PARIS &S212; Spyker Cars, the tiny Dutch automaker whose last-ditch bid for Saab was rejected Friday by General Motors, came back Sunday with a renewed offer for the struggling Swedish icon, which G.M. has said it plans to shut down.

A spokesman for G.M. reacted cautiously to Spyker&S217;s new offer, which many industry insiders consider a long shot. However, he said other potential buyers had expressed interest in Saab since Friday&S217;s announcement.

&S220;We continue to wind down Saab but during that process we&S217;ve received several expressions of interest and we evaluate these offers as they come, but beyond that we&S217;re not making any comment,&S221; said Chris Preuss, the G.M. spokesman.

G.M. said Friday that it did not think a deal could be concluded by its Dec. 31 deadline because of concerns about Spyker that arose during the final negotiations. G.M. said that left it no alternative but to begin winding down Saab&S217;s operations in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Upping the ante Sunday, Victor Muller, Spyker&S217;s chief executive, said he had presented G.M. with an 11-point proposal that addressed the automaker&S217;s concerns. He imposed a deadline of his own of 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday for G.M. to respond to his offer.

&S220;Despite our collective 11th-hour set-back, we are returning to the table with a renewed offer that addresses every known issue brought to light during the initial negotiations and that has the full backing of the Saab Management,&S221; Mr. Muller said in a statement.

Publicly, G.M. executives declined to identify their problems with Spyker, but several officials familiar with the negotiations said G.M. was troubled by Spyker&S217;s reliance on Russian loans to finance the deal, as well as the fate of its proprietary technology under Spyker.

The biggest investor in Spyker is the Russian bank Convers Group, which is controlled by Alexander Antonov, a tycoon who was shot seven times and reportedly lost a finger in a failed assassination attempt in Moscow in March.

His son Vladimir, 34, is a top executive at Convers and chairman of Spyker.

In the first half of 2009, Spyker borrowed &S364;11.6 million, or $16.6 million, from Bank Snoras, a Lithuanian bank also controlled by the Antonovs.

Another snag had been the question of whether Spyker could win a &S364;400 million loan from the European Investment Bank that had been part of an earlier plan to sell Saab to Koenigsegg, a Swedish maker of high-end sports cars. That deal collapsed last month.

In his statement Sunday, Mr. Muller said Spyker, whose specialty sports cars retail for roughly a quarter-million dollars each, could complete the deal without the European Investment Bank&S217;s help.

&S220;The new offer eliminates the need for an E.I.B. loan approval prior to year-end, for example, which will allow the deal to be concluded within G.M.&S217;s deadline,&S221; he said.

&S220;Our company motto is nulla tenaci invia est via &S212; for the tenacious no road is impassable,&S221; Mr. Muller added. &S220;And we intend to remain true to that throughout these negotiations as we bid to secure Saab&S217;s future and revive the company.&S221;

In Trollhattan, which was hit hard by Friday&S217;s announcement, the new Spyker offer provoked a brief flurry of hope.

&S220;It&S217;s good news, of course, but it&S217;s difficult to say too much,&S221; said Paul Akerlund, chairman of the IF Metall union at Saab, which represents about 1,500 of the automaker&S217;s 3,500 employees in Trollhattan infrared heaters. &S220;Now we&S217;re waiting to see what G.M. says, but we know Spyker really wants to buy Saab.&S221;

&S220;People still have hopes but they&S217;re waiting on G.M.,&S221; he added.

Saab was set to introduce a new version of its 9-5 luxury sedan in showrooms in April, the first update of the company&S217;s top-end car in 12 years. But G.M. said Friday the car would not make it to market if Saab does indeed shut down.

The region around Trollhattan and Gotenburg in western Sweden is home to both Saab and Volvo, and Saab&S217;s collapse would devastate the network of parts makers and other firms that supply the two companies.

On Saturday, the Swedish press reported that a consortium of local investors was considering a new bid for Saab, which, along with Volvo and Ikea, is among the country&S217;s best-known brands.

Even as the Saab drama plays out, Volvo Car is in the final stages of being sold by Ford Motor to Zhejiang Geely Holding of China.

After G.M.&S217;s decision to walk away Friday, Mr. Akerlund said, &S220;some people were frustrated, some were angry and some were sad. Maybe this new offer can help so we can have a solution at the end of the day.&S221;

Since the beginning of the year, G.M. has been trying to unload Saab, which has been a perennial money-loser despite a devoted following in Scandinavia, the northeastern United States and parts of Europe.

With sales of just 93,000 cars worldwide, Saab proved too small to draw the interest of bigger automakers that are looking to global alliances to achieve new economies of scale. That left the field of bidders to far smaller companies like Koenigsegg and now Spyker.

Turning around Saab would be a huge challenge for Spyker, given G.M&S217;s. inability to turn a profit at the subsidiary as well as Spyker&S217;s lack of experience in mass car manufacturing. Spyker sells 30 to 50 high-performance sports cars a year, which are made to individual order.

&S220;It&S217;s something of a long shot, and I wonder if Spyker has the depth of management to deal with a company the size of Saab,&S221; said Peter Wells, co-director for industry research of the Center for Automotive Research at Cardiff University in Wales. &S220;I don&S217;t think Spyker can float Saab for a significant amount of time,&S221; he said.

The longer Saab&S217;s fate hangs in the balance, he added, the longer the odds of saving it.

&S220;Every day that goes by the brand gets more damaged, especially in the eyes of consumers,&S221; Mr. Wells said. Despite Saab&S217;s famously loyal customer base, he said, &S220;it&S217;s very difficult to recover from that.&S221;

Even if the Spyker bid fails &S212; and other buyers don&S217;t emerge to rescue Saab &S212; G.M. said warranties will still be honored and Saab owners around the world will still be able to find parts and service.

In all, 1,100 dealerships worldwide will be affected, including about 200 in the United States.

Tiny Automaker Renews Saab Offer

LONDON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,000 people were trapped for hours inside the Channel Tunnel after four Eurostar trains broke down due to cold weather, according local news reports on Saturday.

The trains failed as they left the cold air in northern France and entered the warmer tunnel. The trains were coming from Brussels and Paris, and Eurostar said the change in the atmospheric conditions caused a problem with their electrics.

Eurostar said the four trains had been moved from the tunnel and passengers were being transferred to England.

"Four Eurostars broken down at one time -- it's absolutely unprecedented," said a spokesman from Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel Tunnel.

"There's never actually been an evacuation of a Eurostar train in the 15 years that the tunnel has been opened and last night we evacuated two whole trains to get people off," he said.

Eurostar services have been cancelled until noon Saturday and will be severely disrupted at the weekend easy to get unsecured personal loans.

Heavy snowfall caused travel chaos, forced schools to close and cut off power supplies in parts of Britain on Friday. Meanwhile, more snow and freezing temperatures are expected for parts of Scotland and southeastern and eastern England.

Stranded passengers wait at St Pancras Station in London, capital of Britain, Dec. 19, 2009. More than 2,000 people were trapped for hours inside the Channel Tunnel after four Eurostar trains broke down due to cold weather, according to local news reports on Saturday. Eurostar services have been cancelled until noon Saturday and will be severely disrupted at the weekend. Eurostar said the four trains had been moved from the tunnel and passengers were being transferred to England. (Xinhua/Guo Rui)
Photo Gallery>>>

Cold snap traps four trains in Channel Tunnel

Bowing to government pressure, Japan&S217;s central bank said Tuesday it would pump short-term funds into the country&S217;s banking system in a renewed bid to kick-start lending and breathe life into the moribund economy.

But the Bank of Japan refused to increase its purchases of government bonds and engage in full-blown &S220;quantitative easing,&S221; as called for by government officials. The measured response raised questions about whether the central bank, reluctant to take orders from politicians on monetary policy, was merely maneuvering to get government officials off its back.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has repeatedly warned that the return of deflation and a surging currency threaten to wipe out the economic recovery Japan has seen in the last two quarters. The yen climbed to a 14-year high against the dollar last week, dealing a blow to Japan&S217;s many exporters, because a strong yen makes Japanese goods more expensive abroad.

Meanwhile, prices and wages have slumped, raising fears of a prolonged and painful bout of deflation that could drag Japan&S217;s economic growth back into negative territory. The country is still reeling from its deepest recession in decades, brought on by the collapse in world trade that came in the wake of the global economic crisis.

At a hastily called emergency meeting on Tuesday, the Bank of Japan&S217;s board voted to provide &<65;10 trillion, or $115 billion, in short-term loans to commercial banks to bolster liquidity. The loans will carry a fixed interest rate of 0.1 percent and the bank said it would accept commercial paper as well as government and corporate bonds as collateral. The bank kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.1 percent.

&S220;While Japan&S217;s economy is picking up, there is not yet sufficient momentum to support self-sustaining recovery,&S221; the central bank said in a statement. &S220;The bank has judged that, in supporting the economic recovery from the financial side, it is most effective at present to further spread the strong effects of monetary easing.&S221;

While some analysts questioned how much effect the bank&S217;s move would have on the economy, Mr. Hatoyama said he was satisfied, for now.

&S220;I applaud their efforts to show their resolve to stop deflation and spur the economy,&S221; he told reporters.

The Bank of Japan&S217;s move bucks a nascent trend among monetary authorities around the globe to start scaling back emergency measures like rock-bottom interest rates. The central bank&S217;s moves also show how precarious the recovery of the world&S217;s second-largest economy seems to be.

Australia, whose economy has rebounded rapidly this year, on Tuesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point for a third straight month. And the U.S. Federal Reserve said Monday it would begin testing a strategy to shrink its trillion-dollar portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and eventually wind down its program to prop up financial markets online cash advance.

Still, Dubai&S217;s announcement last week that its investment arm would delay payments for some of its billions of dollars in debt has led to renewed jitters among some global investors.

Concerns over the financial health of the formerly cash-rich emirate have also sparked a flight to currencies that are considered safe havens, including the yen.

The yen, which declined in early trading Thursday on expectations the central bank would take bold policy steps to counteract the currency&S217;s appreciation, crept up to near 14-year highs after the announcement. Earlier, the Nikkei stock index rallied 2.4 percent on hopes that a respite from the strong yen would help exporters&S217; shares.

The Bank of Japan had initially expressed doubts over the need to inject further liquidity into the economy, pointing to stabilizing consumer prices and falling unemployment as signs of recovery.

But as exporters&S217; stock prices tanked recently, demands from government ministers for action by the central bank reached a fever pitch.

With interest rates already near zero, however, the bank has few options.

By providing a new lending facility, the central bank hopes to pump more money into the nation&S217;s banks to encourage them to increase lending to the troubled corporate sector.

The central bank is eager &S220;to show that any policy change is taken with the initiative of the Bank of Japan, not by political pressure,&S221; Masaaki Kanno, economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan, wrote in a note Tuesday.

Demands by officials for more action from the central bank reflect the government's own lack of options. Saddled with a crippling public debt approaching twice the size of its gross domestic product, Japan has limited room for stimulus.

This week, Mr. Hatoyama is set to announce an extra budget that will greatly exceed an initial estimate given by officials of &<65;2.7 trillion. But much of the package will be a mere reshuffling of programs promised by the previous government, and its effect on the economy is likely to be small, analysts say.

Moreover, Mr. Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party won a landslide victory in elections in August, has promised to slash wasteful public spending. While such a move is popular with the public, cutting public works with the economy so fragile could deal a blow to recovery.

The government is therefore leaning increasingly on the central bank.

&S220;We cannot resolve all our economic woes, especially those in our financial system with short-term fiscal spending,&S221; said Naoto Kan, deputy prime minister and state minister for national strategy. &S220;These two pillars must more closely integrate their actions.&S221;

Japan’s Central Bank Takes New Steps to Lift Economy

Hot News: Manufacturing Improved in November

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

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- TomTom shares have lost their sense of direction over the last month, with the stock down by more than a third, as worries about competition and third-quarter earnings lead the stock off route.

TomTom , the Dutch-listed personal satellite navigation firm, has seen its shares swing like a winding road: from a low of 2.12 euros in March, then, after it cut debt by selling discounted shares to investors, rising to 13.35 euros on Sept. 11.

But now the stock is back on its way down, skidding to 6.95 euros a share on Friday, a downturn of 35% from late October levels.

Analysts have focused on two areas in the last few weeks -- results and the threat of increased competition from Internet search engine giant Google .

Taking past performance first, on Oct. 28 TomTom reported that its net income fell 47% in the third quarter of 2009, to 31 million euros, below analyst forecasts for a profit of 36.4 million euros.

Revenue fell 15% to 365 million euros in the quarter, missing a 369 million euro analyst forecast compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.

The company's results were hit by lower selling prices for its key navigation products in the quarter, with average prices to 99 euros, a 27% fall from year-earlier levels and a 12% drop from the second quarter.

"The decline was driven by price decreases across a number of products, partly in anticipation of promotional activities in the fourth quarter. We continue to expect that the rate of [average price] decline for the full year will be slower than in 2008," TomTom said.

Writing about TomTom's third-quarter results, Societe Generale analysts said "sales were slightly disappointing and management did not offer any exciting fourth-quarter outlook. In our view this has tempered a lot of the enthusiasm built over the past months around a recovery in the personal navigation device industry."

Future profits were very much also on the minds of TomTom investors on that day after Google revealed that it has upgraded its smartphone software to include a free navigation feature.

In a blog posting, Google said that it will launch Google Maps Navigation, which provides turn-by-turn directions and can be found within Google's Android operating system.

"Obviously the market for such handsets initially will be limited, but Google is resetting the price benchmark for navigation services at $0.00, which puts TomTom's business model into question," said the analysts at Societe Generale.

They called Google's move an "extremely negative development" for TomTom.

Julian Chillingworth, chief investment officer of Rathbone Unit Trust Management, said he's stayed from buying TomTom. "I am slightly dubious about technology companies with one product offering," he said.

But there are some hope for a u-turn in the stock.

Rival Garmin reported results on Nov paydayloans. 4 and said that its third-quarter profit rose a much-stronger-than-forecast 26% to $215 million.

"Garmin reported a strong increase in the gross and operating margin of its automotive business on the back of solid average selling prices, lower component prices and tight cost control," said analyst Martijn den Drijver at SNS Securities.

Also, Garmin noted that European markets improved markedly in the third quarter compared to the first half of 2009, he said.

"Given that TomTom's largest market is Europe that should be seen as positive as Garmin's market share in Europe has remained steady at 20%," den Drijver at SNS Securities. TomTom has a market share of around 44% in Europe.

Additionally, the average selling price news from Garmin suggests that TomTom's lower third-quarter average price is likely to be a one-off.

"TomTom explained that the ASP was due to earlier than normal promotions and the depreciation of the U.S. dollar," he said.

On valuation metrics, TomTom appears cheaper than Garmin. TomTom trades on 11.2 times estimated 2010 results and 9.0 times 2011 earnings. In contrast, Garmin trades on 12.4 times 2010 earnings and 13.4 times 2011 results, according to FactSet data.

There are questions about how successful Google's move will be as well.

"We do not know yet how fast smart phone manufacturers will adopt the Android operating system," said den Drijver.

He said that Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Motorola and LG all have some Android models but "these are not major players in the smart phone market, which is dominated by Nokia, Research In Motion and Apple who have a combined market share of over 76%." In addition, consumers can use TomTom's navigational product over Apple's iPhone.

He also said smart phones "continue to be a sub-optimal means of navigation in a car due to the small screen size, low battery life, inferior speaker quality and complicated pricing."

Still, "sentiment-wise, Google's announcement obviously does not help as it implies that maps have become a commodity," he said.

Will James, a fund manager at Standard Life Investments, made a similar point.

"The idea of commoditization has suddenly raised the question about how to monetize maps. Google can leverage their strong position in advertising," said James, whose employer is the group's 17th-largest holder, according to FactSet data.

But he still holds out hopes for the company.

"I think that the market is worrying about something that is quite a long way off," he said. "You can argue a lot of this is in the price. TomTom will continue their penetration into the car market and it will probably bring them closer to Apple."

European Stocks to Watch: TomTom stock loses its way

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

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

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

Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting of APEC opens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

D'Innocenzio reported from New York.

Retail faces uncertainty as CIT enters bankruptcy

WASHINGTON &<51; The House Financial Services Committee voted on Thursday to create an agency to protect consumers from predatory lending, deceptive credit card terms and other abuses.

By a 39-to-29 vote, the panel moved regulatory legislation a crucial step forward on what was likely to be a long road toward final passage by the full Congress. President Obama, who has put financial regulation high on his domestic agenda, has said he wants a bill on his desk before the end of the year.

Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the committee, said after the vote that he was optimistic of final passage either late this year or early in 2010. Mr. Frank said he was confident that the pillars of the legislation would remain intact.

&S220;No bill I&S217;ve ever had to share with anyone else has been everything I liked,&S221; Mr. Frank said, predicting that action in the House would create momentum in the Senate.

The House panel also approved, by voice vote, a provision to impose new regulations for credit cards by Dec. 1, instead of mid-February, after Democratic members complained that lenders had been raising interest rates in anticipation of the legislation.

Mr. Obama immediately issued a statement lauding the committee action. &S220;This bill has now passed a major hurdle, and this step sends an important signal to the American people that we will not stand by and allow big financial firms and their lobbyists to mobilize against change,&S221; the president said.

&S220;They are doing what they always do &<51; descending on Congress, using every bit of influence they have to maintain the status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers, despite the fact that recently those same American consumers bailed them out as a consequence of the bad decisions that they made.&S221;

Later, the White House issued a statement calling passage of the bill by year&S217;s end essential. &S220;And we think a central part of regulatory reform is a consumer finance protection agency that looks out for, in all of this, normal, everyday consumers,&S221; said Robert Gibbs, the president&S217;s chief spokesman pay day advance.

Mr. Gibbs said he understood that Senators Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, of the Senate Banking Committee, were working &S220;quickly and expeditiously to ensure financial regulatory reform is something that happens and is written into law.&S221;

The House committee vote on creating a consumer financial protection agency was mostly along party lines. Two Democrats voted against the measure (Travis Childers of Mississippi and Walt Minnick of Idaho) and one Republican voted for it (Michael N. Castle of Delaware).

The vote came a day after the committee voted to give the federal government the power to block states from regulating large national banks in some circumstances. That vote came after committee members reached a compromise on how much authority state regulators should have.

The Obama administration opposed any efforts by the federal government to pre-empt state officials from imposing more rigorous banking standards. A group of Democrats with close ties to the banking industry sought a complete federal pre-emption, which would have the effect of sharply limiting any state regulation of banks.

Under the compromise offered by two House Democrats, Melvin Watt of North Carolina and Dennis Moore of Kansas, and approved by voice vote, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, would be able to override the states, but only if it found that the state law &S220;significantly&S221; interfered with federal regulatory policies.

On another issue that has been hotly debated for months, the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday approved a measure to regulate derivatives, the arcane financial instruments that have been linked to the current financial crisis. The Financial Services Committee approved a similar measure last week. (The agriculture panel has jurisdiction because many derivatives involve trading in farm commodities.)

Vote Backs a Financial Oversight Body

Hot News: SEC mulls ways to shed light on dark pools

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &<51; Michigan again had the highest unemployment rate of all states in September at 15.3 percent, followed by Nevada and Rhode Island, which set records, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Nevada, at 13.3 percent, and Rhode Island, at 13 percent, were followed by California, at 12.2 percent. Florida also hit its highest rate since records began 33 years ago, 11 percent.

Fifteen states and Puerto Rico now have unemployment rates above 10 percent &<51; meaning more than one person in 10 looking for a job is not working there.

Still, the Labor Department said, unemployment rates were little changed on the month in most states, and dropped in 19 states.

The federal car-buying incentive program known as cash for clunkers helped slow the exodus of work in Michigan, which is the heart of American automobile manufacturing, the state&S217;s employment department said.

Manufacturing jobs have increased in the state for three consecutive months, according to the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, while the monthly increases in the state&S217;s unemployment rate have shrunk.

Still, the work force picture was not as rosy in terms of jobs numbers in a majority of states.

Nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 43 states and the District of Columbia in September. Only seven states gained jobs, and the largest increase &<51; 4,400 in Indiana &<51; was small when compared with the biggest drop of 81,700 in New York.

Texas shed 44,700 positions, California 39,300, Wisconsin 21,700 and Michigan 21,500 no fax no teletrack payday loan. The nation&S217;s capital, Washington, experienced the largest percentage drop, 1.4 percent.

Since September 2008, all states and the District of Columbia have lost jobs, with California shedding the most, 732,700.

In Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California, the unemployment rate dropped from August, but so did the number of jobs.

While Wisconsin found encouragement in its jobless rate falling to 7.7 percent in the state&S217;s fourth monthly decrease, Ohio read a different story in the discrepancy.

&S220;Ohio&S217;s unemployment rate declined in September as more Ohioans dropped out of the labor force,&S221; said Douglas Lumpkin, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services director, about the decline to 10.1 percent, from 10.8 percent in August.

Laid-off workers can become so discouraged about the prospects of new jobs that they give up looking and are not counted as part of the labor force. At the same time, with the downturn in housing and automobile manufacturing, analysts have begun to worry about structural unemployment creeping into the economy.

The unemployment rate increased the most in any state in Illinois, to 10.5 percent, the highest since October 1983.

Illinois lost 14,200 jobs, the 20th month that payrolls in the state had shrunk, resulting in the smallest number of jobs in the state in 14 years.

Michigan Again Reports Highest Jobless Rate

M&>01;RIGNAC, FRANCE &S212; On a recent afternoon at the sprawling Dassault Aviation plant, on the perimeter of the Bordeaux airport, the smell of kerosene hung in the air as engineers tested hydraulics and fuel systems on the combat jet Rafale.

Those planes are destined for delivery to the French military, just like the previous 70 to 80 that have rolled off the assembly line. But there&S217;s a sense of cautious optimism here that the Rafale is finally within touching distance of a long-sought goal: its first foreign sale.

A tentative, &S364;5 billion deal with Brazil, announced last month, would go some way toward offsetting the downturn at Dassault&S217;s commercially more important Falcon business jet division. It also would help France to recapture some of the glory &S212; and export revenue &S212; lost when the Rafale&S217;s illustrious predecessor, the Mirage, ceased production in 2007.

The Brazilians, emboldened by their booming economy, are looking for a flexible, twin-engine combat jet to guard their offshore oil deposits and the vast Amazon rainforest. But should the deal go through, they would get more than just 36 planes.

The sale also includes a total transfer of technology that would enable Brazil to assemble most of the Rafale jets itself, and the right to sell them regionally. The contract might rise to 120 aircraft.

The terms illustrate the pressures on Dassault and a handful of other defense companies competing in a tightening global market.

Not only are advanced new American and European jets coming to market, but looming on the horizon are the prospect of advanced unmanned fighters and even competition from China, using technology acquired from Israeli and Russian jets.

Jean-Paul H&>33;bert, a strategic expert at the &>01;cole des Hautes &>01;tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, says Dassault is facing &S220;an appallingly hard decision&S221; as it debates the post-Rafale era.

&S220;Long-term research costs are very heavy and the French arms industry has not been that commercially very successful alone,&S221; he said.

With defense budgets under pressure and many potential clients tied to U.S. fighters, Dassault, which ranks with EADS and Thales among the biggest French defense contractors, has been fighting for leftovers.

Along with market leaders like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Dassault&S217;s competitors include the advanced but expensive pan-European twin-engine Eurofighter, which operates in Europe and Saudi Arabia; the Saab Gripen, in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa; and the Russian Sukhoi and MIG.

&S220;The market is shrinking and there are too many players,&S221; said Eugene Kogan, guest researcher at the International Institute for Liberal Policy in Vienna. &S220;And it looks like China may soon start to move into some of the markets once dominated by Russia.&S221;

The Rafale was conceived in the mid-1980s and first test flown in 1991, as a successor to a series of aircraft that included the Mirage, which earned its stripes during the Six-Day War in the Middle East. Some 2,800 Mirages were delivered, more than half &S212; 57 percent &S212; for export.

But the French military wanted new capabilities, and so Dassault turned to the Rafale. The first prototype was built in 1986 and it entered service in 2001. Its sleek twin or single seat jets are recognizable by their main Delta wings and mini canard wings below the cockpit; land and sea versions have been built. Its engine is made by the French company Snecma, and Dassault expects the plane to be enhanced by an upgraded RBE2 radar from Thales, in which Dassault this year took a 26 percent stake.

Dassault has come close to exporting the Rafale before, notably to Morocco in 2007 and Singapore and South Korea previously, but those governments opted instead for U.S. hardware. The disappointments were blamed on bureaucratic problems in Paris and Washington&S217;s greater clout.

The Brazil package would be complex. Six jets would be made in France and 30 assembled in Brazil by Embraer, in which Dassault has a stake of 0.9 percent. The contract might expand to 120 aircraft, and comes alongside sales of other French hardware to the country and planned purchases by France of Brazilian transport planes instant payday loan.

&S220;It looks like technology transfer was pretty critical,&S221; said Rebecca Grant, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute, a research body in Arlington, Virginia.

The Saab Gripen, with its General Electric engine and Italian radar, seems to offer less in transfers; Brazilian demands may have gone beyond what Washington was willing to envisage, according to analysts.

Mrs. Grant also noted that the market will get even tougher once the Joint Strike Fighter from Lockheed Martin arrives in the next few years. Also known as the F-35, it appears to be the favored choice among NATO countries like Norway, the Netherlands and Poland, who are tempted by shared production to replace their mainstay F-16s.

&S220;The Rafale hasn&S217;t established itself a big customer base, so it&S217;s less flexible,&S221; Mrs. Grant said. &S220;You can&S217;t underestimate the importance of interoperability and costs.&S221;

&S220;Interoperability&S221; refers to the maintenance of jets on bases across the globe. Dassault argues that the Rafale&S217;s service in Afghanistan since 2007 proves this is not an issue.

Dassualt also says that there have been no cost overruns for the program, scheduled to run until around 2025 and scaled back to 294 jets for &S364;28 billion.

The stike fighter of Lockheed Martin, hit by delays, is now projected by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to cost Washington $300 billion for 2,440 deliveries, above 2001 estimates of $233 billion for 2,860.

Despite interest in the sale to Brazil, Dassault&S217;s most important product is the Falcon business jet, which has been transporting royalty, pop stars and chief executives for decades.

Over the past five years, Falcons represented on average 60 percent of sales and 80 percent of orders; Dassault received 115 orders in 2008, down from 212 a year earlier, and expects even fewer this year.

Falcons, which cost from $30 million to $50 million, are finished in Little Rock, Arkansas, from parts built in France.

At M&>33;rignac, workers were assembling a Falcon 7X for Warren Buffet&S217;s NetJets. Other clients like Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup cancelled orders last year during the financial meltdown.

Olivier Brochet, an analyst at Natixis Securities, said Rafale exports might help offset lower demand for the Falcon.

The market consensus for Dassault is 2009 revenue of &S364;3.5 billion and profit of &S364;289 million, down from 2008 revenue of &S364;3.75 billion and profit of &S364;373 million.

Dassault&S217;s share price appears to be influenced partly by liquidity, with 50.5 percent of the company held by the Dassault family &S212; which has a host of other interests in areas as diverse as media, wine, auctions, software and electric cars. Another 46 percent is held by EADS. So far this year, the shares are up 20 percent at about &S364;480.

With its modest size &S212; the group employs 12,500 &S212; Dassault has retained a reputation for agility not always apparent in French industry.

But unless Europeans can cooperate and move away from domestic champions, they will suffer in the race to supply the next generation of fighters, said Mr. Kogan from the Vienna-based institute.

Dassault appears to be thinking along the same lines. Eric Trappier, executive vice president at Dassault Aviation, said that Rafale&S217;s &S220;successor will probably be designed through a European cooperation, from 2025.&S221;

Back in M&>33;rignac, a Rafale was being towed away for delivery to French forces after assembly and testing.

&S220;It&S217;s always difficult to see an aircraft leaving,&S221; an employee sighed, &S220;it&S217;s our baby.&S221;

That pain might be easier to bear if future Rafales are destined for South America.

Jet Deal a Sign of Small Defense Contractors’ Woes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Friday as investors snapped up technology shares following upbeat broker comments on such bellwethers as Apple, offsetting a drag from natural resource shares after the dollar&&9;s rebound.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O), the iPhone and the iPod maker, jumped 0.5 percent to &&6;190.20 after it was added to UBS&&9; list of strategic stock picks.

Shares of BlackBerry devices maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) gained 2 percent to &&6;70.08 after a Baird analyst upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "neutral," saying upcoming device launches could be a positive catalyst and the current stock price was attractive.

"Technology is one of the sectors that&&9;s still growing, and I think that&&9;s why you&&9;re seeing the strength. The valuations are still not extreme for their growth," said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an investment advisory firm, based in Toledo, Ohio.

"The tech balance sheets are strong, and the companies have some interesting products as far as the smartphones, and that&&9;s just incredible as far as the overseas potential."

The Dow Jones industrial average ( free credit scores.DJI) jumped 26.15 points, or 0.27 percent, to 9,813.02. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) rose 2.15 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,067.63. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 8.82 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,132.75.

The semiconductor index (.SOXX) was up 1.6 percent.

International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) advanced 1.8 percent to &&6;124.48 and was the top boost to the Dow.

The dollar rose broadly, putting a lid on global commodity prices after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that monetary policy might have to be tightened as a recovery takes hold.

The dollar&&9;s decline, which culminated in a 14-month trough against a basket of currencies on Thursday, has been one the major underpinnings of the stock market&&9;s run-up as the appetite for riskier assets grew.

The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) has rallied nearly 60 percent from a 12-year low of early March, and was on track to reverse a two-week losing streak.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Wall Street rises as Apple, other techs advance

Hot News: Stock futures flat as dollars bounce weighs

BRUSSELS &S212; The economy of the euro zone shrank more than expected in the second quarter of this year because private demand and trade were lower than previously estimated, data released Wednesday showed. But analysts said it was still likely that the region was already returning to growth.

The European Union statistics office Eurostat reported that gross domestic product in the 16-country euro area contracted 0.2 percent in the April-to-June period, compared with the previous quarter, and by 4.8 percent in annual terms.

This compared with the previously reported drops of 0.1 percent and 4.7 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had expected Eurostat to confirm its previous estimates.

But Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight, said that what he termed the &S220;modest downward revision&S221; in figures for the second quarter &S220;does not materially change the picture.&S221;

&S220;It still indicates that the euro zone economy was close to stabilizing in the second quarter after a year of deep overall contraction, and it still seems likely that the region returned to growth in the third quarter, albeit modest,&S221; he said.

He forecast 0.3 percent growth in the just-concluded third quarter, compared with the second.

A plunge in inventories was slightly smaller than previously reported immediate payday loans online. The drop in stocks of finished goods took away 0.6 percentage point from the overall result in the second quarter, rather than the 0.7 percentage point reported previously.

Also the contribution from government spending was higher than previously reported, at 0.2 percentage point, rather than just 0.1 percentage point, showing the positive effects of stimulus packages that have injected money into economies.

But this was more than offset by a downward revision of the positive contributions made by household demand and trade. Consumer demand was zero rather than a positive 0.1 percentage point and trade added 0.5 percentage point, rather than 0.7 points as estimated earlier.

Eurostat data also showed the recession turned out to be deeper than previously estimated in the Netherlands and Austria.

The data is likely to add to European Central Bank caution not to withdraw its monetary stimulus prematurely when the E.C.B. meets to decide interest rates on Thursday.

Economists say they believe the E.C.B. will keep rates at a record low 1 percent until the third quarter of 2010.

Reuters

Euro-Zone G.D.P. Shrank More Than Expected in Quarter

Hot News: Regulators Plan to Study Risks of Atrazine

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

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks could hit more speed bumps this week if the start of the third-quarter earnings season offers little evidence that the economic recovery is gaining strength.

With second-quarter earnings primarily boosted by cost-cutting, investors want to see if the latest quarterly results will show an improvement in revenues. That&&9;s a priority for investors because revenue growth is deemed a crucial indicator of consumer and corporate spending.

Aluminum company Alcoa Inc (AA.N), a Dow component, is scheduled to post quarterly results on Wednesday after the market&&9;s close, marking the unofficial kickoff of the latest earnings parade.

The other marquee names on this week&&9;s brief earnings calendar are PepsiCo (PEP.N), Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N), Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) and Monsanto Co (MON.N).

Investors are clamoring for more solid signs of economic stability after the Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 (.SPX) has climbed 51.5 percent from a 12-year closing low on March 9.

SHOW US THE MONEY

By that score, the latest quarterly earnings are a high-stakes endeavor, with investors saying to Corporate America: "Show us the money."

William Rutherford, president and chief investment officer of Rutherford Investment Management in Portland, Oregon, said that "earnings have to be good enough to justify the run-up we&&9;ve had.

"We haven&&9;t got all the problems solved by any means," he added. "We&&9;re still going to see bumps along the way."

Indeed, a string of surprisingly weak economic reports in recent days gave investors a cold reminder that the recovery will not be without hitches, even with the massive stimulus from the government.

On Friday, dour news came from the government&&9;s nonfarm payrolls report showing that U.S. employers shed far more jobs in September than expected. The jobs data put the stock market&&9;s bulls on the defensive. And this week could be just as daunting if there are few positive surprises.

The benchmark S&P 500 suffered its second straight weekly drop on Friday, and it is down 4.3 percent from its September 22 close, its highest finish since the current rally began.

"The next big thing we&&9;re going to talk about is earnings," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer&&9;s Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio savings account payday loans. "Usually after the first couple of days, you get a feel as to what the overall trend is going to be."

Thomson Reuters data show that third-quarter earnings are forecast to drop 24.7 percent from a year earlier, a projection that gives companies a low hurdle to overcome following a surprisingly improved second quarter.

MERGER WATCH AND BERNANKE

More takeover deals could also dictate this week&&9;s market action -- if there are any, according to analysts.

A flurry of takeovers over the last two weeks has dominated the headlines as companies jostle to bolster their revenue streams in an uncertain economy.

"With many companies&&9; growth challenged, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg in M&A," said Scott Billeaudeau, portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Minneapolis.

Notable deals in the past week included Xerox Corp&&9;s (XRX.N) planned purchase of Affiliated Computer Services Inc

(ACS.N).

On Thursday, Mexican brewer and bottler FEMSA said it was in talks with several companies about a possible deal involving its beer business.

This week&&9;s economic calendar is light. But on Monday, the spotlight will be on the Institute for Supply Management&&9;s September index of activity in the vast U.S. services sector.

According to a Reuters poll of economists, the ISM non-manufacturing index, or services index, is forecast to have rebounded to 50.0, the dividing line between contraction and growth, after hitting 48.4 in August.

Investors also will pay attention to monthly sales reports, due on Thursday, from major retailers to assess how consumers are faring as the job market remains weak.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be on center stage as he is scheduled to give a speech on the U.S. central bank&&9;s balance sheet before a Fed conference in Washington on Thursday. The next day, Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will speak on monetary policy and the financial crisis at the same conference.

(Editing by Jan Paschal )

Wall Street Week Ahead: Stocks may hit earnings speed bumps

BEIJING, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- China contributed 19.2 percent of the world economic growth in 2007, up from 2.3 percent in 1978, a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

It said China tops the world in contribution to the global economic growth.

The report was the 18th by the NBS. It showcased the improving international status and influence of new China over years of development.

According to the NBS, China's gross domestic product (GDP) was 30 billion U.S. dollars in 1952, more than doubling by 1960, and reached 3.86 trillion U.S. dollars in 2008.

China had also become the world's third largest economy in 2008by accounting for 6 payday loan company.4 percent of the global GDP.

Meanwhile, the country's gross national income (GNI) per capital has been catching up with the world average. The GNI per capita was 10.1 percent of the world average in 1978, and 32.3 percent in2008.

In terms of GNI per capita ranking among 209 countries and regions by the World Bank, China was 130th in 2008 at 2,770 U.S. dollars, up 15 places compared 750 U.S. dollars in 1997. Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

China top contributor to world economic growth