Biz Buzz

LONG ISLAND

Office vacancies on the rise

Office vacancies on Long Island for the second quarter of 2012 increased to 8.5 percent, a slight uptick from the first 3 months of the year, according to commercial real estate tracker CoStar Group. Although the vacancy rate grew since last quarter, it's down from the last half of 2011, when the vacancy rate was about 9 percent. It's also better than the U.S. rate of 12.1 percent.-- Lisa Du

NEW YORK

Fed knew of LIBOR rigging

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released documents Friday that show it learned five years ago of big banks understating their borrowing costs to manipulate a key interest rate. The documents also show Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, then president of the New York Fed, urged the Bank of England to make the rate-setting process more transparent. How the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is set has come under scrutiny since Britain's Barclays bank admitted it had submitted false information to keep the rate low.

Macy's wins 'Martha' ruling

Macy's won a preliminary injunction against Martha Stewart Living that would prevent it from selling some of its products at J.C. Penney. The decision from New York State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Oing Friday is a setback for J.C. Penney, which was counting on the popularity of the Martha Stewart brand to help reinvigorate its flagging business.

WORLD

Myanmar open for U.S. biz

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Myanmar open to American investment Friday, introducing reformist president Thein Sein to leaders of some of the United States' biggest corporations. Clinton and Thein met with officials of Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co., General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs and Google. -- AP