WASHINGTON – Consumer prices barely changed for the third straight month, strengthening the Federal Reserve's hand at a time when it is defending a plan to boost the economy by buying more government debt.

Extraordinarily low inflation was a major impetus for the Fed program to spend $600 billion buying Treasury bonds. A report Wednesday from the Labor Department showed that inflation remains super-low.

A steep rise in gasoline prices drove the consumer price index up 0.2 percent in October, the fourth straight monthly increase. But excluding volatile food and energy costs, core consumer prices were unchanged for the third straight month. In the past year, the core index has risen only 0.6 percent, the smallest increase since the index began in 1957.

The data also comes on the same day the Commerce Department said construction of new homes and apartments sank 11.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 519,000 units. That was mainly because apartment construction, which represents less than 20 percent of the housing market, fell by more than 40 percent. The much larger single-family home category fell 1.1 percent.

Still, the drop reduced the pace of home construction to its weakest point since April 2009, when it reached the lowest level on records dating to 1959. Construction of new homes and apartments is 77 percent below its peak during the housing boom of 2.27 million units in January 2006. Analysts say it could be years before it returns to a healthy pace of 1 million units annually.

The weak housing market has served as a major drag on the broader economy, which has kept a lid on prices. Consumers, facing high unemployment and stagnant wage growth, are restraining their spending. Retailers and other companies don't want to risk losing frugal shoppers by raising prices.

Many leading Republican economists and lawmakers have criticized the Fed's bond-buying program, saying it could lead to runaway inflation. Some contend the central bank is essentially printing money to lower the value of the dollar and make U.S. goods cheaper overseas.

But other economists say the bigger threat to the U.S. economy is deflation, a widespread drop in prices and wages that could further erode home values and cripple an already weak economy. The nation hasn't grappled with deflation since the Great Depression.

"The data is definitely in the Fed's camp today and should help keep the Fed's critics at bay," said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubish us fast cash. "There is nothing in this data that would push the Fed off its course of continuing to buy government securities. Inflation is getting closer to becoming deflation and the recovery in housing seems to have been aborted."

A troublesome sign in the October report were price declines on new cars and clothing.

While flat prices may seem like a good thing for shoppers, the Fed would like to see prices rise more quickly to keep deflation at bay. When it announced the bond-buying program, the central bank said inflation is "somewhat low" compared to levels it considers consistent with price stability.

"For now, the data continue to show that price declines, not increases, is the concern of the day," Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, said in a note to clients.

Construction activity is typically needed to pull the economy out of a downturn. But the industry has been struggling in recent months, mainly because a huge backlog of foreclosed properties has lowered home prices and made it difficult for builders to compete.

Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generate about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Applications for building permits, a strong indicator of future construction, rose 0.5 percent in October to an annual rate of 550,000 units. However, this small increase recouped only a part of a 4.2 percent decline in September.

High unemployment, slow job growth and tight credit have kept people from buying homes. Sales of new homes hit the lowest level in more than a decade this summer after a federal homebuyer tax credit expired in April.

By region of the country, housing construction fell the most last month in the West. It dropped 30.5 percent there. Construction fell 13.4 percent in the South. It rose 12.9 percent in the Northeast and 1 percent in the Midwest.

The National Association of Home Builders reported Tuesday that its monthly index of builders' sentiment remained in the doldrums with a reading of 16 in November, up only slightly from an October reading of 15.

Index levels below 50 are seen as reflecting a negative outlook for housing on the part of the builders. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006.

Tame inflation gives Fed ammo for bond-buying plan

NEW YORK – French media conglomerate Vivendi SA reported a 38 percent drop in third-quarter net income Monday because of charges related to selling its stake in NBC Universal.

The company, which includes video game maker Activision Blizzard, Brazilian telecoms unit GVT, Universal Music, Canal Plus television and mobile phone division SFR, earned 372 million euros ($506.1 million), down from 600 million euros in the same quarter last year.

Stripping out unusual items, Vivendi said it would have earned 688 euros ($936 million), up 6.7 percent from 645 million euros.

Revenue climbed 8.5 percent to 6.89 billion euros ($9.4 billion) from 6 small personal loans.35 billion euros.

Activision's revenue climbed 17 percent to 577 million euros on strong sales of "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft" and "Starcraft" games.

Universal Music, the label behind Eminem, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, posted a 6 percent increase in revenue to 1.03 billion euros.

The SFR mobile division saw revenue climb 1.3 percent to 3.13 billion euros, telecom revenue climbed 7.2 percent to 744 million euros and Canal revenue climbed 2.4 percent to 1.14 billion euros.

Vivendi posts drop in 3Q net income on charges

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar pared losses against the euro on Friday, though the single currency remained up broadly as rumors, subsequently denied by officials, swirled that Ireland may seek a bailout from the European Union.

Analysts noted speculation that a bailout package, estimated at 80 billion euro ($109.1 billion), for Ireland was on the way. The Irish finance ministry denied the rumor, and the euro subsequently turned higher.

“Suggestions that Ireland is heading for a bailout package would resolve some of the peripheral issues roiling markets for the last little while,” said David Watt, senior fixed-income and currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets. “It’s not necessarily the best news for the euro-zone, but it would remove some of the uncertainty in the markets.”

The euro  jumped to $1.3706, up from $1.3660 in late North American trading Thursday. It reached as high as $1.3777 in early U.S. trading, after falling under $1.36 during the European session.

The single currency advanced 0.5% against the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. “Versus the British pound, the euro pared gains to 0.1%.

The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slipped to 78.031 from the 78.164 level late Thursday.

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Against the yen , the dollar recovered to trade at ¥82.49, little changed from ¥82.45 on Thursday.

The British pound  turned up to $1.6167, from $1.6111 Thursday.

Reassurances by EU countries that Irish debt holders won’t have to take write-downs in the event of a bailout also helped boost sentiment, analysts said. Read the latest on Ireland.

“This statement has, temporarily at least, eased concerns about the impact of another potential sovereign debt crisis and the impact it may have on balance sheets,” said Dan Cook, chief executive of IG Markets.

However, the longer-term ramifications of that decision could lead to a new moral hazard, he said. If “countries issuing debt know they will be bailed out in the advent of trouble, in a zero-sum game, somebody is going to take a hit,” Cook wrote ina note business card. “That could add to the already mounting tension among euro-area members.’

G-20, China rate worries

Currency markets took little direction from the statement at the end of the group of 20 meeting.

The communiqué called for the market to set exchange rates and for adjustments in imbalances to be made gradually, while also condemning protectionism. Read about the Group of 20 meeting in Seoul.

“A plan for a plan is not a plan,” said Daniel Hui, senior foreign-exchange strategist at HSBC.”An agreement to monitor imbalances against as-yet undecided guidelines is far from enough to deter the trend towards more unilateralism in currency and capital flow policy.”

Emerging-market nations are likely to continue tightening in their own way -- either by raising rates, limiting capital flows or other measures, he wrote in a note. That will further weigh on risk appetite and support the dollar through year-end.

Obama: Fed not an issue at G-20

President Barack Obama said that there was not a lot of discussion about the Federal Reserve's $600 billion monetary stimulus in Seoul and that most were concerned with U.S. economic growth as they regard the country as a key market for exports.

The statement looked like an attempt to paper over differences, reducing the scope for any concrete action, said Kit Juckes, head of foreign exchange strategy at Societe Generale.

“An indicative and nonbinding assessment of imbalances won’t solve anything,” he said. “When the dust settles, Chinese revaluation will continue at a pace which just about keeps U.S. politicians happy, and the U.S. will continue arguing that [quantitative easing] isn’t really devaluationist.”

Indeed, the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off its first up-sized purchase of Treasury bonds as it embarks on a second round of quantitative easing. Read more on Treasury bonds, Fed buyback.

The dollar had been in positive territory during Asian trading hours, as investors dumped Asian stocks and as commodity prices retreated, in the expectation of further Chinese rate hikes, said Chris Walker, currency strategist at UBS.

The dollar tends to benefit as investors become more averse toward riskier assets, finding support on safe-haven flows.

Commodity-oriented currencies sold off, with the Australian dollar  down 0.% to 98.99 U.S. cents.

Currencies: Dollar pares loss after Ireland worries ease

WASHINGTON – The oil spill that damaged the Gulf of Mexico's reefs and wetlands is also threatening to stain the Obama administration's reputation for relying on science to guide policy.

Academics, environmentalists and federal investigators have accused the administration since the April spill of downplaying scientific findings, misrepresenting data and most recently misconstruing the opinions of experts it solicited.

Meanwhile, the owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, Transocean Ltd., is renewing its argument that federal investigators are in danger of allowing the blowout preventer, a key piece of evidence, to corrode as it awaits forensic analysis. Testing had not begun as of last week, the company says, some two months after it was raised from the seafloor.

The blowout preventer could be a key piece of evidence in lawsuits filed by victims, survivors and others. Transocean was responsible for maintaining it while it was being used on BP's well. Investigators agreed to flush the control pods with fluid on Sept. 27 to prevent corrosion. But a Transocean lawyer wrote in his Nov. 3 letter that there have been no further preservation steps on the blowout preventer since then.

The latest complaint from scientists comes in a report by the Interior Department's inspector general, which concluded that the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts supported the administration's six-month ban on new deep-water drilling. The AP obtained the report early Wednesday.

The inspector general said the editing changes by the White House resulted "in the implication that the moratorium recommendation had been peer reviewed." But it hadn't been. Outside scientists were asked only to review new safety measures for offshore drilling.

"There are really only a few people that know what they are talking about" on offshore drilling," said Ford Brett, managing director of Petroskills, a Tulsa, Okla.-based petroleum training organization. "The people who make this policy do not ... so don't misrepresent me and use me for cover," said Brett, one of seven experts who reviewed the report.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the White House insisted the review was properly coordinated and pointed to the inspector general's findings.

"Following a review that included interviews with peer review experts, the Inspector General found no intentional misrepresentation of their views...The decision to implement a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was correctly based on the need for adequate spill response, well containment and safety measures, and we stand behind that decision," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said.

Last month, staff for the presidential oil spill commission said that the White House's budget office delayed publication of a scientific report that forecast how much oil could reach the Gulf's shores. Federal scientists initially used a volume of oil that did not account for the administration's various cleanup efforts, but the government ultimately cited smaller amounts of oil instant personal loans guaranteed.

The same report said that President Barack Obama's energy adviser, Carol Browner, mischaracterized on national TV a government analysis about where the oil went, saying it showed most of the oil was "gone." The report said it could still be there. It also said that Browner and the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, contributed to the public's perception the report was more exact than it was by emphasizing peer review.

The new inspector general report said Browner's staff implied that scientists had endorsed the drilling moratorium, by raising a reference to peer review in the drilling safety report. At least one outside expert who was involved said he was convinced afterward that it wasn't a deliberate deception, and Interior Department officials told the inspector general they didn't deliberately make changes to cause confusion.

"There was no intent to mislead the public," said Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who also recommended in the May 27 safety report that a moratorium be placed on deep-water oil and gas exploration. "The decision to impose a temporary moratorium on deep-water drilling was made by the secretary, following consultation with colleagues including the White House."

After one of the reviewers complained, the Interior Department promptly issued an apology during a conference call, in a formal letter and during a personal meeting in June.

All seven experts asked to review the Interior Department's work expressed concern about the change made by the White House, saying that it differed in important ways from the draft they had approved.

"We believe the report does not justify the moratorium as written, and that the moratorium as changed will not contribute measurably to increased safety and will have immediate and long-term economic effects," the scientists wrote earlier this year to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter. "The secretary should be free to recommend whatever he thinks is correct, but he should not be free to use our names to justify his political decisions."

Those complaints were similar to those of other scientists.

"Their estimates always seemed to be biased to the best case," said Joseph Montoya, a biology professor at Georgia Tech. "A number of scientists have experienced a strong push back."

The inspector general's report said the administration did not violate federal rules because the executive summary did not say the experts approved of the moratorium and because the department publicly clarified what the experts said and had offered a formal apology.

___

Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington and Harry R. Weber in New Orleans contributed reporting.

Govt's handling of science on oil spill questioned

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks opened slightly higher on Tuesday as deal activity and corporate earnings helped to underscore optimism after a recent rally that drove indexes to two-year highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 1.29 points, or 0.01 percent, at 11,408.13. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) was up 1 empire payday loans.54 points, or 0.13 percent, at 1,224.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 5.79 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,585.84.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Wall St opens higher on M&A, earnings

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal regulators on Friday closed four banks, bringing the total number of failures this year in the U.S. to 143.

Two banks in California, Western Commercial Bank in Woodland Hills and First Vietnamese American Bank in Westminster, were shut down. Their assets will be sold to healthier financial institutions, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Western Commercial had $101.1 million in deposits and First Vietnamese $47 million.

Regulators also closed two larger banks in Maryland and Washington state payday loan. K Bank, based in Randallstown, Md., had $500.1 million in deposits as of Sept. 30, while Tacoma, Wa.-based Pierre Commercial Bank totaled $193.5 million in deposits.

The failure of the four banks will cost the federal deposit-insurance fund a combined $254.5 million. Hundreds of banks have failed over the past few years after a banking crisis in 2007 and the severe recession that followed.

Federal regulators close 4 U.S. banks

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices pared losses on Friday after a report showed the U.S. economy added more jobs than economists expected last month.

Still, bond investors continue to think yields could fall more as the Federal Reserve earlier this week confirmed it will be supporting the market to keep borrowing costs low.

The payrolls report was good for the growth story, but it’s “still way too early to declare a victory on jobs and the weak U.S. economy,” said Kevin Giddis, president of fixed-income capital markets at Morgan Keegan. “The Fed and its buying program will provide underneath support for Treasury prices.”

Yields on 10-year notes , which move inversely to prices, rose 1 basis point to 2.50%. A basis point is 0.01%.

The benchmark yields briefly touched 2.59% after the data.

Spiralling Irish yields question austerity targets

Ireland is struggling under the weight of the austerity program and, with yields hitting ever higher levels, the market appears to have lost faith.

Yields on 2-year notes  added 1 basis point to 0 one hour payday loan.35%, still near an all-time low.

Thirty-year-bond yields  increased 4 basis points to 4.11%, after briefly spiking to 4.20%. They’re up from 3.99% a week ago.

The Labor Department said the economy added 151,000 jobs in October. The report also noted some major revisions to the previous months’ numbers, while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.6% for the third straight month. Read more about payrolls.

Yields on 10-year notes are still down from 2.60% a week ago, aided by the Federal Reserve’s announcement earlier this week that it would buy $600 billion in Treasurys.

A central bank buying its own government debt to inject money into the financial system is often called quantitative easing.

As for bond prices, “the pullback is limited versus what it would be doing without the benefit of QE and this number won’t change QE,” said strategists at CRT Capital Group.

Bond Report: Treasury losses ease after payrolls

Stocks in the United States showed little immediate reaction Wednesday to the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would purchase an additional $600 billion in Treasury securities through June in an effort to drive down interest rates and stimulate the economy.

About 15 minutes after the Fed’s decision was announced, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 55 points, or 0.5 percent, after a brief upturn. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 0.6 percent, as was the Nasdaq composite.

In the bond market, 10-year Treasury bills were higher before the Fed announcement, with the rate slipping to 2.54 percent from 2.59 percent late Tuesday.

For at least two months, investors had been pricing in their expectations that the Federal Reserve would embark on a second round of quantitative easing — measures beyond lowering its key interest rates, like purchasing vast amounts of securities, to stimulate the economy. That prospect has sent the stock market higher, driven gold prices up, and pushed the dollar and market interest rates lower.

Because official rates were already near zero, the Fed had been expected to buy United States Treasury securities, and perhaps other investments, to pump more money into the financial system. But Wednesday’s long-awaited statement finally provided some clarity, or some would say surprise, as to the outstanding questions of the extent of their purchases and the timing.

Estimates of the size of the program had ranged from $500 billion to $2 trillion, although as Wednesday drew closer, many analysts had settled their expectations around the lower end of that range. Some analysts expected the purchases to be spread out over months, with one scenario being $80 billion to $100 billion a month, with the assumption that the central bank would then assess whether the program was having the desired effect.

The new program had been dubbed “QE2” in market jargon because it was the Fed’s second round of quantitative easing. At the end of 2008, the Fed began a program to buy $1.7 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, purchases which were announced in advance and came in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

In recent weeks Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, had hinted that the central bank was likely to act. The annual inflation rate is running below 2 percent, while unemployment remains stubbornly high. The dollar has been weakening against major currencies on the expectation of the Fed’s move.

Gold, already at a high above $1,300 an ounce, was expected to benefit even more if investors read an aggressive move by the Fed as a sign that inflation may eventually accelerate, said Jeffrey Nichols, senior economic adviser to Rosland Capital, in a recent speech preceding the announcement.

For Wall Street, the Fed announcement took center stage after midterm Congressional election results came in showed major gains for the Republican Party, an outcome that had been widely expected.

In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index, a barometer of euro-zone blue chips, was up 0.11 percent, while the FTSE 100 index in London was 0.1 percent higher. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.25 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt gained 0 No teletrack payday loans.12 percent.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong led the advance in Asia with a 2 percent gain that took the index to its highest level since mid-2008, and the Australia benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.5 percent. But the Shanghai composite lost 0.5 percent. Japanese markets were closed for a national holiday.

Though the outcome of Tuesday’s election was met with cheers on Wall Street, much of the result had already been priced into the stock market, analysts said. Still, with a slim Democrat majority in the Senate and the Republicans reclaiming the House, analysts expect a shift in the legislative agenda.

For one, further legislative efforts that might curtail banks were likely to be scaled back or stalled, analysts said in various research reports and notes to clients.

“There simply aren’t enough votes to further rein in Wall Street and the commercial banks,” a financial services policy analyst at MF Global, Jaret Seiberg, said. “At worst, the banks will get to enjoy gridlock. At best, there is an opening to start the process of deregulation that is a lot better than the environment.”

While rolling back big swaths of last year’s sweeping financial regulatory reform bill may be difficult, there may still be room for smaller tweaks that might loosen up some of the most stringent derivatives rules and other potential requirements.

The banking industry had spent heavily in the last year, directing a much bigger portion of their spending toward Republicans in the run-up to the election. More than 70 percent of campaign donations went toward Republican candidates in September, compared with 40 percent a year earlier, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

The election also could curtail some of the anti-Wall Street rhetoric that was so prevalent during the recent campaign. Several of the financial industry’s most outspoken critics — including Senators Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin — lost their re-election bids. “Blaming big Wall Street banks when you are running in the heartland proved not to be a winning strategy,” Mr. Seiberg said.

Pressing for substantial changes to the housing finance system may be more difficult, analysts said, even as foreclosure policy and the overhaul of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moves to the top of the Congressional agenda. Another stimulus bill to give a jolt to the economy, or sharp increases in corporate taxes to narrow the budget gap also appear to be off the table.

But Robert C. Doll, a stock strategist for BlackRock, argued that “divided” government could pose challenges for a further recovery in the economy and markets. “If the current government is not able to come together and address the serious short- and long-term economic problems facing the country, these problems will almost certainly escalate,” he said in a research note on Wednesday.

Eric Dash contributed reporting.

Market Shows Muted Reaction to Fed Move

Wall Street indexes rose Monday at the beginning of a week that will be dominated by the midterm elections in the United States and central bank meetings, including one in which the Federal Reserve is expected to announce moves to stimulate the economy.

Shares were stronger after a report on manufacturing activity in the United States was better than expected and mirrored similar data from China that showed expansion there last month.

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 56.9 last month from 54.4 in September. Economists were expecting a slight slowdown in activity. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected that the index would slip to 54 in October from 54.4 a month earlier

Earlier in Asia, the state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its purchasing managers index rose to 54.7 points in October from 53.8 September and 51.7 in August. Monthly readings have stayed above 50, the benchmark for expansion, for 20 months.

Still, trading was expected to be somewhat subdued on Monday as investors wait to see how much additional monetary easing the Fed might deliver after its meeting on Wednesday.

“With that Fed meeting looming large, it seems unlikely that anyone is going to be willing to make any serious commitment in either direction over the next couple of days,” a sales trader at IG Index, Ben Critchley, said.

In early trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 109.93 points, or 0.99 percent. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 10.57 points, or 0.89 percent, while the Nasdaq rose 20.60 or 0.82 percent.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London was 16.59 points, or 0.3 percent, higher, while the DAX in Frankfurt rose 20.29 points, or 0.3 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris was 1.75 points, or 0.1 percent, lower.

Earlier, most Asian markets advanced, with Chinese shares rebounding on the strong manufacturing data. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.5 percent, or 75.19 points, to 3,054.02 while the Shenzhen Composite Index of China’s smaller, second market jumped 2.9 percent to 1,341.84.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 2 no fax payday loan.4 percent to 23,652.94. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average bucked the trend, falling 0.5 percent to close at 9,154.72 as the yen’s continued rise against the dollar sapped confidence in the country’s potential to export its way to growth.

Any movement tied to Monday’s manufacturing report could be fleeting as traders quickly turn their attention to the midterm elections and the Fed meeting. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank gather on Thursday, and the Bank of Japan meets on Friday.

If opinion polls are correct, then President Obama will have to work with a Republican-dominated House of Representatives at the very least. Many think that is a recipe for policy inaction over the two years before the next presidential elections, meaning that the Fed will have to play an even more crucial role in sustaining the economy.

“The burden to stimulate the U.S. economy currently falls heavily on the Fed with U.S. politics in a state of paralysis heading into the midterm elections,” said Lee Hardman, an analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Investors have also been assuming the Fed will start a new Treasury-buying program to help stimulate the economy. Shares rose for much of October because investors expect the Fed will announce as early as Wednesday that it plans to buy government debt to drive interest rates lower in an effort to spark spending and lending.

Only in the last few days has the market rally trailed off amid questions about exactly how much the Fed will spend to buy bonds. The Dow rose 3.1 percent in October, including a 0.1 percent drop last week.

Lower interest rates weaken returns on debt, which would make stocks and commodities more attractive investments since their potential return would be significantly higher. Bond prices traded in a narrow range Monday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 2.60 percent compared with late Friday.

U.S. Markets Higher on Strong Manufacturing Index

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday that a decline in the latest weekly U.S. jobless claims for unemployment benefits to a three-month low showed the country&&9;s labor market was slowly healing.

"The week to week claims are a heartening bit of good news," he told a news briefing.

Initial claims for state unemployment aid dropped 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 434,000, the Labor Department said.

"The president and the team have the economy moving in the right direction," Gibbs said.

Any progress is likely to come too late to spare Democratic losses in Tuesday&&9;s midterm congressional elections, when voter punishment could hand Republicans control of U.S. House of Representatives and curb Democrats&&9; command of the Senate.

Unemployment was 9.6 percent in September and is expected to remain stuck at that level in October. The monthly employment report will be released on Friday, November 5 payday loan online.

Gibbs said households remained wary of the economic outlook and as a result, growth in consumer demand was still insufficient to persuade companies to step up hiring.

The White House argues Obama inherited the country&&9;s worst recession since the Great Depression from his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, and is slowly regaining ground.

But the defense has not persuaded many Americans, and the president&&9;s approval ratings have suffered.

An advance reading of U.S. growth in the third quarter will be released on Friday and is expected to edge up to 2.0 percent on an annual basis from a 1.7 percent pace in the previous three months.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Patrica Zengerle)

White House: drop in weekly jobless claims good news

The quarterly AP Economy Survey drew upon forecasts from 43 economists. Here are their average predictions, along with historical context:

ECONOMIC GROWTH

&S226; For the April-June quarter this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent. That was the weakest since right after the recession ended in June 2009. In the July-September quarter, analysts think the economy grew at a 2 percent pace. On Friday, the government will issue its first estimate of last quarter's expansion. Growth in the current fourth quarter is expected to amount to a 2.4 percent pace. Next year, the first quarter won't likely be much better. The economy must grow more robustly — at a roughly 5 percent rate — to reduce unemployment.

JOBS

&S226; Unemployment rate: September's rate was 9.6 percent. Economists predict it will rise to 9.7 percent in October and remain there in November. In December, they think it will dip to 9.6 percent. In December 2011, they predict the rate will be 9 percent. The unemployment rate peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009, a 26-year high.

&S226; Net job creation: In October, a gain of 45,667 jobs. In November, a gain of 68,048. In December, 87,786. For all of 2011, the economy should add a net total of 1.6 million jobs. That's lower than the 2.1 million economists had forecast three months ago. The recession wiped out 7.3 million jobs. The economy would need to produce a net 200,000 jobs each month for more than three years to recoup those losses payday loans.

CONSUMER SPENDING

&S226; For the current fourth quarter, the economists predict 2.4 percent annual growth in consumer spending. For all of 2011, 2.5 percent. That's historically weak for spending when an economy is recovering from recession. By contrast, consumer spending exceeded 5 percent in 1983, 1984 and 1985, when the economy was rebounding from a deep downturn.

SAVINGS

&S226; A savings rate of 5.4 percent next year. Last year, Americans saved 5.9 percent of their disposable income. That was the most since 1992.

&S226; Sixty-five percent of the economists think Americans' rebuilding of their savings will slow the economy at least slightly over the next five years.

INFLATION

_For 2010, a 1.2 percent rise in consumer prices. In 2011, a 1.7 percent increase. Prices rose 2.7 percent in 2009.

STIMULUS

&S226; About half said the Federal Reserve should embark on a new program to try to energize the economy by buying government bonds. Half said it shouldn't.

&S226; Two-thirds said Congress shouldn't authorize more stimulus spending to try to invigorate the economy.

A snapshot of the AP Economy Survey results

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve says it won't ask the Supreme Court to review a lower court decision ordering the central bank to provide information on companies that had received Fed loans during the 2008 financial crisis.

Instead, the Fed is leaving it to others to wage this legal battle. The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the biggest commercial banks, filed an appeal Tuesday to the Supreme Court. The ruling was made earlier this year by a panel of the 2nd U electronic check payday advance.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

The Fed doesn't plan to reveal the identities of financial companies that drew Fed loans while the litigation is pending. "We will await a determination from the courts and will comply fully with any final order," says spokesman David Skidmore.

Fed takes pass on appeal over disclosing Fed loans

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rallied Republican candidates in Florida on Saturday by pillorying President Barack Obama&&9;s healthcare reforms and economic policies -- and she also used her speech to plug her new TV reality show "Sarah Palin&&9;s Alaska."

At a Republican rally in Orlando, Florida, the Tea Party favorite and former vice presidential candidate invoked former Republican President Ronald Reagan as an example of the kind of conservative policies she said America needed.

"What this great country needs is a little bit of good old Reaganism -- lower taxes, less government intrusion and overreach, smaller, smarter government," Palin said, drawing cheers of approval from the partisan crowd.

With many ordinary Americans still feeling the pain of the recession in their daily lives, Obama and the Democrats face the prospect of big losses in the November 2 midterm congressional elections.

Many pollsters predict Republicans will win enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives, which could put the brakes on Obama&&9;s legislative agenda. Surveys show Democrats are also likely to lose Senate seats but could keep a slim majority in the chamber.

Palin, who is widely thought to be weighing a run for president in 2012, repeatedly pressed the idea of the November 2 vote being a referendum on Obama&&9;s performance in office, calling the upcoming ballot "the election of a lifetime".

"Our government and our country have really gotten off track ... but nothing we can&&9;t fix with a good old fashioned election," she said, speaking after addresses by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Florida&&9;s Senate candidate Marco Rubio pay day loans.

Against a background in Florida of a more than 11 percent jobless rate and a high number of home foreclosures, Rubio is comfortably leading independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek in the Sunshine State, an influential swing state in elections.

Playing up the country&&9;s economic woes, especially at the level of the "little guy" ordinary citizen, Palin said Obama and the Democrat leaders "have created for us a blueprint of things that don&&9;t work in this country".

Blasting Obama&&9;s healthcare overhaul and economic stimulus spending, she said America wanted "a fiscally and physically secure nation" and said the president should apologize for millions of Americans who were out of work.

At the beginning of her speech, Palin suggested Floridians watch her upcoming "docu-series" reality show, "Sarah Palin&&9;s Alaska", which will debut next month and focus on the northern state&&9;s outdoor attractions.

"You&&9;re lucky, you&&9;re going to get to learn a little bit more about my state here in the coming weeks," she said.

In a joking reference, she predicted defeat for Obama in the 2012 presidential election, saying her TV show would be followed by a sequel called "Barack Obama&&9;s Golf Courses", which she said would start up "sometime November 2012".

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and by Philip Barbara)

Palin plugs Florida Republicans - and her TV show

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Mexico’s currency gained ground Friday after a report showed consumer prices edged higher during the first half of the month.

The mid-month increase has pushed annual inflation further above the country’s target rate, but inflation remains below the year-end range monetary policy makers had forecast.

The currency  rose to 12.351 compared with 12.388 in the previous session, continuing to build on gains since Mexico’s finance ministry this week raised its forecast for 2010 economic growth to 4.8% from 4.5%.

Opinion Journal: Mexico's 20-year-old Police Chief

Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady on Marisol Valles Garcia's decision to take on the drug gangs.

The central bank on Friday said consumer prices rose 0.48% in the first half of October. The market had expected a rise of 0.44%, according a Dow Jones Newswires report. The core rate rose to 0.18%, above the consensus estimate of 0.16%.

On an annual basis, the inflation rate reached 3.89% compared with 3.7% in September. The central bank’s inflation target is 3%. Policy makers have said inflation could range between 4.75% to 5.25% heading into the end of 2010.

A rebound in farm prices and continued increases in energy prices, “are basic factors driving the annual growth of headline inflation,” wrote Arturo Vieyra, an economist at Banamex, in a note to clients guaranteed approval cash advance loans. “In general, our reading of the latest price report is positive and in line with our short-term outlook, where we do not see any substantial inflationary pressures.”

Mexico’s central bank late last week held its key interest rate steady at 4.5%, where it has been since July 2009, as the country works to bolster demand and as the bank foresees inflation to remaining below its expectations.

Meanwhile on Friday, the Inegi statistics agency said the country’s jobless rate in September climbed to 5.7%, up from August’s reading of 5.4%. The rate was 6.41% in September 2009.

Among stocks, the IPC equity index  rose 0.5% to 35,133, moved toward a weekly rise of more than 1%.

Advancers were led by retailer Walmex  ,up 4.1% and Grupo Financiero Banorte , up 4%. Banorte shares are up nearly 9% for the week in the wake of the banking firm’s nonbinding agreement to merge with Ixe Grupo Financiero  .

Latin American Markets: Mexican peso rises after inflation data

QUARTERLY LOSS: Morgan Stanley said Wednesday it lost $91 million, or 7 cents per share, during the third quarter, compared with earnings of $498 million, or 38 cents per share, during the year-ago period.

TRADING SLOWDOWN: Revenue tumbled 20 percent, due partly to a slowdown in trading. Retail and institutional customers stayed out of the market over the summer because of economic, regulatory and political worries no credit check payday loans.

SPECIAL CHARGES: Morgan Stanley was also hit with a bevy of one-time charges that led to the loss. Excluding those charges, the bank earned 23 cents per share.

Summary Box: Morgan Stanley posts 3Q loss