Wall Street trudges through blackout

With the Eastern seaboard still reeling from Thursday’s blackout,

Wall Street trudged through Friday trading with the major averages

struggling to free their wagons from the mud.

During what has been deemed the largest outage ever in North

America, power had still not been restored in some sections of

several cities as of the market’s closing bell, at 1 p.m. West Coast

time. The three major indexes closed out the week with pencil-thin

gains on the ledger.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.12% to close at

9,321.69. The technology-laden Nasdaq gained 0.10% to 1,702. And the

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index hit 990.68 for a 0.02% gain.

AMAZING QUARTER FOR WILLIAM LYON

Newport Beach’s top public homebuilder, William Lyon Homes Inc.,

logged a wildly profitable second quarter, the company said Tuesday.

William Lyon said it earned $13.79 million, or $1.38 per share,

for the quarter as compared to $7.03 million, or 66 cents per share,

during the same quarter the year before.

The company included a $6.2-million windfall from the sale of land

in its results.

William Lyon, whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange,

expects to open about 15 communities during the remainder of 2003 and

close out 13 communities. That would result in a net of about 48 new

homes sold for the company.

As of June 30, the company and its joint ventures owned or

controlled about 14,500 lots.

The company, one of the oldest and largest homebuilders in the

southwestern U.S., has built communities in California, Arizona and

Nevada.

“We are proud of the results,” said William Lyon, chairman and

chief executive. “The number of new orders during the quarter is a

record for any quarter in the company’s history.”

Shares of WLS closed Friday at $36.03, a three-cent increase. Only

6,400 shares changed hands.

PESTICIDE MAKER STILL GAINING

American Vanguard Corp., a Newport Beach manufacturer of pest

control chemicals, said it reached another high-water mark in its

second quarter.

The company booked a 31% increase in net income, $2.37 million

from $1.82 million. It was the 17th consecutive quarter of growth,

the company said.

“We saw continued strength throughout our product portfolio during

the quarter, with especially strong sales from our corn soil

insecticides,” said Eric Wintemute, president and chief executive.

American Vanguard also cited brisk sales of its mosquito-control

line, home pest products and vegetable pesticide Dacthal. Products

purchased from Pace International earlier in the year also drove

sales, Wintemute said.

The company also said it received approval from the Environmental

Protection Agency to market the technical form of bifenthrin, an

insecticide.

Marketing of the product will begin in June, Wintemute said. The

company estimates the worldwide market for the product is in the $150

million range.

Shares of AVD closed essentially flat on Friday at $22.20. Traders

exchanged a scant 1,800 shares.

TICKETS.COM TO GO ON WITH THE A’S

Online retailer Tickets.com, based in Costa Mesa, has extended its

partnership with baseball’s Oakland Athletics through the 2009

season, the company announced Aug. 7.

The team opted to renew the contract one year before its

expiration, said Carl Thomas, the company’s marketing vice president.

The team has added a feature that would install a coding on the

tickets, so they could be easily scanned at the stadium.

Additionally, fans would have the prerogative to print their tickets

at home.

Shares of the company’s stock closed Friday at 55 cents, for no

change. Only 800 shares changed hands. The stock was delisted from

the Nasdaq Stock Market and has yet to be reinstated.