WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A razor-thin procedural vote in the Senate advancing a sweeping health-care bill was a "big victory" for Americans, President Barack Obama said Monday, as senators were on track to pass the White House-backed overhaul later this week.

Senators voted 60-40 at 1:16 a.m. Eastern to move on the bill, the first of three procedural votes before a final vote that could come on Christmas Eve.

The 60 votes were the minimum needed for passage. Not a single Republican voted for the bill. More procedural votes are scheduled for early Tuesday morning.

"The United States Senate knocked down a filibuster aimed at blocking a final vote on health-care reform, and scored a big victory for the American people," Obama said Monday morning. "The Senate has moved us closer to reform that makes a tremendous difference for families, for seniors, for businesses, and for the country as a whole," he added.

Shares of health insurers rallied on Monday following the early-morning vote. Read story about health-insurance stocks.

The Senate's bill is the most sweeping piece of health-care legislation in a generation and would extend insurance coverage to about 30 million Americans. It would raise taxes on medical-device makers and cut payments to providers of Medicare.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Democrats aren't over the finish line but "never have we been so close" to overhauling the U.S. health-care system.

The health bill narrowly passed the Senate last night, setting up a Christmas Eve signing by the White House. The News Hub panel discusses what this means for consumers.

Republicans, who had called for the bill to be read on the floor in its entirety, maintain that the legislation will jack up premiums and health-care costs. Read more MarketWatch health-care reform coverage.

"A top-down bureaucratic government-run health-care system that will cost nearly a trillion dollars is not what the American people want," said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in a statement at about 1:30 a.m.

"If the liberals in Congress don't understand this by now, they will when the voters give them a pink slip in 2010," he added.

The legislation will cost $871 billion over 10 years, according to an estimate issued by the Congressional Budget Office instant personal loans guaranteed. Read CBO analysis of health bill.

It creates insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, where the uninsured and small businesses will be able to shop for coverage. The bill also requires most Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine, and forces employers with more than 50 workers to offer health insurance or pay a fine. For the first time, insurers would be barred from denying coverage to sick people. Read text of bill and summaries.

Doctors applauded the Senate bill but health insurers gave it a mixed review.

"All Americans deserve affordable, high-quality health coverage so they can get the medical care they need -- and this bill advances many of our priority issues for achieving the vision of a health system that works for patients and physicians," said Cecil Wilson, the president-elect of the American Medical Association.

Wilson said the doctors' group was pleased the bill increases payments to primary care doctors and general surgeons in underserved areas but doesn't cut payments to other physicians.

"While the bill makes important improvements in access and takes steps towards cost-containment, it lacks accountability to ensure that costs are brought under control," said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, on Saturday.

If the Senate bill passes, it will need to be reconciled with the House's version, a more-liberal measure that contains a strong government-run health insurance option. That health plan, though, will almost certainly be left out of the final bill that makes it to Obama's desk for signature.

The Senate bill passed only after the government-run option was substituted with a plan for private insurance plans to be overseen by the government's Office of Personnel Management.

The bill is paid for with taxes on high-value insurance plans, Medicare and industries including medical-device manufacturers. It would also cut $480 billion from Medicare over 10 years, though Democrats say basic benefits won't be touched.

Health-care vote 'big victory,' Obama says

NEW YORK – The Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday said it will delist the stocks of three small companies: Teton Energy Corp., Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc., and UCBH Holdings Inc.

Nasdaq will file the necessary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to complete the delistings, which will become effective 10 days later. In all three cases, however, the stocks have already stopped trading on the Nasdaq.

Trading in Teton Energy, a Denver-based oil and gas exploration and production company, was suspended on Nov. 18.

The same day, trading was suspended for UCBH. The company's main subsidiary, United Commercial Bank, based in San Francisco, was closed by California regulators on Nov saving account payday loan. 6 and placed under receivership of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The deposits were assumed by East West Bank of Pasadena, Calif.

The stock of Altus Pharmaceuticals was suspended on Nov. 23. Altus is a Cambridge Mass.-based biotechnology company founded in 1993. The company is developing treatments for patients with chronic gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases.

Nasdaq to remove 3 companies from exchange

BARCELONA/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Chip stocks fell on Thursday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the sector on a possible inventory correction, although two of Europe&&9;s top chipmakers were upbeat about recovery prospects.

BofA Merrill Lynch lowered its 2010 growth forecast for the global semiconductor industry and downgraded 10 chipmakers, including Intel Corp (INTC.O), turning more cautious on the group on expectations of a modest overshoot in global supply chain inventories.

"While we believe the correction will likely prove short and shallow, we think any hint of a correction in the supply chain could punish (semiconductor) stocks," BofA Merrill wrote in a note to clients.

The downgrade came two weeks after Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Lipacis noted that the good news for many semiconductor stocks had already been "baked in" and PC component suppliers would have a difficult time beating expectations.

Auriga analyst Daniel Berenbaum said notions of a strong rebound for the industry next year may not be realistic.

"Things wound up better this year than some of our worst fears, but I think demand has been pulled forward," he said. "I&&9;m concerned that everybody expects a corporate PC refresh in 2010 -- maybe it&&9;ll happen, maybe it won&&9;t happen, but I do believe it&&9;s already built into stocks."

Shares of chipmakers fell across the board on Thursday. Bellwether Intel dropped 4.5 percent, smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N) 2.7 percent and Infineon Technologies AG (IFXGn.DE) fell 7 percent. The DJ STOXX European Technology Index (.SX8P) shed 2.9 percent and the Philadelphia semiconductor index (.SOXX) fell 3.5 percent.

German chip group Infineon was bullish on its fiscal 2010 outlook, saying sales could grow by more than 10 percent if the world economy continued to grow at its present pace. But analysts weren&&9;t convinced.

Traders saw as negative remarks by Infineon Chief Executive Peter Bauer that the company would need to boost profit margins well above 10 percent as it seeks to generate sustainable earnings amid the current recovery quick cash.

"Despite Infineon beating consensus estimates, we expected better numbers for the fourth quarter, as well as a more optimistic outlook for the running quarter, following bullish statements from competitors," Sal Oppenheim analyst Juergen Wagner wrote, keeping a "reduce" rating on the stock.

Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS) -- whose order book is viewed as a barometer for major chipmakers such as Intel or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (2330.TW) -- also said that it still expects order intake in October-December to be at least on the same level as in the previous quarter.

But shares in ASML closed down 6.14 percent after BofA Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy."

Around the globe, chipmakers are recovering from a prolonged downturn. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), the world&&9;s top maker of memory chips and LCD screens, in late October posted its best quarterly net profit and forecast a strong 2010 due to global turnaround in the sector.

Earlier this week, research firm Gartner raised its forecasts for the chip market in 2009, saying it now sees it falling 11.4 percent to &&6;226 billion, compared with a previous forecast for a 17 percent fall.

Next year Gartner sees the market growing 13 percent.

Taiwan&&9;s TSMC, the world&&9;s top contract chip maker, also posted its biggest quarterly net profit in a year last month and was bullish about future capital spending, aiming to invest &&6;2.5 billion on upgrading its technology.

(Additional reporting by Tenzin Pema, S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Nicola Leske in Barcelona and Hakan Ersen and Tyler Sitte in Frankfurt; Editing by David Cowell and Gerald E. McCormick)

Chip stocks fall on downgrade, CEOs talk recovery

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

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

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Anil Kumar, charged with other executives over the biggest hedge fund insider-trading scheme, has sought leave from the board of a top Indian business school that he helped set up.

U.S. investigators have charged billionaire hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, Kumar and executives from prestigious U.S. firms such as IBM (IBM.N) and the venture capital arm of Intel (INTC.O) with insider trading.

Ajit Rangnekar, dean at the Indian School of Business (ISB), told Reuters by telephone on Monday that Kumar had asked the chairman for leave of absence "until he sorts this out."

Kumar, a director at consulting firm McKinsey, is a co-founder of the ISB, whose governing board reads like a mini-Who&&9;s Who of global business, drawing on leaders from LVMH (LVMH.PA) and Dell (DELL payday loans for bad credit.O) to Citigroup (C.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

The Hyderabad-based ISB ranked 15th in the Financial Times 2009 global MBA rankings, and placed second among Asia&&9;s business schools.

Last year, Mendu Rammohan Rao, a former ISB dean, resigned from the board of Satyam Computer Services (SATY.BO) after the Indian firm&&9;s botched attempt to buy two infrastructure firms linked to its founder.

Satyam was rebranded as Mahindra-Satyam this year after it was bought by smaller rival Tech Mahindra (TEML.BO) in the wake of India&&9;s largest corporate fraud.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Anshuman Daga & Ian Geoghegan)

Insider-trading accused seeks leave from India's ISB

Filed at 12:24 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Foreign direct investment in China rose by nearly a fifth in September, suggesting the country's economic recovery is attracting investment after a lull earlier in the year.

FDI was worth $7.9 billion for the month, up 19 percent from a year earlier, the Commerce Ministry said Thursday.

But actual foreign direct investment for the first nine months of the year totaled $63.8 billion, a 14 percent decline from the same period of 2008.

China is a top investment destination but double-digit growth rates plunged in late 2007 as foreign companies were hit by the global downturn and cut spending. Many are continuing to invest in China to take advantage of its stronger economic growth compared with other countries.

There was a nearly 11 percent increase in the number of newly approved foreign invested companies in September.

The September rise in foreign direct investment compared with a 7 percent year-on-year increase in August, and declines of 35.7 percent in July and 6.8 percent in June.

"The two months' rebound shows the confidence of foreign investors in the Chinese economy low cost payday loans. With the strong rebound in the domestic economy, I believe more foreign investors will participate in China's economic development," ministry spokesman Yao Jian told reporters in Beijing.

The foreign direct investment figure does not include stocks and other financial assets, which also appear to be attracting strong investment inflows: China's foreign reserves, already the world's largest, hit a record high $2.273 trillion by the end of September, the central bank reported Wednesday.

China's economic growth rose to 7.9 percent over a year earlier in the quarter ending June 30, up from 6.1 percent the previous quarter, and analysts say the recovery is gathering strength. Retail spending and industrial investment are rising.

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On the Net:

Chinese Commerce Ministry: http://www.mofcom.gov.cn

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Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao contributed to this report from Beijing.

Foreign Investment in China Up 19 Pct in September

RIO DE JANEIRO &<51; Environmental groups hailed a decision this week by four of the world&S217;s largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil&S217;s Amazon rain forest.

At a conference on Monday in S&>27;o Paulo organized by Greenpeace, the four cattle companies &<51; Bertin, JBS-Friboi, Marfrig and Minerva &<51; agreed to support Greenpeace&S217;s call for an end to the deforestation.

Brazil has the world&S217;s largest cattle herd and is the world&S217;s largest beef exporter, but it is also the fourth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Destruction of tropical forests around the world is estimated to be responsible for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenpeace contends that the cattle industry in the Amazon is the biggest driver of global deforestation. But the Brazilian government, while pushing ambitious goals to slow deforestation in the Amazon, is also a major financer and shareholder in global beef and leather processors that profit from cattle raised in areas of the Amazon that have been destroyed, often illegally, according to Greenpeace.

The four cattle producers agreed on Monday to monitor their supply chains and set clear targets for the registration of farms that supply cattle, both directly and indirectly. They also said they would devise measures to end the purchase of cattle from indigenous and protected areas, and from farms that use slave labor.

Environmental groups called the decision a major step forward for climate protection.

&S220;This agreement shows that in today&S217;s world someone that wants to be a global player cannot be associated with deforestation and with slave labor,&S221; said Marcelo Furtado, executive director of Greenpeace in Brazil fast payday loans.

The agreement came after the release in June of a report by Greenpeace, &S220;Slaughtering the Amazon,&S221; which detailed the link between forest destruction and the expansion of cattle ranching in the Amazon.

The report led some multinational companies, including shoe manufacturers like Adidas, Nike and Timberland, to pledge to cancel contracts unless they received guarantees that their products were not associated with cattle or slave labor in the Amazon. Beef customers like McDonald&S217;s and Wal-Mart also pressed producers to change their practices in the Amazon, Mr. Furtado said.

Blairo Maggi, the governor of Mato Grosso, the Brazilian state with the highest rate of deforestation in the Amazon and the country&S217;s largest cattle herd, said Monday that he would support efforts to protect the Amazon and provide high-resolution satellite imagery to help monitor the region.

Mr. Furtado said that the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets had also signed on to the agreement, further ensuring compliance by the meat producers.

Conspicuously missing from Monday&S217;s announcement was the government of President Luiz In&>25;cio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The government is struggling to reconcile its social and development goals in the Amazon with its desire to be a major player in global climate change talks.

Giants in Cattle Industry Agree to Help Fight Deforestation

As countries begin emerging from the global financial crisis, France is proposing to measure progress in a new way - one that includes happiness and well being, as well as traditional economic benchmarks.US Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz (R) and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, 14 Sep 2009By standard measures, the world has certainly been going through some tough times. But do these indicators capture all facets of progress? According to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the answer is 'no.'Mr. Sarkozy announced France will begin including less tangible indicators, like happiness and well being, into its measurements of economic progress.The French President said the current crisis does not just give the international community the freedom to imagine another economic model, it obliges the world to do so. We do not have the choice, he said.Mr. Sarkozy's remarks coincided with the publication of a new report by two Nobel economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Armatya Sen, that looks at non-traditional ways at measuring social progress. The report was commissioned by the French government fast cash without a hassle.The report recommends shifting the ways policymakers look at progress from what economists call gross domestic product, or GDP, which is a general measure of goods and services produced in a country. The new indicators also would include non-material 'wealth', like access to education and health care.France is not the first country to look at the non-material aspects of progress. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan emphasizes a concept it calls 'gross national happiness,' rather than GDP. Bhutan's main research center collects a wide variety of data to measure this, including things like psychological well being, good governance, ecological diversity and living standards.In France, Mr. Sarkozy says focusing too much on gross domestic product as the main measure of prosperity contributed to the financial crisis. He wants other countries to follow France's example in looking at less materialistic indicators of progress.

France Wants Happiness Included in Progress Measures

Kristen Nagy, an 18-year-old from Sparta, N.J., sends and receives 500 text messages a day. But she never uses Twitter, even though it publishes similar snippets of conversations and observations.

&S220;I just think it&S217;s weird and I don&S217;t feel like everyone needs to know what I&S217;m doing every second of my life,&S221; she said.

Her reluctance to use Twitter, a feeling shared by others in her age group, has not doomed the microblogging service. Just 11 percent of its users are aged 12 to 17, according to comScore. Instead, Twitter&S217;s unparalleled explosion in popularity has been driven by a decidedly older group. That success has shattered a widely held belief that young people lead the way to popularizing innovations.

&S220;The traditional early-adopter model would say that teenagers or college students are really important to adoption,&S221; said Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore. Teenagers, after all, drove the early growth of the social networks Facebook, MySpace and Friendster.

Twitter, however, has proved that &S220;a site can take off in a different demographic than you expect and become very popular,&S221; he said. &S220;Twitter is defying the traditional model.&S221;

In fact, though teenagers fueled the early growth of social networks, today they account for 14 percent of MySpace&S217;s users and only 9 percent of Facebook&S217;s. As the Web grows up, so do its users, and for many analysts, Twitter&S217;s success represents a new model for Internet success. The notion that children are essential to a new technology&S217;s success has proved to be largely a myth.

Adults have driven the growth of many perennially popular Web services. YouTube attracted young adults and then senior citizens before teenagers piled on. Blogger&S217;s early user base was adults and LinkedIn has built a successful social network with professionals as its target.

The same goes for gadgets. Though video games were originally marketed for children, Nintendo Wiis quickly found their way into nursing homes. Kindle from Amazon caught on first with adults and many gadgets, like iPhones and GPS devices, are largely adult-only.

Similarly, Twitter did not attract the young trendsetters at the outset. Its growth has instead come from adults who might not have used other social sites before Twitter, said Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst studying social media. &S220;Adults are just catching up to what teens have been doing for years,&S221; he said.

Many young people, who have used Facebook since they began using the Internet and for whom text messaging is their primary method of communication, say they simply do not have a need for Twitter.

Almost everyone under 35 uses social networks, but the growth of these networks over the last year has come from older adults, according to a report from Forrester Research issued Tuesday. Use of social networking by people aged 35 to 54 grew 60 percent in the last year.

Another reason that teenagers do not use Twitter may be that their lives tend to revolve around their friends. Though Twitter&S217;s founders originally conceived of the site as a way to stay in touch with acquaintances, it turns out that it is better for broadcasting ideas or questions and answers to the outside world or for marketing a product. It is also useful for marketing the person doing the tweeting, a need few teenagers are attuned to.

&S220;Many people use it for professional purposes &<51; keeping connected with industry contacts and following news,&S221; said Evan Williams, Twitter&S217;s co-founder and chief executive. &S220;Because it&S217;s a one-to-many network and most of the content is public, it works for this better than a social network that&S217;s optimized for friend communication.&S221;

Wendy Grazier, a mother in Arkansas, said her two teenaged daughters thought Twitter was &S220;lame,&S221; yet they asked her to follow teenage pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift on Twitter so she could report back on what the celebrities wrote. Why won&S217;t they deign to do it themselves? &S220;It seems more, like, professional, and not something that a teenager would do,&S221; said 16-year-old Miranda Grazier. &S220;I think I might join when I&S217;m older.&S221;

The public nature of Twitter is particularly sensitive for the under-18 set, whether because they want to hide what they are doing from their parents or, more often, because their parents restrict their interaction with strangers on the Web.

Georgia Marentis, a 14-year-old in Great Falls, Va., uses Facebook instead of Twitter because she can choose who sees her updates. &S220;My parents wouldn&S217;t want me to have everything going on in my life displayed for the entire world,&S221; she said. (Of course, because of the public nature of social networks and the ease of creating a fake identity on the Web, even sites with more privacy settings have proved dangerous for young people in some cases.)

Many young people use the Web not to keep up with the issues of the day but to form and express their identities, said Andrea Forte, who studied how high school students use social media for her dissertation. (She will be an assistant professor at Drexel University in the spring.)

&S220;Your identity on Twitter is more your ability to take an interesting conversational turn, throw an interesting bit of conversation out there. Your identity isn&S217;t so much identified by the music you listen to and the quizzes you take,&S221; as it is on Facebook, she said. She called Twitter &S220;a comparatively adult kind of interaction.&S221;

For Twitter&S217;s future, young people&S217;s ambivalence could be a good thing. Teenagers may be more comfortable using new technologies, but they are also notoriously fickle. Although they drove the growth of Friendster and MySpace, they then moved on from those sites to Facebook.

Perhaps Twitter&S217;s experience will encourage Web start-ups to take a more realistic view of who uses the Web and go after a broader audience, Ms. Forte said. &S220;Older populations are a smart thing to be thinking about, as opposed to eternally going after the 15- through 19-year-olds,&S221; she said.

Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens

The Justice Department indicted a Swiss private banking executive and a Swiss lawyer on Thursday, accusing them of selling tax evasion services to wealthy clients. The move opens a new front in Washington&S217;s challenge to Switzerland&S217;s tradition of bank secrecy.

The indictment, filed in United States District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., charged Hansruedi Schumacher, a director at NZB Neue Z&>52;rcher Bank of Zurich, and Matthias Rickenbach, a Swiss lawyer, with one count each of conspiring to defraud the United states.

It came a day after the giant Swiss bank UBS said that it had agreed to disclose 4,450 American client names and account details, and it indicates that the American authorities are starting to pursue smaller players that may have helped Americans hide their money.

Mr. Schumacher is a former top private banker for UBS who left around 2002 to establish and oversee NZB&S217;s private banking operations. He worked at NZB until at least last month, the charges said. Mr. Rickenbach is a partner of the Rickenbach &&8; Partner law firm, with offices in Zurich and Geneva.

A Justice Department statement said that the two men &S220;helped their clients obtain offshore credit cards and created sham loan documents.&S221; It added that they &S220;falsified bank documents to generate the appearance that assets of their U.S. clients belonged to Swiss citizens, and they falsified documents to disguise their United States clients&S217; repatriation of offshore funds as inheritances from foreign citizens.&S221;

The statement said that &S220;the defendants told their clients that their assets and identification would be safer at NZB because they had no presence in the United States&S221; and were therefore &S220;less likely to be pressured by the American authorities to disclose the identities of their United States clients.&S221;

NZB is the unnamed &S220;Swiss bank&S221; mentioned in charges filed last month against an American client of the Swiss banking giant UBS, Jeffrey Chernick, claiming tax evasion on $8 million in assets. The indictments are a sign that American authorities are widening their attack on Swiss banking secrecy. Switzerland is the world&S217;s largest repository of hidden wealth, estimated to hold nearly one-third of the $7 trillion in assets believed to be held offshore.

The indictment also charged the two men with helping a second American, John McCarthy, a UBS client, to evade taxes, in part through offshore entities in Hong Kong linked to his UBS account.

Around 2007, the complaint says, Mr. Rickenbach&S217;s father hand-carried $5,000 to New York to deliver to an unidentified client.

NZB was established in 2000 by former senior executives from Bank Julius Baer, a prominent Swiss private bank. Over 2007 and 2008, Sarasin Group, another Swiss private bank, acquired a 40 percent stake in NZB, while NZB employees own the rest.

Thursday&S217;s indictment said that Mr. Schumacher &<51; who was referred to but not identified by name in the Chernick papers &<51; was a former manager of UBS&S217;s cross-border private banking division, the unit under scrutiny for having facilitated tax evasion by Americans.

Mr. Schumacher left UBS around 2002 to join NZB and help clients of UBS and other firms to evade taxes, according to the charges against him.

The new indictment said that Mr. Schumacher and Mr. Rickenbach paid $45,000 to a &S220;high-ranking Swiss government official&S221; in 2008 to learn whether Mr. Chernick was on a list of 285 names to be disclosed to American authorities in February as part of a broad settlement with UBS. Mr. Chernick reimbursed the $45,000 fee. The payment was referred to in the Chernick filing.

Mr. Schumacher, according to the Chernick filing, told Mr. Chernick that because the smaller bank had not entered into a special program with the Internal Revenue Service, it would be subject to less scrutiny by United States tax officials than UBS.

NZB&S217;s executives include senior names in the private banking industry. Martin Eberhard, the chief executive, was previously a senior executive at Julius Baer in charge of Swiss brokerage operations; Marco Bacchetta, the head of institutional sales, was previously in charge of the brokerage team at Pictet &&8; Cie Bank in Zurich, another well-known private bank.

Frank Gut, the chief financial officer, previously oversaw the Swiss Brokerage operations at Bank Julius Baer in Zurich. NZB&S217;s Web sitedescribes the bank as &S220;a financial institution which focuses on the brokerage business with institutional investors from Switzerland and abroad, and on asset management and investment advisory services for private clients.&S221;

The Justice Department established a special prosecutors&S217; team in 2007 that is focused on Swiss banks that help American clients evade taxes, according to a person briefed on the matter. During the UBS settlement, Douglas Shulman, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, disclosed that the agency was looking at the activities of other banks and intermediaries in Switzerland.

U.S. Indicts Swiss Banker and Lawyer on Tax Charges

NEW ALBANY, Ohio – Tween Brands Inc., a clothing retailer for girls age 7 to 14, said Wednesday it lost $2.8 million in the second quarter as revenue slipped during the recession, especially at stores open at least one year.

The New Albany, Ohio-based company lost 11 cents per share in the quarter that ended Aug. 1. That contrasts with a bigger loss of $6.7 million, or 27 cents per share, last year.

Excluding store impairment charges of $3.5 million, or 4 cents per share, and merger expenses of $1.9 million, or a penny per share, the company would have reported a loss of 16 cents per share in the most recent period.

The company was able to narrow its loss because of tight inventory, increased promotions, and lower expenses.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a larger loss of 37 cents per share and revenue of $198.9 million. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Revenue declined 8 percent to $205.1 million from $223.1 million.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores that have been open at least a year, fell 12 percent. The company said the drop was due to the economy and a tough comparison over the same quarter in 2008, when sales were boosted by Webkinz's strong performance.

Tween Brands said its proposed merger with Dress Barn Inc. remains on track and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Tween Brands posts smaller 2Q loss

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. homebuilder sentiment in August rose to its highest level in over a year, a private survey showed on Monday, adding to mounting evidence that the housing market and economic recession were leveling out.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index edged up to 18 from 17 in July, in line with market expectations.

It was the highest level since June 2008 and marked the second consecutive monthly gain in the gauge, which measures builder confidence in the market for newly built, single family homes.

The NAHB attributed the rise to the government&&9;s tax credit incentive for first-time buyers, but warned the small gains in the housing market could be wiped-out if that incentive was not extended when it expires in November.

"There is definitely a sense of hope among builders that the worst of the downturn is over and that a turning point is near at hand," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

"Meaningful action by Congress could ensure that this upward momentum continues and that housing can help push the economy back onto solid ground."

Recent data ranging from housing starts to sales have suggested a bottoming in the three-year slump. Housing is at the center of the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Restoring stability to the housing market is crucial to reviving the economy. The 20-month-old recession is showing signs of winding down.

The NAHB survey also showed two out of three subindexes of the Housing Market Index rising in August.

The current sales conditions gauge was unchanged at 16, while the sales expectations measure for the next six months climbed four points to 30 in August. The traffic of prospective buyers index rose three points to 16 in August. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

U.S. August home-builder sentiment highest in year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve meets this week with the delicate task of curbing a surge in expectations that it is ready to starting raising interest rates, without snuffing out crucial optimism on the economy.

Policy-makers are also likely to allow a controversial scheme to buy &&6;300 billion of longer-dated Treasuries to end on schedule in September. But they may discuss extending a separate program to support the flow of credit to consumers and business, with an eye on propping up commercial real estate.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, and central bankers are expected to hold the overnight fed funds rate in a range between zero and 0.25 percent. A statement on their decision is due after 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday.

A much better-than-expected July U.S. employment report boosted investor speculation on Friday that the Fed would begin to tighten monetary policy early next year, but economists said this judgment was very premature.

"The markets have begun pricing in a near-term increase in interest rates. That is extremely unlikely. The Fed is going to want to discourage that," said former Fed Board Governor Lyle Gramley. He said the policy statement may emphasize the lower risk of inflation to indicate that no rate hikes were on the horizon.

U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far below forecast cuts, while the unemployment rate inched down to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent the month before. The news chimed with other signals that economic activity was stabilizing and the worst recession since the Great Depression was coming to an end.

PREMATURE

Following the report, interest rate futures reflected increased expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates, with a hike to 0.50 percent by February fully priced into markets, and 1.0 percent seen in May.

This view contrasts starkly with recent remarks from officials, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in testimony to Congress on July 22, that have emphasized that the U.S. economy remains fragile and the Fed is in no hurry to begin raising rates.

If markets take a different view and start factoring in higher Fed interest rates than previously anticipated, this could translate into a spike in bond yields that would push up all borrowing costs and potentially undermine the recovery.

As a result, policy-makers are expected to acknowledge that the pace of economic contraction has slowed since their meeting in June, while nodding to the somewhat brighter outlook. But they will reiterate their view that economic conditions will warrant exceptionally low interest rates for a time to come.

"Even though the post-meeting policy statement is likely to incorporate a more upbeat tone on the economy, the FOMC should reaffirm their commitment to maintaining a zero-25 basis point funds rate target for an extended period," Mizuho Securities&&9; chief economist Steven Ricchiuto wrote in a note to clients paydayloans.com.

With no change to rates expected, the most likely action next week will be an announcement that the Fed will allow its program to buy up to &&6;300 billion of longer dated U.S. government bonds to expire on schedule in September.

The campaign, which is in addition to Fed purchases of &&6;1.45 trillion of mortgage debt by the end of the year, quickly become a lightning rod for concerns about future inflation and criticism that the central bank was helping to finance a record U.S. budget deficit, also called monetizing the debt.

"I don&&9;t think there is any likelihood it is going to be continued," said Gramley. "With continued worries in markets that at some point the Fed will have to monetize the debt, it is better to not be seen as buying longer term Treasuries under these circumstances," he said.

Minutes of the Fed&&9;s June meeting show that policy-makers were uncertain about the programs&&9; benefits given these pitfalls. And 14 out of the primary 16 dealers polled by Reuters on Friday did not expect the Fed to increase its Treasury purchase program beyond &&6;300 billion.

TALF

However, the Fed seems to feel more comfortable with its targeted efforts to ease credit conditions in specific markets, and it has made no secret that it is especially worried about the lack of lending to commercial real estate.

As a result, policy-makers may talk about extending the life of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This was cooked up by the Fed last year to boost credit to consumers and businesses, and was recently expanded to cover commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).

"Given they are just adding new components to it now, in the form of CMBS purchases, they might want to give advance notice that that funding will remain in place in early 2010," said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The program is scheduled to expire on December 31. It was created under emergency powers of the Fed&&9;s Board of Governors in Washington, as opposed to the FOMC, which includes the 12 regional Fed bank presidents. This technical distinction, However, may not prevent a discussion of the TALF during next week&&9;s meeting of the FOMC.

(Editing by Leslie Adler)

Fed to dampen rate hike talk, halt Treasury buying

DETROIT (Reuters) – American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (AXL.N) reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday due to steep production cuts by automakers and said it remained uncertain whether it could complete a debt restructuring outside of bankruptcy.

Shares of the auto parts supplier were up more than 9 percent in morning trading after falling as much as 13 percent.

American Axle, which relies on GM for about three-quarters of its sales, said it was working with key stakeholders on amendments to existing credit agreements and other financing arrangements in an effort to restructure its balance sheet outside of bankruptcy.

"American Axle&&9;s primary objective is to complete its restructuring outside of a bankruptcy process," the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after reporting second-quarter results.

"However, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in reaching agreements with these parties and avoid filing for bankruptcy," American Axle said.

American Axle&&9;s agreement with lenders that waives covenants under its credit facility expires on August 20.

The company, like other U.S. auto parts suppliers, has been hit hard by production shutdowns at General Motors Co (GM.UL) and Chrysler Group LLC associated with the automakers&&9; bankruptcy restructurings.

Analysts have said American Axle is at risk of joining other major parts makers such as Lear Corp (LEARQ.PK) and Visteon (VSTN.PK) in bankruptcy.

Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier in July that American Axle had been working with legal advisers, including law firm Shearman & Sterling, as it considers restructuring options, including bankruptcy fast cash loans.

The second-quarter net loss narrowed to &&6;288.6 million, or &&6;5.20 per share, from &&6;644.3 million, or &&6;11.89 per share, a year earlier.

The results included &&6;3.46 per share in one-time charges, mostly for asset impairments and workforce reductions, the company said.

Excluding the charges, American Axle lost &&6;1.74 per share. On that basis, analysts on average had expected a loss of 77 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales fell to &&6;245.6 million from &&6;490.5 million.

American Axle said the extensive shutdowns by GM and Chrysler accounted for &&6;203.6 million in revenue declines.

GM emerged from bankruptcy on July 10 by selling most of its assets to a group funded by the U.S. Treasury. Chrysler also exited a two-month bankruptcy in early June by completing a similar sale to a new company led by Fiat SpA (FIA.MI).

American Axle is a critical parts supplier to GM, producing axles for its full-sized pickups and SUVs, two areas where sharp production cutbacks by the automaker have applied severe pressure to parts companies.

Shares of American Axle were up 9.2 percent at &&6;2.85 on the New York Stock Exchange after falling as low as &&6;2.26 earlier in the session.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)

American Axle cites bankruptcy risk after deep loss