede U.S. nuclear safety reviews after the Japan crisis.

“Instead of doing what they have been sworn to do, these four commissioners have attempted a coup on the chairman and have abdicated their responsibility to the American public to assure the safety of America’s nuclear industry,” said Markey, a longtime nuclear critic.

Jaczko was an aide to Markey before joining Reid’s staff.

The dispute comes after an inspector general’s report released in June exposed long-simmering internal strife under Jaczko. In August, Republican senators asked the inspector general to investigate whether Jaczko had authority to declare the Japan nuclear crisis an emergency _ which grants him additional powers _ since the crisis occurred on foreign soil.

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Stock indexes gave back some of their gains Monday and the euro turned lower against the dollar following a report that Germany and five other major European nations could risk having their credit ratings downgraded.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped as much as 167 points Monday but gave up more than half of that gain in the afternoon. The Financial Times reported that Standard & Poor’s might put the six nations on “creditwatch negative,” which means there is a 50-50 chance that one might be downgraded in the coming months.

The Dow and S&P 500 rose in early trading on hopeful signs that Europe was making progress toward preventing a breakup of its 17-nation currency union. Yields on Italian government bonds receded sharply after the new government of Mario Monti introduced sweeping austerity measures over the weekend.

Also, the leaders of France and Germany called for a new European treaty to prevent nations from running up big debts like the ones that pushed Greece and other weak countries to the brink of default.

“There’s pent-up demand, and people will use any excuse to get back in, thinking there’s been too much pessimism,” Gendreau said. Despite strong signals about the U.S. economy, the market has been weighed down by negative headlines about the U.S. budget impasse, credit-rating downgrades of the U.S. and other nations, and Europe’s spreading crisis, Gendreau said.

The Dow was up 70 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,089 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 12, or 1 percent, to 1,256. The Nasdaq composite index rose 28, or 1.1 percent, to 2,655.

The gains were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose. Financials stocks were among the biggest winners. Investors have feared that U.S. banks might be dragged down by their close connections to the unstable European financial system.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 3.5 percent, the most in the Dow. Bank of America was the second-biggest gainer of the Dow 30, rising 3.2 percent. Citigroup Inc. rose 5.7 percent, Morgan Stanley 6.1 percent.

Investors are hoping that a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday will produce concrete measures to prevent a messy breakup of the euro currency, which is shared by 17 nations. Markets have been jittery because of fears that the euro might disintegrate, causing a sharp recession in Europe that would spread through the world economy.

While the statements from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were far from a long-term solution, investors are eager to buy on any hint of good news because they have been earning meager returns from relatively low-risk investments such as Treasurys and CDs, said Brian Gendreau, investment strategist with Cetera Financial Group instant payday loans.

Italian bond yields dropped to their lowest level in a month, a day after the nation’s new government introduced austerity measures. That suggests traders believe that Italy is far less likely to default. The main Italian stock index jumped 2.9 percent.

Italy’s borrowing costs pulled back from a level that might have forced the nation to default. Analysts say bailing out Italy would be too costly and would hurt the credit standing of German and France, which have the strongest economies in the euro group.

The yield on the 10-year Italian bond plunged half a percentage point to 5.93 percent. It rose above 7 percent last month, a level at which other nations were forced to take bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe’s largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.

Monday’s strong gains follow the best week in more than two years for U.S. stock indexes. The S&P 500 rose 7.4 percent last week, the most since March 2009. The Dow jumped 7 percent, the most since July 2009.

Markets are hopeful that, given the gravity of the situation afflicting the euro zone, the German and French leaders will come up with a common proposal for tighter integration on budget matters. Analysts say that such a plan could lead to further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, possibly through the International Monetary Fund.

In corporate news:

_ Gannett Co. leapt 11.4 percent after the media company was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by analysts at Lazard Capital Markets.

_ Incyte Corp. fell 2.7 percent after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the drug maker to “neutral” from “buy,” saying its new blood-disease drug Jakafi might not work as a long-term treatment.

_ SuccessFactors Inc. soared more than 50 percent after the company agreed to be sold to German software company SAP for $3.4 billion. SuccessFactors makes software specializing in human resources tasks. The deal is part of SAP’s plan to compete with software rival Oracle Corp.

Source

Ryerson University plans to make a major announcement Tuesday about its fundraising efforts for the Maple Leaf Gardens, leading to speculation the school may be about to reveal the title sponsor for the venue.

The school, which is a part-owner of the iconic structure, set a goal of raising $60 million to install badly needed student athletic facilities in part of the former hockey arena.

The $60 million is to be raised in equal portions by a federal government infrastructure grant, a special levy on Ryerson students, and corporate donations from such firm as Gardens