ความคิดเห็นที่ 14
 
* U.S. lawmakers advance stimulus bill another step
* Barclays makes profit but Whirlpool, Nissan post losses
* France to aid its carmakers; other EU countries object
* Stocks in U.S. flat; Japan's fall, European shares rise
By John O'Callaghan
WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Investors and governments around the world kept an anxious eye on U.S. plans to stimulate its economy and rescue its banks on Monday, hoping the world's largest economy can lead the way out of a global crisis.
A better-than-expected profit by Britain's Barclays bank offered a rare bit of good news but most corporate and economic numbers were poor as many companies, consumers and workers struggled with the turmoil unleashed by the U.S. mortgage meltdown.
President Barack Obama hit the road in the U.S. heartland and was set for a prime-time news conference to push his call for urgent action on an $800 billion economic stimulus bill.
The bill passed a key procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Monday, paving the way for the chamber to pass the bill on Tuesday. The Senate version would then have to be reconciled with one the House of Representatives has passed. Obama wants a final version from Congress by this weekend. [nN09513209]
On the financial front, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was set to present a bank rescue plan at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Tuesday -- a day later than was planned. [nN09524347]
"Everyone's waiting for Geithner tomorrow," said Steven Masocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.
In Brussels, the European Commission urged EU states to agree on their own plan for treating toxic debt and to find a common way of valuing and pricing it that would not distort competition. [nL9188284]
Earlier, tensions over French aid for carmakers overshadowed the talks among European finance ministers on when to start tightening budget policy and what message to craft for upcoming G7 and G20 meetings on the economy.
Citing "protectionist" comments by France, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek called for an emergency European Union summit on the economic turmoil. [nL9376889]
"We know from past crises we need open markets," Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, said in a speech to diplomats.
Meanwhile, the World Bank's chief economist proposed a $2 trillion "global recovery fund" underpinned by rich nations to stimulate development and growth in poor countries.
Escaping a protracted recession, Justin Yifu Lin said, would depend on overcoming protectionism and having "some kind of decisive, large enough, coordinated fiscal stimulus."
'RECESSION ARGUMENT'
Lawrence Summers, a top adviser to Obama who heads the National Economic Council, told CNN the U.S. economy may turn around late this year or in early 2010 but said government money should be a "last resort" in the bank rescue plan.
Summers told Fox News the stimulus plan, combined with a robust financial recovery package, "will offer the best possible prospect to arresting the decline."
But he warned of "enormous uncertainties" and a lengthy road back from the worst U.S. recession in 70 years.
U.S. stocks closed nearly flat and oil prices slid as concerns weighed about weak demand and fears that Washington's recovery plans might prove to be insufficient.
"The recession argument is winning out time and time again," said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
But the dollar, seen as a safe haven recently, fell as expectations that Congress would approve the stimulus plan helped to ease an aversion to risk.
European shares <.FTEU3> rose for the fourth session in five but Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> fell 1.3 percent. [.T]
The Senate is expected to approve its $827 billion version of the stimulus bill on Tuesday, setting off a fight -- likely to take several days -- to reconcile it with the $819 billion bill passed by the House. [nN09522504]
Obama said the tax cuts and public spending measures had "the right priorities to create jobs that will jump-start our economy" and he announced that an independent, bipartisan board would supervise the package to ensure the money is not wasted.
"Endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will only bring deepening disaster," he told a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana.
Opposition Republicans argue that some spending contained in the bills would do nothing to boost the economy.
TROUBLED CARMAKERS
Barclays <BARC.L> -- which has raised funds privately and not taken taxpayer cash, unlike two of its biggest rivals -- posted 2008 profit of 6.1 billion pounds ($9 billion), boosting sentiment in banks, with Bank of America <BAC.N> shares jumping 12.4 percent and the KBW Bank index <.BKX> rising 2.2 percent.
Raising its estimate of U.S. bank failures more than threefold, RBC Capital Markets predicted that more than 1,000, or one in eight lenders, may fail in the next three to five years. It said credit losses in the U.S. banking industry will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars in the period.
In a sign of consumer-spending trends, fast-food giant McDonald's <MCD.N> had a 7.1 percent rise in global sales in January as diners sought lower-priced fare.
With carmakers around the world being hammered by collapsing demand, the French government became the latest to pledge loans to its automakers -- 3 billion euro each to Renault <RENA.PA> and PSA Peugeot Citroen <PEUP.PA> .
[nL9664042] [nL9169904]
Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> posted a big quarterly loss and said it would lay off 20,000 workers. For the full year, Japan's No. 3 carmaker now expects an operating loss -- its first in 14 years -- of about $2 billion. [nT132934]
Last week, its larger rival Toyota <7203.T> forecast an operating loss for the year of about $5 billion.
Shares of Whirlpool <WHR.N> slid after the world's biggest appliance maker reported a 76 percent drop in quarterly profit and warned of a fall in 2009 earnings. [nN09484056]
South Korea's LG Electronics <066570.KS> said it aimed to cut $2.2 billion in costs and may shed jobs. [nSEO170850]
Barclays said it expected "another challenging year."
"The principal issue for 2009 is going to be rapid economic slowdown, in a sense more a familiar but nonetheless pretty brutal slowdown in economic growth all around the world," said Barclays Chief Executive John Varley.
Britain, the United States, Japan and the euro zone have all been declared officially in recession. Emerging economies are also suffering, with India forecasting 7.1 growth in its fiscal year 2008-09, the slowest pace in six years
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