Business Briefs

Stocks close out on top this week

NEW YORK -- The stock market is closing out its first winning week in a month after news on the economy started getting better. The Dow Jones industrial average posted its fourth straight day of gains Friday, and the strong start to September marked a turnaround from a dismal August performance.

A better report on job creation was the latest piece of good news on the economy and pushed shares higher.

Testing: 787s are in flight all over map

EVERETT, Wash. -- Boeing on Friday said four of its five 787 flight test planes are far from their Seattle base this week at locations ranging from Arizona to Iceland.

One 787 is conducting cold-weather and crosswind testing at Keflavik, Iceland, while the first 787 to fly -- ZA001 -- is in Roswell, N.M., to test performance when the plane has to abort a takeoff.

A third 787 is in Arizona for hot-weather tests and the fourth is off to Montana to check how it performs when artificial ice shapes are attached to its wings and tail. The fifth plane is working out of Seattle.

After more than two years of delays, Boeing hopes to deliver the first of the new airliners to customers early next year.

The 787 is now made near Seattle, but Boeing is building a second production site in North Charleston. The local plant is set to open in about a year.

MeadWestvaco to sell packaging unit

RICHMOND, Va. -- MeadWestvaco said Friday it will sell its entertainment and media packaging business to Atlas Holdings for $68 million in cash by Sept. 30.

MeadWestvaco's media business specializes in packaging for DVDs, music and video games. It has about 1,450 employees. The sale also includes its global network of packaging businesses that operate under the names AGI Media, AGI Amaray and AGI Polymatrix.

The company said the deal will result in a pretax loss of about $125 million, which it will report in the third quarter.

Gas prices likely to slide into autumn

DENVER -- Gasoline prices have been falling for weeks, and they could go even lower as autumn approaches.

The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular was $2.681 on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's 6.6 cents lower than a month ago and 8.5 cents higher than a year ago.

The national average has stayed below $3 a gallon for nearly two years.

The average price for the Charleston-North Charleston area has fallen about a nickel in the past month. It was about $2.48 Friday, AAA said.

Simonini Builders to shut local unit

A high-end Charlotte builder that has constructed homes throughout the Lowcountry is closing. Simonini Builders told employees Friday it intends to shut down following "catastrophic changes" to the real estate market, according to the Charlotte Observer newspaper.

The 16-year-old builder has focused most recently on Kiawah Island properties, but has constructed homes in Summerville, Mount Pleasant and on Johns Island and Daniel Island.