Business news in brief

Ex-Wal-Mart exec to head up Dollar Tree

Former Wal-Mart executive Duncan Mac Naughton has been named president and chief operating officer of Dollar Tree Inc.

The discount retailer announced Mac Naughton's addition Friday along with the promotion of Gary Philbin to the company's enterprise president. Mac Naughton joins Dollar Tree after nearly a year as chief executive officer of Wisconsin-based Mills Fleet Farm.

Mac Naughton held numerous roles at Wal-Mart from 2009 to 2014, including four years as chief merchandising and marketing officer of Wal-Mart U.S. He also was chief merchandising officer for Wal-Mart Canada from 2009 to 2010.

Mac Naughton left Wal-Mart in November 2014, nine months after Doug McMillon was named the company's CEO.

-- Robbie Neiswanger

Factory orders ebb 2.4%; investment up

WASHINGTON -- Orders to U.S. factories fell for the first time in five months in November, but much of the weakness reflected a swing in the volatile category of commercial aircraft. At the same time, a key category that tracks business investment spending posted an increase.

Factory orders dropped 2.4 percent after a 2.8 percent rise in October, the Commerce Department reported Friday. It was the first decline since June, but the weakness was led by a 73.8 percent plunge in demand for commercial aircraft after a 94.5 percent surge in October.

A key category that serves as a proxy for business investment spending increased 0.9 percent after a 0.5 percent rise in October. This category has lagged for much of 2016 as a result of big cutbacks in the oil and gas industry.

Orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, fell 4.5 percent, only a slight revision from a preliminary report showing a drop of 4.6 percent. Orders for nondurable goods such as chemicals, paper and clothing, were down 0.2 percent after a 0.6 percent increase in October.

The 0.9 percent increase in business investment, while still modest, was the third best showing this year, and it marked the first back-to-back gains since July and August.

-- The Associated Press

Indian airline nears $10.1B Boeing deal

Indian budget airline SpiceJet Ltd. is poised to order at least 92 Boeing Co. 737 jetliners, giving the planemaker a stronger toehold in the world's fastest growing aerospace market.

The $10.1 billion transaction, which would more than double SpiceJet's 49-plane fleet, may be closed within weeks, after lengthy talks that pitted Boeing against rival Airbus Group SE, people with direct knowledge of the decision said.

The order would be a record for SpiceJet, which was forced to shut down operations for a day two years ago after it ran out of money, prompting co-founder Ajay Singh to bail out the low-cost carrier. The airline may increase the total order if final talks yield substantial discounts and favorable maintenance contracts, one of the people said.

Boeing would expand its footprint in India, where Airbus dominates narrow-body fleets after a string of order victories. IndiGo, Go Airlines India Pvt. and the local unit of AirAsia Bhd. all fly variants of the Airbus A320.

The deal includes firm orders for at least 50 of Boeing's 737 Max, and renegotiated terms for 42 of the single-aisle jets that SpiceJet originally ordered in 2014, said the people, who asked not be identified because the discussions are private.

-- Bloomberg News

Morgan Stanley to cut division's bonuses

Morgan Stanley, Wall Street's biggest stock-trading firm by revenue, is cutting its global bonus pool for the equities division by as much as 4 percent after the industry's results flagged last year, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

The firm, which is set to pay annual bonuses to employees next month, has been fine-tuning calculations for pay packages since November, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as describing the deliberations.

Wall Street firms that have been cost-cutting to improve profits since the financial crisis are set to focus on equities personnel after new issuance decreased in 2016.

Stock traders and salespeople around the world may see compensation for the year fall 9 percent, the first drop since 2012, according to a November report from recruiting firm Options Group. Meanwhile, fixed-income personnel should see the first increase since 2012 after political events set off a frenzy of transactions, according to the report.

Morgan Stanley's equities revenue dropped 3.5 percent to $6.08 billion during the first nine months of 2016. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America all suffered drops of 12 percent to 14 percent in that business, while the biggest European investment banks all reported declines of more than 20 percent on a dollar basis. JPMorgan Chase posted the smallest decrease, about 1 percent.

-- Bloomberg News

Celebrity chef to close eateries in U.K.

U.K. celebrity chef and health-food campaigner Jamie Oliver plans to close six of his Italian restaurants around Britain after the pound's weakness -- driven by the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union -- pushed up costs at eateries that already weren't serving enough people.

Restaurants in Aberdeen, Exeter, Cheltenham, Richmond, Tunbridge Wells and London's Ludgate Hill will shut in the first quarter, a spokesman said by email.

The announcement is the latest sign of the pressures being exerted on businesses by the pound's drop since June's vote to leave the EU. Increased costs for sourcing products such as Italian olive oil have made the branches "quite unsustainable," the spokesman said.

"As every restaurant owner knows, this is a tough market, and post-Brexit the pressures and unknowns have made it even harder," Chief Executive Officer Simon Blagden said in a statement.

The outlets being closed represent less than 5 percent of the chain's sales and staff. The company said it will seek to find alternative positions for the 120 employees affected.

Oliver still plans to open another 22 Italian restaurants outside the U.K. this year.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 01/07/2017

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