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BANGKOK - Asian stocks eked out gains Thursday as traders hunted for bargains after sharp selling in recent days, but markets in Europe fell amid intensifying fears of a messy exit by Greece from the euro common currency.

Greece called a new round of elections for June 17 after coalition talks to form a government fell apart. The president said depositors were pulling hundreds of millions of euros out of banks, weakening the country’s strained financial system.

The developments fueled fears that Greece would exit the euro currency and shake global markets. In elections earlier this month, Greek voters punished parties that supported tough austerity measures needed to secure international bailout money.

But analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said the scheduling of new Greek elections suggested “a reduction in near-term uncertainties” that could lead to some relief for volatile markets.

Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4 per cent to 5,380.72 in early trading. Germany’s DAX fell 0.2 per cent to 6,373.01 and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.2 per cent to 3,042.45.

U.S. stocks were set for a moderately higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.3 per cent at 12,610. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 per cent to 1,327.

In Asia, stock markets enjoyed a slight rebound as investors went bargain-hunting, analysts said.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9 per cent to close at 8,876.59 after the country posted better-than-expected growth figures for the first quarter. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3 per cent to 1,845.24. Benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and the Philippines also rose business cards.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 per cent to 4,157.40, dragged down by financial stocks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.3 per cent down at 19,200.93.

Mainland Chinese shares bounced back from early losses, buoyed by calls from the country’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, for market reforms.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4 per cent to 2,378.89. The Shenzhen Composite Index also gained 1.4 per cent to 954.95. Shares in brokerages, financial and trading-related companies led the gains.

Positive news on the U.S. economy on Wednesday underpinned sentiment in Asia. Construction of homes in April rose 2.6 per cent from March, and U.S. factory production increased 0.6 per cent in April, helped by a gain in auto production.

Some Japanese stocks saw big gains amid news that the country’s economy grew at an annualized 4.1 per cent for the January-March quarter thanks to a rebound in consumer spending.

Sharp Corp. jumped 5.7 per cent and Mazda Motor Corp. added 3.8 per cent. Steel company JFE Holdings shot up 5.5 per cent.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 52 cents to $93.33 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract fell by $1.17 to finish at a seven-month low of $92.81 per barrel in New York.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2715 from $1.2725 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 80.35 yen from 80.29 yen.

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AP researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.

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EverBank is branching out with a new wealth management company based in Brentwood that is targeting affluent customers.

EverBank Financial Corp., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based financial services firm, formed the wealth management subsidiary to provide wealthy customers looking for institutional-caliber investment advice.

“We see that as lacking in the market,” EverBank Wealth Management’s CEO Frank Trotter said in an interview.

Launched Monday, EverBank Wealth Management Inc. joins many other financial institutions that are seeking to grow revenue by broadening investment services for the wealthy.

EverBank’s wealth management subsidiary is based at 8300 Eager Road, where the bank’s World Markets division and some other bank operations are based. Some wealth management executives are based here, including Trotter, and some are based in Jacksonville.

Locally, EverBank employs about 150 people in Brentwood, which will grow as the wealth management business expands, Trotter said.

Companywide, EverBank has 575,000 customers nationwide and $10.3 billion in assets as of the end of 2011. The wealth management company formation came the same week EverBank launched an initial public offering of its stock.

Trotter, a longtime St. Louis banker, formed EverBank as an Internet-based bank in 1999. In 2002, EverBank was acquired by Alliance Capital Partners, a holding company based in Jacksonville, which later changed its name to EverBank Financial.

Through its World Markets division in Brentwood, EverBank offers investments in foreign currencies and in precious metals.

EverBank already works with more than 200 broker-dealer and investment advisory firms nationwide, matching customers with advisors through its Advisor Services unit, which is also based in Brentwood.

But the bank lacked its own in-house advisory services after EverBank sold in 2002 its investment advisory business, Acropolis Investment Management, which is based locally.

“People have always asked: can’t you just manage my money for me,” Trotter said.

“We wanted to get back into it,”he said of EverBanks’ return to offering investment advice.

David Conover, EverBank Wealth Management’s president and chief operating officer, said the concentration of investment advisors in the St. Louis area — which is home to a mass of financial services firms including Wells Fargo Advisors and Edward Jones — will help in recruitment efforts for the subsidiary.

“There’s a concentration of talent in St. Louis and economies of scale” with EverBank’s existing operations, Conover said.

EverBank’s push into wealth management comes as other banks, including U.S. Bank, Commerce Bank, and Enterprise Bank & Trust, have added new services or added staff to increase their wealth management offerings as the population of high net worth individuals, or those with at least $1 million in invest-able assets, continues to grow.

Trotter said EverBank Wealth Management’s strategy is to offer a simple fee structure based on a customers’ assets and to put an emphasis on listening to customers.

“We’ve observed over the years that some brokers say ‘this is the way I do it,’” Trotter said. “We want to listen to the client and hear the way they approach investing and how they feel about the economic situation – we want to have a conversation with them and I feel that’s radically different than what’s available.”

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Italy

Dubai says it now has full control of the Atlantis resort hotel perched atop its palm-shaped island.

State-run investment firm Istithmar World said late Friday it paid $250 million to buy out financially troubled business partner Kerzner International Holdings Ltd., which had held a 50 percent stake in the coral-colored hotel. Istithmar already owned half of the property.

Kerzner will continue to operate the resort, which includes a waterpark and 18 restaurants, Istithmar said.

It agreed to give up its stake in the Dubai property and a similar resort in the Bahamas after struggling to restructure $2.6 billion in debt. Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management acquired the Bahamas property in a previously announced deal by agreeing to waive $175 million in debt owed by Kerzner.

Kerzner said it plans to use proceeds from the Dubai sale to reduce its debt load.

Istithmar is part of Dubai state conglomerate Dubai World, which has struggled with high-profile debt troubles of its own. It owns upscale retailer Barneys New York and has a stake in performance company Cirque du Soleil.

“This acquisition is in line with our strategy of managing our assets for value and investing selectively where growth opportunities exist,” Dubai World’s chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said in a statement cheapest personal loan rates.

Istithmar’s parent Dubai World was at the heart of Dubai’s financial meltdown in 2009. It signed an agreement to restructure some $25 billion in debt last March.

The Atlantis is one of Dubai’s better-known tourist destinations. It is a mainstay of city tours, vying for attention with the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa, and more traditional offerings such as the old gold and spice markets. Ads for the hotel greet Dubai airport passengers on arrival.

Atlantis opened for business in September 2008, shortly after a construction fire damaged part of the brightly painted lobby.

A lavish coming-out party for the resort two months later cost $20 million and featured a celebrity guest list that included Robert DeNiro and Lindsay Lohan. Australian pop star Kylie Minogue provided the entertainment.

The 1,537-room hotel is at the top of the Palm Jumeirah, the first of Dubai’s palm-shaped manmade islands and the only one that is developed. Visitors arrive by monorail or by traveling through an underwater tunnel.

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President Obama made a broad push Tuesday for increasing taxes on the wealthy and in particular proposed Buffett Rule.

His address to college students in Florida came on the heels of a White House report that laid out its case, arguing that the Buffett Rule would make the tax code fairer and make it harder for the very rich to lower their tax bills.

Quiz: What the rich really pay in taxes

"What drags our entire economy down is when the benefits of economic growth and productivity go only to the few … and the gap between those at the very, very top and everybody else keeps growing wider and wider," Obama said.

The Buffett Rule is a key talking point in Obama’s re-election bid. The general principle behind it is that millionaires and billionaires like investor Warren Buffett shouldn’t pay a lower percentage of their income in federal taxes than middle-class households.

Obama has even set a threshold for how much they should pay: At least 30% of their income.

Obama’s Buffett Rule: FAQ

Most millionaires today already pay a higher percentage of their income in federal taxes than the vast majority of all Americans. But roughly 25% of them end up with a lower effective tax rate than 10% of middle-income households, according to the Congressional Research Service.

And a very small number — fewer than 1,500 households in 2009, according to the IRS — end up owing no federal income tax at all.

Obama’s Buffett Rule is targeted specifically at those high-income households that are in a position to structure their income and engage in legal tax strategies to minimize their tax bite.

Millionaires who owe no federal income tax

"The idea behind the Buffett Rule is to have a tax on high-income earners who manage to avoid paying a large share of their income in taxes," Alan Krueger, director of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in a call with reporters.

They can do so if much of their income comes from capital gains and dividends — which are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary paychecks. The same is true if they have made tax-free or tax-sheltered investments.

And a number of other tax breaks on the books end up disproportionately benefiting high-income households.

Krueger asserted that the Buffett Rule would also make for good tax policy by making the tax code more efficient. That is, there would be less incentive for the wealthy to choose one investment or financial activity over another or to recharacterize their income simply to reduce their tax bills.

Tax experts, however, say the goals of the Buffett Rule could be accomplished more simply through a complete overhaul of the tax code.

Indeed, Obama initially proposed the Buffett Rule as a guiding principle for reform. But Senate Democrats are now pushing a bill to implement a version of the rule in today’s tax code. And the White House is now endorsing that push.

Tax reform is likely to be a long slog, and implementing a Buffett Rule now would be a "simple and common sense" step toward reform, said Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council. 

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The year has barely begun, but it’s already a major disappointment for the cruise industry.

It was supposed to be the year that prices stabilized following widespread discounting after the recession. But just two weeks into the year, 32 people died when the Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy. Then late last month, another Costa ship _ the Allegra _ caught fire and lost power, leaving passengers without working toilets, running water or air conditioning for three days.

Costa’s parent company, Carnival Corp., said Friday those incidents led it to slash its 2012 earnings expectations by 82 percent. Still, it’s holding prices firm, warning that “consumers holding out for deeper than normal discounts may be disappointed.”

Since the Concordia capsized in mid-January, Carnival said that its booking trends, excluding Costa, are still running behind last year, despite lowering prices immediately after the accident. Booking volumes for the Costa line during the same period are running “significantly behind.”

Costa nixed essentially all its marketing after the wreck, Carnival said, and has not made a serious public attempt to win back potential travelers in most markets.

Carnival Corp. posted a loss of $139 million, or 18 cents per share, for the first quarter on Friday. A year ago, it earned $152 million, or 19 cents per share.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $3.58 billion. Analysts expected a loss of 7 cents per share with revenue of $3.56 billion.

The first three months of the year are a critical period for the cruise industry payday loan lenders in states. Referred to as “wave season,” it’s a time when a large number of travelers book cruises for the year. The Costa Concordia disaster happened as the season was starting, and it affected bookings across the industry.

Last month Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said it’s hard to determine what impact the tragedy will have on its 2012 revenue, but it said the accident has already hit bookings significantly.

Unlike plane tickets or hotel rooms which are mostly booked directly by customers on the internet, most cruises are sold by travel agents, which makes it harder to gauge the impact of an accident like the Concordia wreck.

But no cruise line has felt the impact like Carnival.

The Miami company predicted net income of between $1.40 and $1.70 per share. It previously forecast $2.55 to $2.85 per share. Revenue for the year after expenses could fall as much as 4 percent. If the potential business from the sunken Italian ship is excluded, Carnival says the number would likely be flat.

Carnival operates 101 ships under several brands including Costa, Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn.

Shares of Carnival Corp. fell 54 cents to $30.41 in midday trading. The stock lost about 16 percent in the days following the Concordia wreck, and has not recovered much from a January low of $29.36.

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The tax bills of Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett raise a long-running question: Why do Americans get taxed less on their investment gains than on their paychecks?

In fact, for much of the past century, long-term capital gains have been taxed at lower rates than ordinary income, although often at levels higher than today’s 15% rate.

And for much of the past century it’s been a contentious issue.

One side says preferential treatment for capital gains is just plain unfair. The tax code, they say, is being used to help the rich get richer, since they make more of their income from capital gains than anyone else.

Their solution: Tax capital gains as regular income.

Then there’s the counter argument — that capital gains, if anything, should be taxed more lightly, or better yet, not at all.

Capital gains are double taxed: One of the principal arguments for taxing capital gains at a lower rate is double taxation.

The corporate tax ’shell’ game

It goes like this: Stock prices are bolstered by corporate profits, which are subject to corporate tax. Therefore, gains made on stocks have already been taxed.

Tax experts like Len Burman and Martin Sullivan say that double taxation is dumb — actually, they’re more likely to use the term "inefficient."

But they also note the limitations of the double-taxation argument: Some capital gains really are only taxed once.

For instance, some assets that produce capital gains are not subject to a corporate tax. Think real estate, art or a pass-through business.

And some capital gains escape taxation altogether. A beneficiary of an estate does not owe tax on the capital gains accrued on an asset during the lifetime of the person who died.

Many gains are just inflation: One reason to keep capital gains rates lower is inflation. That is, some portion of one’s gains can be attributed to inflation between the purchase and sale of an asset. And sometimes it’s the whole kahuna.

Tax expert Bruce Bartlett, in a 2001 paper, cited research showing that after accounting for inflation investors booked a real investment loss of $231 billion on nominal gains of $3 trillion between 1946 and 1977.

Where the candidates stand on capital gains

To help mitigate the inflation hit, lawmakers have typically taxed capital gains at a lower rate than ordinary income or let investors exclude some portion of their gains from taxation.

A lower rate spurs the economy: The most common argument for a lower gains rate is that it spurs investment and risk-taking, which can lead to economic growth and higher federal revenue.

Burman doesn’t doubt a lower rate might spur investment and risk-taking. But there’s no proven correlation with economic growth, he said. "It doesn’t prove there’s not a relationship. It’s just not the silver bullet it’s made out to be."

In part that may be because it’s hard to quantify risk-taking, Bartlett noted in his new book about tax reform, "The Benefit and the Burden." But he also asserts that that impact of a lower gains rate on growth is "ambiguous."

Policy experts worry that a high capital gains rate can cause investors to hold onto assets longer than they otherwise might, preventing them from using their gains to reinvest in other assets.

Then again, some say a higher rate won’t deter investors.

"I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9% in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain," billionaire investor Warren Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

Possible solutions

A lot of arguments made to justify a low capital gains rate are really about "general flaws with the tax system, not a reason to lower the capital gains rate per se," Burman said.

One argument for not singling out capital gains for special relief: They are not the only kind of capital income that can be double taxed or hurt by inflation. So are dividends.

And creating special tax breaks for capital gains gives people a reason to seek out tax shelters.

One proposed solution is to tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income but significantly lower ordinary income tax rates.

That was the recommendation of President Obama’s bipartisan debt commission and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force. And it’s what President Reagan and Congress did when they reformed the tax code in 1986.

"If you tax capital gains as ordinary income it raises a lot of revenue to cut other rates," said Burman, who worked on the 1986 reform and was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center task force.

"It maintains high progressivity while lowering rates and it closes down the biggest opportunity for tax shelters." 

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Just 302,000 new homes were sold in 2011, 6.2% below 2010 and the lowest number of annual sales since the government started tracking home sales in 1963.

In December, sales of single-family homes fell 2.2% month-over-month to an annual rate of 307,000, according to estimates released by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A consensus of experts from Briefing.com had forecast an annual rate of sales of 321,000 for December. The actual result was a 6.9% decline from 12 months earlier, when homes sold at a 329,000 annual rate.

The dismal report was a reversal of other recent housing market trends. Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales rose for the third straight month in December and the Census Bureau said that construction of new homes had been gaining ground.

Pat Newport, an industry analyst with IHS Global Insight, did not put much stock in the December new-home sales report, however. "They’re not statistically significant," he said. "I think the other recent numbers, like on housing starts and permits, give a more accurate picture of the current trends in the market."

Construction gains late in the year indicate that the new home market is picking up, he said.

Still, he added, these are the lowest new home sales numbers for the nation as a whole and for three of the four regions ever recorded. Only the Midwest escaped notching a new a record low.

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The median home price for homes sold during December was $210,300 and there was a 6.1-month supply of homes at the current rate of sales.

Getting new home construction healthy again would help revitalize the economy. For every 100 homes built, 300 jobs are created, said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "Half of those are on construction sites and the other half are people building appliances, cabinets, carpets and other goods for the home," he said.

He’s forecasting an 18% rise in new homes sales this year. Newport, of IHS Global, is predicting a slightly lower gain of about 15%. 

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The director of the International Monetary Fund said Monday that Europe needs a stronger financial firewall to stop the spread of debt contagion in the eurozone.

Speaking in Berlin, IMF chief Christine Lagarde supported a plan to fold the resources of the European Financial Stability Facility into its permanent replacement, known as the European Stability Mechanism, which has yet to be fully established.

The EFSF is valued at €440 billion, while the ESM is expected to have €500 billion in lending capacity. Combining the funds could result in a total firewall worth €1 trillion, according to eurozone officials.

The goal is to shield larger euro area economies from the debt crisis that has pushed Greece to the brink of default and resulted in bailouts for Ireland and Portugal.

"We need a larger firewall," said Lagarde. "Without it, countries like Italy and Spain, that are fundamentally able to repay their debts, could potentially be forced into a solvency crisis by abnormal financing costs."

European recovery? Wait till 2013 (at least)

Lagarde stressed that the ESM should be funded with "real tangible capital," as opposed to the loan guarantees that make up the EFSF.

The comments came as finance ministers from the 17 nations that use the euro currency, known as the Eurogroup, met to discuss ways to speed up implementation of the ESM. They are also expected to hash out the details of the fiscal pact European leaders proposed in December.

In addition to calling for a stronger firewall, Lagarde said eurozone officials need to do more to boost economic growth, which could include additional action by the European Central Bank.

Lagarde also said the eurozone needs to move toward greater "fiscal integration." She pointed to a number of options for "fiscal risk-sharing," including the creation of so-called euro bonds, an idea that has proved controversial.

She welcomed steps the ECB has taken so far, including a long-term lending program that has already pumped nearly €500 billion into the banking system payday loans in one hour.

"That has helped enormously," Lagarde said, adding that "there is a role for the ECB to play in terms of monetary policy."

European banks need to raise more capital, but they must do so in a way that will not cause credit conditions to contract, cautioned Lagarde.

She said governments with large deficits need to continue to tighten public finances, although she warned the aggressive budget cuts could increase the risk of a deeper recession. However, nations that are in better financial shape should contribute to the "common effort" by scaling back fiscal consolidation, she added.

World Bank warns on risk of global recession

Separately, Lagarde said the IMF will lower its growth forecasts for "many part of the world" when it releases an update to its World Economic Outlook early Tuesday.

She called on global policymakers to do what is necessary to prevent a deeper decline, saying last year’s economic problems were driven "by a lack of a collective determination to reach a cooperative solution."

"Now the world must find the political will to do what it knows must be done," she said.

While the debt crisis in Europe is the biggest threat, Lagarde also pointed to the challenges facing the U.S. economy.

"The United States, as the world’s largest economy and the center of the global financial system, has a special responsibility," she said.

Despite signs of a modest recovery, the U.S. economy remains hindered by high unemployment and a weak housing market.

In addition, U.S. policymakers need to get past the "partisan impasse" on how to reduce the nation’s long-term debts, without stifling economic growth, she said. 

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