Stocks rise as week ends
NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- Stocks closed higher Friday after General Electric met investors expectations and analysts upgraded several blue-chip stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 83.55 points at 9,119.59, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 18.04, or 1 percent, to 1,733.90. The Standard and Poor's 500-stock index gained 9.43 or 0.95 percent to 998.13.
Analysts said investors were bidding up stocks in anticipation of second-quarter earnings reports due next week.
The dollar was stronger. It traded at 117.65 yen, up from 117.58 yen late Thursday in New York, while the euro fell against the dollar to $1.1298 from $1.1389 in the previous session.
Enron filed reorganization plan
HOUSTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Enron filed its reorganization plan Friday after 19 months work on history's costliest, most complex bankruptcy.
The plan details the recovery in cash and stock in selected assets that more than 350 classes of creditors will receive for their claims against Enron, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Unsecured creditors of Enron Corp. itself, the corporate parent for the company, will receive 14.4 cents on the dollar for their debt.
Holders of priority tax claims, including Harris County and some local school districts, will receive full payment in cash for their debts over six years. Creditors with fully secured claims with a loan against a hard asset, such as a pipeline, will also receive full payment.
Beyond that the higest rate of return was 75 cents on the dollar. But, holders of 1.2 billion Enron stock shares and other equities will recover no money at all.
Arbitrator rules against Verizon
NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- An arbitrator ruled Verizon Communications Inc. has to reinstate more than 2,000 employees laid off late last year.
The company will also have to pay back wages for the seven-month period during which wages were lost.
After the workers were laid off in December, the Communications Workers of America and Verizon disagreed over the conditions under which the company let its employees go, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The workers' labor contract says the company can't lay off workers unless an external event makes it necessary. Verizon said structural changes in the industry, including increased competition and a dwindling subscriber base, led to the lay offs.
The company declined to comment on how much the reinstatement would cost but observers estimated it to be around $30 million, the Journal reported.
Group predicts hiring pickup
CHICAGO, July 11 (UPI) -- Chicago-based Challenger, Gray and Christmas is predicting a rebound in the job market by the end of the year.
The assessment from the job placement firm comes in spite of government figures released last week reporting higher unemployment claims, Crain's Chicago Business reported Friday.
The group cited its own job-tracking survey as showing that out-of-work managers found employment in the second quarter faster than they have at any rate since late 2001.
The second-quarter search time fell by 19 percent to 3.4 months, down from a 17-year high of 4.2 months in the first quarter.
Based on the new data, John Challenger predicts there will be a major pickup in hiring of lower-level workers in the next sixth months. Until now, he said job search times had been growing since the second quarter of 2001, when they were at an all-time low of 2.07 months.
