J.C. Penney is ousting CEO Ron Johnson. He’s being replaced by former CEO Mike Ullman.

Ullman was head of the department store chain, based in Plano, Texas, prior to Johnson’s appointment to the top spot in 2011 in an effort to halt the company’s sliding earnings.

Johnson came under pressure after his turnaround strategy failed to win over shoppers.

His drastic changes included slashing the number of sales in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in hipper designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores.

Report: Virgin America best US airline in 2012

Virgin America did the best job for its customers among leading U.S. airlines last year, a report said Monday, as carriers overall had their second best performance in the more than the two decades since researchers began measuring quality of service.

The report from Wichita State University in Kansas and the University of Nebraska at Omaha ranked the 14 largest U.S. airlines based on on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, consumer complaints and passengers who bought tickets but were turned away because flights were overbooked.

Alcoa’s 1Q profit rises, beats

expectations

Alcoa Inc. kicked off earnings season Monday by reporting a larger first-quarter profit than analysts expected, helped by strong demand for aluminum used to make airplanes and automobiles.

The company still sees demand for aluminum growing 7 percent in 2013, with gains cutting across many industries.

Alcoa is the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report first-quarter results.

Because its products wind up in so many things, from cars and buildings to soda cans, investors study Alcoa’s results for hints about earnings at companies in other industries.

Transcripts show Fed underestimated crisis in 2007

Federal Reserve officials in 2007 badly underestimated the scope of the approaching financial crisis and how it would tip the U.S. economy into the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, transcripts of the Fed’s policy meetings show.

The meetings occurred as the country was on the brink of its worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

As the year went on, Fed officials shifted their focus away from the risk of inflation as they slowly began to recognize the severity of the problem.

Beginning in September 2007, the Fed cut interest rates and took extraordinary steps to try to ease credit and shore up confidence in the banking system.

Throughout the year, the housing crisis deepened, home prices weakened and subprime mortgages soured.

GE to buy Lufkin Industries for $3.1 billion

General Electric Co. has agreed to buy oilfield equipment maker Lufkin Industries Inc. for $3.1 billion, furthering an effort by GE to grow its oil and gas operations.

GE said Monday that it would pay Lufkin shareholders $88.50 per share, a 38 percent premium over Lufkin’s closing price on Friday of $63.93.

The companies valued the deal at $3.3 billion, which includes $200 million in debt to be assumed by GE.

Senate confirms White to head SEC

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Mary Jo White’s nomination as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, making her the first former prosecutor to lead the federal agency that oversees Wall Street.

White was approved Monday by a Senate voice vote. She will replace Elisse Walter, who has been interim SEC chairman since Mary Schapiro resigned in December.

President Barack Obama nominated White, who served as U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 1993 through 2002.

Avon eliminating hundreds of jobs; leaves Ireland

Avon is eliminating more than 400 positions and abandoning or restructuring smaller or underperforming businesses in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, including an exit from Ireland.

The company said Monday that the job cuts, which equate to about 1 percent of Avon’s 39,100 employees, will occur across all regions and segments. It is part of a turnaround plan under CEO Sheri McCoy, with the goal of achieving mid-single digit percentage revenue growth and $400 million in cost savings by 2016.

Avon expects to complete almost all the cuts before year’s end.

Executive threatens to pull Fox signal if Aereo goes on

A top executive with the owner of the Fox broadcast network threatened Monday to convert the network to a subscription channel on cable or satellite TV if Internet startup Aereo Inc. continues to “steal” Fox’s over-the-air signal and sell it to consumers without paying for rights.

Although anyone with an antenna can pick up a station’s signals for free, cable and satellite companies typically pay stations and networks for the right to distribute their programming to subscribers. Industrywide those retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars every year. Aereo says it’s not subject to those fees.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said that not being paid by Aereo jeopardizes the economics of broadcast TV, which benefits from both retransmission fees and advertising.

Newspaper revenue fell 2 percent to $38.6 billion in 2012

The newspaper industry’s revenue declined at its slowest pace in six years, as publishers turned to new businesses and raised more money from online subscriptions.

The industry’s total revenue in 2012 fell 2 percent to $38.6 billion from $39.5 billion in 2011, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Online subscriptions helped circulation revenue rise by 5 percent to $10.4 billion. It was the first gain since 2003.

US Treasury chief urges EU to ease off austerity

European countries should ease off their austerity and adopt more growth-friendly policies, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday as he kicked off a series of meetings with the region’s top leaders.

America’s biggest trading partner and the world’s largest economic bloc has entered the fourth year of a debt crisis, which has plunged many of the 27 EU nations into recession. The U.S. administration hopes Europe will relent in its focus on debt reduction, which has been hurting growth through spending cuts and tax increases.

Lew, who became treasury secretary in February, started his first official trip to Europe with a meeting with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

• Associated Press