HONG KONG &<51; What do you do when your passengers do not fly as much as they used to?

In the United States, many airlines have responded to the drop-off in travelers by tacking on charges for meals, headphones and other things that were once part of a ticket &<51; even as they have drawn fire for letting service levels slide.

But extra niceness is the approach adopted by many carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, who have decided that the way to persuade people to fly, preferably in business or first class, is to pamper them.

Korean Airlines, for example, is spending $200 million to equip its aircraft with high-end seats and upgrade its entertainment in all cabins. On the meal front, the menu includes organic food. And this year, the carrier even introduced beef and chicken raised organically at its own ranch on Jeju Island.

The Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific&S217;s latest initiatives include new cabins on long-haul flights; a new first- and business-class lounge in Kuala Lumpur; and a home wine delivery service. Starting next year, passengers will be able to choose from at least 21 movies, up from 18.

The world&S217;s airline industry will lose a combined $11 billion this year and $5.6 billion next year, according to the International Air Transport Association, and carriers across Asia have not been immune from the downturn. Like their counterparts in Europe and the United States, Asian airlines have had to drop routes, shed employees and scrap aircraft orders. Some are shrinking the number of seats in first and business class, where demand has fallen sharply. Japan Airlines is even seeking a government bailout to keep going.

But the tradition of perks has remained sacrosanct in the region and is likely remain so, analysts say.

Outside of mainland China, Asian airline passengers expect top service because it is part of the region&S217;s cultural makeup and because no-frills, budget carriers are not as established here yet. For many carriers, the top end of the market makes up a huge part of revenue, and none can afford to be the first to cut corners when it comes to service levels.

&S220;Asian airlines have been very reluctant to start going down the track that the Americans have gone,&S221; said Peter Harbison, chairman of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a consulting firm based in Sydney.

Alex McGowan, product manager at Cathay, said: &S220;When the financial crisis overwhelmed the industry a year ago, we took a decision that maintaining that premium service was vital to our future. So whatever cutbacks we made, we did not make any to the areas our customers value.&S221;

Singapore Airlines is installing new seats in the premium cabins on some aircraft and has improved in-flight entertainment systems. Like Cathay, it is based in one of Asia&S217;s financial hubs and was hit hard by the turmoil in the banking industry. But about 40 percent of its revenue comes from its premium classes. That may explain why it has not only maintained its annual wine budget for first class &<51; 10 million Singapore dollars, or $7 million &<51; but also has introduced new meals for first-class passengers on Chinese routes, specially created by a leading Chinese chef, Zhu Jun.

Qantas, the Australian carrier, canceled orders for several aircraft in June. But it has pressed ahead with a program devised to cut check-in times in half on domestic flights by allowing members of its frequent-flier program to check in with a membership card fitted with a special chip.

Asian airlines&S217; obsession with service shows through in the quality rankings of Skytrax, a consulting firm based in London. Five of the six airlines in Skytrax&S217;s five-star category are based in the Asia-Pacific region, as are nearly half of the 27 carriers that hold four stars Same day payday loans.

By contrast, only a few four-star carriers are North American and fewer than 10 are European. Carriers in Europe have started to move down the road of charging for extras and easing back on some services. But the practice is not nearly as entrenched in Europe as it is in the United States, where a recent survey by J.D. Power &&8; Associates showed that customer satisfaction with North American airlines has declined for the third consecutive year as airlines added fees for items like drinks, baggage and even pillows.

Such &S220;ancillary income&S221; &<51; revenue from sources other than the ticket price &<51; has become increasingly important for airlines, which have had to resort to heavy discounting to fill seats. Passenger numbers have begun to recover recently, but intense competition means ticket prices remain well below where they used to be: the International Air Transport Association&S217;s most recent statistics show that economy fares in August were 13 percent below a year earlier, and premium fares were 17 percent lower.

For no-frills carriers like Easyjet or Ryanair in Europe, fees for drinks and headphones make sense: The airlines are charging only for what the passenger wants, said Mr. Harbison of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation.

&S220;But when you are posing as a full-service airline and are trying to show that you&S217;re not just a commodity carrier, you risk undermining your image and passenger loyalty if you start charging for add-ons, or cutting back on established services,&S221; he said.

The airlines will not say how much they are spending to keep the perks coming. And there has been at least one recent exception: Cathay Pacific announced last month that it would give all passengers, not just loyalty program members, the chance to secure extra-legroom seats &<51; for a fee of $100 on long-haul flights. But such developments are not expected to become standard among Asian carriers any time soon.

At the same time, budget airlines are a relatively recent phenomenon in Asia and have not shaken up the market with rock-bottom pricing as much as in Europe and the United States. Carriers like AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar are growing, but &S220;this is not going to change the established carriers&S217; attitude&S221; in the way it has elsewhere, Edward Plaisted, chief executive of Skytrax, said in a phone interview from London.

Asia&S217;s low-cost carriers have mostly expanded the pie, rather than intensifying the squabble over an existing market. Their fares draw in many passengers who could not afford to fly with traditional carriers.

And Asian low-fare airlines, like their full-service brethren here, often have a higher service mentality than their counterparts elsewhere. AirAsia charges for meals and drinks, for example, but its new aircraft have leather seats, conveying an aura of luxury.

Jetstar, another low-cost carrier, is testing a technology that will transmit boarding passes by text message to any mobile phone &<51; whether it is Internet-enabled or not.

All that means that flying in Asia is likely to remain more pleasant than in Europe or the United States for the foreseeable future &<51; and not necessarily at outrageously higher prices. For although the higher service levels come at a premium, that premium pool has shrunk, as carriers rush to entice travelers with lower ticket prices.

&S220;Whether they want to or not, airlines in the region cannot compromise on quality,&S221; Mr. Plaisted said. &S220;Fares have become very much more level than they were two years ago.&S221;

Airlines in Asia Resist the No-Frills Trend

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve has done all it can do to reduce unemployment and needs to worry more about the risk of inflation from the stimulus it poured into the economy, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday.

"I think the Fed has done an extraordinary job and it&&9;s done a huge amount (to bolster employment). There&&9;s just so much monetary policy and the central bank can do. And I think they&&9;ve gone to their limits, at this particular stage," Greenspan said on NBC&&9;s "Meet the Press."

"You cannot ask a central bank to do more than it is capable of without very dire consequences," Greenspan continued, saying the United States faced a serious long-term threat of inflation unless the Fed begins to pull back "all the stimulus it put into the economy."

Greenspan, who headed the central bank from 1987 to 2006, also expressed concern about a congressional effort he said would "very significantly compromise" the Fed&&9;s independence.

The House of Representatives on Friday passed sweeping financial reform legislation that includes a provision allowing a congressional watchdog agency to audit the Fed&&9;s monetary policy operations.

That reflects concerns the Fed did not do enough to head off the worst U.S. economic downturn since the Great Depression easy online payday loans.

"What you will be getting is a monetary policy more dedicated to political short-term considerations, not to the longer-term considerations which the Federal Reserve Act is specifically constructed to do," Greenspan said.

Greenspan said he expected the U.S. unemployment rate, which is currently at 10 percent, to "be significantly lower a year from now" but still very high.

The U.S. Census Bureau&&9;s plan to hire close to 800,000 workers by April will take several tenths of a percent off the unemployment rate, he said.

The recovery in the stock market over the last six to nine months helps by putting many individuals and companies in a stronger position to spend money, he said.

The Federal Reserve will have to begin raising interest rates from current very low levels as both the economy and loan demand improve, he said.

"Remember, loan demand has been very dull because businesses are very heavily liquidating inventories. That&&9;s coming to a halt and when that happens loan demand will come back and the pressures on short-term interest rate will begin to grow," Greenspan said.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Fed can do no more to cut unemployment: Greenspan

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.

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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

On-the-job training has its roots in the Middle Ages. Apprenticeship, it was called then, and it generally was for the young.

The new variation, now called an internship, is not the painstaking, multiyear experience it once was, but it still offers the same advantages: a chance for a worker to gain knowledge at little or no cost to the employer.

In boom times, companies with too much work for existing employees &<51; yet not enough work to justify another hire &<51; may have turned to temporary workers. But with the economy still in the doldrums, companies again are opting for unpaid or low-paid internships to get the extra work done.

It is a brilliant, recession-proof way to double your work force, said Drew McLellan, whose McLellan Marketing Group in Des Moines has long hired unpaid interns. &S220;It&S217;s more money to the bottom line for you.&S221;

While there are no definitive numbers on how many internships exist or how many companies offer them, most are probably at smaller companies and nonprofit groups rather than large public companies, according to Internships.com, a placement service with some 13,000 listings. C. Mason Gates, the president and founder of Internships.com, said that with economic uncertainty, smaller businesses would continue to view interns as a source of growth, talent development and project-based work.

Internships have never been out of vogue, but the competition for positions is heating up, which is good news if you run a company needing economical, entry-level workers.

&S220;The importance of an internship has changed from what parents experienced,&S221; said Steve Rodems, senior partner at Fast Track Internships, which charges $799 to help an intern find an unpaid job. &S220;It&S217;s no longer a nice-to-have addition to you r&>33;sum&>33;. Upon graduation, more and more companies are looking for graduates who also have some real-world internship experience.&S221;

One employer who recently hired an intern was Suzan French, who, after four years as an independent public relations consultant in Allentown, Pa., needed help but was not prepared to bring on a full-time employee. In May, she hired Kate Mackes, 21, a finance major at nearby Lehigh University. Ms. Mackes runs clients&S217; social media projects while Ms. French offers old-school instruction in the public relations business.

&S220;Kate was raised on it and is active in it, and that is something I&S217;m still learning,&S221; Ms. French said. &S220;She is able to come in and use social media for the betterment of a client, and I&S217;ve been able to teach her some of the more traditional P.R. and marketing practices that you don&S217;t learn in the classroom.&S221;

Internships run the gamut from marketing and finance to geology, fashion, architecture and entertainment. While some are part of university programs and carry academic credit, others are less formal with nothing changing hands except an occasional lunch.

And internships are no longer just the province of college students. More unemployed professionals are seeking them &<51; whether to test-drive a new career or simply to keep themselves occupied, according to internship placement services. Mr. Rodems, of Fast Track Internships, said 10 percent of his clients were college graduates changing professions, compared with just 1 percent in 2008. And, he said, internships are increasingly running throughout the year, not just in the summer.

Michael Sabatino, 38, an equity analyst at Smith Barney in New York until he was laid off in 2008, is one of those professionals who sought an internship.

He said that, after caring for his newborn daughter for a year, he approached a small fee-only wealth management firm in New Jersey for a full-time position. None were open, so Mr auto loan. Sabatino offered his services free to learn the business.

He ended up earning $10 an hour &<51; far less than his family&S217;s living expenses &<51; and had no job offer at the end of his five-month stint. But he described the position as a turning point, in part, because it exposed him to the daily challenges of running a small business and demonstrated to potential employers his passion for serving clients and developing his technical expertise.

&S220;The internship was a key transitional experience in my career that positioned me for a long-term opportunity in a wealth management organization,&S221; Mr. Sabatino said. He is interviewing with boutique wealth managers.

Connie Rivera, 57, also used an internship to change careers after she left her job as chief executive of the American Dietetic Association in Chicago in 2000 to pursue her passion for gardening.

She got a job at a local garden center to learn the business. For 18 months she did grunt work &<51; answering customer telephone calls, watering plants, helping with payroll, she said. In 2003, she opened her own garden and landscape business. She now has 42 employees &<51; and one intern &<51; and says she expects to have $4 million in revenue by Dec. 31.

&S220;I took a $250,000 pay cut, but it was the kind of research I needed to do to write my business plan,&S221; Ms. Rivera said.

While menial tasks often go with the territory, the best internships interpose photocopying with client meetings, true-life assignments and mentoring.

&S220;A company gets as much from an intern as the intern gets from the company &<51; if it&S217;s a good internship,&S221; said Lalia Rach, dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University.

For employers, setting up an internship program is relatively easy and inexpensive. Veterans of the hiring process say business owners interested in offering internships should develop relationships with local college professors who can choose good intern candidates and seek legal advice to ensure that federal and state labor laws are followed. Business owners should have a clear idea of what they want from an intern and then interview candidates in the same way they do potential regular employees.

Mr. McLellan, from the Des Moines marketing company, said several of his interns had been hired at or opened marketing shops.

&S220;The reward as a business owner is knowing you gave them a little boost,&S221; he said. &S220;And it&S217;s fun to watch them take it wherever they are going to take it.&S221;

While most interns receive no money &<51; and others slightly more than the $7.25 hourly minimum wage &<51; interns are not exactly free. At least initially, it is more efficient for managers to do something themselves than to train someone. Also, while most interns are go-getters, exams and socializing can interfere.

Consuelo C. Bova, chief executive of ForTheFit.com, an online clothing retailer, brought on her first unpaid intern last February to do marketing and public relations. Ms. Bova said she was so impressed with the intern, a University of Central Florida junior, that she hired her as a part-time assistant after the internship ended in April. In August, Ms. Bova interviewed candidates to fill another intern opening &<51; this time a paid position.

&S220;Those I have interviewed to date have been, at worst, merely qualified and capable of doing the job, and at best, exciting, enthusiastic, experienced and capable of delivering high-quality work for our company,&S221; Ms. Bova said.

Hiring Is Rising in One Area: Low-Paid Interns

MANILA, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assured to the visiting team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday the country's economic managers can maintain fiscal stability.

"The IMF need not be concerned about the Philippines' commitment to fiscal stability which has been duly recognized through our successive credit rating upgrades," Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Gary Olivar said in a statement.

The dwindling revenues combined with stimulus spending and post-calamity reconstruction programs have led to a huge budget deficit. With the fiscal deficit hitting 266.1 billion pesos (5.6 billion U.S. dollars) by end-October, or 16.1 billion pesos (341.1 million U.S. dollars) more than what was programmed for the whole year, the IMF is asking how the Philippine government can close narrow a huge deficit low fee payday loans.

But Olivar noted that despite increased government spending, the country's deficit-to-GDP ratio remains manageable and under 4 percent.

"Fiscal space remains ample," Olivar said, adding that the government is redoubling tax collections, lobbying the Congress to pass laws to raise revenues and are selling state-owned assets to close the budget gap.

A visiting IMF mission is in Manila this week in line with the so-called Article IV of the agreement with member countries.

A senior Philippine economic manager said the IMF team is interested to know how the Philippine government can improve its tax collection. Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

Philippines can maintain fiscal stability: President Arroyo

Already facing a spate of private lawsuits, the legal troubles of the country&S217;s largest credit rating agencies deepened on Friday when the attorney general of Ohio sued Moody&S217;s Investors Service, Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s and Fitch, claiming that they had cost state retirement and pension funds some $457 million by approving high-risk Wall Street securities that went bust in the financial collapse.

The case could test whether the agencies&S217; ratings are constitutionally protected as a form of free speech.

The lawsuit asserts that Moody&S217;s, Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s and Fitch were in league with the banks and other issuers, helping to create an assortment of exotic financial instruments that led to a disastrous bubble in the housing market.

&S220;We believe that the credit rating agencies, in exchange for fees, departed from their objective, neutral role as arbiters,&S221; the attorney general, Richard Cordray, said at a news conference. &S220;At minimum, they were aiding and abetting misconduct by issuers.&S221;

He accused the companies of selling their integrity to the highest bidder.

Steven Weiss, a spokesman for McGraw-Hill, which owns S.&&8; P., said that the lawsuit had no merit and that the company would vigorously defend itself.

&S220;A recent Securities and Exchange Commission examination of our business practices found no evidence that decisions about rating methodologies or models were based on attracting market share,&S221; he said.

Michael Adler, a spokesman for Moody&S217;s, also disputed the claims. &S220;It is unfortunate that the state attorney general, rather than engaging in an objective review and constructive dialogue regarding credit ratings, instead appears to be seeking new scapegoats for investment losses incurred during an unprecedented global market disruption,&S221; he said.

A spokesman for Fitch said the company would not comment because it had not seen the lawsuit.

The litigation adds to a growing stack of lawsuits against the three largest credit rating agencies, which together command an 85 percent share of the market. Since the credit crisis began last year, dozens of investors have sought to recover billions of dollars from worthless or nearly worthless bonds on which the rating agencies had conferred their highest grades.

One of those groups is largest pension fund in the country, the California Public Employees Retirement System, which filed a lawsuit in state court in California in July, claiming that &S220;wildly inaccurate ratings&S221; had led to roughly $1 billion in losses.

And more litigation is likely. As part of a broader financial reform, Congress is considering provisions that make it easier for plaintiffs to sue rating agencies. And the Ohio attorney general&S217;s action raises the possibility of similar filings from other states. California&S217;s attorney general, Jerry Brown, said in September that his office was investigating the rating agencies, with an eye toward determining &S220;how these agencies could get it so wrong and whether they violated California law in the process.&S221;

As a group, the attorneys general have proved formidable opponents, most notably in the landmark litigation and multibillion-dollar settlement against tobacco makers in 1998 faxless payday loan.

To date, however, the rating agencies are undefeated in court, and aside from one modest settlement in a case 10 years ago, no one has forced them to hand over any money. Moody&S217;s, S.&&8; P. and Fitch have successfully argued that their ratings are essentially opinions about the future, and therefore subject to First Amendment protections identical to those of journalists.

But that was before billions of dollars in triple-A rated bonds went bad in the financial crisis that started last year, and before Congress extracted a number of internal e-mail messages from the companies, suggesting that employees were aware they were giving their blessing to bonds that were all but doomed. In one of those messages, an S.&&8; P. analyst said that a deal &S220;could be structured by cows and we&S217;d rate it.&S221;

Recent cases, like the suit filed Friday, are founded on the premise that the companies were aware that investments they said were sturdy were dangerously unsafe. And if analysts knew that they were overstating the quality of the products they rated, and did so because it was a path to profits, the ratings could forfeit First Amendment protections, legal experts say.

&S220;If they hold themselves out to the marketplace as objective when in fact they are influenced by the fees they are receiving, then they are perpetrating a falsehood on the marketplace,&S221; said Rodney A. Smolla, dean of the Washington and Lee University School of Law. &S220;The First Amendment doesn&S217;t extend to the deliberate manipulation of financial markets.&S221;

The 73-page complaint, filed on behalf of Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and other groups, claims that in recent years the rating agencies abandoned their role as impartial referees as they began binging on fees from deals involving mortgage-backed securities.

At the root of the problem, according to the complaint, is the business model of rating agencies, which are paid by the issuers of the securities they are paid to appraise. The lawsuit, and many critics of the companies, have described that arrangement as a glaring conflict of interest.

&S220;Given that the rating agencies did not receive their full fees for a deal unless the deal was completed and the requested rating was provided,&S221; the attorney general&S217;s suit maintains, &S220;they had an acute financial incentive to relax their stated standards of &S216;integrity&S217; and &S216;objectivity&S217; to placate their clients.&S221;

To complicate problems in the system of incentives, the lawsuit states, the methodologies used by the rating agencies were outdated and flawed. By the time those flaws were obvious, nearly half a billion dollars in pension and retirement funds had evaporated in Ohio, revealing the bonds to be &S220;high-risk securities that both issuers and rating agencies knew to be little more than a house of cards,&S221; the complaint states.

Ohio Sues Rating Firms for Losses in Funds

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

HONG KONG &S212; Asian stock markets fell on Thursday as worries about the global economic recovery had investors eagerly awaiting the U.S. monthly jobs report that is due on Friday.

The Nikkei 225 stock average in Tokyo lost 1.2 percent with Canon and other exporters slipping as investors, prompted by a slightly stronger yen, locked in profits before the release of U.S. jobs data.

But Nissan Motor rose 1.1 percent after the automaker revised its annual outlook to a profit from a loss on Wednesday as soaring sales in China helped drive quarterly earnings beyond market expectations.

The benchmark Nikkei lost 113.63 points to 9,730.68 in late morning trading and appeared headed for its lowest close in a month. The broader Topix shed 0.7 percent to 874.78.

As expected, the Federal Reserve reiterated its intent to keep U.S. interest rates low on Wednesday. Though Wall Street rallied in response, it soon lost steam, with investors turning their eyes to jobs data to be published Friday.

&S220;A lot of investors are likely to be stay on the sidelines ahead of the jobs data, given that the September figures were worse than expected, and this is likely to keep stocks weak until then,&S221; said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

Seoul shares turned lower after a brief rebound the day before, weighed down by caution over the pace of an economic recovery and as the firmer won hammered exporters like LG Electronics.

Investors are on the lookout for fresh economic data to restore confidence in stocks as they awaited the U.S. monthly jobs data and the Bank of Korea&S217;s monthly rate-setting meeting next week online pay day loans.

&S220;Investors are looking at the first batch of fourth-quarter indicators now that we are unsure about whether markets will remain solid in November or not,&S221; said Kim Seung-han, a market analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index dropped 1.1 percent to 1,563.07 points.

Shares in LG Electronics, the maker of mobile phones and flat-screen TVs, dropped 2.3 percent. Samsung Electronics shed 1.6 percent, after it told the Korea Exchange that it would make a $1.3 billion down payment to Qualcomm under a new licensing agreement.

Australian shares extended losses to be 0.5 percent lower on Thursday, with banks and miners mixed amid a market consolidation after strong gains between March and October.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 20.8 points to 4,519.3.

Major sectors like banks and miners saw mixed fortunes as the market continues its broad consolidation after posting strong gains between March and October.

Hong Kong stocks fell 0.4 percent, tracking losses in other Asian markets, although the Chinese property developer Evergrande Real Estate rose in its trading debut. Evergrande traded at 4 Hong Kong dollars versus its IPO price 3.50 dollars.

Shanghai stock markets rose 0.3 percent. The Taiex in Taipei edged up 0.07 percent amid concerns over shrinking trade volumes, but computer memory chip makers like Nanya Tech surged on positive October sales and an upbeat fourth-quarter outlook.

Reuters

Stock Markets Drop in Asia

ACCESS to a fast Internet connection has become more than a convenience. It&S217;s being enshrined in some countries as a legal right of all citizens. Finland, for example, announced last week that it was moving up its timetable to next year from 2015 for guaranteeing broadband access to all, according to YLE, the Finnish broadcasting company.

Congress is clearly irritated that the United States has not done well in the international broadband Olympics. Other countries have national plans to accelerate the diffusion of broadband; America does not. So Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission a mandate to produce a plan with specific recommendations by next February.

We shouldn&S217;t get caught up, however, in a space-race panic. We&S217;ve actually done surprisingly well making a broadband connection accessible to a vast majority of American households. No less than 96 percent of households either subscribe to or have access to broadband service, according to an F.C.C. task force, which presented a status report to the commission last month.

The report does not play up the fact that almost all homes have, or could have, broadband service.

Nor does it highlight the actual median speed of 3 megabits a second among households that now have broadband, (which is based on data that probably understates the speeds substantially). The authors seem happily caught up in the thrill of playing an international game of catch-up.

The most interesting question here is the one that the F.C.C. can&S217;t answer: Why have 33 percent of American households that have access to broadband elected not to subscribe? The reasons &S220;are not well understood,&S221; the report says. A survey focusing on the nonadopters is under way.

We do know that adoption levels vary by age, income, education and race. Perhaps the F.C.C.&S217;s survey of nonadopters will show that low income is the main barrier to access. In that case, means-tested subsidies could remove that obstacle.

But age is clearly another factor. Survey data supplied by the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that just 30 percent of Americans who are 65 or older use broadband, compared with 77 percent of the 18-to-29 age group. (Which raises an interesting question itself: only 77 percent?)

The F.C.C.&S217;s own survey of nonadopters is likely to confirm that many older people are simply not as comfortable with newer technology. But it may also reveal that there is an irreducible core of people, spanning ages and income levels, who simply do not want to use the Internet.

And maybe that won&S217;t change, no matter how many social workers knock at their doors, and no matter how many years pass after Internet service has come to be accepted by their neighbors as a utility as essential as water and electricity. South Korea&S217;s experience as a broadband pioneer is suggestive. The task force looked at 22 countries with broadband plans, seeking best practices that were well suited to the United States, and South Korea&S217;s broadband initiative was of particular interest fast payday loan no faxing.

In 1999, South Korea began to help low-income and elderly households get PCs and become connected, and the outcome could be described as quite successful: &S220;Today, 83 percent of households in Korea have adopted broadband access,&S221; the report says. But one can also look at the remaining 17 percent and wonder what has prevented those households from getting online, despite the strenuous efforts of a government that has been a world leader in the broadband race.

The F.C.C. has invited comments and suggestions for its broadband initiative and has received about 41,000 pages in response, from individuals and businesses. Google proposes that every American have access by 2012 to a connections of 5 megabits a second (Mbps) &<51; in both directions. It also suggests that several cities be selected to test the installation in every household of 1-gigabit-a-second connections &<51; or more than a thousand times faster than the speed that the F.C.C. uses to define downstream &S220;broadband.&S221;

What exactly one could do with such a gloriously fast connection is not detailed. Then again, even the recent F.C.C. report, which does its best to list exciting possibilities that come into view with each increment of broadband speed, struggles to come up with many examples beyond 5 Mbps. Streamed classroom lectures, for example, require 1 to 5 Mbps; with 10 Mbps, the lectures come in high definition.

The estimated costs for universally upgrading the minimum speed of the nation&S217;s broadband connections to 3 Mbps would be about $20 billion, according to the report. Getting to 10 Mbps would be $50 billion. To play in the same league as Finland, with its 100 Mbps service promised to every citizen by 2015, would require $350 billion.

FINLAND occupies a compact 130,558 square miles, versus more than 3.5 million for the United States. The economics of broadband deployment are greatly affected by physical distances. With some understatement, the F.C.C. report says, &S220;the economics of providing broadband to the rural U.S. are challenging.&S221;

In a news release introducing the task force report, the F.C.C. calls broadband &S220;the infrastructure challenge of our time,&S221; which seems a wee bit overstated, given the decrepit state of our bridges, highways, railroads and schools. It also blithely overlooks the fact that the infrastructure is already in place to provide speeds of 3 to 10 Mbps to 94 percent of American households.

We&S217;ve built it, but not all have come. Some may never come.

Let&S217;s not assume that their and their nation&S217;s future will be hopelessly blighted if they don&S217;t.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

Digital Domain: Broadband Now! So Why Don’t Some Use It?

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

PARIS &S212; Britain's antitrust regulator said Thursday that it would oppose the planned merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, warning that the consolidation of two major players in entertainment in the United States and Europe could lead to higher concert ticket prices and less competition.

When the ticketing agent and concert promoter, both based in California, announced in February that they aimed to unite, the proposal immediately raised antitrust worries in the United States and in other countries.

Together, the two companies would be a player with even greater global reach and estimated annual revenue of about $6 billion. Ticketmaster distributes tickets through thousands of retail outlets all over the world, as well as online. Live Nation is the largest concert producer in the world, and the company says it sells 45 million tickets a year.

Britain's Competition Commission, an independent public agency, said in a statement Thursday that "the merger could severely inhibit the entry of a major new competitor" and result in higher prices for consumers.

The agency noted that the proposed merger would jeopardize an existing agreement between Live Nation and CTS Eventim, a ticketing and live entertainment company based in Germany.

The commission said it expected to issue a final decision on Nov. 24.

John Park, a spokesman for the agency, said that "final decisions usually reflect the provisional. At this point we have a thorough assessment easy fast payday loans."

He added, however, that there were a number of potential remedies that might allow a deal to proceed.

"One option would require Live Nation to use CTS for a portion of its business," he said. "Another is a potential divestment" of all or part of Live Nation's or Ticketmaster's operations in Britain, he said.

In response, Ticketmaster and Live Nation said that they would cooperate with the commission and that they remained committed to the merger. They argued that the deal would be in the public interest.

"We believe this merger will build a more efficient and effective company moving forward," the companies said, "and that working together we will be able to help achieve needed change that will strengthen a flagging music industry."

The two companies' willingness to make concessions will be key to whether or not the deal goes through, but a Ticketmaster spokeswoman declined to comment on their strategy.

The proposed merger is still being reviewed by the Justice Department.

Ticketmaster has said before that it does not set ticket prices and leaves those decisions to the artists. However, the company owns a controlling stake in a major artist management firm, Front Line Management.

CTS saw its shares rise 2.16 percent to 32.69 euros in midday trading.

British Regulator Objects to Ticketmaster Merger

LONDON – European markets rose modestly Monday ahead of an expected solid start to the week on Wall Street and after upbeat survey data from the services sector helped offset the gloom from last week's worse than expected U.S. jobs data.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 5.22 points, or 0.1 percent, at 4,993.92 while Germany's DAX rose 16.87 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,484.77. The CAC-40 in France was 8.06 points, or 0.2 percent, higher at 3,657.96.

Wall Street was also set to open higher later — Dow futures were up 44 points, or 0.5 percent, at 9,479 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 6.2 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,027.90.

In Europe, sentiment was buoyed by surveys showing further improvements in the services sector despite further subdued retail sales data for the 16 countries that use the euro. The purchasing managers' index — a broad gauge of business sentiment — for the eurozone showed the services sector expanded in September for the first time in 16 months, while the equivalent British survey showed the rate of growth rising.

The reports helped reinforce expectations that both the eurozone and Britain likely emerged from recession in the third quarter, although analysts warned not to expect a strong rebound in growth, with another dip activity possible later in the year.

Most attention on Wall Street later will be on a similar survey on the U.S. from the Institute of Supply Management.

The consensus of economists' forecasts is for the main index to rise to 50 in September from August's 48.4. If it does rise to 50 then that would mean the U.S. services sector is no longer shrinking — 50 is the threshold between expansion and contraction.

"With ISM data expected to come in at 50 it could be a day of gradually clawing back some of the ground lost last week," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

Last week, sentiment in the markets was jolted by the news that U.S. employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, way more than the 201,000 economists expected. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased to a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.

The news suggested companies were still relying on cost-cutting to eke out profits and consumers were still hurting and unlikely to boost their spending anytime soon fast payday loans. It also inspired extra caution ahead of third-quarter earnings reports this week that could shed more light on the U.S. economy's health.

"The risk of earnings disappointments cannot be ignored, and whatever the outcome, the season itself will lead to new questions over current valuations in equity markets globally," said UBS analyst Geoffrey Yu.

"With stocks almost 60 percent off their March lows, and signs of nervousness again coming to the fore last week, a deeper correction could be on the cards," he warned.

Currency markets are looking at the developments in stocks as many of the movements between exchange rates over the last few months have been predicated on how stocks have performed. The dollar, for example, has suffered as share prices have risen amid a rising appetite for risk. Conversely if shares now go into reverse, the dollar may start to benefit.

The dollar did move lower for a while after the Group of Seven finance ministers refrained from mentioning the currency in the communique that followed their meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.

"With the G-7 failing to come up with a strong statement on the dollar, the foreign exchange market remains stuck in recent trading ranges," said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital in London.

By early afternoon London time, the euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.4610 but the dollar rose 0.5 percent to 89.87 yen.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average lost 57.38 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,674.49, sliding to an 11-week low.

In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 2.3 percent to 1,606.90. India's benchmark fell 1.1 percent, Australia's index was down 0.6 percent and Singapore's benchmark fell 0.5 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 53.58, or 0.3 percent, to 20,429.07 after trading in the red for most of the day. Mainland China markets are closed for a weeklong holiday and reopen Friday.

Oil prices remained below $70, with benchmark crude for November delivery down 74 cents at $69.21. The contract fell 87 cents to settle at $69.95 on Friday.

___

Associated Press Writers Carlo Piovano in London and Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

European stocks edge up on upbeat services data

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore&&9;s largest sovereign wealth fund GIC said on Tuesday it had halved its stake in Citigroup (C.N) to below 5 percent, making a profit of &&6;1.6 billion as global equity markets rebound.

The stake sale came after Singapore&&9;s smaller fund Temasek Holdings lost an estimated over &&6;4 billion in Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC.N) and Barclays (BARC.L) in hasty exits around the start of 2009.

Analysts said GIC, also known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, took advantage of a rally in world stocks to take some money off the table and the sale suggested the fund may have some concerns about the outlook for global banks.

"Perhaps timings wise GIC benefited from the rally," said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB.

"The sale also reflects underlying concerns that although global institutions may have seen their darkest days, there could still be uncertainty ahead as OECD countries in particular could see patchy growth as a result of the recession," he said.

From late 2007, GIC plowed billions of dollars into Citigroup and UBS (UBSN.VX) and like other sovereign funds, had suffered initial losses in battered global banks as the financial crisis hit companies no fax needed payday loans.

Ng Kok Song, group chief investment officer of GIC, which manages an estimated &&6;200 billion-plus in assets, said the fund realized a profit of &&6;1.6 billion from the sale of Citigroup shares.

The Singapore investor had a profit including unrealized gains of about &&6;3.2 billion based on Citigroup&&9;s closing price of &&6;4.43 on Sept 21, he said.

On Sept 11, GIC exchanged its &&6;6.88 billion holding of Citigroup convertible preferred stock into ordinary shares at &&6;3.25 a share as part of a rescue package, gaining in the process an over-9 percent stake in the U.S. bank.

"A stake below 5 percent reflects GIC&&9;s goals and desire to be a portfolio investor," it said in a statement. "GIC will continue its investment in Citigroup as we are confident of its long-term prospects." (Reporting by Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

GIC trims Citi stake to below 5 percent