LOS ANGELES – Hyundai Motor America says the automaker will shift manufacturing of its Santa Fe SUV beginning this fall from its plant in Alabama to one in Georgia run by Kia Motor Manufacturing.

Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford said Tuesday the move boost production capacity at the company's Montgomery, Ala. plant to build its popular Sonata.

It will add about 700 employees at Kia's West Point, Ga. plant, bringing the total to 1,900. Suppliers and other support companies in the area are also expected to add jobs no teletrack payday loans. There will be no change in staffing at the Alabama plant.

Kia says production of the Santa Fe will begin next month at the Georgia plant and ramp up on Oct. 1 with the addition of a second shift.

Kia also builds its Sorrento SUV at the plant.

Hyundai shifting production of SUV to Kia plant

By traditional measures, the British hip-hop artist Taio Cruz is far from being a star. But in the new world of pop music, he is certified gold.

Mr. Cruz’s latest album, “Rokstarr,” has sold just 93,000 copies in 12 weeks, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and this week sits at No. 54 on the Billboard 200 chart.

But while he has sold relatively few albums, he has sold 4.9 million copies of two singles from the album, “Break Your Heart” and “Dynamite,” and videos for those singles have been viewed more than 49 million times online. For his label, Mercury Records, that means he is a commercial success.

For decades, the music industry has been looking to the album charts to establish what made a hit. In the past 10 years, though, album sales have plummeted, sales of singles have surged and new sources of revenue have emerged — like fees for music streamed online and ringtone purchases — that are changing the definition of a hot artist.

Still, much of the industry relies on the Billboard 200, the longtime album sales chart, as the primary measure and talking point about an artist’s moneymaking prowess.

“The music industry has trained people to focus on the album chart for 20 years,” said Jay Frank, the head of music for CMT, the country music cable network. “Now they need to get them to focus on something else.”

BigChampagne, a media measurement firm in California, believes there is an opening for a new chart that better captures an artist’s popularity and commercial success. Last month, the company introduced a service, which it is calling the Ultimate Chart, that ranks artists based on the number of albums sold, singles sold, songs streamed online and other factors. The service also ranks sales of albums and singles, though they diverge little from Billboard’s charts.

On the most recent Ultimate Chart, Mr. Cruz is the No. 2 artist. Lil Wayne ranks as the fourth most popular artist, while his most recent album, “Rebirth,” is on the Billboard album chart at No. 89. (The two charts are not always at such great odds. Eminem is the No. 1 artist on the Ultimate Chart while his album sits at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.)

The new charts reflect the shift in music industry revenue. Even established performers like Rihanna, whose latest album, “Rated R,” broke into the top five on the Billboard 200 in 2009, receives half of her revenue through those other avenues, according to Jim Urie, the head of distribution for the Universal Music Group, which owns her label, Def Jam, as well as Mercury.

“We used to have basically a single line on the revenue sheet,” Mr. Urie said. “Now we have many.”

For most labels and artists, though, revenue from those new streams has not made up for the sharp drop in CD sales. While labels would not discuss overall revenue for specific artists, total revenue from recorded music peaked in 1999, at $13.4 billion, according to Forrester Research, and was about half of that in 2009.

But the multiple ways to make money provide hope to a struggling industry and are also changing the kind of music that gets made and promoted. Album sales are often driven by older listeners who typically favor country and soft-rock artists like Taylor Swift and Susan Boyle.

Pop and hip-hop artists like Taio Cruz and Rihanna are sometimes underrepresented on the album chart, as younger fans in particular have moved to buying singles and streaming music online.

In the near future, that could mean more Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, less Nickelback and Keith Urban.

“It’s becoming clear this year, to the industry and the artists, that when you’re having real hit singles, it has great value,” said David Massey, president of Mercury Records, Mr payday loans no teletrack. Cruz’s label. “They can be more important than the album chart position.”

The Billboard charts have been modified over the years as the music industry changed. Back in 1913, Billboard published a chart showing the popularity of sheet music. In 1945, Billboard magazine introduced a chart displaying the top five albums. Five eventually grew to 200, the number the magazine has stuck with since 1972.

The album charts were largely a guessing game and could be manipulated by music insiders. That changed in 1991, when SoundScan began electronically tracking sales by retailers. The labels signed on to the service, and Billboard used the data for its Billboard 200 chart.

It didn’t take long for the industry to realize that albums usually peaked in sales during their first week of release, rather than build up momentum over time, as they had long thought. That discovery changed the marketing strategy at record labels, said Peter Lubin, a former record executive, putting the focus on the weeks leading up to the release.

“The music industry got very good at creating stories about artist launches,” said David Pakman, a venture capitalist and former chief executive of the digital music store eMusic. “You created a story to get radio programmers to get behind it.”

If a record had a bad first week, Mr. Lubin said, the thinking at a label quickly became, “This record is a loser; if you invest any more money in it, you’ll be a loser, too.”

And no one wants to be a loser. But until a new measurement tool is widely adopted, labels are largely left to their own devices to figure out a profitable strategy and a way to compare their success with the competition.

Cliff Chenfeld, an owner of Razor and Tie, an independent label in New York, said his company tailored a revenue strategy for each project rather than immediately falling back on a calculation of how many albums could be sold.

The singer-songwriter Dave Barnes, an artist signed to Razor and Tie, has never broken the top 50 in the Billboard 200. But Mr. Barnes found success on Christian radio and landed a deal with SongFreedom.com, a site that provides music to wedding photographers and videographers.

The commercial success of that deal, according to Mr. Chenfeld, is not reflected on the Billboard 200, even though its revenue is “considerable, and opportunities like that are viral.”

“The reliance on album sales is very 20th century,” he said.

Bill Werde, the editorial director of Billboard, said its Hot 100 chart lists the most popular songs based on a formula that factors in single sales, radio airplay and online streaming. “We’re constantly evolving what we’re doing and how we do it,” he said. Nielsen, the company that provides the album sales data to Billboard, has started to compile an artist’s revenue streams on a single sheet that it calls a scorecard.

But the top spot on the album charts, like a No. 1 book or a big opening weekend at the box office, remains a salient — and marketable — shorthand for industry success.

“We still fight for the No. 1 spot,” said Lee Stimmel, executive vice president for marketing at Epic Records, a Sony Music label. “It’s still a very important tag to have on a record.”

Platinum Is So Passé. In iTunes Era, the Singles Count.

Economic statistics released Friday offered the clearest sign yet that the recovery, already acknowledged to be sauntering, had slowed to a crawl.

The government lowered its estimate of economic growth in the second quarter to an annual rate of 1.6 percent, after originally reporting last month that growth in the three-month period was 2.4 percent.

The revision is a significant slowdownfrom the annual rate of 3.7 percent in the first quarter and 5 percent in the last three months of 2009.

The news came at the end of a week that showed the economic retrenchment that began in the second quarter has spilled over into the summer. Existing home sales in July were down to their lowest level in a decade, and sales of new homes that month were at their lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1963. Orders for large factory goods, excluding the volatile transportation sector, dropped in July, indicating that recovery in the manufacturing sector is also stalling.

With such grim reports, economists are now concerned that the outlook for job creation, which has been spluttering all summer, could deteriorate further. Companies and consumers tend to be spooked by bad news, and market analysts and economists worry that faltering confidence could cause employers to hold back on hiring.

“When you get a downshift in growth there is a risk that it will feed on itself,” the chief economist at MF Global, James F. O’Sullivan, said. “The question now is to what extent has the improving trend just been temporarily set back or has it really been short-circuited.”

The markets were also awaiting a speech Friday morning from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, as well as fresh indicators of consumer sentiment from a closely watched survey by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters.

The bulk of the downgrade in the second-quarter G.D.P. resulted from the fact that government analysts had assumed that American companies added more inventories to their warehouse shelves than they actually did. The adjustment also took into account a sharp rise in imports, leading to a wider-than-estimated trade deficit.

Economists polled by Bloomberg had been expecting the second quarter growth figure to be revised down to 1.4 percent.

Inventories, originally reported to have grown by $75 payday loan.7 billion, actually grew by $63.2 billion. Some economists pointed to a silver lining in this figure. Because companies have kept inventories relatively low, “if demand was to take off, they would have to hire additional workers and ramp up production,” said Omair Sharif, United States economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland. “So the fact that businesses did not accumulate enough inventories sets the stage for a much stronger pickup in employment and hours worked in the future, if demand picks up.”

Imports, which were first reported as growing at an annual rate of 28.8 percent, the biggest jump in a quarter-century, grew by 32.4 percent, compared with a much lower gain of 9.1 percent in exports.

What strength there had been in the original growth number came from business investment in items that included office buildings, equipment and software. The revised number showed that such spending jumped at an annual rate of 17.6 percent, not much changed from the originally reported 17 percent second-quarter increase.

Consumer spending, which economists often look to as a primary indicator of recovery, grew 2 percent. That was a slightly better rate than the Commerce Department originally said last month when it reported that consumption grew at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the second quarter, and slightly higher than the 1.9 percent increase in the first quarter.

Economists have been revising their forecasts for growth in the second half, with Goldman Sachs now projecting annual growth of 1.5 percent. Ben Herzon, a senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting group, said the firm had taken its estimate for third-quarter growth down to 1.7 percent from 2.5 percent at the beginning of July.

Mr. Herzon said that he was not expecting a double-dip back into recession, however. “It’s difficult to point to a shock that would be bad enough to put the economy back into a recession,” he said. “I just think it means that this recovery is going to be slower and more painful than we originally expected.”

U.S. Economy Slowed to 1.6% Growth Pace in 2nd Quarter

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is confident of resolving a visa restrictions issue with the United States outside the WTO framework, a senior government official said on Thursday.

India had objected to U.S. legislation passed this month to strengthen security along the border with Mexico, funds for which will be raised through a hike in visa fees that may affect Indian companies like Infosys Technologies and Wipro.

The trade secretary, Rahul Khullar, said last week the move was not compatible with World Trade Organisation rules.

The government is speaking to the U.S. government on the issue.

Members of the apex Indian infotech association will also meet U.S. senators on the visa issue next month as part of a delegation to the United States led by Trade Minister Anand Sharma No teletrack payday loans.

"That consultation is ongoing as we speak and as that consultation proceeds, I am confident this problem will get resolved," Khullar told reporters on Thursday, indicating that India may not take the United States to the WTO if the issue is resolved bilaterally.

The Indian software industry largely thrives on the model of cross-border movement of its professionals.

India has long advocated free movement of professionals at global trade bodies like the WTO.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; editing by Sugita Katyal)

India says U.S. visa issue may be solved outside WTO

BOCA RATON, Fla. (MarketWatch) -- At this time, the technical indicators point to an extremely dangerous market. No one seems happy. The bears are frustrated that the market hasn't confirmed their worst fears. The bulls are not convinced the worst is behind them.

Looking at the moving averages, the Standard & Poor's 500 has dropped firmly below the 200-day moving average and the 100-day MA. We're now waiting to see how it reacts to the 50-day MA. In addition, MACD crossed below the 9-period signal line using the default setting of (12,26, 9). As this is written, MACD is close to dropping below the zero line, a highly bearish sign.

Investor Peter Schiff invests as if the U.S. economy will collapse, which involves moving money offshore, a move he calls the most patriotic way for an American to invest. Dow Jones Newswires' Meena Thiruvengadam reports on a man who has become a financial fortune teller for Tea Party activists and who predicts an evisceration of the American dream.

In the chart below, most of the largest volume bars are red, indicating that sellers have been in control. But the selling strength is decreasing. Since many new buyers are not entering, the market is somewhat directionless.

We can also see that the market is bouncing around the 200 MA and 50 MA, but that it often exceeds these levels before reversing. You may have noticed that since May, large volume days have in general been down days, which could be a sign of distribution.

Source: Stockcharts.com

Using our proprietary indicator, Effective Volume, we have also found that large institutions are wary of committing a lot of capital to the funds as well. At this time, the indicator is pointing down.

Also, it appears major institutional funds have lowered their exposure to the markets and have hedged their position. For example, the CBOE implied correlation index (http://www.cboe.com/micro/impliedcorrelation) increases at times of market stress as all the equities move together in a bear market. The index appears to show that institutional investors are prepared for a possible bear market.

Although not recommended as a timing mechanism, surveys such as Investors Intelligence or the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) tell you what the crowds are thinking. Often, the crowd is right for a while, but often misses the tops and bottoms. Therefore, when sentiment surveys are wildly bullish or bearish, it's a signal you may want to do the opposite easy payday loans. At the moment, sentiment surveys are not at extremes, but are showing a slight bearish sentiment.

It's also been reported that ornery investors are pulling out of stocks and pouring money into bonds. From a contrarian standpoint, this is a very positive development for stocks. Not surprisingly, a number of pros believe that bonds are the next to blow. No wonder so many people are confused!

Another way to look at the market direction is to analyze whether buyers or sellers have been in control. To do this, we use an indicator called VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) anchored at the April top (in blue) or at the July bottom (in red). VWAP is a measure of the average price of transactions through one trading day (1-day VWAP) or a set number of days.

The blue line is used to see if sellers that started selling the market at the top are still in control. The red line is used to see if buyers since the bottom are in control.

As you see below, last week, the price moved below the buyers' control line. This break is important because it indicates that buyers will probably want to cut their losses, which could push the market further down. (VWAP can be found in numerous chart programs.)

Source: Charts.monest.net

If you are long the stock market, it's suggested you tread cautiously. Instead of a mind-boggling crash, as some predict, or an explosive rally, as many hope, the cruelest cut of all would be what we have now: neither side has a definitive advantage.

We also think that both VWAP anchored at the previous top and bottoms of the market, as well as the 50 MA and 200 MA, offer formidable resistance levels, which could be difficult to break. Our belief is that any reversal to these resistance lines will be sold into.

Exception: In case there is a break of the resistance lines (above), the market could go much higher. In the short term, however, that doesn't seem likely.

"emphasis"> Michael Sincere ( www.michaelsincere.com ) is the author of Understanding Options (McGraw-Hill, 2006) and All About Market Indicators (McGraw-Hill, 2010). Pascal Willain is the author of Value in Time: Better Trading through Effective Volume (Wiley Trading, 2008) and owner of the website, www.effectivevolume.com .

Outside the Box: Market indicators point to new dangers

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — The computer company Hewlett-Packard said Monday that it was making a bid of $24 a share, or about $1.6 billion, for the data storage provider 3Par, just a week after Dell agreed to acquire the company.

H.P. and Dell both have been looking to expand from personal computers over the past few years in a search for bigger profits.

The bid by H.P. tops Dell’s offer of $18 a share, or about $1.13 billion.

“H.P.’s proposal offers superior value to 3Par’s shareholders” said David A. Donatelli, H.P.’s executive vice president and general manager for enterprise servers, storage and networking no faxing payday loans. “Our global reach, strong routes to market and commitment to innovation uniquely position H.P. as the ideal fit for 3Par.”

Shares of 3Par, based in Fremont, Calif., rose $6.66, or 37 percent, to $24.70 before the markets opened.

Dell said last week that the deal had been approved by the boards of both companies and that it was expected to close this year.

H.P. is based in Palo Alto, Calif. Dell is based in Round Rock, Tex.

H.P. Trumps Dell’s Bid for 3Par

BERLIN (AFP) – European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said German energy companies should hand over to the state at least half their profits accrued from extending the life of nuclear power stations.

He was speaking in an interview with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung Saturday as German bosses and economic figures have lashed out at a government proposal to tax nuclear energy production.

"It&&9;s quite normal for nuclear groups to protest at the idea of a tax, but they should give the authorities a large part of the sizeable profits accruing from the (extended) operation of nuclear plants.

"I consider that at least 50 percent would be appropriate."

A letter printed Saturday as a full-page ad in German newspapers took aim at a mooted tax on nuclear plants that could raise 2.3 billion euros (2.9 billion dollars) per year for the state as it seeks to balance the public finances.

"A policy that consists of filling the budget by creating new energy taxes amounts to blocking important future investments," it said.

Among those who signed the letter were the heads of major power companies E.ON, RWE and Vattenfall.

The leaders of industrial giants BASF, Bayer and ThyssenKrupp added their names, as did heads of the retail group Metro, media group Bertelsmann and Germany&&9;s largest bank, Deutsche Bank.

Without being named directly, the leader of one major German company called the text a "warning shot for the government payday loan lenders."

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants nuclear power plant operators to pay the tax in exchange for an extension of the plants&&9; lifetimes, which is to end in around 2020 under the terms of a previous decision.

"A precipitate exit from nuclear power would destroy billions of euros in capital," the letter warned.

"We cannot give up for the time being on coal or nuclear energy if we want energy prices to remain affordable for all," it added.

Merkel&&9;s government aims to decide on its new energy policy by the end of September, and Oettinger said the argument should be settled quickly in order to focus on "other decisions which are at least as important."

These included research and investment in energy, including projects for huge solar power plants in the deserts of Africa and the Middle East.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaueble said late Friday that the purpose of a tax was to boost government finances rather than reinvest the cash in renewable energy resources, as sought by Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen.

However in her weekly videotaped message released Saturday, Merkel said that while the current need was for energy from different sources, including nuclear plants, the aim was "to enter the age of renewal energy as quickly as possible."

EU commissioner backs mooted German nuclear tax

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares rose Tuesday amid strong gains for most miners, while BHP Billiton's unsolicited bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan gave fertilizer firms a lift.

Growing volumes of middle distillate oil products are being stored off the UK coast, as oil product traders take advantage of the ICE gasoil contango - where near-term futures are cheaper than deferred prices - to store jet fuel and heating oil.

After a flat finish in the previous session, the Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.6% to 257.06.

Miners were among the best performers, with shares of Chilean copper miner Antofagasta moving up 3.3% and coal and copper miner Xstrata adding 3.5%.

The gains for the sector came along with higher metal futures, as the dollar weakened a bit against the euro , with the common currency up 0.5% at $1.2883.

Ireland auctioned 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in government bonds, the maximum amount on offer. The Irish Iseq 20 index rose 1.3% to 464.04.

Still, sterling declined, trading down 0.1% at $1.5626, and Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton failed to join in the mining-sector gains, trading down 2.8% after fertilizer firm Potash Corp. rejected a $38.6 billion, or $130 a share, takeover bid from BHP.

"We believe that this would move into a dilutive transaction at a price above $150/share and so see some scope for BHP Billiton to increase its offer," said analysts at Evolution Securities.

More broadly, Stephen Taylor, strategist at Dolmen Securities, said he expects deals to become a key theme over the coming 12 months, as "companies are forced to acquire revenue and create synergies in the lower-growth environment."

European rivals of Potash Corp. were climbing as well, with Yara International trading up 5.7% in Oslo and K+S gaining 6.2% in Germany.

Of the major regional benchmarks, the French CAC-40 index advanced 1% to 3,634.78, the German DAX index gained 0.9% to 6,168.39 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.7% at 5,311.33.

Asian shares ended mixed, with Japanese stocks lagging the rest of the region, while U.S. stocks opened with gains, stopping Wall Street's recent bearish slide electronic check payday advance.

Also on the economic front, there was mixed sentiment data out from Germany with the ZEW dropping to 14 in August, from 21.2 in July.

Economists had forecast that the index would hold steady. However, the current conditions index rose sharply to 44.3 in August from 29.7 in July. Read more on ZEW.

Other notable gainers in Europe included Dutch insurance group Aegon , up 5.9%.

The firm is planning to repay the remaining 2 billion euros ($2.56 billion) of state aid it owes by the end of June next year. Read more on Aegon.

Global Dow

Danish brewing group Carlsberg jumped 1.6%.

First-half net profit rose to 3.1 billion Danish kroner ($535 million), from DKK1.7 billion in the year-ago period, and the brewer lifted its fiscal-year forecast for profit growth to take into account a more positive ruble exchange rate and better-than-expected conditions in Russia. Read more on Carlsberg.

Autos and construction stocks were also higher, with Austrian-listed brick maker Wienerberger up 9.4% after it narrowed its first-half loss to €39.4 million after taxes from €204 million in red ink during the year-ago period.

Still, Gas Natural shares fell 3.2% in Madrid. The firm was downgraded to sell from neutral at UBS, with the broker citing a decision made in a Paris arbitration court over a supply dispute.

"According to local press, this could imply a 20% increase in gas prices from the Maghreb pipeline. According to press sources, the ruling appears to apply retrospectively since Jan-2007. On our preliminary estimates, this could imply a one-off payment of €1 billion, or 9% of market cap," the broker said.

Europe Markets: Miners, fertilizer suppliers help Europe to gains

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After worrying about Europe for several months, economists are now turning their focus back to the United States, where high unemployment and a historic housing slump just won&&9;t go away.

The U.S. economy appears mired in a troubling limbo, not weak enough to signal an imminent downturn and not sufficiently sturdy to give businesses confidence to begin hiring again.

The latest economic data highlights the shifting fortunes on either side of the Atlantic, with a robust Germany propelling the eurozone as the U.S. outlook looks bleaker.

A sharp widening in the U.S. trade deficit has forced economists to revise down estimates for second-quarter growth, indicating the slowdown has come even more quickly than pessimists expected.

"It&&9;s somewhat ironic but significant that the U.S. slowdown appears to have been triggered by debt concerns in Europe and in the end European growth is showing a pick-up," said Jim O&&9;Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global in New York.

"The question we&&9;re left with now is, &&9;Did this turmoil just set back or really short-circuit the recovery?&&9;"

Answers were not forthcoming, but data over the coming week should help steer forecasters in the right direction.

Among key releases are industrial production for July and, even more timely, the Philadelphia Fed&&9;s survey of regional manufacturing activity. Both are expected to show further firming, with output for U.S. industry projected to have climbed about 0.5 percent.

Ground-breaking on new homes, which after a four-year slump is now at under a quarter of its boom-time peak, likely stabilized at around a 560,000 unit annual rate after some see-sawing related to the expiration of housing tax credits.

Steadfast weakness in housing, along with a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, were some of the factors that last week led the U.S. Federal Reserve to try to offer even more monetary stimulus to the economy.

The Fed said it will funnel cash from maturing mortgage-backed securities it acquired during the financial crisis into further purchases of Treasury bonds in an effort to keep long-term rates low and spur more lending.

The U.S. central bank&&9;s policy has inadvertently created headaches for the Japanese government, which is trying to figure out what to do about an ever strengthening yen that threatens to derail the country&&9;s already-meek recovery pay day loans.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa may meet as early as next week to discuss the matter, though policy options are seen as limited.

ONE CURRENCY, TWO SPEEDS

Even Europe&&9;s improving fate is not without its caveats. The countries at the center of the debt worries that generated global market turbulence in the spring, like Greece, Ireland and Spain, all fared pretty dismally in the second quarter.

This puts even more pressure on Germany to maintain a growth rate strong enough to pull other eurozone members along. On Tuesday, investors will get a look at the ZEW economic sentiment survey, which took a steep dive as the European crisis heated up. It is expected to hold just about steady at a respectable reading of 21.

But Germany is simply not large enough to go it alone. Without a healthy U.S. expansion, say analysts, Europe&&9;s prospects would likely sour as well.

In the United States, few indicators are as important as jobs. Unfortunately, weekly applications for unemployment benefits spiked again last week to 484,000, the highest level in nearly six months.

This and other red flags have prompted Goldman Sachs economists, among the more bearish on Wall Street, to predict a 25-30 percent chance of a much-feared double-dip recession.

Any hint that they are right could trigger further action from the Fed, which signaled with last week&&9;s move that it would not sit idly by as the economy loses momentum.

Further clarity on the outlook for monetary policy could come from a pair of Fed speeches this week, particularly remarks on Thursday by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard.

Bullard made waves late last month when he presented a paper to reporters arguing that the United States was at risk of Japanese-style deflation and that the Fed&&9;s commitment to keeping interest rates very low for an extended period might boost, rather than lower, that threat.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Growth angst drifts back to U.S. shores

Stocks fell for a fourth straight day Friday after new economic statistics reinforced a picture of a sluggish recovery in the United States.

The economic reports, on business inventories, retail sales and the Consumer Price Index, were in much the same vein as those that Wall Street had been seeing throughout the week, including trade deficit figures that raised the likelihood that the estimate for second-quarter growth of 2.4 percent would be revised sharply lower.

As earnings season winds down, traders are increasingly relying on the indicators for some hint of how the American economy is performing. “But if you take the totality of the last couple of weeks, it is providing more concern over the strength of the recovery,” said Paul Ballew, a former Federal Reserve economist and a senior vice president for Nationwide Insurance.

At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average, which went into the red for the year on Wednesday, was down 16.80 points, or 0.16 percent, at 10,303.15. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was 4.36 points, or 0.4 percent lower, at 1,079.25 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 16.79 points, or 0.77 percent at 2,173.48.

Interest rates were lower. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose 21/32, to 99 19/32, and the yield fell to 2.67 percent, from 2.75 percent late Thursday.

The Dow and the S.& P. were down more than 3 percent for the week, while the Nasdaq was down 5 percent.

Health care, technology and consumer discretionary stocks were 1 percent lower. Home Depot was down 30 cents, at $27.31, and Microsoft fell 9 cents, to $24.40. J. C. Penney was down 98 cents, to $19.82. Kohl’s was down $1.51, to $44.99, and Nordstrom’s fell $2.39, to $31.05.

“Frankly we are in a consumer-driven slowdown right now and there is not much we can do in the short term to change that,” said Eric Beder, associate director of equity research for Brean Murray, Carret & Company. “With consumers worried about keeping their jobs, and looking at potential tax increases next year, there is no real impetus to buy right now.”

“Right now there is tremendous uncertainty in the market,” he added.

On Friday, retail inventories, which rose 0.8 percent in June, compared with 0.5 percent in May, were the latest indicator to point to weakening growth in the gross domestic product. Although an increase, analysts said that it was not enough to offset weaknesses in other sectors. Business inventories increased 0.3 percent in June over all, but sales fell 0 guaranteed approval cash advance loans.6 percent.

“This is further confirmation that the estimate of G.D.P. growth will be revised down,” the chief United States economist at HSBC, Kevin Logan, said of the inventory numbers. He estimated that total inventories for the quarter would be $25 billion less than initial government assumptions.

In another closely watched report, retail sales rose 0.4 percent in July, slightly less than expectations of a 0.5 percent increase. It came after a 0.3 percent decline in June. But when subtracting volatile gasoline and automobile sales, retail sales fell 0.1 percent in July.

Joshua Shapiro, the chief United States economist for MFR, said that the retail data showed a deceleration in the economy.

“Our own view is that the labor market recovery will be a grudging one, that consumers will enjoy only small gains in wages and salaries for some time, and that consumer spending growth will therefore be modest at best,” he said in a research note.

A statement Friday from the Commerce secretary, Gary Locke, underscored the administration’s concerns about the economy. Mr. Locke said that the retail sales figures showed the economy was growing at a more modest pace than the administration would like.

“The administration understands that too many Americans continue to struggle,” Mr. Locke said. “President Obama and this department are committed to continuing to promote policies that foster job creation and a strong and sustainable economy.”

In a third report, the Labor Department said that the Consumer Price Index, which is considered a benchmark measure of inflation, rose 0.3 percent in Julyon a seasonally adjusted basis, and 1.2 percent in the last 12 months.

If the volatile energy and food prices are subtracted, the core index, which is used to gauge inflation, rose 0.1 percent in July, after rising 0.2 percent in the previous month. The 12-month change in the core index remained at 0.9 percent for a fourth month. The numbers were in line with market expectations.

“It is evidence of a slow recovery with quite a bit of slack in terms of capacity,” Mr. Ballew said.

Consumer sentiment in August rose slightly above market expectations, to 69.6 in August, according to the Reuters and University of Michigan consumer sentiment index. It was 67.8 in July.

Stocks and Bonds: Shares Fall Again as the Recovery Looks Lethargic

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Macy&&9;s Inc (M.N) quarterly results on Wednesday showed that the department store retailer boosted sales and gained market share without relying as much on discounts as it rivals did to get shoppers into stores.

The company posted better-than-expected results and raised its full-year sales and profit forecasts, citing inventory management that protected its margins. Shares rose 5 percent.

Chief Executive Terry Lundgren cited the company&&9;s "My Macy&&9;s" program which gives stores more leeway to choose merchandise according to local tastes, as well as its focus on exclusive brand lines, as helping.

These factors helped Macy&&9;s woo shoppers despite the threat of a new dip in consumer spending that has weighed on rivals like J.C. Penney Co (JCP.N) and Dillards (DDS.N). Penney, and Kohl&&9;s Corp (KSS.N) whose same-store sales gains in July were below Macy&&9;s, report their earnings later this week.

Cincinnati-based Macy&&9;s reported second-quarter net income of &&6;147 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with &&6;7 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 29 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Sales rose 7.2 percent to &&6;5.54 billion, beating Wall Street forecasts of &&6;5.5 billion.

Macy&&9;s raised its forecast for full-year same-store sales growth to a range of 4 percent to 4.2 percent. It earlier expected 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent.

The company also raised its full-year profit outlook by 10 cents a share to a range of &&6;1.85 to &&6;1.90, compared with Wall Street&&9;s average forecast of &&6;1 no credit check payday loans.87.

Macy&&9;s shares were up 5 percent at &&6;20.33 on the New York Stock Exchange. Penney shares were down 0.2 percent and Kohl&&9;s were down less than 1 percent.

MORE SALES, LEVEL INVENTORY

Macy&&9;s sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.9 percent, surpassing Wall Street expectations in each of the three months of the quarter. Last week, Macy&&9;s reported a 7.3 percent rise in July same-store sales; Penney and Dillard&&9;s (DDS.N) posted declines.

Merchandise inventories were virtually unchanged from a year ago, helping Macy&&9;s gross margins rise 0.4 percentage points to 41.9 percent.

Macy&&9;s has redoubled efforts to sell exclusive products, which make up more than 40 percent of sales and offer better margins. Last week, the company launched its Material Girl collection, designed in part by pop star Madonna.

Macy&&9;s online sales rose 28 percent and contributed 0.5 percentage points to the same-store sales increase. Its upscale Bloomingdale&&9;s chain got a boost from higher-end spending.

Macy&&9;s, which operates about 850 stores under the Macy&&9;s and Bloomingdale&&9;s names, did not open any stores during the quarter. It plans to open two new Macy&&9;s stores, one new Bloomingdale&&9;s store and four Bloomingdale&&9;s outlets in the second half of fiscal 2010.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Derek Caney, Lisa Von Ahn and Robert MacMillan)

Macy's gains market share, sees better sales

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Siegmund Warburg, the German-Jewish banker who gave his name to the financial firm that was undoubtedly the most successful post-war U.K. bank, would not have felt at home in today's capital markets.

That is an understatement of the sort that would have resonated with the restlessly intellectual gentleman artist/capitalist who died in 1982 and whose life -- or "lives" as the author puts it -- are celebrated in Harvard professor Niall Ferguson's gripping biography published this summer.

High Financier -

The Lives and Times of Siegmund Warburg

By Niall Ferguson

Allen Lane, 2010

The founder of S.G. Warburg & Co. was an enigma. A man of many parts: a believer in European integration who ultimately gave up his belief in a united Europe; a half-hearted Zionist who despaired of any resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle; a successful banking pioneer who professed no real interest in money; an idealist who, were it not for his forced emigration to the U.K. under Hitler, would no doubt have remained in Germany and become a first-rank although somewhat verbose politician.

Warburg was rightly called "an artist in finance" by his old friend Paul Ziegler. In day-to-day dealings in the bank, as well as in weightier philosophical matters, he insisted on the primacy of written notes and documents, frequently elaborate to the point of pedantry.

His long-time associate Peter Stormonth Darling, former chairman of the Warburg asset management group Mercury Asset Management, says, "Warburg believed that the ideal banker was an all-rounder with an appreciation of literature and the arts, rather than a specialist immersed in financial matters.... Possessions meant little to him, with the exception of a well-stocked and lovingly assembled library in his house overlooking Lake Geneva."

How well would he have fitted into the Blackberry- and algorithm-studded banking scene of today?

The answer is: Not at all. Warburg's story is of value because it directs light into the evolution of banking -- and leaves readers thinking that the "haute banque" (to use one of his characteristic phrases) of his creation would have a distinctly hard existence in contemporary times.

Not that Warburg did not encounter setbacks. One life-long disappointment was his failure to strike a place for Warburgs in New York, above all because of disagreements over linking up with Kuhn Loeb during the 1950s and early 1960s

In the order in which he wrote down his five rather-prim premises for banking excellence for Kuhn Loeb in 1953, Warburg's prescriptions for a first-rate financial firm lay first and foremost in his strictures on "moral standing." Then followed demands for "reputation for efficiency and high-quality brain work," "connections," "capital funds" and "personnel and organisation."

Nothing wrong in that, you might say. In today's banking world, however, no one would risk ridicule by listing such conditions for success, let alone by trying assiduously to fulfil them. Yet this is what Warburg did -- sticking steadfastly, often to the point of self-caricature, to his principles payday advance online.

After his death, his precepts were more or less forgotten. S.G. Warburg & Co. suffered the pains of aggressive over-expansion and eventual downfall.

A potential merger with Morgan Stanley came to nothing in 1994 after negotiations leaked out. In April 1995, his creation was bought by Swiss Banking Corporation for the relatively low price of £860 million - essentially the net asset value of the investment banking business plus an 8% premium. As Ferguson writes, "Somehow a Swiss bank seemed less of a humiliation than a Wall Street house or, worse by far, a British clearing bank."

After a succession of mergers and name changes, UBS (as it subsequently became) in November 2002 decided to drop the appellation Warburg altogether. Even the name Mercury disappeared shortly after Merrill Lynch bought Mercury Asset Management for £3.1 billion in 1997 - a sum that probably had Warburg turning in his grave.

Siegmund Warburg practised self-deprecation and hated arrogance almost as much as he did "mediocrity" and "mediocrities" (two more or less interchangeably favourite words).

His judgments were finely formed but not always right.

Witness his quixotic initial (although speedily changed thereafter) reaction to the rise of Hitler -- including the phenomenon of anti-Semitism. "It creates," Warburg wrote in March 1933, "what we need more than anything else - a dynamism among those people [the Germans] who have had enough of played-out problems and exhausted strength."

Or his visceral opposition (which he fought hard and successfully to implant in U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson) to a devaluation of the pound in 1964 - a step that was taken eventually, after much .pain and strife, in 1967.

His sheer quirkiness, and the unending store of aphorisms revealed in his letters and diary entries, give Warburg an aspect that is both larger-than-life and also strangely unworldly. One example is his almost supernatural belief in discerning character through handwriting, by means of the pseudo-science of graphology, which he applied not only to potential Warburgs employees but also (extremely unfavourably) to Edward Heath, British prime minister during the 1970s.

Warburg's legendary discipline and penchant for control extend well beyond his demise. Ferguson does a valuable job in assembling a fascinating, even haunting, study of 20th Century banking through the treasure trove of 10,000 documents opened up by the Warburg family. But we are treated on the whole to documents that Warburg himself must have written in the expectation that they would one day be published.

What we witness in this biography is a superbly crafted self-image of a quintessential force in international finance of the kind that will probably never return. Yet the true clues to unravelling Warburg's mysteries must lie in matters that even this master in record-keeping believed were too precious ever to commit to paper.

Marsh on Monday: Warburg would be out of place today

OMAHA, Neb. – Warren Buffett's company reported a 40 percent drop in second-quarter profit because largely unrealized derivative losses of $1.4 billion outweighed improvements at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s operating companies.

Berkshire reported $1.97 billion net income Friday, or $1,195 per Class A share. That's down from $3.3 billion, or $2,123 per share, a year ago. Its revenue grew 7 percent to $31.7 billion.

Those results fell short of the $1,360.44 profit per share analysts expected.

But there were several bright spots faxless payday advance.

Berkshire's insurance unit contributed $462 million in underwriting profit, up from $66 million last year.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad added $603 million in its first full quarter as part of Berkshire.

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Online:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com

Net income falls 40 percent at Buffett's company

NEW YORK – Worried about the stalling economic recovery, Americans remained reluctant to spend at stores in July, especially on pricier items like jewelry, though they let go of some money for travel, according to data released Wednesday.

Revenue from high-end jewelry, which had held steady in June, plummeted in July from a year earlier, when the figures already were dismal. Furniture also suffered as the boost from homebuyer tax credits wore off. Shoppers even pulled back on shoes and children's clothing, while luxury spending — excluding baubles — was virtually unchanged.

The figures from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which include transactions in all forms including cash, signal that spending remains choppy as shoppers grapple with an almost 10 percent unemployment rate and tight credit.

Online revenue offered one bright spot, gaining for the 12th straight month. But travel spending — including airlines, trains, rental cars and hotels — also rose from July 2009, when it fell almost 2 percent.

The second-straight month with weak luxury sales contrasts with earlier in the year when the wealthy spent a bit more freely. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has tumbled 9.5 percent since its high-water mark in late April, and home values fell 3.2 percent in the first quarter, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index.

The latest data from SpendingPulse follows government reports, released Tuesday, that also show consumers being picky about how they spend their money. The Commerce Department said personal spending was unchanged in June, the third straight lackluster month. And the personal savings rate rose to 6.4 percent of after-tax incomes in June.

"The tide (in spending) doesn't seem to be rising overall," said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis for SpendingPulse. "There hasn't been a consistent improvement that has been sustainable."

Instead, shoppers seem to be shifting their spending more than usual each month, he said, including extra movement in July away from discretionary items.

"Recoveries tend to not happen in straight lines," he said. "We are in a trough, but the question is, how long will the trough last?"

July marks the end of most retailers' fiscal second quarter. But it's the least important month in the quarter because stores use it to clear out summer leftovers and bring in fresh fall merchandise instant payday loan no telecheck.

This year, stores discounted more than planned in July on summer items to pull in recession-scarred shoppers, whose confidence in the economy is falling.

Here are SpendingPulse's figures comparing revenue for July 4 through July 31 with the same period a year earlier, by product category.

&S226; CLOTHING (at mall-based stores): Overall clothing sales slipped 1.1 percent from a year ago, when they dropped 5.2 percent. Children's clothing fell 3.7 percent, the first decline in 10 months. Revenue in women's clothing fell 1.9 percent, while men's clothing sales dropped 16.3 percent.

&S226; FOOTWEAR: Down 2.9 percent from a year ago when revenue fell 7.4 percent.

&S226; LUXURY: Excluding jewelry, revenue rose a meager 0.2 percent, compared with a year ago when business was down 16.3 percent.

&S226; JEWELRY: Down 1.2 percent overall. But at the high-end revenue dropped 13 percent, compounding a 13.3 percent decline a year ago.

&S226; FURNITURE: Down 8.2 percent from a year ago, when business fell 10.5 percent. July's decline marked three straight months of decreases after a surge early in the year as the category benefited from housing tax credits.

&S226; MAJOR APPLIANCES: Up 1.8 percent in July from a year ago when revenue fell almost 10 percent. The increase may have been due to the hot weather which drove air conditioner sales, McNamara said.

&S226; ELECTRONICS: Up 0.8 percent in July compared with July 2009's 15.4 percent drop. McNamara said that heavy discounting on TVs to make room for the latest models offset solid sales of newer products like Apple Inc. iPads.

&S226; ONLINE: Up 10.9 percent in July from a year ago when it fell 2.8 percent from July 2008.

The data comes a day before selected major retailers report on sales at their stores that have been open at least a year, considered a key indicator of chains' health because it excludes results from stores that open or close during the year.

Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers, said he expects his group's composite figure to rise between 3 percent and 4 percent. Last July, it fell 5 percent.

Retail data: Americans remained cautious in July

NEW ORLEANS – Officials have long insisted that a relief well was the only surefire way to kill the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but with engineers only feet away from completing a pair of them they're now wrestling with how exactly to use them.

Crews planned testing Monday evening to determine whether to proceed with a plan — called a "static kill" — to pump mud and perhaps cement down the throat of the mile-deep busted well. The role of the relief well, plus a backup one dug at White House insistence, was to do the same from the bottom of the well and insure that the oil would stay in its vast undersea reservoir.

BP PLC Senior Vice President Kent Wells said Monday that engineers may pump cement directly into the busted well through the failed blowout preventer via a surface ship, rather than wait for the relief well's planned completion later this month.

That idea isn't new — but BP has never before indicated it might forgo use of the relief well altogether in direct attempts to plug the leak.

"Precisely what the relief wells will do remains to be seen given what we learn from the static kill," BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said. "Can't predict it for certain."

Either way, Wells said, "We want to end up with cement in the bottom of the hole."

The company began drilling the primary, 18,000-foot relief well May 2, 12 days after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and killed 11 workers, and the second well May 16. The first well is now only about 100 feet from the target, and Wells said it could reach it by Aug. 11.

The British oil giant said there's no doubt the relief wells, which can cost about $100 million each, would be used in some fashion. Mud and cement could be pumped down to plug the reservoir, or it could simply be used to "confirm" that the static kill worked, Beaudo said.

BP didn't fully explain why, after so much time, money and effort, the company was unclear on the role a relief well would play faxless pay day loans.

The company could be more worried than it has said publicly about debris found in the relief well after it was briefly capped as Tropical Storm Bonnie passed last week, said Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton.

Plus, trying to seal the well from the top gives BP two shots at ending the disaster, Overton said.

"Frankly, if they can shut it off from the top and it's a good, permanent seal, I'll take it," Overton said. "A bird in the hand at this point is a good thing with this deal."

Engineers hoped to complete a final test by Monday evening to determine whether to proceed with the static kill. If the test is successful, officials said, engineers will spend most of Tuesday and possibly into Thursday slowly pumping the heavy mud down the well, which has spewed as much as 184 million gallons.

At a news briefing Monday, the government's point man on the spill said several minor leaks have sprung near the blown-out well.

Engineers are working to repair the leaks, which aren't expected to delay the plugging effort, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

The only thing keeping oil from blowing into the Gulf at the moment is an experimental cap that has held for more than two weeks but was never meant to be permanent.

"The only thing that separates the oil from the sea now is the valve. This puts thousands of feet of mud and cement in between," said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute. "The idea is to have as many barriers as possible between the ocean and the reservoir. We're adding an extra level of safety."

The whole procedure is still set to be completed by late August despite a brief evacuation for Bonnie.

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Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.

BP hedges on role of relief well in Gulf oil leak