NEW YORK

European debt problems keep markets unsettled

Investors were taking few chances Friday while they waiting for a confidence vote in Greece on the country’s embattled prime minister. Stocks fell on concerns that the country might not go through with an austerity program needed to prevent a default on its debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 61 points Friday and fell 2 percent for the week, its first weekly loss since September.

Europe’s debt problems were again the main focus for investors this week. Stocks plunged Monday and Tuesday after Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked investors with an announcement that he would put the country’s austerity plan to a public vote. He backed away from the plan, but investors are still unnerved by the political turmoil in Greece. It threatens to hobble Europe’s efforts to control its debt crisis.

The Dow fell 61.23 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 11,983.24.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 7.92, or 0.6 percent, to 1,253.23. The Nasdaq composite shed 11.82, or 0.4 percent, to 2,686.15

Starbucks Corp. jumped 7 percent to $44.19 after the company’s quarterly results beat Wall Street’s expectations.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. fell 1 percent to $5.67 after the chip maker said it would cut 1,400 workers because of a weak market for computers. It also reported manufacturing delays.

Social networking site LinkedIn Inc. dropped 5.9 percent to $82.37 after posting its first quarterly loss since going public.

LEWISTON

Carbonite hits its hiring goal two months early

A Boston-based company that provides computer hard-drive backup services has met its goal of hiring 150 workers in Lewiston two months ahead of schedule.

Carbonite officials say the full-time positions are bringing jobs to Lewiston from India.

Carbonite announced in May that it’s leasing about 20,000 square feet of space in Lewiston that will house customer and technical support workers.

The Sun Journal reported that the company planned to employ 150 by year’s end in Lewiston. The company’s computer backup sites are located in Boston and Somerville, Mass.

BEIJING

Incandescent light bulbs to phase out over five years

China announced Friday it will phase out incandescent light bulbs within five years in an attempt to make the world’s most polluting nation more energy efficient.

China will ban imports and sales of 100-watt and higher incandescent bulbs from Oct. 1, 2012, the country’s main planning agency said.

It will extend the ban to 60-watt and higher bulbs on Oct. 1, 2014, and to 15-watt and higher bulbs on Oct. 1, 2016. The time frame for the last step may be adjusted according to an evaluation in September 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission said.

State-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Xie Ji, deputy director of the commission’s environmental protection department, as saying China is the world’s largest producer of both energy-saving and incandescent bulbs.

Last year, China produced 3.85 billion incandescent light bulbs, and 1.07 billion were sold domestically, the agency said. Lighting is estimated to account for about 12 percent of China’s total electricity use, it said. Xie said the potential for energy savings and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is huge.

The planning agency said China will save 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 48 million tons annually once the bulbs are phased out.

Several countries plan to phase out traditional light bulbs. The United States is set to put standards in effect that require a higher level of efficiency than classic incandescent light bulbs can produce, essentially nudging them off store shelves over the next few years. The 27-nation European Union agreed in 2008 to phase out the bulbs by 2012. The most common replacements are fluorescent and LED lights.

SAN FRANCISCO

’90s interview with Jobs to be shown in theaters

Fans of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will get a chance to see previously unreleased interview footage of him when “Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview” hits theaters later this month.

The 70-minute interview was recorded in the ’90s before Jobs returned to Apple Inc. He and co-founder Steve Wozniak started Apple in 1976 and left in 1985. Jobs returned in 1997 and is credited with rescuing Apple from financial dire straits.

Ten minutes of the interview appeared in the 1995 PBS miniseries “Triumph of the Nerds.” The master tapes disappeared but an unedited interview copy was recently found.

The interview will be shown at Landmark theaters in 19 cities around the country beginning Nov. 16.

Jobs died Oct. 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

 

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