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Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) bounced back from a loss of $39.9 million, or 26 cents per share, during the second quarter last year to a profit of $9.1 million, or 6 cents per share, this past quarter, the company announced Monday night.

Total revenue for the quarter was $224.8 million, a 25 percent increase from the comparable period last year.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Range has its regional base in Canonsburg, Pa., and is one of the most active drillers in the Marcellus Shale. According to the earnings release, by the end of June the company “had drilled 146 horizontal Marcellus wells to date of which 29 are awaiting completion and four are awaiting pipeline hook up easy payday loans.”

The company stated that Marcellus production “continues to exceed expectations.”

“Drilling rigs are becoming more efficient as are completions and production operations,” the report stated. “These efficiencies, coupled with being ahead of schedule on production volumes, are allowing us to add an additional $210 million of capital to the Marcellus project in 2010.”

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Alloy Surfaces Co. has been awarded a three-year contract worth $38.3 million to produce MJU-49/B decoy devices for the Navy, the Defense Department said Friday.

The devices are fired by aircraft to lure away heat-seeking missiles and use Alloy’s patented technology to emit infrared energy in the same band that aircraft do no fax payday loan.

Alloy will make them at its plant in Aston, Pa.

The company is a subsidiary of the Chemring Group PLC, which is based in Whiteley, England.

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BNY Mellon, New York City, Tuesday reported second quarter net income of $658 million, or 54 cents per diluted share, nearly four times its second-quarter profit of $176 million, or 15 cents a year ago.

That was spot-on with the average estimate by 15 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, whose range for BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) was 50 cents to 58 cents.

For the six-month period ended June 30, BNY Mellon earned $1.2 billion, or $1 per share, compared to $498 million or 43 cents a year ago.

Second-quarter net income from continuing operations was $668 million, or 55 cents, compared to $267 million or 23 cents last year.

“Our focus on winning new business and providing exceptional client service resulted in solid growth in securities servicing fees and continued long-term asset inflows for our asset and wealth management businesses,” Chairman and CEO Robert Kelly said in a prepared statement. “Our conservative risk profile is reflected in our excellent credit quality and strong capital generation.”

BNY Mellon, Pittsburgh’s third-largest bank according to deposits, employed 7,143 here at the end of the second quarter.

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It has been years in the making, but shares of the private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. finally made their U.S. debut Thursday.

Shares of the New York-based firm, trading under the symbol "KKR", got off to a modestly higher start, before finishing nearly 3% lower on the New York Stock Exchange.

"Today’s NYSE listing is an important milestone for KKR, and will provide an opportunity for investors to share in the value being created by our firm," cofounders Henry Kravis and George Roberts said in a statement issued shortly after the market open.

KKR (KKR) is known mainly for its role in taking RJR Nabisco private in 1988, a deal that spawned the book and television movie "Barbarians at the Gate."

The company originally filed to go public in 2007, but subsequently delayed its offering. A year later, the firm made another run at an initial public offering, but was forced to scuttle those plans altogether with the U no faxing 1 hour payday loans.S. financial markets in turmoil in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The company then pursued the non-traditional route of going public through a takeover of its Amsterdam-listed investment fund. Thursday’s debut simply marks the migration of those European-listed shares to the NYSE.

Analysts have suggested that KKR decided to move its shares to a U.S. exchange simply to widen its pool of potential investors.

Whether that demand will be there or not however, remains to be seen. Shares of publicly-traded private equity firms, including KKR rival Blackstone Group (BX) and Fortress Investment Group (FIG), are off 71% and 87% respectively since their market debuts in 2007. 

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Qwest Communications International Inc. has set Aug. 24 as the date for its special meeting of shareholders to vote on its proposed takeover by CenturyLink Inc.

Separately, the Denver-based telecom (NYSE: Q) Tuesday announced a tender offer to purchase up to $1.265 billion of its outstanding 3.50-percent convertible senior notes due 2025.

The shareholder meeting will be held at the Denver Marriott City Center starting at 10 a.m. MDT. Shareholders as of Tuesday will be eligible to vote on whether to accept the acquisition offer by Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink (NASDAQ: CTL).

The meeting will be audio webcast live at http://investor.qwest.com/presentations and will be available for replay afterward, Qwest said.

CenturyLink — formerly known as CenturyTel — announced plans April 22 to buy Qwest in a deal involving a $10.6 billion stock swap and about $12 million in debt acquisition.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2011, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

If completed, the merger will create a telecom serving 37 states with about 5 million broadband customers and 17 million phone lines paydayloans. Qwest alone operates in Colorado and 13 other states; CenturyLink has a 33-state territory.

Qwest's headquarters is expected to move out of Denver, but CenturyLink "will maintain a key operational presence in Denver, including a regional headquarters," the company said in April.

In Tuesday's tender-offer announcement, Qwest said it will pay a premium for each $1,000 of its 3.50-percent notes tendered based on the volume weighted average price of its stock over a 20-trading-day period starting July 14 times 206.3354, plus $30.

Qwest said it will set the precise purchase price after the close of stock-market trading on Aug. 10.

The tender offer is set to expire at 3 p.m. MDT on Aug. 12.

Copies of tender-offer documents are available from Global Bondholder Services Corp. at 866-540-1500.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. (800-828-3182) is acting as the dealer manager for the tender offer.

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Sam’s Club, the members-only wholesaler owned by Wal-Mart, is testing out an online program to offer discounted loans to its small business customers.

The program is essentially a white-label arrangement with Superior Financial Group, the nation’s most active Small Business Administration lender. Superior Financial, based in Walnut Creek, Calif., specializes in loans of $5,000 and $25,000, often made through the SBA’s "express" program for smaller loans.

By applying for the loan through Sam’s Club as a member, small businesses will get $100 off Superior Financial’s loan packaging fee (typically $350 to $450, after the discount) and 0.25% off the market interest rate. Sam’s Club gets a $50 referral fee for each loan funded.

The new Sam Club’s venture launches amid a bleak credit landscape for small companies. Banks have slashed their lending portfolios and credit lines, leaving many companies scrambling to find the capital they need to operate. "Unable to find credit, many small businesses have had to shut their doors, and some of the survivors are still struggling to find adequate financing," a recent government study concluded.

That’s one motive for Sam’s Club to wade into the lending market: If customers are strapped for cash, they don’t shop.

Small businesses "are a big portion of our business, so if we can help small business, that helps us," said Hiren Patel, director of financial services at Sam’s Club low rates payday advance.

Rival wholesaler Costco has tried three times to pair up with small business lenders. "The results have been underwhelming in each iteration," said Joel Benoliel, senior vice president at Costco (COST, Fortune 500). Costco linked up with Key Bank in 2000, American Express in 2003 and Capital One 2007.

"The assumption is that there is this big need, and we are all about small business as our members, so we have really, really tried over the past decade," Benoliel said. "In each case, the main problem was the same: we had low member approval rates."

Businesses that already have an established relationship with their bank tend to apply for loans with that bank. Those looking to apply for a loan through an alternate avenue aren’t typically the most attractive customers.

"Maybe they will have success where we didn’t," Benoliel said of the new Sam’s Club venture. "The lending environment is entirely different since the last time we tried this in 2007."

The Sam’s Club arrangement is an open-ended pilot program. "We will monitor on a monthly basis, report back to our executives on a quarterly basis, and see where we want to go with this," Patel said. 

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Procter & Gamble Co. said Monday that it has closed on the acquisition of Sara Lee Corp.’s Ambi Pur brand.

P&G first announced the acquisition in December. It paid 320 million euros, or about $402 million, for the line of air freshener products, which are marketed in Europe and the United Kingdom.

“The acquisition of Ambi Pur strengthens P&G’s global leadership in home care and specifically air care by extending our reach to serve more consumers in more parts of the world more completely,” said David Taylor, P&G group president, global home care, in a news release payday loan companies.

The company said previously the acquisition will not have a material impact on its fiscal 2010 results. P&G’s fiscal year ended June 30.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), headquartered in Cincinnati, develops, manufactures and markets consumer products and pharmaceuticals. Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE) is headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill.

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Manhattan home prices held steady during the second quarter of 2010 but transactions were 81% higher than this time last year, according to several real estate market reports released Thursday.

There were more than 2,700 sales during the three months ended June 30, according to one report, which is average in a normal real estate market but up significantly from the 1,500 sales during the second quarter of 2009.

Manhattan is the nation’s most expensive large housing market. A two-bedroom, 1,250-square-foot condo apartment would cost about $400,000 in San Francisco, $250,000 in Los Angeles, $130,000 in Dallas and $100,000 in Miami. But in most of Manhattan, buyers are looking at $1.2 million or so.

That did not change much during the housing bust. The median home price in Manhattan fell about 20% from its peak, according to Greg Heym, a housing market economist who calculates market statistics for two of New York’s biggest brokers. And that is a lot less than bubble markets such as Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas, where prices were slashed by half or more.

"And we’ve already gotten close to 10% of that back," Heym said.

Indeed, Heym’s latest Manhattan market report for brokers Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead reveals a continued pattern of a stabilizing Manhattan market. And surveys from the Corcoran Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman, two other premiere brokerages, concur.

"There’s no big news on prices," said Pam Liebman, Corcoran’s CEO. "The news is that there are a lot of buyers. We’re very happy seeing so much absorption [of inventory]."

The median sale price for a condominium or cooperative apartment in Manhattan was nearly $900,000, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman, more than the $843,000 calculated by Halstead and Brown Harris Stevens, and $810,000 posted by Corcoran.

These prices were either flat year-over-year (Corcoran) or up 7.6% (Prudential) or 6% (Brown and Halstead), compared with the second quarter of 2009. They were either down 1% (Corcoran) from the first quarter of 2010 or up 3.6% (Prudential) or 2.8% (Brown and Halstead).

The median price statistics may be a bit deceptive, according to Jonathan Miller, of the noted New York appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which calculates prices for Prudential guaranteed approval cash advance loans. He said the number of high-end apartments sold has grown disproportionately, which pulled up the median price.

"The market share for three-bedroom apartments, for example, increased to 18% from 12% a year earlier," said Miller.

The trend to more sales of larger apartments is evident in inventory statistics as well. The supply of big, luxury apartments fell 13% while inventory of the rest of the market rose slightly.

That happened even though lenders are not making it any easier for buyers of expensive homes to get loans. Miller said there has been no relaxing of strict underwriting standards in the jumbo loan market, mortgages for more than $729,750.

Consequently, many of the well-heeled luxury homebuyers are foregoing mortgages entirely. Liebman she said a large percentage of her agents report that at least half their buyers are paying all cash.

"It’s the highest amount of cash transactions I’ve ever seen," added Miller.

What has helped keep the local market strong has been a rebound in the financial services industry, the big town’s biggest economic driver.

"They’re hiring again on Wall Street," said Heym, "and overall unemployment has fallen every month this year."

Demand for housing figures to remain strong. The work force for all of New York City has swelled to more than 4 million for the first time, and many of those workers aspire to live in Manhattan.

And, with the precipitous drop in crime over the past 20 years, families have returned to the city with a vengeance: It seems nearly impossible at times to walk down any west side avenue without tripping over a stroller.

"In earlier recessions, what happened is that many people left the city," said Heym. "But the efforts to improve the quality of life here, better schools, less crime, have led people to stay." 

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