alfredlester

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.K.'s Supreme Court on Wednesday unexpectedly ruled in favor of the banking sector in a long-running battle over the legality of overdraft fees.

The ruling means banks won't be forced to automatically refund billions of pounds of fees to customers. However, the court didn't rule on whether the charges themselves were fair, meaning customers can continue with individual claims against the banks.

The fees, which are charged whenever a customer's overdraft goes over an agreed limit, are estimated to generate revenue of around 2.6 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) a year for the banks.

Tips for Avoiding Credit Card Skimming

Financial security advisor Tom Patterson offers advice to consumers for protecting credit cards from theft during this holiday shopping season. WSJ's Mary Pilon reports.

The case began in 2007 when the Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation into the charges. The investigation followed a widespread consumer campaign that the charges weren't proportionate, which lead to many banks refunding some customers.

Thousands of further demands for refunds were put on hold while the case went through the courts.

Two previous rulings had gone against the banks, which include Royal Bank of Scotland , Barclays , HSBC , Santander and Lloyds Banking Group guaranteed approval payday loans.

But in a unanimous ruling the Supreme Court said Wednesday that those decisions were wrong and that the OFT doesn't have the power to investigate the size of the charges because customers effectively agreed to pay them as part of the price of having a bank account.

It's unlikely to be the end of the process, however, as the court said it hadn't decided whether the charges were fair and that the OFT may still be able to investigate using other criteria.

"This will not close the door on the OFT's investigations and may well not resolve the myriad cases that are currently stayed in which customers have challenged the relevant charges," the court said in its ruling.

The British Bankers Association said it will work with regulators to ensure that the outstanding customer complaints are brought to a swift conclusion.

"We recognize this issue has been of real concern to a large number of our customers and we are pleased that this decision now brings clarity for all parties," the BBA added in a statement.

U.K. banks win ruling on overdraft charges

The trustee overseeing the Bernard L. Madoff bankruptcy case and his law firm have asked a federal judge for $22.1 million in fees for five months of work, increasing their combined total bill to more than $37.5 million.

The law firm, Baker & Hostetler, requested $21.28 million of fees plus $280,682 to cover expenses for acting as counsel to trustee Irving Picard for the five months ended Sept. 30, according to a filing Monday with the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan.

The firm, where Mr. Picard is a partner, had previously been awarded $14.66 million of fees and $274,203 for expenses for the Dec. 15, 2008 to April 30, 2009 period, comprising more than 38,270 hours of work.

Mr. Picard is separately seeking $835,605 of fees for the May 1 to Sept. 30 period for his 1,198 hours of work as trustee for the Securities Investor Protection Corp, the federally chartered agency that supervises brokerage liquidations.

He was previously awarded $759,229 for the 4-1/2 months ended April 30 cash loans.

“No single document could comprehensively set forth all of the tasks engaged in by the trustee since his appointment,” Mr. Picard wrote in his fee application.

Mr. Picard is supervising the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, home to Mr. Madoff’s estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

He is trying to recover assets to repay victims, including through auctions of Madoff’s personal effects. Last month, he said he had recovered $1.4 billion of assets, 7 percent of the $21.2 billion of investor losses he had found.

Mr. Picard is also responsible for determining which Madoff investors have valid claims and which benefited unwittingly from the fraud.

Madoff Trustee and Firm Seek $22.1 Million in Fees

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- A three-way split earlier this month among policy makers over the direction of the Bank of England's quantitative-easing program shouldn't have come as a surprise, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King told lawmakers Tuesday.

"It's not surprising that when you're at a turning point that you get differences of view," King told a House of Commons committee, when asked if the three-way division meant that the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee didn't know what it was doing.

Seven members of the nine-person panel, including King, voted to increase the size of the central bank's asset purchase program by 25 billion pounds ($41.5 billion), taking the total size of the measure to 200 billion pounds. Read earlier story about the BOE policy split.

One member sought a larger rise -- 40 billion pounds -- while another argued for standing pat at 175 billion pounds. The Bank of England's on pace to complete the purchases of British government bonds, or gilts, by February.

Gold: When to Sell

When gold turns, look for a floor of about $880 an ounce, and other signposts it's time to sell. MarketWatch's Stacey Delo interviews Kitco.com analyst Jon Nadler.

King also called on the government to come up with an aggressive plan to eliminate the structural deficit over the next five-year parliamentary term cash advance. The deficit is forecast to equal about 12% of gross domestic product in the current financial year.

Tax revenues would continue to lag for another five to ten years in the aftermath of the financial crisis, King said, adding that output would be clipped by around 5% to 10% for an indefinite period.

King downplayed any threat to the United Kingdom's AAA credit rating, saying there was no "immediate risk" of a downgrade. Failure to come up with a strong plan for addressing fiscal imbalances, however, could eventually leave the rating at risk, he conceded.

Budget plans are expected to be a major policy battleground in the next general election, which must take place no later than June. The opposition Conservative party continues to lead Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party in national opinion polls.

In foreign-exchange trading, the British pound was down 0.5% at $1.6527. The euro rose 0.4% to trade at 90.41 pence.

Three-way policy split not a surpise: BOE's King

Hot News: WestLB in talks to transfer $127 bln of bad debt

LONDON -- U.S. home prices improved for the second straight quarter on a sequential basis, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. The national index rose 3.1% from the second quarter but fell 8.9% from the prior-year's third quarter, while the 20-city composite rose 0.3% from the second quarter, though it's down 9.4% from the 2008 third quarter.

U.S. Home Prices Up For Second Straight Quarter

MADRID -- Swiss watchmaking giant Swatch was rated a buy by ING, which initiated coverage on Tuesday with a target of 300 Swiss francs. ING said Swatch is doing better than many luxury goods makers for four reasons: a gradual recovery of wholesale channels, a limited presence in a tough Japan market, substantial exposure to emerging Asia and to men's luxury. ING said while near-term visibility remains clouded, especially ahead of Christmas, it sees a gradual recovery in 2010 in terms of top-line growth and margins.

Swatch Initiated As a Buy At ING

Hot News: IMF Approves $1.4 Billion Loan For Angola

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Financial Federal Corp. jumped 35% at the open Monday, rallying as the company reached a deal to be acquired by People's United Financial Inc.

Under terms of their agreement, Financial Federal shareholders will receive $11.27 in cash and one share of Bridgeport, Conn.-based People's United common stock, valuing the transaction as of Friday's close at $27.74 per Financial Federal share.

Shares of Financial Federal stood at $27.85 in early trading. People's United stock also traded higher, up about 3% to $17. Read about People's United deal to buy Financial Federal.

The moves were part of a general upward move in financials to start the holiday-shortened week. Exchange-traded fund Financial Select Sector SPDR was up roughly 1.5%, after having slipped a fraction on Friday quick payday loans.

Also Monday, analysts at Citigroup Global Markets upgraded home builder D.R. Horton Inc. to hold from sell, saying the stock's recent decline brought its valuation in line with expectations.

The stock was up about 3% at the open. On Friday, following its earnings announcement, shares of D.R. Horton fell 15%, and the stock is down 23% since mid-August, compared to a 12% fall in its index of peers.

Meanwhile, Aon Corp. said it will change its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol to "AON" from "AOC." The Chicago-based insurance broker said the change is effective Dec. 1

Financial Stocks: Financial Federal pops after deal announcement

The Washington Blade and several other gay newspapers and magazines around the country learned on Monday that they had been shut down after a federal agency that oversaw them was unable to find buyers for them.

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The abrupt closing of The Blade and several other gay newspapers stunned their employees.

The Blade, founded in 1969, was considered one of the most influential publications written for a gay audience. The closing came as a surprise to employees, who had expected a reorganization or sale, not a liquidation.

“We found out when two of the corporate officers were waiting for us when we got to work this morning,” said Kevin Naff, editor of The Blade. “It’s not a complete surprise. The abruptness of it was what was surprising.”

The paper’s approximately 20 employees “are determined to come back and make a go of it as an independent entity,” he said. “Our first meeting is tomorrow.”

The publications belonged to Window Media and Unite Media. The parent companies had been owned by the Avalon Equity Fund, which bought them with assistance from the Small Business Administration. Last year, the S.B.A. said Avalon did not meet certain capital requirements, and took control of the fund as a court-appointed receiver. It sought unsuccessfully to sell the assets.

In a statement released on Monday, the S.B.A. said Window and Unite had ceased publication. It also said, “The S.B.A. as receiver for Avalon does not anticipate any recovery on Avalon’s investment totaling more than $7 million in Window/Unite Media.” The agency recently closed another publication controlled by Avalon, Genre magazine.

Calls to Avalon and Window were not answered. A law firm representing the S.B.A. in the matter declined to comment. The S.B.A. would not comment beyond its statement.

Employees at Southern Voice, a gay paper based in Atlanta and owned by Window Media, found their offices locked on Monday and a note posted on the door saying that the company had ceased operations. It told the workers to return on Wednesday with boxes to collect their belongings.

Other publications owned by the company included The Houston Voice, The South Florida Blade, David Atlanta magazine and 411 Magazine.

Washington Blade Newspaper Closes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lowe's Cos Inc (LOW.N), the second-largest U.S. home improvement chain, posted a 30 percent drop in quarterly profit as consumers put off big renovations as the U.S. housing market remains sluggish, sending shares down 2.1 percent in premarket trading.

But the North Carolina-based chain gave a fourth-quarter profit forecast that could beat Wall Street expectations, noting that it was starting to see signs of improvement in some of the hardest-hit housing markets, including California and Florida.

"The broad-based pressures of the macro environment are clearly evident in our sales as consumers continue to delay large purchases until they feel better about the economic outlook," Lowe's Chief Executive Robert Niblock said in a statement.

Lowe's profits fell to $344 million, or 23 cents per share, in the third quarter that ended on October 30, from $488 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.

Those results fell just short of analyst expectations of 24 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales during the quarter fell 3 percent to $11.37 billion, slightly above expectations of $11.28 billion. Same store sales, or sales at stores open for at least a year, fell 7 easy payday loans.5 percent.

Lowe's, like bigger rival Home Depot Inc (HD.N), has suffered badly in the U.S. housing slump. In September, Lowe's disappointed investors with a cautious forecast for its next fiscal year and said future growth would be fueled by expansion in underserved markets and overseas.

Home Depot is due to report results on Tuesday.

Lowe's took an optimistic view of the fourth quarter and forecast that profits would range between 9 cents and 13 cents per share, which could beat analysts' expectations of a 10 cent profit per share.

Lowe's said it expects total sales in the last quarter to be flat, while same-store sales, or sales at stores open for at least one year, would fall between 2 percent and 6 percent.

It plans to open 13 new stores in the fourth quarter. Lowe's opened 12 stores and closed one during the third quarter.

Lowe's shares fell to $21.40 premarket from its close of $21.85 on Friday.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba and Franklin Paul; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)

Lowe's profit falls 30 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a rare comment on the U.S. dollar's value, on Monday acknowledged the currency's slump was raising some prices, but said other factors restraining inflation were winning the day.

While showing he was not indifferent to the dollar's slide, Bernanke said tight credit and a weak job market would weigh on the economy's recovery and he repeated the Fed's pledge to keep interest rates exceptionally low for "an extended period."

"We are attentive to implications of changes in the value of the dollar and will continue to formulate policy to guard against risks to our dual mandate to foster both maximum employment and price stability," he told the Economic Club of New York.

The Fed chairman said the central bank's commitment to its dual objectives, along with the strength of the U.S. economy, would help ensure that the dollar was strong and a source of global financial stability.

The dollar initially rose on his comments, but fell back later in the day, hitting a 15-month low against a basket of six major currencies. Gold prices hit record highs and oil prices settled up more than 3.0 percent as the dollar weakened.

Fed officials usually defer to the U.S. Treasury Secretary on issues relating to the dollar's value, although Bernanke has commented on the currency in the past.

"Bernanke finally is doing what any self respecting central banker does, admit that the weakness of the reserve currency of the world matters," said Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak and Co in New York. "Jawboning is one thing, but until the world sees actual action, the U.S. dollar will remain in secular decline."

After the global financial crisis saw investors repatriate funds in 2008 pushing up the U.S. dollar, the greenback has lost about 16 percent since mid-March this year as risk appetite has returned.

"These safe haven flows have abated, and the dollar has accordingly retraced its gains," Bernanke said.

The dollar's decline this year has sparked concern from Paris to Beijing. In Europe, policymakers worry that the strength of the euro is harming economic recovery prospects while the dollar's drop has eroded the value of the Chinese government's massive holdings of U.S. Treasury debt.

Chinese banking regulator Liu Mingkang said on Sunday that low U.S. interest rates and a weak dollar posed a "new systemic risk" because they were fueling speculation in overseas asset markets, a particularly pointed criticism with U free business cards.S. President Barack Obama visiting China.

TOUGHER STANCE

The Fed slashed U.S. overnight rates to near zero in December and it has said it would likely keep them ultra low for an "extended period" to support a recovery from the deepest U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

While Bernanke renewed that commitment on Monday, he cited "crosscurrents" in the inflation outlook and said "significant changes" in economic conditions could change the outlook for policy as well, suggesting the Fed would act if the dollar begins to unravel in a disorderly way.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in Tyler, Texas, that the currency's decline had been orderly, but that the central bank was aware its commitment to low rates could fuel speculative activity.

Bernanke noted that the currency's decline had helped push commodity prices higher. However, he also said a high level of slack in the economy and stable longer-run inflation expectations should keep price pressures under wraps.

"On net, notwithstanding significant crosscurrents, inflation seems likely to remain subdued for some time," he said.

He said the Fed would closely monitor inflation expectations, which can offer an early warning signal of whether an inflationary psychology is building.

Most gauges of inflation expectations have stayed within the Fed's comfort zone, although the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumers on Friday showed five-year inflation expectations rose for a second month in November.

Bernanke said that while the economy appeared to be in the early stages of recovery, how it will fair once government stimulus measures dry up is uncertain.

"My own view is that the recent pickup reflects more than purely temporary factors and that continued growth next year is likely," he said.

Like Bernanke, Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said in a speech in Abu Dhabi that the U.S. economy still faced significant weaknesses.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon in New York, Mark Felsenthal in Washington, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in Tyler, Texas, and Martin Dokoupil in Abu Dhabi; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Fed eyes dollar drop, but hews to low-rate pledge

Filed at 8:00 a.m. ET

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Lowe's Cos., the No. 2 home-improvement retailer, said Monday its third-quarter profit fell 30 percent as customers continued to delay large purchases amid a weak economy. But Lowe's said some of the hardest hit home markets are stabilizing.

Profit in the quarter ended Oct. 30 was $344 million, or 23 cents per share, down from $488 million, or 33 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Results in the latest quarter included one-time costs related to closing some stores and no longer pursuing some future stores, as well as a tax benefit. Excluding those items, profit was 24 cents per share, matching analyst expectations according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue edged down 3 percent to $11.38 billion from $11.73 billion, narrowly beating an average analyst estimate of $11.28 billion.

Sales in stores open at least one year fell 7.5 percent in the quarter. The metric is considered a key measurement of retailer health.

''The broad-based pressures of the macro environment are clearly evident in our sales as consumers continue to delay large purchases until they feel better about the economic outlook,'' said CEO Robert A. Niblock in a statement Low fee payday loans.

Home-improvement retailers have seen sales slip as consumers cut back on big-ticket remodeling projects amid the recession. Although the U.S. housing market is stabilizing, after a nearly three-year decline, home prices remain far below their peak.

Niblock said the company is beginning to see better performance in some of the hardest-hit housing markets, including California, Florida and parts of the desert Southwest.

For the fourth quarter, the company predicts sales will be flat compared with the $9.98 billion reported in the year-ago quarter. Analysts expect revenue of $9.91 billion.

Lowe's expects earnings of 9 cents to 13 cents per share for the fourth quarter. Analysts expect earnings of 10 cents per share.

For the year, the company expects sales to fall 2 percent to 3 percent, implying revenue of $46.75 billion to $47.24 billion. Analysts expect revenue of $46.84 billion.

Lowe's projects full-year earnings of $1.16 to $1.20 per share, while analysts expect $1.20 per share.

Lowe’s Posts Lower Profit but Sees Housing Market Stabilizing

The network equipment maker Cisco on Monday raised its bid for Norwegian videoconferencing equipment maker Tandberg. The increase was backed by holders of more than 40 percent of Tandberg’s shares, few of whom had warmed to Cisco’s previous bid.

Cisco’s new offer of 170 Norwegian kroner ($30.25) a Tandberg share, up from the 153.50 kroner bid that more than 90 percent of shareholders had dismissed, values Tandberg at nearly 19 billion kroner ($3.41 billion).

Few analysts expected Cisco to walk away, having repeatedly touted online videoconferencing as a key growth area, especially as companies save on travel costs during the downturn.

Tandberg shares were up 3.9 percent at 163.80 kroner in early European trading.

“I think they will get Tandberg at 170” kroner, an analyst, Anita Huun at Handelsbanken, said.

Panta Capital, a small London firm advising on merger arbitrage that had called the initial bid too low, said the new offer was “fair” and likely to succeed guaranteed payday loan. “I think it’s a done deal now,” Peter Germonpre, of Panta, said.

Mr. Germonpre said the new offer was more in line with the valuation of another major videoconferencing equipment provider, U.S. Polycom Inc. He said the small group of shareholders whose views he had represented in his earlier statement would be much more inclined to tender their shares.

Cisco said the offer, which expires on Dec. 1, was backed by Tandberg’s two largest shareholders, Folketrygdfondet funds and Oppenheimer Funds, and had received acceptances from owners of more than 40 percent of its stock.

“The new offer represents the ... final price for this transaction,” Cisco said in a statement.

The offer is in line with analysts’ views that Cisco could raise its bid to around 160 to 170 crowns.

Cisco Raises Bid for Tandberg of Norway

MIAHUATLÁN, Mexico — During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San Diego, would be sending home hundreds of dollars a month to support his struggling family in Mexico. But at times like these, with the American economy out of whack and his son out of work, Mr. Salcedo finds himself doing what he never imagined he would have to do: wiring pesos north.

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.

“We send something whenever we have a little extra, at least enough so he can eat,” said Mr. Salcedo, who is from a small village here in the rural state of Oaxaca and works odd jobs to support his wife, his two younger sons and, now, his jobless eldest boy in California.

He is not alone. Leonardo Herrera, a rancher from outside Tuxtla Gutiérrez in the southern state of Chiapas, said he recently sold a cow to help raise $1,000 to send to his struggling nephew in northern California.

Also in Chiapas, a poor state that sends many migrants to the United States, María del Carmen Montufar has pooled money with her husband and other family members to wire financial assistance to her daughter Candelaria in North Carolina. In the last year, the family has sent money — small amounts ranging from $40 to $80 — eight times to help Candelaria and her husband, who are both without steady work and recently had a child.

“When she’s working she sends money to us,” the mother said. “But now, because there’s no work, we send money to her.”

Statistics measuring the extent of what experts are calling reverse remittances are hard to come by. But interviews in Mexico with government officials, money-transfer operators, immigration experts and relatives of out-of-work migrants show that a transaction that was rarely noticed before appears to be on the rise.

“It’s something that’s surprising, a symptom of the economic crisis,” said Martín Zuvire Lucas, who heads a network of community banks that operate in poor communities in Oaxaca and other underserved Mexican states. “We haven’t been able to measure it but we hear of more cases where money is going north.”

At one small bank in Chiapas that used to see money flowing in from the United States, more money is going out than coming in.

“I’d say every month 50,000 pesos are sent from here to there,” said Edith Ramírez Gonzalez, a sales executive at Banco Azteca in San Cristóbal de las Casas. “And from there, we’d receive about 30,000 pesos.” Fifty thousand pesos is $3,840.

With nearly half its population living in poverty, Mexico is not well placed to prop up struggling citizens abroad. Mexico could lose as many as 735,000 jobs this year and its economy may decline 7.5 percent, government economists predict, making the country one of the worst affected by the global recession.

Still, poverty is a relative concept. It is easier to get by on little in Mexico, especially in rural areas, allowing the poor to help the even more precarious.

In Miahuatlán, Sirenia Avendano and her husband may be more down and out than their two sons, both in their 20s, who wait tables at a Mexican restaurant in central Florida and have seen their hours reduced and their tips drop precipitously. But they live in their own home, on land they use to grow corn and other crops.

“We’re poor, but nobody can throw us out of this house,” Ms payday loan lenders. Avendano said, wiping away tears at her kitchen table as she spoke of her sons’ economic travails. “They worry about that. What happens if they can’t pay the rent?” To help make ends meet, she sells chiles rellenos, a popular delicacy, around the neighborhood.

“We have an obligation to help them,” said her husband, Javier. “They’re our sons. It doesn’t matter if they are here or there.”

In other cases, the migrants are returning home, as the many passengers who hop off the bus that runs regularly from northern California to a gas station in Miahuatlán make clear. “There’s nothing up there,” said a young man with an overflowing suitcase who returned one recent night.

Still, although a study by the Pew Hispanic Center from July showed a sharp decrease in the number of Mexicans heading north, there has been no sign of a mass exodus of migrants back to Mexico. Immigrants’ families say it took great effort to scrape together the thousands of dollars needed to send relatives to the United States, a sum that includes the fees charged by the people who help them sneak in.

“It’s expensive to cross, and it was a great sacrifice for us,” said Mr. Salcedo, 43, who has sent about five wire transfers to his son Alfonso, 18, who this year lost his job as a cafeteria dishwasher.

As expected during an economic slowdown, the money sent home by immigrants has fallen. The Bank of Mexico reported recently that remittances during the first nine months of this year dropped to $16.4 billion, a 13.4 percent decline compared with the same period in 2008.

The flow of money out of Mexico is believed to be a tiny fraction of the remittances still arriving. “The evidence in this regard so far is anecdotal,” said Juan Luis Ordaz, senior economist at the Spanish bank BBVA Bancomer, who has begun investigating the reverse money flow.

Families of migrants speak proudly of their successful relatives in the United States and use the remittances they receive to do anything from buying livestock to replacing dirt floors with concrete. The importance of such money, which is among Mexico’s top sources of foreign currency, cannot be overstated. An estimated 5.9 percent of Mexican households, about 1.8 million families, receive economic support from abroad, studies show. For them, the money represents roughly 19 percent of total income for urban households and 27 percent for rural ones, according to government data analyzed by BBVA Bancomer.

For the Salcedos, the economic woes are intense on both sides of the border. The ones still here had moved to the outskirts of Mexico City seeking opportunity, but now they are on the verge of returning to Oaxaca because the owner of the land they are squatting on ordered them out.

For Alfonso, the situation has been just as difficult. He crossed into the United States in December with about $500 that his father gave him, supplemented with money he earned doing odd jobs in Tijuana. He found a job in San Diego paying enough for him to send home $170 the first month and $120 the next. The third month, he told his family he could afford to send only $40.

Then, like so many others, he lost the job and stopped sending anything.

Now his father has begun sending money the other way, usually about $60, less transfer fees. “We’ve decided to tighten our belt until we’re all working again,” Mr. Salcedo said.

Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting from Mexico City, and Dominique Jarry-Shore from San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico.

Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives

Hot News: Off the Charts: Job Losses Mount, Enduring and Deep

The rise in unemployment that has occurred in the current recession has been hardest on young workers, while having a smaller effect on older workers than previous downturns. Women have been more likely than men to hold on to their jobs.

The overall unemployment rate, which reached 10.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last month, remains below the post-World War II peak of 10.8 percent, reached in late 1982. But the proportion of workers who have been out of work for a long time is higher now than it has ever been since the Great Depression.

The persistence of joblessness for so many people — 5.6 million Americans have now been out of work for more than half a year even though they have continued to seek employment — may provide the greatest challenge for the Obama administration if it decides to seek a new economic stimulus program.

The short-term unemployment rate — the proportion of the work force that has been jobless for less than 15 weeks — has begun to decline, however, and stood at 4.5 percent in October after peaking at 4.9 percent in May.

That decline is a signal that the recession, which officially began in December 2007, probably has ended. In past recessions since World War II, the National Bureau of Economic Research has always dated the end within two months of the peak in short-term joblessness.

Over the last three years — since October 2006 — the overall unemployment rate has risen by 5.8 percentage points. That is the largest such increase since the Great Depression, providing another indication of the rapidity and severity of the current downturn.

Before this cycle, the sharpest 36-month increase since World War II was a 4.9 percentage point rise in the period that ended November 1982.

The accompanying charts show the short- and long-term unemployment rates during the three cycles since World War II when the unemployment rate rose above 8 percent, and reflect how different groups of workers fared in each.

Each of the charts begins in the month when the broadest measure of employment — the proportion of people over age 16 with jobs — hit a cyclical peak. The first two end when that measure reached a cyclical low, several months after the recession was later deemed to have ended no fax payday loans. The final chart runs through October, the latest month available.

With each chart are calculations on the proportion of jobs that were added or lost from the peak through the bottom for differing groups of workers.

This cycle has been the worst over all, with the government’s household survey in October finding 7.7 million fewer jobs than in December 2006, when the employment-to-population ratio reached its high for the current cycle. The declines during the two earlier cycles, from November 1973 to June 1975 and from December 1979 to March 1983, were 0.8 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively.

Women have held on to jobs better than men have during this downturn, reflecting a pattern that prevailed during the previous cycles.

One major difference is how older workers have fared. The number of jobs held by men over 55 is up 5.6 percent since the cycle began, and the number of jobs held by women of that age has risen by 9.3 percent.

There are fewer jobs for workers age 54 to 64 than when the cycle began, but that group has done much better than younger workers.

By contrast, younger workers were more likely to hold on to their jobs in the two previous downturns.

It is not clear why that pattern has changed. It is against federal law to discriminate against older workers, but that law was passed in 1967, before either of the previous downturns. It could be that the plunge in real estate and stock prices in 2008 led fewer older workers to decide to retire.

The proportion of the work force out of work for more than 15 weeks reached 5.7 percent in October, well above the 4.2 percent figure reached in 1982. That had been the highest such figure since the government began calculating the number in 1948.

The proportion that has been out of work for at least 27 weeks — half a year — is now 3.6 percent, also a record.

Off the Charts: Job Losses Both Deep and Enduring, Especially for the Young

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Aided by the home buyer tax credit, the outlook for U.S. housing market appears headed for a sustainable recovery next year, said an expert of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Friday.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the projections are enhanced by a tax credit expansion to more home buyers through the middle of 2010.

Home resales are projected to total 5.7 million next year, up from an estimated 5 million this year. Prices will climb 4 percent after a projected decline of 13 percent this year, Yun said.

"Given the success of the first-time buyer tax credit to date, and the need for qualified buyers to continue to absorb inventory that will include additional foreclosures over the coming year, we are hopeful about the impact of the expanded tax credit because it will stabilize home prices," he said, "home prices should rise between 3 and 5 percent in 2010."

A federal tax credit of up to 8,000 U.S. dollars for first-time homebuyers has helped stoke sales this year. The incentive was set to expire at the end of this month, but the NAR and other housing groups successfully lobbied to get the credit extended quick cash.

Now buyers can claim the credit if they sign a contract by April 30 and close the deal by the end of June. Lawmakers also expanded the program to include a 6,500 dollars credit for existing homeowners who have lived in their current residence for at least five years.

Yun estimated that the tax credit brought in between 350,000 to400,000 buyers this year and projected that its extension will continue to lift the market by 15 percent.

The NAR said that existing-home sales are expected to total 5.01 million in 2009, a gain of 2.0 percent over last year, and then are forecast to rise 13.6 percent to 5.69 million in 2010.

"A steady draw down of inventory will help home values to turn positive in 2010, but risks such as unemployment remain in the economy," Yun said.

The October unemployment rate jumped to a 10.2 percent, or 26 year high. Economists warned that unemployment might get even worse in the coming months.

U.S. housing market to recover modestly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - – U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow industrials briefly rising more than 1 percent, as robust commentary from some retailers reinforced hopes of an uptick in consumer spending in the holiday season.

* Earnings and outlooks from JC Penney (JCP.N) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co (ANF.N) overshadowed an early November reading on consumer sentiment, which hit its lowest level in three months.

* The Dow Jones industrial average ( no fax payday loans.DJI) gained 94.01 points, or 0.92 percent, to 10,291.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) rose 8.97 points, or 0.83 percent, to 1,096.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) jumped 18.86 points, or 0.88 percent, to 2,167.88.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Stocks climbs on retailers' view, Disney results

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon called the idea that any bank is too big to fail "ethically bankrupt" and said regulators should have the power to wind down even the largest lenders.

"If some unforeseen circumstance should put this firm at risk of collapse, I believe we should be allowed to fail," Dimon wrote on Friday in The Washington Post. "Global economic growth requires the services of big financial firms. It also requires that big financial firms be allowed to fail."

JPMorgan is the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets and is considered by many the healthiest of the country's four largest traditional commercial banks.

Since the September 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK), many analysts have viewed JPMorgan, American International Group Inc (AIG.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and others as too large to be allowed to fail, fearing the impact on markets and economies worldwide.

Dimon argued against caps on banks' size, saying increased scale can benefit customers, shareholders and the economy by permitting better products to be delivered fast and cheaply.

He advocated a regulatory system that would ensure that even the biggest banks could fail "in a way that does not put taxpayers or the broader economy at risk Low fee payday loans."

Dimon said regulators deserve authority to manage failures of large financial institutions, including the ability to replace management, sell assets, and wipe out shareholders and even unsecured creditors.

International cooperation is also necessary, he said, because of the global impact of a major failure. He pointed to the many multinational companies, not just in banking, that operate around the world.

The "too big to fail" idea is "politically, economically and ethically bankrupt," Dimon wrote.

"As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently put it, 'No financial system can operate efficiently if financial institutions and investors assume that government will protect them from the consequences of failure,'" Dimon went on. "The term 'too big to fail' must be excised from our vocabulary."

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by John Wallace)

JPMorgan's Dimon says end "too big to fail"

Hot News: Rules Would Restrict Overdraft Fees on Debit Cards

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Franco-Belgian bank Dexia, the target of a major bailout late last year, announced a 274-million-euro net profit for the first quarter on Friday after losses of 3.3 billion euros for 2008.

The figures compared to a loss of more than 1.5 billion euros (2.25 billion dollars) for the corresponding three-month period last year.

And they enabled the bank -- deep in restructuring negotiations with Brussels -- to argue it had already "considerably reduced" its risk profile.

Citing "sizeable" progress since the disposal of troubled US bond insurance subsidiary Financial Security Assurance, chief executive Pierre Mariani's comments were clearly aimed at the European Commission, eight months into a state-aid probe.

In August, the commission said it had "reservations" over the bank's restructuring plans, but chairman Jean-Luc Dehaene insisted that talks were progressing in an "open and constructive climate."

Dexia, which posted third-quarter income of 1.37 billion euros, was yellow carded by the commission last month for announcing to markets the early repayment of debt without first alerting European competition authorities.

However, in a statement Mariani stressed that the bank had "confirmed its profitability with a third consecutive positive result, thanks to the good performance of its core activities and to the magnitude of its restructuring plan."

Belgian banking and insurance group KBC meanwhile announced a second quarterly net profit running, and said it too was entering the home straits in its own negotiations over restructuring with the commission.

It posted net profits of 528 million euros for the third quarter, up from 302 million euros between April and June and a dramatic turnaround from cumulative losses of seven billion euros at the height of the crisis between July 2008 and March 2009.

Dexia posts profit amid EU state-aid negotiations

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the White House will hold a job forum in December, acknowledging high unemployment is one of the "great challenges" facing his administration. Related U.S. federal deficit hits 176 billion dollars in October U.S. economy rebounds in third quarter after four consecutive quarters of contraction U.S. economy rises 3.5% in third quarter Is U.S. economy out of the woods?Obama said that over the past 10 months, the government has taken a number of bold steps to break the back of this recession.

The U.S. economy grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter after four consecutive quarters of contraction, but unemployment has continued to climb.

"The economic growth that we've seen has not yet led to the job growth that we desperately need," and millions of Americans "are desperately searching for jobs," Obama said before departing on a week long trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.

Obama reaffirmed that unemployment, usually a lagging indicator, will improve slower than the economic growth.

"Given the magnitude of the economic turmoil that we've experienced, employers are reluctant to hire," he said online payday loans.

Obama said his administration has "an obligation to consider every additional responsible step that we can to encourage and accelerate job creation in this country."

"That's why in December we'll be holding a forum at the White House on jobs and economic growth," Obama said.

The forum will gather CEOs and small-business owners, economists and financial experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups, to talk about how they can work with the government to create jobs and get economy moving again.

The October unemployment rate jumped to a 10.2 percent, or a 26-year high, and the White House has warned it could get a little worse before it starts getting better.

Many economists expected that the unemployment rate will not return to below 9 percent in 2010. They said creating jobs has become the biggest test for the Obama administration.

Obama to hold job forum in December

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A rare rally in the U.S. dollar was the focus in Asia Friday as investors wondered if President Barack Obama's week-long visit to the region would generate pressure for some countries to let their currencies rise.

The bounce in the long-suffering U.S. dollar added to profit-taking on commodities like gold and oil, while weakness in shares across Asia supported the dollar as a safe-haven trade.

Obama kicks off his first official tour of Asia by meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday, then goes on to Singapore, China and South Korea.

High on the agenda will be U.S. calls for Asian countries to do more to stimulate domestic demand instead of relying on exports to America. That would likely require much of Asia, and China in particular, to let their currencies appreciate.

But there's an inherent contradiction in the U.S. stance.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner often states his desire to see a strong dollar, yet at the same time wants Asian exporters to let their currencies gain ground against the dollar.

Leaders of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation seemed to give ground this week by backing "market-oriented" exchange rates. Yet many of the same countries were spotted intervening to buy the dollar to stop an export-damaging rise in their own currencies.

Traders said this burst of buying caught many speculators short and was a major reason the U.S. dollar bounced so far.

The euro had pulled back to $1.4858, from Thursday's peak around $1.5048, while the dollar reached 90.30 yen from the week's 89.26 trough.

Against a basket of currencies the dollar (.DXY) was up at 75.596 and off 15-mth lows of 74.774, though it remains within a downtrend channel that stretches back to May.

The dollar's rise added to pressure on oil, already burdened by a surprisingly large increase in U loans until payday.S. crude inventories. Nymex crude for December delivery was off 38 cents at $76.56, after shedding 3 percent on Thursday.

Likewise, spot gold was dragged down to $1,103.60 per ounce, from a record peak of $1,122.95.

U.S. CONSUMER FATIGUE

Most share markets in Asia tracked Thursday's fall in U.S. stocks, which snapped a six-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones average dropped 93.79 points, or 0.91 percent, on Thursday to 10,197.47, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) lost 11.27 points, or 1.03 percent, to 1,087.24.

The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) followed on Friday to be off 0.9 percent at 407.24. Some blamed concerns about U.S. shoppers.

On Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) forecast earnings during the key holiday quarter could miss Wall Street estimates as its customers face rising unemployment.

"It is inevitable for exporters in Korea and China to be hit as U.S. retailers are unlikely to enjoy the holiday shopping season," said Choo Hee-yeop, a strategist at Korea Investment & Securities.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei (.N225) lost 39.51 points to 9,764.98 after snapping a four-day rising streak on Thursday and looked headed for its lowest close in a week. The broader Topix (.TOPX) was flat at 867.50.

Struggling Japan Airlines Corp (9205.T) as well as a slew of banks including No. 2 lender Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) and No. 3 bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) announce earnings results later in the day.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole)

Currencies in focus as Obama tours Asia

OSLO, (Reuters) — The network equipment maker Cisco Systems said Monday that it was extending the offer period for its $3 billion bid for the Norwegian video conferencing company Tandberg by nine days to Nov. 18.

“The terms and conditions set out in the offer document remain in place during the extended offer period,” Cisco said in a statement.

The Cisco chief executive John Chambers said last week that he believed the Tandberg deal would be closed but threatened to drop the offer after investors holding about 30 percent of Tandberg shares demanded a higher price than the 153.50 kroner a share ($27.61) offered by Cisco.

Tandberg’s directors have recommended the offer be accepted. Its shares closed up 0.5 percent at 151.80 crowns.

Cisco made its offer for Tandberg -- its first attempt at a public European takeover -- conditional on 90 percent acceptance quick cash.

It was not immediately clear how many shares were tendered before Cisco extended the deadline.

Analysts have said Cisco’s offer, regardless of when and how it closed, could trigger more deals involving video conferencing firms like No. 2 player Polycom .

Other technology companies like Hewlett-Packard also offer high-end video conferencing.

Many analysts had expected Cisco to raise its bid, as acquiring the market leader in video conferencing would accelerate its push in selling video equipment and software.

Cisco Extends Acceptance Period for Tandberg Bid