SEC finalizes $241.8 million settlement

NEW YORK - Five New York Stock Exchange specialist firms will pay $241.8 million to settle charges that they profited from illegal trading practices on the floor of the exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission and NYSE said Tuesday.

The five firms - Bear Stearns subsidiary Bear Wagner Specialists, FleetBoston subsidiary Fleet Specialist Inc., LaBranche & Co., Van der Moolen Specialists and Goldman Sachs subsidiary Spear, Leeds & Kellogg - violated securities laws by executing their own orders for the shares they managed ahead of customers' orders, thus depriving clients of fair trades and possibly better prices, the regulators said.

Radio Flyer wagons to be made in China

CHICAGO - Radio Flyer Inc., maker of the little red wagon loved by generations of children, plans to move its manufacturing operation to China.

The 87-year-old company said it would keep its headquarters and distribution business in Chicago but decided the Chicago plant where the metal wagons are built is too expensive to maintain. With the plant closing, Radio Flyer will lay off nearly half its 90 employees.

Radio Flyer's tricycles, scooters and most of its other products are already made in China.

FTC examines Luxottica purchase

Luxottica Group SpA, parent of the Mason-based 860-store LensCrafters optical chain, said U.S. antitrust enforcers have sought more information about the company's proposed $401 million purchase of Cole National Corp., owner of Pearle Vision stores.

The request for additional data about the proposed combination of Luxottica, the world's biggest maker of eyewear, and Cole signals the Federal Trade Commission will give the transaction close scrutiny. Cole and Luxottica announced the development in a joint statement.

French stock market authority searched

PARIS - Police searched the offices of France's stock market authority on Tuesday as the regulator came under fire for turning a blind eye to an allegedly illegal share buyback by Vivendi Universal SA.

The search was part of an investigation into the media and communications giant's financial dealings under former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier.

In a statement, the Financial Markets Authority said it had cooperated fully during the operation, supervised by the two investigating magistrates leading the Vivendi probe.

Trump's casinos defy his TV success

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - While Donald Trump basks in the popularity of his runaway hit reality TV show, The Apprentice, the auditors for his Atlantic City casino property are raising alarms over the financier's real-life debt load.

Shares of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts fell 11 percent Tuesday on news of auditors' concerns that, barring a bailout, the company might not be able to continue as a "going concern."

In a letter to the board of directors, auditors for Ernst & Young LLP said the debt-laden company, which runs three Atlantic City casinos, is struggling under stiff competition, recurring operating losses and had a working capital deficit as of Dec. 31.

Safeway, Giant approve contract

WASHINGTON - The operators of the two largest supermarket chains in the Baltimore-Washington area avoided a possible strike Tuesday as employees voted to ratify a new four-year labor agreement.

"The members are very pleased. It passed by over 95 percent with the Giant folks," said C. James Lowthers, president of Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

The Giant vote came four hours after 4,000 union members employed by Safeway voted overwhelmingly to accept an identical agreement. Both groups voted by standing acclamation at separate meetings.

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