LONDON (MarketWatch) -- British stocks tentatively built on recent gains in a holiday-shortened trading session on Thursday, with miners advancing amid higher commodity prices

The U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.1%, or 5.22 points, to 5,377.60.

The British stock market and selected Continental equity markets close early on Thursday for the Christmas break. Shares trading in Europe on Thursday were also in a tight range. See Europe Markets.

U.S. stock futures were pointing to mild gains on Wall Street.

The FTSE 100 index ended 0.8% higher on Wednesday, with the move bringing gains made in the first three sessions of the week to 3.4% and year-to-date gains to 21.2%.

The index is almost back at its 2009 closing high of 5,382.67, hit on Nov. 16.

Miners have performed strongly this year and were higher again on Thursday, with BHP Billiton shares up 1 low cost payday loans.4% and Anglo American shares up 1.2%.

Silver miner Fresnillo gained 2.6% and copper miner Kazakhmys advanced 1.2%.

The gains for the sector came as metal futures advanced, with gold futures up $10.10 at $1,104.20 an ounce. Light sweet crude oil futures were up 18 cents at $76.85 a barrel in electronic trading and sterling traded up 0.2% at $1.5993 against the dollar.

Still, gains for the top London index were kept in check by losses for some banks and insurance companies.

RSA Insurance Group shares were down 1.4% and shares of banking giant HSBC Holdings lost 0.7%.

London Markets: British stocks gain for fourth straight session

Porsche&S217;s $17.2 billion of debt will be mostly eliminated after the sports-car maker completes its merger with Volkswagen, Martin Winterkorn, chief executive of both companies, said Friday.

&S220;By the time the merger is done, the level of more or less zero will certainly be reached,&S221; Mr. Winterkorn said.

Volkswagen and Porsche agreed in August to merge, ending a four-year feud for control. The accord was reached when debt at Porsche tripled to more than 10 billion euros in six months after the company&S217;s failed takeover of VW fast cash loans.

Deliveries by VW this year will &S220;slightly exceed&S221; the record level of 6.23 million vehicles for 2008, Mr. Winterkorn said in Stuttgart, Germany. Porsche will sell more than 76,000 cars in the current fiscal year, he said.

VW Merger Will Cut Porsche Debt

US President Barack Obama (C) stands with other APEC leaders for group photo following their evening dinner in Singapore, 14 Nov 2009Pacific Rim leaders have ended their annual APEC gathering with a vow to seek a sustained economic recovery and reject protectionism.The leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies gathered around the conference table in Singapore.But the big news came outside their formal sessions - in closed door meetings and one-on-one talks.U.S. President Barack Obama focused on the sidelines, engaging in almost non-stop personal diplomacy.

Obama Discusses Climate ChangeHe began early Sunday, with an unexpected meeting on climate change called by the leaders of Mexico and Australia.Over breakfast, the prime minister of Denmark urged the group to back a different approach to save the upcoming international climate conference in Copenhagen.Severe drought is one of the expected consequence in Africa of climate changeWith negotiations on a new global climate agreement in trouble, there was consensus behind an alternative: adopt a political framework in Copenhagen and fill in the details later.

Obama Discusses Nuclear IssuesThere was also an effort to push forward talks on arms control, with President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev meeting to talk about a successor to the soon-to-expire 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.Mr. Obama said he still believes they can get an agreement by the end of the year. The president said, "I am confident if we work hard, and with a sense of urgency about it that we should be able to get that done and I very much feel as if both sides are trying to work through some difficult technical issues but are doing so in good faith easy payday loans."

Russian President Dmitri MedvedevThey also talked about Iran's nuclear program.  President Obama urged Iran once again agree to a deal to ship its uranium out of the country for processing. "We are now running out of time with respect to that approach. And so I discussed with President Medvedev the fact that we have to continue to maintain urgency," said Mr. Obama.

President Medvedev said he still hopes to convince Iran to accept the nuclear deal. The Russian leader said, "We are prepared to work further and I hope that our joint work will yield positive results."

Obama Discusses BurmaBurma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (r) walks with US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell after their meeting at the Inya Lake Hotel, in Rangoon, Burma, 04 Nov 2009A short time later, Mr. Obama became the first American president to meet with all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asia nations - including Burma.He called for political reform in Burma and the release of democracy advocate Aug San Suu Kyi, saying, "I reaffirmed the policy I put forward yesterday in Tokyo with regard to Burma."Mr. Obama's last meeting before leaving Singapore was with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. President Obama spent a good bit of his childhood in Indonesia, and has referred to himself as America's first Pacific president.In 2011, he will host the annual meeting of Pacific Rim leaders.   And the president announced in Singapore that he plans to host the gathering in his native state, Hawaii.

Obama Holds Key Talks on Sidelines of APEC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yacht Broker Sentenced to 2 Months for Tax Evasion

PARIS &S212; In a preliminary earnings report, Deutsche Bank said Wednesday that its third-quarter profit would be about &S364;1.4 billion, or $2.09 billion, beating analysts&S217; expectations.

The bank did not detail where most of its profit came from, but it said that tax exemptions and credits, partially resulting from wrapping up audits for earlier years, added about &S364;100 million to the bottom line. A full report will be issued Oct. 29.

&S220;It is expected that all business segments will report positive results,&S221; said Deutsche, the biggest German lender.

The bank&S217;s second-quarter profit of &S364;1.09 billion, which represented an increase of 68 percent from a year earlier, was tarnished by higher provisions against bad loans to corporate and retail clients. But so far, those fears have not materialized as losses.

Deutsche&S217;s Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of the reserves a lender has to protect it from collapse, is now 11.7 percent, significantly higher than those of many of its European peers.

The preliminary report Wednesday of &S364;1.3 billion in pretax profit came as a surprise. Bloomberg News reported that analysts had estimated a pretax profit of &S364;1.19 billion for the quarter. A year ago, the bank took in just &S364;435 million in profit before taxes.

Although the bank booked a loss of &S364;4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, during the worst of the financial crisis, it managed to do without government aid even as rivals at home and abroad turned to their governments for bailouts payday loan.

&S220;They are one of the winners of the global crisis,&S221; said Christian Gattiker, research and strategy chief at Julius Baer in Zurich.

Deutsche shares slipped by &S364;1.70, or more than 3 percent, Wednesday to &S364;53.64 in morning trading in Frankfurt, but they remained up more than 90 percent for the year.

&S220;Tax issues are maybe not the best reasons for an unexpected profit,&S221; said Mr. Gattiker. But, he said, with the bank shares rising over the past couple weeks, &S220;It may be a case of &S216;Buy the rumor, sell the fact.&S217; &S221;

The bank said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement in principle with the Dutch Finance Ministry to purchase parts of ABN Amro, a troubled bank rescued by the Dutch government last year. The sale was initially announced last year, but negotiations have dragged on. The final terms of the transaction have not yet been announced, but last year, for the same assets, Deutsche said it would pay &S364;709 million.

The acquisition would strengthen Deutsche&S217;s commercial banking business and make it, by its own estimates, the fourth-largest investment bank in the Netherlands.

Deutsche Bank Seen Beating Earnings Forecast

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday following forecast-beating results from Intel Corp (INTC.O) and ahead of earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

After the bell on Tuesday, Intel, the world&&9;s largest chipmaker, posted a quarterly outlook and results that were better than expected, boosting optimism over a technology sector recovery. Its shares were almost 5 percent higher in premarket trade.

JPMorgan shares climbed 1.8 percent before the bell shortly before it was due to report results. Later this week, other major banks will also post results, including Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N).

S&P 500 futures rose 13.70 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 98 points, and Nasdaq futures rose 21.25 points.

Oil surged for a fifth straight day on Wednesday to a 2009 high above &&6;75 a barrel, boosted by a weak dollar and surprisingly strong China trade data that underscored a recovery in the world&&9;s second-largest oil user payday loan.

The dollar tumbled to a 14-month low versus the euro and a currency basket, hurt by persistent expectations for low U.S. interest rates as well as investor appetite for commodity currencies.

Overseas, Japan&&9;s Nikkei average dipped 0.2 percent, hit by profit-taking after five days of gains and with exporters pressured by a stronger yen. European stocks (.FTEU3) rose 1.9 percent in morning trade, led by tech and commodity-related shares.

On the macroeconomic front, investors were bracing for U.S. monthly retail sales, due at 8.30 a.m. ET. Later in the session, the focus will shift to the Federal Reserve&&9;s minutes from its meeting of September 22-23, to be released at 2 p.m. ET.

U.S. stocks retreated on Tuesday after disappointing sales from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) rattled investors and raised worries about the strength of company earnings, snapping the S&P 500&&9;s six-day winning streak.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy, editing by W Simon)

Stock futures sharply higher after Intel Q3; JPMorgan eyed

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower opening on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.13 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.11 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.06 percent at 4.30 a.m. EDT.

Investors awaited quarterly results from Intel Corp (INTC.O) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), both due on Tuesday, with results due later in the week from Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N), Google (GOOG.O), IBM (IBM.N) and General Electric (GE.N).

The banking sector will be in the spotlight on Tuesday after prominent U.S. banking analyst Meredith Whitney downgraded its rating on Goldman Sachs to "neutral" from "buy." Goldman stock traded in Frankfurt (GS.F) was down 1.7 percent.

Home furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc (PIR.N) said sales at established stores rose 9.9 percent in September and merchandise margins continue to improve, sending its shares up 12 percent in extended trade. Shares of Pier 1 Imports traded in Frankfurt (PIR.F) were up 14 percent.

American International Group (AIG.N) struck a deal to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit for &&6;2.15 billion, marking its largest disposal of a division since a government bailout last year saved it from collapse.

CIT Group Inc (CIT.N) is seeing little interest from bondholders in a debt exchange offer aimed at repairing its fragile balance sheet, making bankruptcy increasingly likely, sources familiar with the matter said.

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) agreed to hand over documents that detail the legal advice it received during its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co, The Wall Street Journal said, a reversal after months of resisting such a move low cost payday loans.

On the macro side, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Tuesday a contraction in global trade appears to be bottoming out.

Oil rose for the fourth straight session on Tuesday, edging above &&6;73 a barrel on the back of rising optimism about the pace of global economic recovery and weakness in the dollar.

Japan&&9;s Nikkei average (.N225) edged up 0.6 percent on Tuesday, buoyed by exporters such as Honda Motor Corp (7267.T), while European stocks were down 0.5 percent in early trade, trimming the previous session&&9;s gains, with banks such as Barclays (BARC.L), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Banco Santander (SAN.MC) all down.

The S&P 500 managed a sixth consecutive day of gains on Monday to end at its closing high for the year as energy shares rose alongside the price of oil. But the market lost some strength in the afternoon and the Dow and Nasdaq ended little changed as investors opted to lock in profits before the results reporting season picks up steam.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) added 20.86 points, or 0.21 percent, to 9,885.80. The Standard & Poor&&9;s 500 Index (.SPX) gained 4.70 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,076.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was off 0.14 point, or 0.01 percent, to 2,139.14.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Stock futures dip; eyes on J&J, Intel earns

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures slightly pared gains on Wednesday after a gauge of private sector employment showed more jobs than expected were lost in September.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract online payday loans. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 25 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 5.25 points.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Stock futures up as Q3 nears end; jobs data, GDP eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Friday ahead of key data expected to show a small gain in new orders for durable goods.

A pledge from world leaders at the Group of 20 nations summit to keep emergency economic supports in place until a robust recovery takes hold helped stem recent fears that government efforts to support financial markets would end anytime soon.

The U.S. durable goods data at 8:30 a.m. EDT is expected to show new orders rose 0.5 percent in August after surging 5.1 percent in July, a poll of 75 economists forecast.

The final Reuters/University of Michigan reading of consumer sentiment for September is expected at 9:55 a.m. A Reuters poll of economists showed the gauge is expected to rise to 70.3 from a reading of 65.7 in August.

U.S. new home sales data is due at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists look for sales increasing to an annual rate of 440,000 units in August from 433,000 in July, which was the highest in 10 months.

Following two days of losses, and with the U.S. dollar (.DXY) edging lower and crude oil prices ticking up, the stock market is set to move higher if economic data comes in better than expected, according to Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.1 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 26 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 1 free online credit report.5 points.

Shares of Research In Motion Ltd (RIMM.O)(RIM.TO) fell more than 11 percent in premarket trading after the BlackBerry maker reported second-quarter revenue on Thursday that missed estimates and gave a disappointing outlook.

Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) edged up before the bell after Credit Suisse upgraded the shares to "outperform" and raised its price target to &&6;63 from &&6;40, citing Caterpillar&&9; opportunity to make structural changes to its cost base. The heavy machinery maker was the top drag on the Dow on Thursday.

Unilever NV (UNc.AS)(UN.N) agreed to pay &&6;1.87 billion for Sara Lee Corp&&9;s (SLE.N) personal care brands. Sara Lee said it is still looking to sell the rest of its household goods business and will launch a &&6;1 billion share buyback program.

The G20 rich and developing countries, holding a two-day summit in Pittsburgh, will aim to implement new rules by the end of 2012 to improve bank capital and discourage excessive leverage.

The world&&9;s central banks said Thursday they would scale back infusions of U.S. dollars into their banking systems.

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday on weak housing data and investor worries that the officials may curb economic stimulus efforts too soon.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Stock futures tick up ahead of durable goods data

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) &<51; The Oracle Corporation, the business software maker, said Wednesday that its quarterly profit rose 4 percent in the latest quarter, matching Wall Street&S217;s forecasts Wednesday, despite a drop in sales that revealed businesses are still being tightfisted about buying new software.

The sales figure was short of analysts&S217; expectations, and Oracle&S217;s shares fell 3 percent.

The company, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., reported after the market closed, reflect a familiar pattern that has emerged during the recession.

Oracle&S217;s sales of new software licenses fell 17 percent to $1 billion, while revenue from updates and technical support contracts climbed 6 percent to $3.1 billion. While many businesses are still reluctant to pay for new software, existing Oracle customers usually pay the company to do the follow-up on software they have already bought, which explains why the numbers sometimes go in different directions payday loan companies.

The rise in support work helped lift Oracle&S217;s net income for the quarter to $1.12 billion, or 22 cents a share, compared with $1.08 billion, or 21 cents a share, in the quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, profit was 30 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Sales fell 5 percent to $5.05 billion, short of expectations for $5.25 billion.

The stock fell 71 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $21.42 in after-hours trading, likely on disappointment about the revenue shortfall. Shares had closed down 53 cents at $22.13 in regular trading.

Profit Rose at Oracle Despite a Drop in Sales

LONDON &<51; Determined to become a global food and confectionery giant, Kraft Foods said Monday that it would pursue a $16.7 billion takeover of Cadbury, the British chocolate maker, even after Cadbury rejected that offer as too low.

Shares of Cadbury soared 41 percent in the day&S217;s trading in London, and above the offer price, indicating that investors expected a higher bid from Kraft or a proposal from a rival candy company like Nestl&>33; or Hershey. Some analysts said Cadbury could be worth as much as 43 percent more than Kraft offered.

Combining Kraft, which makes Oreo cookies, Toblerone chocolates and Ritz crackers, with Cadbury&S217;s Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolates would create a giant with $50 billion in yearly revenue, spanning the world from the United States and Mexico to Britain and India.

Analysts said that confectionery companies tend to trade at higher values, so adding the chocolate and gum business could enhance Kraft&S217;s allure with investors. But Cadbury said that it had reviewed Kraft&S217;s proposal, which was made public on Monday, and had rejected it because it &S220;fundamentally undervalues the group and its prospects.&S221;

Kraft&S217;s chief executive, Irene B. Rosenfeld, has a deep background in food and beverages, and turned around the chips business at PepsiCo before joining Kraft in 2006.

Nelson W. Peltz and his activist firm, Trian Fund Management, own a stake in Kraft and have nudged it to sell certain assets and bolster the stock price in the past. Mr. Peltz also owns a 3 percent stake in Cadbury and pushed successfully to split off its beverage unit, now known as the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Mr. Peltz declined to comment on Kraft&S217;s proposal.

A takeover of Cadbury would help Kraft, the biggest food conglomerate in North America, compete with its larger rival, Nestl&>33;. Cadbury would strengthen Kraft&S217;s market share in Britain and open India, where Cadbury is among the most popular chocolate brands.

It would also expand Kraft&S217;s gum business and give it a global distribution network. Nestl&>33; lacks a gum business and is struggling with declining sales as recession-plagued consumers turn away from its bottled water and ice cream.

Analysts have flagged Cadbury as a potential acquisition for Kraft for several years, but such speculation cooled when Kraft acquired the biscuits and cereal snack unit of France&S217;s Danone in 2007.

Cadbury and Kraft have been doing relatively well in recent months. Cadbury said in February that its confectionery business had proved &S220;resilient&S221; despite price increases because of higher commodity costs. Kraft has benefited from rising sales of its convenience foods, like DiGiorno frozen pizza and Oscar Mayer sandwich meats, as consumers eat more meals at home.

Among Cadbury&S217;s biggest attractions is its chewing gum business, especially in Latin America and Europe, which expanded in 2003 with the acquisition of Adams Confectionery to include Trident and Bubbas bubble gum. Competition then heated up when Mars acquired Wrigley.

For months, Hershey had been mulling a bid for Cadbury, and it has hired JPMorgan Chase as an adviser, according to people briefed on the matter. Some analysts speculated about a possible joint bid by Nestl&>33; and Hershey, allowing Nestl&>33; to take Cadbury&S217;s gum business to compete with Mars with Hershey taking over the chocolate operation.

A Nestl&>33; representative declined to comment and pointed to a statement Monday by Paul Bulcke, the chief executive, that Nestl&>33; had no plans for major acquisitions in 2009 and 2010 no fax cash loans.

The takeover bid could not have come at a worse time for Cadbury&S217;s chief executive, Todd Stitzer. The company is halfway through its plan to increase operating profit margins to about 15 percent in 2011, from about 10 percent in 2007. Cadbury&S217;s shares have risen about 33 percent since it spun off its Dr Pepper beverage unit in 2008.

The company, whose roots can be traced to 1824 when John Cadbury opened a shop in Birmingham, England, to sell tea, coffee and, later, cocoa beverages, is not expected to give in easily. It said that it was &S220;confident in Cadbury&S217;s stand-alone strategy and growth prospects as a result of its strong brands, unique category and geographic scope.&S221;

Speaking in a conference call on Monday, Ms. Rosenfeld of Kraft disagreed. &S220;Cadbury has limited opportunity as a stand-alone entity in this increasingly competitive environment,&S221; she said, adding that Kraft &S220;feels quite confident with the proposal&S221; and &S220;looks forward to continuing the dialogue.&S221; Kraft had not contacted Cadbury investors directly, she said.

Ms. Rosenfeld met Cadbury&S217;s chairman, Roger Carr, on Aug. 28 to discuss a possible combination, Kraft said in a statement. An exchange of letters followed, but after Cadbury rejected Kraft&S217;s proposal, Ms. Rosenfeld decided to make the offer public to encourage further discussions.

Under the proposal, Cadbury shareholders would get &<63;3, or $4.92, in cash and 0.2589 in Kraft Foods shares for each Cadbury share. Kraft said the offer valued the company at &<63;7.45, or $12.22, a share, a premium of 31 percent over Cadbury&S217;s closing price of &<63;5.68 on Friday. In London, shares rose to &<63;7.83 on Monday.

Jeremy Batstone-Carr, an analyst at Charles Stanley in London, called the proposal &S220;somewhat opportunistic&S221; and said &S220;Kraft will need to up its offer to have any serious chance of success, perhaps to 800 pence in cash or higher.&S221;

A report by Sanford C. Bernstein said Kraft was right to go after Cadbury but valued the British company at &<63;8.55 to &<63;10.7 a share, based on Wrigley&S217;s acquisition of Mars in 2008.

A takeover would result in an annual pretax cost savings of $625 million in marketing spending, procurement and research and development, Kraft said in a statement. It would result in higher earnings per share, after all transaction-related costs were included, in the second year, Kraft said.

Kraft said it would finance the deal through debt and was prepared to offer Cadbury shareholders the opportunity to elect, subject to availability, the part they would receive in cash and in new Kraft Foods shares.

Christopher Growe, a food company analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, applauded the Kraft team. &S220;Irene has done a great job transforming this company and bringing Kraft to a point where they could build this bigger business,&S221; he said. &S220;I don&S217;t think Kraft was ready for a transaction of this size a year ago.&S221;

Lazard is acting as lead financial adviser to Kraft. Centerview Partners, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are other financial advisers, with Citigroup and Deutsche Bank acting as corporate brokers, providing financing. Cadbury&S217;s advisers are UBS, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Michael J. de la Merced, William Neuman and Andrew Ross Sorkin contributed reporting from New York, and David Jolly from Paris.

Rebuff by Cadbury Doesn’t Deter Kraft

Nearly a year after the federal rescue of the nation&S217;s biggest banks, taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that many critics thought might never be seen again.

The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually, according to calculations compiled for The New York Times.

These early returns are by no means a full accounting of the huge financial rescue undertaken by the federal government last year to stabilize teetering banks and other companies.

The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from its bailouts of the insurance giant American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department could also take a hit from its guarantees on billions of dollars of toxic mortgages.

But the mere hint of bailout profits for the nearly year-old Troubled Asset Relief Program has been received as a welcome surprise. It has also spurred hopes that the government could soon get out of the banking business.

&S220;The taxpayers want their money back and they want the government out of our banking system,&S221; Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican and a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel examining the relief program, said in an interview.

Profits were hardly high on the list of government priorities last October, when a financial panic was in full swing and the Treasury Department started spending roughly $240 billion to buy preferred shares from hundreds of banks that were facing huge potential losses from troubled mortgages. Bank stocks began teetering after Lehman Brothers collapsed and the government rescued A.I.G., and fear gripped the financial industry around the world.

American taxpayers were told they would eventually make a modest return from these investments, including a 5 percent quarterly dividend on the banks&S217; preferred shares and warrants to buy stock in the banks at a set price over 10 years.

But critics at the time warned that taxpayers might not see any profits, and that it could take years for the banks to repay the loans.

As Congress debated the bailout bill last September that would authorize the Treasury Department to spend up to $700 billion to stem the financial crisis, Representative Mac Thornberry, Republican of Texas, said: &S220;Seven hundred billion dollars of taxpayer money should not be used as a hopeful experiment.&S221;

So far, that experiment is more than paying off. The government has taken profits of about $1.4 billion on its investment in Goldman Sachs, $1.3 billion on Morgan Stanley and $414 million on American Express. The five other banks that repaid the government &<51; Northern Trust, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and BB&&8;T &<51; each brought in $100 million to $334 million in profit.

The figure does not include the roughly $35 million the government has earned from 14 smaller banks that have paid back their loans. The government bought shares in these and many other financial companies last fall, when sinking confidence among investors pushed down many bank stocks to just a few dollars a share. As the banks strengthened and became profitable, the government authorized them to pay back the preferred stock, which had been paying quarterly dividends since October.

But the real profit came as banks were permitted to buy back the so-called warrants, whose low fixed price provided a windfall for the government as the shares of the companies soared car loan interest rates.

Despite the early proceeds from the bailout program, a debate remains over whether the government could have done even better with its bank investments.

If private investors had taken a stake in the banks last October on par with the government&S217;s, they would have had profits three times as large &<51; about $12 billion, or 44 percent if tallied on an annual basis, according to Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who analyzed the data for The Times.

Why the discrepancy? Finance experts say the government overpaid for the bank assets it bought, because its chief priority was to stabilize the teetering financial system, not to maximize profit.

&S220;Had these banks tried to raise money any other way, they probably would have had to pay quite a bit more than the government received,&S221; said Espen Robak, head of Pluris Valuation Advisors, which analyzes the value of large financial institutions.

A Congressional oversight panel concluded in February that the Treasury paid an average of 34 percent more than the estimated fair value of the assets it received.

Of course, many finance experts suggest that the comparison is academic at best, because there is no way to know what might have become of the banks or the financial system as a whole had the government not acted.

&S220;Taxpayers should heave a sigh of relief that the investment in the banks protected them from even more catastrophic losses from more bank failures,&S221; said Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

A more direct comparison of profits can be made with the investment performance of other governments that poured money into ailing banks last fall.

The Swiss government, for example, said last week that it had pulled in a handsome profit for taxpayers on a $5.6 billion bailout it gave to UBS, the troubled Swiss bank, at the height of the financial crisis in October. The government netted $1 billion on its investment, a gain equal to a 32 percent annual return.

&S220;They are substantially in the money,&S221; Guy de Blonay, a fund manager at Henderson New Star in London, said after the announcement.

American taxpayers could still collect additional profits on their investments in two other big banks that have repaid their preferred stock but not their warrants: JPMorgan Chase and Capital One. They are expected to yield over $3.1 billion in gains for the Treasury in the next month or so, although the full tally will depend on how much they will pay to buy back their warrants.

And the government is owed about $6.2 billion in interest payments from banks that have not yet repaid their federal money.

But all the profits taxpayers have won could still be wiped out by two deeply troubled institutions. Both Citigroup and Bank of America are still holding mortgages and other loans that were once worth billions of dollars but whose revised values are uncertain. If they prove &S220;toxic&S221; because they cannot attract buyers, they could leave large holes in the banks&S217; balance sheets.

Neither bank is ready to repay its bailout money anytime soon, even though the banks&S217; stock prices have surged in the last month, leaving the government sitting on paper profits of about $18 billion between them.

Eric Dash contributed reporting.

As Big Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is ready for further talks with General Motors on the sale of European carmaker Opel and wants to avoid confrontation with the U.S. firm on the matter, a government spokesman said on Monday.

"It is important not to resort to confrontation," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said at a regular government news conference, adding the government aimed to invite a member of the GM board to Germany to discuss Opel this week.

On Friday, GM failed to recommend either of two bidders for Opel -- Canadian supplier Magna (MGa.TO), Germany&&9;s preferred buyer, or rival bidder RHJ International (RJHI.BR).

(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Noah Barkin)

Germany to invite GM this week on Opel

The noxious penalty imposed on American Express and Discover consumers who exceeded their spending limit has finally died, quashed by legislation signed in May by President Obama to ease onerous fees for cardholders.

In recent days, American Express customers began receiving notices of the fee elimination, which takes effect in October. Discover Card customers will soon get similar notifications.

For now, they are alone: Bank of America, Capital One, Chase and Citigroup all say they have not followed suit, though they wouldn&S217;t rule it out either.

So is this obituary for the $35 to $40 over-the-limit fee, that consumers have been paying for about 25 years, premature?

The changes at Discover and American Express (which, by the way, included in its letter a notice that it would raise late fees and interest charges) come in the wake of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which bars card companies from penalizing consumers unless they specifically ask to breach their limit and agree to pay for the privilege.

Rather than levying the fee automatically, both firms will now use technology to decide whether and when to allow consumers to exceed their limit, based on the cardholders&S217; recent spending and creditworthiness.

But before you gush over the changes, consider this: Both firms probably arrived at their decision based on a calculus that showed it would be too costly to build a system that lets consumers opt to breach their credit limit, as the law required. Instead, it was cheaper to simply do away with the fee.

Desiree Fish, an American Express spokeswoman, said the company had determined that the cost to build such a mechanism would be more than it received from over-the-limit fees. Most other banks are likely to come to the same conclusion, particularly since they would have to tell customers why they are levying a fee when competitors are not doing so anymore.

Why wouldn&S217;t customers choose this privilege, given the opportunity presented by the new law? To understand, let&S217;s review the history &<51; and indulge in a bit of grave dancing, too.

Back in the good old 1980s, exceeding your credit limit was for the most part a fee-free convenience. According to Robert McKinley, who tracks the industry at CardWeb.com, you often wouldn&S217;t pay a fee unless you went over your limit by 5 percent to 10 percent, or more, and it might not be charged until the end of the month.

Eventually, card issuers realized there was some risk in letting people go that far, and started levying fees of $10 or so to discourage overspending. By the latter half of the 1990s, however, it was clear that the fees could be a great source of profits. So banks began raising them regularly &<51; well beyond the cost of the risk of letting cardholders go a bit over their credit limits.

&S220;The issuers just got greedy,&S221; said Gene Truono, a former card industry executive who is now a managing director in Manhattan for BDO Consulting.

According to Mr. McKinley, many industry executives had acknowledged privately that the fees were always a bad practice. Publicly, however, the party line was that it was all about customer service cheap payday advance. After all, what cardholders would want to be cut off in a restaurant or embarrassed in front of their clients?

Today, however, most big banks charge up to $39 for that privilege. But it&S217;s not at all clear that people want to pay that much for it. The recent credit card reform legislation means we might finally get to vote on this issue with our wallets &<51; that is, if any companies are left that believe they wouldn&S217;t lose in a landslide.

But here&S217;s why you might not ever get the opportunity to choose whether to pay an over-limit fee, at least at banks like Chase or Citi. According to David Thompson, a lawyer at McGlinchey Stafford in Cleveland and a former lawyer for Fleet Financial, any fees levied by credit card companies are now required by the new credit card reforms to be reasonable and proportional.

While it&S217;s not yet clear what the definition of &S220;reasonable and proportional&S221; will be, it&S217;s entirely possible that in this regulatory environment banks that once charged $39 for breached credit limits won&S217;t continue to get away with it. They may simply calculate that it&S217;s not profitable to charge new, lower fees. That, in turn, may mean the fee eventually dies more broadly across the industry.

Even if your bank does let you vote on breaching your limit, you might ignore the ballot unless card issuers wave it under your nose. &S220;That call to action to consumers who don&S217;t necessarily read your disclosures is a difficult thing to implement,&S221; he said. While it&S217;s understandable that Mr. Thompson doesn&S217;t want to speak ill of the dead (fee) in its obituary, his is probably the understatement of the year.

The fact is, we&S217;ve long since gotten past the point where anyone is worried about being embarrassed at the restaurant. There are lots of reasons for cards to be declined &<51; from unfiled expenses at work to overactive card security mechanisms that cut you off for fear your card has been stolen while you&S217;re on the road. All of your dinner guests know this, and they&S217;ve been there themselves. Also, you probably have a bunch of other cards that you can whip out at a moment&S217;s notice.

Robert Manning, the author of &S220;Credit Card Nation,&S221; said not everyone is so fortunate. Many people are living hand to mouth with just one card, and others have had their credit limits slashed through little or no fault of their own. He thinks some companies might come up with membership programs to serve this population, with new cards that charge annual fees and waive a handful of over-the-limit and late fees each year, no questions asked.

But you don&S217;t have to do business with any of them. And you can opt out of an over-the-limit fee if your bank decides to see if it can still make money levying one. This fee is dead to you. Goodbye. And good riddance.

Your Money: Card Users, Take Heart: One Penalty Is Vanishing

Stocks closed down Monday, though they rose above their session lows, as investors booked profits after a four-week rally that took the Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500-stock index to a 10-month high on Friday.

An abundance of economic data is expected this week, including the Federal Reserve&S217;s statement on interest rates and the economy, and government figures on monthly retail sales.

Stocks of commodities producers were lower, with the Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s materials index down 1.6 percent as an increase in the dollar curbed investors&S217; appetite for commodities priced in the currency.

AK Steel Holding fell 4.7 percent, to $20.31, while Nucor lost 4.1 percent, to $47.10.

&S220;A number of natural resource names were perhaps overextended,&S221; said Joe Arsenio, president of Arsenio Capital Management in Larkspur, Calif. &S220;We are seeing a pullback in commodity-related stocks.&S221;

He said that there was also some profit taking after the market&S217;s steep rise in recent weeks.

&S220;There&S217;s been quite a bit of money coming in off the sidelines that supported the rally, and it&S217;s possible that some of those flows are just diminishing a bit since we&S217;ve had this tremendous advance,&S221; he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 32.12 points, or 0.34 percent, to close at 9,337.95. The S.&&8; P. 500-stock index fell 3.38 points, or 0 direct payday loans.33 percent, to 1,007.10. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 8.01 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,992.24.

The retail group was weak Monday, with Best Buy, the electronics merchant, down 5.3 percent, at $37.66, after Goldman Sachs downgraded it to neutral.

The S.&&8; P. retail index dropped 2 percent.

On the Nasdaq, Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, was one of the biggest losers, down 4.9 percent at $73.34. The stock was down for a third consecutive session after UBS downgraded it to neutral from buy on concerns that Verizon Wireless, one of Research In Motion&S217;s largest customers, might introduce an iPhone.

On the upside, McDonald&S217;s reported stronger-than-expected July sales, sending its stock up 1.9 percent, to $56.27, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Merck, the drug company, rose 1.7 percent, to $30.60, after its stock was reinstated by Goldman Sachs with a buy rating.

The S.&&8; P. health care index gained 0.75 percent.

Interest rates were slightly lower. The Treasury&S217;s benchmark 10-year note rose 19/32, to 94 23/32, and the yield fell to 3.78 percent, from 3.85 percent late Friday.

Following are the results of Monday&S217;s Treasury auction of three- and six-month bills:

Shares Fall on Profit Taking After Monthlong Rally