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

In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed a new layer of restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane.

Among other steps being imposed, passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane, and domestic passengers will probably face longer security lines.

The restrictions will again change the routine of air travel, which has undergone an upheaval since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001 and three attempts at air terrorism since then.

Just a day after the attempt on Friday, travelers at airports around the world began experiencing heightened screening in security lines. On one flight, from Newark Airport, flight attendants kept cabin lights on for the entire trip instead of dimming them for takeoff and landing.

The limits, which brought to mind some of the most stringent policies after the 2001 attacks, come at a difficult time for the airline industry.

Travel has declined about 20 percent since 2008 because of the economy, and airlines have been dealing with numerous delays the past week because of snowstorms on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

Airline industry executives said the new steps would complicate travel as vacationers return home from Christmas trips, and could also cause travelers to cancel plans for flights in 2010.

But the Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said in a statement Saturday that passengers should proceed with their holiday plans and &S220;as always, be observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity to law enforcement officials.&S221;

The Transportation Security Administration, which governs security at airports and on airplanes in the United States, had no immediate comment on the steps.

The T.S.A. planned to add more security resources as needed on a daily basis, a person with knowledge of the agency&S217;s plans said. The person said travelers would not experience the same thing at every airport, and that the system would be unpredictable by design.

Two foreign airlines, Air Canada and British Airways, disclosed the steps in notices on their Web sites. The airlines said the rules had been implemented by government security agencies including the T.S.A.

&S220;Among other things,&S221; the statement in Air Canada&S217;s Web site read, &S220;during the final hour of flight customers must remain seated, will not be allowed to access carry-on baggage, or have personal belongings or other items on their laps bad credit payday loans.&S221;

The suspect in the Friday attempt, identified as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, tried to ignite his incendiary device in the final hour of the flight while the plane was descending into Detroit.

On its Web site, American Airlines said the T.S.A. had ordered new measures for flights departing from foreign locations to the United States, including mandatory screening of all passengers at airport gates during the boarding process. All carry-on items would be screened at security checkpoints and again at boarding, the airline said. It urged passengers to leave extra time for screening and boarding.

In effect, the restrictions mean that passengers on flights of 90 minutes or less would most likely not be able to leave their seats at all, since airlines do not allow passengers to walk around the cabin while a plane is climbing to its cruising altitude.

The new restrictions began to be instituted Saturday on flights from Canada and Europe to the United States. Air Canada said it was waiving fees for the first checked bag, and it told passengers to be prepared for delays, cancellations and missed connections because of the new limits.

At airport terminals Saturday, travelers recounted the immediate differences they experienced. Though passengers arriving from Frankfurt passed speedily through United States customs at Kennedy Airport in New York, they said that in Germany the security was intensified.

&S220;I really was surprised,&S221; Eva Clesle said about the level of scrutiny in Frankfurt, adding that officials had inspected backpacks by opening &S220;every single zip.&S221;

In Rochester, one passenger waiting in a security line said she saw other passengers removed for additional screening.

The security administration, created in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, has emergency power to impose restrictions on air travel without consulting the airlines. Its steps have undergone modification in the past, however.

After the 2001 attacks, passengers bound for or leaving Reagan National Airport in Washington were not allowed to leave their seats for the first and last 30 minutes of a flight. The restriction was lifted in 2005.

Passengers still have to remove their shoes before entering screening machines, however, a step instituted at many airports and subsequently made mandatory after Richard C. Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, tried to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001 by igniting explosives in his shoes.

Sarah Maslin Nir contributed reporting.

Additional Layer of Restrictions Is Imposed on Airline Passengers

GENEVA (Reuters) – The world&&9;s airlines are set to lose &&6;5.6 billion next year, more than previously estimated, with rising fuel costs offsetting a rebound in both passenger and air cargo, the industry group IATA said on Tuesday.

In its latest outlook, the International Air Transport Association reaffirmed its projection of a &&6;11 billion loss in 2009 -- a year its chief Giovanni Bisignani called "an Annus Horribilis" for the highly cyclical sector.

"The worst is likely behind us," Bisignani said. "For 2010, some key statistics are moving in the right direction."

IATA, whose 230 members include Cathay Pacific (0293.HK), Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), United Airlines (UAUA.O) and Emirates (EMIRA.UL), had previously said the global airline industry would lose &&6;3.8 billion next year.

Renewed consumer confidence should increase the number of people traveling by air next year back to the 2007 peak, Bisignani said. IATA also suggested air cargo volumes would rise quickly in 2010 as businesses rush to replenish their stocks.

"Cargo demand is rising faster than world trade as depleted inventories are rebuilt," it said in a statement. "Once the inventory cycle completes, growth is expected to fall back in line with world trade."

Crude oil prices should reach an average of &&6;75 per barrel in 2010, up from the &&6;61.80 average for 2009, IATA said.

"As a percentage of operating costs, fuel will be 26 percent in 2010. This is considerably lower than the 32 percent of operating costs that fuel comprised in 2008, but twice the 13 percent of operating costs that fuel represented in 2001-2002 pay day advance."

European carriers are on track to generate the largest losses of any region, &&6;2.5 billion, while Asian-Pacific carriers are due to show the most dramatic improvement with losses of &&6;700 million, according to the Geneva-based body.

North American airlines will see their losses shrink to &&6;2 billion, with Latin American carriers the only profitable regional grouping, it said.

Earlier this month IATA said that 75 major airlines reported a combined net profit of &&6;700 million in the third quarter, up from a &&6;3.4 billion loss in that period in 2008.

The darkened IATA outlook for 2010 reflects the experiences of leading carriers and airport operators who have said they are seeing signs the worst may have passed for the global economy, though recovery could come slowly.

Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) this month said a "more dynamic" cargo sector supported signs of a slow recovery and Deutsche Lufthansa said air freight volumes were continuing to improve.

Passenger numbers at Frankfurt Airport have also risen as a result of higher demand on routes to America and Asia, the operator Fraport (FRAG.DE) said.

(Writing by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Jonathan Lynn)

Airline assn raises 2010 sector loss expectations

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Dubai World, the conglomerate whose debt woes are roiling global financial markets, is by its own description Dubai's "flag bearer in global investments."

Dubai, one of the seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates, said late Wednesday it would restructure Dubai World and announced a six-month "standstill" on repayments of the conglomerate's debt. The news sent shock waves through global markets. Read more on market reaction.

Dubai World is a sprawling holding company, wholly owned by the city-state's government, with interests in real estate, transportation, logistics and natural resources, according to its Web site.

Dubai World's Nakheel develops residential, retail, commercial and leisure real estate. It is behind projects such as "The World" that have made Dubai synonymous with grandiose and exorbitantly expensive real-estate projects.

"The World," for example, is a development of 300 islands in the shape of the world's continents, being created off the coast of Dubai. The Palm Trilogy refers to three man-made islands shaped like palms.

Fear of a debt default by Dubai sent European stocks tumbling and the pound down on fears for U.K. bank exposure. The price of gold retreated from its new record high and the dollar rebounded from recent lows, helped by talk of BOJ intervention and suspected SNB moves to halt the franc's rise.

Limitless is also a real estate developer owned by Dubai World, while Leisurecorp is a golf company whose portfolio includes the Chris Evert Tennis Centers and the Jumeirah Golf Estates no fax pay day loan.

In the transportation and logistics sector, DP World is one of the largest marine terminal operators in the world. It had 49 terminals and 12 new developments across 31 countries as of March.

Economic Zones World, a company that develops and manages real estate, is also owned by Dubai World. Its flagship company is the Jebel Ali Free Zone.

In the financial sector, Dubai World owns Istithmar, an alternative investment house. It acquired Barneys New York, the luxury specialty retailer, in 2007. Istithmar's equity investment exceeds $2.6 billion across markets ranging from North America to the Far East.

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, a subsidiary of Dubai World, is a market place for gold, diamonds, steel, base metals, tea and other commodities.

In the maritime industry, Drydocks World is an international player in ship repair, conversion, new building and other marine-related activities.

Dubai Maritime City is the first ever purpose-built hub for maritime business and commerce. It's located on a man-made peninsula between Port Rashid and the Dubai Dry Docks in the Arabian Gulf.

Dubai Natural Resources World was created as a business unit of Dubai World in 2008. It invests in natural resources, including energy, mining and metals, and agriculture. For example, the company has a joint venture in the oil and gas sector in both Russia and Nigeria.

Dubai World's sprawling empire

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

OTTAWA &<51; When English-speaking Canadians watch the television news, most of them choose among the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV or Global Television. But the prime minister, Stephen Harper, said in a speech last week that he preferred another choice: American news.

&S220;I don&S217;t like to watch Canadian news,&S221; Mr. Harper told the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Toronto on Wednesday, adding that he doesn&S217;t like to see himself analyzed. &S220;So my hobby is to watch politics elsewhere.&S221;

Of course, a statement like that plays into Canada&S217;s inferiority complex. While some people, including other members of the Conservative Party, suggested later that Mr. Harper might have been joking, his spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, confirmed that the prime minister avoided Canadian news broadcasts, but not all Canadian programming.

&S220;He definitely enjoys watching a good hockey game,&S221; Mr. Soudas said.

&S220;It&S217;s completely bizarre,&S221; said Bob Rae, a prominent member of Parliament for the opposition Liberal Party. &S220;Imagine if Sarkozy said: &S216;I don&S217;t watch the French news, just the BBC&S217; or Obama said he only watches Canadian news.&S221;

Peter Mansbridge, host of the CBC&S217;s flagship news program, &S220;The National,&S221; noted that a past prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, used to say he avoided Canadian media &S220;because he didn&S217;t care what they said free credit reports.&S221;

Nevertheless, Mr. Mansbridge seemed a little baffled.

&S220;It&S217;s a strange signal to send to the public at a time when Canadian networks, aside from covering this country, which U.S. networks don&S217;t, also spend considerable resources, and some of their correspondents literally risk their lives, to bring the Canadian perspective on international stories home from places that some U.S. networks ignore,&S221; Mr. Mansbridge wrote in an e-mail message.

Still, there is one regular viewer inside the official residence. Mr. Mansbridge said that Laureen Harper, the prime minister&S217;s wife, has told &S220;The National&S221; not only that she is a viewer but also that she &S220;even downloads the podcast of our regular Thursday night political panel and then often briefs her husband on what was discussed.&S221;

For News, Canada’s Leader Looks South of the Border

LONDON (AFP) – London stocks ended down on Tuesday as news of a 0.6 percent fall in wholesale prices across the Atlantic shook the market.

The FTSE 100 index dropped 0.72 percent to 5,243.40 points.

Barclays was the most traded stock with traders exchanging 168 million shares, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland which saw 164 million units switch hands.

Retailer Sainsbury was the session&&9;s star performer gaining 17.7 pence -- or 5.36 percent -- to finish at 347.8.

Pearson added 36.5 pence -- or 4.44 percent -- to stand at 858 american family insurance.5.

The top casualties were Autonomy Corp, falling 138 pence -- or 8.65 percent -- to finish at 1457. Barclays was down 18.3 pence -- or 4.79 percent -- to end at 363.75.

Sterling gained ground against both the euro and the dollar.

At 15:58, sterling was trading at $1.6427, up from $1.6423 at Monday&&9;s close. The pound climbed against the euro, rising to 1.1003, up from 1.0959 over the same period.

FTSE 100 down

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?

Investors clamored to buy pretty much anything on Tuesday &<51; as long as it was not the dollar.

Shares leaped ahead, with the Dow gaining more than 100 points on hopes of robust profit reports as earnings season kicks off later this week.

But a seventh-month slide in the value of the dollar gained force as investors migrated to other markets and fretted over a report that crude oil could one day be priced in other currencies, hobbling the dollar&S217;s role as a vehicle for global trade.

The dollar&S217;s declines propelled gold prices to all-time highs of $1,040 an ounce and touched off a buying spree for copper, silver and platinum and crude oil &<51; all commodities that stand to retain their value if the dollar does not.

The dollar slipped further against major currencies, continuing a decline that has sent it tumbling 15 percent since early March. The dollar fell to $1.47 against the euro, and the Japanese yen strengthened to 88.76 for every dollar. Concerns about record-breaking deficits and a lackluster economic outlook in the United States have steadily eaten away at the dollar&S217;s value since early March.

Investors who sought the relative safety of the American currency during the financial crisis are now pursuing higher returns in stocks, commodities and foreign currencies, amid speculation that demand for American debt is waning, and that the dollar could lose its status as the world&S217;s reserve currency.

Underlying the dollar&S217;s weakness is the growing perception that many policymakers around the world, and in Washington, quietly welcome a slow but sustained depreciation of the dollar, especially against the Chinese renminbi and other Asian currencies.

A weaker dollar would make imported goods more expensive in the United States and American exports more competitive, but it could also make overseas investors wary of buying the Treasury bonds the United States needs to sell to finance its budget deficit.

On Tuesday, investors&S217; concerns were piqued by Australia&S217;s surprise decision to raise interest rates, making it the first big economy to lift rates after the global financial crisis.

Countries around the world &<51; including the United States &<51; trimmed interest rates to record low levels as the credit crisis metastasized last year, in an emergency effort to stimulate the markets and keep lending from drying up. Although credit is flowing better now, the Federal Reserve has indicated that interest rates will hover near zero for some time.

&S220;The move was taken as a sign that the global economy is firmly on the road to recovery,&S221; said Vassili Serebriakov, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo. &S220;That&S217;s lifted risk appetites and assets across the world. The dollar strengthened when global financial markets went into tailspin and has retraced back all that strength.&S221;

Adding to the turmoil, a report on Tuesday in The Independent, a British newspaper, suggested that China, France, Japan and Russia were in secret talks with Persian Gulf countries to abandon the dollar for international trade in oil and replace it with a basket of currencies plus gold personal business card.

The article named no sources and was quickly denied by Muhammad al-Jasser, the governor of the Saudi central bank, and Dmitry Pankin, Russia&S217;s deputy finance minister. French officials declined to comment. In China, the government is closed for a weeklong holiday, but well-connected bankers were skeptical.

&S220;While informal discussions might have taken place, I doubt they represent a serious intent to undermine the existing global monetary order or the role of the U.S. dollar,&S221; said Fred Hu, who is the chairman of greater China for Goldman Sachs and advises the Chinese government.

But the report caught the attention of financial markets because several economists have been predicting in recent months that at some point, the world&S217;s oil exporters would start moving toward other currencies to limit exposure to the dollar.

&S220;It won&S217;t be easy to make such a shift, it&S217;s a pretty unrealistic idea in the near term,&S221; said Qu Hongbin, an HSBC economist in Hong Kong. But in the years to come, he added, China would be delighted if it could print its own currency to pay for oil, instead of having to earn dollars through exports.

As they pulled away from the dollar, investors streamed into commodities like crude oil and gold, whose values often move in opposite directions from the dollar. Fears that the American currency could decline even further if investors seek higher returns in more lucrative investments pushed gold prices higher.

&S220;Right now it doesn&S217;t give any sing of pulling back significantly,&S221; said James Steel, a commodities analyst at HSBC. &S220;There&S217;s still a worry about the dollar. There&S217;s a latent worry about inflation.&S221;

Crude oil futures in New York rose $1.38, to $71.78 a barrel in early trading.

Analysts characterized the surge in gold and oil prices as a reaction to weakness in the dollar, rather than a sign of bullish hopes for a quick recovery. Although activity is picking up, oil consumption remains subdued as factories lope along at partial capacity, and consumers are still reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on gold jewelry when the recovery is so tenuous.

At 1 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 135 points, or 1.4 percent, and the broader Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500-stock index was 1.5 percent higher, adding to their sharp gains from a day earlier. The Nasdaq was 1.7 percent higher.

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting.

Stocks and Gold Gain as Investors Shun the Dollar

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Belgian drugs, chemicals and plastics maker Solvay (SOLB.BR) said on Monday it would sell its drugs unit to U.S. partner Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) for 4.5 billion euros (&&6;6.5 billion) in cash and reinvest in chemicals and plastics.

Abbott had agreed to buy the unit to bolster its flagging prescription drug business by giving it a number of new medicines in late-stages of testing, sources familiar with the deal had earlier told Reuters.

"We are building a new refocused group with the financial means to further accelerate sustainable growth," Solvay&&9;s board chairman Alois Michielsen said in a statement.

The enterprise value of the deal is 5 fast payday loans.2 billion euros, including 4.5 billion in cash, additional potential milestone payments of up to 300 million euros between 2011 and 2013 and liabilities of about 400 million euros.

Solvay said the proceeds from the deal will be reinvested in external and organic growth in strategic projects in chemicals and plastics with a sharp focus on long term value creation.

Studies about such reinvestments are ongoing, it added.

(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block)

Solvay sells drugs unit to Abbott for $6.5 billion

The Chinese Ministry of Finance said Tuesday that it would issue 6 billion yuan worth of government bonds in Hong Kong, a major step to internationalize its currency at a time of concern about the dollar.

The yuan bond issue, worth about $879 million, will &S220;promote the RMB in neighboring countries,&S221; the Finance Ministry said on its Web site &S212; referring to the overall name of the Chinese currency, the renminbi &S212; &S220;and improve the yuan&S217;s international status.&S221;

&S220;The first step toward internationalization is regionalization,&S221; Shi Lei, a foreign currency analyst at Bank of China in Beijing, said in an interview. &S220;China wants to develop the offshore market in Hong Kong.&S221;

While domestic banks like Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China have issued yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong for a couple of years at the encouragement of Beijing, this is the first time that government bonds, the equivalent of U.S. Treasury securities, are to be issued. The sale is set for Sept. 28.

In July, the People&S217;s Bank of China started a program for local companies to settle trade in yuan, but it has so far spurred little trade.

Zhi Ming Zhang, an analyst at HSBC in Hong Kong, said the government bond issue might show foreign investors they could rely on the yuan.

&S220;If I&S217;m doing trade with China, where am I going to park this money?&S221; Mr. Zhi asked, referring to the yuan. The yuan-bond market needs security and liquidity to make such settlements attractive, he said, and government bonds will provide some security as well as a pricing benchmark instant payday loans.

Experts estimate that China holds about 75 percent of its $2 trillion in foreign reserves in dollar-denominated assets, but since the global financial crisis, that position has made Beijing uneasy. Since the beginning of 2007, the dollar has slipped more than 20 percent against the yen, and more than 12 percent against the yuan, and investors are concerned as the United States continues to pile up debt to finance its massive stimulus package.

In March, China&S217;s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, expressed concern about the dollar&S217;s slide and encouraged the United States to ensure its stability.

While the bond issue announced Tuesday is a step toward making the yuan a global currency, the size of the sale is small compared with those of bonds like Treasury securities, and the time it will take to establish the yuan internationally remains uncertain.

&S220;There is no timetable,&S221; said Mr. Shi, the Bank of China analyst, adding that developing the market would take &S220;at least three to five years.&S221;

In another move to make the yuan accessible to investors, BOC Suisse Fund Management, Bank of China&S217;s asset-management arm based in Geneva, said Friday that it had received approval from the Swiss financial regulator to create a new set of funds, nearly half of them denominated in the Chinese currency.

China to Issue Yuan-Denominated Bonds in Hong Kong

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks fell on Monday after a sharp drop in Chinese equities called into question whether asset prices have raced ahead of an economic recovery.

The selling mainly hurt shares in industrial and natural resource companies as commodities prices slumped. But financial stocks were also dented on fears they may be over valued after a strong run-up and following bearish comments from Barron&&9;s.

Recent slides in Chinese stocks have caused jitters in global stock markets that have rallied strongly in recent months, with the S&P 500 up around 50 percent since March. A 6.7 percent dive in the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) to a three-month closing low on Monday reignited those concerns.

"Investors in the United States felt it was important for China to help lead the path to economic recovery," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville. "If their markets are going to misbehave, it opens the question of whether they are going to see a recovery."

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 79.88 points, or 0.84 percent, at 9,464.32. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) lost 10.65 points, or 1.04 percent, at 1,018.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) fell 22.64 points, or 1.12 percent, at 2,006.13.

Chinese stocks recorded their second-biggest monthly loss in 15 years, and traders said the sell-off sparked a fall in the price of oil and other commodities on fears demand in the world&&9;s third economy may be weaker than thought.

Oil dropped more than 4 percent to below &&6;70 a barrel, and copper prices slid from 11-month highs.

In New York, shares in natural resource companies fell. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM no fax payday loan.N) dropped 0.8 percent to &&6;69.51 while miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) Inc fell 3.4 percent to &&6;63.24. Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) fell 2.6 percent to &&6;45.51.

Weighing on the financial sector, Barron&&9;s said the stock of American International Group Inc (AIG.N) was overpriced after soaring more than 50 percent last week and also recommended investors take profits in Citigroup Inc (C.N), which dropped 3 percent to &&6;5.07. AIG fell 6.5 percent to &&6;47.02.

Banc of America-Merrill Lynch cut its rating on the stock of Morgan Stanley (MS.N) to "neutral" from "buy," sending the shares down 3 percent to &&6;28.61.

The announcement of two large mergers failed to lift overall sentiment. Baker Hughes Inc (BHI.N), an oilfield services company, said it would buy smaller rival BJ Services Co (BJS.N) for &&6;5.5 billion, and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) said it would buy Marvel Entertainment Inc (MVL.N) for &&6;4 billion.

Shares in Marvel, famous for its stable of characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, rocketed 26 percent to &&6;48.71 while BJ Services added 7 percent to &&6;16.53.

A regional report that showed manufacturing in the U.S. Midwest was on the cusp of expansion did little to boost sentiment, with all three major indexes falling around 1 percent by mid-morning.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago said on Monday its index of Midwest business activity rose in August to 50.0 from 43.4 in July.

(Additional reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Wall Street slides as China equities, financials weigh

OAKLAND, Calif. – Specialty home retailer Cost Plus Inc. said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed as the company cut costs to offset lower sales of big-ticket items such as living room and dining room furniture.

Its loss for the quarter that ended Aug. 1 narrowed to $20.8 million, or 94 cents per share, from $26.6 million, or $1.21 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $183.4 million from $210.7 million last year.

Sales in Cost Plus stores open at least one year, a key retail metric known as same-store sales, fell 10.9 percent during the quarter. The company had forecast a same-store sales decline between 9.5 percent and 14 auto car loan.5 percent.

It said same-store sales fell because the average ticket per customer fell 8 percent &<51; mainly due to lower dining and living furniture sales &<51; and because 3.4 percent fewer shoppers made it to the checkout.

Retailers have reduced their inventory of more expensive items such as furniture to cut costs amid the recession.

Selling, general and administrative expenses fell 15 percent because of other cost-cutting measures such as closing stores, which lowered payroll, and trims in advertising and other expenses.

Cost Plus reports smaller loss in 2Q

For investors looking for stability in the financial markets and more signs of a recovery, it was easy to cheer the news on Tuesday: the chairman of the Federal Reserve was named to another term, housing prices showed slender improvement, and consumers grew more confident.

So after a day of listless trading, Wall Street moved higher on Tuesday morning, led by consumer-geared companies and big banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

At 10:20 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 40 points or 0.4 percent while the broader Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500-stock index also rose 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq was up 0.7 percent.

The news came in rapid succession on Tuesday morning: President Obama interrupted his vacation in Massachusetts to announce that he was reappointing Ben. S. Bernanke as Fed chairman, citing Mr. Bernanke&S217;s able response to the financial crisis.

As Mr. Obama spoke, Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s released its monthly Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a closely watched barometer of the housing market. Prices of single-family homes in 20 metropolitan areas fell less than expected from last year, and prices in 18 cities were higher in June than a month earlier.

Stocks crested higher still on the heels of new figures showing that consumer confidence had bounded back in August after slipping in July. The Conference Board&S217;s survey of consumers found that fewer people said that business conditions were bad, and that consumers detected some hints of thaw in the job market.

Overall, consumer confidence rose to 54.1 in August from 47.4 a month earlier &<51; marked improvements from the deepest days of the recession, when consumer sentiment hit record lows amid heavy job losses and huge declines in financial markets.

Still, people are worried about finding work as the unemployment rate nears 10 percent, and many expect the job market and the climate for business to remain difficult in the months ahead. Many investors are concerned that consumers will keep a lid on their spending, potentially stifling a broader recovery, as they try to rebuild their finances and worry about losing their jobs or having their wages cut.

&S220;As long as earnings continue to weigh heavily on consumers&S217; minds, spending is likely to remain constrained,&S221; Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.

Investors Assess Latest News and Push Shares Higher

In the latest setback to Switzerland&S217;s tradition of banking secrecy, UBS, one of the nation&S217;s largest banks, agreed on Wednesday to turn over information on more than 4,400 American clients suspected by the Internal Revenue Service of using Swiss accounts for tax evasion.

The agreement is likely to unnerve American customers of UBS who do not know if their names will be divulged, and could deter others from opening Swiss accounts in the future.

Whether the deal will change the Swiss banking industry&S217;s culture of secrecy remains to be seen. Smaller Swiss banks say they are confident that they can blunt its effects and continue to profit by finding new, more elaborate ways to protect the privacy of clients. But American authorities have made clear that their pursuit of tax evaders will not stop at UBS.

The 4,450 accounts at UBS that are covered under the new agreement held over $18 billion at one point, according to the I.R.S. commissioner, Douglas Shulman, who called the deal &S220;a major step forward in piercing the veil of bank secrecy.&S221;

UBS will give the names to the Swiss tax authority, which will forward them to the I.R.S. Under a new tax treaty with Switzerland, it could take more than a year for most of the names to be disclosed. In coming weeks the bank will start to notify clients, who can appeal the disclosure in Swiss courts.

It is not clear how UBS will decide which clients to unmask, though American officials have said that they are interested only in the biggest accounts &<51; some containing hundreds of millions of dollars &<51; and accounts that made use of offshore entities and sham corporations.

The agreement is another victory for the I.R.S. and the Justice Department in the long-running case against UBS, which in February paid $780 million and admitted to criminal wrongdoing in selling offshore banking services that enabled tax evasion. Larger Swiss banks like UBS and Credit Suisse have curtailed banking services for wealthy Americans in response to the increased scrutiny.

Some smaller, centuries-old private Swiss banks, however, are stepping up their efforts to attract American money, given the importance of foreign clients to the nation&S217;s financial institutions.

Executives at smaller Swiss banks and trade groups say they are increasingly working with Swiss financial and legal companies to set up offshore entities as a way to shield assets from prying regulatory eyes. They have also been reassuring clients that their accounts will remain confidential.

Sebastian Dovey, a managing partner at Scorpio Partnership, a wealth consulting firm in London, said that &S220;we have not seen huge amounts of movement&S221; of American money out of Swiss banks.

The current penalty for this type of failure to disclose assets is up to 50 percent of the highest annual balance of each account for each of the last three years &<51; an amount that can quickly wipe out an investor and still leave him owing taxes and interest.

Investors who come forward before Sept. 23 face a reduced penalty, of 5 percent to 20 percent, depending in part on whether the wealth was inherited. They will also be hit with the penalty just once, on the highest balance in the accounts during the last six years.

The Justice Department has opened criminal investigations of 150 UBS clients, and is likely to bring more indictments on top of the four it brought in recent months. Only clients who are prosecuted are likely to have their names become public.

The landmark settlement is expected to provide a road map for the I.R.S. as it tries to clamp down on tax evasion by Americans who use offshore accounts.

Smaller Swiss banks are still helping clients hide billions of dollars through complex structures in offshore havens in the Caribbean, Panama, Luxembourg, Singapore and Guernsey in the English Channel. The crackdown is casting a spotlight on the network of lawyers, accountants and advisers who help underpin the Swiss private banking industry by steering clients to such banks.

An American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said this week that the Justice Department was preparing criminal cases against some of the Swiss agents and intermediaries who set up offshore entities for clients and funnel their money to private banks. They take a referral fee in the process &<51; sometimes up to 50 percent, according to a former UBS private banker.

A little-known I.R.S. program, the Offshore Identification Unit, is helping to build a map of this world. It recently began tracking all disclosures of wealthy Americans who, unnerved by the UBS situation, have come forward to declare their assets and account details, often naming the private banks and intermediaries they used.

Glimpses of the network were revealed last month when one UBS client, Jeffrey P. Chernick, of Stanfordville, N.Y., pleaded guilty to criminal charges of evading taxes on $8 million he put into UBS accounts in the Cayman Islands and Zurich. Mr. Chernick worked with and received advice from a Swiss lawyer and a bank executive at a small private bank in Zurich, neither of them UBS employees, according to court records.

Many intermediaries still extol the advantages of Swiss accounts, including Swiss political and economic stability, its European base and its high level of client service &<51; and the fact that Switzerland has not traditionally considered tax evasion to be a crime.

Micheloud &&8; Cie, which has offices in Lausanne and other Swiss cities, offers to help clients set up accounts at the biggest private banks in Switzerland. Its Web site describes such accounts as &S220;the ultimate symbol of wealth, personal achievement and privacy,&S221; and advises clients on how to set up numbered accounts with code names like &S220;Octopussy&S221; and &S220;Cello.&S221;

The firm says it will not accept clients who are citizens of various countries that it considers undesirable, including Albania, Uzbekistan, Nigeria &<51; and now the United States. But it also assures prospective clients that &S220;Swiss bank secrecy is not lifted for tax evasion, even upon the request of a foreign government.&S221;

Other countries have also pressured Switzerland in recent months for names of suspected tax cheats, including Germany and Italy. The attention has left Swiss bankers perturbed about demands that they ensure that their clients pay their taxes.

&S220;The American authorities are trying to use the banks as guardians of the clients&S217; conscience, which is not really what we&S217;re here for,&S221; said Michel Y. D&>33;robert, secretary general of the Swiss Private Bankers Association in Geneva, a trade group of traditional private banks. &S220;Priests are better for that.&S221;

Julia Werdigier contributed reporting.

Names Deal Cracks Swiss Bank Secrecy