"The Kraft team is figuring out the next move," the source said.

Kraft made a $16.8 billion hostile offer to acquire U.K. confectioner Cadbury, but rivals such as Hershey Co (HSY.N), Italy's Ferrero, and Nestle (NESN payday loan no fax no credit check.VX) now may be weighing takeover bids themselves.

Kraft "never said that was its final offer," the source said.

The source declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

(Reporting by Jessica Hall; Editing Bernard Orr)

Kraft mulls higher offer for Cadbury: source

The lead contract surged as high as 82.18, up from a 75.38 close on Thursday. Such a move was improbable given that in spot markets, the dollar’s moves against major currencies such as the euro were limited to about 1%. See Currencies.

The ICE agreed, and according to an exchange official, all trades above 76.50 were being cancelled. The ICE was still investigating the cause of the incident, the official said.

Dollar index futures were still elevated after the incident, up a more modest 0 paydayloans.7% to 75.91.

The move briefly had an impact on other markets, as futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 99 points.

U.S. stocks and the dollar have been moving in opposite directions of late, with traders tending to borrow against the low-yielding greenback to reinvest in other assets.

That process is reversed when traders are less willing to take on risk.

ICE investigating spike in dollar index futures

Hot News: U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies Reach a Record High

The Japanese government published a report Friday that pronounced the economy officially in deflation for the first time since 2006, and the finance minister said he wanted the central bank to “respond appropriately.”

The report did not say specifically how the government wanted the central bank to tackle deflation, but on Thursday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development urged the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates low and to buy more government bonds to help beat declining prices.

Having rebuffed government appeals last month to extend support for credit markets, the central bank might soon find itself under pressure to buy more government bonds as rising yields and the risk of a credit rating downgrade threaten an economic recovery, analysts said.

“By declaring that Japan is in deflation, the government is trying to persuade the B.O.J. that it needs to do something,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, adding that the central bank governor “doesn’t seem to be taking price falls too seriously. At least, the B.O.J. doesn’t seem to want to take further action. I think the government is trying to change that.”

The central bank held its benchmark rate at 0.1 percent after a two-day policy review and appeared to suggest the next steps were up to the government.

“The cause of sustained price falls is a lack of demand,” Masaaki Shirakawa, the central bank’s governor, said at a news conference after the government published its report faxless payday loan. The bank, he said, was doing everything it could to provide liquidity to the economy, including keeping interest rates very low.

“When demand itself is weak, prices won’t rise just through liquidity provision,” Mr. Shirakawa said.

That was an attempt to deflect government pressure, said Koji Ochiai, senior market economist at Mizuho Investors Securities.

“If share prices fall more or if the yen strengthens much more, the B.O.J. might be forced to take more steps,” he said. “It can either say explicitly that low interest rates will stay for an extended period, just like the Fed does, or it could increase its purchases of government bonds.”

The Bank of Japan buys ¥21.6 trillion, or $243 billion, of Japanese government bonds each year and is reluctant to increase purchases, arguing that its government debt holdings are already approaching its self-imposed ceiling.

“The B.O.J. will be on hold for a long time to come,” said Adrian Foster, head of financial markets research at Rabobank International in Hong Kong.

“The government still has some room to boost demand, but with the public- sector deficit already so large, there are not many levers left across the board.”

The bank said Friday it would maintain very easy monetary conditions. But it dropped a more specific pledge to keep rates low for some time.

Reuters

Bank of Japan Sets Itself Up for Clash With Government

In a statement issued Tuesday, Hong Kong-listed investment company China Strategic said it has agreed to sell a 30% stake in Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. to Taiwanese financial services major Chinatrust Financial Holding Co. in return for a 9.95% stake in Chinatrust.

The announcement comes just a month after a consortium led by China Strategic outbid others — including Chinatrust — to acquire a 97.57% interest in Nan Shan Life from AIG for $2.15 billion.

China Strategic shares were rose as much as 11.7% in the Hong Kong morning session, while Chinatrust shares gained 2.2% in Taipei.

China Strategic’s decision to sell the stake to Chinatrust came after its consortium failed to win the Taiwanese regulators’ approval to the stake purchase from AIG.

Hong Kong daily The Standard reported Wednesday that Taiwanese regulators and lawmakers had purportedly “cast strong doubts about China Strategic’s mainland [China] background.”

The stake sale in Nan Shan to Chinatrust would make it easier for the China Strategic consortium to complete the acquisition.

In its notice to the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Strategic said the agreement with Chinatrust is subject to the completion of its earlier pact to acquire Nan Shan, as well as regulatory approvals to the latest deal Internet Payday loans.

In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley analysts said the acquisition of a 30% stake in Nan Shan could mean “short-term pain but mid-term gain” for Chinatrust.

“Based on the price Chinatrust paid for a 30% stake in Nan Shan Life and the funding structure, we estimate that Nan Shan Life’s return on assets would need to reach 0.5% to make the deal return-on-equity accretive for Chinatrust,” Morgan Stanley analysts Lily Choi and Bruce Chou wrote in the report.

“We believe it will be difficult for Nan Shan to generate this kind of performance in the near term, given the current low interest rate environment,” they said, adding they expected Chinatrust shares to be volatile in the near term.

Under the proposed transaction with Chinatrust, China Strategic will acquire 1.17 billion common shares of Chinatrust, amounting to 9.95% of the Taiwanese company’s share capital. The purchase will be made at 17.74 new Taiwanese dollars (55 U.S. cents) apiece, a 12.8% discount to Chinatrust shares’ Tuesday close.

The $660 million deal gives Nan Shan roughly the same valuation at which the China Strategic consortium agreed to buy the controlling stake from AIG last month.

Under the agreement, China Strategic said it would also enter talks at a later date to increase its stake in Chinatrust, as well as to increase the Taiwanese company’s stake in Nan Shan within three years.

China Strategic shares jump on Chinatrust deal

The lawyer, Sergei L. Magnitsky, who was in charge of the tax practice at the Moscow law firm of Firestone Duncan, died of toxic shock and heart failure in the prison hospital, said Irina V. Dudukina, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee.

Mr. Magnitsky’s death adds another chapter to the turbulent history of Hermitage Capital and its owner, William F. Browder, once among the most prominent foreign investors in Russia. Mr. Browder was widely known for accumulating large stakes in companies like Gazprom, and then badgering them to fight corruption in their ranks and provide greater transparency. In 2005, without warning, he was barred from Russia.

Last year, Mr. Browder accused the Russian authorities of using his Russian companies to embezzle $230 million from the Russian treasury. He said that when he complained, the police began a campaign to intimidate his representatives, including Mr. Magnitsky. The authorities, meanwhile, have accused Hermitage of failing to pay about $17.4 million in taxes.

Mr. Magnitsky was working as outside counsel for Hermitage when he was arrested and held without bail in connection with the tax case payday loans.

Jamison Firestone, Mr. Magnitsky’s employer, said that the lawyer was in good health at the time of his arrest but that his condition deteriorated so sharply in custody that he lost about 40 pounds. In meticulous notes from the detention center, Mr. Magnitsky documented his repeated requests for medical attention and medicine, which were denied, and wrote that prison doctors said he was suffering from gall bladder disease and pancreatitis.

“He was repeatedly told by investigators that if he testified, he could get out, but he refused,” Mr. Firestone said. “They were just moving him into worse and worse conditions, and eventually his health started to break down.”

Ms. Dudukina, the Interior Ministry spokeswoman, said that Mr. Magnitsky had never alerted the prison authorities to any health problems, including at his most recent hearing, on Friday. She also said prison doctors found that he had no chronic illnesses. She said he complained to guards on Monday night that he was feeling unwell and was transferred to the prison hospital.

“For investigators, this comes as a total surprise, because there were no complaints about his health,” she said.

Lawyer Held In Tax Case In Russia Dies in Jail

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 90.71 points, or 1.7 percent, at 5,387.09. Germany’s DAX rose 116.96 points, or 2.1 percent, at 5,803.79 while the CAC-40 in France was 56.36 points, or 1.5 percent, higher at 3,862.37.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 130.82 points, or 1.3 percent, at 10,401.29, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 16.64 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,110.12.

The gains came after the Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales rose 1.4 percent in October from the previous month. Though higher than analysts’ expectations for a 0.8 percent advance, it was not enough to offset September’s revised 2.3 percent decline — originally the fall was estimated at 1.5 percent.

And excluding auto sales, retail sales rose 0.2 percent, half of the expected 0.4 percent increase.

Despite the dependence on car sales and the bigger than anticipated fall in September, markets extended their earlier gains, as investors focused in on the October rebound. Retail sales are particularly important when assessing the outlook for the global economy — without the help of U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for around 70 percent of the U.S. economy, any global economic recovery will be modest.

“The October retail sales numbers were a very mixed bag, but signal that despite the consumer’s gloomy mood, spending is improving,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

The retail sales data came in the wake of a raft of encouraging quarterly reports Friday from large U.S. chains, including clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co payday loan lenders. and department-store chain J.C. Penney Co.

Retailers will continue to dominate the earnings calendar in the U.S. this week, too. Those expected to report include Home Depot Inc., Target Corp. and Gap Inc.

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. kicked off the week’s retailing earnings. Though its third-quarter profit dipped 30 percent, it matched expectations. And despite the declining earnings, Lowe’s said it is seeing stabilization in some of the hardest-hit housing markets.

Stock markets have rallied strongly since March’s lows, with many of the world’s major indexes trading at, or near, their highest levels this year as investors reined in their economic doomsday expectations to factor in a swifter than anticipated global economic rebound.

Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed up 0.2 percent at 9,791.18 after figures showed the Japanese economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the third quarter. That was the second straight quarter of expansion and the biggest rise since 2007.

In greater China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7 percent to 22,943.98, and Shanghai’s benchmark surged 2.7 percent to 3,275.05. Markets in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia rose between 1 percent and 2 percent.

Oil prices rose in tandem with stocks. Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 76 cents at $77.11 a barrel; the contract settled down 59 cents at $76.35 on Friday.

Meanwhile, the euro was up 0.4 percent at $1.4977 while the dollar was down 0.3 percent at 89.29 yen.

____

AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

World stocks lifted by US retail sales data

In a statement released Sunday, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in Singapore acknowledged the leading role Asia Pacific nations have taken in the global economic recovery.  But they said their regional economies can not return to growth as usual.The 21 Pacific Rim economies agree a new growth strategy is needed to meet the needs of the global economy. He said, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong read an outline of the statement to APEC leaders. He said, “We will pursue growth which is balanced, inclusive, and sustainable, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit people.”

During the last day of meetings Sunday, APEC leaders also held discussions about climate change.  They agreed a legally binding agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions was not likely by a December meeting in Copenhagen, but a framework for further negotiations was possible free business cards.Pacific Rim leaders dropped a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions from a draft statement.  But, Mr. Lee’s outline mentioned their concerns. “To achieve sustainable growth, we will work towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen and ensure that efforts to mitigate climate change are consistent with our international trade obligations,” said Mr. Lee.

U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech to APEC leaders Sunday saying they needed a growth model that would allow all nations to grow and raise living standards without damaging the environment. APEC leaders meeting this past week in Singapore said high unemployment was a sign that the global economic recovery is still fragile and protectionism a concern.  The APEC statement says free trade and open markets are key for continued prosperity in the Asia Pacific.

APEC Leaders Agree to Chart New Growth in Asia Pacific

Dong Zuoji, director of land planning department of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said home prices would continue to rise as the land in the world’s fastest-growing economy is becoming increasingly scarce, but the government should use taxes to give the added value of the land back to society.

“China hasn’t seen overcapacity in real estate sector on the whole, otherwise home prices wouldn’t have gained so much,” he said while attending a meeting held in Beijing.

Dong said the government would increase land supply for subsidized homes and adopt measures to prevent developers from hoarding land guaranteed online payday loans.

The government would also guarantee land use for high-tech, high added-value enterprises while limiting that of backward production projects.

Due to a series of supportive measures adopted by the government, China’s property sector rebounded strongly this year. Home prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities rose for the eight straight month in October.

Average house price in Beijing surged 43.7 percent in July from that of January, to 14,500 yuan per square meter, Golden Keys, a property agent said on July 17.

Property official: China to restrain “abnormal” home price hike

In a statement, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan said the two programmers — Jerome O’Hara, 46, of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez, 43, of East Brunswick, N.J. — were arrested Friday at their homes.

The complaint accuses the two men of providing the technical support needed to produce false documents and trading records that defrauding investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities of billions of dollars.

“Jerome O’Hara and George Perez allegedly helped construct Bernie Madoff’s house of cards. The computer codes and random algorithms they allegedly designed served to deceive investors and regulators and concealed Madoff’s crimes,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

In addition, Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, said that when the two men told Mr. Madoff “they would no longer lie for him,” they were paid to keep the scheme quiet.

Separately, a civil complaint was filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Without the help of O’Hara and Perez, the Madoff fraud would not have been possible,” said George S. Canellos, the director of the S.E.C.’s New York Regional Office. “They used their special computer skills to create sophisticated, credible and entirely phony trading records that were critical to the success of Madoff’s scheme for so many years.”

According to prosecutors, F.B.I. agents found handwritten notes in Mr. O’Hara’s desk stating, “I won’t lie any longer. Next time, I say ‘ask Frank,’ ” referring to Frank DiPascali Jr., Mr. Madoff’s primary assistant in the Ponzi scheme.

Thereafter, according to the complaints, Mr payday loans for bad credit. Madoff ordered Mr. DiPascali to pay the two programmers “whatever they wanted in order to keep them happy.” Thereafter, the two men received “hush money” in the form of 25-percent pay increases and bonuses of about $60,000, the civil complaint said.

Documents filed by prosecutors and regulators on Friday suggest that the two men reached some sort of turning point in their role in the Madoff operation in April 2006, when they attempted to delete almost all the special programs they had created for the computer Mr. Madoff used to generate his phony customer statements, the complaints said.

They also closed their own Madoff accounts at that time and withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars each, prosecutors said. The two men, who started to work for Mr. Madoff in the early 1990s, left in December 2008, according to the S.E.C. complaint.

Mr. Madoff was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the massive Ponzi scheme. Two others have pleaded guilty to fraud in the case. He is in prison in North Carolina.

His long-time accountant, David G. Friehling, admitted in federal court earlier this month that he had produced the rubber-stamp audits that allowed Mr. Madoff to conceal his Ponzi scheme for nearly 20 years.

And in August, Mr. DiPascali pleaded guilty to creating the fictitious paper trail of office records and customer accounts that helped deceive investors for decades. He is in jail in Manhattan awaiting sentencing and faces up to 125 years in prison.

In addition, Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed trustee seeking to recover assets for the victims, has sued four members of the Madoff family for almost $200 million they received over the years, asserting that the money represented excessive paychecks, improper use of company cash and fabricated investment profits that should have alerted them to the underlying fraud.

Two Are Charged With Helping Madoff Falsify Records

Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. Treasury's special master for executive pay at seven companies with massive taxpayer bailouts, told a forum sponsored by Bloomberg that the auto industry largely accepted his pay rulings without appeals Internet Payday loans.

"If General Motors or any other company wants to bring someone in laterally — laterally — and competitive pay packages require that lateral hires get certain competitive pay, what have you, we're perfectly willing to examine that," Feinberg said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Pay czar open to “lateral” pay offers