NEW YORK – U.S. stock futures crept higher Monday as investors returning from a long holiday weekend were heartened by good news on retail sales.

Overseas markets were also higher. The dollar weakened against other currencies, giving commodities prices a boost. Bond prices fell.

Data released Monday showed shoppers opened their wallets more this season, a good sign that consumers are feeling better about the economy.

Figures from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, show retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 2.3 percent drop a year ago. Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.

Consumer spending is one of the biggest drivers of economic growth and is vital to a sustained recovery.

Stocks are currently at their highest levels of the year, and in the absence of any bad news, analysts say the market is likely to drift higher during the final days of 2009. Trading volume has been extremely light due to the holidays, which can exaggerate price swings. Markets were closed on Friday for Christmas and will be closed again this Friday for New Year's Day.

Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 5, or 0.1 percent, to 10,471. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 1.50, or 0.1 percent, to 1,123.50, and Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 5.75, or 0.3 percent, to 1,873.75.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1 loans until payday.3 percent to its highest close since late August, boosted by encouraging news on factory production. In late morning trading, both Germany's DAX index and France's CAC-40 rose 0.7 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was closed for a holiday.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.85 percent from 3.80 percent Thursday.

Commodities prices rose as the dollar fell. The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, slipped 0.1 percent. Oil prices gained 40 cents to $78.45 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices also rose.

Major stock indexes ended a holiday-shortened session Thursday at new highs for the year following upbeat reports on unemployment and durable goods orders. This week, readings on home prices and consumer confidence are among the few economic reports expected.

Stocks have managed to push higher this month despite lingering concerns about the economic recovery. But the gains have been more subdued than in recent months as investors have held back on taking risks heading into the end of the year. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 66.5 percent since hitting 12-year lows in March.

Gains overseas, retail sales data boost futures

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

COPENHAGEN &<51; With just two days remaining in historic and contentious climate talks here, China signaled overnight that it sees virtually no possibility that the nearly 200 nations gathered would find agreement by Friday.

A participant in the talks said that China would agree only to a brief political declaration that left unresolved virtually all the major issues.

The conference has deadlocked over emissions cuts by, and financing for, developing nations, including China, who say they will bear the brunt of a planetary problem they did little to create. Leaders had hoped to conclude an interim agreement on the major issues that would have &S220;immediate operational effect.&S221; The Chinese, it appears, are not willing to go that far at this meeting.

Whether the Chinese position represents political brinkmanship as senior ministers and heads of state begin arriving in Copenhagen for the final 48 hours of negotiations, or a genuine signal that Chinese officials are not inclined to settle the wide differences separating it and developed nations, was unclear on Thursday morning.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived in Copenhagen overnight, announced on Thursday that the United States would participate in a $100 billion fund to help poor and vulnerable nations adapt to climate change and build more energy efficient economies. She cautioned, however, that American participation in the fund was contingent on reaching a firm agreement this week.

It was the first time the Obama administration had made a commitment to a medium-term financing effort and a clear effort to unblock a negotiation that has been stalled. She said the money would be a mix of public and private funds, including &S220;alternative sources of finance,&S221; which she did not specify.

Nor did she say what the American share of the fund would be, although typically in such multilateral financial efforts the United States contributes about 20 percent. She said the money should chiefly flow to the poorest and most vulnerable nations and should contain a sizeable fund to slow deforestation, which contributes to carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.

The $100 billion figure is in line with pledges from Britain and the European Union, although at the low end.

&S220;A hundred billion can have tangible effects,&S221; Mrs. Clinton said. &S220;We actually think $100 billion is appropriate, usable and will be effective.&S221;

The world&S217;s two richest blocs, the European Union and the United States, have been slow to put pledges on the table for long-term financing, which under most estimates would require them to pay hundreds of billions of dollars each year by 2020. Last Friday, European Union leaders agreed on short-term financing totaling $10.5 billion over the next three years to help poor countries begin tackling the effects of global warming. But the bloc has so far failed to agree how much they would give in long-term financing. E.U. experts have recommended that fund should total about $150 billion annually by the end of the next decade.

President Obama is to arrive on Friday, joining some100 other heads of state who plan to come to Copenhagen to put a high-level stamp on whatever document might arise from the meeting.

But with the clock ticking, continued bickering among delegations would seem to be making the likelihood of a significant breakthrough increasingly slim.

&S220;I still believe it&S217;s possible to reach a real success,&S221; said the United Nations climate secretary, Yvo de Boer, at a press conference Wednesday night. &S220;But I must say that in that context, the next 24 hours are absolutely crucial and need to be used productively.&S221;

The continued deadlock is due in large measure to delays and diversions created by a group of poor and emerging nations intent on making their dissatisfaction clear. The Group of 77, as it is called, has raised repeated objections to what its members see as the economic and environmental tyranny of the industrial world, often in florid language.

&S220;The rich are destroying the planet,&S221; said Hugo Ch&>25;vez, the socialist president of Venezuela, on Wednesday. &S220;Perhaps they think they&S217;re going off to another one after they&S217;ve destroyed this one.&S221;

On Monday, African nations briefly brought the climate talks to a standstill. China, by far the largest economic power in the group, has dragged its feet throughout the week by raising one technical objection after another to the basic negotiating text infra red heaters. And on Wednesday night, the group refused to take part in negotiations that conference organizers had hoped would produce a definitive negotiating text by Thursday morning. Instead, many Group of 77 leaders spent the day hurling accusations at wealthier countries.

President Obama and other world leaders have said that the Copenhagen meetings are unlikely to produce a binding treaty; some sort of interim political agreement is far more likely, they said. But few appreciated the depth of anger in the developing world and the height of grandstanding that would consume so much of the conference&S217;s time. Now it is hard to find someone who confidently predicts even that much success.

The Group of 77 is a group in name only. Made up of 130 countries, it represents tiny island nations like Vanuatu and advanced middle-income states like Argentina. Its nominal leader is Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, a Sudanese diplomat who speaks on behalf of the group and who led a walkout on Monday, saying the developed nations&S217; offer of $10 billion in &S220;quick-start&S221; financing after completion of a deal here was wholly inadequate.

Many developing nations have united under the group&S217;s auspices because they can take advantage of the far greater negotiating power and resources of countries like China and Brazil. Many small countries have neither a big enough delegation nor the organizational structure to negotiate effectively on their own.

China has been a natural godfather to many of the Group of 77 countries because its government has extensive investments in Africa and Latin America, often involving lucrative deals to bring oil and minerals home.

The coalition is united on a few central issues. They include making sure that industrialized countries keep the emissions reductions pledges they made as part of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and that the Copenhagen conference produces enough money for poorer countries to adapt to climate change, said Mar&>37;a Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuador&S217;s minister of cultural and ecological patrimony.

But the group is neither a tight negotiating unit, nor particularly well organized. While larger countries like Brazil and China have well-appointed headquarters in one part of the Bella Center, where the negotiations are being held, the Group of 77 office itself is made up of two spartan rooms equipped with two computers, where some delegates from the poorest African nations sat Wednesday morning drinking soda and nibbling biscuits.

&S220;The G-77 is an incredibly diverse group,&S221; said Michael A. Levi, a climate change specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations who is attending the Copenhagen meeting. &S220;Its richest countries are 50 times as wealthy on a per-capita basis as its poorest ones. All of this makes a common yet constructive position very difficult. The easiest thing to agree on is to obstruct action.&S221;

The cost of such obstruction is growing higher by the day. On Thursday and Friday, ministers and heads of government are expected to fashion a complex political agreement encompassing a host of issues that have divided them for years. Seldom, if ever, have national leaders engaged in negotiations as complex &<51; and as poorly prepared &<51; as these.

The strain is showing both inside the Bella Center and outside. On Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators tried to storm the hall, but were pushed back by truncheon-wielding riot police officers who made 260 arrests. Inside, numerous groups staged demonstrations, sit-ins and noisy disruptions of public sessions.

Mr. de Boer, the United Nations official in charge of the conference, said that he was concerned about the safety of the arriving leaders and the rest of the participants. &S220;The incidents that have taken place today inside the conference center test my courage to continue in this way,&S221; he said, suggesting he would sharply limit access to the hall for the final two days.

In recent days, various officials have given gloomy assessments of the talks, including Connie Hedegaard, the former Danish environment minister who stepped down on Wednesday as president of the conference, yielding the chair to the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen. Officials said the turnover was dictated by protocol because the conference president shares a stage with fellow heads of government.

Elisabeth Rosenthal contributed reporting.

Hopes Are Fading for Climate Accord at Copenhagen

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices gained and yields fell Thursday, as bond traders' confidence that concerns about prospects for sluggish economic growth will keep U.S. debt "bulletproof" overshadowed the government's plan to sell a record amount next week.

Treasurys thus resumed a rally that's run for nearly two weeks, pushing 2-year note yields down to the lowest level seen in 10 months. Bond prices move inversely to their yields.

Yields on benchmark 10-year notes fell 5 basis points to 3.32%, which would be the lowest on a closing basis since Oct. 20.

Two-year note yields declined 7 basis points to stand at 0.68%, the lowest since mid-January.

Investors' "interest in the safest debt in the world remains in high favor," said Kevin Giddis, managing director of fixed income for Morgan Keegan & Co.

Looking to next week's debt auctions, the Treasury Department said it will sell $22 billion in 2-year notes on Monday, matching the record amount of the securities sold last month.

That sale will be followed by $42 billion in 5-year notes on Tuesday and $32 billion in 7-year notes the day after that -- all crammed in before the Thanksgiving holiday. The latter two sales set new records for the most ever sold and are $1 billion more than October's sales.

Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke supported bond bulls by reiterating that interest rates would remain low for some time. Read more on Bernanke's speech to the Economic Club of New York.

Recent economic data have also tended to be weaker than anticipated, calling into question how quick or robust of a recovery the U.S. can expect.

Also, as the end of the year approaches, investors and traders tend to unwind short positions and book profits on good bets made during the year, analysts said. That activity tends to support Treasurys, which are bought to show less risky balance sheets.

"The market has embraced a view that the Fed will not tweak its rate policy before it makes amends with the quantitative-easing side of monetary policy," said George Goncalves, chief fixed-income rates strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald faxless payday loans. "We do not view supply derailing the recent bulletproof market behavior in the front-end as the year-end scramble for good collateral will keep rates markets bid."

Assets that tend to benefit when investors want riskier, higher-yielding assets -- equities, oil and gold -- all fell on Thursday. The U.S. dollar, which tends to improve as risk appetite fades, gained during the session. See more on the dollar.

DOW INDUSTRIALS (DJIA)

Treasurys remained up after the Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits were flat in the latest week at 505,000 -- the 53rd week in a row in which they've been above the half-million mark. See more on jobless claims.

"To be certain, 500,000 people filing an initial claim in any given week is a terribly high number," Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in an email. It's also still above a level associated with a positive print in the monthly payrolls report, he said.

Treasurys also held their gains after the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% in October, less than the 0.4% increase predicted by economists. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing index rose more than anticipated to 16.7 this month from 11.5 in October. See more on leading indicators.

Rounding out Thursday's data, a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed delinquencies on home loans rose to a new record.

Bond Report: Treasurys advance as risk appetite wanes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – S&P 500 index futures moved higher on Tuesday after a report showed U.S. home prices rose in August for the fourth-straight month, surpassing forecasts.

The Standard & Poor&&9;s/Case-Shiller composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas rose 1.2 percent in August from July, above the 0.7 percent estimate in a Reuters poll.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.80 of a point and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract low interest rate personal loans. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 9 points, while Nasdaq futures were off 2.75 points.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

S&P futures rise after Case-Shiller data

FRANKFURT/MADRID (Reuters) – U.S. carmaker General Motors was close to signing a deal to sell a 55 percent stake in its European arm Opel to Canada&&9;s Magna Thursday as talks continued with unions over job cuts.

Sources in Germany, home to around half of Opel&&9;s 50,000 staff, said the deal could be signed Thursday or Friday.

The deal, set to close by the end of next month, caps weeks of negotiations by the companies and Opel labor leaders, but still awaits details on financing, including 4.5 billion euros (&&6;6.7 billion) in aid being sought from states with Opel plants.

Opel&&9;s 50,000 staff are supposed to get a 10 percent stake in the new company in return for cost concessions, while GM will keep a 35 percent stake.

GM decided last month to sell a majority stake to Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank.

Countries with Opel plants have fought to save jobs and avoid plant closures amid promises of billions in state aid.

Talks with unions were continuing in Spain after a union representing workers at Vauxhall, Opel&&9;s British sister brand which employs 5,500 people, reached an agreement with Magna earlier in the week.

Magna agreed, among other concessions, not to implement enforced redundancies.

In Belgium, unions agreed to 20.2 million euros of cost savings at the Antwerp plant after Magna pledged to look into keeping the plant open. The facility had been seen as a top candidate for closure.

Poland&&9;s economy ministry declined to confirm a radio report saying the government would award 450 million euros in aid.

"Poland plans to provide assistance whose amount will depend on the requests and needs of the New Opel in Gliwice," a spokeswoman for Poland&&9;s economy ministry said.

The Opel plant in Gliwice builds Zafira and Astra models outdoor fireplace plans.

In Spain Opel&&9;s prospective new owner Magna offered on Wednesday to return 72 percent of production of the new Opel Corsa to its Spanish plant in 2013.

Until then, production will drop to 70 percent in favor of Germany, the Canadian car parts manufacturer said during a meeting with the regional Aragon government and union leaders in Zaragoza, northern Spain, home to the Opel factory which employs around 7,500 workers.

"Magna&&9;s latest offer guarantees the Zaragoza plant&&9;s capacity with two operating lines of 478,000 vehicles. That&&9;s progress, but we&&9;re going to continue negotiating today and tomorrow," said Arturo Aliaga, industry counselor for Aragon.

An official at the Comisiones Obreras union said: "This is step forward, but we&&9;re still waiting for more."

The meeting followed a failed attempt Tuesday in Madrid to reach an agreement over jobs at the Opel car factory in Zaragoza.

The Opel plant at Figueruelas employs 7,500 and Magna had proposed cutting between 1,300 to 1,650 jobs there.

Magna&&9;s initial restructuring plans for Opel, which involve laying off more than 10,500 workers in Europe, have run into stiff opposition from European governments.

Magna and Sberbank have vowed to inject 500 million euros into the car maker, aiming to use it to make a push into the Russian market.

The European Commission is keeping a close eye on the transaction to ensure state aid is not misused for political purposes.

(Additional Reporting by Chris Borowski, Judy MacInnes, Christiaan Hetzner and Phil Blenkinsop; Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford; Editing by David Holmes)

(&&6;1=.6710 Euro)

GM, Magna set to sign Opel deal, job talks continue

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Financier Danny Pang, who died last weekend while facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he ran a massive Ponzi scheme, likely committed suicide, police said on Friday.

"It appears to be suicide," Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor told Reuters, although he cautioned that the death of Pang, 42, would not be officially classified as such until a formal coroner&&9;s finding.

Coroner&&9;s officials in Orange County, where Pang was pronounced dead at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach on Saturday after being found unconscious at his home, have said that results from an autopsy were awaiting results of toxicology tests, which would take two to three more months.

An Orange County coroner&&9;s spokesman has said there was no evidence of foul play in the case.

"This was self-ingested, it appears to be most likely some kind of medication," Sailor said of Pang&&9;s death. "This wasn&&9;t a gunshot or a hanging or anything like that."

Sailor declined to discuss the circumstances surrounding Pang&&9;s death that led police to that conclusion or disclose whether a suicide note was found.

"Until the coroner actually classifies the death and they clear the case, we&&9;re not going to release any information," Sailor said allstate insurance.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a person close to the investigation, reported in a story on its website that Pang had barbiturates and THC, the active ingredient of marijuana, in his system when he was rushed to the hospital.

A spokesman for Pang, Charles Sipkins, declined to comment on the report.

Pang was accused by the SEC of operating a massive Ponzi scheme on mainly Taiwanese investors through his Private Equity Management Group LLC and Private Equity Management Group Inc, or PEMGroup.

He was charged in April with trying to hide about &&6;300,000 in U.S. bank transactions from government currency reporting requirements and was free on &&6;1 million bail.

Some of Pang&&9;s personal assets had been frozen and his Irvine-based companies were being run by a court-appointed receiver as the result of an SEC civil lawsuit.

Pang&&9;s trial date was recently pushed back until August 2010. He faced up to 10 years in prison in the criminal case.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Financier Pang may have killed himself: police

TOKYO &<51; A last-ditch effort by the biggest airline in Japan to raise money and avoid bankruptcy has set the stage for a battle between Delta and American Airlines.

In events that would have been unimaginable a year ago, Japan Airlines, the country&S217;s flagship carrier, said Monday that it was exploring all options to stay in business. News reports said that the carrier was in talks with Delta Air Lines and American over a possible cash infusion of several hundred million dollars.

Despite troubles back home, United States airlines are eager to expand abroad to tap into international business travel, the most consistently lucrative segment in an industry prone to sharp downturns. Still, equity ties between airlines in different countries are rare, with most carriers settling for looser alliances like code sharing on flights.

A stake in Japan Airlines would bolster Delta&S217;s global standing by giving it access to lucrative trans-Pacific and Asian routes, as well as to coveted berths at Tokyo&S217;s busy international airport.

Delta, the world&S217;s biggest airline by miles traveled by its passengers, already has a strong foothold in Asia through Northwest Airlines, which it acquired last year.

But a deal between Delta and Japan Airlines would hurt American, which lacks a hub in Asia and relies on a code-sharing agreement reached with Japan Airlines in 1998. Analysts expect American to call on other members of the Oneworld alliance to also take a stake in the Japanese airliner to keep it within their ranks.

Delta declined to comment, while a spokesman for American said the airline was &S220;discussing deepening our relationship with Japan Airlines,&S221; and declined to comment further.

Both airlines are jockeying for position amid recent talks that could open up routes between the United States and Japan to greater competition. Current restrictions allow only two United States passenger airlines &<51; Delta and United Airlines &<51; to fly between the main airport serving Tokyo, Narita, and cities in the United States.

Delta could have a lot to lose if more United States airlines were allowed to fly to Narita, analysts say. A stake in Japan Airlines would better position Delta for continued dominance of trans-Pacific routes.

But an investment in a carrier on the brink of bankruptcy could also pose big risks. Delta, still integrating its $2.6 billion purchase of Northwest, lost $1.05 billion in the first six months of 2009.

&S220;Several hundred million dollars would not be enough to save Japan Airlines,&S221; said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, an analyst at Shinsei Securities. &S220;It could still go under, unless it gets even more funding.&S221;

If Delta were to invest $300 million to $500 million in Japan Airlines, as some reports have suggested, the carrier would become its largest shareholder, with 7 percent to 11 percent of its shares paydayloans. Laws in Japan prevent foreign companies from owning more than a third of a Japanese airline.

Japan Airlines, known as JAL, hopes that a cash infusion from either Delta or American will persuade other creditors to offer additional loans. The cash would also let the Japanese airline upgrade to newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft and turn around money-losing routes by teaming up with a new partner.

&S220;If JAL could be turned around, then whoever is involved could really reap some great benefits,&S221; said Jim Eckes, managing director of Indoswiss Aviation, a Hong Kong consulting firm. &S220;But I don&S217;t think the potential investors have really dug in deeply yet. If they look at JAL more closely, it may not be as attractive as it looks from the outside.&S221;

Hurt by years of mismanagement, a falloff in air travel and the weakness of the Japanese economy, Japan Airlines reported a record quarterly loss of 99 billion yen ($1 billion), in the three months ended June 30. It has already forecast a 63 billion yen loss for the fiscal year, which ends next March, and the airline has announced plans to reduce flights. Although it recently secured 100 billion yen in government-backed loans, analysts say the airline needs at least 250 billion yen to get through the year.

Japan Airlines is mired in negotiations with its eight unions over staff and pay cuts, holding back the company&S217;s restructuring efforts. The company&S217;s holdings, which include a global hotel chain and credit card business, have also drained its resources. Meanwhile, the carrier is losing out to its rival, All Nippon Airways, on domestic routes.

The outgoing government in Japan, controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party, had sought desperately to prop up the ailing airline over the last decade. Some analysts said the landmark victory of the rival Democratic Party in elections last month may have put new pressure on Japan Airlines to find new investors.

&S220;This new government may want to put JAL&S217;s feet to the fire,&S221; Mr. Eckes said. &S220;There is room for something dramatic to be done, but there is still a question as to whether it is acceptable politically to see either Delta or American come in and rescue a national icon like JAL.&S221;

Some Democratic politicians have hinted at the possibility of letting Japan Airlines fail.

&S220;Bankruptcy proceedings would not be received well by the Japanese public,&S221; said Hirotaka Yamauchi, a professor at Hitotsubashi University and a member of a government advisory panel on revamping the airline.

The airline was set to report to the panel on its talks with Delta and American on Tuesday.

Nicola Clark contributed reporting from Paris.

Japan Airlines in Talks With U.S. Rivals

Britain's PM Gordon Brown (R) sits next to British Finance Minister Alistair Darling as he addresses the opening session of the G-20 finance ministers meeting in London, 05 Sep 2009British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Group of 20 finance ministers in London Saturday that although the worst recession since World War II appears to be easing, the world cannot be complacent or overconfident.Mr. Brown told officials from wealthy developed nations and key emerging markets that the world was at a critical juncture and that more work is needed to ensure a lasting recovery. The G-20 nations account for most of the global economy. The ministers are meeting for a second and final day Saturday to work out an agenda for the G-20 heads of state, set to gather in the eastern U.S. city of Pittsburgh later this month. On Friday, ministers discussed continuing efforts to bolster the battered economy with low interest rates and massive stimulus programs. The officials face the complex question of when and how to wind down these programs, and how to coordinate these actions between nations personal loans for bad credit. They are also haggling over ways to prevent new recessions, including changing the way top bank executives get paid. That issue will get more work on September 17, when Sweden's prime minister has invited European Union leaders to meet and discuss bank bonuses before the G-20 summit September 24 and 25. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the agenda will also include climate change and strategies for dealing with the world economic slump. Mr. Reinfeldt said he would like the 27-member bloc to coordinate a common position on those issues.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

British PM Brown: Global Economy at Critical Juncture

WASHINGTON (AP) &<51; The watchdog of the Securities and Exchange Commission has found that three agency exams and two investigations of Bernard Madoff&S217;s business were incompetent, despite ample warnings of the multibillion-dollar fraud.

But the report by the S.E.C. inspector general, David Kotz, report found no evidence of any improper ties between agency officials and Mr. Madoff.

Despite speculation that senior S.E.C officials may have tried to influence the investigations, a summary of Mr. Kotz&S217;s report released Wednesday also found no evidence of that.

The S.E.C. enforcement staff, conducting investigations of Mr. Madoff&S217;s business, &S221;almost immediately caught (him) in lies and misrepresentations, but failed to follow up on inconsistencies&S221; and rejected whistleblowers&S217; offers to provide additional evidence, the report says.

Revelations in December of the agency&S217;s failure to uncover Mr. Madoff&S217;s massive Ponzi scheme over a decade touched off one of the most painful scandals in the agency&S217;s 75-year history.

Between June 1992 and last December, when Mr. Madoff confessed, the S.E.C. received six &S220;substantive complaints that raised significant red flags&S221; regarding Mr. Madoff&S217;s operations. But &S221;a thorough and competent investigation or examination was never performed,&S221; the report says.

Many of the S.E.C. staff who conducted the investigations were &S220;inexperienced,&S221; according to the report.

In a statement, the chairman of the S.E.C., Mary L. Schapiro, said the agency had been reviewing its practices and procedures, and that changes &S220;made since January will help the agency better detect fraud quick payday loan.&S221;

It cites examinations of Mr. Madoff&S217;s business done in 2004 and 2005 by the agency&S217;s inspections office. In both exams, the staff &S221;made the surprising discovery&S221; that Mr. Madoff&S217;s mysterious investment business was making far more money than his well-known wholesale brokerage operation. &S220;However, no one identified this revelation as a cause for concern,&S221; the report says.

Even more surprising, the two exams were being conducted at the same time in different S.E.C. offices without either location being aware of the other&S217;s action. It was Mr. Madoff himself who told one of the inspection teams that he&S217;d already given the information they sought to the other team, according to the report.

Mr. Madoff pleaded guilty in March. He is serving 150 years in federal prison in North Carolina for a pyramid scheme that destroyed thousands of people&S217;s life savings, wrecked charities and gave already-rattled confidence in the financial system another jolt. The legions of investors who lost money included ordinary people, Hollywood celebrities and scores of famous names in business and sports &<51; as well as big hedge funds, international banks and charitable foundations in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Report Says S.E.C. Fumbled Madoff Investigation

TOKYO (Reuters) – Suzuki Motor Corp plans to start selling a hybrid sedan in North America in 2011, using a next-generation system co-developed with General Motors Corp, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

The Japanese small car maker has lagged behind Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co in developing environmentally friendly vehicles, and its entry to the hybrid business is likely to fuel a price competition, the Nikkei said.

The hybrid system will be installed in Suzuki&&9;s "Kizashi" midsize sedan, a gasoline version of which is slated to hit the North American market in late 2009, the paper said.

Suzuki has said it was considering a hybrid version of "Kizashi" for the North American market, using technology co-developed with GM, which owned as much as 20 percent of Suzuki until 2006.

(Reporting by Aiko Hayashi; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Suzuki to sell hybrid in N. America in '11: Nikkei

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Troubled state-backed mortgage firm Fannie Mae took a massive 14.8-billion-dollar second-quarter loss, and asked the US Treasury for another 10.7 billion dollars in aid, the company said Thursday.

Fannie Mae and its cohort fellow state-backed firm Freddie Mac have already received hundreds of billions of dollars as part of a virtual government takeover aimed at avoiding their collapse in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis fast payday loans.

Fannie Mae suffers massive loss, seeks more aid

WASHINGTON &<51; The Obama administration scrambled on Friday to salvage major elements of its plan to overhaul the nation&S217;s financial regulatory system in the face of significant criticism from the financial services industry and its allies in Congress.

Even some senior regulators whose authorities would be watered down under the proposal have challenged the plan.

The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, tried to defend the cornerstones of the administration&S217;s financial regulation plan &<51; a new consumer protection agency to take over the functions now performed by the Federal Reserve and a greater role for the Fed in overseeing large institutions that could pose systemic risks if they become troubled.

The display of dissenting views, which Mr. Geithner characterized as regulators protecting their powers, graphically illustrated the cumbersome nature of the current system.

The dispute left some lawmakers baffled, and played into the hands of industry lobbyists who are trying to defeat major provisions of the plan and are skilled in playing regulators and lawmakers against each other.

Barely had Mr. Geithner left the witness chair at the House Financial Services Committee on Friday morning when a panel of senior regulators criticized details of the administration&S217;s plan. First Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, in his comments, criticized the plan to transfer the Fed&S217;s existing job of regulating mortgages and credit cards to a new consumer product agency.

Then Sheila C. Bair, the outspoken chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, criticized the proposal to give broad new authority to the Fed and suggested instead that it should go to a proposed new council of regulators that includes the F.D.I.C.

John C. Dugan, the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates nationally chartered banks, said he disagreed with the proposal to give the new consumer protection group enforcement authority and said that it should instead stay with the existing bank regulators.

Similar objections were raised by John E. Bowman, the acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, an agency that the plan proposes to eliminate.

Earlier this week, senior Democrats in the House conceded that they would not be able to complete work on the proposal to create a new consumer protection agency for financial products like credit cards and mortgages before the lawmakers left for their August recess at the end of next week instant payday loans.

The Democrats had hoped to complete action on the legislation this month. But because of opposition to the proposal, Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Financial Services Committee, said on Friday that the committee would work on the proposal in September.

The second major component of the Obama plan, to give the Federal Reserve more authority to supervise large companies for risks they may pose to the financial system, came under attack by senior Senate Republicans earlier this week. That proposal has also been questioned by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the Senate Banking Committee.

Mr. Geithner tacitly acknowledged the criticism on Friday and urged the lawmakers not to delay or bow to industry pressure, but to move swiftly.

&S220;Over the past five weeks, in Congress and in the press, among legislators and business leaders, academics and advocates, the administration&S217;s proposals have spurred an important and sometimes heated debate about how best to reform the financial regulatory system,&S221; Mr. Geithner said in his prepared testimony. &S220;We understand that on any issue this complex and this important there will be areas where parties genuinely disagree, and we look forward to refining our recommendations through the legislative process. But there should be no disagreement on the need to act.&S221;

Mr. Geithner added: &S220;As a country, we now know that our financial system failed in its most basic responsibility to be stable and resilient enough to provide credit while protecting consumers and investors.&S221;

&S220;We now know that millions of Americans were left without adequate protection against financial predation, especially in the mortgage and consumer finance areas; and that many were unable to evaluate the risks associated with borrowing to support the purchase of a home, a car or an education.&S221;

Turf War Over Financial Oversight Plays Out at Hearing

LONDON (AFP) – European shares rallied Monday after pre-weekend gains on Wall Street and earlier in Asia, boosted by reports of a rescue deal for US lender CIT, analysts said.

In late morning trading, London&&9;s FTSE 100 index of leading shares was up 1.57 percent at 4,457.88 points.

Frankfurt&&9;s DAX 30 climbed 1.55 percent to 5,055.53 points and the Paris CAC 40 gained 1.68 percent to 3,272.59 points nearing the half-way mark.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares added 1.53 percent to 2,507.04 points.

On the foreign exchange market, the European single currency advanced to 1.4226 dollars.

"News of a last-minute deal to save ailing lender CIT has helped to boost index futures ... as European and Asian equities continue their recent charge higher," said dealer Nick Mitchell at CMC Markets.

"It is rumoured that CIT will announce a 3.0-billion-dollar (2.1-billion-euro) deal that was reached late last night with bondholders which saved the company from bankruptcy."

He said "growing optimism surrounding the state of the global economy is helping to continue the recent rally in stocks and increase risk appetite."

US media reported Monday that business lending giant CIT Group, which provides capital for small- and mid-sized businesses, has negotiated an agreement worth 3.0 billion dollars with its bondholders to avoid bankruptcy faxless cash advances.

Citing unnamed "people briefed on the matter," The New York Times said directors of CIT had approved a deal late Sunday with some major bondholders to help it avert a bankruptcy filing.

"CIT is today expected to announce a rescue deal ... an expectation that has helped lift investor confidence further after positive earnings reports from the US last week," said economist Derek Halpenny at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in London.

In Asia, Hong Kong closed 3.7 percent higher at 19,502.37 points on Monday as improved economic outlooks for the US and China sent the benchmark index above the 19,000 level for the first time in 10 months, dealers said.

Financial markets in Japan were closed Monday for a public holiday and were to reopen Tuesday.

Before the weekend, US stocks closed mostly higher Friday as investors digested surprisingly good earnings reports from big companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.37 percent to 8,743.94 points, extending a blue-chip rally to a fifth straight day.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq edged up 0.08 percent to 1,886.61, while the broad Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 index dipped 0.04 percent to 940.38.

European shares shoot higher on CIT rescue report

SYDNEY, Australia &<51; Just a few years ago, Australia was being hailed as the great international success story of the wine business, challenging the dominance of France, Italy and Spain. From 1999 to 2007, foreign sales grew more than threefold, making Australia the world&S217;s fourth-largest exporter.

But even as its star appeared to be rising, the Australian wine industry was sliding, selling a greater volume of wine at increasingly lower prices. Last year, the average price per liter of Australian wine sold overseas was about 25 percent lower than it was a decade ago, a level many say is unsustainable.

The industry is also facing increased competition from lower-cost rivals and changing consumer tastes. Last year, exports fell 9 percent by volume, the first such drop in a decade. Many vintners are hanging by a thread.

&S220;The industry is in crisis &<51; anything less than that is avoiding reality,&S221; said Jeremy Oliver, an Australian winemaker and critic. &S220;It is interesting that nobody really saw this coming.&S221;

The reversal of fortune is prompting tough questions about what went wrong, and stimulating efforts by the industry to reinvent itself. Some vintners say Australian wine needs an image makeover; others are shifting their sights to the relatively undeveloped Asian market.

Australians have been making wine almost since the first convict settlers arrived in 1788. With a few exceptions, local winemakers toiled in relative obscurity until the late 1980s, when some entrepreneurs and government officials spotted an opportunity in the growing demand for wine in Britain and the United States. Encouraged by tax incentives, investors planted vines and opened wineries at breakneck speed.

Australia took the British market by storm, surpassing Italy and France as the country&S217;s top seller in 2004. What many suppliers did not foresee was the extent to which their sales in Britain would be dominated by a few large supermarkets, which would use their influence to push down prices, especially as competition increased from newcomers like Chile, Argentina and South Africa.

About 85 percent of Australian wine sales in Britain are made through supermarkets. Though the volume of Australian wine sold to Britain has more than doubled over the last decade, the price per liter has fallen to 2.95 Australian dollars, or $2.36, in the year that ended March 31, from 4.36 Australian dollars in 1999.

&S220;Australia can&S217;t even bottle air and make money selling at that price,&S221; Mr. Oliver said. &S220;It&S217;s not sustainable for Australia to be trying to produce the world&S217;s cheapest wine; we&S217;re totally unsuited to it.&S221;

Producers in several of Australia&S217;s major wine regions have seen irrigation costs soar in recent years because of a prolonged drought. Australia&S217;s higher labor costs and its distance from major markets have also made it harder for the country to compete globally.

In the United States, where Australian wine imports have fallen 4 percent by volume and 25 percent by value from their peak in 2007, the industry&S217;s troubles are more complicated.

From the late 1990s, top-end Australian wines rode a wave of enthusiasm led by the influential critic Robert Parker, who extolled shiraz from South Australia. His high marks made those wines fly off shelves, with little extra marketing, said Chuck Hayward, owner of the Jug Shop in San Francisco, which specializes in Australian vintages.

But that wave soon turned into what Mr. Hayward described as &S220;a perfect storm of laziness&S221; in which no one &<51; neither wine media nor importers nor the top United States sommeliers &<51; felt the need to learn much about Australia besides South Australian shiraz. And wineries were making so much money peddling South Australian shiraz that they, too, failed to educate consumers about other regions or varieties.

Thus, at the upper end of the market, Australia became identified by &S220;one grape and one region,&S221; Mr. Hayward said &<51; a strategy doomed to fail when that variety inevitably fell from fashion.

At the bottom end of the market, some have blamed the runaway success of Yellow Tail &<51; with its distinctive wallaby logo, and hoards of &S220;critter label&S221; imitators &<51; for giving consumers the impression that Australian wine is a mass-market commodity. Others say it is glib to dismiss Yellow Tail, which is extremely successful in its niche, but they concede that the emphasis on low-cost, high-volume exports has damaged the rest of the sector.

&S220;That generic reputation has created a problem for the country because partly we are dependent on heavy growth in the low end of the market,&S221; said Kym Anderson, a wine economist at the University of Adelaide. &S220;Whereas there is a lot of very high-quality wine here that struggles to find markets in the U.S. because people aren&S217;t very familiar with those particular labels.&S221;

These troubles have been compounded by a recent rise in the exchange rate of the Australian dollar, which went to near parity against the United States dollar last year from about half that value in 2002, erasing profit margins on many wines.

While Australian wine sales at home grow about 4 percent each year, the industry&S217;s problems overseas have brought an era of downsizing. The Winemakers&S217; Federation of Australia recently predicted that the industry would have to reduce the amount of wine it produced by as much as 20 percent to stay profitable, meaning many wineries would close or consolidate, vines would be ripped out and jobs would be lost.

&S220;In the early long term, our vision for the Australian wine industry is a smaller industry at higher quality,&S221; said Lawrie Stanford, the manager of information and analysis with Wine Australia, the government body that helps direct Australia&S217;s overseas wine marketing. &S220;We&S217;ve done the volume growth, and we overdid it a bit &<51; the industry is recognizing that. What we&S217;re doing now is pulling back a bit.&S221;

The biggest challenge there, according to the British wine writer Andrew Jefford, will be to convince consumers that Australia can offer more than just the &S220;cheap and cheerful&S221; wines they have grown accustomed to seeing.

That will require new efforts to educate consumers about Australian wine regions and a push by winemakers to accentuate those differences, Mr. Jefford said.

Wine Australia says it will shift the marketing focus away from what it calls &S220;brand champions&S221; &<51; recognizable labels that sell at rock-bottom prices &<51; toward smaller producers that highlight the differences among regions and varieties. The result, officials hope, will be fewer Australian bottles in the bargain bin and more labels pitched at the $20 price point.

In the Asian market, Australian brands are still novel and &S220;don&S217;t have the baggage&S221; they have in Britain and the United States, according to Mr. Oliver, who recently introduced a Chinese-language book about Australian wine.

Wine exports to China have risen from 502,000 liters in 2000 to 19 million liters in the year to March 31. And the average price per liter in China was 4.23 Australian dollars last year, compared with 2.91 dollars in Britain and 3.22 dollars in the United States. In Japan and Singapore, the average price per liter was more than 5 Australian dollars.

Many winemakers are keeping these figures in mind as they move to reposition the industry.

&S220;Our focus is on the longer term,&S221; Mr. Stanford said. &S220;There&S217;s always going to be another growth phase. Where is it going to come from? Well, these things are hard to predict, but you can be pretty sure that a strong prospect for a new growth phase is going to come from China.&S221;

For Australian Winemakers, More Turns Out to Be Less