Business news in brief

Valero Energy Corp. said that it would temporarily shut down its Paulsboro refinery for maintenance but that the outage would not affect staffing levels. The San Antonio company this month will shut Paulsboro's fluid catalytic cracking unit, which produces gasoline, and it will idle the entire refinery for three weeks at the end of the year. Valero is offering buyouts to 100 of its 550 employees in Paulsboro. - Andrew Maykuth

SunGard, a Wayne software and information-technology services company, said it laid off close to 200 employees Thursday. A company spokeswoman said about 30 percent of the laid-off employees worked in this region. The company employs 20,000 worldwide - about 2,000 locally. - Stacey Burling

A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts Inc. of Berlin said it lost $12.9 million, or 53 cents per share, on a steep sales decline in the quarter ended Oct. 3. Profits were depressed by heavy discounting on merchandise. Sales fell to $106.1 million from $116.7 million a year earlier, due partly to the closure of two stores. Sales at stores open at least a year declined

7.7 percent. - Maria Panaritis

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission granted a 6.6 percent rate increase to Pennsylvania American Water Co., increasing the monthly bill for a residential customer using 4,200 gallons per month by $3.16 to $46.14. Regulators gave the utility a $30.75 million revenue boost, about half the amount requested. The utility has 650,000 customers in 35 Pennsylvania counties, including parts of Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties. - Andrew Maykuth

The Netherlands temporarily pulled a batch of Pfizer Inc.'s Prevenar vaccine after three babies died after vaccination. Manufacturer Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired last month, asked the government to withdraw the batch pending an inquiry, the country's National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said. The institute said the move was precautionary. A Pfizer representative said neither the company nor Netherlands officials "have found a link between the use of our vaccine and the tragic deaths of these infants." Other batches of Prevenar, which immunizes against pneumococcal bacteria, are still in use in the Netherlands. In the United States, the vaccine is sold as Prevnar. - Bloomberg News

American International Group Inc. posted its second straight quarterly profit as its core insurance operations continued to stabilize after the company's $182 billion bailout by the government last year. A recovery in those operations is considered vital to AIG's repaying the government, which now owns 80 percent of the company. AIG's results were helped by the increasing value of investments it still holds that soured last year and helped drive it to the brink of collapse. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, AIG had a profit of $92 million compared with a loss of $24.5 million in last year's period. - AP

Consumers borrowed less for a record eighth straight month in September amid rising unemployment and tight credit. The Federal Reserve said borrowing fell at an annual rate of $14.8 billion in September. That's the biggest decline since July and is larger than the $10 billion drop economists expected. Economists worry the declines in borrowing will drag on the fledgling recovery. - AP