The Ticker

Dow soars 421 points

The Dow Jones industrial average had its biggest surge in three years yesterday, soaring 421 points in its second straight triple-digit gain after the Federal Reserve's reassurance that it was in no hurry to raise interest rates.

Bullish earnings from technology giant Oracle also drove the rally.

Fed chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that she foresaw no rate hike in the first quarter of 2015.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 421.28 points, or 2.4 percent, to 17,778.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 48.34 points, or 2.4 percent, to 2,061.23. The Nasdaq Composite gained 104.08 points, or 2.2 percent, to 4,748.40.

Woman sues over elevator fall at Fenway

A 22-year-old woman who fell two stories down an elevator shaft at Fenway Park and was seriously injured is suing the owner of the Boston Red Sox and an elevator company.

Elisabeth Scotland of Brigantine, N.J., sued Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court against Fenway Sports Group and Otis Elevator Co. of Farmington, Conn. The suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

The suit says Scotland fell when a closed elevator door opened when she brushed up against it, and she suffered a traumatic brain injury, spinal injuries, facial fractures and dental damage.

A Red Sox spokesman declined to comment on the accident, but said all Fenway Park elevators are safe and the team wishes Scotland well.

Whidden Hospital workers ratify pact

Union health care workers at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett announced yesterday they ratified a new contract agreement with Cambridge Health Alliance that grants them raises and a minimum start rate of $15 an hour, effective July 1, according to 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

The agreement covers more than 230 caregivers at the hospital, the union said.

Emerson announces dorm starts

Emerson College has announced plans to begin construction of two student housing projects that will increase its Boston undergraduate housing capacity by more than 33 percent.

In April, Emerson College will begin construction at 1–3 Boylston Place on an 18-story, 380-bed student housing project. The college also plans to renovate its largest student residence hall, known as the Little Building, located at 80 Boylston St., adding 290 new student beds to the 750 beds currently in the building.

• Newburyport's Muzzy Lane Software, a developer of game-based educational software, announced that Conall Ryan, left, has joined the company as president and chief executive officer. Ryan previously served as executive vice president of Houghton Mifflin Co., where he guided the development of the first Curious George digital titles.

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Hot Property: Think inside the Box in Chelsea’s Flats at 22

The Flats at 22 in Chelsea's new Box District neighborhood is now leasing — and providing some relief from Boston's high apartment prices.

This is developer Mitchell Properties and builder Traggorth Cos.' third apartment project in the area of former box and bedding factories that has been reborn into a neighborhood of market-rate and affordable apartments and condos as well as a new park along Gerrish Avenue. The Box District won the 2014 Urban Land Institute's Jack Kemp affordable and workforce housing award.

The Flats at 22, with 50-units of mixed-income new construction apartments, is renting market-rate units for as little as $1,425 for studios, which includes a garage parking space and building amenities such as a rooftop fitness center, roof deck lounge, a community room with a full kitchen and projection TV, and an outdoor patio with barbecue grills.

One-bedrooms in the pet-friendly complex start at $1,625 per month and two-bedrooms at $1,900.

The Flats at 22 has 29 market-rate units, of which 20 percent have been leased ahead of a Jan. 15 opening. It's offering one month free rent for 12-to-18-month leases.

"We are renting to a lot of young professionals who have looked for apartments in Boston and balked at the prices," said Tanya Hahnel, Traggorth's project manager for Flats at 22. "You get much more for your money over here along with the amenities and free garage parking."

For example, model Unit 111, a 659-square-foot one- bedroom, has hardwood floors throughout and a recessed-lit kitchen with 18 tall cabinets, bi-level gray granite counters with a breakfast bar, stainless-steel Whirlpool appliances and an open living/dining area with floor-to-ceiling windows and a private back entrance. There are stylish barnboard-style doors, a walk-in closet in the bedroom and a large tiled bathroom. The rent is $1,695 a month, which also includes an in-unit washer and dryer, a tankless water heater and USB outlets for phone charging.

Model Unit 115, with similar finishes and two carpeted bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a private rear entrance, is going for $2,100 a month.

The 46 units at the adjacent The Flats at 44 opened in March, and the 41 market-rate units leased quickly.

"People looking for afford­ability and nice, modern apartments have been finding us," said Margaret Farrell, regional manager of HallKeen Management, which manages the 150 ­total units in Mitchell's three buildings, including the brick-and-beam Atlas Lofts, carved out of a former bedding factory in 2010.

The rehabbed Box District is only a block from City Hall just north of Bellingham Square. A new Silver Line Box District stop connecting to South Station is under construction behind the Flats at 22 and will open in 2016.

"Getting the Silver Line will be a huge boost for Chelsea," said HallKeen marketing manager Courtney Mathiowitz. "And this neighborhood is a national model on how to do mixed-income housing in an urban neighborhood."

Hahnel said that the mostly young professionals renting in Mitchell's Box District properties like the fact that it's a diverse neighborhood with lots of children.

"It's not a sterile place," she said. "It's active and full of life."

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Weak coffee sales hurt Dunkin’ Donuts earnings

Dunkin' Brands announced weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and lowered its 2015 outlook yesterday, blaming declining sales of Dunkin' Donuts' packaged coffee and continued pressure on consumers.

Shares fell as much as 9.45 percent yesterday to $41.85 — the most since Dunkin' Brands' 2011 initial public offering — before closing at $43.05, down 6.86 percent.

"This has been a challenging year for our businesses," CEO Nigel Travis said in a statement. "While our earnings growth expectations for 2015 are below our longer-term targets, we are committed to returning to double-digit growth in the subsequent years."

Struggling joint-venture Dunkin' restaurants in Korea and Baskin-Robbins in Japan also remain under pressure and are forecast to negatively impact 2015 results, according to Travis.

"We are disappointed by the ongoing softness in Dunkin' U.S. (comparable-store sales), which was attributed to a tough environment — presumably being caused by heightened competition — and decelerating sales of packaged coffee — probably weakness in K-cups," Baird Equity Research analyst David Tarantino said in a research note yesterday.

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Boston’s Revere Hotel gets a new owner

Boston's trendy Revere Hotel has a new owner, a little more than 2 1⁄2 years after it debuted following a $29 million transformation of an undistinguished Radisson Hotel into the luxury boutique property.

Bethesda, Md.-based Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, owner of Boston's W Hotel, has bought the 356-room hotel, a lucrative 826-space attached parking garage and a vacant adjacent Stuart Street property for $260.4 million from New York's Northwood Investors.

The parking garage makes it difficult to decipher the strength of Pebblebrook's purchase on a per-room basis, the typical metric for hotel purchases, according to Matthew Arrant, executive vice president of Pinnacle Advisory Group, a Boston hospitality consulting firm.

"The parking garage is a really big component of the revenue stream," he said. "But (the total purchase price) is a testament to the strength of the Boston market right now and how far the market has come since Northwood bought (the hotel)."

Northwood acquired the hotel for $143.5 million in 2010.

It's a strong time for hotel sellers, with additional value gained because of the strength of the market overall, said Andrea Foster, vice president and New England practice leader of PKF Consulting USA.

"It's also a good time for buyers," she said. "With the future forecast for occupancy and rate projections, there's still upside for buyers in the next couple of years."

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Innovation expansion urged: Four areas envisioned as new Boston ‘districts’

A task force appointed in September by Mayor Martin J. Walsh is eyeing four neighborhoods as potential innovation hubs, Boston's economic development czar said yesterday.

Although its final recommendations are not due until Jan. 30, the four areas most discussed by the Neighborhood Innovation District Committee are East Boston, the Bowdoin-Geneva and Fields Corner sections of Dorchester, and Dudley Square in Roxbury to Uphams Corner in Dorchester, said John Barros, who co-chairs the committee.

"Mayor Walsh sees an opportunity to bring the innovation economy into Boston's neighborhoods," said Melina Schuler, a spokeswoman for the mayor. "The recommendations being made by the Neighborhood Innovation District Committee are first steps in establishing how communities can participate and benefit from this new type of entrepreneurship and job creation."

While government can be the catalyst for that, the private sector "can make it real and sustainable," as has been the case with MassChallenge, said Scott Bailey, senior director of partnerships for the Boston-based startup accelerator and competition.

"The real challenge in any of these neighborhoods is how do you keep them included in what's going on in other places," Bailey said. "It's not about building a cluster and leaving it off on its own."

Charles Teague, CEO of Lose It!, a startup that makes software to help people lose weight, said when his company was looking for a location, it chose Boston's Innovation District because it was more affordable than Cambridge's Kendall Square and had a vibrant community of tech companies working on some of the same problems. He worries that sense of community could be "fragmented" if the city creates other innovation districts.

But Tim Rowe, founder and CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center, said: "Innovation-driven prosperity can't remain the province of just a few neighborhoods. If Boston wasn't pursuing this, we'd be asking it to."

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Gas pipeline woes halt National Grid hookups on Cape

Residents of eight Cape Cod towns will have to wait years before new natural gas lines can be installed after National Grid instituted a moratorium on new hookups.

The company will not install any new gas connections for five to seven years after the Department of Public Utilities and National Grid found potentially faulty welds — some almost 60 years old — in a 21-mile pipeline on the Cape, forcing­ National Grid to lower the pressure in the transmission line, which cut the amount of gas it can carry.

The pipeline will not be able to supply gas to more customers until infra­structure fixes are made, work that has no exact timetable.

"We're going to have to do some pretty significant infrastructure enhancement work," said National Grid spokesman Jake Navarro.

The work will prevent potential customers in Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Barnstable and Yarmouth from hooking up to the gas supply.

Navarro said National Grid has about 100,000 customers on the Cape, and was adding between 800 and 1,000 each year.

DPU spokeswoman Mary-Leah Assad said in a statement that the agency is looking into the situation.

"The DPU's Pipeline Safety & Engineering Division is engaged in an on­going investigation to determine the integrity of the gas main and ensure it is in compliance with federal and state regulations," she said.

National Grid does not believe any other pipelines in the state will need the same kind of repairs, Navarro said.

Meanwhile, Nstar yesterday filed for a 12 percent delivery rate increase, citing­ rising costs to deliver gas to homes. That comes after Nstar said it would increase its supply rates by 29 percent due to rising demand for natural gas.

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Reports: North Korea ordered the Sony attack

Federal authorities have determined that hackers working on behalf of the North Korean government were behind the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, according to published reports.

"We have found linkage to the North Korean government," a source told CNBC.

CNN's Evan Perez said that an announcement is expected on Thursday that would "assign attribution" to the country, which threatened retaliation over the release of "The Interview."

An FBI official said that the agency had no immediate comment because the investigation is ongoing. But they are expected to issue a statement on their findings within the next day. A spokesman for the National Security Council also had no comment.

The New York Times reported that U.S. officials had differences of opinion on whether the hackers were aided by Sony insiders. The Times reported that U.S. officials had determined that North Korea was "centrally involved" in the attacks on Sony.

It's unclear what kind of action the U.S. may take, if any, in response, or whether it would issue any kind of an official statement. The White House had no immediate comment.

In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, President Obama said that his administration was taking the hacker attack seriously but that "for now my recommendation would be, go to the movies."

Sony announced that it was pulling the movie from release after major theater chains decided not to show it. On Tuesday, the studio said that it was leaving a decision of whether to show the movie to exhibitors. That came after the hackers issued a threat of physical harm and a "9/11" style attack at theaters where the movie was being shown. But an official with the Department of Homeland Security told media outlets that there was "no credible intelligence" showing an active plot.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Patient Fed spurs Wall Street

The Federal Reserve yesterday said it will be "patient" in raising interest rates, sending stocks soaring as Wall Street registered its best day in more than a year.

Fed chairwoman Jan­et Yellen said economic fundamentals will be the guide for raising the benchmark interest rate, not a specific date, and she foresees no rate hikes in the first quarter of 2015.

Yellen also said the central bank would not make policy changes right now, despite plunging oil prices­ and potential turmoil overseas, particularly in Russia.

The Fed made a slight distinction in its policy statement by adding the word "patient," said David Wessel, a federal reserve expert with the Brookings Institution.

"They're trying to not signal any change in policy, (but) wean themselves off of language that was so dependent on when they stop buying bonds and put more focus on the economy," Wessel said.

The Fed also lowered its expectation for inflation, which the bank has repeatedly said is a key indicator that will affect policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 288 points or 1.7 percent, while the Standard and Poor's 500 index closed 40.15 points higher, or 2.04 percent.

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Brewery expansion on tap for Jack’s Abby

Framingham craft beer maker Jack's Abby Brewing will undergo a major expansion that will allow it to ramp up production, offer its beer in cans and 12-pack bottles and open a restaurant and much larger tasting room.

The 3-year-old company has leased new space in Framingham that will expand its brewery more than five-fold to 67,000 square feet with state-of-the-art brewing equipment.

"The craft beer industry, as a whole, has been picking up (and) we've been beneficiaries of that," said Eric Hendler, who cofounded Jack's Abby with brothers Jack and Sam. "Additionally, we do only lagers, which are not very common for craft breweries to make. We feel that distinguishes us to the consumer."

Jack's Abby's best-selling beer is Hoponius Union, an India pale lager.

Its new quarters in a former Avery Dennison plant will have an initial brewing capacity of 50,000 barrels annually — which it doesn't expect to hit in the first year — and space to expand to 125,000. The Hendlers plan to start brewing there in late 2015.

This year, in its current 12,000-square-foot brewery, the company will brew 14,000 barrels to service customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut and parts of New York and Vermont — up from 6,500 barrels last year.

"We're expecting to brew around 25,000 barrels in 2015, which is the maximum our current space is capable of producing," Hendler said.

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Sony has 'no further release plans' for 'The Interview'

Sony Pictures Entertainment has walked out on "The Interview," deciding against releasing the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy in any form -- including VOD or DVD.

"Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film," a spokesman said Wednesday.

The studio issued the statement a few hours after pulling the planned Christmas Day release of "The Interview" in the U.S. in response to the hackers who threatened to attack movie theaters and moviegoers if the comedy were released.

By late Wednesday afternoon, the studio had removed any mention of "The Interview" from its official web site.

The move could open the door for Sony to sell the rights to a rival distributor -- though Hollywood is still reeling from Tuesday's invocation of a possible 9/11-type terrorist attack on exhibitors if they screened "The Interview."

Prior to the decision to pull the film, a Sony Pictures insider had told Variety that the studio was weighing releasing the film on premium video-on-demand. Such a move would have allowed the studio to recoup some of the film's $42 million budget and tens of millions in promotion and advertising expenditures.

Sony's nightmare began on Nov. 24 when the "Guardians of Peace" hackers disabled the studio's computer system and began disclosing internal documents, email messages, film budgets, executive salaries and the social security numbers of thousands of employees.

"The world will be full of fear," the group's Tuesday message said. "Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you'd better leave.)"

In response, most of the country's largest theater chains -- including AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Carmike and Southern Theatres -- announced they would either delay showing the picture or would drop it altogether.

"The Interview" centers on an assassination attempt on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. There has been speculation that the country may be involved in the hacking as retaliation for the film, though it has denied involvement.

On Wednesday, several published reports said that federal authorities had determined that hackers working on behalf of the North Korean government were behind the hack attack. CNN's Evan Perez said that an announcement is expected on Thursday that would "assign attribution" to the country.

"The Interview" has been scheduled for release in foreign markets starting in late January.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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