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Tuesday, February 08, 2000     Page: 12B

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Independent College and University Employment
Consortium will hold its 23rd annual Employment Fair for Business, Industry
and Health Care Opportunities from 1-4 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Woodlands Inn &
Resort.
   
The consortium includes College Misericordia, King’s College, Marywood
University, the University of Scranton and Wilkes University.
    More than 90 companies and organizations are registered to attend this
year’s event.

Ill workers may get help
   
President Clinton has included $12.8 million in his 2001 fiscal year budget
proposal to compensate those workers who contracted chronic beryllium disease
from working with beryllium for the construction of nuclear weapons.
   
The president’s budget includes $17 million for the Energy Employees
Compensation Initiative, a bill introduced in November 1999 by U.S. Rep. Paul
Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke.
   
More than 1,200 people worked in a Hazle Township plant that processed
beryllium ore for the military between 1957 and 1981.
   
Under the proposal, the funds would be available in 2001.

Health services’ talks set
   
ProWorks Occupational Health Management, a service of the Wyoming Valley
Health Care System, will hold its quarterly breakfast seminar at 8 a.m. Feb.
25 in the Thomas P. Saxton Medical Pavilion auditorium, 468 Northampton St.,
Edwardsville.
   
The seminar topic is “The Proposed Ergonomic Standard: Keeping Things in
Perspective.”
   
Event speakers include Dr. Roger Landry, ProWorks director; Fred Bartol,
compliance assistance specialist, Occupational Safety and Health
Administration Region 3; and Ralph Kovaleski, ProWorks clinical specialist.
   
For information or to make reservations, call 800-704-7622 or 552-8700 or
e-mail ProWorks at proworks@wvhcs.org.

Gold’s big rally fizzles
   
A brief but explosive rally in gold fizzled out Monday when a major
Canadian mining company signaled caution about prices after they had reached a
second consecutive four-month high.
   
Gold prices rocketed 8 percent higher Friday on a combination of factors,
including evidence of an overheating U.S. economy and the optimism shown by a
top producer in suspending its program for hedging, or betting on lower
prices.
   
The furious rally continued early Monday on the Comex division of the New
York Mercantile Exchange, barreling upward another 4 percent to $326.90 an
ounce, the highest price since Oct. 7. The two-year high for gold, $339 last
Oct. 5, was in sight.
   
But investors’ enthusiasm for the metal began waning at that lofty level,
and they went on a selling spree.
   
Gold for April delivery settled down $8.50 at $304.50 an ounce – a 3
percent decline.
   
Nasdaq on the rise again
   
Stocks diverged in familiar fashion Monday, with technology shares leading
the Nasdaq composite index higher for a sixth consecutive session while
blue-chip industrials slumped.
   
The Nasdaq rose 77.63 to 4,321.77, coasting past its previous record of
4,244.14, set Friday.
   
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58.01 to 10,905.79, and the Standard
& Poor’s 500 slipped 0.13 to 1,424.24.
   
The Nasdaq, dominated by technology stocks, has risen nearly 6 percent this
year, while the blue-chip Dow industrial average has fallen more than 5
percent.
   
“It’s a very fragmented market, and you can understand why,” said Larry
Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities. “The cyclicals have run out
of gas and tech remains all the rage.”