SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Technology stocks held onto a modest lead over the broader market during Wednesday's after-hours session, where thin trading was dominated by exchange-traded funds.

The PowerShares QQQ , which tracks 100 of the largest, nonfinancial companies trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, edged 0.1% higher in late trading.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF , which tracks the S&P 500, fell 0.2% on volume of 16 million shares.

Citigroup shares extended the day's losses, slipping 0.3% in late trading. Late in the regular session, Citigroup said it completed its $20 billion TARP repayment to the U.S. government.

Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Mead Johnson Nutrition shares traded flat on relatively high volume, with more than six million shares of each company trading hands in the after-hours session.

During the regular session, Mead Johnson said former parent Bristol-Myers had completed an exchange offer for the maker of infant formula, resulting in its split-off. In February, Mead Johnson made its initial public offering, selling 17% of its shares to the public.

No major earnings releases were scheduled for Wednesday's after-hours session.

DOW INDUSTRIALS (DJIA)

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In regular trading Wednesday, the Nasdaq Composite outpaced the other major benchmarks, helped by a 4 instant payday loan.6% gain in the shares of Ebay and a 4.3% advance in the shares of Yahoo .

Information technology was the second-biggest gainer on the S&P 500 , which returned to a gain in afternoon trading, pulled higher by the energy sector.

Healthcare stocks may post notable moves in Thursday's trading session.

Late Wednesday, Senate lawmakers voted voted 60-39 to cut off debate on the White House-backed, $871 billion healthcare bill. The vote paves the way for a 7 a.m. vote Thursday morning on the package, which seeks to extend insurance coverage to millions of Americans and put new rules on insurers.

The bill will need to be reconciled with the House-passed version, which includes a government insurance plan left out by the Senate.

Also after the closing bell, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. said they have applied for antitrust immunity with the Department of Transportation to create a trans-Pacific network with Japan's All Nippon Airways. The venture will allow the airlines joint management of scheduling, and pricing and sales for Pacific routes.

Shares in the U.S. carriers slipped on very low volume after the bell.

After Hours: Tech keeps lead in late-trading; Citi slips

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.

Dubai Sends Risk Aversion Soaring

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

Hot News: New-Home Sales Rise, but Factory Orders Slip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department is in talks with GMAC Financial Services Inc about a possible additional cash infusion to the company, an Obama administration official confirmed on Tuesday night.

The official declined to say how much additional money was under discussion for GMAC, which already has received &&6;12.5 billion of taxpayer funds high risk personal loans.

GMAC is the traditional lender to General Motors Co and is taking over the auto loan business of Chrysler.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by Eric Walsh and Carol Bishopric)

Treasury talks to GMAC about more cash

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

One of the biggest costs of Beijing's rapid economic development has been the destruction of many of the city's old courtyard houses, which line the once numerous alleys known as hutongs. The crux of the problem is how to preserve the old buildings and, at the same time, bring them and the rest of the city, into the 21st century. One of China's most famous up-and-coming architects, has devised a striking solution.Zhang Wei says he was shocked when he first saw the structureZhang Wei spends his life working to preserve the folklore and traditions of old Beijing. He was not sure what to expect when he went to see what had been done to modernize a courtyard house in the city center."I was shocked by it," Zhang said. "When I first walked in, I couldn't figure out what that shiny thing was. It looks like an egg. It also looks like a water drop. It's really beautiful."The surprising addition that put a smile on his face is a large silver bubble that looks like a drop of liquid mercury, oozing over the corner of the traditional courtyard house.Bubble structure is being used commercially to sell wine and antiquesThe bubble's highly-polished metal surface reflects the trees and its edges disappear into the sky. The space is being used commercially as a shop to sell wine and antique furniture. The bubble conceals the staircase to the rooftop deck. Also hidden inside is a modern necessity not available in traditional courtyard homes - a toilet. The architect, Ma Yansong, is better known as the winner of a high-profile international competition to design a 56-story residential building in Canada payday loan online. Due to be completed next year, Ma calls his design the "Absolute Tower". But it has been nicknamed the "Marilyn Monroe Tower" because of its swirling shape.While on the verge of being famous internationally, Ma's grand beautification plans for his hometown, Beijing, are much closer to his heart.Ma Yansong won a high-profile international competition to design a residential building in Canada"This is Tiananmen Square. This is the square, this is the Forbidden City and this is the Congress building and the national museum. So, we basically covered the whole concrete plaza with trees," Ma explained.Covering Tiananmen Square with trees, or building huge floating gardens in downtown Beijing, is not likely to happen any time soon. But Ma is at least pleased with the bubble in the hutong."We basically make a new space. It looks like a silver, liquid thing. It looks very futuristic," Ma explained. "It looks absolutely not [like] the old building, but it's attached to the old building, and forms a new courtyard."Wang Xiaolin applauds the effort for its innovative flairOne of the house's main tenants, Wang Xiaolin, applauds that effort."I think preservation also needs innovation," Wang said. "So, I think what we are doing here is preservation and innovation. I think after a few years, other people will realize it too. Just imagine - in old Beijing hutongs, you can randomly see some buildings like this. Wouldn't that be great?"

Futuristic Addition Adorns Traditional Beijing Courtyard Home

The American economy shed another 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, reinforcing a broad assumption that many more months of lean times lie ahead for working people.

The latest snapshot of the nation&S217;s job market released by the Labor Department on Friday amplified the notion that the recession has probably ended, as a technical matter. Though the job market continued to worsen, the pace of deterioration remained markedly slower than earlier in the year, when roughly 700,000 jobs a month were disappearing.

Yet the report added to the sentiment that the economic expansion, which is probably under way, will be weak and tentative, with scarce paychecks and anxiety remaining prominent features of American life well into next year.

&S220;This is a weak report,&S221; said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. &S220;The rate of job loss has tapered off, but we still haven&S217;t reached the point where businesses are willing to hire.&S221;

The continuing hard times in the job market seem likely to increase pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to consider another dose of federal stimulus spending, even as the government grapples with deficits projected by some economists to exceed $10 trillion over the next decade.

Capturing particular notice was a preliminary revision to the assumptions that the Labor Department used in a survey of private employers. The department disclosed that, in March 2009, the economy held 824,000 fewer jobs than it previously believed, making an already bleak picture worse.

For millions of unemployed people, the change merely confirmed something many have come to grasp intimately, through the discouraging process of seeking work.

&S220;There&S217;s nothing out there,&S221; said Jerry Lamirande, a technology systems engineer in Amarillo, Tex., who has been out of work since April 2008.

During the technology boom of the late 1990s, Mr. Lamirande, now 62, worked for I.B.M. and made about $130,000 a year. After a layoff seven years ago, he has been paid about $70,000 a year as a consultant working under temporary contracts.

Since his last job, he and his wife have lived on her salary as a public school teacher and on hardship withdrawals from his retirement account. He has searched nationwide for his next contract, willing to relocate for work.

&S220;I have no choice,&S221; he said. &S220;I&S217;ve got to go where the opportunities are. The problem is, there aren&S217;t many opportunities.&S221;

With each passing month, he worries that he is slipping from even being qualified for meager openings that now attract 14 and 15 applicants each.

&S220;You&S217;ve got new technology that you&S217;re not learning about,&S221; he said. &S220;The longer you&S217;re out, the worse it gets.&S221;

The latest report lent further credence to the sense that opportunities were indeed diminishing, and in nearly every field. The unemployment rate continued to inch toward double digits, a level last seen in June 1983. The so-called underemployment rate (which adds in people whose hours have cut and those working part time for lack of full-time positions) reached 17 percent, its highest point since the government began tracking such data in 1994.

Health care remained a rare bright spot, adding 19,000 jobs in September, but construction jobs slipped by 64,000, manufacturing declined by 51,000 and retail lost another 39,000 jobs. Government jobs slipped by 53,000, in what experts viewed as an ominous sign of worsening state and local coffers.

&S220;That&S217;s the budget crunch hitting,&S221; said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. &S220;We&S217;re still losing jobs at a very rapid pace. We&S217;re still looking at an economy with a lot of weakness.&S221;

Most economists &<51; Mr cash advance no faxing. Baker included &<51; assume the economy expanded at an annual pace of about 3 percent from July to September. But debate focuses on the vigor and staying power of the recovery.

More optimistic views anticipate a robust bounce-back from what now stands as the longest, deepest recession since the Great Depression. But most economists expect a sustained slog through stubbornly high rates of joblessness &<51; a situation that seemed more probable after Friday&S217;s report.

The expected growth in recent months is largely the result of businesses cutting inventories at a slower pace after the panic that accompanied the financial crisis. As some enterprises &<51; particularly factories in the Midwest &<51; begin to rebuild stocks, the impacts could wash through the economy for another few months, adding jobs and moderating the overall decline.

After that, however, the underlying weakness of the economy will probably reassert itself, experts say. After many years of borrowing against homes and cashing in stock portfolios to spend in excess of incomes, many Americans are tapped out. With the era of easy money seemingly over, austerity and saving have replaced spending and investment in millions of households, putting the brakes on overall economic activity.

&S220;There&S217;s basically zero evidence in this report for the story of a robust recovery,&S221; Mr. Hoffman said.

As many Americans transition from living on home equity loans to sustaining themselves on paychecks, weekly pay continues to effectively shrink: Over the last year, average hourly earnings for rank-and-file workers &<51; some 80 percent of the labor force &<51; have increased 2.5 percent. But average hourly earnings have expanded by only 0.7 percent, less than the increase in the cost of living, because so many employers have slashed working hours.

That trend held in September, with the average workweek edging down by a tenth of an hour, to 33 hours.

For those out of work, the job market looks harsher now that any point in the recession. The number of people who have been jobless for more than six months increased by 450,000 in September, reaching 5.4 million.

&S220;We have a truly massive crisis of long-term unemployment,&S221; said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project in a statement, adding that nearly 400,000 jobless people had exhausted their unemployment benefits by the end of September. &S220;Today&S217;s employment report is a marching order for Congress to pass unemployment benefit extensions to all states, quickly.&S221;

The first signs of improvement will probably be seen among temporary workers, say experts, as companies that have been hunkering down in the face of uncertain prospects take tentative measures to expand.

But temporary help services lost another 1,700 jobs in September, according to the report. Many employers are still waiting for firm evidence of growth before adding to their payrolls.

&S220;Companies are extremely cautious,&S221; said Roy Krause, chief executive of Speherion, a recruiting and staffing company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. &S220;This recession was so painful that many companies are not anxious to take on more costs.&S221;

All of which translates into continued apprehension in many households.

In Elizabeth, N.J., Stephanie Wheeler, 56, has drained her savings down to $800 in the year since she lost her job at a data processing company.

&S220;It&S217;s terrifying,&S221; she said. &S220;I have an apartment. I&S217;ve been here for eight years. I don&S217;t know what&S217;s going to happen. I&S217;m petrified of being set out on the street.&S221;

Jack Healy contributed reporting.

Jobs Report Highlights Uncertainty of U.S. Recovery

THE United States government is borrowing money like never before. The national debt rose by more than a third over a one-year period, far more than it ever did at any time since World War II.

In the past, when the government became a heavy borrower, there was talk about crowding out private borrowers. But this time, interest rates have remained low and no one seems to be worried about that.

The reason is simple: Rather than crowding out the private sector, Uncle Sam is now standing in for it. Much of the government borrowing went to investments in financial institutions needed to keep them alive. Other hundreds of billions went to a variety of programs aimed at stimulating the private economy, including programs that effectively had the government pick up part of the cost for some home buyers and some auto buyers.

This week, the Federal Reserve published its quarterly report on debt levels in the economy. While Uncle Sam borrowed more, others borrowed less. The accompanying chart shows that total domestic debt &<51; the amounts owed by individuals, governments and businesses &<51; climbed just 3.7 percent from the second quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of this year. That is the smallest increase since the Fed started these calculations in the early 1950s.

Moreover, domestic debt declined in the second quarter, falling 0.3 percent to $50.8 trillion. The figures are not seasonally adjusted, making quarter-to-quarter comparisons risky, but it was the first such decline since the first quarter of 1954, when total debt was less than $500 billion.

Over the 12-month period, nonfinancial businesses increased their debt by just 1.3 percent. Since that number is well below the interest rate most of those companies pay, it indicates that they paid back more in old loans than they took out in new ones.

Until this recession, the idea that American individuals would ever cut their overall debt levels seemed as likely as an August snowfall in Miami. But that was before the bottom fell out of the housing market, something that Florida condo developers had considered to be equally unlikely quick payday loans.

Over the year, total household debt fell by 1.7 percent, and mortgage debt &<51; the largest component of household debt &<51; fell a bit more, at a 1.8 percent pace. This is the 10th recession since the Fed began collecting the numbers, but the first in which the amount of home mortgage debt fell. Some of that decline, of course, came from foreclosures that canceled debt and left lenders with big losses.

For most of the last two decades, the biggest increase in debt in America came from financial companies. Much of that debt came from financial innovation rather than actual economic activity. Once, a homeowner took out a mortgage, and household debt increased. But by early this decade, the mortgage could be used to secure a mortgage-backed security, and the mortgage-backed security could be used to secure a collateralized debt obligation. Those last two loans counted as financial obligations. There was no more real economic activity, but there was a lot more borrowing.

In some cases, the newly created financial debt was guaranteed only by the underlying assets &<51; like the home mortgage. But other financial borrowing became the equivalent of government debt, at least as seen by the lenders. That was because the money was either borrowed by government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae, or guaranteed by them or by government agencies.

Such debts rose at a 10.2 percent rate over the last two decades. Debt issued by financial companies without such guarantees rose even faster, at a 10.6 percent rate. By contrast, the debt of nonfinancial businesses climbed at a rate of 5.9 percent.

Twenty years ago, nonfinancial businesses in the United States borrowed $1.70 for every dollar borrowed by the financial sector, government-guaranteed or not. Now the figure is 68 cents.

Floyd Norris&S217;s blog on finance and economics is at nytimes.com/norris

Off the Charts: A Rich Uncle Is Picking Up the Borrowing Slack

Hot News: Government steps up prosecution of U.S. tax evaders

BRUSSELS &S212; The Dell executive was sweating bullets at the prospect that chips from Advanced Micro Devices would be used in Dell personal computers instead of chips from Intel, Dell&S217;s main supplier.

In an e-mail message, the executive warned his boss that the scale of retaliation by Intel would be so severe that Dell would &S220;have to bite and scratch to even hold&S221; its 50 percent discount on price of the Intel chips. He warned that using A.M.D. chips in computers for sales to companies would lead Intel to offer an even slimmer discount.

&S220;Boss,&S221; the executive wrote, Intel is &S220;prepared for&S221; all-out war &S220;if Dell joins the A.M.D. exodus.&S221;

The European Commission&S217;s antitrust unit on Monday published the text of this e-mail message, from 2004, and a torrent of similar documents to back up its contention that the record $1.5 billion fine it imposed in May against Intel was justified.

The documents, E.U. regulators argued, clearly show that computer manufacturers were sorely afraid to cross Intel, which holds 77 percent of the global market for computer chips, by buying from A.M.D., Intel&S217;s only serious rival, with 23 percent.

For its part, Intel fired back on Monday, alleging that the commission had engaged in unfair tactics of its own. Intel has appealed the fine in European court, claiming that the commission botched procedures in its investigation of chip sales.

At stake is the strong market position Intel has long maintained over A.M.D., particularly if other antitrust regulators, like the U.S. Department of Justice, follow the European ruling.

Intel said Monday that a report on the antitrust investigation by the commission&S217;s ombudsman, as yet unpublished, would be critical of the commission.

European antitrust lawyers said the public back-and-forth between litigants was unlikely to influence the outcome of the appeal, which will not be heard by the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg until next year at the earliest.

&S220;I think the commission feels pretty confident about its actions, which appear to be sound and backed up by the evidence in the case,&S221; said Michael Reynolds, an antitrust lawyer in Brussels at the law firm Allen & Overy. &S220;I don't think any public debate is going to have an influence on the appeals court's decision.&S221;

E.U. regulators first began investigating Intel in 2001, a year after A.M.D. filed a complaint with the E.U. authority in Brussels. In two sets of charges, in 2007 and 2008, the commission accused Intel of abusing its dominant position in computer chips by giving large rebates to computer makers, by paying computer makers to delay or cancel product lines and by offering chips for powerful server computers at prices below actual cost.

The commission regulators claim that the e-mails released on Monday show a pattern of intimidation that they assert was repeated across the industry as Intel bound its customers in a complex web of rebates and incentives aimed at hobbling A.M.D. A commission official said &S220;all-out war&S221; was a paraphrase of the language in the internal Dell e-mail message, from 2004, as the original wording was too offensive to reproduce in a public document.

The internal documents from executives at Dell, Hewlett Packard, NEC, Lenovo, and Media Saturn Holding, a German electronics retailer, describe how Intel conditioned its rebates on the companies outfitting 80 percent to 100 percent of their desktop and laptop computers with Intel chips.

The e-mail messages also detailed how Intel based rebates to Acer, H-P and Lenovo on those companies delaying the introduction of computers based on A allstate insurance company.M.D. chips.

In one internal company presentation from 2003, Dell noted that switching any part of its supplies to A.M.D. from Dell risked retaliation by Intel that &S220;could be severe and prolonged with impact to all LOBs,&S221; or lines of business.

Another computer maker, Hewlett-Packard, submitted an e-mail to the commission showing an H-P executive pleading with other members of the company to keep quiet about an apparently restrictive agreement with Intel.

&S220;PLEASE DO NOT ... communicate to the regions, your team members or AMD that we are constrained to 5% AMD by pursuing the Intel agreement,&S221; the e-mail message, from 2002, said.

In another e-mail extract, a Hewlett-Packard executive warned his colleagues not to jeopardize payments made to H.P. by Intel by selling A.M.D.-based business desktop computers though certain distributors.

&S220;You can NOT use the commercial AMD line in the channel in any country, it must be done direct,&S221; the e-mail, from 2004, said. &S220;If you do and we get caught (and we will), the Intel money (each month) is gone (they would terminate the deal). The risk is too high.&S221;

E.U. officials would not comment Monday on whether Ms. Kroes published the e-mails to counter complaints by Intel to the European ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, about the commission's handling of the antitrust investigation.

Gundi Gadesmann, a spokesman in Brussels for Mr. Diamandouros, declined to say whether the ombudsman&S217;s report, which has not been published, was critical of the commission. Ms. Gadesmann said a public version of the report probably would be released next month.

Intel said the E.U. ombudsman had concluded in July that a failure to record and preserve evidence at a key meeting amounted to &S220;maladministration&S221; on the part of the commission.

Robert Manetta, an Intel spokesman in London, added Monday that the E.U.&S217;s investigation of Intel had relied &S220;heavily on speculation found in e-mails from lower-level employees that did not participate in the negotiation of the relevant agreements,&S221; and that the e-mails were cited &S220;if they favored the commission&S217;s case.&S221;

Mr. Manetta also said E.U. investigators &S220;ignored or minimized hard evidence of what actually happened, including highly authoritative documents, written declarations and testimony given under oath by senior individuals who negotiated the transactions at issue.&S221; Intel said it planned to present documentation of its claims during the appeal.

The commission insisted on Monday that its investigation had been sound.

&S220;During the proceedings Intel was able to comment fully on all the Commission&S217;s evidence outlined in the decision,&S221; it said in a statement accompanying the published e-mails and documents. &S220;Indeed, the commission went beyond its legal obligations in safeguarding Intel&S217;s rights of defense,&S221; it said.

An official record of Intel&S217;s appeal, published Sept. 9 in an E.U. official journal, shows that Intel has accused the commission of ignoring documents that &S220;were potentially exculpatory of Intel&S221; and of failing to &S220;make a proper note of its meeting with a key witness from one of Intel&S217;s customers, who was highly likely to have given exculpatory evidence.&S221;

Kevin J. O?Brien reported from Berlin.

European Union Lays Out Its Evidence Against Intel

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PARIS &S212; While the world&S217;s airlines will continue to suffer steep financial losses in the short term, Airbus predicted Thursday that demand for new aircraft would remain healthy over the next 20 years, thanks to steady air traffic growth in the developing world and the rapid expansion of low-cost carriers.

The European plane maker forecast that airlines would buy nearly 25,000 new jets between now and 2028, with a market value of $3.1 trillion. That represents an increase of 2.7 percent from its previous forecast in February 2008, when air carriers were still reeling from the initial brunt of the global economic crisis.

Airbus, which expects to secure orders for around 300 planes this year, also said that the steep decline in world air traffic would likely stabilize in 2010 and could rise by as much as 4.6 percent &S212; not far from the average 5 percent growth over the past 30 years. The company forecast a drop in 2009 traffic of between 2 percent and 4 percent.

&S220;Air transportation is a growth industry and an essential ingredient in the world economy,&S221; said John Leahy, Airbus&S217;s chief salesman.

The International Air Transport Association said Wednesday that it expected the world&S217;s airlines to lose $11 billion this year on top of a $16.8 billion loss in 2008. But despite those hefty losses, Mr. Leahy said Airbus had seen relatively few order delays and cancellations.

&S220;A lot of people have talked about massive cancellations in the recession, but that&S217;s not really true,&S221; Mr. Leahy said at a presentation in London. He said Airbus had received fewer than 40 cancellations this year, less than 1 percent of the company&S217;s order backlog of around 3,600 planes. Still, he acknowledged that many customers were having difficulty securing financing and had postponed deliveries &S212; some by several years.

&S220;I think it&S217;s going to be a difficult winter,&S221; Mr. Leahy said, noting that while airlines had managed to fill most of their seats during the peak summer travel season, many had been forced to cut fares, leaving them with less cash.

&S220;At some point, we see a continuation of some requests for deferrals, but even that is already included&S221; in the 20-year forecast figures, he said. He declined to specify how many orders had been delayed so far.

The company&S217;s American rival, Boeing, has at least 64 order cancellations this year, almost all of them for its forthcoming 787 &S220;Dreamliner,&S221; which has been delayed more than two years by production snags credit reports free.

Analysts have warned that the ballooning industry losses are almost certain to lead to further delays and cancellations of orders in the months to come. Without steep cuts in production by both Boeing and Airbus, that could lead to significant surpluses of aircraft on the market, which could weigh heavily on jet prices. Analysts at UBS last month forecast that there would be a global surplus of 1,400 commercial jets by the end of this year.

&S220;We&S217;re still very cautious,&S221; Mr. Leahy said in a telephone interview, though he insisted global overcapacity currently stood at no more than 350 planes. &S220;Right now, there is more downside risk than upside potential.

Airbus said it continued to see the greatest demand for passenger planes in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China and India. Asia is expected to account for 31 percent of new aircraft sales over the next two decades, followed by Europe, with 25 percent, and North America, with 23 percent. Sales in Europe and North America will largely be driven by the need to replace older, less fuel-efficient fleets, as well as the continued expansion of low-cost carriers, which currently represent about one-fifth of all seats sold.

More than two-thirds of the new planes to be sold will be single-aisle jets like the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737, which are used heavily by low-cost airlines, Airbus said. Large twin-aisle planes like Airbus&S217;s planned A350-XWB and the Boeing 787 will probably represent about 25 percent of the aircraft sold, while planes that seat 400 or more passengers &S212; the A380 and the Boeing 747 &S212; will be about 7 percent of the market.

The Airbus 20-year forecast compares with one published by Boeing in June, which predicted sales of 29,000 commercial planes over the same period, down from a 2008 estimate of 29,400 planes.

The Russian state-controlled airline Aeroflot said Thursday that it plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs amid plunging profits, The Associated Press reported from Moscow.

Irina Dannenberg, an Aeroflot spokeswoman, said the cuts will occur within the next six months and will amount to 13 percent of the work force for the airline &S212; Russia&S217;s largest carrier.

The company&S217;s net profit fell in July by 88 percent to $37 million compared to a year ago.

Airbus Sees Healthy Long-Term Demand for New Planes

HELSINKI, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The result of a new survey gathering a number of Finnish economists' opinions showed that the recession in Finland will end and the Finnish economy is believed to start to recover before the end of this year, the Finnish Broadcasting Company reported on Saturday.

According to the survey result, eight of ten economists interviewed by the Finnish Broadcasting Company felt that an upward trend of Finland's economy would appear during this year, probably in the fourth quarter.

The economists made the optimistic forecast assuming that Finland's export will benefit from euro zone's favorable situation, when German and French national output has turned to grow during the second quarter.

Besides that, the economists in Finland have also seen signs of recovery in increased activity in the retail sector and more orders coming in to the industrial sector cash advance payday loan.

According to these experts, however, there is still a great deal of uncertainty. The growth in unemployment will prevent households from consumption spending, and demand for Finnish exports will only pick up when global business investment needs strengthen.

Although growth seems to have appeared on the horizon, the unemployment picture will remain gloomy next year, as Finland's domestic service sector will react more slowly to the change in economic direction.

The experts said that the unemployment rate in Finland will surpass ten percent during next year. Currently the jobless rate in the country is near nine percent.

Finland's economy expected to turn to grow this year

A mixed bag of economic news Thursday shows a record number of U.S. homeowners having problems repaying their mortgage loans and more troubles in the job market. At the same time, other studies show an improving economy. The American Bankers Association, an industry group, says more than nine percent of home loans are one month or more behind in their payments. Other measures of housing problems also hit record highs.  A separate report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment compensation last week. Labor Department officials say the number of newly laid-off workers rose by 15,000 (to a total of 576,000).But the Conference Board, a private research group, says the U.S. economy will continue to improve in the next six to nine months. Its index of leading indicators rose by six-tenths of a percentage point to a reading of in July. It was the fourth month in a row the index improved. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Bloomberg. 

US Jobless Claims, Mortgage Problems Rise

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DETROIT &<51; General Motors on Tuesday said it would add shifts and run some plants on overtime so it can increase production by 60,000 vehicles by year&S217;s end in response to the demand created largely by the &S220;cash for clunkers&S221; program.

The actions will bring 1,350 idled union workers in Ontario and Ohio back to work and provide overtime shifts for about 10,000 workers. G.M. plans to increase output at nearly all of its plants in the United States.

&S220;Our dealers are clamoring for more vehicles almost in every segment,&S221; Mark LaNeve, G.M.&S217;s vice president for United States sales, said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. &S220;We want to run lean; we&S217;re just way too lean right now. We&S217;re going to miss sales unless we put some additional production in.&S221;

By the end of August, the company expects dealers to have less than 30 days&S217; supply of the vehicles that have been most popular among &S220;cash for clunkers&S221; participants, like the Chevrolet Cobalt and Malibu sedans. That is about half the industry standard.

G.M. drastically cut production as sales plummeted, and the recent increase in demand has caused its inventory of unsold vehicles to fall to about 360,000 vehicles, the lowest since the company began keeping track of that figure. Several years ago, G.M.&S217;s inventory typically consisted of well above 1 million vehicles.

Mr. LaNeve said G.M. now expected to surpass its internal sales forecast for August by at least 50,000 vehicles. &S220;It will be far and away our best retail month of the year,&S221; he said, though G.M. might still sell fewer vehicles in the month than it did last August, which was a good month for vehicle sales just before the market collapsed in September.

He said the added production will be needed even if sales decline as interest in the clunkers program wanes. The government program, which started in late July, gives a credit of up to $4,500 to consumers who turn in an older, inefficient vehicle and buy a new vehicle with a higher fuel-economy rating. On Monday, the Transportation Department said 390,283 vehicles had been traded in under the program and that $1.63 billion of its $3 billion in funding had been used up.

The Ford Motor Company announced a significant production increase last week in response to the program.

Edmunds.com, a Web site that gives car-buying information to consumers, on Tuesday said interest in the clunkers program is falling fast. It said vehicle purchase intent, which tracks the number of people likely to buy a car in the next 90 days, has dropped 31 percent since late July.

&S220;Now that there is plenty of money in the program and the most eager shoppers have already participated, the sense of urgency is gone, and the pace of intent decline is accelerating,&S221; Jeremy Anwyl, the chief executive of Edmunds, said. "Inventories are getting lean and prices are climbing, giving consumers reasons to sit back."

G.M. plans to bring about 800 workers back to its assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which builds the Cobalt and the soon-to-be discontinued Pontiac G5, and 550 workers back to a plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, that makes the new Chevrolet Equinox and G.M.C. Terrain crossover sport-utility vehicles. Lordstown has gone through a number of highs and lows since last summer; G.M. added a third shift when demand for small cars surged in response to high gas prices, then eliminated both the second and third shifts when the market for new vehicles slumped.

Overtime work will be scheduled at a pickup-truck plant in Ft. Wayne, Ind.; crossover plants near Lansing, Mich., and Spring Hill, Tenn.; and sedan plants in Fairfax, Kan., and Lake Orion, Mich. The extra work means the Lake Orion plant, which was scheduled to close for a lengthy retooling project in mid-September, will stay open until late November instead.

Overtime work used to be extremely common at auto plants, greatly increasing workers&S217; pay, but the carmakers have all but eliminated it in recent years as their sales plunged. G.M. has been running a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, on overtime this summer to meet demand for its new Camaro sports car, which still has a waiting list of about 10,000 people.

G.M. said it might need to schedule additional production increases in the fourth quarter.

&S220;This is a very, very broad surge in demand for us across our entire portfolio,&S221; Tim Lee, G.M.&S217;s group vice president of global manufacturing and labor, said.

G.M. Steps Up Output to Meet Surge in Demand

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to data on Friday that provided the clearest evidence yet that the economy was turning around.

With fewer workers being laid off, the unemployment rate eased to 9.4 percent in July from 9.5 percent the prior month, Labor Department data showed, the first time the jobless rate had fallen since April 2008.

The government revised job losses for May and June to show 43,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 320,000 in July and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.6 percent. The forecast was made earlier this week before other jobs data prompted some economists to lower their estimates for job losses.

U.S. stock index futures jumped on the data, which was seen as more evidence the economy&&9;s healing process had started. U.S. government bond prices tumbled and the dollar rose against the Japanese yen.

"This is positive news. This is the best showing (since) prior to the financial meltdown and those are important benchmarks to achieve," said Richard Dekaser, president of Woodley Park Research in Washington.

Data ranging from home sales to manufacturing have pointed to an economy starting to dig itself out of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The fall in the jobless rate will be good news for President Barack Obama, who has seen his standing in public opinion polls slip as Americans fret about the weak economy and high unemployment.

MOSTLY GOOD NEWS

While employers cut fewer jobs than forecast in July, unemployment remains stubbornly high, meaning households have less income to spend. This could set the economy for an anemic recovery, analysts say.

Moreover, in July the workforce fell by 422,000, far more than the 155,000 decline in June, suggesting jobless workers may have given up looking for new work no teletrack payday loans.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 6.7 million jobs, the department said, adding that the number of long-term unemployed continues to rise.

Job losses in July were spread across all sectors, but the pace of firings slowed markedly from previous months.

Manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 -- the first time since September losses were less than 100,000 -- after shrinking by 131,000 in June. This was probably due to the reopening of General Motors and Chrysler assembly plants after bankruptcy closures.

"Because layoffs in auto manufacturing already had been so large, fewer workers than usual were laid off for seasonal shutdowns in July," Labor Commissioner Keith Hall said, adding that the seasonally adjusted gain did not indicate an improvement in the industry.

Payrolls in construction industries slipped 76,000 after falling 86,000, likely reflecting spending on infrastructure projects from the government&&9;s &&6;787 billion stimulus package and a modest pickup in ground breaking for new homes.

In the service-providing sector, 119,000 workers were laid off, and the goods-producing industries purged 128,000 positions.

Education and health services continued to add jobs, with payrolls increasing 17,000 in July after rising 37,000 in June. Government employment increased 7,000 after slipping 48,000 in June.

The closely watched average work week, the total amount of labor input, inched up to 33.1 hours in July after having slipped to 33.0 in June. The average work week in the manufacturing sector rose to 39.8 hours from 39.5 hours in June, the department said.

Average hourly earnings increased to &&6;18.56 in July from &&6;18.53.

(Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York, Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Payrolls fall less in July, jobless rates eases

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