Fannie Mae earns biggest yearly profit

Home prices are up. Foreclosures are down. Construction is up. And now comes the latest sign of the U.S. home market’s revival: Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant that nearly collapsed five years ago, has earned its biggest yearly profit ever.

Fannie Mae earned $17.2 billion last year and said Tuesday that it expects to stay profitable for “the foreseeable future.” It also paid $11.6 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury in 2012.

And last year was Fannie’s first since its takeover by the government in 2008 that it asked for no federal aid. As recently as 2011, Fannie lost nearly $17 billion and requested and received nearly $26 billion in aid.

The speed of Fannie’s resurgence is a testament to a much healthier U.S. mortgage market.

Cypriot finance minister quits amid probe

NICOSIA, Cyprus » Finance minister Michalis Sarris resigned Tuesday after less than five weeks in the job, as the government begins an investigation into how the country’s economy nearly collapsed last month.

President Nicos Anastasiades accepted Sarris’ resignation, which came as Cyprus finalized the details of its bailout with international creditors. Harris Georgiades, the 41-year-old former labor minister, will become the new head of finance.

Sarris, 66, was appointed to the position after Anastasiades’ Conservatives won general elections in February, days before the island was overwhelmed by its financial crisis.

Factory orders rose 3% during February

WASHINGTON » Orders to U.S. factories rose sharply in February from January on a surge in volatile demand for commercial aircraft. The gain offset a drop in key orders that signal business investment.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that factory orders increased 3 percent in February. That’s up from a 1 percent decline in January and the biggest gain in five months.

The increase was due mostly to a jump in orders for commercial aircraft. Those orders rose 95.1 percent. Orders for motor vehicles and parts also increased 1.4 percent.

Bankrupt city to pay state pension debt

SACRAMENTO, Calif. » On its first official day in bankruptcy, the city of Stockton now must grapple with the hard part of reorganizing its financial affairs — how to share the financial burden equitably among creditors while meeting its massive state pension obligations.

At the conclusion of a three-day trial, a judge Monday formally granted the city Chapter 9 protection, over the objections of creditors who questioned whether it was fair for the city to fully meet its obligations to the state pension system while other debt holders are paid only partially.

The issue — whether federal bankruptcy law trumps the California law that requires pension fund debts to be honored — could have huge implications across the state and the rest of the nation, experts say.

Visas for tech-savvy workers might run out

WASHINGTON » The Homeland Security Department expects applications for high-skilled immigration visas to outpace the available supply in a matter of days, one of the fastest runs on the much-sought-after work permits in years and a sign of continued economic recovery amid new hiring by U.S. technology companies.

The urgent race for such visas — highly desired by Microsoft, Apple, Google and other leading technology companies — coincides with congressional plans to increase the number available to tech-savvy foreigners.

The race to secure one of the 85,000 so-called H-1B visas available for the 2014 budget year started Monday, and requests will be accepted through at least Friday. If petitions outpace the availability in the first week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — for the first time since 2008 — will use a lottery to pick which companies get visas to award to prospective employees.

12% unemployment sets eurozone record

LONDON » The eurozone economy has passed another bleak milestone.

Official figures Tuesday showed that unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro has struck 12 percent for the first time since the currency was launched in 1999.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said the rate in February was unchanged at the record high after January’s figure was revised up to 12 percent from 11.9 percent.

On the Move

J’Adore Floral Designs has named Chantelle Richardson Williams as sales associate. She has nearly 15 years of sales experience.

SolarCity has promoted the following people to oversee the company’s operations in the Hawaii market: 

>> Tony Laglia to regional director. He was previously serving as a senior commercial project manager in charge of military housing in Hawaii.

>> Daniel Aiu to regional operations manager for Hawaii. He was previously the company’s lead electrician.