World Business

LONDON Michael Jackson might be from hand to hand sick to travel to London to testify in a trial claiming he owes an Arab sheik $7 million, the pop star’s attorney said Tuesday.

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Jackson is seeking to give his affirmation by video link from the United States.

“It would be unwise toward him to travel, given what’s he’s got now,” lawyer Robert Englehart before-mentioned, declining to elaborate “on this account that the obvious reasons.”

A lawyer conducive to Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa said the medical make manifest presented by Jackson’s legal team was unsatisfactory.

“It’s not the first allotted period a sick note has been presented by Mr. Jackson,” the lawyer, Bankim Thanki said. He gave no accurate indication of what the illness might be, but told the court that Jackson’s plight could be treated with a bandage “grant that the diagnosis is positive.”

Jackson has often been seen wearing a surgical mask in public. In one scandalous pay one’s addresses to appearance in California, he appeared to get a bandage hanging from his hollowed-out nose.

Despite plenteous contemplation about his radically changed appearance over the years, he has denied having had any alterations to his confront other than two operations on his nose to help him breathe better to hit higher notes.

The judge in the current case, Nigel Sweeney, said he would decide the dispute of Jackson’s travel on Thursday to allow time for medical experts on both legal teams to conversation.

Al Khalifa, the second son of the king of Bahrain, claims that Jackson reneged on a contract for an album, a candid autobiography and a degree play, after accepting millions from the sheik.

Al Khalifa was in court Tuesday for the second time of arguments and testimony.

The cover is subsistence tried in London by mutual agreement, Al Khalifa’session representatives have said, and it is expected to close by the agency of the end of the month.

Jackson, 50, and the Bahraini royal pristine made contact when Jackson was fending off accusations of child molestation in California. Once Jackson was cleared of the charges, Al Khalifa, every amateur songwriter, invited him to the small, oil-rich Gulf state to escape the media spotlight.

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Internal Microsoft e-mails made public late Monday illustrate how executives debated whether to lower the standards for the Vista Capable marketing program to appease one of the company’s most important partners: chip maker Intel.

Once the decision was made, e-mails show, Microsoft scrambled to contain the fallout with other partners.

The messages are evidence in a Windows class-action lawsuit brought by PC customers in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Microsoft is accused of deceiving consumers who bought PCs in 2006 labeled “Vista Capable,” but which could only run a basic version of the operating system.

Surprise, then scramble

Jan. 30, 2006, was a long Monday for the Windows team at Microsoft.

Word of the company’s controversial decision to drop a new Windows Vista graphics technology from requirements for the Vista Capable marketing program was quickly spreading among its customers.

The technology, known as the Windows Device Driver Model, or WDDM, was dropped in part because a widely used Intel “915 chipset” would not support it, meaning computers built with that chip would not qualify for a “Windows Vista Capable” sticker, making them appear less desirable and hurting sales.

Intel had pressured Microsoft to make the change to the marketing program, designed to prop up PC demand during the 2006 holiday shopping season, before Vista PCs would be on the market.

“We need good messaging for the elimination of WDDM in Capable, as we have had this as a requirement since inception over 18 months ago,” wrote Mark Croft, a Microsoft marketing director, in an e-mail to several others on the Vista team that morning.

Microsoft was scrambling to coordinate communication of this major surprise revision, which some would love and others — Hewlett-Packard in particular — would hate.

Croft circulated draft talking points outlining the change. Employees on several teams prepared to make potentially uncomfortable phone calls and e-mails to their partners in the PC industry explaining the decision.

(The next day, a Microsoft general manager urgently requested the communications plan for graphics chip makers Nvidia and ATI, noting he needed to be ready to “diffuse this situation.”)

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Analysts’ opinions on shares in the news Monday

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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S&P MAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF CITIGROUP (C; 9.25):

In an unconfirmed report, Dow Jones reports that the size of Citigroup’s proposed, near-term work at jobs cuts, through layoffs and attrition has been increased to about 50,000, from earlier figures of 10,000. Citi is hosting a town hall meeting for employees today, in New York. On our concerns about possible future securities writedowns, we are charge our target recompense of $15, which is based on a 0.83 state of things multiple on Citi’s Sept. 30 equity book regard per share of $18.11. This is a discount to Citi’s historical multiples, and to chiefly peers. -S. Plesser, E. Oja

S&P LIFTS OPINION ON SHARES OF LOWE’S COMPANIES TO BUY FROM HOLD, ON VALUATION (LOW; 19.13):

October-quarter EPS of $0.33, vs. $0.43, is $0.03 above our set a value on. Comp-store sales declined 5.9%, and we expect challenging macroeconomic conditions will escort to negative comps throughout fiscal year 2010 (January). We are lowering our fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2010 EPS estimates to $1.51 and $1.36, from $1.54 and $1.55, and reducing our DCF-based target price to $25 from $30. However, LOW continues to gain marketshare, and we expect expense leverage once the housing place of traffic stabilizes. Trading at subordinate to 14 times our fiscal year 2010 EPS estimate in what we expect to have being its cyclical earnings trough, we find the shares attractive. -M. Souers

S&P MAINTAINS HOLD RECOMMENDATION ON SHARES OF GOLDMAN SACHS (GS; 63.54):

It was announced over the weekend that top executives at Goldman Sachs have voluntarily decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses in the wake of the downturn in the financial markets. The executives will have capacity for their establish. \ salaries, and it appears bonuses will still have being paid for the rest of the firm’s workforce. In light of the increased inquisition on Wall Street compensation, we are encouraged by the move and believe it is likely other top financial firms will come suit. We contend our 12-month target price of $95, roughly 1.0 times our 12-month plain book value projection, in put inside with peers. -M. Albrecht

S&P KEEPS BUY OPINION ON SHARES OF COVIDIEN LTD. (COV; 37.40):

September-quarter operating EPS of $0.73, vs. $0.62, is ten cents over our estimate. Sales were in line, but operating costs, pure interest expense and income tax rate were lower than we projected. At current rates, we think forex self-reliance negatively impact fiscal year 2009 (September) sales by means of dint of. 4%-6%, except get the start of that there will be some offset to earnings from lower raw stuff costs and tight operating cost controls. We are lowering financial year 2009 sales projection from $11.0 billion to $10.1 billion, EPS estimate by $0.10 to $3.00, and cutting our mark price by means of $20 to $43 based on forward PEG of 1.4 spells, modestly above peers. -R. Gold

S&P REITERATES BUY OPINION ON SHARES OF GILEAD SCIENCES (GILD; 46.91):

Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA; 43.09) files for permission to manufacture and market a generic version of Truvada, attempting to invalidate pair of GILD’s patents upon the physic. GILD claims Truvada is protected by 10 patents, all of which would need to be invalidated before a generic could have existence marketed. We expect GILD to file a patent infringement lawsuit, what one. would block FDA approval until at least 2011, and note Truvada’s patents force of will not expire to the time when 2017. As a result, we do not expect TEVA’s actions to result in a marketed drug. We keep our 12-month target price at $56. -S. Silver

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S&P likes the growth prospects for the maker of benefit meters and has a strong buy opinion on the shares

By Rafay Khalid, CFA From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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We view Itron (ITRI; recent price, $44) as the 800-lb. gorilla in the utility meter results. Our outlook reflects our inspect of the partnership’s leading market share posture of the automated meter reading and advanced metering infrastructure segments, along with its broad range of cradle-to-grave products and solutions. We also think the gang’s revenue base is geographically diversified, with 59% of 2007 sales outside the North American market.

We believe the main driver for the company’s sales and income growth is the shifting from what we view considered in the state of "dumb" meters to "smart" meters. Historically, meters used mechanical technology and were manually read by a person. New meters are electronic and impart with a profit’s information network. We foresee utility customers thwart the nature slowly converting their existing meters to this new technology over the long-term. Moreover, the meeting of friends’s total backlog (representing committed but undelivered contracts and purchase orders) increased 51% year over year, to $1.0 billion, to the degree that of September 2008, which we believe reinforces our watch.

We think investors are concerned about Itron’s total debit of $1.2 billion (as of September 2008), given the ongoing credit acme. While we view Itron’s debt-to-capital ratio as remote from the equator, at 52% at the end of the third part furnish, we convinced the company is financially well positioned to weather the economic slowdown, based on our projection that it will generate $65 million in free cash flow in 2008 and end the year with $157 the multitude in coin. In joining, Itron’s debt does not start to mature until 2011 at the earliest.

We also think the company’s valuation is compelling. Our 12-month target cost is $62, representing expressive potential capital appreciation from recent levels. Our opinion on the shares of Itron is 5 STARS (strong bribe).

Itron, based in Liberty Lake, Wash., provides handheld computer meter data collection systems, automatic meter reading (AMR), and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems to the energy and water utility industries. In the North American market, Itron has a greater than 50% ploughshare of the AMR/AMI market, while in the worldwide market its share is 35%, according to the company. In addition, the company provides meter data management, consulting, and other professional services to its customers. These solutions include hardware and software products sold to greater amount of than 8,000 utilities worldwide, helping to increase efficiencies, lower costs, swell regulatory compliance, and curtail risk by providing energy and water information management.

On Apr. 18, 2007, Itron completed the purchase of Luxembourg-based meter creator Actaris Metering for about $1.7 billion. We view the deal positively, as we believe Itron’s automatic meter reading and infrastructure products and services gained access in Europe, and gas and water meters were added to its North American portfolio. We cherish a thought of the enhanced market share position in both of the three categories of marked by electricity, gas, and water metering, combined with Itron’s AMR/AMI offering, will fashion it a formidable name in advantageousness resource management.

After the acquisition of Actaris, the company reorganized into two operating segments: Itron North America (INA) and Actaris. INA (41% of 2007 sales) focuses on the U.S. and Canadian markets, under which circumstances Actaris (59%) concentrates on the rest of the world, especially Europe. We believe the company’s geographically diversified revenue base resoluteness withstand offset weakness in one market by means of strength in another.

Meters measure a customers’ use of force and water, which we conceive as a key component of a utility’s infrastructure. The transition to electronic technology, compared with traditionary mechanical-based technology, provides increased capabilities, improved reliability, and better accuracy, in our opinion. We also think that new electronic meters allow customers to take advantage of AMR/AMI features easily and cost-effectively.

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Traders weighed news of big layoffs at Citigroup and a reports that the New York Fed’s manufacturing index fit a record low in November

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U.S. stocks closed violently lower Monday after an intraday be restored to order attempt fizzled. The choppy action followed news that Citigroup (C) is cutting another 50,000-plus jobs, and that the New York Fed’s Empire State survey of New York manufacturers fell to a new record low in November. Monday also brought reports that Japan’s economy slipped into a recession in the 2008 third quarter.

Traders also eyed a report that October industrial lengthening rose 1.3% in October, while capacity utilization rose to 76.4% from 75.5%.

Meanwhile, Congress was transplant to argue over aid to General Motors (GM) and other automakers as the list of firms seeking a government bailout continued to grow. More companies want to be changed to banks, notes S&P MarketScope.

Bonds rallied. The dollar index fell. Gold prices were lower. Crude oil futures moved lower.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower through 223.73 points, or 2.63%, to 8,273.58. The broad S&P 500 index shed 22.54 points, or 2.58%, to 850.75. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq complex director dropped 34.80 points, or 2.29%, to 1,482.05.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 24 stocks fell in value for every eight that advanced. The ratio on the Nasdaq was 19-9 negative.

Trading was fairly bright before Tuesday’s report onward the producer excellence index (PPI) as far as concerns October. The headline PPI is expected to decline 1.7%.

European stocks closed lower, through London’s benchmark index down 2.73%, Frankfurt lower by 3.25%, and Paris falling 3.32%. Asian markets were mixed, with Tokyo public funds up 0.71%, Hong Kong down 0.10%, and Shanghai higher by 2.22%.

The financial sector remained in the spotlight Monday. Citigroup plans to cut 52,000 people from its workforce, CNBC television said. Souring economies and global credit conditions are forcing the U.S. bank with the farthest reach worldwide to retrench. The job cuts are on top of the roughly 23,000 jobs Citigroup has already slashed this year, and would leave the second-largest U.S. bank with about 300,000 jobs worldwide. Cuts are expected to come from layoffs, the sale of units and attrition, CNBC said.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is conducting a global review of its operations and in which case it has yet to conclude on the exact scale of redundancies, thousands of jobs are expected to be lost, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph.

Top Goldman Sachs (GS) executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, have decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses, ceding potentially tens of millions of dollars in payouts in a year that has seen a reshaping of the securities industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.

After hostile encounter over the weekend in Washington, D.C., the heads of state from nearly couple dozen countries agreed to continue working closely together to take the needed steps to bring permanence back to the global financial system.

“The G20 statement seemed to smooth from hand to hand differences by explicitly stating that the crisis a national responsibility. And this is not self-same starting anew or inspiring,” says currency place of traffic expert manaeuvrer Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman.

The Associated Press reported the White House says it supports aid for struggling U.S. automakers, but believes it should not come from the $700 billion financial system rescue foundation. In a statement to reporters Monday forenoon, press writing-desk Dana Perino said that while the administration takes the position the rescue plan does not apply in this instance, it does share the concerns of many that the industry not exist allowed to collapse. Perino said in her statement that the administration wants Congress “to take conformable action this week to afford assistance” to Detroit. Majority Democrats want to appliance concern of the $700 billion bailout bill for this purpose. Lawmakers are returning Monday for a lame duck sitting to moil on the auto industry issue and reorganize committees for the next sitting of Congress.

The National Association of Business Economics said the U.S. is sinking deeper into the economic doldrums, and it’s likely to stay there for a while. Approximately 96% of the economists polled believe that a recession has started, and nearly three-fourths believe it could persist on the other side of the pristine fourth part of 2009, according to the AP.

AFP reports Japan’s economy, the second largest in the world, slipped into recession in the third quarter as companies cut investment to weather the financial crisis, official given conditions showed Monday. Japan’s economy contracted by 0.1% in the three months to September, for shrinking 0.9% in the encourage quarter of the year, according to a preliminary estimate released by the Cabinet Office. Gross family result (GDP) contracted at some annualized rate of 0.4%, it estimated.

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S&P’s Mark Arbeter says market up-moves need to own existence accompanied by higher volume

By Mark Arbeter From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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From a Standard & Poor’session Equity Research tale published Nov. 14

Who says money doesn’t fall from the sky, and with haste. On Thursday, the powers that be forced the S&P 500 below key take the part of about the 840 level. What happened after that was pretty amazing. The index plummeted about 20 points in ten minutes, only to reverse sharply to the upside, soaring almost 8% in two hours, and in doing so, the mart completed a correct upside reversal after a incomprehensible false break to the downside. We have seen this type of action on a few occasions over the years and it amazes us each era. Manipulation by the “Big Guys?” We think it was, still put on’t ask us to prove it. The extremity result was sweet, so we’ll leave it at that.

In our survey, the market was primed similar to being an upside reversal. We think the S&P 500 was either going to tear asunder 840 and keep heading lower (low likeliness) or break 840 for a few hours or a day, and then reverse dramatically back to the upside (higher likeliness). When it was the whole of said and done, the second scenario played out perfectly and the index finished Thursday with a 7% gain and a whopping 11% or all but 100 S&P points above that preordained early afternoon intraday low.

Are we finally out of the woods? Who could possibly answer this question after all that has happened over the last embrace of months. The most direct answer is we just don’t know yet, but still take it (fingers crossed) there is else risk to the upside than to the downside in the short- to intermediate-term. Both the October and November rallies ran out of gas just above the 1000 level. During those rallies, in that place was some minor evidence of accumulation by institutions, but not enough to propel us out of the recent, frustrating range.

So, to answer the above question with an “if” statement seems convert. If we see greater price follow through accompanied by higher volume levels on this rally, therefore ay, we are out of the woods, at least for the short- to intermediate-term.

Our thesis for a breakout and bigger rally is based on the chart formation from late September, into the initial October low. Because of the swiftness to the downside, we surmised that there was not a whole lot of supply overhead. Well based on the chart pattern, we made an educated guess that may have gotten delayed. Obviously, supply of stock has come out of the woodwork, possibly hedge funds meeting those November sell instructions from their investors. Wherever it came from is not our concern. But once we get through this overhang, the 1100 to 1200 area on the “500″ is not revealed of the question by recently this year or early 2009.

Leading up to the key reversal on Thursday, which by the progression, saw the heaviest volume on the Nasdaq from the time of October 23 and the heaviest whirl on the NYSE since October 16, in that place were more inadmissible examples from a market inner basis and some pretty hefty readings from market sentiment. In other talk, we saw some other washout and mini panic. The NYSE decline/advance ratio spiked to over 11 on Wednesday, not quite since bad as the levels seen in September, but, nonetheless, extremely elevated. On Wednesday, for the most part 3000 NYSE issues fell out of a total 3250 that traded. It can’t get plenteous worse than that.

The 6-day summation of advancing vs. declining volume steady the Nasdaq fell to 0.26 attached Wednesday, not quite as bad as the October 9 reading, but one of the worst since 1996. This higher low from this indicator besides represents a bullish divergence from an extreme oversold grade, putting in a higher low in which case the Nasdaq moved to a lower exhausted.

Another very important positive disagreement that the market has been working in succession is the percentage of stocks on the NYSE hitting new 52-week lows. Many times, as a market is bottoming, you determination procreate a series of bullish divergences through respect to this incorporeal measure. During the first low on October 10, 88% of NYSE issues posted 52-week lows, a record, and more distant exceeding the aim posted on the lifetime after the 1987 crash of 54%. When the S&P 500 tested the October 10 moo at the end of October, the peak in newly come lows dropped to 35%. Yesterday, when the “500″ tested the price lows once further, 24% of issues hit strange lows, which is still a same high prelection on an historical basis. This pattern of fewer new lows as the market attempts to base is a just actions sign and indicates that the internal structure of the emporium is improving beneath the surface.

From the sentiment side, the equity-only put/call (p/c) ratio was fairly high this week, finishing between 0.92 and 0.97 from Monday to Thursday. This is somewhat similar to the sort of we saw going into the October 10 low, high and sustained levels of fear. This elevation in the daily p/c ratio has pushed the 5-day unmingled average up to 0.93, close to the peaks on October 10 and during the market bottom in March. The 10-day exponential is up to 0.88, also near the October 10 level. The ISE sentiment index (send for/put ratio) lay prostrate to 0.67 without interruption Wednesday, one of the lowest and most fearful levels since the temporal market bottoms back in January and March.

As we talked about last week, crude oil appears take pleasure in it may be in the early stages of bottoming away after the massive pendant off the mid-July highs. Prices have dropped into a large area of chart support between $55 and $70/barrel. Long-term trendline support, drawn off the 1998 bottom, comes in rectilinear around the $55/barrel level. The more pieces of lock opener patronage in one area, the more to be expected that prices will bottom out in that area. On the upside, chart resistance isn’t weighty until the $85/barrel level. A 23.6% retracement of the bear market targets $82, while a 38.2% take back is up at $94. Prices are now 40% below their 65-week exponential average, an extraordinary oversold condition. Just back in June, prices were 48% too high for this average.

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S&P analysts appearance at how the President-elect’session policies could affect the sector. Among the possible winners: Google and HP

By Lisa Sanders From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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Before he became President-elect of the U.S., Barack Obama, who ran on a platform of change, pledged a number of things. In terms of technology, he vowed on his Web site to "make secure an interpret Internet, create a transpicuous and connected democracy, animate a modern communications infrastructure, improve America’s competitiveness, and employ knowledge and technology to solve our nation’s most pressing problems."

But which does all that really unfair? Scott Kessler, head of Standard & Poor’s information technology equity scrutiny group, believes that Obama’s plans could be relatively beneficial for technology companies in the U.S.

Kessler, who recently watched Obama talking about technology-related proposals in an online video, provided some more perspective. In Kessler’sitting view, Obama means to make the research and development tax credit unchanging; to provide immigration reform to enable U.S. companies to stipend and hold workers more easily; to enforce antitrust laws better; to provide unlimited broadband access to individuals; to covenant broadband access to schools, libraries, and hospitals; to unleash wireless spectrum for a variety of purposes, including connectivity; to put more government information online and to provide better access to it; to promote electronic medical records; and to invest in in totally respects and renewable energy (taste solar).

"U.S. firms large and small would benefit from the R&D tax credit and immigration reform related to employment,& says Kessler. However, "better enforcement of antitrust laws probably appliance less M&A, which on a net basis is probably not so good for larger firms and neutral for small companies that would be greater degree accounted instead of but less likely to receive takeover offers."

Though Kessler says it makes apprehension to provide more broadband access and online information, he’s not abiding by what mode an expansion would subsist financed. But he thinks the plan is likable positive to neutral towards telecom carriers and equipment firms, and positive for Internet companies.

President-elect Obama’s campaign priorities included providing broadband access to all Americans through wire-line and wireless connections. "We believe that this could spur long-term investments by telecom carriers such as AT&T (T) in metropolitan markets and Frontier Communications (FTR) in rural markets," says Todd Rosenbluth, intellect of S&P’session telecommunications equity scrutiny group. "Greater universal service funding for broadband, if passed, may lead to cash flow gains in spite of the telecoms, while increased regulation and mandated competition may equivalent those gains."

Kessler believes these technology stocks are well-positioned to benefit from possible Obama Administration policies: Applied Materials (AMAT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM (IBM), and Google (GOOG).

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The firm has announced massive layoffs—and other big houses may follow suit. What will the industry look like when the dust settles?

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By Ben Steverman

Citigroup’s (C) settlement on Nov. 17 to ax 53,000 jobs—bringing total job cuts at the battered bank to 20% of its global workforce because long delayed 2007—vividly demonstrates what manifold have been predicting because a year: The financial industry is shrinking.

The key question with respect to as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but financial-sector employees and investors: Is the sector’s decline permanent or temporary?

Many firms spent the early part of 2008 reluctant to cut cudgel, "in the hopes that revenues would rebound quickly and painful cost-cutting measures could be avoided," as a report from financial consulting firm Celent impose it earlier this year. No such luck.

Losses in financial results possess only mounted and guide players—including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Washington Mutual—have folded or been absorbed through rivals.

Traditionally, November has been a accepted time for layoffs on Wall Street, says Stephen McClellan, a maker Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers algebraist with 32 years experience on Wall Street, and the author of Full of Bull: Do What Wall Street Does, Not What It Says, To Make Money in the Market. With late-year layoffs, "brokerage firms can operate their employees for 11 months and then not make a good return them a bonus," says McClellan, noting bonuses can total 75% or more of total gains.

It’s this lavish, well-compensated Wall Street culture that may be the biggest victim of the financial sector. Many monetary sector observers say the financial industry of the future will be leaner, more efficient, and again highly regulated than that of the past.

"We’re not going to go back to business like it was a year ago," says James King, president and chief investing. officer of National Penn Investors Trust.

Key supports have been knocked absent, especially the securitization form of productive effort in which Wall Street would generate fees by bundling assets backed by dint of. mortgages, credit card debit, and other investing. products. The credit crisis has ruined many securitization markets.

Financial firms branched out into uncharted territories in recent years and "started doing too various things that were not their core expertise," says Michele Gambera, paramount economist at Ibbotson Associates, a unit of Morningstar (MORN). "It was erroneous."

Many foresee an end to the wild risk-taking that became peculiarity of both pure investment banks and of commercial banks like Citigroup. For a variety of reasons—the lessons of the credit crisis like well as stricter regulations—these banks won’t be adroit to take the same risks anymore. That means in no degree more borrowing 30 to 40 times their assets, then investing that borrowed money to get extra returns.

That’s a permanent change, says Robert Iati, head of global consulting at the TABB Group. "They won’t have the capital any longer to risk," Iati says, and that forces firms out of certain roles on Wall Street.

To survive, for example, firms like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) accept switched from risk-taking investment banks to additional conservative bank holding companies.

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NEW YORK — Stocks fluctuated today, falling sharply in the last sixty minutes of trading, in the same proportion that investors digested more signs of economic weakness, including a huge round of layoffs in the financial sector.

At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was off 223.73, or 2.6 percent, at 8,273.58.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 22.54, or 2.6 percent, to 850.75, while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 34.80, or 2.3 percent, to 1,482.05.

After last week’sitting mutiny that sent the Dow the floor nearly 340 points, investors found little solace in the latest news about layoffs and bailouts.

In a signal that banks are still struggling in the feast of massive losses tied to immoral pledge debt, Citigroup is cutting 53,000 more jobs in the coming quarters. The company said that in adding to job cuts, it plans to lower expenses by from one place to another 20 percent and has reduced its effects by more than 20 percent since the first quarter of the year.

Investors were also nervously waiting to see whether the nation’s troubled automakers would get a bailout. Senate Democrats, who plan to introduce legislation today, want to use part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout to help support up Detroit’s Big Three carmakers: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. A vote was expected as early as Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a better-than-expected reading on industrial extension did little to boost investor sentiment. The Federal Reserve before-mentioned today that industrial output rose 1.3 percent last month, after plunging in September by the largest effect in excessively 60 years. Economists, on average, had expected an increase of 0.2 percent, according to a survey by Thomson/IFR.

Still, the improvement wasn’t encouraging enough, said Anthony Conroy, managing director and head trader for BNY ConvergEx Group, adding that investors want a greater amount of solidify sign that the economy could be improving.

“I think we’re sight a tremendous amount of bad economic data,” he said. “Earnings have basically venture a wall and don’t seem like they are coming back anytime soon.”

The moves today followed a ponderous sell-off last week that saw the Dow finish into disrepute 5 percent; the S&P 500 index prostrate 6.2 percent; and the Nasdaq down 7.9 percent. The greater indexes have fallen for four of the past five sessions.

Analysts confident the market is still seeking toward a bottom after last month’s huge losses, and that the pattern of volatility will continue for some time. Woody Dorsey, president of pecuniary forecasting firm Market Semiotics, said the market is trapped in a seesaw air.

“It is a very technical pursuit,” he said. “The difficulty is in that place is no in the ascendant positive or negative story that the market is operating on. … There’s nothing here that people can grab on to.”

In the meantime, investors are still faced by a barrage of defective economic news.

Wall Street was also disappointed by a lack of direction taken to interpret the global financial crisis at the assembly of Group of 20 international leaders in Washington, D.C., this weekend. However, the leaders did pledge to fulfil working in the same place to get ready loans to pecuniary institutions.

In corporate news, Target today became the latest retailer to post dour results, citing lower sales at established stores as the reason for a 24 percent least bit in profit. Lowe’s, meanwhile, said its third-quarter profit also fell 24 percent, more fully than expected, but it predicted a fourth-quarter advance below the average analyst forecast.

The reports follow a spate of disappointing earnings and forecasts from companies like Macy’s, Starbucks and Best Buy as they contest a severe pullback in consumer spending. Investors fear that Americans’ clampdown in spending — which accounts for about two-thirds of economic sprightliness in the U.S. — will put off a worsening economic slump.

Also today, the Bush White House stressed that it steadfastly opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help the nation’sitting automakers. The dispensation supports the idea of helping the struggling companies, but said the $25 billion that Democrats favor anger from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department of Energy program previously approved to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

Meanwhile, the layoffs planned at Citigroup underscored the ongoing distress in the financial sector. The company said total head count is being reduced by 20 percent from its peak of 375,000 at the extremity of 2007; the company had already announced in October that it was eliminating about 22,000 jobs from those levels. The New York-based bank has posted four straight quarterly losses, including a loss of $2.8 billion during the third deal gone out.

The fallout from this year’s global credit pinch has claimed jobs steady the whole of corners of Wall Street, from hedge fund managers to floor traders and beyond. Some industry experts forecast the job losses could come close to 200,000 in advance of the year is over.

On Sunday, Goldman Sachs said seven top executives, including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, opted out of receiving cash or stock bonuses during the term of 2008 amid the ongoing make no doubt of crisis.

Citi’s leaders may also go without bonuses this year — a move that would effectively amount to a substantial pay divide because of the company’s executives.

Oil prices fell below $56 today and gasoline futures plunged to a new low for example Japan joined a number of European nations in recession and provided even more evidence of a broad degradation in necessitate for force.

Light, silvery crude for January delivery dropped $2.11 to settle at $55.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures fell 5 percent, or 6.45 cents to $1.1746 a gallon after earlier touching a 52-week low of $1.168.

In Asian commercial, Japan’sitting Nikkei characteristic rose 0.7 percent, despite a report showing the second-straight quarterly decline in great domestic product — signaling a recession. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.10 percent.

In European trading, Britain’session FTSE 100 fell 2.4 percent, Germany’sitting DAX index fell 3.3 percent, and France’sitting CAC-40 fell 3.3 percent.

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