TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto&&9;s main stock index fell hard on Tuesday as sharply lower commodity prices and weak U.S. consumer confidence prompted profit-taking after a big run-up in the index.

Disappointing quarterly corporate results in the United States also convinced investors to pocket some of the market&&9;s sharp recent gains.

The slide was headed by the index&&9;s mining-laden materials group, which fell 3.5 percent on a drop in gold prices. The energy group dropped 1.92 percent as the price of oil fell.

Shares of miner Goldcorp, the biggest drag on the index, were off 5.92 percent at C&&6;39.11, while Barrick Gold Corp was down 4.2 percent at C&&6;36.21. Kinross was also a heavy loser, down 6.2 percent at C&&6;20.55.

"Commodities certainly are driving it today, and financials are also in the game," said Adrian Mastracci, portfolio manager and president of KCM Wealth Management Inc in Vancouver.

"Today we got a little bit of profit-taking but it&&9;s also not too terribly surprising. We&&9;ve had a long run now. It does point to the fact that some investors are being a little cautious, and rightly so."

The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 186.89 points, or 1.74 percent, at 10,570.54. Nine of its 10 main groups were lower, including the hefty financials, which fell 1.3 percent.

The tumble came a day after the TSX index rallied to its highest level in nearly 10 months and after a 44 percent climb from the five-year low it fell to in March.

"When you have that kind of move up it wouldn&&9;t surprise me at any point in time to see the market go through some period of consolidation," said Peter Chandler, senior vice-president at Canaccord Capital in Waterloo, Ontario payday loan online. "So ... it&&9;s just a catch of breath after an unparalleled rise."

The selloff came after Viacom Inc and Office Depot Inc both delivered disappointing quarterly results and spurred investors to seek more evidence of economic rebound.

Meanwhile, conflicting U.S. data showed U.S. home prices rose in May for the first time in three years, but a weakening job market hit consumer confidence in July and could prevent near-term economic recovery.

In Canada, business confidence rebounded in the second quarter, but many business leaders said their companies are still operating well below capacity, a survey showed.

Shares of Rogers Communications Inc, another key drag on the index, fell 4.9 percent to C&&6;29.45 after the company slashed its revenue outlook and said its wireless subscribers were cutting back on spending.

The healthcare sector was the lone advancing sector, eking out a 0.14 percent gain. Cardiome said it had achieved a milestone from collaboration with Merck & Co Inc. Cardiome rose 5.4 percent to C&&6;4.68.

(&&6;1=&&6;1.08 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Peter Galloway)

TSX undercut by falling commodities, U.S. data

FROM the airlines&S217; point of view, these are tough times for premium overseas travel. In May, according to the International Air Transport Association, global demand for business- and first-class seats was down over 26 percent from May 2008. It was the 12th consecutive month of year-on-year declines in demand for those premium seats, which at one time were a gold mine for airlines.

But a crisis for airlines has also created opportunities for business travelers bound overseas and determined to make the trip in productive comfort (lots of space to work in and those cushy lie-flat beds to rest in, for example) &<51; without buying a ticket that can cost as much as a good used car.

With a degree of flexibility in travel plans, you can now fly overseas in business class for a fraction of what it used to cost. Airlines started introducing spot fare sales for international premium seats last fall when demand fell in a deteriorating economy. Now, as conditions have worsened, airlines seem to be settling into a basic restructuring of international premium-class fares that resembles the way airlines have long priced leisure fares in the back of the plane.

&S220;I don&S217;t know even what counts as a sale anymore,&S221; said Joe Brancatelli, who publishes Joesentme.com, a subscription Web site for business travelers. &S220;Airlines are now yield-managing fares up front like they do in the back. It&S217;s looking like a permanent sale environment.&S221;

Airlines adopted yield-management strategies in the 1980s to sell coach seats efficiently. Yield management assumes that airline seats are perishable and can be marked at fluctuating prices based on calculations for demand, starting months in advance and continuing until the time the plane takes off.

Because of reductions in corporate spending, business travelers have begun behaving more and more like leisure travelers, eschewing immediate convenience for lower prices &<51; even in the international premium niche.

I can&S217;t begin to summarize the current discount fare environment. But here are a few current and arbitrarily chosen examples. Contemplating a business trip to Shanghai? With a little flexibility, you can travel in luxury and sleep in a lie-flat bed. Air Canada has a sale in which a first-class ticket between Los Angeles and Shanghai is available for less than $3,500. A year ago, a traveler could have easily paid over $15,000 on various airlines for that ticket.

Business class from New York to London? For the British Airways swanky Club World cabin, that will be about $2,544 round trip for late summer travel, with an advance purchase no fax payday loan. The walk-up fare for Club World on that route used to be about $11,000 and is still about $7,500.

New York to Amsterdam? On the mostly business-class planes operated by OpenSkies, a British Airways subsidiary, the summer fare is about $1,300, round trip.

As always, you need to check individual airline Web sites for the fine print on advance purchase restrictions and fees.

Or, given the current free-for-all in high-end fares, you may even want to consult with a real live travel agent. That&S217;s because finding the right premium fares at the right time has become cumbersome even for business travelers who used to book travel themselves in a less frantic environment.

&S220;We all know the airlines are reducing capacity, but that&S217;s going to take time,&S221; said Fran Kramer, who specializes in international bookings for DePrez Travel, a big agency in Rochester with clients all over the country. &S220;While they do that and figure out what works,&S221; she added, &S220;there are certainly a lot of opportunities&S221; for finding major fare discounts on international premium travel.

Ms. Kramer said that airlines, desperate for whatever revenue they can get, sometimes reach out to agents with last-minute offers for premium seats that are unsold, even at promotional fares, just before a flight. &S220;Yesterday, we got a call 24 hours in advance offering my client the option to go to Europe in business class for $500 extra,&S221; she said.

Airlines can&S217;t continue losing money indefinitely, but they&S217;re still flying those fancy cabins overseas. So big discounts on premium travel will continue until supply can be brought into some profitable relationship with demand. Even then, those stunning $11,000 round-trip business-class fares between, say, New York and London may be a thing of the past.

Airline executives have been looking ahead with reduced expectations.

&S220;This industry can always reduce prices,&S221; said Willie Walsh, the chief executive officer of British Airways. &S220;The challenge now is, can you adjust your cost base to reflect that different price point, or ideally can you take the costs out quicker than the prices are going down?&S221;

E-mail: jsharkey@nytimes.com

On the Road: Business-Class Bargains for Overseas Travelers

An unexpectedly large increase in new home sales gave Wall Street a shot in the arm early Monday, but the effect lasted only for a few minutes. Shares fell back after jumping briefly into positive territory on the report. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted rate of 384,000, a sharper increase than the 3 percent rise economists had been expecting. Sale prices fell for another month, to a nationwide median of $206,200, the government reported.

But the home sales report was not enough to blunt investor concerns over earnings reports coming out Monday.

At 11:50 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 16 points, or 0.2 percent, while the broader Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq were essentually flat.

On Friday, the Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500 index rose 0.3 percent, but the Nasdaq broke its string of 12 consecutive higher closes.

Earnings reports on Monday offered a mixed picture to investors. Shares of Aetna fell after the health-insurance company reported a 28 percent decline in profits and reduced its outlook. Verizon Communications reported a 7 percent drop in profit, yet its results met Wall Street expectations. Verizon, however, continues to struggle with the loss of landline customers and said that it planned to cut another 8,000 jobs.

In Europe, the major markets were slightly, following another day of strong performances on Asian markets. In afternoon trading, the DJ Euro Stoxx-50 index, a barometer of euro-zone blue chips, rose 0.72 percent, giving the index a gain for the year of 6.28 percent. The CAC-40 in Paris was rose 0.18 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.42 percent.

The FTSE-100 index in London ended 0.21 percent higher, as Ryanair weighed on European airline shares. The Irish carrier beat the market&S217;s second-quarter profit expectations, but it warned that demand was falling, and it cut its full-year guidance. Its shares fell 9.2 percent in London. British Airways fell 2.9 percent, while Air France-KLM fell 1.9 percent in Paris.

Shares in most major markets have rallied on the last two weeks, primarily fueled by a renewed sense of optimism that the economy has bottomed out and on better-than-expected earnings in the United States.

Earlier in Tokyo, the Nikkei rose 1.5 percent to close at 10,088, its highest level in six weeks. It was also the ninth consecutive session of gains for the Nikkei, which is up 12 percent in July and 40 percent since March. The compiler of the Nikkei index reported that it was the best run for the Nikkei in more than 20 years. In February 1988, it recorded 13 consecutive sessions of advances.

Financial analysts typically do not put much stock in round-numbered index levels, and there was clearly some skepticism about the &S220;breakthrough&S221; performances on Monday, especially that of the Nikkei. Several analysts said the index could be overheating.

&S220;Japan is a very, very strange market, and there are a host of reasons to remain very negative on Japan,&S221; said Stephen Davies, chief executive of Javelin Wealth management in Singapore.

Mr. Davies cited three worrisome factors &<51; the negative impact of a relatively strong yen on Japanese exporters, depressed domestic consumption and what he called &S220;political paralysis cash till payday advance.&S221;

&S220;Japan remains,&S221; he said, &S220;a relatively moribund market and a relatively moribund economy.&S221;

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished the day up 1.4 percent, closing at 20,251.62, buoyed in part by China Mobile, which jumped 2.9 percent on speculation that it could soon be allowed to sell shares in mainland China.

Three apparel makers posted significant gains on expectations of renewed strength in the Chinese economy. Bossini rose 11 percent and Giordano, both based in Hong Kong, rose 10.1 percent. Li Ning, the Beijing-based maker of athletic shoes and sports clothing, rose 5.7 percent.

The Shanghai Composite also finished up 1.9 percent to reach a 13-month high. The index is up 87 percent this year, the second-best market performance in the world, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of 89 indexes. Only Peru has done better.

The first public offering on the Shanghai exchange since last August created a sensation, with shares of Sichuan Expressway nearly tripling on Monday. Shares in the toll-road operator closed at 10.90 renminbi, or $1.60, a jump of 203 percent. The initial offering price had been 3.60 renminbi. At one point in the afternoon the share price had zoomed to 15.25 renminbi, which triggered a trading halt, one of two suspensions during the day.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Singapore index was up 1.8 percent, the Kospi in Seoul was 1.4 percent higher &<51; reaching an 11-month high &<51; and the ASX-200 in Sydney registered a 1.2 percent gain to close at its highest level since Nov. 4.

&S220;The markets are still very volatile, and a couple bad numbers could certainly create a pause for reflection,&S221; said Mr. Davies. &S220;But I don&S217;t think we&S217;re in the position of re-testing the March lows.&S221;

Financial stocks led the way Monday in Tokyo, notably Daiwa Securities, up 4.5 percent, and Nomura Holdings, Japan&S217;s largest brokerage, which was 3.1 percent higher. Nidec, a maker of motors for disk drives, rose 3.5 percent.

Hitachi climbed 3.4 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported that the company firm would spend $3.2 billion to acquire five key affiliates in a broad-ranging corporate reorganization. Shares of Hitachi and the five subsidiaries were temporarily suspended from trading in the morning.

Macao casino stocks showed strong gains on the Hang Seng, notably Galaxy Entertainment, which was up 3.5 percent, and SJM Holdings, which rose 2.8 percent.

Stanley Ho, the SJM founder, is a strong backer of Fernando Chui, who was elected Sunday as the new chief executive of the Chinese territory. His pro-Beijing leanings are expected to bolster the gaming industry in Macao.

Crude oil prices were down slightly, 10 cents a barrel to $67.95 a barrel.

Bond prices fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury, which moves in the opposite direction of the price, gaining three-hundredths of a point to 3.69 percent.

David Jolly and Mark McDonald contributed reporting.

Shares Slide After Brief Bounce on Home Sales Data

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks raced to fresh nine-month highs and oil rallied on Monday as a recent run of strong corporate earnings and anticipation for more boosted optimism for a recovery in the global economy.

Tokyo stocks posted its longest winning streak in 21 years while emerging Asian stocks (.MIAPJ0000PUS) hit a 10-month high, following strong gains in most of Wall Street indexes on Friday.

This week&&9;s results include Exxon Mobil, Honda Motor (7267.T), Motorola, Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) and BP (BP.L).

"Risk appetite (is) quite healthy, there is lower volatility in stock markets... which continue to register gains," said Patrick Jacq, euro zone interest rate strategist at BNP Paribas in Paris.

"If these earnings are in line or above expectations we can see risk appetite continue to be in the driving seat." MSCI world equity index (.MIWD00000PUS) rose half a percent, hitting levels not seen since October, adding to gains over 4 percent last week.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) rose 0.6 percent with basic resource shares leading the rally.

Emerging stocks (.MSCIEF) hit a fresh 10-month high.

According to Thomson Reuters data, the second-quarter earnings growth rate for the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index (.SPX) improved to -31.0 percent last week from -35.2 percent in the previous week, thanks in part to better-than-expected earnings from financial sector firms.

Of the 184 companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported earnings to date for the Q2, 77 percent have beaten expectations us fast cash.

The materials, energy, industrial sectors are anticipating the lowest earnings growth rates for the quarter.

This week. a further 146 S&P 500 companies are due to announce earnings results.

U.S. crude oil rose more than 1 percent to &&6;68.74 a barrel.

The September bund futures fell 22 ticks as investors sought riskier instruments over safe-haven government bonds.

The dollar (.DXY) fell 0.17 percent against a basket of major currencies. Against the yen it rose 0.2 percent to 94.98 per dollar.

Investors are awaiting the outcome of a two-day meeting of top U.S. and Chinese officials in Washington, which started on Monday, on a broad range of economic, security, diplomatic, energy and environmental issues.

The United States, which ran a record &&6;266 billion trade deficit with China in 2008, is seeking ways to rebalance trade, including persuading the Chinese to liberalize exchange rates so that the yuan appreciates to trim Chinese exports and boost imports.

"Any remarks from China related to its stance on its U.S. Treasury holdings and the dollar&&9;s role is a focus," a trader at a Japanese bank said.

(Additional reporting by Emelia Sithole-Materise and Kirsten Donovan; Editing by Andy Bruce)

World stocks race to fresh 9-month peak

BEIJING &S212; Chinese state television has begun broadcasting an Arabic-language channel for the Middle East and Africa as part of efforts to expand the Communist government&S217;s media influence abroad.

The 24-hour channel, which began operating Saturday, will air in 22 Arabic-speaking countries and reach nearly 300 million people, China Central Television said in a statement.

The channel &S220;will serve as an important bridge to strengthen communication and understanding between China and Arab countries,&S221; a CCTV vice president, Zhang Changming, said in the statement.

Beijing is carrying out a multibillion-dollar effort to raise the profile of its state media abroad by expanding CCTV; People&S217;s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper; and Xinhua, the official news agency.

The effort has a budget of 45 billion yuan, or $6.6 billion, according to a report last month by The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper.

The Arabic channel will carry news, feature stories, entertainment and education programs and will gradually expand its offerings, CCTV said payday loans. The network already broadcasts in English, French and Spanish as well as in Mandarin.

Despite rapid economic growth and rising global influence, China has retained its authoritarian one-party political system, with strict limits on freedom of speech and civil and political life.

The media drive echoes efforts by Russia and Qatar to influence international news coverage through Russia Today and Al Jazeera, their state-funded channels. Those attempts to challenge the BBC and CNN have scored some success.

CCTV announced plans last month for a Russian channel.

State television is also overhauling its domestic news broadcasts for the first time in a decade to combat a decline in viewership.

China&S217;s government and party media are struggling against more dynamic competitors and rely on state subsidies or moneymaking subsidiaries.

The Associated Press

Chinese State TV Starts Arabic Channel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said Saturday that Democratic plans to revamp the U.S. healthcare system would benefit small businesses, an argument that quickly drew criticism from his Republican opponents.

Obama is trying to build more public support for a broad healthcare overhaul after action stalled in the U.S. Congress this week and polls showed many Americans were skeptical about the &&6;1 trillion program.

A major part of the healthcare debate has centered on small businesses, which are responsible for much of the hiring in the United States.

Democratic plans would require many small businesses to provide insurance for their employees or face a penalty. Some small-business owners worry that will add a punitive cost at a time when they are struggling to rebound from the recession.

At the same time, Republicans argue a proposed surtax on millionaires that Obama has backed could subject some small businesses to extra taxation.

Obama used his weekly radio address to insist that small businesses had a lot to gain from the healthcare overhaul, based on a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Small businesses, he said, would be able to purchase health insurance through an "insurance exchange."

He described that as a "marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now."

"Small businesses that choose to insure their employees will also receive a tax credit to help them pay for it. If a small business chooses not to provide coverage, its employees can purchase high quality, affordable coverage through the insurance exchange on their own," he said.

Low-income workers would qualify for a subsidy to help them cover the costs, he said.

&&9;WHERE ARE THE JOBS?&&9;

In the Republican response to Obama&&9;s radio address, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers said she believed small businesses would pay a steep price under the Democratic plans payday advance.

"Because the Democrats&&9; plan is bankrolled by a small business tax, more jobs will evaporate. We&&9;ve lost more than three million jobs since the beginning of the year and Americans have every right to ask, &&9;Where are the jobs?&&9;" she said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, "It&&9;s worth asking why small businesses -- which created about two thirds of the new jobs in this country over the past 10 years -- get hit so hard under these plans."

The Obama administration&&9;s push to sell healthcare reform to small-business owners comes as divided Democrats struggle to reach an agreement on the most sweeping healthcare legislation in decades.

In a conference call with reporters, Small Business Administration head Karen Mills said helping small businesses get insurance was critical to providing insurance to many of the 46 million uninsured.

"At the moment, there are about 13 million of the uninsured who are employed by businesses with less than 100 people. That&&9;s about a third of the uninsured. So you really can&&9;t solve the problem of the uninsured unless you address this issue of access to affordable healthcare for small businesses," she said.

Christy Romer, head of the of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the current health system placed an unfair burden on small businesses and their employees.

"Small businesses pay more for the same kind of coverage for their employees than big businesses, about 18 percent, and that has strong consequences," Romer said.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Obama touts healthcare plan for small businesses

A high-ranking lawmaker has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to prohibit a trading technique that enables some large banks and hedge funds to peek at investors&S217; stock orders before they are sent to the broader marketplace.

The technique, known as flash orders, gives high-frequency traders using lightning-fast computers an unfair advantage, Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is chairman of the Senate rules and administration committee, said in a letter to the S.E.C. Mr. Schumer wrote that he intended to introduce legislation barring the technique, if the agency failed to act.

&S220;The hallmark of our markets are that they are open and above board and the little guy has as much of a chance as the big guy,&S221; Mr. Schumer said in an interview. &S220;This takes a dagger to the heart of that concept.&S221;

The S.E.C. declined to comment on Mr. Schumer&S217;s letter, though some officials acknowledged they were investigating the technique and expected new regulations to be issued by this fall.

When buy or sell orders are submitted to marketplaces like Nasdaq, they are sometimes flashed to a collection of high-frequency traders for just 30 milliseconds &<51; 0.03 seconds &<51; before they are routed to everyone else. In that half-second, fast-moving computer software can gain valuable insights regarding growing or declining demand in certain stocks, and can trade ahead of other market participants, pushing prices up or down.

Although anyone can gain access to flash orders by paying a fee, they are useful only to traders who have computers powerful enough to act on the data within milliseconds. In recent years, some of the largest financial companies, including Goldman Sachs, have earned enormous profits with such computers, which are very expensive and often housed right next to the machines that power the marketplaces themselves cash til payday.

While markets are supposed to ensure transparency by showing orders to everyone simultaneously, flash orders are currently allowed because of a loophole in securities regulations that allows for immediate trades.

&S220;I&S217;m against anything that advantages anybody over the rest of the market, and this clearly does, even though it&S217;s momentary,&S221; said Arthur Levitt, who headed the S.E.C. from 1993 to 2001, and today works as an adviser to Goldman Sachs and Getco L.L.C., one of the largest high-frequency trading firms.

The exchanges that offer flash orders &<51; Nasdaq, Direct Edge and BATS &<51; all declined to comment on Mr. Schumer&S217;s letter. In the past, Nasdaq has defended flash orders. A company spokesman, Wayne Lee, wrote that the market&S217;s &S220;hope is that by having the ability to Flash participants, this functionality will make our customers more competitive.&S221;

This debate comes amid growing concern over high-frequency trading, which has helped push the average daily volume on the nation&S217;s stock exchanges up by 164 percent since 2005. Although precise figures are elusive, stock exchanges say that a handful of high-frequency traders now account for more than half of all trades and collected about $21 billion in profits last year, according to the research firm the Tabb Group.

Senator Wants Restrictions on High-Speed Trading

As businesses and individuals cut back on spending to cope with the current economic downturn, charitable agencies that depend on donations from businesses and individuals are seeing contributions fall. At the same time, requests for their services are going up. That's been the case at Special Kids, a faith-based, non-profit organization located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It provides physical and occupational therapy, as well as day care for medically fragile children.Special Kids therapist Michelle McGaughy uses a stuffed toy to teach Patrick Prince words for parts of the facePatrick Prince gets an hour of therapy here each week. Speech therapist Michelle McGaughy is helping the 2-year-old expand his vocabulary. When Patrick began therapy four months ago, "mommy" and "daddy" were the only words he could say. Most children Patrick's age have mastered 50 or 60 words and can string together short sentences. Special Kids Executive Director Chris Truelove says that, as a result of the economic downturn, his agency is treating significantly more children like Patrick."In 2008 our referrals increased by about 24 percent, and I think they've increased, roughly, by about another 5 percent in '09. So we are seeing an increase in the need."Non-profits step in when for-profit groups don'tMany of the children Special Kids treats are enrolled in a government health insurance program for the poor offered by the state of Tennessee. But the state program pays well below the open market rate for health services, and Truelove says few for-profit practitioners will accept clients with state insurance."There's not very many organizations who can or will accept the lower reimbursements," he explains. "And so, our commitment through our ministry and our mission is to take care of the children regardless of money or regardless of a family's ability to pay."Special Kids Executive Director Chris Truelove is seeing an upsurge in referrals for help from his organizationPatrick's father is able to pay, but not quite enough on his modest salary as a teacher. When the family's health insurance also declined to help with the cost of therapy, they turned to Special Kids for assistance. "If we had to pay the going rate, he just wouldn't be able to get what he gets," Kara Prince, Patrick's mother, says. "They worked with us to get what we could afford." She realizes that it costs the agency more to provide the service they're getting than what they are paying.In fact, clients pay about half what their therapy services cost Special Kids to deliver. The ministry solicits donations from individuals, churches, foundations and businesses to make up the shortfall. Because of the recession, however, contributions to charities have fallen dramatically nationwide. Lawrence Lavine, president of the Center for Non-Profit Management in nearby Nashville, says Tennessee's charitable agencies are feeling the pinch. "Their revenue base has dropped by anywhere from a quarter to a third instant payday loans completely online. Nashville and Middle Tennessee are doing better, generally, than other areas of the country; the impact of the downturn being felt later here, and perhaps not as severely."Cultural charitable programs hit the hardestLavine also says the recession's impact varies by the type of charity involved. Organizations providing benevolent services - food banks, health clinics and shelters - are in reasonably good shape. Special Kids' funding was off 10 percent last year, another 5 percent so far this year; painful, but not devastating. However, non-profits that cater to the humanities - museums and arts groups, for example - are generally in far worse shape. One such agency is the Murfreesboro Youth Orchestra.The Murfreesboro Youth Orchestra performs under the direction of conductor Sarabeth Gheith, May 2009The orchestra was formed in 1997, primarily to provide performance experience for children learning to play stringed instruments. It's an opportunity public schools here rarely provide. Executive Director Danny Jones says he has seen a 40 percent decline in contributions from supporters this year. "The stock market downturn, the loss of income on investments, has just really significantly impacted their ability to give. They're just not able to support as many organizations as they would like, or support them to the extent that they were formerly able to."To save money, Jones may close the charity's office and conduct business out of his home. But if the situation gets any worse, he says he'll have to consider canceling performances scheduled for later this year. If that happens, Jones worries that Murfreesboro's young musicians may receive fewer college scholarships. "It's one thing to play a solo instrument, but quite another to learn the skills and the discipline required in playing in an ensemble such as an orchestra," he explains.Nashville non-profits doing better than New York'sA volunteer prepares sacks of groceries for the needy at the Rutherford County Food Bank in Murfreesboro, TennesseeLawrence Lavine of the Center for Non-Profit Management says Tennessee's experience is being repeated all around the country, with one notable exception."In the New York area, there have been a number of agencies that have suffered. Not only because of the Madoff debacle, but also because of Wall Street's diminished ability to contribute to the community. Around the country more generally, I think the picture is very similar to Nashville."Of the 700 or so Nashville area agencies associated with Lawrence Lavine's Center for Non-Profit Management, only about 12 have been forced out of business as a result of the economic downturn. Lavine is encouraging the rest of them to plan for what many pundits are now calling "the new normal": a much diminished American economy and a much smaller pool of donations.

Non-Profits Weather Economic Storm

United Parcel Service, the world&S217;s largest package delivery company, said on Thursday that its second-quarter earnings fell 49 percent as the recession cut business demand.

It forecast that its profit in the third quarter will be lower than analysts&S217; projections.

Second-quarter profit declined to $445 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $873 million, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales dropped 17 percent, to $10.8 billion.

Package volume in the United States slid for a sixth consecutive quarter as the recession caused businesses to reduce orders amid the highest unemployment rate in 26 years. The company said shipments would remain &S220;significantly below&S221; those for last year. U.P.S. is considered an economic bellwether because it delivers a wide variety of items, including clothing, auto parts and financial documents.

&S220;A lot of us got excited by those initial signs of stabilization, and now we&S217;re realizing it&S217;s going to be more of a 2010 event before we see real recovery,&S221; said Nathan Brochmann, an analyst at William Blair &&8; Company in Chicago. He rates the shares market perform.

U.P.S no fax cash loans., based in Atlanta, said profit for the three months through September will be 45 to 55 cents a share, less than the 60-cent average of analysts&S217; estimates.

&S220;We are cautious, frankly,&S221; the company&S217;s chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn told analysts and investors on a conference call. &S220;We don&S217;t have any confidence that either demand or activity is going to pick up substantially&S221; in the next several months.

Domestic volume fell 4.6 percent in the second quarter, the worst results since the company&S217;s 1999 initial public offering. The measure will probably decline at a similar pace this quarter, Mr. Kuehn said. International volume tumbled 5.5 percent and will not improve this quarter, he said.

The number of hours U.P.S. airplanes were in operation declined 11 percent, saving 14 million gallons of fuel and contributing to a 54 percent drop in the company&S217;s total fuel bill to $539 million as oil prices collapsed from a year earlier.

U.P.S. Earnings Decline 49%, to $445 Million, as Downturn Saps Demand

American Express, the credit card lender, said Thursday that its earnings fell 48 percent in the second quarter, but it reversed the recent trend of quarterly losses to post a profit.

The company earned $337 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with $653 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier.

The results included an 18 cents a share cost of buying back preferred shares from the Treasury Department. Excluding that cost, earnings were 27 cents a share.

Revenue fell 18 percent to $6.09 billion from $7.46 billion a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 26 cents a share on revenue of $6.29 billion. Analysts typically exclude one-time costs in their estimates.

Non-interest revenue fell 18 percent to $5.35 billion and interest income was down 31 percent to $1 default payday loan.29 billion.

In after-hours trading, shares fell as low as $28.26, after rising 2.4 percent, or 69 cents, to close at $29.45 in the regular session.

The company set aside $1.6 billion for loan losses compared with $1.8 billion a year ago, reflecting lower average loans, but that was offset by higher write-offs.

Loan write-offs increased to 10.3 percent, up from 5.8 percent a year ago.

Expenses fell 16 percent to $4.1 billion.

The chief executive, Kenneth I. Chenault, said the decline in cardholder spending had moderated somewhat in June, but that it was too early to say whether that indicated a recovery was under way.

Earnings Fall 48% at American Express

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc (HOT.N) posted a higher net profit for the second quarter on Thursday, helped by broad cost cuts.

The White Plains, New York-based company posted net income of &&6;134 million, or 74 cents per share, compared with &&6;105 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, the hotelier earned 22 cents per share.

Systemwide revenue per available room for Starwood&&9;s hotels around the world dropped nearly 28 percent in the second quarter free credit report and score. The company said it had lost about &&6;10 million from the H1N1 flu virus during the quarter.

Costs and expenses dropped 19.6 percent.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Starwood posts higher profit on cost cuts

The CIT Group said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it might have to file for bankruptcy protection if not enough bondholders participated in its debt exchange.

The commercial lender offered the grim assessment only a day after major bondholders agreed to provide it with a $3 billion rescue loan.

CIT, one of the nation&S217;s largest lenders to small and midsize businesses, was forced to scramble in recent weeks to line up new financing as customers tapped their credit lines and it faced mounting liquidity pressure amid impending debt maturities.

CIT said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the new loan might not provide enough relief to cover the liquidity squeeze.

CIT said it still needed to pay off about $7 billion in debt maturing over the next year, including $1 billion in August online payday advance. It has begun an offer to repay that $1 billion in maturing debt at a discount.

Shares of CIT tumbled 27 cents, to 98 cents Tuesday.

CIT was forced to turn to bondholders in recent days for help after the government refused to save the company last week.

Failing to garner enough tender offers for the imminent debt could force it to file for bankruptcy protection, CIT disclosed in the S.E.C. filing.

The retail sector would be hit especially hard. CIT serves as short-term financier to about 2,000 vendors that supply merchandise to 300,000 stores.

CIT Bankruptcy Is Still Possible

SAN FRANCISCO &<51; Carol Bartz, Yahoo&S217;s chief executive, is known for peppering her public presentations with the odd expletive or two. But her conference call Tuesday to discuss Yahoo&S217;s second-quarter financial results was entirely family-friendly. Then again, Ms. Bartz did not have much to swear about.

Yahoo&S217;s revenue declined 13 percent in the second quarter as advertisers continued to reduce spending in the downturn. But cost-cutting initiatives helped to soften the blow, and profits climbed nearly 8 percent, beating analysts&S217; expectations.

Yahoo also said that it planned a new round of investment in products and a rebranding campaign, which would lead to a drop in profit in the current quarter. Investors reacted by sending shares down nearly 3 percent in after-hours trading.

&S220;Over all, the long and protracted turnaround process continues,&S221; said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein &&8; Company. &S220;We don&S217;t see a catalyst that is going to turn things around soon.&S221;

Yahoo continues to discuss a search and advertising partnership with Microsoft that would create a more viable rival to Google. The talks have intensified recently, according to people briefed on them.

Both companies have declined to discuss their talks publicly and, for the first time since Ms. Bartz became chief executive in January, analysts did not ask her about them.

But Ms. Bartz recognized that Yahoo&S217;s search business would fare better with many more users, or more &S220;scale,&S221; and she praised Bing, Microsoft&S217;s new search engine. &S220;I think Microsoft should be getting kudos for Bing,&S221; Ms. Bartz said in a conference call with investors. &S220;They&S217;ve done a nice job.&S221;

Some analysts interpreted those comments as an indication that she appeared more willing to consider a deal than ever before.

&S220;She talked about scale being an issue,&S221; said Ross Sandler, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. &S220;She talked about Microsoft having a pretty good search engine. That&S217;s all an admission that it might make sense for these parties to come together.&S221;

Yahoo reported net income of $141 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with $131 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped to $1.57 billion, from $1.8 billion a year earlier paydayloans.

Net revenue, which excludes commissions paid to advertising partners, was $1.14 billion, down 15 percent from $1.35 billion a year earlier.

On average, Wall Street analysts had expected Yahoo to report net income of 8 cents a share on net revenue of $1.14 billion.

&S220;Considering the economy I am pleased with our results,&S221; Ms. Bartz said. &S220;Over all we are seeing less fear in the marketplace.&S221; Ms. Bartz said advertisers appeared ready to spend more, but she added that it was too early to say how that would affect Yahoo.

Yahoo said search advertising revenue on its sites declined 15 percent, even as the number of searches on Yahoo rose. By comparison, Google, whose business is largely driven by search advertising, last week reported a 3 percent growth in revenue. Analysts said Yahoo did not give good reasons for the disappointing results.

On Tuesday, Yahoo also introduced an overhauled home page, a major initiative intended to restore its luster with users, advertisers and investors.

The new home page allows users to preview Yahoo services like mail and Flickr, and also third-party applications and sites, like Facebook, Gmail or BBC World News, in a section on the left side of the page called My Favorites. As Internet users&S217; attention is increasingly fragmented across a growing number of sites and services, the company&S217;s decision to include third-party content on its home represents an effort by Yahoo to establish itself as the &S220;center point of people&S217;s lives online,&S221; said Tapan Bhat, a senior vice president at Yahoo who is responsible for the company&S217;s home page.

With 114 million visitors in June in the United States alone, Yahoo.com remains the most visited home page online. But Yahoo&S217;s efforts to cash in on its huge audience have faltered in recent years, as prices for premium brand ads have declined and as advertising networks have given marketers the ability to reach large audiences across vast arrays of Web sites at lower cost.

The new design could help Yahoo. The preview windows for third-party applications will include ads and should help advertisers reach large and specific groups of customers, Mr. Bhat said.

Earnings Climb Nearly 8% at Yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO &<51; Steven P. Jobs, Apple&S217;s chief executive, missed most of Apple&S217;s third quarter. It turns out the company did not need him.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., reported robust third-quarter profit driven by unexpectedly strong sales of Macintosh computers and a burst in iPhone purchases late in the quarter, after the introduction of a new model, the 3GS.

&S220;We&S217;re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,&S221; Mr. Jobs said in a statement. &S220;We&S217;re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter, and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.&S221;

Apple reported that its net profit jumped 15 percent, to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 a share, up from $1.07 billion, or $1.19 a share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly revenue rose to $8.34 billion, from $7.46 billion last year. That exceeded even some of the optimistic expectations of analysts, who projected Apple to announce revenue of $8.16 billion and a profit of $1.16 a share, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters

Apple said it sold 2.6 million Macs in the quarter ended June 26, up slightly from 2.5 million in the same quarter last year. Though other computer makers have suffered as consumers slowed their spending, Apple catalyzed Mac sales with the June release of a new line of MacBook Pro laptops that were priced slightly below earlier models.

IPhone sales were up sevenfold from the 717,000 iPhones sold in the quarter a year ago. In June, Apple introduced the updated 3GS in eight countries, adding new capabilities like the ability to record video, send picture messages and dial with voice commands absolutely free credit report. Apple previously said it sold more than one million 3GS handsets in the first three days of its availability.

Apple also lowered the price of the old iPhone 3G to $99 in an effort to increase its market share in the expanding market for smartphones.

In the only dark spot for the company, sales of the iPod dropped to 10.2 million, from 11 million a year ago, a decline of 7 percent, which analysts say reflects a saturation of the market for MP3 music players as well as the migration of people to phones that play music.

Apple stock has jumped more than 30 percent over the last quarter, buoyed by Apple&S217;s growing traction with its niche market of affluent urban and suburban consumers unaffected by the recession, and by Wall Street&S217;s growing confidence in how the company might fare without Mr. Jobs, who had a liver transplant in the spring but has recently returned to work

The last six months &S220;have been a resounding endorsement&S221; of Apple&S217;s management team, led by the chief operating officer, Timothy D. Cook, said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. &S220;This basically shows that in six months of running the company, Tim Cook has basically pulled it off in a terrible economy.&S221;

Apple shares were up more than $3 in after-hours trading. They had closed at $151.51 in regular trading.

Sales Drive Robust Quarter for Apple

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. small businesses say they feel slighted by the Obama administration and efforts to shore up the economy, with large companies taking much of the government&&9;s attention and stimulus cash.

The government decision last week against bailing out small business lender CIT Group raised fears of thousands of companies left without funding for day-to-day operations, and the lack of support showed big corporations can get bailout cash but small business interests are less pressing, some say.

With only some potential relief buried in the healthcare reform proposals in Congress, small businesses feel pushed aside in the stimulus and recovery efforts, they say.

"There has been nothing really in all the stimulus package that has really helped small business in general," said Kelli Glasser, president of Exhibit Concepts in Dayton, Ohio, whose 87 employees build trade show and museum exhibits.

"Most of the help has been in the form of supporting loans, but we&&9;re not looking for loans right now," she said. "We&&9;re not looking to heavily invest in equipment. We&&9;re just trying to keep our doors open."

Small business is not that small, representing 99.7 percent of all U.S. employer firms.

The U.S. Small Business Administration got &&6;730 million this year to recharge the small business lending market, nearly doubling its budget. However, some say the package was not well structured and dwarfed by the &&6;180 billion the government committed to save insurer American International Group.

&&9;HAVING A TOUGH TIME&&9;

"Only &&6;730 million going to the SBA didn&&9;t really help the small business owners," said James Tracy, president of America&&9;s Best Companies in Illinois, which represents small businesses nationwide.

"Small business owners are having a tough time financing themselves today because I believe that the stimulus plan should have allowed for more loans to small business owners," he said.

A &&6;15 billion administration plan to buy small business loans for resale on the secondary lending market has not taken effect, in part because market activity picked up after the plan was announced in March, the administration says.

The Obama administration wants small businesses to come out ahead in the reform effort, said Melody Barnes, a domestic policy advisor at the White House no teletrack payday loans.

"We absolutely want to make sure that small business owners and small business can continue to thrive," she said in an interview with Reuters Television.

But applying for a small business loan can be more trouble than it&&9;s worth, said Joe Olivo, owner of Perfect Printing in Moorestown, New Jersey, who said his bank advised against it.

"The paperwork was so onerous that my bank told me it was not worth my effort to try and get that money," Olivo said.

PROPOSED INSURANCE EXCHANGE

Where small businesses may benefit is in healthcare reform being considered in the House of Representatives, specifically a proposed insurance exchange through which businesses and individuals could shop for policies.

Small businesses have seen insurance premiums more than double in the last decade. Many Americans who lack insurance work for smaller firms that do not provide the benefit.

Small businessman Chris Link, who co-runs a promotional marketing distributorship in Nashville, said he is encouraged by the healthcare reform efforts.

"I am very impressed that the administration keeps pushing the matter," he said. "I know it is not easy, but it is not an option staying where we are."

In the proposed insurance exchange, businesses with 10 or fewer employees would have access in the first year. That would broaden to businesses with up to 20 workers in the second year, with a promise larger employers would gain access over time.

Those restrictions, plus mandates forcing businesses to provide health insurance or pay an 8 percent payroll fee, nevertheless make some small companies angry.

"We are irate," said Amanda Austin of the National Federal of Independent Business, which says the mandates would drive firms out of businesses. "Talk about an overreach."

Terry Gardiner of the Small Business Majority advocacy group advised patience. "It is way too early in the game to throw in the towel and oppose healthcare reform," he said.

Small business seeks help in U.S. economic storm