NEWS

A trickle of companies fleeing the restive Spanish region of Catalonia threatened to turn into a flood as a second major bank and two more firms said they would move their head offices to other parts of the country.

CaixaBank (CAIXY), energy supplier Gas Natural Fenosa and Dogi International Fabrics said Friday they were moving their legal bases from Catalonia's capital, Barcelona. Catalonia's government was planning to make a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain early next week following a disputed referendum last Sunday in which two million Catalans voted to break away.

Another big Japanese company has admitted behaving badly... and it's already paying the price.

Shares in Kobe Steel (KBSTY) slumped 22% in Tokyo on Tuesday after the company admitted faking data about the quality of some of its aluminum and copper products.

nvestors ditched the stock after the firm said 4% of products shipped over the 12 months to August 31 didn't comply with specifications agreed with customers, including Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC) and Nissan (NSANF).

Two Scottish distilleries that have been closed since 1983 are being reopened to help satisfy a growing thirst for premium whiskies.

Global booze giant Diageo (DEO) announced Monday that it would invest £35 million ($46 million) to bring the "lost" distilleries back from the dead by 2020.

The distilleries -- Port Ellen and Brora -- are best known for their medium-peated single malt Scotch.

Forget plastics. If someone in Hollywood does a remake of "The Graduate," there's a new word beginning with the letter P that Mr. McGuire should say to Benjamin.

"Pizza." Exactly how do I mean? There does seem to be a great future in pizza. Will you think about it?

Domino's (DPZ) just reported strong sales and earnings on Thursday. Same-store sales in the U.S. were up a stunning 10.7% in the fourth quarter.