Importers and manufacturers who sell to America’s major retailers are preparing for a surprisingly stronger winter shopping season than expected, according to Capital Business Credit.

NXT Capital announced that its subsidiary, NXT Capital SBIC has received a license from the SBA to operate as a Small Business Investment Company. NXT plans to invest up to $75 million in equity in NXT SBIC over the next three years.

In the second quarter of 2012, half of leading private companies were optimistic about the U.S. economy, few were pessimistic (12%), and a fair number remained uncertain (38%), according to PwC US’s Private Company Trendsetter Barometer.

According to its latest Small Business Borrowers Poll, the NY Fed said 63% of businesses that applied for financing received credit, but not always for the full amount requested.

FLY Leasing said it closed a new $395 million senior secured term loan. FLY will use the proceeds from the new loan to refinance its remaining 2012 debt maturities, as well as the outstanding debt under a facility that matures in 2013.

The Riverside Company has invested in Independent Doctors of Optometric Care (IDOC), an alliance of independent optometrists throughout the U.S. MCG Capital provided debt and equity financing for the transaction.

Moody’s said in its latest quarterly report that Q2/12 had the highest quarterly number of U.S. public finance downgrades of the last ten years as significant financial pressure was present across all public finance sectors.

Bloomberg reported that U.S. natural gas production will expand to a record this year with a surge in development that has spurred $226 billion in spending plans, most slated for the next five years.

Solar Capital announced that it has added a new lender, which has committed $40 million to its senior secured credit facility, consisting of an increase of $15 million of term loan and $25 million of revolving credit.

The Wall Street Journal reported that CIT said in a recent regulatory filing that it has been hit with “several security breaches” since January 2009 that led to the release of customer information.