PARIS (AFP) – European stock markets sprinted ahead Monday, powered by strong gains in Asia, with Frankfurt breaking through the 6,000-point barrier and Paris closing in on 4,000 points.

Trading volumes were thin in post-Christmas exchanges and the London market was closed for a holiday.

The advances in Europe followed a solid performance in Asia, where Tokyo&&9;s Nikkei-225 index added 1.33 percent to close at 10,634.23, its best finish since August 26, on the back of a weaker yen and upbeat economic data.

The German Dax index of leading stocks breached 6,000 points as trading began on Monday, the first time it had reached the benchmark since September 26, 2008.

The index opened at 5,977.99 points but moved to 6,001.38 points in early trade. By midday it was up 0.74 percent at 6,001.43.

Shares in the biggest German energy group, E.ON, rose 2.28 percent to lead the gainers while auto maker Volkswagen added 1.40 percent.

In Paris the CAC 40 had risen 0.72 percent to 3,940.95 from Thursday&&9;s close while the Eurostoxx index of leading eurozone shares was up 0.76 percent at 2,979.83.

The Paris market last week recorded consecutive daily gains from Monday to Thursday, ending the period at its highest level for 15 months.

Market watchers said the 4,000-point threshold could be reached later this week. But analysts cautioned that the advance would likely reflect weak trading volumes rather than increased confidence in global economic recovery prospects.

Nuclear energy group Areva fell 2.74 percent in early Paris trade after a French industrial alliance was passed over by the United Arab Emirates in bidding for the construction of four nuclear power plants cash advance to savings account.

The UAE awarded the 20.4-billion-dollar contract to a South Korean-led consortium, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

Areva had been joined by France&&9;s top energy firms, EDF, GDF-Suez and Total, along with engineering giants Vinci and Alstom to present the bid.

EDF, GDF-Suez, Total, Vinci and Alston shrugged off the loss and gained ground early Monday.

In Tokyo earlier in the day better-than-expected factory output data for November cheered investors.

Nippon Oil surged 4.8 percent and Nippon Mining Holdings leapt 5.4 percent after the Nikkei reported that the two companies would slash their combined oil refinery capacity after a planned merger.

"Overcapacity has been a major problem for the sector, so this is definitely a positive," said Tokai Tokyo Research Center analyst Katsumi Hosoi.

Exporters got a boost from the weaker yen while steel makers were lifted by the robust industrial production numbers, which raised optimism about the outlook for demand for their products.

Elsewhere in Asia there were gains of 1.51 percent in Shanghai and 0.63 percent in Singapore. In Hong Kong shares fell 0.17 percent.

On Wall Street traders were reportedly set to close out 2009 on a high note, with markets expected to hold on to solid gains after staging a remarkable turnaround from a chaotic start to the year.

European stocks climb after Asian gains

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mining firms weighed on the broader London market on Thursday, as the sector pulled back from early gains to trade lower.

Miners under pressure in midday action in London included Anglo American , down 1.2%, Rio Tinto , down 1.6%, and Xstrata , down 3.2%.

Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata said Thursday that it will increase capital expenditure to $6.8 billion, up from previous guidance of $3.6 billion.

Xstrata said that it has a substantial pipeline of more that $40 billion of organic growth projects. That includes over $8 billion of projects currently in construction and a further $8 billion due for approval within the next twelve months.

It also said that it expects to continue with its growth strategy, in part through making major acquisitions.

Xstrata has made a string of acquisitions since 2001 and most recently tried to buy Anglo American but was rebuffed.

The earlier gains in the sector followed another record for gold futures as the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar continued to attract investors into the precious-metals market. Read more on gold.

Global Dow

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Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index declined 0.1% to 5,324.03.

Other European shares were mildly higher and U.S. stock futures were pointing to gains on Wall Street.

Late Wednesday, Bank of America Corp. said that it will repay $45 billion it got from the government after raising $18.8 billion selling new common securities, setting the giant lender on course to wean itself from taxpayer support.

Amid that sign that banking-sector health is improving, European lenders advanced, with Barclays shares up 3.6%, Lloyds Banking Group shares up 3.8% and Royal Bank of Scotland shares up 2.6%.

Elsewhere, airline British Airways shares rose 3%. The airline reports traffic figures later Thursday.

London Markets: Mining-sector decline weighs on British shares

DETROIT &<51; GMAC Financial Services, the former lending arm of General Motors, replaced its chief executive on Monday as it negotiates for another round of bailout financing from the federal government.

The company&S217;s directors appointed Michael A. Carpenter, a former Citigroup executive and current GMAC director, to succeed Alvaro de Molina, who had run the company since April 2008. Mr. Carpenter said the board believed that he would be more appropriate as chief executive than Mr. de Molina, who resigned at the board&S217;s request.

GMAC, in a statement, said it had asked the Treasury Department to postpone a decision on more aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program until the new management team had &S220;assessed the current situation and can advise the board and Treasury regarding the appropriate amount and form of such funding.&S221;

GMAC already has received $12.5 billion from the government, which now owns almost 35 percent of the company, but was expected to ask for as much as $5.6 billion more this month. This year, the Treasury told GMAC, based on the results of stress tests to evaluate its liquidity, that it must raise $11.5 billion in capital by the end of November.

GMAC, a 90-year-old auto and home lender that was converted to a bank holding company last year to qualify for bailout financing, is the only bank of the 19 subjected to the stress tests that has been unable to borrow more capital from private investors.

&S220;We don&S217;t see any need for the maximum amount of capital that Treasury was anticipating putting in,&S221; Mr. Carpenter, 62, said in an interview.

&S220;The $5.6 billion is off the table business cards design. What the exact number is, I don&S217;t know.&S221;

Mr. Carpenter, who resigned from the board of the CIT Group to focus on his new position, said the board was not pressured by regulators to request Mr. de Molina&S217;s resignation.

GMAC is now the primary lender to dealers of both G.M. and Chrysler, and it provides financing to customers of both automakers as well. It also operates Ally Bank, an online retail bank.

The company lost $5.3 billion in the first nine months of the year.

Mr. Carpenter said he wanted GMAC to provide a financial backbone to a revitalized G.M. and Chrysler and to be able to repay most, if not all, of its financial lifelines.

Initially, many of GMAC&S217;s problems were created by subprime lending at its home mortgage unit, which racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The trouble was compounded by a severe slump in auto sales and a tightening of credit markets that in late 2008 virtually eliminated GMAC as a financing source for G.M. customers.

&S220;I came to GMAC thinking that it was a short-term assignment working through a liquidity crisis,&S221; Mr. de Molina, 52, said in Monday&S217;s statement. &S220;That crisis lasted two years. With the help of government support and the incredible efforts of our team, we are now on stable footing, positioned for profitability in 2010 and beyond.&S221;

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting from New York.

A Change at the Top of GMAC as It Negotiates for Another Government Bailout

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is helping "well over 1,000" of its apparel suppliers secure financing based on the strength of its own credit rating.

The program, outlined in a November 2 letter to suppliers, was designed to address concerns about liquidity, company spokesman John Simley said.

"We didn&&9;t want our suppliers to be in a position where they could not secure financing at an attractive rate," he said.

Under its "Supplier Alliance Program," an eligible supplier can go to a bank with a purchase order from Wal-Mart and the bank can arrange for financing based on Wal-Mart&&9;s strong financial position.

The retailer, which has a AA credit rating, said it has partnered with Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Citibank Inc (C.N) to provide the program.

"We&&9;re not underwriting and we&&9;re not extending our (credit) rating," he said.

Factors buy receivables -- or the right to receive money owed by retailers -- from suppliers at a discount so that those suppliers continue to have working capital.

But worries about the health of factors has heightened following the November 1 bankruptcy of CIT Group Inc (CITGQ easy payday loans.PK), a major player in the factoring industry.

"We know that many of our suppliers are dependent upon factoring and financing companies that are reportedly in financial distress," Wal-Mart wrote in its letter to supplies.

"We are contacting you as part of our effort to proactively minimize the exposure of our supplier base to the financial difficulties of any particular factoring source."

Wal-Mart&&9;s ultimate goal with the program though is to keep its own costs down.

"It gives us a more secure supply of the things we need to sell and, if the suppliers are getting a little bit better rate because their loan was negotiated on the strength of our financial position, we can lower our costs and that can be passed on in the form of lower prices," Simley added.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri and Lisa Baertlein; editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andre Grenon)

Wal-Mart helps apparel suppliers secure financing

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gold retreated from a record high above &&6;1,120 an ounce on Thursday and global stocks lost ground as doubts about a lasting economic recovery underpinned the dollar.

Stocks slumped as the U.S. dollar strengthened against other currencies, also on technical factors.

The yellow metal pushed to a record high on the momentum of months of dollar weakness, only to drop &&6;15.35 to &&6;1,102.40 as the currency recovered. A weak greenback makes metals priced in dollars less expensive for holders of other currencies.

Gold&&9;s rally from near &&6;800 an ounce in January and the upcoming yearend also prompted investors to book profits.

"Gold&&9;s weakness (on Thursday) was a reflection of profit-taking after the metal&&9;s recent impressive run," said Peter Buchanan, commodities analyst at CIBC.

The dollar also rose after the euro failed to break through and hold above the psychologically important 1.50 level. The euro declined 0.92 percent to &&6;1.4843. The dollar rose 0.56 percent against the Japanese yen, to 90.32 yen.

Prospects that U.S. interest rates will remain at negligible levels for some time are expected to continue weighing on the dollar. It rebounded 0.67 percent against a basket of major currencies on Thursday but is still down nearly 1 percent this month and 14.5 percent since early March.

With a light economic data calendar on Thursday, apart from strong Australian jobs numbers that boosted the Aussie dollar to a 15-month high, the broader market consolidated.

In the U.S., the Labor Department reported that first time claims for unemployment insurance fell to 502,000 in the latest week from 514,000 in the previous period. That was less than forecast, but supported the view of a fragile recovery ay day loans.

STOCKS WEAKER

World stocks weakened, with the MSCI all-country world index (.MIWD00000PUS) down 0.9 percent and the emerging market component (.MSCIEF) off 1.36 percent.

The main U.S. indexes drifted lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) busted a six-session rally as a stronger dollar hurt commodity shares. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), the world&&9;s biggest retailer, forecast holiday profit that could miss Wall Street expectations but its shares still managed a slight gain.

The Dow Jones average fell 93.79 points, or 0.91 percent, to 10,197.47. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) declined 11.27 points, or 1.03 percent, to 1,087.24 and the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) edged lower by 17.88 points to 2,149.02.

European shares dropped with the FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index off 0.1 percent to 1,014.91.

Investors globally remained fairly bullish, however, with signs parts of the world economy are gaining traction.

The Baltic Dry Freight Index (.BADI), which can be a proxy for world trade patterns, rose 5.5 percent, pushed up by freight of iron ore to China.

"A 10th straight increase for the Baltic Dry and a 15-month high for AUD/USD (Australian/U.S. dollar) do not imply that sentiment is about to turn over," Kenneth Brough, an economist at Lloyds TSB, said in a research note.

U.S. Treasuries climbed after the government wrapped up &&6;81 billion of sales this week, and as falling stocks increased the allure of bonds as a haven from risk.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell by 0.04 percentage point to 3.44 percent.

Dollar bounce triggers gold fall, stocks drop

Hot News: APEC Ministers say Economic Recovery is Fragile

A day after a spirited rally sent the Dow to its highest levels since the beginning of the financial crisis, Wall Street took a moment to breathe, with stocks showing little or no gains on Tuesday.

From the opening bell to the close, the enthusiasm of Monday&S217;s rally, which pushed the Dow up more than 200 points, seemed to have dissipated. The dollar remained weak, and a rush for gold slowed slightly.

At the end, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 20.03 points, or 0.2 percent, at 10,246.97. The broader Standard and Poor&S217;s 500-stock index declined less than a point to 1,093.01, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 2.98 points, or 0.14 percent, at 2,151.08.

The stock exchanges will be open Wednesday on Veteran&S217;s Day, but the bond markets will be closed.

Shares of financial companies, particularly regional banks, were among laggards. Zions Bancorp declined 7.66 percent, to $13.26; SunTrust fell 3.38 percent, to $20.29; and Huntington Bancshares 3.55 percent, to $3.80. Bank of America, however, rose 1.65 percent, to $16.03, after it said that its integration with Merrill Lynch would generate more savings than expected. American Express rose 1.6 percent, to $39.68, on reports that worldwide credit card spending had increased by 3 percent in October &<51; a sign that consumers might be more optimistic about spending.

The dollar, which has lost 16 percent of its value since March, continued to trade near $1.50 against the euro and fell against other currencies as well. While the dollar is considered a safe-haven investment, low interest rates have kept its yield down, and in response investors have thrown their money to Wall Street in search of higher returns. The price of gold, which in recent weeks has hit record highs nearly every day, climbed slightly, to $1,105.60 an ounce.

Even as the stock market continues an eight-month rally, there are concerns over the speed of a recovery. On Tuesday, the presidents of the Federal Reserve banks in San Francisco and Atlanta suggested that unemployment, which hit a 26-year high in October, could continue to remain high for several years. Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve in San Francisco, said growth was sustainable but that it would not happen fast enough to bring down unemployment anytime soon.

&S220;High unemployment, weak job growth and paltry wage increases are a recipe for sluggish consumer spending growth and a tepid recovery,&S221; Ms no fax payday loans. Yellen told a real estate group in Phoenix.

Also on Tuesday, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who heads the Senate banking committee, released a proposal to overhaul the financial system. He called for establishing an agency to protect consumers and for giving the government more authority to break up companies that pose a threat to the stability of the system.

Oil prices settled down 38 cents, at $79.05 a barrel, as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico began to subside.

Investors expect earnings reports from major retailers later this week, including Macy&S217;s, Wal-Mart and J. C. Penney. As the holiday season approaches, those results will give a snapshot of the state of consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the United States economy.

Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for ChannelCapitalResearch.com, said investors were ignoring signs that consumer spending might be weak in the coming months, given cost-cutting by companies and a steady rise in the unemployment rate.

&S220;Nobody wants to fight the rally,&S221; he said. &S220;The market is showing a natural pullback at this point, and we will probably see a consolidation phase for awhile.&S221;

In London, shares of HSBC were about 4 percent higher after the bank said its profit in the quarter ended in September was &S220;significantly ahead&S221; of a year earlier. Shares of a rival, Barclays, were down 5.1 percent after profit declined 54 percent. And the Lloyds Banking Group&S217;s shares dropped slightly after the bank announced plans to lay off an additional 5,000 workers.

Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics in Ohio, said Wall Street would probably continue to inch upward, with occasional downturns, as investors gunned for a strong finish to 2009.

&S220;There&S217;s a lot of money on the sidelines that has missed out on stocks being up,&S221; Mr. Mayland said. &S220;And time to the year-end is getting short.&S221;

The Treasury&S217;s 10-year note rose 4/32, to 101 8/32. The yield fell to 3.47 percent from 3.49 percent on Monday.

Following are the results of Tuesday&S217;s Treasury auction of four-week bills and 10-year notes:

Wall St. Takes a Breather And Shares Close Flat

Hot News: Possible Property Bubble Has Singapore Officials Worried

SINGAPORE, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) opened here Sunday, kicking off the APEC Leaders' Week.

Senior officials' meetings of the APEC are a series of meetings held three or four times a year, with the concluding session being convened to prepare agenda and documents for the subsequent ministerial and leaders' meetings.

The theme of this year's APEC Singapore meetings is "Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region" No teletrak payday loan. It is expected that when leaders of the 21 APEC members meet on Nov. 14-15, they will focus on how to secure an economic recovery and fight trade protectionism. Backgrounder: APEC Senior Officials' Meetings

Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC opens

SAN FRANCISCO – The Gymboree Corp. on Thursday said its third-quarter sales at stores open at least a year fell 4 percent, but the children's retailer nevertheless raised its profit forecast for the period.

The figure is an important gauge of retail health, because it measures performance at existing stores, rather than newly opened ones.

Net sales for the quarter ended Oct. 31 rose 2 percent, to $265.6 million, from $261.3 million a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, were expecting sales for the quarter of $273 business cards.5 million

Gymboree now expects third-quarter profit between $1.10 and $1.13 per share, up from its prior forecast of between $1.05 and $1.10 per share. Analysts project a profit of $1.10 per share.

The company plans to report full third-quarter results on Nov. 18.

Gymboree shares fell $2.36, or 5.4 percent, to $41.17 in morning trading.

Gymboree 3rd-qtr sales comparison falls 4 percent

Hot News: Dow, S&P 500 open up on data optimism

WASHINGTON – The bankruptcy of a key lender that helps retailers stock their shelves is adding to the industry's worries ahead of the critical holiday shopping season.

CIT Group Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday in New York after months of struggling to avoid collapse. The company provides badly needed credit to thousands of small and mid-sized businesses, and is a critical part of the flow of capital in the retail sector.

CIT stressed that its lending operations will continue to operate as it proceeds through bankruptcy with the hope of shedding $10 billion in debt. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey M. Peek said the company's prepackaged reorganization plan "will allow CIT to continue to provide funding to our small business and middle market customers, two sectors that remain vitally important to the U.S. economy."

But retail groups and analysts warn that the case will likely add to the instability in the retail sector. CIT is an important source of capital, working with 2,000 vendors that supply merchandise to more than 300,000 stores. About 60 percent of the apparel industry depends on CIT for financing.

In the last few weeks, the nation's stores have begun filling their floors with holiday merchandise, but they still need a reliable source of lending to prevent shipping disruptions and to restock after the holidays. Even one day that vendors are cut off from much-needed financing could create a bottleneck, resulting in shipments of merchandise left on docks or in vendors' warehouses.

CIT expects to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year, but a dragged-out case or any glitches could further disrupt the already tight credit markets for retailers, said Joe Alouf, a partner with Eaglepoint Advisors, a crisis management company that is partly owned by Kurt Salmon Associates.

"CIT is the 600-pound gorilla in the industry," Alouf said.

Craig Sherman, vice president of government affairs at the National Retail Federation, thinks the industry "dodged a bullet on the holiday season" for the most part, because most merchandise is in stores' distribution centers. However, he said CIT's woes could throw a wrench in ordering for the important 2010 spring season. NRF officials say that as stores prepare for a rebound in consumer spending next year, access to credit is very important.

Harold Reichwald, co-chair of law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips' banking group, said that CIT's case will likely force the company's customers to look elsewhere for financing.

"If I was a small businessman, I would say to myself, 'I have to find alternatives,'" Reichwald said. "In this marketplace, there isn't a lot of alternatives."

CIT's Chapter 11 filing is one of the biggest in U.S. corporate history, following Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and General Motors payday advance loan. The bankruptcy filing shows $71 billion in finance and leasing assets against total debt of $64.9 billion. The move wipes out current holders of its common and preferred stock, meaning the U.S. government will likely lose the $2.3 billion in taxpayer funds it sunk into CIT last year to prop up the company.

The government could have lost billions more, however, had it not declined to hand over more aid to the company earlier this year. Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams said Sunday that the government will be closely monitoring the bankruptcy proceedings, but acknowledged that "recovery to preferred and common equityholders will be minimal."

CIT had been trying to fend off disaster for several months and narrowly avoided collapse in July. It had struggled to find funding as sources it previously relied on, such as short-term debt, evaporated during the credit crisis. The company pulled back sharply on lending to businesses as it tried to preserve cash. According to its most recent quarterly earnings report, the company originated just $4.4 billion worth of new business during the first six months of 2009, compared with $11.3 billion in the first half of 2008.

The company received $4.5 billion in credit from its own lenders and bondholders last week, reportedly made a deal with Goldman Sachs to lower debt payments and negotiated a $1 billion line of credit from billionaire investor and bondholder Carl Icahn. But the company failed to persuade bondholders to support a debt-exchange offer, a step that would have trimmed at least $5.7 billion from its debt burden and given CIT more time to pay off what it owes.

Ever since CIT's troubles flared up last summer, the retail industry has carefully monitored the lender, with many vendors scrambling to find alternative financing at rivals like Rosenthal & Rosenthal. But finding a replacement hasn't been easy because competitors can only take on so many more clients. Moreover, while large publicly traded companies with sales of more than $2 billion have found the credit market loosening up in recent months, small and medium-based companies have largely found themselves shut out, Alouf said.

The big question is how long CIT will remain under court protection. A prepackaged bankruptcy, which has the support of major bondholders, speeds up the process of restructuring CIT's debt and could help it exit court protection in a matter of months. A swift exit by the holidays could alleviate some retailers' worries.

___

D'Innocenzio reported from New York.

Retail faces uncertainty as CIT enters bankruptcy

Filed at 2:36 a.m. ET

TOKYO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co (NYSE:HMC) , the world's seventh-biggest car maker, nearly tripled its annual profit forecasts as second-quarter earnings fell less than forecast, thanks to government stimulus schemes around the world that boosted sales.

Honda has weathered the industry turmoil, which drove two U.S. automakers to bankruptcy this year, better than many as its profitable and dominant motorcycle business cushioned the blow.

Sales by the maker of Honda Civic cars have turned up thanks to government sales incentives such as the United States' cash-for-clunkers programme. That has helped Honda and others gradually lift production levels from a nadir earlier this year.

Honda said on Tuesday its operating profit for July-September fell 56 percent to 65.54 billion yen ($712 million) from 148.85 billion yen in the second quarter last year as sales volumes fell and the yen strengthened against the dollar.

The result beat an estimate of 42 billion yen in a poll of five analysts by Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) (TSX:TRI) I/B/E/S.

Net profit, which includes its earnings from the red-hot Chinese market, was 54.04 billion yen, against 123.32 billion yen last year.

For the full year to March 31, 2010, Honda nearly tripled its operating profit outlook to 190 billion yen from 70 billion yen.

The seventh biggest car maker by first-half sales also nearly tripled its net forecast to 155 billion yen from 55 billion yen absolutely free credit report.

That topped consensus forecasts from 21 brokerages for Honda's operating profit for the full year to March 2010 to hit 139 billion yen, with net profit of 113 billion yen.

Rivals Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE:TM) and Nissan Motor Co (NASDAQ:NSANY) are also expected to report improved second-quarter earnings next week, but Honda is seen making the most profit by far for the full year, partly due to its more flexible operations, fewer exports from Japan and a slim car line-up.

While market forecasts suggest earnings will continue to improve for Honda next year, auto executives are concerned about volatile currency moves and repercussions on demand when government stimulus measures around the world end.

Honda's sales in Japan, for one, have been powered by generous tax reductions on hybrids such as its new Insight model, and executives have said sales could suffer when the incentives run their course.

Shares of Honda gained 3.9 percent during the second quarter, outperforming Tokyo's transport sector subindex, which was flat.

Honda ended down 1.9 percent at 2,845 yen on Tuesday before the results were announced, against the transport sector's 1.7 percent fall.

Honda Raises Forecast as Stimulus Fuels Sales

Hot News: Carl Icahn quits Yahoo board, commends CEO

BRUSSELS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A top European Union competition official has expressed concern over Germany's planned financial aid for a deal that would see car-parts maker Magna and a partner take a majority share in troubled carmaker Opel.

EU Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes voiced her concerns by writing to German Economics Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, a news release from the EU's executive Commission said here on Friday.

Kroes wrote that there were significant indications that the German government's promised aid to Opel was on condition that a specific bidder was selected to acquire a majority of the shares in the carmaker.

Such a precondition would be incompatible with EU state aid and internal market rules, she noted outdoor fireplace plans.

She urged the German government to give Opel's parent company GM an opportunity to reconsider the outcome of the bidding process on the basis of firm written assurances that the aid would be available irrespective of the choice of investor.

The Commission said that Kroes also sent the letter to Austria, Britain, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Hungary, where Opel has activities. Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

EC expresses concern over Opel aid

After reporting big profits over the last six months, Bank of America lost $1 billion in the third quarter as growing numbers of consumer loans soured and the bank paid millions of dollars to wean itself off government life support.

Bank of America posted a loss of 26 cents a share for the three months from July through September, compared with a profit of $3.2 billion in the second quarter. Wall Street analysts had been expecting a loss of 12 cents a share. The bank earned $1.18 billion or 15 cents a share in the quarter a year ago.

&S220;Obviously, credit costs remain high, and that is our major financial challenge going forward,&S221; said the bank&S217;s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis. &S220;However, we are heartened by early positive signs, such as the leveling of delinquencies among our credit card numbers.&S221;

The bank added $2.1 billion to its reserves to cover more credit losses as unemployment surges and households struggle to keep up on their loans, and it spent more than $400 million to extract itself from an agreement with the government that guaranteed potential losses of its brokerage Merrill Lynch.

Aside from its roster of troubled consumer credit and loan products tied to the sagging mortgage market, Bank of America is beset with problems that run from Washington to civil courtrooms to its own boardroom.

Mr. Lewis announced in late September that he would step down at the end of the year, leaving a leadership vacuum as the bank searches for a successor who can restore the bank&S217;s tarnished image and remove the government crutches holding it up.

Bank of America has accepted some $45 billion in taxpayer bailouts since the financial crisis erupted last year, and has issued in debts backed up by the government no teletrack payday loan. While rivals like Citigroup and Wells Fargo also remain on government support, stronger competitors like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have already paid back their bailouts, freeing themselves of the scrutiny and stigma that came with taking the bailout.

A day before reporting its earnings, the bank tried to quell some of the furor over its management and bonus structure by announcing that Mr. Lewis promised to return the pay he received this year to avoid a confrontation with Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Obama administration&S217;s overseer of executive compensation..

While Merrill&S217;s brokerage business may be adding meat to Bank of America&S217;s bottom line, investigations over the $50 billion deal that folded the thundering herd into Bank of America still pose legal tangles and publicity headaches for the bank. Regulators, members of Congress and shareholder lawsuits are examining the merger and questions over bonuses paid out to Merrill executives on the eve of the deal.

Already, e-mail messages have surfaced in which one Bank of America director sums up his take on the Merrill deal by saying, &S220;Unfortunately it&S217;s screw the shareholders!!&S221; Now, Bank of America&S217;s board has voted to partially waive attorney-client privilege, perhaps setting the stage for more disclosures about the boardroom intrigue leading to the Merrill deal.

With $1 Billion Loss, Bank of America Misses Its Forecast

BEIJING &<51; The main Russian gas exporter signed a general trade agreement with China&S217;s largest state-run energy company here on Tuesday, but failed to work out pricing details and other mechanisms that would actually put the agreement into effect.

The agreement was signed in the presence of the Russian prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, and the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and was called a &S220;framework&S221; by Alexei Miller, the head of Gazprom, the Russian state-run gas exporter, which made the deal with the China National Petroleum Corp., China&S217;s largest oil and gas producer.

The deal calls for the supply of nearly 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas per year via two potential routes originating from Siberia. China has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and has been searching far and wide for new sources of energy. It has focused on Central Asian nations and Russia as potential suppliers of large amounts of natural gas.

Russian and Chinese officials did not give any estimates of the worth of the gas deal, if it were put into effect.

Gazprom said in 2006 that Russia would supply natural gas to China via two pipelines, but no contract has been signed because the state-run enterprises in the two countries have failed to agree on pricing. The agreement reached Tuesday appeared to be an affirmation of the deal from 2006, but did not contain the crucial mechanisms needed to for the actual trade to start payday loan companies.

Mr. Miller said that a price formula in the potential gas contract would be based on Gazprom&S217;s experience in gas exports and principles of international trade, according to The Associated Press.

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, gave few details on the gas trade agreement or other economic deals reached between the nations. Its report on the meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Wen contained only broad statements stressing the cooperation between Russia and China. &S220;The bilateral economic cooperation has withstood the test of the global financial crisis,&S221; the Xinhua report said, citing Mr. Putin.

Earlier on Tuesday, the two countries signed trade deals worth a total of $3.5 billion, according to Alexander Zhukov, the Russian deputy prime minister. There were about 40 deals made, including a pair of $500-million bank deals, he told reporters.

The deals were reached on the second day of Mr. Putin&S217;s visit to China. Mr. Putin and Mr. Wen were also expected to discuss other foreign policy issues considered crucial to both countries, including the status of North Korea&S217;s nuclear program.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

China and Russia Reaffirm Gas Deal Plans

CHICAGO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the sale of Sun-Times Media Group to a group of Chicago businessmen led by James Tyree.

According to sources of Sun-Times Media Group, the sale is expected to close by the end of October.

Tyree's group, STMG Holdings LLC, offered about 25 million U.S. dollars, 5 million dollars in cash and about 20 million dollars in liabilities, to purchase the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and its 50-plus sister papers.

The bid came with a request for steep pay cuts and other concessions from 16 unions, 14 of which have approved the contract changes online cash advances.

The closing remains contingent upon approvals by the two other bargaining units, which are expected to be reached in the coming days, the company said.

"We're very pleased and very excited with this result," said Sun-Times Media Group interim CEO Jeremy Halbreich. "It could not have happened without the dedication and hard work of our employees."

Bankruptcy judge approves Sun-Times Media sale to Tyree group

(Reuters) – Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.63 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.7 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.7 percent.

Sprint Nextel (S.N) will be in the spotlight after The Sunday Telegraph reported that German group Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) was considering a bid for the U.S. company, sending Nextel&&9;s shares traded in Frankfurt (S.F) jumping 20 percent in early trade.

Also on the mergers and acquisitions front, British confectioner Cadbury (CBRY.L) turned up the heat in its defense against a takeover bid from Kraft (KFT.N) on Saturday as its Chairman Roger Carr said it was an "unappealing prospect" being absorbed into Kraft&&9;s low growth conglomerate business model.

The dollar rose broadly on Monday with the Australian and New Zealand dollars down sharply as speculators covered short positions that had pushed the greenback to one-year lows.

Oil fell more than a dollar toward &&6;68 a barrel on Monday as a rebound in the beaten-down U.S. dollar and nagging concerns that prices may have run ahead of market fundamentals extended last week&&9;s late sell-off.

*Morgan Stanley has raised its forecast of U.S. crude oil price to &&6;105 a barrel in 2012 from &&6;95 due to tightening spare capacity, the U.S. bank said in a research note seen on Monday. It expected global spare production capacity to stay ample through end-2010, before declining in 2011 and reaching 2007/08-like tightness by 2012.

President Barack Obama will try on Monday to revive a stalled push for stricter oversight of Wall Street, using the anniversary of Lehman Brothers&&9; collapse to argue for sweeping regulatory changes.

Chinese media and officials have heaped scorn on a U.S. decision to impose special duties on Chinese-made tires, extending Beijing&&9;s warnings that the move may fuel trade friction as global growth struggles to revive. U.S. President Barack Obama announced the safeguard duties on tire imports from China on Friday, a decision the White House said was meant to stifle disruption from cheap Chinese imports.

China&&9;s sovereign wealth fund is in talks to take a minority stake in power company AES Corp (AES no fax cash advances.N), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and its partners gave a formal green light to building the Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Australia, the world&&9;s biggest new development, at a lower than estimated cost of &&6;37 billion.

Bank of New York Mellon (BK.N) may lend &&6;4 billion to Russia as a part of an out-of-court settlement of a &&6;22.5 billion lawsuit against the bank, Kommersant business daily reported on Monday.

Japan&&9;s Nikkei stock average fell more than 2 percent in moderate trade on Monday, with Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and other exporters battered as the dollar hit a 7-month low against the yen. Shares in Japan Airlines (9205.T) jumped 8 percent on Monday on news American Airlines and Delta Airlines (DAL.N) are considering rival investments in the struggling carrier to secure partnership ties and boost revenue from Asia.

European shares retreated in early trade on Monday, breaking a six-session winning streak and pulling back from 11-month highs, with banks and resource-related shares such as Banco Santander (SAN.MC) and Total (TOTF.PA) leading the fallers.

U.S. stocks broke a five-day winning streak on Friday on a drop in crude oil prices and while data showing a stronger-than-expected rise in consumer sentiment and a bright outlook from shipper FedEx (FDX.N) were not enough to motivate buyers in an equities market recently saturated with good news.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) lost 22.07 points, or 0.23 percent, at 9,605.41. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) shed 1.41 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,042.73. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) fell 3.12 points, or 0.15 percent, at 2,080.90. For the week, the Dow was up 1.7 percent, the S&P was up 2.6 percent, and the Nasdaq was up 3.1 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by David Cowell)

Stock futures signal dip; Nextel in focus