Finance & Business World

German authorities have reported another death in the European E. coli outbreak _ bringing the total to 50.

The national disease control center said Friday 48 deaths have been reported in Germany, up from 47 a day earlier. One death in Sweden and another in the United States are linked to the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization.

A total of 3,999 people have now been reported ill in Germany, including 845 suffering from a complication that can lead to kidney failure business cards. Another 122 cases have been reported in 16 other countries.

New infections have been declining for weeks but the total tally is still rising due largely to delays in notification.

European health experts warned Thursday that contaminated Egyptian fenugreek seeds are likely the source of the deadly outbreak.

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BELLEVILLE

Wheat is one of the world’s primary crops and, in the American landscape, an almost mythical one. But over the past decades, American farmers have turned away from their amber waves of grain online cash advance.

That’s a trend the wheat industry and seed companies

NATO’s top official says financing the rebels in Libya would help protect civilians there.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that overthrowing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is not one of NATO’s military objectives but civilians would be safer if he were gone.

“I am definitely in favor of taking all necessary measures to put the maximum pressure on the Gadhafi regime,” Fogh Rasmussen said. “And I do believe it would be protection of civilians in Libya if Gadhafi was forced to step down. It would be helpful if the opposition were to be financed properly.”

NATO’s goals are halting attacks on civilians, the return of Libyan forces to their bases, and unhindered humanitarian access to all Libyans in need.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ROME (AP) _ Italian lawmakers have voted to keep Italy in the NATO-led military operation against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi but called for Rome and its allies to work out an endgame for military action payday loans no teletrack.

The lower house of parliament passed a motion 308-294 on Wednesday that also commits Italy to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, briefing the lawmakers ahead of the vote, said it was impossible to set a date for an endgame at this stage. He did agree that the “political goal is for military action to cease as soon as possible.”

The vote took place a day before international powers meet in Rome to map out a strategy for their actions in Libya, including how to give financial support to the rebels.

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Consumer confidence in the U.S. rose for a second consecutive week as an improving job market helped ease the burden of higher fuel costs.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to minus 44.5 in the period ended April 3 from minus 46.9 the prior week. A measure of Americans’ views of their own finances increased to the second-highest level since January 2010, while a gauge of perceptions of the economy advanced from a two-year low.

The lowest jobless rate since 2009 and rising stock values are combining to take some of the sting out of gasoline prices, which have climbed to the highest level in more than two years. At the same time, the threat remains that companies will pass mounting raw-material costs along to customers, which may hurt household spending on other goods and services.

“This is a forward-looking signal of an improving labor market,” John Herrmann, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston. “The pickup in jobs and ongoing improvement in the equity market is bolstering confidence.”

Another report today showed fewer Americans filed first- time claims for unemployment insurance last week, indicating the labor-market recovery is being sustained. Applications for jobless benefits fell 10,000 in the week ended April 2 to 382,000, the fewest since Feb. 26, according to the Labor Department.

Interest-Rate Worriers

Stocks fluctuated between gains and losses as the drop in claims and retail sales that beat some analysts’ estimates eased concern over interest-rate increases in Europe. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.2 percent to 1,337.2 at 10:21 a.m. in New York. Treasury securities were little changed.

The Bloomberg Comfort Index, with records dating back to December 1985, has moved up from an eight-month low of minus 48.9 reached in the period ended March 20. Readings averaged minus 45.7 last year.

The gauge remains “deeply distressed” even as it’s “off the floor,” said Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates LLC in New York, which compiles the index for Bloomberg.

Improving Finances

The measure of personal finances rose to minus 0.9 from minus 1.1, the report showed. Fifty percent of those polled held positive views on their financial situation, the same as the previous week, and 3 points better than the average this year.

The buying-climate index increased to minus 50 from minus 53.1. Those saying it was a good time to buy needed items rose to 25 percent from 23 percent.

Consumers’ views on the economy turned less negative, rising to minus 82.5 last week from minus 86.5. The share of households with a positive view of the economy increased to 9 percent, while 91 percent viewed the economy as “poor” or “not so good.”

“Given the frequency with which most Americans pull over to fill the tank, consumer confidence customarily falls when gas prices rise,” Langer said in a statement payday advance. “Like dueling fighters, an improving employment picture is duking it out with rising gasoline prices for the hearts of American consumers — with the better news winning the last two rounds.”

Employment Picture

Americans with full-time jobs as well as people who were unemployed turned more optimistic last week. The confidence among those working a complete day climbed for the first time since the end of February.

The jobless rate fell to 8.8 percent last month from 8.9 percent in February and private employers hired 230,000 workers, capping the strongest two-month gain since 2006, the Labor Department reported April 1.

Rising stock prices are also boosting confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.3 percent this year through yesterday.

The gains may be helping shore up sentiment among those better off. Confidence among people making more than $100,000 a year, those most likely to own equities, rose for the first time in a month.

At the same time, falling home values may be keeping sentiment depressed. Residential real estate prices dropped in the 12 months ended January by the most in more than a year. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 3.1 percent from January 2010, the group said March 29.

Raising Prices

Higher costs for fuel and other commodities are prompting some manufacturers to raise prices. The average cost of regular gasoline at the pump was $3.71 a gallon on April 5, the highest since September 2008, according to AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring organization.

Ford Motor Co. (F), the second-largest U.S. automaker, this week raised prices by $117, or 0.4 percent, per vehicle because of higher costs for raw materials such as steel.

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Sales of existing homes fell in February after three straight monthly increases, an industry group said Monday.

According to the National Association of Realtors, homes sold at an annual rate of 4.88 million in February, down 9.6% from January and 2.8% lower than February 2010 sales.

The report was worse than economists had expected. A consensus of experts surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an annualized sales rate of 5.05 million.

At the same time, the median home price declined 5.2% compared to the previous year, to $156,100.

"Housing affordability conditions have been at record levels and the economy has been improving, but home sales are being constrained," Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement.

Yun said the housing market recovery is bound to be rocky, especially with the tight credit market.

NAR reported that all-cash sales went up to a record 33% of the total, up from 27% a year earlier instant credit report. It estimated the percentage of investor purchases hit 19%, the same level as a year ago.

"The decline in price corresponds to the record level of all-cash purchases where buyers — largely investors — are snapping up homes at bargain prices," Yun explained. "We’d be seeing greater numbers of traditional home buyers if mortgage credit conditions return to normal."

The decrease in sales was accompanied by an increase in supply. Inventory rose 3.5% to 3.49 million units, an 8.6-month supply at the current rates of sales.

Normally, a five or six-month supply is considered a good balance between supply and demand. 

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Leaders of the 17 euro nations backed a plan to tighten economic cooperation, clearing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condition for a comprehensive package to counter the debt crisis.

The blueprint commits nations to enact budget rules into law, a core German demand, a draft obtained by Bloomberg News showed. Intended to boost competitiveness, the pact sets goals rather than binding targets on policies from raising the retirement age to reducing labor costs. That helped overcome objections to the version proposed by Germany and France last month.

Euro-area leaders agreed “in principle on the pact for the euro,” European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement as the officials met in Brussels today. The leaders are “still discussing the other elements of the package.”

Following the agreement, European policy makers will turn to breaking a deadlock on crisis-fighting steps as they approach a self-imposed deadline of a late-March summit. Bond yields in Greece and Portugal touched euro-era records this week and debt ratings of Greece and Spain were cut, while the euro recorded its biggest weekly drop since the first week of 2011.

“There is not much time left,” Pier Carlo Padoan, chief economist with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, said in a telephone interview. “This is a critical time for Europe — a failure to provide an effective response to the situation would be something that everybody in Europe would pay for and regret.”

Irish Clash

With two weeks to the summit endgame, Merkel and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny clashed over company tax rates after the chancellor insisted on a common corporate tax base as the condition for agreeing to ease the terms of Ireland’s 85 billion-euro ($118 billion) bailout.

Kenny dismissed her offer, which she outlined to lawmakers in Berlin yesterday, as an attack on Ireland’s 12.5 percent rate. Arriving for his first summit as leader, he called it “harmonization of taxes through the back door.”

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, will present a proposal on a common corporate tax base in the coming weeks, the agency said today.

Merkel, at the helm of Europe’s largest economy and the biggest country contributor to the Greek and Irish bailouts, also insisted that Greece sell state assets before winning any relief on the cost of Greece’s rescue loans, four lawmakers who attended the closed-doors briefing in Berlin said. Greece has already dismissed selling state-owned land to cut debt.

Record Bond Yields

Greek 10-year yields rose 6 basis points to 12.81 percent and similar-maturity Irish yields jumped 14 basis points to 9.65 percent. Greek securities plunged this week after Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation’s rating, already at junk, by another three levels, saying the probability of default had increased. Credit-default swaps on Greek government debt rose 8 basis points to a record 1,048 basis points today.

Speaking in Brussels after a morning session with all 27 EU leaders to discuss Libya, Merkel for the first time hinted that she may back bulking up the EU rescue fund for indebted states to its full 440 billion-euro capacity need a personal loan with bad credit.

Retooling the fund to its intended size and an easing of Greek and Irish debt terms are “the least that international investors can expect this month,” said Stuart Thomson, chief economist at Ignis Asset Management in Glasgow. “Inevitably this will end in a messy compromise that fails to resolve the peripheral solvency crisis and merely prolongs the agony.”

Portuguese Deficit

The yield on Portugal’s five-year debt surged to a euro-era record of 8 percent today on speculation that Prime Minister Jose Socrates would soon be forced to follow Greece and Ireland and seek a bailout. Portugal’s 10-year bond yields reached 7.70 percent on March 9, the highest since at least 1997.

With the debt crisis lapping at Portugal’s shores, Socrates’s government today announced “significant” new commitments on deficit reduction amounting to 0.8 percent of gross domestic product for this year.

The additional measures should allow Portugal to bring the deficit down to the EU’s 3 percent limit in 2012, and are “an important building block of the needed comprehensive response to the sovereign debt crisis,” EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement.

“I hope the European leaders understand the seriousness of the situation we’re facing,” Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira Dos Santos said in Lisbon.

‘Remarkable’ Cuts

Merkel, hemmed in by coalition resistance to burdening German taxpayers with additional rescue costs before six state elections, praised the “remarkable” Portuguese budget cuts, while saying that debt-wracked countries still have more austerity “homework” to do as part of the deal that EU leaders aim to have in place by month’s end.

The pact, which includes chapters on competitiveness, labor, sustainable public finances and the stability of financial systems, ran into opposition when it was floated by Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Feb. 4.

The document, reworked by a panel chaired by Van Rompuy and Jose Barroso, president of the Brussels-based commission, leaves countries free to find their own policy mix without imposition from above.

“Concrete national commitments” will be made by leaders, benchmarked against “the best performers” among EU states, the pact said. The agreement will be ratified at the March 24-25 summit.

“There were proposals that went too far. What now is on the table is fine,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters. “At the same time, it is all very much national and not enforceable, but it will undoubtedly help to strengthen the economies.”

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Gas prices rose Tuesday for the 14th straight day, with drivers in some parts of the United States now paying more than $3.90 a gallon.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is now $3.517, according to a daily survey by motorist group AAA. That’s up eight tenths of a cent from $3.509 on Monday.

Gas prices have risen nearly 15 cents so far this month. That’s on top of a nearly 27 cent increase in February.

California continues to have the highest gas prices in the nation, with drivers there paying an average of $3.908 a gallon. Hawaii had the second highest average price at $3.89 a gallon, while Alaska came in third at $3.845 a gallon.

The lowest gas prices are in Wyoming, where gas averages $3.197 a gallon. Montana and Missouri also have relatively low gas prices.

Gas prices have been driven higher by an increase in the price of crude oil, the main ingredient in gasoline.

Oil prices have risen more than 10% so far this month, as investors remain nervous about the crisis in Libya. However, prices were trending lower Tuesday following reports that other oil-exporting nations in the region are considering boosting output.  

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A failure by lawmakers to raise the legal limit on U.S. borrowing could be “very dangerous” and have “enormous potential negative impacts on the markets,” White House Chief of Staff William Daley said.

While both parties need to come together to deal with the nation’s ballooning debt, Daley warned of “devastation” should an increase in the government’s debt ceiling be rejected. He noted that Republican and Democratic leaders have acknowledged such dangers, especially as certain parts of the world, including Europe, are still recovering from a global recession.

“To go through a traumatic sort of vote would have enormous potential negative impacts on the markets,” Daley said today at the Bloomberg Breakfast in Washington.

The government will hit the $14.29 trillion debt limit by the end of May, a little later than initially projected because tax revenues have been more robust than expected, the Treasury Department said today in a statement.

Lawmakers are headed for a showdown over the debt limit vote, with Republicans and some Democrats demanding big cuts in government spending as the price of any increase.

House Speaker John Boehner said Jan. 31 that while a U.S. default would be a “financial disaster,” the Obama administration needs to cut spending if it seeks an increase in the debt ceiling.

‘Split Control’

“Split control of Congress is apt to lead to a longer- than-usual debate over increasing the statutory debt limit, and could result in at least one failed attempt at an increase before the limit is raised,” Goldman Sachs said this week in a research note pay day advance. The debt stood at $14.003 trillion on Jan. 31.

“We’re going to make the strong case that we ought to just deal with the debt limit, at the same time we’re all saying we’ve got to do something about this deficit,” Daley said. “But to sort of play this typical Washington game of threatening and trying to leverage off the debt would be very dangerous for the markets.”

Daley, a former executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said President Barack Obama’s proposal to overhaul the corporate tax code has been well received by the business community.

“There’s a general belief” that greater simplification and lower rates would make U.S. companies “more competitive internationally” and help them create more jobs in the U.S., Daley said.

During his Jan. 25 State of Union address, Obama said he would cut corporate tax rates if loopholes and breaks also could be eliminated so that an overhaul wouldn’t add to the deficit.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to meet today with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, all Democrats, to discuss priorities for the current Congress, the Treasury Department said.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s offering of 30-year bonds, its first in more than three years, signals waning concern among investors that inflation is accelerating.

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