CHICAGO (Reuters) – Citadel Broadcasting Corp (CTDB.OB), the third largest U.S. radio broadcaster, plans to file for bankruptcy as soon as Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Citadel is expected to file in a deal supported by many lenders collectively owed &&6;2 billion, known as a "prearranged" deal, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter that it did not identify.

Those lenders plan to swap a big portion of their debt for equity in a reorganized Citadel, effectively handing them control, the Journal said.

Citadel officials could not be reached to comment.

The deal would reduce Citadel&&9;s debt load to about &&6;762.5 million, the Journal said, citing the sources. The company will need to solicit more creditor support in court to get its reorganization plan approved by a judge.

Citadel&&9;s board approved the filing in recent days, the newspaper said payday loan lenders.

Citadel CEO Farid Suleman will likely remain in charge after the company leaves Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the sources told the Journal.

Citadel&&9;s network consists of 165 FM stations and 58 AM stations, and the company owns and operates the ABC Radio Networks, which it took on debt to buy from the Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) in 2006.

In November, the company reported having &&6;1.4 billion in total assets and &&6;2.48 billion in total liabilities in the quarter ended September 30, 2009, according to a 10Q filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman, editing by Jackie Frank)

Citadel to file bankruptcy as soon as Sunday: report

Hot News: Shares Swing in a Choppy Day of Trading

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Established companies with steep dividends compared to their share prices underperformed this year, putting an investment theory called the "Dogs of the Dow" squarely in -- you guessed it -- the doghouse.

The severe sell-off in financial stocks during the first part of the year was largely to blame.

The 10 stocks that qualified as dogs of the Dow at the start of this year -- including Bank of America Corp. , General Electric Co. , Pfizer Inc. and Alcoa Inc. -- on average gained just more than 11% as of mid-December, according to Bespoke Investment Group LLC.

In contrast, the average change for all 30 component stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 23% as of Friday.

(Unlike Bespoke's calculations, the Dow Jones Industrial Average's publishers give different weightings to the benchmark's components based on their prices. The index itself had gained about 19% as of Friday.)

DOW INDUSTRIALS (DJIA)

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Those 20 stocks not considered "dogs" rose an average 29%, according to research recently published by the Harrison, N.Y.-based investment strategists.

Dogs of the Dow, a strategy that gained popularity in the 1990s and was the subject of a 1991 bestseller, suggests picking the Dow industrials stocks with the highest dividend yields at the start of the year. See related Mark Hulbert column.

Yields are calculated by dividing dividends paid per share by a company's share price. High dividend yields are usually an indication that shares have been beaten down and so have more opportunity to rebound.

"It's an appealing strategy," said Ken Tower, senior vice president of research at Quantitative Analysis Service Inc. "At least you know the stocks aren't overvalued and aren't media darlings."

But looking at dividend yields only goes so far. Investors also need to look at prospects for recovery.

"Sometimes the dogs one year are the dogs the next," Tower added.

The pack of 2010

Performance for some of the high-yielding Dow components came under pressure this year as their boards cut their dividends. These moves, which became common during the past year's credit crisis, were unusual for big, established companies that make up the Dow average and reflected the deterioration in their businesses, which prompted investors to dump shares.

Dividend cuts made by Bank of America, GE, J.P. Morgan Chase and Alcoa also means they're no longer fit to run with the pack of 2010 Dogs of the Dow, wrote Bespoke.

Instead, the highest-yielding Dow components -- and those most likely to rise next year, if the theory holds true -- include McDonald's Corp low interest auto loans. , Chevron Corp. , Home Depot Inc. and Intel Corp. .

Not a typical year

Some of the past year's dogs, such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and aluminum producer Alcoa, have made the promised rebound.

The blue-chip shares of J.P. Morgan, which started off the year with a dividend yield of 4.8%, had gained 30% as of mid-December, as its capital-markets businesses revived and as investors became more confident the banking company would be able to handle its customers' credit problems.

Alcoa's shares added more than 26%, helped by expectations of a global recovery in industrial production. It started the year with a dividend yield of just over 6%.

But for several of the Dow dogs, the sell-off in financial-related stocks early in the year was too steep to overcome.

Bank of America shares have rebounded by a multiple of five from early March, when the stock dropped as low as $3 intraday. Still, the stock had gained just over 9% for the year as of Friday, depressed by a 78% plunge in its shares between Jan. 1 and March 6.

"Financial stocks got hit very hard in the first part of the year," said Bespoke co-founder Justin Walters. "Even though they came back a lot since their March lows, since they had gone down so much, they weren't able to make it all back."

Obama Attacks 'Fat Cat' Bankers

On CBS's "60 Minutes," President Obama decries "fat cat bankers" ahead of Monday evening's meeting between White House officials and banking representatives. Video courtesy of Fox News.

GE's stock chart tells a similar story. Hurt by investor fear about the potential losses at its finance arm, shares plunged during the first two months of the year. A rebound since March hasn't been able to drag the company's stock into a gain for the year.

Other Dow dogs were also on track to post annual losses, including AT&T Inc. , Verizon Communications and, as of last week, Kraft Foods Inc. .

On Monday, U.S. stocks edged higher, helped by Exxon Mobil Corp. and its $41 billion takeover agreement for XTO Energy Inc. as well a financial bailout for debt-ridden Dubai.

Financial stocks -- playing off the House of Representatives' passage of a landmark financial-regulation bill late last week -- kept the advance in check. Read more on Exxon and XTO.

The S&P 500 Index gained 7.7 points, or 0.7%, to 1,114, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 22 points, or 1%, to 2,212.

The Dow industrials lagged among the equity benchmarks, rising 30 points, or 0.3%, to 10,501 for its first close above 10,500 since Oct. 1, 2008.

'Dogs of the Dow' live up to name as GE, AT&T fall

Hot News: Dubai bailout, Citi TARP deal lift futures

The Wuhan Iron &&8; Steel Group, a Chinese steelmaker, agreed to pay $400 million for a stake in Brazil&S217;s MMX Mineracao e Metalicos to broaden its supply of iron ore. Wuhan Steel, based in Hubei province, will appoint two board members to MMX and become the second-biggest shareholder of the Brazilian company with a 21.52 percent stake, the Chinese company said. MMX, which is based in Rio de Janeiro, has a market value of 3.7 billion reais ($2.1 billion), according to Bloomberg data. China, the world&S217;s biggest steel producer, is investing in iron-ore projects globally to reduce dependence on Vale, the Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton pay day loan lenders. Wuhan Iron and EBX, MMX&S217;s holding company, also signed an accord to build a steel plant in Brazil, said a Wuhan Steel spokesman, Bai Fang.

World Business Briefing | the Americas: Brazil: Chinese Buy Stake in MMX Steel

When Telenor decided to upgrade its mobile phone network in Norway, the job drew bids from the companies that had built its original grid: Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Instead, Telenor this month chose Huawei Technologies, a Chinese equipment maker, to build its ultrafast network based on a technology called LTE, or Long Term Evolution.

Grabbing the contract in the heart of Scandinavia was the latest coup for Huawei, the rising star of the mobile equipment industry, whose low-cost, multipurpose networks have catapulted it to No. 2 in the world, behind Ericsson.

&S220;Huawei has established itself as a serious competitor,&S221; said Morten Karlsen Sorby, the head of global business development at Telenor. &S220;They have been able in a very short period of time to build the necessary competence and innovation.&S221;

But as Huawei&S217;s influence grows &S212; it leapfrogged Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens in quarterly sales this year, according to Dell&S217;Oro, a research firm in Redwood City, California &S212; the private company founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer of the People&S217;s Liberation Army, has fought the perception that it has ties to China&S217;s government and military.

A 2007 report by the RAND Corp., a policy research institute, for the U.S. Air Force said Huawei &S220;maintains deep ties with the Chinese military, which serves a multifaceted role as an important customer, as well as Huawei&S217;s political patron and research development partner.&S221;

Security concerns motivated the Committee on Foreign Investment, a U.S. government panel, to reject Huawei&S217;s joint $2.2 billion bid with Bain Capital in 2008 for 3Com, a U.S. communications equipment maker that produces anti-hacking software for the U.S. military.

Huawei&S217;s private ownership &S212; which it has never disclosed in detail &S212; has brought it scrutiny in India and Australia this year as it has bid on contracts.

Edward Zhou, the Huawei marketing director for Europe, dismissed questions surrounding the company&S217;s ownership structure as &S220;market speculation,&S221; saying Huawei was owned by its 80,000 employees and had no links to Chinese officialdom.

&S220;No government or government-linked organizations have any ownership stake,&S221; Mr. Zhou said during an interview. &S220;Huawei has no connection to the Chinese military, and none of our directors hold, or has held, any positions with, or serves or has served as a consultant or advisor to, any Chinese government or agency.&S221;

A senior executive for one of Huawei&S217;s main rivals, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for the company, said he did not know of any government ties the company might have but that that did not mean they did not exist.

&S220;They are very aggressive as a vendor,&S221; he said. &S220;But there is a definite lack of transparency, which makes it very tricky for us.&S221;

Questions surrounding its ownership have not prevented Huawei from supplying 36 of the world&S217;s top 50 mobile operators, including Telus in Canada and Cox Communications, Leap and Clearwire, a WiMax operator majority owned by Sprint Nextel, in the United States.

All were attracted to innovative Huawei products like its SingleRAN, a multipurpose wireless network that transmits in second- and third-generation, as well as LTE, signals, saving operators the expense of separate, parallel grids. In-Stat, a research firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, says Huawei was the first company to produce an LTE base station, the fastest in the industry, on a large scale.

&S220;In whatever sector they are competing in, Huawei is a major player,&S221; said Jeff Heynen, an analyst at Infonetics in Raleigh, North Carolina fast cash online. &S220;They are now among the top three in almost every market. The future for them continues to look bright.&S221;

Supplying gear to China&S217;s three big operators &S212; China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom &S212; helped Huawei almost double its share of the $38 billion global mobile equipment market to 20.1 percent in the third quarter from 11 percent a year earlier, according to Dell&S217;Oro. Huawei moved past Nokia Siemens, at 19.5 percent, and trails Ericsson, which has 32 percent.

ZTE, China&S217;s second-largest maker of networking equipment, is also growing rapidly as Chinese operators roll out mainland China&S217;s first 3G networks this year. Sales at ZTE, which is publicly traded, rose 43 percent, to $2.2 billion, in the third quarter as its profit rose 59 percent, to $60 million.

Huawei is based in Shenzhen, like ZTE, in mainland China near Hong Kong. It has grown beyond China&S217;s borders, with foreign orders accounting for 75 percent of its $18.3 billion in 2008 sales, up 43 percent from a year earlier. Huawei&S217;s profit rose to $1.2 billion from $957 million in 2007.

In Europe, where it has been selling equipment since 2000, Huawei supplies all of the Continent&S217;s major operators, including Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, France T&>33;l&>33;com and Telef&>43;nica. European sales are about $3 billion, Mr. Zhou said.

Scott Siegler, an analyst at Dell&S217;Oro, said inexpensive Chinese labor and Huawei&S217;s private ownership, which spares the company from having to pay regular dividends, let it underbid rivals by 40 percent to 50 percent on average.

That has roiled the industry, Mr. Siegler said. As Huawei&S217;s sales soared in 2008, Ericsson&S217;s rose 11 percent, while Nokia Siemens&S217; dipped 0.7 percent. The two companies said they would cut thousands of jobs this year.

&S220;Huawei is crushing the market,&S221; Mr. Siegler said. &S220;They continue to win market share and are forcing others to compete on their terms.&S221;

Rather than underbidding, Mr. Zhou said it was Huawei&S217;s unique products, like the SingleRAN, short for single radio access network, that were winning contracts. The SingleRAN lets mobile operators cut operating costs, which account for 80 percent of expenses over the lifetime of a network.

&S220;From a cost perspective, we are not the lowest bidder in many projects,&S221; Mr. Zhou said. &S220;But our focus has been on lowering the total cost of ownership for the network as a whole.&S221;

In Moldova, a former Soviet republic between Romania and Ukraine, France T&>33;l&>33;com chose Huawei last year to build a new 3G network, the first in Europe that can transmit voice calls in high-definition audio. Luidmila Climoc, the Orange Moldova chief executive, said Huawei made the best offer to Orange, France T&>33;l&>33;com&S217;s mobile unit.

&S220;Their network was easier to roll out, and it was already HD voice-ready,&S221; Ms. Climoc said. &S220;With Huawei, it was much easier to implement this feature. Everything was already in place.&S221;

Mr. Sorby, the Telenor business development chief, said his company had examined Huawei&S217;s private ownership but deemed it was not a factor in its deal. The Norwegian contract will place Huawei on track to bid on a multibillion-dollar overhaul of Telenor&S217;s networks in eastern Europe, Russia and central Asia.

&S220;Their technology is innovative, and their bid provided the lowest cost of ownership for us,&S221; Mr. Sorby said. &S220;And in our business, the lowest cost of ownership is key.&S221;

Newcomer From China Roils Mobile Network Field

While Black Friday, by every early indication, had done everything asked of it -- and more, it seemed, than pessimists had of it -- it failed to wrest Wall Street's post-holiday spotlight from a corporate debt crisis on the far side of the globe.

The Dubai World story had captivated and frustrated markets beginning late Wednesday, when U.A.E. city-state Dubai, the controlling stakeholder, raised a red flag by announcing -- with, it should be noted, holidays looming in the Muslim world as well as in the U.S. -- a restructuring of the flashy conglomerate and a six-month standstill on its debt. What exactly is Dubai World? Read full story: Dubai World's Sprawling Empire.

An ultimate default, of course, is the market's chief fear, with banks around the world suffering severe collateral damage.

It was, as MarketWatch assistant managing editor Tom Bemis wrote, an important real-world stress test of the global financial system -- a test whose results, so far, are mixed, with most European markets recovering from Thursday's drubbings in Friday action but U.S. stocks only managing to salve Friday's deepest wounds.

Friday's declines left the main U.S. stock gauges in the red for the week -- the Dow and Nasdaq by 0.1% and the S&P 500 by a razor-thin 0.01%.

Stay tuned to MarketWatch this weekend for coverage of breaking news and developing stories plus a featured story on the increasing challenges associated with emerging-markets investing, and check out these video specials:

Preview the coming week on Wall Street.

A look ahead at Asian markets.

Next week in Europe.

Black Friday shoppers on a mission, says Macy's CEO.

A season of hope (and fear, too) for retailers.

-- Tim Rostan and Michelle Donley, editors

A big Black Friday

The indications were almost uniformly upbeat Friday as the holiday shopping season got underway. Five thousand customers outside Macy's in Manhattan before the doors opened at the crack of dawn. Five hundred free breakfasts snapped up in 20 minutes at a Florida shopping center. Long lines at Best Buy stores in various geographies. Conspicuous consumption at the Garden State Mall in New Jersey. Shoppers in the nation's capital paying surrogates $20 to endure out-the-door lines in their stead. See full story on retail's Black Friday.

A Dubai World of hurt?

U.S. banks are likely less exposed than their European counterparts to a potential debt default by Dubai World, but a lack of transparency and the interconnectedness of the modern financial system make it difficult to know which institutions are ultimately exposed, analysts said Friday. See full story on the banking industry's potential exposure to Dubai World's debt crisis.

The new gold bugs

Gold has long been favored by a fringe of the investment world. This year, however, some of the world's leading hedge-fund managers have loaded up on the precious metal. Some are concerned that government efforts to avoid another Great Depression could undermine major currencies and fuel rampant inflation. Find out more about the latest generation of gold bugs.

Surge in home sales

Sales of new homes rose 6 low fee payday loans.2% in October, boosted by strong results in the South, according to the latest data from the Commerce Department. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000 was well above the 390,000 pace that economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected. Read more about the latest housing data.

China's data 'disconnect'

A sharp rise in Chinese car sales and vehicle ownership hasn't been reflected in nationwide gasoline consumption this year, an anomaly that has some analysts scratching their heads in search of answers. The disconnect has sparked a range of possible explanations -- and some suspicious musings. Read more about China's car sales.

Profits rise at H-P

Hewlett-Packard reported a 14% gain in quarterly profit, despite a dip in sales, as the Silicon Valley behemoth reeled from lower revenue in its key PC and printer segments. But the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company also posted a higher revenue for its information-technology services business, underscoring H-P's transformation from a traditional hardware maker. Read more about H-P's results.

Troubles in Saab deal

Swedish carmaker Koenigsegg backed out of its deal to buy Saab from General Motors, leaving the Detroit giant with another European name plate it had initially planned on selling. GM and Koenigsegg reached a binding agreement on the cash-bleeding Saab brand back in August, two months after the two automakers signed a letter of intent. Read more about the Saab deal.

With age comes wisdom

Hunting for a job is never easy, particularly in labor markets like this one, but it can be even harder when your hair is going gray. Even if age bias were rare -- and many say it's not -- after a rejection or three, it can become difficult to go to another job interview without the worrisome feeling that stereotypes are working against you. But that attitude may torpedo your chances of landing a job. Get some tips on finding that job.

Problem banks

The number of distressed banks in the U.S. rose to the highest level in 16 years in the third quarter, and the insurance fund used to protect bank depositors swung to a negative balance, according to a report released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund, which is used to protect depositors, swung to an $8.2 billion loss in the third quarter, the largest drop since the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1990s. Read more about the troubled banks.

Calculating GDP growth

Spurred by government stimulus programs, the economy expanded at a 2.8% annualized rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported. However, the 2.8% growth rate is below the government's initial estimate of 3.5% due to downward revisions in consumer spending and business investment in nonresidential structures, as well as changes to imports and exports. Despite the downward revision, growth in the third quarter was the strongest in two years, the government said. Read more about the GDP data.

Top Ten: MarketWatch's top stories of the week, Nov. 23-27

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – Gold raced to a record high above &&6;1,140 an ounce on Monday, gaining 2 percent as a weakened dollar boosted funds&&9; risk appetite for investments across the board.

Gains in gold spurred interest in other precious metals, with platinum, palladium, silver and rhodium all hitting their strongest levels in more than a year, largely driven by a tumbling dollar.

"A weak dollar has increased the demand of risky assets of all kinds, including hard assets. It is clearly reinforcing the commodities bull market," said James Steel, chief commodities analyst at HSBC.

"In this atmosphere, it is almost impossible for gold to resist appreciating along with everything else," Steel said.

Year to date, gold has risen 30 percent, outperforming the broad-based equities S&P 500 index, which has gained 23 percent over the same period.

Gold&&9;s ascent was driven by a combination of dollar weakness, inflation worries and doubts about a nascent economic recovery, analysts said.

Spot gold reached a record &&6;1,143.25 an ounce, and was at &&6;1,142.70 an ounce at 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT), against &&6;1,118.50 late in New York on Friday.

U.S. December gold futures settled up &&6;22.50, or 2 percent, at &&6;1,139.20 an ounce on COMEX division of NYMEX.

Gold&&9;s gains were momentarily capped as the dollar managed a brief rally off lows after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed was attentive to changes in the currency. But as investors digested his comments, they decided there were no signals of change to monetary policy.

Rising equity markets also boosted the appeal of assets seen as higher risk, such as commodities and higher-yielding currencies banks issue payday loans. U.S. stocks rose almost 2 percent. (.N)

Other commodities also rallied, with the Reuters/Jefferies CRB index up nearly 3 percent, as oil rose more than &&6;2 toward &&6;80 a barrel, while base metals such as zinc and copper also climbed.

GAINS SEEN

Gold now looks poised for further gains, analysts said, with a number of call options, or rights to buy, being placed at elevated levels on U.S. December gold futures.

"There is no reason why over the next few days it can&&9;t have a push toward that &&6;1,200 mark before we get to the December expiry for the options positions, which everyone&&9;s looking at," said Tom Kendall, precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi Corp.

"There is a large bunch of &&6;1,200 calls December expiry, which are acting as a bit of a magnet for prices at the moment."

Gold&&9;s gains lifted other precious metals, with silver reaching its highest since July last year at &&6;18.43. Platinum hit &&6;1,451.50 an ounce, its highest since September 2008 and palladium reached its strongest level in 15 months at &&6;375.50.

Later, platinum was at &&6;1,444.50 an ounce against &&6;1,390, while palladium was at &&6;374 against &&6;353.50. Rhodium hit a 13-month high at &&6;2,375.

Silver was at &&6;18.41 an ounce against &&6;17.41.

(Reporting by Frank Tang and Jan Harvey; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Gold hits record as dollar slips

Hot News: Futures rise as dollar slides, commodities gain

(Reuters) – U.S. shares were expected to fall on Thursday, after ending only marginally higher in the previous session, following the Federal Reserve&&9;s statement that it was keeping rates close to zero for an "extended period."

At 4:23 a.m. EST futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down between 0.2 and 0.9 percent.

The FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) index of leading European shares was down 1.1 percent at 973.93 points, ahead of rate decisions due from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.

Initial weekly jobless claims, due at 1330 GMT, are set to fall to 523,000, from 530,000 in the previous week, according to a Reuters poll.

Retail chains are expected to post positive same-store sales results for October, but investors hoping for a clear signal on an economic recovery could be disappointed. Sales are expected to have risen 1.2 percent overall, according to Thomson Reuters data. That compares with a 4.1 percent fall in October 2008, just weeks into the global financial markets collapse.

Data on wholesale inventories is also due.

Food maker Sara Lee (SLE.N) is expected to report a rise in earnings, while media giant CBS (CBS.N) may report a decline.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS.N) is among other companies reporting.

The Senate vote unanimously on Wednesday to extend aid for jobless workers and broaden tax breaks for homebuyers and businesses in a bid to breathe life into the struggling U guaranteed payday loan.S. economy.

After the closing bell Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) gained 3.1 percent after the network equipment vendor said quarterly revenue rose more than expected from the previous quarter. The company also said its board authorized up to &&6;10 billion in additional stock buybacks.

After reporting results, shares in News Corp (NWSA.O) and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) rose in after-hours trading, while those in Whole Foods Market (WFMI.O) and Murphy Oil (MUR.N) fell.

U.S. stocks rallied but lost steam on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it would keep rates near zero for "an extended period" even as it expressed confidence in the economic recovery. The market was unable to hold gains as it succumbed to selling pressure in the last half-hour of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 0.3 percent, after rising as much as 1.6 percent. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) edged up 0.1 percent.

(Reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Stock futures point to lower open for Wall Street shares

Hot News: Commerce Search Aims To Help Retailers Boost Sales

SHANGHAI (AFP) – China on Friday raised the curtain on its long-awaited Nasdaq-style board, ChiNext, in a key step towards setting up a multi-tier capital market and giving a boost to small and medium-sized firms.

Gold confetti rained down on a red ticker reading "Formally launched" in Chinese as the theme from the movie "Superman" blared in a hotel in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, where ChiNext trade will begin on October 30.

The new board will propel the development of high-growth start-ups, especially high-tech firms, Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in a ceremony broadcast live on television.

"The launch of the growth enterprise board is an important step towards implementing the national strategy on promoting innovation," Shang said.

Shares in 28 start-ups, ranging from software developers to medical device producers, will be on offer next week on the board run by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

A total of 188 firms from across China have applied to list on ChiNext, according to Shang.

China&&9;s economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, first proposed establishing a Nasdaq-style second board more than a decade ago, but the plan was shelved after the Internet bubble popped in 2000 freecreditreport.

Regulators hope the new market will help fuel start-ups and other companies with high-growth potential in the world&&9;s third-largest economy, just as the Nasdaq has in the United States.

But there have also been worries that the new board, which attracted strong interest from investors, may divert funds from the main indices and drag stock prices down.

Shang said investors must participate in the growth enterprise market in a "rational" way, recognising that start-up stocks have high-growth potential but are also characterised by unstable financial results.

"The growth enterprise market faces relatively higher risks of irrational and speculative trading and market manipulation," he said.

"The Shenzhen bourse... must closely monitor the debut session trading to prevent excessive speculation."

The bourse has said if prices move up or down 80 percent during the first day, trading will be suspended until the final three minutes of the session.

China formally launches Nasdaq-style board

HONG KONG &S212; One of Hong Kong&S217;s largest developers announced Wednesday that it had sold an apartment for 439 million Hong Kong dollars, setting a record, just hours after the city&S217;s chief executive warned that the city might be facing a real estate bubble.

The deal, valued at the equivalent of $56.6 million, set a record price per square foot for Hong Kong, and the developer, Henderson Land, said it was not aware of a higher figure&S217;s having been paid anywhere else.

Henderson Land declined to disclose the buyer&S217;s name but said it was a company registered in Hong Kong. The buyer&S217;s representative spoke the local dialect with a strong mainland Chinese accent and appeared to be spending money earned on the mainland, a Henderson representative said.

As China&S217;s economic recovery has gathered force this autumn, wealthy Chinese are pouring fortunes into Hong Kong real estate, producing a powerful surge in prices for luxury real estate. Hong Kong pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar and links its interest rates to American rates; with a flood of money pouring into local banks, adjustable-rate mortgages are available in Hong Kong for an initial rate as low as 2.05 percent, fueling real estate speculation.

Donald Tsang, the city&S217;s chief executive, cautioned in his annual policy address Wednesday that the boom might not last.

&S220;The relatively small number of residential units completed and the record prices attained in certain transactions this year have caused concern about the supply of flats, difficulty in purchasing a home and the possibility of a property bubble,&S221; Mr. Tsang said.

International comparisons of apartment prices per square foot are difficult because different locales have different conventions on how to count terraces, common areas and other features.

Hong Kong in particular has had many controversies over whether developers have overstated the square footage of apartments and the value per square foot of often-complicated transactions.

Henderson Land said that the apartment on Hong Kong Island, near the top of a skyscraper overlooking Victoria Harbor, was a two-story unit with five bedroom suites. It measures 572 square meters, or 6,157 square feet, and has a garden of 340 square feet, for a price per square foot of 71,289 Hong Kong dollars, including the garden. That measurement includes common areas like elevator lobbies that are partially allocated to individual units.

Most real estate markets use a narrower definition of square footage, excluding such common areas. Henderson Land said the price per square foot of usable area, a more common international measure, was about 88,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $11,350.

The apartment building has its own ballroom, outdoor swimming pool, fitness center and outdoor yoga area. Another unit on the same floor just sold for 397 million Hong Kong dollars.

Last month, a local businessman bought a one-bedroom apartment of 816 square feet at a luxury development across the harbor in Kowloon for 24.5 million dollars.

Hong Kong&S217;s real estate market is unusual because the local government owns virtually all of the land and leases it to developers for periods of as long as 99 years fast payday loan. Each lease contains strict zoning rules governing the square footage of the building that may be erected, how the building may be used and other uses; changes to the lease typically require lengthy negotiations with the government, as well as very large payments.

Hong Kong has more than 1,000 old industrial buildings left from its days as a manufacturing hub before almost all of the factories moved across the border to mainland China in the 1980s and 1990s to take advantage of low-cost labor.

Because of a strict requirement that they be used by manufacturing companies, many of the buildings are vacant or serve as warehouses for manufacturers across the border even though the buildings occupy prime locations.

Mr. Tsang said Wednesday that his government planned to start allowing the conversion or redevelopment of these buildings, which have a combined floor area of 87 Empire State Buildings, or 17 million square meters, into commercial real estate.

Property values are a subject of almost daily speculation in Hong Kong, where half of residents own their homes and most of the rest live in subsidized or government-owned housing. Mr. Tsang pointedly avoided any suggestion that the buildings would be turned into residential real estate.

His predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa, tried to address Hong Kong&S217;s chronic housing shortage and high prices by increasing leases to developers so as to increase the supply of apartments. The effort got under way just as the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997 and 1998 and contributed to a 68 percent plunge in residential real estate prices from 1997 until a trough in the early summer of 2003, near the end of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

Lau Siu Kai, the head of the central policy unit of the Hong Kong government, said at a news conference with foreign correspondents Wednesday that the government particularly wanted to use the nearly vacant industrial buildings to house companies from six industries that Hong Kong was trying to develop: education services, medical services, testing and certification, environmental industries, innovation and technology, and cultural and creative industries.

Some economists warn that if U.S. interest rates start to rise, real estate buyers in Hong Kong could be severely squeezed. Virtually all mortgages in Hong Kong are issued at floating rates pegged to banks&S217; prime rates, with no lock on the interest rate even in the first weeks of the mortgage.

Still, the record price set Wednesday is not likely to last long. The latest deal was for an apartment on the second-highest floor at 39 Conduit Road; the penthouse has yet to go on sale, with Henderson Land expecting to price it at 100,000 Hong Kong dollars per square foot, or $12,900.

In Hong Kong, a $56.6 Million Apartment

ROME &<51; Tens of thousands of protesters thronged to a historic square in one of Europe&S217;s largest capitals on Saturday to defend press freedom amid concerns of growing government interference in how the news is reported in Italy.

&S220;Free information, not on a leash,&S221; Franco Siddi, the secretary general of the Italian Press Federation, told a crowd in the Piazza del Popolo that organizers estimated to be at least 300,000 strong. Police officials said the number was closer to 60,000.

The group planned the Rome event &S220;after a crescendo of episodes&S221; suggested that the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was trying to exert pressure on the national news media, Mr. Siddi said later backstage.

On Friday, Mr. Berlusconi dismissed the protest as &S220;a real farce.&S221; Speaking at a political convention in northern Italy, he said, &S220;Freedom is far greater in Italy than any other Western country,&S221; the news agency ANSA reported.

For years accusations of conflict of interest have dogged Mr. Berlusconi, who owns the country&S217;s leading private television networks and a publishing empire. His government also oversees the state broadcaster RAI.

In recent months, he has expressed impatience with the European news media and, in particular, those outlets that have riveted people with accounts of racy scandals involving the 73-year-old prime minister and a clutch of young women.

&S220;If the king is naked, we should say he is naked,&S221; Mr fast payday loans. Siddi told the crowd. &S220;That applies to everyone, even the premier.&S221;

Opposition leaders were cautious about the impact the demonstration could have on the government&S217;s staying power, despite growing grumblings from within Mr. Berlusconi&S217;s coalition.

&S220;For now it&S217;s enough that so many people came out to defend such an important principle,&S221; said Walter Veltroni, formerly the leader of the center-left opposition.

Mr. Berlusconi is not new to accusations of trying to intimidate his critics in the news media. Journalists who have crossed him in the past have faced lawsuits, and in 2002 three television personalities were taken off the air after criticizing Mr. Berlusconi on RAI.

This year, after a seemingly endless series of spicy revelations regarding the prime minister, his government went on the offensive. In recent weeks, Mr. Berlusconi has filed a series of lawsuits against newspapers in Italy, France and Spain that he accuses of biased reporting.

La Repubblica, a daily here, is being sued over a list of 10 questions regarding Mr. Berlusconi&S217;s private life.

&S220;This is the first time that a politician has been so afraid of questions posed by a newspaper that he brought it to court,&S221; said Ezio Mauro, the editor of La Repubblica, in an essay published Friday.

Thousands Defend Role of Press in Italy

Hot News: World markets slide ahead of key US jobs report

NEW YORK (Reuters) – CIT Group Inc (CIT.N) launched on Thursday a debt-exchange plan that the struggling lender to small and mid-sized companies hopes will prevent it from filing for bankruptcy.

CIT, however, also asked bondholders to approve a prepackaged plan of reorganization that would allow it to initiate a voluntary filing under Chapter 11 if the debt exchange failed.

CIT said around a third of its bondholders agreed to participate in the exchange offer or vote for the prepackaged plan of reorganization.

Under the terms of the exchange offer, a tendering holder of an existing debt security would receive a pro-rata portion of each of five series of newly issued secured notes, with maturities ranging from four to eight years, and/or shares of newly issued voting preferred stock, CIT said.

The exchange offers are conditional upon achieving a debt reduction of at least &&6;5.7 billion in aggregate, with specific targets for the periods from 2009 to 2012.

The company said the plan has been approved by its board of directors and by a committee of bondholders no telecheck payday loans.

The exchange offer expires on October 29.

Founded more than a century ago, CIT&&9;s problems emerged in recent years following CEO Jeffrey Peek&&9;s idea to tap into potentially profitable but risky businesses such as subprime mortgages and student loans.

The financial meltdown triggered a sharp rise in CIT&&9;s loan losses and credit costs, leaving the company on the verge of collapse. The lender to businesses from retailers to sport teams has lost close to &&6;5 billion since the end of 2007.

CIT shares closed down 15 cents, or 12.4 percent, at &&6;1.06 on Thursday. (Reporting by Dan Wilchins and Paritosh Bansal; Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Walden Siew; editing by Andre Grenon and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

CIT launches debt-swap plan, warns about bankruptcy

Hot News: Bernanke says new super currency would weaken dollar

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Sales of new single-family houses edged up a 0.7 percent in August, following three strong monthly gains, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday.

New home sales of one-family houses in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 429,000, according to estimates released by the department.

This represents 0.7 percent above the revised July rate of 426,000, but is 3.4 percent below the August 2008 estimate of 444,000.

Analysts had expected a 1.6-percent rise in August. Sales have so far risen 30.4 percent above their low in January of this year.

The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2009 was 195,200 U.S. dollars. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 262,000. This represents a supply of 7.3 months at the current sales rate online payday loans.

Although many economists expressed disappointment over the tepid increase of new home sales in August, the Commerce Department was optimistic about the prospect of the housing market.

"The rise in new home sales so far this year has sparked an increase in building activity. Residential construction is likely to grow this quarter after 14 consecutive quarterly declines," the department said in a statement.

"We are encouraged by the signs of stabilization in the housing market represented by today's data on new home sales, helped by the strong fiscal and monetary actions that have been taken to stimulate economic growth," it said.

New home sales in U.S. edge up by 0.7% in August

TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil fell more than a dollar toward &&6;68 a barrel on Monday as a rebound in the beaten-down U.S. dollar and nagging concerns that prices may have run ahead of market fundamentals extended last week&&9;s late sell-off.

The U.S. currency rallied sharply against a basket of currencies as investors covered short positions following last week&&9;s slide of 2 percent to its lowest in a year, fueled by funds flowing into riskier assets such as stocks and commodities and a drop in U.S. Treasury yields.

The dollar&&9;s reversal on Monday sent U.S. crude for October delivery tumbling &&6;1.22 to &&6;68.07 a barrel by 0635 GMT (2:35 a.m. EDT), as broader commodity markets once again traded inversely to the greenback.

London Brent crude fell 95 cents to &&6;66.74 a barrel.

"Oil fundamentals are unchanged, but the euro is down slightly and crude is down similarly," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivatives sales manager at broker Newedge in Tokyo. "But as a trend, we may see dollar weakness for a while."

The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback&&9;s performance against six major currencies, rose 0.4 percent to 77.102, off its one-year low of 76.457 struck on Friday.

Oil fell nearly 4 percent toward &&6;69 a barrel on Friday, paring most of its gains earlier in the week, as U allstate insurance.S. equities fell prey to profit-taking following five days of gains, raising concerns about the sustainability of its recent rally and the strength of an economic recovery in the U.S.

"With demand still weak, it&&9;s not surprising to see some follow-through selling today," said Toby Hassall, a commodities analyst at CWA Pty Ltd in Sydney.

"The pre-emptive nature of the oil markets in the past six months may be diminishing as investors now wait for fundamentals to catch up with expectations."

On Monday the CME began tightening up enforcement on existing position limits on NYMEX, in a move that would leave violators open to punishment and could affect the volume of trading on the exchange.

Morgan Stanley has raised its forecast for the price of U.S. crude to &&6;105 a barrel in 2012 from &&6;95 due to tightening spare capacity, the U.S. bank said in a research note seen on Monday. (Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in PERTH and James Topham in TOKYO; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Oil drops towards $68 as dollar bounces

WHEN I travel, I am always planning for disaster. I&S217;m not some guy who hates to fly. I actually love to fly. But I can&S217;t turn off the &S220;what ifs&S221; in my brain. I&S217;m a former Secret Service agent and the training is ingrained. And now I own a security company.

Part of being an effective Secret Service agent was having what we liked to call &S220;situational awareness.&S221; It&S217;s basically nothing more than looking around your location, sizing up the people around you, and then thinking of the many things that could go wrong, and what you would do if one of those things happened.

Now I do that on airplanes. I just can&S217;t help myself. I&S217;m actually the guy who always pays attention to the preflight safety briefing. And I actually review the safety card, if only to look at the diagram of exits.

The single most important thing in this process is planning how I am going to get out if things go south during my flight. This is particularly true if I am traveling with my family. I actually visualize how we&S217;re going to get out of an emergency.

There are a few other things I do for safety. I never take off my shoes until we&S217;ve reached cruising altitude, and I make sure they&S217;re on before descent. I encourage my wife to wear flats because it&S217;s hard to move quickly in heels, and being barefoot is worse.

And I always carry a few tools. One of my favorite items is a lithium cell flashlight. When I was a Secret Service agent, I found that a good flashlight is the single most useful tool on the planet. Aircraft evacuations happen so quickly that I don&S217;t know if I ever will need to use it &<51; at least I hope I won&S217;t. But I always bring one with me.

Also in the category of things that I may not have time to use, but still carry anyway, is a smoke mask payday loans no teletrack. The one I have is filled with aloe, which filters toxic chemicals out of smoke.

I&S217;ve never had a problem with the Transportation Security Administration. Flashlights like those I carry aren&S217;t on the list of prohibited items. And the smoke mask is in an airtight foil pouch. The density scanners don&S217;t pick it up because it isn&S217;t dense like explosives, and the X-ray machine can&S217;t see through it.

Because of my training, I also pay attention to other passengers. I am looking for two things. First, obviously, is to look for the maniac who is going to take over the plane. Hopefully, the T.S.A. already took care of him or her. But if not, there may be a few clues.

Second, I look for an inappropriate affect as people board the plane. By that I mean those nonverbal clues that you can sense, like someone being inappropriately anxious or stressed. And I don&S217;t mean the nervous flier. Although I sometimes give them a once over.

I also try to find those people who look like they are in the military or law enforcement. The haircuts are usually a dead giveaway. But so is the carry-on luggage. There are special duffels and other items that military and rescue personnel use, and I can always spot it. If something goes wrong, I can count on those folks to help out.

For all I know, maybe there&S217;s some man or woman on the plane who is checking me out. Maybe they&S217;re thinking, &S220;Why is this guy looking at everybody so carefully?&S221; Like I said, I can&S217;t help myself.

By Christopher Falkenberg, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com.

Frequent Flier: Always Mindful of Finding the Nearest Exit

Hot News: Leaving Google, Executive to Back Chinese Start-Ups

NEW YORK, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices rebounded from early sell-off on Thursday as data showed U.S. economy shrank at a slower pace, boosting hopes for a sooner recovery.

The contract dropped below 70 U.S. dollars a barrel in the morning session as ample stockpiles weighted on the market. Oil jumped back to positive territory along with the equities, erasing the earlier loss and ending up more than 1 percent before the end of the session.

Helping to lift the oil prices was the news that U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) shrank at a one percent annual rate from April to June, less than expected bad credit car loans. In a separate report, initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 570,000 last week, suggesting some easing in the pace of layoffs.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 1.06 dollars, or 1.5 percent, to settle at 72.49 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent Crude for October delivery gained 1.10 dollars to 72.68 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil rebounds as upbeat economic data boosts recovery hope