Biz Buzz

LONG ISLAND

Shopping center deal finalized

Port Washington-based real estate investment trust Cedar Shopping Centers Inc., acting with a Canadian partner, has completed the $23.5-million purchase of a Massachusetts shopping center. Cedar bought Northwoods Crossing in Taunton, Mass., on behalf of the joint venture. Cedar owns 20 percent of the property, and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust of Toronto, owns the rest. Northwoods Crossing is a 160,000-square-foot shopping center on about 42 acres off Route 495 in Massachusetts, less than 40 miles from Boston and across from the largest office park in New England, Cedar said. The property is 100 percent leased. -- JOSEPH MALLIA

Canon paper gets certification

With new lines of glossy paper and other printing media made with fibers from responsibly managed forests, Lake Success-based Canon USA Inc. is now selling products with Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification. SFI certified forestry management entails standards such as "protecting water quality, soil, wildlife and unique resources," the not-for-profit group says. SFI says it has certified more than 180 million acres in North America, making it "the largest single forest standard in the world." Its certification includes information about how much fiber in a product is from certified forests, certified sourcing or recycled content. -- JOSEPH MALLIA

NATION

Dow rises to a new 2011 high

Strong earnings reports from big companies including Apple Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. lifted stocks across the market yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at another 2011 high. The 30-company index rose 52.45 points, or 0.42 percent, to 12,505.99. "There are a lot of concerns out there, but investors are looking at the bottom line right now, and that's earnings," said Yu-Dee Chang, the chief trader at ACE Investment Strategists, a money management firm based in Virginia. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 7.02, or 0.53 percent, to 1,337.38. The S&P 500, a benchmark for most mutual funds, is now less than 6 points away from its highest close of 2011. The gains were broad. All 10 company groups that make up the S&P index rose, led by a nearly 1 percent gain in technology companies. The Nasdaq composite index rose 17.65 points, or 0.63 percent, to 2,820.16. Apple Inc. rose nearly 3 percent after reporting sales and income late Wednesday that came in much ahead of analysts' estimates.

Amazon glitch crashes websites

Scores of websites and Internet services like Foursquare and Reddit crashed or had limited availability yesterday because of problems at a data center run by Amazon.com. The problems revealed widespread reliance on Amazon Web Services, which rents out computers and data storage on a self-service basis over the Internet. Amazon said the trouble started early in the morning at a data center in Northern Virginia, but provided no details. The problems were ongoing yesterday afternoon. Foursquare, which lets people tell others where they are with the help of cellphone GPS chips, experienced technical issues. HootSuite, which provides a "dashboard" for social media like Twitter feeds, was down completely, as was questions-and-answers site Quora.

Fiscal index hints growth near

A private research group said U.S. economic growth should strengthen by summer, but cautioned that consumer concerns over rising gas and food prices could drag on the expansion. The Conference Board said yesterday that its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4 percent in March. The index, which is a measure of future economic activity, has increased for nine straight months. Growing demand for U.S. manufactured goods and a rebound in requests for building permits helped drive last month's gains.

Compiled with wire service reports