Biz Buzz

LONG ISLAND

CVD logs half-year orders record

CVD Equipment Corp., a Ronkonkoma maker of nanotechnology tools, says it has achieved a record-high six-month period of orders, with nearly $25 million in orders for the half-year ended June 30. This year's orders compared with to $9.3 million for the first half of 2010, CVD said. Fueling the increase was demand for production and research equipment based on the chemical vapor deposition method, for use in solar, aerospace, energy and light-emitting diodes.

-- JOSEPH MALLIA

Verint added to Russell index

Verint Systems Inc. has been officially added to the list of companies on the broad-market Russell 3000 Index, the Melville software maker said Monday. The addition of Verint and of another Long Island company, Aeroflex Holding Corp. of Plainview, had been expected after an announcement last month by Russell Investments, of Seattle. Yesterday's listing of the newly reconstituted 3000 index shows Aeroflex, too, was officially added. The addition of Verint and of Aeroflex make at least four local companies in the past year that have been added to the Russell 3000. Liberty Properties, of Great Neck, and Lifetime Brands Inc., of Garden City, were added in June 2010. The index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 companies in the United States.

-- JOSEPH MALLIA

Audiovox's 1Q sales, profits up

Entertainment electronics maker Audiovox Corp., of Hauppauge, reports that its recent acquisitions of other companies -- especially its purchase of Klipsch Group Inc. -- have helped produce increases in sales and profits during the first quarter of its fiscal year, ending May 31. The company showed a profit of $2.48 million on sales of $165 million, compared with a profit of $1.11 million on sales of $130 million in the same quarter last year, Audiovox said Monday.

-- JOSEPH MALLIA

Hain adopts 'organic' standard

Melville-based Hain Celestial Group Inc., under pressure from a lawsuit targeting major companies that use the word "organic" on lotions, creams and other personal-care retail products, has voluntarily adopted an industry-standard set of labeling guidelines. The guidelines call for a minimum organic content of 70 percent on personal-care products. "We have adopted the . . . 'made with organic' standard across our Avalon Organics and Earth's Best Organic personal care brands," Hain said yesterday in a statement. "We are currently in the process of certification and labeling transition. These changes affect all production as of November 2011." Hain said it decided to adopt the American National Standard guidelines in the absence of U.S. Agriculture Department standards for the use of the word organic on personal care products. -- JOSEPH MALLIA

h3NATION

Fed mulled stimulus at meeting

Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting expressed concerns that the weakening job market might hold back the recovery. But members were divided over whether the Fed should consider taking additional steps to help the economy. The Fed agreed at the June meeting to end on schedule its program to boost the economy through the purchase of $600 billion in Treasury bonds. Some members said the Fed should be open to new stimulus measures if growth failed to pick up enough to "meaningfully" reduce the unemployment rate, according to minutes of the Fed's June 21-22 meeting released yesterday. Others expressed concerns about inflation and said the central bank would need to take steps to begin removing its low-interest rate policies "sooner than currently anticipated." At the June meeting, the central bank ended up keeping its pledge to leave interest rates at exceptionally low levels for an extended period.

-- AP