LONDON – European stock markets awaited direction from Wall Street on Friday despite the news that the recession in the 16-country eurozone was over.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was almost unchanged, down less than a point at 5,275.92 while Germany's DAX fell 12.94 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,651.02. The CAC-40 in France was 10.64 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 3,797.43.

Meanwhile in the U.S., Dow futures were 14 points, or 0.1 percent, higher at 10,203 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 2.1 points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,089.40.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks fell by 1 percent as oil prices tumbled and the dollar continued to clamber off recent lows.

"As it stands right now, it would be of little surprise to see something of a sideways drift into the weekend break," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

Many analysts think stocks may claw out more gains if the S&P 500 can close about the 1,100 mark. Despite several attempts this week, it has not been able to sustain a break above that level through the end of the session.

"The question investors are asking now is whether we can eventually push higher...or whether recent congestion is a sign that the rally higher is over," said Geoffrey Yu, an analyst at UBS.

Stocks have rallied strongly since March's lows with many of the world's major indexes trading at, or near, their highest levels this year as investors reined in their economic doomsday expectations to factor in a swifter than anticipated global economic rebound.

News that the 16-country eurozone emerged from recession in the third quarter did little to excite investors as the 0.4 percent quarterly rise was less than many had been anticipating, and as growth in some major economies fell short of forecasts. With a rebound in exports partially offset by weak household spending, Germany's economy grew by 0 payday loans.7 percent and France's by 0.3 percent.

Still, the third quarter rise in eurozone output was the first in six quarters and brings to an end Europe's sharpest recession since World War II. Though the eurozone's banks were not at the epicenter of the financial crisis that triggered the global economic downturn, the region suffered as demand for its high-value products fell off a cliff.

Investors also didn't get too excited by the planned merger of British Airways PLC and Spain's Iberia. Both stocks were up only around 2 percent, though they had rallied strongly in the run-up to the announcement.

Earlier, Asian markets closed mixed amid investor uncertainty about the global outlook after Wall Street's losses on Thursday.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 34.18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 9,770.31 while Seoul's Kospi was off 0.1 percent at 1,571.99. Singapore's market traded flat, while Sydney shed 0.8 percent.

Among rising markets, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 percent to 3,187.65, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng recouped its early losses to gain 0.7 percent to 22,553.63.

Oil prices continued to fall in the wake of Thursday's soft U.S. inventory data. Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 27 cents at $76.67 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $2.34 to settle at $76.94 on Thursday.

The euro was 0.2 percent higher at $1.4871. Despite the modest advance, the euro is still a ways down from levels earlier this week, when it nearly broke above its 15-month high of $1.5061.

The dollar was 0.6 percent down at 89.76 yen.

__

Associated Press Writers Louise Watt in London and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

European stocks steady ahead of Wall Street open

Finance and trade ministers meeting in Singapore for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have agreed the global economic recovery is still fragile and more coordinated efforts are needed for sustained growth. Ministers from 21 Pacific Rim economies discussed sustaining growth and connecting the region.The economic leaders issued a statement saying although most economies are now recovering from last year's financial crisis, the recovery remains fragile and growth over the next few quarters is likely to be uneven. US Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner (L) talks to a fellow minister at a joint APEC Finance Ministers press conference in Singapore, 12 Nov 2009The United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says while inflation is low across most major economies there are very high levels of unemployment. He says more efforts are needed to ensure an early economic recovery."Right now the challenge is growth ... let us make sure we have a business confidence restored, private investment expanding again, unemployment coming down, financial sectors definitively repaired. That is our basic challenge now," he said.Geithner says it will take some time to bring down unemployment levels, which in October reached a 26-year high in the United States.The ministers agreed on the need to find new ways for sustaining economic growth, which has largely depended on the U cash til payday loan.S. market.Geithner says the United States is seeing signs of a shift to saving more and borrowing less. He says private investment and exports are growing again."But what it means is, if the world is going to grow at the rate it can in the future, the rest of the world is going to have to shift to more domestic sources of growth, investment, and spending," he said.In the statement, APEC economies with large deficits pledged to encourage private savings, while those with large surpluses pledged to strengthen domestic growth.APEC ministers, including China, also agreed to pursue "market oriented" exchange rates. China has been accused of keeping its currency, the yuan, artificially low to boost exports. But, ministers played down currency exchange concerns.Singapore's Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said none of the ministers called for any sudden or significant change in exchange rates, but said they should remain flexible.The finance and trade ministers were meeting before an APEC summit this weekend that is to include U.S. President Obama on his first trip to Asia as president.

APEC Ministers say Economic Recovery Fragile

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner offered fresh reassurances to Asian nations that the Obama administration was committed to a strong dollar and to actions aimed at bolstering its value.

"It&&9;s very important to the United States that we have a strong dollar," he said at a news conference at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC in Singapore on Thursday. "As growth recovers, (we will) move our fiscal position back into balance."

Soaring budget deficits, which hit a record &&6;1.4 trillion in fiscal 2009 and will likely be near that in 2010, have weakened the dollar because of huge U.S. borrowing to meet the U.S.&&9;s day-to-day spending needs.

For a graphic on the dollar&&9;s downturn, click:

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/US_USD1109.gif

As he did throughout the past week, at meetings of the Group of 20 in Scotland last weekend and in Tokyo earlier this week, Geithner acknowledged the U.S. carried a special burden for protecting the currency&&9;s value because it is the global reserve currency.

"We bear a special responsibility for being a source of stability and strength in the global economy and we are going to continue to be a voice for reform and we&&9;ll be a strong partner for countries in this region," Geithner said.

The dollar has declined 16 percent against a basket of six major currencies from the highs set in March and is down more than 37 percent from a peak in 2001.

Geithner dismissed a suggestion that pouring hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide into spurring economic activity might lay the ground for a future inflationary surge and said finance ministers must stay focused on getting growth on more solid footing.

"Inflation is low and still moderating across most of the major economies," Geithner said. "The most important thing we need to be doing is try to make sure we are reinforcing this early recovery."

The U.S. Treasury chief said there were promising signs of growth returning to the global economy and credited Asia with leading the recovery but stressed it will have to find future growth in sources other than hard-pressed American consumers.

"The rest of the world is going to have to shift to more domestic sources of growth, investment and spending," Geithner said and singled out China as an example that was already starting to happen.

"China&&9;s external surplus has fallen very sharply, you&&9;re seeing spending and investment in China expand very rapidly," he said no fax payday loan. "These are early signs of not just recovery and growth but a fundamentally necessary and important shift in how the global economy grows."

TINKERING WITH THE YUAN

Geithner avoided saying whether he thought China was signaling a willingness to let its yuan currency rise in value more rapidly in a central bank monetary policy report that said Beijing should consider major currencies in guiding the yuan.

China has effectively pegged the yuan&&9;s value to the dollar since the middle of last year, to the frustration of not only the United States but other Asian nations that have seen their hopes for exports checked as the yuan tracked the dollar&&9;s losses.

"Maybe that&&9;s a question that should go to my Chinese counterpart," Geithner said when asked if he felt the People&&9;s Bank of China was ready to let the yuan appreciate, then went on to praise Beijing&&9;s robust economic growth.

"China&&9;s playing a major role in helping contribute to recovery and the broad thrust of reforms its government has laid out provide a very promising basis for helping obtain a more solid foundation for growth in the future," he said.

China&&9;s latest reference to a possible new set of benchmarks for determining the value of the yuan came shortly before U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the country. China&&9;s move would be a departure from recent practice that has seen the currency held steady since mid-2008 around 6.83 per dollar.

But U.S. officials were wary, cautioning that a change in its exchange policies is only one of many reforms China is undertaking and should not be over-estimated.

In a statement, the 21-member APEC endorsed a movement to "market-oriented" exchange rates that was widely seen as a reference to China as well as the necessity for keeping massive global stimulus measures in place until a more stable recovery is assured.

In a later interview on CNBC television, Geithner said the Obama administration needs to borrow "substantially less than we initially anticipated" to bail out the financial system and said that will help get the country&&9;s fiscal house into order.

"That&&9;s going to allow us to devote more to debt reduction," he said without offering any estimate how much less will have to be borrowed. "That&&9;s a fundamentally good thing."

(Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

Geithner stresses strong dollar's global role

COLUMBUS, Ohio – After Richard Handy of Fairfield received an e-mail from a conservative group calling Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed delay of Ohio's income tax cuts a "retroactive tax increase," Handy fired off a few passionate words to some state senators.

"I am absolutely against changing the rules in the middle of the game," wrote Handy in an Oct. 19 e-mail about Strickland's proposal to delay the final 4.2 percent reduction in income taxes to close an $850 million budget gap.

"I am sure the vast majority of Ohioans agree with me in opposing this idiotic proposal ... If Ohio needs more money, STOP SPENDING! That's what budgets are for."

An Associated Press public records request for constituent correspondence to legislative leaders on the tax proposal found that most was fueled by organized interests — the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity that opposed it, and school teachers and employees and mental health service providers that supported it.

Some Republicans have argued that because current law has the last tax cut in place and because withholding for the tax year has already started, Strickland's tax proposal is a tax increase.

But the relatively light feedback from constituents in comparison to other legislative issues, including the budget earlier this year, suggests that most Ohioans are not particularly inflamed by the tax talk.

Lawmakers considering what to do about the budget gap received both dry form letters distributed among like-minded individuals and more personal — and sometimes humorous — pleas.

"CUT SPENDING! That's what my husband and I are doing, that's what my neighbors are doing," wrote Alice Martin of Huron to Republican Senate President Bill Harris of Ashland on Oct. 20. "I'll bet your wife could explain it to you!"

Peg Carter fired off a few quick words when she was crunched for time.

"I don't have much time here at the library internet because I have ice cream in the car," Carter wrote guaranteed payday loans. "I do think that Ohioans who are still working, are able to accept a tax freeze — in light of your pay cuts — in order to provide help for those who have lost their jobs because of the economy."

The tax proposal approved by the Democratic-controlled House and pending in the Republican-controlled Senate includes a 5 percent pay cut for lawmakers.

Teachers and employees from several school districts used form letters, the most common e-mails sent to legislative leaders on the issue. Democratic lawmakers have said that delaying the tax reduction will protect school funding from both state and federal cuts, even naming the proposal the Education Funding Protection Act.

"My district cannot afford to lose state and federal funding," Debra McRoberts of Westerville told Harris in an Oct. 19 missive. "This will force our district to reduce learning opportunities for students and lead to further elimination of education employees."

The same letter was sent to Harris and House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, from school personnel in Mount Vernon, Perrysburg, Sunbury, Shelby, Mansfield and other towns.

Many e-mails sent to Republican leaders opposing the tax proposal called it a "retroactive tax increase," a description the Strickland administration said is inaccurate. Several constituents said they received an e-mail from Americans for Prosperity describing it as "retroactive."

The state constitution bans retroactive laws. And Ohio Department of Taxation spokesman John Kohlstrand noted that "retroactive" is a legal term. He said a retroactive tax hike would be, for example, if lawmakers changed the tax rate for the 2008 tax year after that year is over.

Proposed delay of Ohio tax cuts spurs e-mails

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks added to gains in early trade on Monday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rising 1 percent, after a pledge from the Group of 20 to keep economic stimulus in place bolstered risk appetite.

* Gains were broad-based, with natural resource-oriented companies and technology shares among the biggest advancers.

* The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 80.64 points, or 0 payday loans.80 percent, to 10,104.06. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) rose 9.69 points, or 0.91 percent, to 1,078.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) added 23.34 points, or 1.10 percent, to 2,135.78.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Stocks lifted by revived risk appetite

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) &<51; A Florida yacht broker who admitted filing a false federal tax return and concealing millions of dollars in a secret account at the Swiss bank UBS was sentenced Friday to two months in prison.

Judge James I. Cohn of Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., gave the broker, Robert Moran, credit for immediately confessing his crime and for assisting a broad federal investigation of tax evasion at UBS and other offshore banks. Judge Cohn also noted that Mr. Moran, a British-born United States citizen, had paid the $1.9 million in penalties and back taxes he owed.

But the judge said &S220;the public is weary&S221; of people trying to hide wealth from the Internal Revenue Service and rejected Mr. Moran&S217;s request for a sentence of probation only.

Mr. Moran is scheduled to report to prison Jan. 4. The United States Bureau of Prisons has not yet determined where he will serve his sentence, but Judge Cohn recommended that he be held in southern Florida.

In April, Mr. Moran became the first UBS client in the United States to plead guilty after the Swiss bank provided federal prosecutors with about 150 names of Americans suspected of tax evasion best payday advance. The bank later reached a second agreement that calls for disclosure of 4,450 additional United States taxpayers to the I.R.S.

Mr. Moran is the third former UBS client to be sentenced in the last two weeks in South Florida for filing false tax returns. One got house arrest and the other a short prison term. Seven former clients have been charged in the latest crackdown, and dozens more are under investigation.

Mr. Moran, president of Moran Yacht and Ship, which has offices in Fort Lauderdale and Moscow, will lose his yacht broker&S217;s license because of the felony conviction and faces an uncertain business future, Gary M. Bagliebter, his lawyer, said.

In remarks to the judge, Mr. Moran, 58, accepted full responsibility. He had about $3.5 million in his UBS accounts.

&S220;I&S217;m really sorry for opening this foreign bank account and not disclosing it,&S221; Mr. Moran said. &S220;I realize it was a mistake.&S221;

Yacht Broker Sentenced to 2 Months for Tax Evasion

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 up for a fourth day, as economic data boosted confidence in the recovery and strong results from Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) suggested a rebound in technology spending.

The market&&9;s advance was broad-based, and the Dow ended above 10,000 for the first time in two weeks.

Shares of Cisco, which makes computer network equipment, rose 2.8 percent to &&6;23.93 and helped lead the session&&9;s gains, a day after it posted a stronger-than-expected profit and said business was recovering.

Data showed U.S. non-farm productivity rose more than expected in the third quarter as companies squeezed more output from a smaller pool of labor. A separate report showed fewer U.S. workers filed new jobless insurance claims than forecast last week -- hitting a 10-month low.

The claims report boosted investor sentiment, and created "some anticipation that maybe tomorrow&&9;s employment report may be better than expected," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

The U.S. government is scheduled to release its key monthly jobs report Friday morning, with economists polled by Reuters forecasting a loss of 175,000 jobs in October, sharply below the 263,000 jobs cut in the previous month. But the U.S. unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.9 percent in October from September&&9;s rate of 9.8 percent, which was a 26-year high.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) jumped 203.82 points, or 2.08 percent, to end at 10,005.96. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) gained 20.13 points, or 1.92 percent, to 1,066.63. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) rose 49.80 points, or 2.42 percent, to close at 2,105.32.

CAFFEINE SHOT AFTER THE BELL

After the bell, shares of coffee chain operator Starbucks Corp (SBUX business card.O) rose 1.5 percent to &&6;20 as it posted quarterly results.

During the regular session, tech stocks climbed across the board, with the NYSE Arca Network index (.NWX) up 2.1 percent, while the PHLX Semiconductor index (.SOXX) advanced 2.6 percent.

Shares of DuPont (DD.N) rose 3.7 percent to &&6;33.38 after its chief executive outlined plans for growth in 2010 and after.

In deal news, IMS Health Inc (RX.N) agreed to be bought by TPG and CPP Investment board and helped lift the S&P Healthcare index (.GSPA) 1.6 percent. The deal was valued at &&6;5.2 billion, including the assumption of debt. IMS Health shares surged 23.3 percent to &&6;20.73.

On the downside was CVS Caremark Corp (CVS.N) , which tumbled 20.1 percent to &&6;28.87 after comments from Chief Executive Tom Ryan on weakness in the pharmacy benefit management business.

U.S. retail chains reported October sales that rebounded from the lows in the previous year, but more than half missed Wall Street&&9;s increased expectations as consumers spend selectively headed into the holiday season.

The S&P retail index (.RLX) rose 1.8 percent.

Volume was below average on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1.30 billion shares changing hands, below last year&&9;s estimated daily average of 1.49 billion, while on the Nasdaq, about 2.25 billion shares traded, just below last year&&9;s daily average of 2.28 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a ratio of 5 to 1, while on the Nasdaq, about seven stocks rose for every two that fell.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Stocks rally on economic data, Cisco

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly economic appraisal.

While the pace of job losses has slowed significantly since the peak of the recession last winter, the unemployment rate, which measures the number of people actively seeking work, continues to climb, and economists do not foresee relief until well into next year.

&S220;There&S217;s no doubt that the slashing and burning of jobs has abated quite a lot,&S221; said Allen L. Sinai, the founder of Decision Economics, a research firm. &S220;The economy is recovering, but it is a very soft recovery.&S221;

The biggest losses came in the construction, manufacturing and retailing sectors. Health care companies added 29,000 jobs to their payrolls, and the number of temporary workers increased by 34,000 &<51; a significant gain that could indicate employers are beginning to expand their businesses again.

The Labor Department also revised September&S217;s losses to 219,000 from 263,000.

Dean Baker, a director for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said he did not expect declining unemployment rates until next spring. &S220;We may be looking at very high levels,&S221; Mr. Baker said, &S220;barring a policy response, for several years into the future.&S221;

The dissonance of the economic recovery, with steep job losses coming even as production intensifies and companies show better-than-expected profits, has placed policy makers in a delicate position.

On Thursday, in anticipation of the unemployment report, Congress overwhelmingly voted to extend benefits for jobless workers for up to 20 weeks. That will soothe the short-term financial pain of many families, but demands for a new wave of government relief may intensify if companies continue to cut back.

So far, the federal stimulus package has injected billions into local economies, giving states money, for instance, to finance construction projects or retain teachers. The housing and auto sectors have been propped up with government credits meant to encourage spending. But weak consumer demand and hefty labor costs are still forcing many employers to cut positions and reduce hours to survive.

The recession has forced many Americans to settle for part-time work because companies are reluctant to add full-time employees. The underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers, the jobless and those who have given up on searching, was 17 bad credit pay day loans.5 percent in October &<51; the highest level since at least 1994.

Even as unemployment remains high, there are signs that critical industries are gaining steam.

The manufacturing sector, considered the engine of the economy, was given its most optimistic bill of health in three years by a private group on Monday. Manufacturers added jobs for the first time in 15 months in October, the group said, largely by bringing in temporary workers or recalling laid-off workers. Economists say that the first sign of recovery in jobs will be when more companies begin bringing in temporary workers.

The economy expanded at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, ending a year of back-to-back contractions. But whether that economic expansion will translate into immediate job creation is still widely debated.

&S220;You can&S217;t force businesses to use their profits to hire,&S221; Mr. Sinai said.

Consumer confidence is still low, and many economists believe an economic turnaround will not come until consumers feel at ease again. With families taking home smaller paychecks each month, that could take time.

For the 15.7 million Americans who were without work in October, Friday&S217;s data did little to change the realities of their daily lives &<51; mornings spent combing online job sites, afternoons devoted to fighting off bill collectors. Their r&>33;sum&>33;s will still go out, their interviews will go on, and, more likely than not, their phones will not ring.

Melissa Grodhaus, 42, a laid-off cemetery worker from Winona, Ohio, said she had filled out 150 applications since she lost her job nearly two years ago. She struggles to keep up with mortgage payments and utility bills, and she must also take care of her three children.

&S220;There&S217;s nothing here,&S221; she said. &S220;I can&S217;t see anything worse than it is right now.&S221;

Ms. Grodhaus has started selling old clothes on eBay, and she has told her children she cannot afford to pay the fees for school sports this year. Every two weeks, when the local church brings out food baskets, she rushes to pick up her share. Within minutes, she said, they are gone.

U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 Years

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks gained sharply on Thursday after an expansion in business productivity and a fall in jobless claims boosted investor confidence about the economy, while Cisco led gains in tech shares.

U.S. non-farm productivity rose more than expected in the third quarter as companies squeezed more output from a smaller pool of labor, while fewer U.S. workers filed new jobless insurance claims than forecast last week -- hitting a 10-month low.

Cisco (CSCO.O) shares gained 2.2 percent to &&6;23.79 after the company reported earnings late on Wednesday. The technology bellwether reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, and its board authorized up to &&6;10 billion in stock buybacks.

"We opened on good news from Cisco and the market just moved up higher on better news on productivity and unemployment numbers ... The next news that will move the market will be the raft of earnings after the bell today, and the unemployment numbers tomorrow," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 172.76 points, or 1.76 percent, to 9,974.90. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) advanced 15.95 points, or 1.52 percent, to 1,062.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) rose 44.18 points, or 2.15 percent, to 2,099.70.

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report that fewer jobs were cut in October than in the previous month companies making payday loans. But the jobless rate is expected to rise to 9.9 percent, exceeding a 26-year high of 9.8 percent in September. Economists polled by Reuters have forecast a loss of 175,000 jobs in October, sharply below the 263,000 jobs cut in the previous month.

In Thursday&&9;s session at midday, other technology stocks also advanced. Intel Corp (INTC.O) gained 2.2 percent to &&6;19.00 and Microsoft (MSFT.O) rose 2.2 percent to &&6;28.68.

Shares of IMS Health Inc (RX.N) soared 23.5 percent to &&6;20.76 after the company agreed to be bought by TPG and CPP Investment board. The deal was valued at &&6;5.2 billion, including the assumption of debt.

But CVS Caremark Corp (CVS.N) tumbled 19.7 percent to &&6;29.04 after comments from Chief Executive Tom Ryan on weakness in the pharmacy benefit management business.

U.S. retail chains reported October sales that rebounded from the lows of a year ago, but many failed to surpass Wall Street&&9;s increased expectations as consumers spend selectively headed into the holiday season.

The S&P retail index (.RLX) rose 1.2 percent.

(Reporting by Angela Moon, Editing by Jan Paschal)

Stocks rally on data; Cisco earnings lift techs

Following the lead of foreign regulators, New York&S217;s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against Intel, the world&S217;s largest chip maker.

The lawsuit charges that Intel violated state and federal laws by abusing its dominant position in the chip market to keep its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices, at bay. Intel has faced similar lawsuits in Asia and Europe, and in May the European Commission fined the company a record $1.45 billion for antitrust violations.

These cases have largely revolved around deals Intel has struck with computer makers and retailers that, regulators say, pressured them into picking the company&S217;s microprocessors &<51; which serve as the central chip inside personal computers and servers &<51; instead of competing products from A.M.D.

&S220;Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,&S221; Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. &S220;Intel&S217;s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices.&S221;

To date, Intel has denied the charges against it and has filed an appeal against the European Commission&S217;s ruling.

The New York attorney general&S217;s suit is the first formal antitrust action against Intel by any government agency in the United States in more than a decade. The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Intel since 2008 but has not begun formal proceedings against the company.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., also faces a four-year-old antitrust lawsuit filed by A.M.D. in Delaware. That suit is scheduled to go to trial early next year.

The New York move increases the chances that the F.T.C. will take action against Intel, according to a person who is familiar with the state&S217;s investigation but is not authorized to discuss it. Mr. Cuomo&S217;s staff, this person said, regularly communicates and cooperates with the commission&S217;s staff.

"These are separate investigations, but it would be very surprising for New York State to go off on its own without being fairly confident the F.T.C. would pursue Intel as well," the person said.

A spokeswoman for the F.T.C., Claudia Bourne Farrell, would not comment beyond saying that the commission&S217;s investigation was continuing.

Intel and Microsoft have long been the personal computer industry&S217;s two most dominant players. About 90 percent of all PCs rely on Microsoft&S217;s Windows software, while Intel&S217;s chips go into about 80 percent of the PCs and computer servers sold every year.

Both companies have caught the attention of antitrust regulators in the past, although Microsoft&S217;s legal battles have been far more confrontational and enduring.

In 1993, the F.T.C. dropped a two-year investigation into Intel&S217;s business practices, saying it lacked evidence to back a lawsuit, and it ended a second investigation in 2000. In 1995, Intel settled a number of cases with A.M.D., including one involving antitrust charges.

&S220;Intel has been more willing to negotiate with the government and less bellicose than Microsoft,&S221; said Harry First, a professor at the New York University School of Law and the former chief of the New York attorney general&S217;s antitrust bureau. &S220;Frankly, I think they&S217;ve been smarter litigants and have escaped more than Microsoft.&S221;

Over the past couple of years, however, regulators have dug in and secured victories against Intel. In 2005, Japanese regulators determined that Intel had violated antitrust laws in that country, and South Korean antitrust authorities followed suit in a similar case. But the verdict handed down in May by the European Commission was by far the biggest blow against the company.

In the 80-page lawsuit, Mr. Cuomo appears to be piggybacking, in part, on extensive e-mail evidence gathered during Europe&S217;s investigation into Intel&S217;s business practices payday advance lender.

In the statement, the attorney general pointed to e-mail messages that detail Intel&S217;s interactions with companies like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and I.B.M. that he said support the case against Intel.

For example, Intel is accused of paying I.B.M. $130 million to hold back on selling a server based on A.M.D.&S217;s Opteron chip, while also threatening to curtail joint projects if I.B.M. marketed A.M.D.&S217;s products.

&S220;The question is, can we afford to accept the wrath of Intel...?&S221; an unnamed I.B.M. executive wrote in a 2005 e-mail, according to Mr. Cuomo&S217;s office.

A similar e-mail from an unnamed H.P. executive talks about Intel planning to &S220;punish&S221; the company for selling products based on A.M.D.&S217;s chips.

Most of the past antitrust cases in Europe and Asia have centered on Intel&S217;s actions in the PC market. But Mr. Cuomo&S217;s case seems to place substantial emphasis on the company&S217;s server chip business as well.

In 2003, A.M.D. released a chip called Opteron that thrust it into the mainstream server market for the first time. For about four years, the product was hailed by analysts and hardware makers as superior to Intel&S217;s Xeon chip.

With Opteron on its side, A.M.D. for the first time managed to attract H.P., I.B.M., Dell and Sun Microsystems as server chip customers. A.M.D. executives, however, have long contended that Intel thwarted the adoption of Opteron through its abusive practices and blunted the company&S217;s ability to capitalize on the product.

They have also argued that Intel has blocked A.M.D.&S217;s attempts to place its chips in computers purchased by businesses. Both the server and business PC markets tend to generate higher profits than the consumer computer market.

I.B.M., which competes with Intel in the server chip market, and A.M.D. have invested billions of dollars in chip plants based in New York.

Along with e-mail from hardware makers, Mr. Cuomo has presented e-mail messages exchanged between Intel executives in which they express anti-trust concerns. &S220;Let&S217;s talk more on the phone as it&S217;s so difficult for me to write or explain without considering anti-trust issue,&S221; one Intel executive is said to have written in an April 2006 message.

In interviews, a number of antitrust experts found similar e-mail exchanges presented by the European Commission unconvincing, and said the regulators&S217; overall evidence was thin on details.

&S220;I look at it, and I don&S217;t have a lot of confidence in what the E.C. alleges,&S221; said John E. Lopatka, a professor and antitrust expert at Penn State&S217;s Dickinson School of Law. &S220;It does smack of a brief more than an objective and honest recitation of the results of investigation.&S221;

The issue of so-called loyalty discounts provided by a supplier to its customers remains a murky area in United States law.

&S220;European law is much harsher on loyalty discounts,&S221; Mr. First said. &S220;There is still a lot of debate here among commentators and the courts on this issue, and the Supreme Court has not spoken on how we should treat this sort of loyalty pricing.&S221;

Mr. Cuomo&S217;s office said it had examined millions of pages of e-mail and documents during its 23-month investigation into Intel and taken testimony from dozens of witnesses.

Mr. Cuomo contends that consumers would have benefited from lower prices and better products had there been an even playing field in the chip market. His lawsuit seeks to stop Intel from continuing its anticompetitive practices and to recover damages and penalties.

Steve Lohr contributed reporting.

Cuomo Files Federal Antitrust Lawsuit Against Intel

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS &S212; June of next year will be a big month for Nabeel Siddiqui, a 29-year-old from India studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That is when Mr. Siddiqui, a former software-design project manager for Alcatel-Lucent, expects to receive two diplomas almost simultaneously.

One will be a master&S217;s of science in management studies from M.I.T.&S217;s Sloan School of Management, the other a master&S217;s of business administration from the &>01;cole des Hautes &>01;tudes Commerciales in Paris.

Mr. Siddiqi is one of 16 international students taking part in a new dual-degree program in which Sloan collaborates with foreign business schools. The students are piggybacking on their first year of M.B.A. studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul or HEC, as it is known, in Paris as a prelude to the master&S217;s program at Sloan. The credits the students earn there will fulfill their second-year M.B.A. requirements at the schools in China, South Korea and France.

With his credentials burnished, Mr. Siddiqui is now seeking an upward bound job with a major international corporation. He said, &S220;I don&S217;t have any inhibitions to go to any country and start working for a business. I don&S217;t have to think twice about it.&S221;

The introduction this year of the dual-degree program that brought Mr. Siddiqui to Sloan exemplifies a trend among business schools to bulk up their international offerings for students pursuing an M.B.A. full time. The schools have entered a &S220;period of experimentation&S221; to strengthen the international elements of their M.B.A. programs in light of the demand for graduates who can &S220;manage across national boundaries with a fluidity that just wasn&S217;t necessary a few years ago,&S221; said Garth Saloner, dean of Stanford University&S217;s Graduate School of Business.

By injecting more globalism into their subject matter and outlook, the schools are creating more opportunities for students to work for international companies, administrators say. For the schools, that has been a boon for recruiting &S220;more talented and diverse&S221; students, said J.J. Cutler, director of admissions and financial aid at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Revamping curriculums to add more international heft to courses has been one widespread strategy embraced by the schools. Last year, the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University began requiring every M.B.A. student to complete at least one of its international courses.

&S220;The students were ahead of us on this: 75 percent or 80 percent of students were doing this on their own,&S221; said Sunil Chopra, interim dean at Kellogg.

In 2007, Stanford introduced a new course, &S220;Global Context of Management,&S221; as a first-year M.B.A. requirement. Another innovation adopted that year required students to go on Stanford-sponsored two-week study trips to foreign countries or acquire equivalent international exposure to countries where they had neither lived nor worked.

&S220;Global immersion&S221; has become a catchphrase in business school vocabulary. Many schools employ that language to describe courses that combine international study with a week or two of travel to a foreign country or region for meetings with business leaders, government officials and the like.

The popularity of the global immersion courses, which cost students between $2,000 and $4,000 on top of typical tuition of more than $50,000 a year, is on the upswing. The global immersion program introduced last spring at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business drew 78 participants among the school&S217;s 1,400 M online payday loans.B.A. students in the first year. As the capstone to an elective course, students investigated matters like the carbon market in Brazil and the potential of investment partners in China.

This year, Columbia expects that 108 students will enroll in a global immersion course, according to Ethan Hanabury, the senior associate dean for business degree programs at Columbia. The purpose is to &S220;integrate&S221; a classroom experience and a study trip so as to make the academic material &S220;relevant to what&S217;s happening&S221; in the global business world, Mr. Hanabury said.

The desire to impart an international flavor to an M.B.A. is not new. Some schools began promoting an international perspective decades ago. At Harvard Business School, a course titled &S220;Business, Government and the International Economy,&S221; in which first-year students study the conditions in which global businesses operate, has been an M.B.A. requirement since 1978.

Still, if recognition of the value of a global component in business education is not new, it is increasingly widespread. Andrew Policano, dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, proudly summed up the extent of international cases in his M.B.A. program: &S220;Today, it&S217;s throughout our curriculum. We assess how it&S217;s going, but we don&S217;t have to worry anymore whether everyone is getting an international education.&S221;

Mr. Policano noted that, though Merage may not be as well-known abroad as larger and more prestigious schools, it nonetheless attracts about 70 of its 200 M.B.A. students from other countries.

A number of leading business schools in Europe have been ahead of U.S. schools in tilting toward an international orientation. Founded in 1958, the Escuela Superior de Administraci&>43;n y Direcci&>43;n de Empresas, or Esade, based in Barcelona, taught M.B.A. courses in Spanish for its first 42 years, and its students were predominantly from Spain.

But in 2000, the school&S217;s survey of the recruiting preferences of European companies pointed to a growing demand for internationally trained graduates. In response, Esade switched to English as the predominant language in its classes and sought students from many countries. Forty-seven nationalities are now represented among its 400 full-time M.B.A. students, 85 percent of them from countries other than Spain, said Gloria Batllori, the school&S217;s M.B.A. dean.

Rather than concentrate all its international students at its home campus in Fountainebleau, France, Insead, the international business school outside Paris, created a second campus in Singapore nine years ago. Though more of its M.B.A. candidates begin their studies at Fountainebleau than in Singapore, 80 percent of its 900 full-time M.B.A. students take courses at one time or another on both campuses, said Insead&S217;s dean, Frank Brown.

Some business school administrators caution, however, that investing in a foreign location can drain resources better spent on home campuses. Alan White, Sloan&S217;s senior associate dean, says his school has steered clear of large overseas investments, preferring instead collaborative arrangements like the one in which Mr. Siddiqui is participating.

For Mr. Siddiqui, however, the Sloan-HEC collaboration will mean an unusual expense. To collect the diplomas he expects from the two schools next spring, he plans to attend commencement ceremonies at campuses on two continents.

Special Report: International education: Giving Business Education a Global Twist

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy may have turned a corner after the deepest recession in some 70 years, but Federal Reserve policymakers appear to be in no rush to raise interest rates.

The Fed is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate where it has been since December -- near zero -- when it meets this week.

With underlying inflation pressures actually decreasing and most Fed officials expecting the recovery to be slow, there is little incentive for the Fed to change its easy money policy.

"Anybody who expects major changes to the Fed&&9;s statement is likely to be disappointed," said Stephen Stanley, U.S. economist at RBS.

Fed officials, who meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, could discuss how they will prepare markets for an eventual policy shift, but analysts say it is too soon for the Fed to even hint toward an exit by tweaking its pledge to keep rates extraordinarily low for an "extended period."

Even as the U.S. economy appears to be still in need of Fed support, the repercussions of emergency monetary policies are being felt around the world.

Brazil has acted to stem the flood of speculative capital to its economy by adopting a 2 percent tax on foreign investment. Other nations have begun to intervene to keep their currencies from rising too sharply against the falling dollar.

Among top Fed officials a debate has broken out about how soon the central bank will need to act to nip inflation in the bud, although none are advocating a move now.

Financial markets will comb through the central bank&&9;s policy statement, which will be released at around 2:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT) on Wednesday, for any clues on when the easy money period will start drawing to a close.

Most analysts at top U.S. banks expect the Fed&&9;s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee to keep interest rates on hold until mid-2010 or later, though interest-rate futures markets are pricing in an increase earlier in 2010.

The most significant outcomes of the Fed&&9;s last two policy meetings concerned the central bank&&9;s purchases of U.S. government and mortgage-related debt. The Fed stopped buying longer-term Treasury debt last week, while the mortgage-related asset purchase program has been extended into early 2010 to provide for an orderly wind down no fax payday loans.

"Things are going to start to get interesting in 2010, but for the moment they&&9;ve got all their ducks in a row," Stanley said.

GROWTH HAS ARRIVED, BUT JOBS HAVE NOT

The Fed will note that the economy grew in the third quarter, snapping a deep four-quarter plunge and likely ending the U.S. recession. The officials are also likely to repeat there is still enough slack in the economy for inflation not to be an immediate worry.

Last week, data showed U.S. GDP rebounded at a solid 3.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter. A separate report showed inflation, outside of food and energy costs, bumping along at a eight-year low.

The outlook remains uncertain. Much of the third-quarter growth was pinned to government stimulus programs, such as the auto-buying incentives of the "cash for clunkers" program.

U.S. consumers, usually the main driver of activity, are wary. One report on Friday showed consumer spending fell in September for the first time in five months, while another showed consumer sentiment moved lower this month.

The job market also remains a worry. On Friday, the Labor Department&&9;s employment report is expected to show the unemployment rate hit a new 26-year high of 9.9 percent in October.

"What&&9;s transpired since the last meeting is a quarter of positive GDP growth, but I don&&9;t think the projections have changed much going forward and today&&9;s consumer confidence news was not particularly upbeat," Mark Gertler, an economics professor at New York University, said on Friday.

"So all in all, my guess is that the Fed is in a holding pattern right now."

If the Fed were to tweak its "extended period" statement next week, markets would aggressively price in a much swifter policy shift, analysts at Barclays said.

"We do not expect the Fed to want to bring that about until it is more certain it will need to tighten relatively soon," Barclays analysts wrote in a note to clients.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry and Maureen Bavdek)

Fed seen on hold as outlook uncertain