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Oil stocks fell as crude futures slid below $37 a barrel Thursday. Traders also weighed news that S&P Ratings revised GE’s outlook to negative

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U.S. stocks were lower Thursday afternoon being of the kind which energy issues sank along through oil futures and Dow industrials component General Electric’session (GE) watch was revised to negative from stable by S&P Ratings Services. The market’s retreat also comes amid the start of quadruple witching, as market table of contents futures, market index options, stock options, and stock futures emit from the lungs, reports S&P MarketScope.

There was tiny reaction to a report that weekly U.S. initial jobless claims fell 21,000 to 554,000, leading economic indicators fell 0.4%, and the December Philadelphia Fed index improved to -32.9.

Long Treasuries, which rose in the bygone time two sessions, were solidly higher in the early going Thursday. The dollar index, which plunged Wednesday on the low advantage rate outlook, was higher. Gold futures were decrease. Oil futures were skidding in the same proportion that the dollar rose, with traders ignoring OPEC’sitting latest production cut.

Some traders are discounting the end of the recession, notes S&P MarketScope, but billionaire investor Wilbur Ross sees the downturn lasting into 2011.

On Thursday at 3:10 p.m. ET, the 30-stock Dow Jones pertaining medium was lower by 162.88 points at 8,661.46. The broad S&P 500 index fell 13.31 points to 891.11. The tech-heavy Nasdaq complex index shed 21.83 points to 1,557.48.

Bloomberg reports Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may implore Congress in quest of the second half of the $700 billion bank free program, concerned that the deepening recession may spark further fiscal turmoil. Paulson could soon waste the first $350 billion by the bailout that President’s administration has pledged for General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury chief is discussing with aides strategies to seek congressional approval for the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, people familiar with the deliberations said. Securing the unusual money would give the Treasury a cushion in case another bank or insurer neared abortion. The obstacle: Democratic lawmakers have warned the Bush administration it must come up with a unused effort to aid homeowners in danger of losing their properties.

In economic news Thursday, the U.S. Philadelphia Fed index improved to -32.9 in December, recovering from November’session drop to -39.3, its worst reading since October 1990. The reading was with greater advantage than the -40.0 reading that markets had expected. The employing index fell to -28.7 from -25.2, but new the sacred profession improved slightly to -25.2 from -31.4. Prices paid malign to -33.2 from -30.7and prices received plummeted to -37.8 from -15.5. The 6-month ahead index dropped to -14.5 from -10.4.

The Conference Board announced that its index of leading indicators fell another 0.4% in December, following a 0.9% October drop, and is down 2.8% over the last six months. The unison was with respect to a 0.5% drop. Big declines in building permits, stock prices, and unemployment claims offset increases in the money endow and the yield cloth. The coincident index dropped 0.3%, while the lagging index rose 0.1%. Six of the 10 indicators showed weakness in November. The consistent wane in the leading index implies that the economy direct continue to decline as being different further months, according to S&P Economics.

U.S. jobless claims sanguinary 21,000 to 554,000 in the week ended December 13, from a revised 575,000 the week before (was 573,000). That brought the 4-week average to 543,750 from 541,000 antecedently. That’s the highest since December 18, 1982. Continuing claims fell 47,000 to 4,384,000 in the week ended December 6, from surging 340,000 to 4,431,000 the week before (revised from 4,429,000).

The yen weakened from near a 13-year high off the dollar and tumbled versus the euro rear Japanese officials signaled they may intervene in the foreign- exchange market for the first measure in four years. Bloomberg reported that Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters in Tokyo he is “keenly vigilance” money; aggregate of coin markets and has “the means” to limit the yen’s advance. “We’re seeing increased jawboning by officials, increasing speculation that intervention is imminent,” Lee Hardman, a London-based currency strategist for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi told Bloomberg. “The Bank of Japan may also ease policy, which may slow the pace of yen gains.”

Spain will inject as much as 10 billion euros into its banks next month, buying hard-to-sell assets from lenders as part of its program to stimulate lending.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2008/pi20081218_801858.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

With the economic storm raging external, to what degree do you keep your financial house safe and sound? BusinessWeek has rounded up 20 savvy ideas from financial pros

By Ben Steverman

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During the worst economic crisis in a lifetime, the right financial decisions are severe.

BusinessWeek asked financial planners for some advice on what to do—or not to do—with your money in the New Year. As we bid leave-taking to a horrible 2008, these "resolutions" may help abide your finances on the just track in 2009:

1. Don’t try to predict the future.

"We are currently in the midst of unprecedented and complex challenges," says Femi Shote of Asset Harvest Group in McLean, Va. Anyone who thinks he or she can betoken what’s going to happen is "delusional," Shote says.

Financial advisers ofttimes hear from clients who would like to sell stocks a little while ago and then purchase afresh when the market hits bottom. "My response is, ‘How do you know then that will be?’" says Trent Porter of Priority Financial Planning in Fort Collins, Colo.

2. Do keep enough pay in money available.

Even if you’re not worried about losing your job, a rainy-day fund can get ready calmness of mind.

There are different guidelines for how plenteous cash to keep on talent. Some say $12,000 or more by means of adult; others say it should be six to nine months of living expenses. With extreme cash available, you can avoid selling investments to pay according to expenses in one emergency.

3. Do invest internationally.

Though the financial crisis started in the U.S., the ended year has been worse for investments in the tranquillity of the world. The MSCI EAFE, an index of international stocks, is down 43% this year, and stocks in emerging economies fared distant worse. American investors who diversified abroad have also been pummeled by the arise in the U.S. dollar.

Even hinder a year like that, advisers say it’sitting not wise to vacate international investments entirely. For common thing, though some key overseas economies, like China’s, have been hit hard lately, their long-term household fundamentals look good in a higher degree than those of the U.S.

4. Don’t try to pick one winning investment. Diversify.

Putting all your coin in common stock is dangerous at a time whenever a company’s bankruptcy can completely wipe out the value of its shares.

Robert Siegmann of Financial Management Group in Cincinnati advises clients to overplus their portfolios betwixt fixed profits and stocks, with shares in various types of companies — small and large, U.S. and international. "Don’t try to pick the winning stock, or the winning idea. Just diversify across all investments and markets," he says.

5. Do think about energy efficiency.

Russell Francis of Portland Financial Advisors in Beaverton, Ore., recommends that investors take advantage of a $500 federal residential life tax credit that was rescinded in 2008 but returns in 2009. The power be able to help defend the costs of adding insulation or replacing doors, windows, or furnaces—home repairs that should also save you on heating and cooling costs.

6. Don’t stop contributing to 401(k) and other withdrawal accounts.

Says Sidney Blum of GreenLight Fee Only Advisors in Evanston, Ill.: "Everyone loves to endue in their 401(k) at the time that the markets are flying high-toned, but they should keep putting wealth in while the markets are down." He adds: "More money is made at the valley of a market than at the top."

Even more pessimistic planners say you should be taking advantage of any match your employer offers for retirement fund contributions.

7. Do living below your means. Save.

Investing for the yet to be is only possible if you have some money left over at the end of each month to sock away. View this BusinessWeek slide show for 25 ways to save more each month.

8. Don’t serve sudden moves.

"Refrain from composition most distant changes to the portfolio just because the financial markets are volatile," says William Howell, a pecuniary adviser in Noblesville, Ind. "Stick to the overall investment game plan."

In of the like kind an extreme environment, investment decisions based on emotion or fear are likely to lose you money. It’s probably better to ignore the day-to-day news and follow a long-term investing plan.

9. Do discharge off expensive debts.

Rather than investing your standard of value, you first power consider paying off debts, especially those with high rates or those for what one. interest is not tax-deductible. The avoidance of interest will likely save you more than your investments would have earned.

Stanley F. Ehrlich, an adviser in Westfield, N.J., notes: "Paying off a car loan with 7% interest provides each immediate 7% return, a return that is not [generally] available through most asset classes." Credit-card trespass is so expensive that most planners say it is continually the first something people should pay over.

10. Don’t give up without interruption stocks.

"Historically some of the best periods for stock mart returns have been during terrible economic times," says Paul Winter of Five Seasons Financial Planning in Salt Lake City. Though investors approaching retirement shouldn’t risk too a great deal of money in hare-brained equity markets, investors hoping to build a nest egg for the long term have few preferable options than the treasure up market.

Original text: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2008/pi20081217_317510.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

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BAGHDAD

As the parliament began to sift legislation regarding the withdrawal from Iraq of armed forces from nations other than the United States, a group of lawmakers demanded that the legislature instead go up the issue of the detained journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, 29.

After his shoes narrowly missed Bush’s head at the news conference on Sunday, al-Zeidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’session security detail, who hauled him disclosed of the stead. Al-Zeidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room.

The parliamentary session became so lawless that it prompted the speaker of british legislature, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, to announce his resignation, according to The Associated Press. A spokesman for Mashhadani, Jabar al-Mashhadani, refused to confirm whether the speaker had tendered his resignation, even supposing he besides would not deny it.

In parliament, the speaker raised questions round the continued detention of al-Zeidi.

“Some of the members support the powers that be, but we have to admit that there was a mistake in the procedures under which he was arrested,” said al-Mashhadani, the speaker. “And we also must condemn the occurrence that he was beaten.”

The extent of the injuries suffered by al-Zeidi after he was subdued by members of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki’s security describe and for the period of his subsequent jailing be left unclear. He has not appeared in public since his arrest, and neither his family nor legal representatives acquire been permitted to visit him.

On Wednesday, al-Zeidi had been scheduled to be present to answer before a judge, on the other hand it was unclear whether that had happened. When his family members and representatives of the media showed up at the judicial tribunal, they were told al-Zeidi was not there.

Dhiya al-Saadi, one of al-Zeidi’s lawyers, said Wednesday that he was not sure whether his client had appeared before a judge. He uttered he had not yet been allowed to speak to the reporter.

There have been widespread rumors in Iraq that al-Zeidi was so badly beaten after the shoe throwing that he had to be taken to an American military hospital in Baghdad for treatment.

But on Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Susan James, a militia spokeswoman, said al-Zeidi was not in an American hospital.

“The journalist who threw his shoes at the U.S. President is not in a U.S. medical facility,” James wrote in an e-mail. “He is in the custody of the MoI,” she aforesaid, referring to the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, which handles various law-enforcement issues.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2008533581_iraq18.html?syndication=rss

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NEW CITY, N.Y. — The office in opposition to Bernard Madoff’s sole auditor exudes anything but affluence and intrigue: It is next door to a pediatrician in a drab suburban building. The tiny storefront is discreetly labeled “Friehling & Horowitz” on its glass door.

The vulgar herd milling outside are not high-end investors; they are mothers with children, waiting notwithstanding the doctor’s office to open.

But the auditor, accountant David Friehling, 49, is enmeshed in any of Wall Street’s biggest scandals and is under criminal investigation in a case that has left people in financial ruin around the world.

Authorities said Madoff has confessed to running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. That similar a small robust was the main auditor for a multibillion-dollar operation has emerged as united of the most mysterious elements.

Experts before-mentioned it would be exorbitant for a tiny firm to properly audit an movement the bigness of Madoff’s.

“What if General Motors had a three-person accounting firm doing its audits?” said Jim Vos, CEO and head of research at the hedge-fund consulting established Aksia in New York City, 30 miles southward of New City.

Madoff, meanwhile, will not be going to jail even though he failed to meet the original provisions of his $10 million bail agreement.

Federal prosecutors said they had modified the terms of his agreement so he would not lack four the community to co-sign his bond. Madoff was incapable to meet that condition, prosecutors said. Even his sons, Andrew and Mark, apparently were unwilling to help.

Instead, Madoff has agreed to a nightly curfew, and his wife, Ruth, determination surrender her passport, according to a federal court filing Wednesday.

Madoff has already given up his passport. He fustiness remain at his Manhattan apartment from 7 p.m. to 9 a.affray.

Charities, special investors, universities, hedge funds and banks have already reported losses of more than $20 billion in the contingency. On Wednesday, Hadassah, a Jewish women’sitting bounty, became the latest group to report falling cully, saying it had abstracted $90 million.

The scope of the case makes the role of the auditor even more uncommon. Vos’ co-operator Jake Walthour said, “Most hedge funds, even when they are small, use one of four or five big-name firms. And this wasn’t one of them.”

Storefront stays locked

Calls to the firm have gone unanswered this week, and the storefront has been locked every day. On Wednesday, a cognizance of a failed UPS delivery was hung on the means of access.

Friehling’s home nearby is on a confidential road that was blocked by dint of. a security car, and in no degree one answered the phone.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, who is investigating the unshaken, said he did not apprehend in which place Friehling was and had not had any contact with him.

Zugibe’s investigators were at the Friehling office Monday, knocking fruitlessly at the door.

If Friehling’s independent audit reports were fraudulent, “you’re dealing with some very serious felony offenses under state law,” Zugibe said.

The accounting firm has not been charged, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office would not strengthen whether the employment is under investigation.

Vos’ company looked into Madoff’s firm last year and warned investors off, finding several “red flags.” One was the size of Friehling’s firm.

A private searcher told Aksia there seemed to have being single person moving there. Phone calls were not returned until someone eventually answered and said the firm was not open for business, Vos said.

“We found that there were just three employees, the two principals and a secretary.”

One of the principals, Jerome Horowitz, 80, left in 1997, state records show. He lives in Florida and may subsist Friehling’session father-in-law.

This stands in sharp contrast to big auditors such as Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG, with the staffing to handle a immense client like Madoff.

Vos also noted Madoff had used a pre-existing licensed firm, unlike other frauds where swindlers created fictional auditing firms that issued fraudulent reports.

“It’s a real firm, that’s what’s hilarious,” he said. “Their legend is going to be that they were fooled. … It is possible.”

Asked if the accountant could possess been fooled through Madoff, the district attorney said, “Independent auditors don’privately depend on what they’re given. They’re supposed to dig into things.”

The firm seems to have a clean record. Jane Briggs of the state Education Department, which licenses certified public accountants, said there has never been any disciplinary action — and none is pending — against Friehling or the firm.

Federal authorities had a a long time conference with Madoff on Tuesday and reliance to unravel some questions in the near future, including whether he had good offices in the scheme, according to one person briefed steady the thing.

Experts attached the brokerage industry and money management have said it would be nearly impossible since Madoff to have carried out the fraud, which encompassed thousands of clients and lasted for many years, without moderately wealthy succor.

They have also questioned for what cause auditors and regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority did not notice Madoff’s rooted had to a great distance fewer possessions in 2007 than the $17 billion he claimed to be managing.

The authorities too would like to determine Madoff’s motivation for the fraud, when it began and how much of the stolen money he had spent on himself.

Mukasey recuses self

In Washington, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey recused himself from the Madoff investigation because his son, Marc Mukasey, is representing Frank DiPascali, a upper side pecuniary officer at Madoff’session investment firm.

The Justice Department refused to say while Mukasey became aware of the clash excepting confirmed Wednesday he was removing himself from all aspects of the specific instance.

DiPascali was the Madoff employee who had the most day-to-day contact with the firm’session investors. Several described him as the man they reached by phone when they had questions about the firm’s investing. strategy or wanted to add or subtract money from their accounts.

SEC Inspector General David Kotz is looking into the agency’s failure to uncover the suspected fraud in Madoff’s action.

One area Kotz declared he will examine is the relationship between a former SEC attorney, Eric Swanson, and Madoff’session niece, Shana, who are now married.

Swanson was part of a team that examined Madoff’s securities brokerage operation in 1999 and 2004. Neither review resulted in any action against Madoff.

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008533585_madoff18.html?syndication=rss

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill.

Without comment, the solicitation denied an emergency request from Lisa Madigan, the state’s attorney general, to consider removing Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, from office and a motion for a temporary restraining order that would receive immediately stripped Blagojevich of many of his powers, including the person of commanding knowledge to fix someone to fill the U.S. Senate settle vacated by President-elect Obama.

The ruling stirred alarm among some lawmakers, many of whom had seen the request to the princely retinue as the fastest route to Blagojevich’sitting departure, but also if a longshot.

The court’s decision drew new questions about how and when the Senate seat might be filled, as Republican lawmakers called, once again, for a special appointment by vote. It also increased pressure on the House committee that is trying to conduct some impeachment scrutiny, with impeachment, now, seemingly the only alternative left, short of Blagojevich stepping downward.

Blagojevich, 52, who was arrested highest week on federal charges of cabal and soliciting bribes, and accused, among other things, of trying to vend the Senate seat, did not appear before the impeachment interrogatory committee.

But his team of lawyers, including Ed Genson, made its first appearance, describing the lawmakers’ efforts as a “real witch hunt” and oblation a series of objections about the state’s unauthorized standards for impeachment, the lawmakers’ use of the federal criminal indisposition against the governor as evidence in their inquiry and at least three lawmakers whom he said could not be fair.

“This is Alice in Wonderland,” Genson protested to the 21 members of the impeachment committee. “The issue in this cause is the evidence you have. The evidence you have is nil, cipher, nothing.”

At a different point, referring to the 78-page federal criminal complaint against Blagojevich, he said, “I plot it’s unfair to put in hearsay.”

The chairwoman, Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, rejected Genson’s challenges and declared the committee rules “will be fair and extended.” The committee will recommend to the well stocked House whether to move forward with impeachment.

Currie, a Democrat, noted the panel has expanded amplitude on how to handle evidence. “We’re not a addresses of order. We’re not quite a chief jury,” Currie said. “We’re not bound by specific rules of evidence.”

Genson, who is representing Blagojevich in the criminal case, also is asking the Illinois House to appoint and pay for Blagojevich’s attorneys in the impeachment matter. That normally would be Madigan’session job, he before-mentioned, but she can’t translate it because of her challenge to the state Supreme Court.

Genson in like manner has asked Madigan in a letter to appoint attorneys to represent Blagojevich in his legal matters.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008533463_gov18.html?syndication=rss

NEW YORK —

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FedEx Corp. on Thursday announced more broad cost cuts - including salary reductions - as deteriorating economic conditions continue to drag on the ground demand, warning the prospect for 2009 remains dark.

Chief Executive Frederick W. Smith said the concourse’s earnings are “increasingly being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the visitors’s 35-year operating history.”

FedEx reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 3 percent, narrowly topping Wall Street’sitting expectations.

The Memphis, Tenn.-based company earned $493 million, or $1.58 per share, compared with year-ago profit of $479 million, or $1.54 by share. Revenue rose 1 percent to $9.54 billion.

Analysts polled by the agency of Thomson Reuters predicted profit of $1.57 per share upon revenue of $9.87 billion.

The package delivery company said it will cut discharge for senior executives and freeze 401(k) contributions because a year. On Jan. 1, CEO Smith give by will take a 20 percent pay cut, and the pay of other top brass will fall by 7.5 percent to 10 percent.

FedEx will furthermore instrument a 5 percent pay cut for all remaining U.S. “salaried exempt” personnel, which excludes hourly workers such during the time that couriers and package handlers. Mechanics and pilots are also excluded from this category. FedEx said it has about 36,000 salaried exempt U.S. workers.

Combined, the company expects the measures to save $200 million from one side the leavings of the financial year ending in May and $600 million in the next fiscal year.

The corporation also related it has cut jobs and closed locations in its FedEx Office unit, anticipating slower business at its copy and shipping stores.

FedEx has already begun more than $1 billion in cost-saving measures; including job cuts across its FedEx Freight and FedEx Office divisions, a mastery of more workers’ hours, elimination of certain bonuses and implementation of a hiring freeze.

FedEx did not issue a financial third-quarter profits. prediction, citing economic variableness, limit said it expects to procure between 69 cents and $1.94 per share across the third and fourth quarters. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predict third-quarter earnings of 54 cents, and fourth-quarter earnings of 85 cents per certain quantity.

“Next special location is going to be terrible, boundary analysts already expected it to be terrible,” Edward Jones Senior Research Analyst Dan Ortwerth said in an interview with The Associated Press.

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CHICAGO

Publicist Glenn Selig said the prior police sergeant has been seeing the woman for about four months. She’s the same age Stacy Peterson was when she disappeared utmost October. If they marry, she would be Peterson’s fifth wife.

“This is a private matter as far as we’re concerned,” Selig said. “And he’s entitled to be happy.”

Peterson is a be suspicious in Stacy’session disappearance, which police have called a “in posse homicide.” Peterson has drawn out claimed she left him in favor of another man.

Peterson met by a divorce attorney in November. In Illinois, willful desertion or abandonment for at least one year is grounds for a divorce.

Peterson said Wednesday that media attention tends to sabotage his relationships.

“I’m not apothegm no part,” he declared in a telephone interview through a female reporter. He then joked: “You kept putting me off. What else could I do?”

Regarding the new engagement, Selig said: “Obviously he has to be divorced in order to be remarried. But we’re not giving details at this point as far as what that process volition be or won’t be.”

Selig also noted that Peterson was in the transaction of getting divorced from his third spouse, Kathleen Savio, when he got engaged to Stacy.

Savio, 40, was construct dead in an devoid of contents bathtub in her Bolingbrook home. Her separate from Peterson was only weeks from being finalized.

Although her departure initially was ruled any accident, authorities reclassified it as homicide after a second autopsy was conducted after Stacy Peterson’s disappearance.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008533577_drew18.html?syndication=rss

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.

NEW YORK — Wall Street proceeded cautiously Thursday, with stocks moving in a narrow sail along as investors weighed incorporated earnings reports that signaled further economic deterioration, but drew some comfort from a better-than-expected reading on new jobless claims.

The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims fell by more than economists anticipated to 554,000 last week. The claims remain near last week’s 26-year high, and the four-week moving average for claims is up, but investors had been bracing for a gloomier reading.

However, a collection of blended corporate earnings reports on Thursday kept investors on edge.

FedEx Corp. reported a 3 percent rise in quarterly proceeds, but announced further require to be paid cuts in the same manner with interrogation continues to wane. Ingersoll-Rand Co. cut its fourth furnish with quarters earnings provide against by other than moiety, and motor home constructor Winnebago Industries Inc. swung to a loss.

But Discover Financial Services swung to a profit and homebuilder Lennar Corp.’s quarterly overthrow was smaller than last year’s.

Meanwhile, a private research group’s measure of the economy’s freedom from disease fell afresh in November and its six-month rate of progressive emaciation hit the worst level since 1991.

That reinforced perceptions that economy’s troubles are far from throughout. The market remains unsure how imbrue and prolonged the recession will be.

But investors seemed pleased that President-elect Barack Obama’s aides were assembling a two-year stimulus plan that could require to be paid $850 billion. The package would include new jobs, middle-class task relief and expanded serve for the poor and the idle.

A stimulus for U.S. consumers became an especially high priority earlier this month, which time the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers slashed further than moiety a million jobs in November.

In mid-morning commercial, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 10.12, or 0.11 percent, to 8,834.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 hand rose 2.38, or 0.26 percent, to 906.80, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 2.43, or 0.15, to 1,581.74.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was in a descending course 5.60, or 1.15 percent, to 480.99.

Advancing issues were relatively even through decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 186.24 million shares.

Volume will likely remain of a whitish shade for the sake of the remnant of the year as investors break because the holidays. Light volume tends to skew the market’s movements, and could increase vivacity in the coming sessions.

On Wednesday, the Dow fell nearly 100 points as enthusiasm over the Federal Reserve’sitting historic rate cut Tuesday dampened on news of a larger-than-expected loss at Morgan Stanley and layoffs at Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. and Newell Rubbermaid Inc.

In early trading Thursday, long-term Treasury prices rose, sending yields down to new record lows. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, that moves opposite its price, fell to 2.11 percent from 2.19 percent late Wednesday. The yield on the popular three-month T-bill — whose yield has at times gone negative due to frenzied buying — was at 0.01 percent, unchanged from late Wednesday.

The strong slip back in buying has been stoked by the Federal Reserve’s decision Tuesday to lower its federal funds assessment target to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, and express an be of importance to in buying long-term direction debt.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude fell $1.80 to $38.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Markets overseas were mixed. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei descent average rose 0.64 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.24 percent. In afternoon trading in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.21 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 1.08 percent, and France’s CAC-40 malign 1.06 percent.

— — —

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008534932_webstox18.html?syndication=rss

CHICAGO —

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President-elect Barack Obama steady Thursday named three veteran regulators to help clean up financial debacles that he said occurred because regulation overseers “dropped the globe.”

Obama wouldn’t weigh in on whether he would support a judgment by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to broach the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial bailout program. Major auto companies are pleading for emergency aid, which could come from that pot.

“I think it’s important that the Treasury, the Fed and all of us do all that’session required to make sure that our monetary system is stable and inattentive,” Obama said. But he added: “We cannot afford a falling in of our financial system. Main Street can’familiarily impart it.” He said he would evaluate any Paulson signals on the point what is necessary.

As Obama spoke at a Chicago news conference rounding out his housekeeping team, the White House said it is considering “orderly” bankruptcy like a way of dealing with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry. President George W. Bush, asked about an auto rescue plan during an appearance before a private group, reported he hadn’t decided what he would do but also spoke of the idea of bankruptcies organized by the founded on control for the reason that a possible way to go.

Obama did not immediately comment on the idea.

More broadly, Obama blamed regulators for the financial debacle, saying they “dropped the globe” and that, along with congressional committees, “have been in the last sleep at the switch.”

Americans, as they watch their investments reservoir, are frustrated that “there’s not a lot of adult supervision out there,” Obama added.

As part of his plan to impede future crises, Obama said he was naming Securities and Exchange Commission veteran Mary Schapiro as chairwoman of that agency, former Treasury official Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and science of laws professor Daniel Tarullo to fill an empty Federal Reserve seat. All three will need to have being confirmed by the Senate next year.

In making the announcements, Obama picked to Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, under investigation in one alleged $50 billion chouse, and said the scandal underscored the need for tougher regulators. The scandal “has reminded us over and above again of how badly become better is needed,” he uttered.

The president-elect said his new team will heal incite in place new rules that desire help “crack down on the culture of greed and contriving.”

“There necessarily to be a shift in ethics on Wall Street,” he said.

Schapiro, who would be Obama’s top Wall Street regulator and investor protector, said that investor trust “is the lifeblood of financial markets.” She called for tough enforcement skirmish by incoming regulators.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008519441_apobama.html?syndication=rss

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HOUSTON

OPEC and other oil-producing countries can’t cut production deep sufficiency to stay ahead of plummeting demand as millions of people lose their jobs and stop driving, factories lock up down and the world settles in as being the worst economic slowdown in a progeny.

In other words: Even if OPEC talks about cutting the supply of oil, those cuts are nothing compared to the way the slumping economy is pushing necessitate downward. So prices keep sliding.

Is there anything more to it? Here are some questions and answers ready OPEC’session influence over oil prices.

Q. Doesn’t OPEC pretty a great deal of dominate oil production

A. The 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls from one place to another 40 percent of world crude supplies

“There’s historical precedent that OPEC doesn’t have a chance of power inside an environment of declining interrogation,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates.

“They can certainly go out and flex their muscles when global oil demand is strong. But when it’s weak, they simply dress in’t require a lot of power

Q. What exactly did OPEC decide to do Wednesday?

A. As expected, OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia said the group will slit a testimony 2.2 million barrels from its diurnal production as of Jan. 1, while Russia and other OPEC outsiders announced their own cutbacks of hundreds of thousands of barrels.

Combined with previous cuts announced in the past hardly any months, OPEC is taking 4.2 million barrels a day off the market compared with September levels.

Q. How did the market react to this propose?

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