Today Stock Market News

The Bank of Japan will introduce a new loan policy designed to help businesses obtain funding ahead of the March 31 end of the fiscal year, according to a Japanese media report.

This looks like a year when small-caps don’t get a year-end bounce.

There are two important sections to this month’s Trading Strategies commentary: constructive recommendations for the month, and the subject of the greater depression.

This may come as a shock, but I have good news for investors this holiday season: Despite the subprime sell-off, despite the mortgage meltdown, despite the housing slide and the chilling conditions increasing check-ins at the proverbial poorhouse, there are companies that are thriving in this market, even in the final weeks of one of the toughest years in history.

Season’s greetings!

The steep decline in the markets has introduced a level of fear into the system that hasn’t been seen in decades.

Every investor wants to say that he or she “bought the bottom” but anyone attempting that feat this year was in for a rude awakening. Bottom picking is a dangerous game and while we have all sorts of indicators to help us get close to that goal they all depend on an orderly market.

When Henry Kissinger wanted to speak to the person in charge of Europe, he never knew the telephone number to dial. Three decades later, Barack Obama and his team face the same challenge.

Asian stocks declined Monday, as investors stepped back amid signs the global slowdown is getting worse, with Honda leading Japanese automakers lower as the nation heads for its weakest year of domestic sales in decades, and after data showed China’s manufacturing sector contracted by a record last month.

A successful but still-scarred oil bull hints oil will bounce … eventually.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian stocks declined Monday, with automakers under pressure in Tokyo after a Nikkei report that domestic new car sales this year could fall to their lowest level since 1974. Light sweet crude oil futures were down as much as $1.32 to $53.11 a barrel in electronic trading. Honda Motor Co.’s shares were down 4.7%, leading the auto sector lower after a senior official was cited in a newswire report Friday as saying that the company will struggle to meet its lowered profit forecasts this year. The Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 2% to 8,343.69, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 was off 1.6% at 3,681.20 and the South Korean Kospi fell 1.5% to 1,059.74. Singapore’s Strait Times Index edged down 1.8% at 1,701.05 and the Taiwanese Taiex index was off 0.8% at 4,426.44.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

The upcoming November employment report is expected to show a loss of another 350,000 jobs, according to analysts surveyed by MarketWatch. A decrease of 350,000 would be the largest drop since May 1980, when more than 400,000 jobs were shed.

As China’s quasi-market economy faces potentially the worst decline in two decades, the capacity of business to cope with a cyclical downturn is being brought sharply into focus. One example: the trend of executive disappearances.

Tension in Bangkok ratchets higher as more pro-government protestors arrive in Bangkok and explosions are reported across the area.

Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, sees a 1% gain in online shopping from last year, even as broader seasonal sales are trending down, according to ComScore.

President-elect Barack Obama will reportedly announce the long-expected nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State at a press conference Monday.

News reports offer conflicting accounts as to whether Microsoft is in talks to buy Yahoo’s search business for $20 billion.

It’s a sad story and a sign of the times: A growing number of people who had been regular donors to the Greater Chicago Food Depository are now asking the charity for help in feeding their families.

Just in time for the holiday season, my wife received a notice that the fund she uses for her Roth IRA will shut its doors on Dec. 8.

Chinese government researchers are forecasting the nation’s economy will grow by a robust 10% in 2009 despite the global economic downturn, according to state-run media.

India’s home minister has reportedly stepped down as a result of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, as the country begins to take stock of the strikes that killed 172 and disrupted the country’s financial capital last week.

The oil cartel has ended a meeting in Cairo without any decision on a production cut, according to media reports Saturday.

Strong discounts bring U.S. consumers to the stores on Black Friday, with estimated sales rising 3% from last year, according to industry analyst ShopperTrak.

Stocks will enter the month of December with a sense of optimism that much of the dismal environment for corporate profits has already been discounted by the market, even as upcoming reports, including the key jobs report on Friday, are expected to show the economic picture is still worsening.

Trump Entertainment says that to maintain sufficient liquidity, it won’t make a $53.1 million payment scheduled for Monday on a senior secured note.

The upcoming November employment report is expected to show a loss of another 350,000 jobs, according to analysts surveyed by MarketWatch. A decrease of 350,000 would be the largest drop since May 1980, when more than 400,000 jobs were shed.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — India’s home minister has tendered his resignation in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, media reports say. Shivraj Patil offered the resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the reports say. The Economic Times of India reported that Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram would succeed Patil as home minister. Reports say the home ministry is responsible for India’s internal security and borders.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Citigroup, working to stabilize itself after a U.S. federal rescue plan, plans to auction off its custodian administration unit in Japan, people familar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. NikkoCiti Trust & Banking Corp. provides services including delivering securities and settling trades, and calculating prices of investment-trust units, the Journal reported.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Top officials at General Motors Corp., trying to avert a bankruptcy-law filing by the Detroit auto giant, are developing a plan under which debtholders would swap their securities for equity, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and aides must deliver a business plan to the U.S. Congress by Tuesday. GM is to argue that a short-term loan from the government plus accords with creditors and unions should enable the company to stay in business as a leaner, viable firm, the Journal reported. GM is carrying $43.3 billion of debt and paying $2.9 billion a year of interest on it, the Journal reported, citing J.P. Morgan Chase estimates.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Microsoft Corp., the Redmond, Wash., software giant, is in talks to buy Yahoo Inc.’s search business for $20 billion, the Sunday Times of London reported. Microsoft does not plan to bid for all of the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet-services giant, after it abandoned a $47.5 billion proposal last summer, the paper reported. Under a deal the companies are planning, Microsoft also would support new management for Yahoo, possibly led by Jonathan Miller, the former chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, the former president of Fox Interactive Media. Two weeks ago, Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder, stepped down as CEO.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

The oil cartel has ended a meeting in Cairo without any decision on a production cut, according to media reports Saturday.

The oil cartel has ended a meeting in Cairo without any decision on a production cut, according to media reports Saturday.

The oil cartel has ended a meeting in Cairo without any decision on a production cut, according to media reports Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — OPEC ministers meeting in Cairo appear unlikely to take further action on cutting production, a delegate who left the meetings in-progress told Dow Jones Newswires on Saturday. Oil ministers, worried about the 60% decline in oil prices in recent months, are meeting to evaluate member compliance with two recent production cuts, and to consider the weakening economic environment. Some ministers said before the meeting that the cartel would probably put off a quota decision until the next gathering on Dec. 17.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

U.S. stocks end higher, leaving the market with monthly losses but with large gains for a holiday-shortened week that saw investors increasingly confident that much of a dire economic outlook already has been priced in.

In case you missed them, here are the top 10 Personal Finance stories from MarketWatch for the week of Nov. 24-28:

Canadian stocks finish sharply higher, with financials leading a broad-based rebound from morning lows, as prospects of governmental interventions to boost ailing economies around the world lift sentiment.

Walking through the Loop here in Chicago this week, I was initially taken aback at the fortification of Federal Plaza, headquarters for the Obama-Biden transition team. Looking at the situation differently, though, one could take encouragement from the knowledge that the man who is yet two months from becoming the country’s 44th president had collected his growing team of advisers and hunkered down to begin tackling an array of pressing issues. Such is the nature of perspective.

U.S. stocks end higher, leaving the market with monthly losses but with large gains for a holiday-shortened week that saw investors increasingly confident that much of a dire economic outlook already has been priced in.

The good news is that consumer-electronics companies and retailers are also feeling the pinch. Many are offering terrific deals on an array of high-tech devices. What’s more, great prices can be found every day on the Web, especially at respected online retailers such as Amazon and J&R Electronics.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Two people were killed in a shooting inside a Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, Calif., on Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, according to media reports. The Los Angeles Times reported that the shooting, some 120 miles east of Los Angeles, may have stemmed from an argument between two groups of shoppers. So-called Black Friday is the traditional starting point for the holiday-shopping surge.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stocks will enter the month of December with a sense of optimism that much of the dismal environment for corporate profits has already been discounted by the market, even as upcoming reports, including the key jobs report on Friday, are expected to show the economic picture is still worsening.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - The asset merger between Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. aimed at forming a cutting-edge new wireless Internet network was closed Friday, with help from a $3.2 billion investment by Google Inc., Intel Corp, Comcast Corp. and others.

Treasurys extend gains, looking to finish one of their best months ever, as investors wait to see how retailers fare on one of the most important spending days of the year.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden hiked his stake in Zale Corp. to 28% from 18%, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. Breeden, who manages Breeden Capital Partners LLC, launched an insurgency at Zale last year to press the company into sell assets. On Sept. 27, 2007, 10 days after he launched his activist effort at the company, Zale sold its fine jewelry chain Bailey Banks & Biddle to Finlay Enterprises Inc. for $200 million. In January, Breeden succeeded at having himself and another candidate nominated to the comapny’s board. Breeden, who was chairman of the SEC during George H.W. Bush’s administration, acquired a 7.7% Zale stake on Sept. 17, 2007 and began talks about seeking to have the company consider strategic options such as asset sales. Soon afterwards, Citadel Investment Group LLC reported it had bought a 5.3% Zale stake, indicating that managers there believed changes were afoot at Zale. Zale reported in June 2006 that it had sought unsuccessfully to be acquired by mega-jewelry retailer Signet Group plc of London.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Highlights of MarketWatch’s top personal-finance stories for Friday, Nov. 28.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures erased earlier losses, ending Friday’s trading just one cent lower as members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries sent mixed signals on whether they will cut production at Saturday’s meeting. Crude for December delivery closed at $54.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It slumped 6% earlier to as low as $51.12. Floor trading closed one hour early in a shortened session after Thanksgiving. In after-hour electronic trading, crude rose 2%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. , which bought Washington Mutual Inc.’s banking operations, will retain most of the giant thrift’s branch-banking staff, but plans substantial job cuts at its former headquarters and elsewhere, Thomson Reuters reported Friday. J.P. Morgan expects to keep about 9,000 employees who worked at WaMu branches, as well as 2,000 employees in the mortgage and wealth-management units, according to the report. J.P. Morgan is expected to tell all former WaMu employees by Monday whether they would have jobs and for how long, Reuters said.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Stocks ended higher Friday, leaving the market with monthly losses but posting strong gains in a holiday-shortened week that saw investors increasingly confident that much of a dire economic outlook is already priced in. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 102 points, or 1.2%, at 8,829, with 23 of its 30 components ending higher. For the week, the blue-chip average jumped 9.2%, while it fell 5.3% for the month of November. The S&P 500 index rose 8 points, or 1%, to 896. The broad index gained 12% for the week, but fell 7.4% last month. The Nasdaq Composite gained 3 points, or 0.2%, to 1,535. The technology-heavy index jumped 11% for the week and had a monthly loss of 10.8%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Shares of AMD, Texas Instruments, Yahoo and Cisco edge higher to lead technology stocks in a shortened trading day after the Thanksgiving holiday.