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The Toronto stock market finished modestly higher today as commodity stocks helped claw back a small portion of Thursday's slide of almost three per cent.

New York indexes were in the red going into the Memorial Day long weekend amid worries about the U.S. government's credit rating and prospects for a General Motors bankruptcy filing.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index surrendered an earlier triple-digit rise, closing with a gain of 43.83 points at 9,993.42.

That followed the previous session's 282-point tumble when markets were unnerved by word that Britain may lose its AAA credit rating because of swelling government debt. Traders worry that the United States and other big economies could face similar problems, as politicians try to spend their way out of recession.

The TSX main index rose 144 points or 1.45 per cent on the week, adding up to a 32 per cent surge since the spring rally started March 10.

American-dollar weakness helped push the Canadian dollar ahead 1.39 cents to 89.26 cents US, its strongest level since early October.

"The U.S. dollar is weaker every day because everyone is worried about this printing of money, and clearly that's the only way I can see that they can get out of this mess – debase the currency," said John Stephenson, portfolio manager at First Asset Funds.

The loonie has gained about 4 1/2 cents over the past week against the greenback, which fell today to a four-month low against the euro.

Statistics Canada reported retail sales rose 0.3 per cent in March. It was the third consecutive monthly increase, although less than the 0.5 per cent climb economists had expected.

"But before breaking out the bubbly and declaring the recession over for consumers, note that the recent modest gains follow a huge drop at the end of last year (when sales tumbled five per cent in the month of December alone)," observed BMO Capital Markets economist Doug Porter.

"Even with the three-month string of gains, sales are still down 4.8 per cent from year-ago levels."

The TSX Venture Exchange was ahead 6.66 points to 1,096.51.

Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average slipped 14.81 points to 8,277.32 for a loss of 54 points in a week when the U.S. Federal Reserve issued gloomy new estimates of how high unemployment might run and how much the economy might slow.

The Nasdaq composite index shed 3.24 points to 1,692.01 to while the S&P 500 dipped 1.33 to 887.

General Motors Corp instant health insurance quote. was down 49 cents or 25.5 per cent at US$1.43. A committee of GM's biggest bondholders said there is no support for accepting a 10 per cent stake in the company through the automaker's offer of 225 shares for each US$1,000 worth of debt.

The Canadian Auto Workers, meanwhile, agreed to another cost-cutting deal with GM Canada in its bid to qualify for government loans to stave off liquidation. The United Auto Workers reached a deal on concessions earlier in the week.

On the TSX, Magna International (TSX: MG.A) slipped 77 cents to $36.24 in the wake of the GM news. Magna had been higher for most of the day after the governor of the German state where General Motors' Opel unit is based indicated he favours a bid by the Canadian auto parts manufacturer for the European automaker.

The TSX energy sector rose 1.1 per cent. The July crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 62 cents to US$61.67 a barrel. Petro-Canada (TSX: PCA) added $1.10 to C$44.22 while EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA) declined 75 cents to $58.01.

The Toronto base metals sector moved up 2.5 per cent. Teck Resources (TSX: TCK.B) rose 73 cents to $15.87.

High River Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: HRG), a troubled Toronto miner with operations in Russia and Africa, tumbled five cents to 18 cents after it said Russia's OAO Severstal plans to offer that amount per share to minority shareholders.

The Toronto financial sector was down 0.25 per cent as investors look ahead to earnings reports from the big Canadian banks next week. Bank of Montreal (TSX: BMO), which leads off on Tuesday, fell 66 cents $40.87. The TSX financial sector has surged about 50 per cent since March 9.

Manulife Financial Corp. firmed up 25 cents to $21.64 as Ottawa launched a facility guaranteeing term financing for life insurers in the event of a financial market freeze-up.

Investors also found some room for optimism after U.S. banks reduced borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency loan program over the past week, seen as a sign that credit stresses are easing.

Indigo Books & Music Inc. (TSX: IDG) gained 59 cents to $12.60 as it declared its first dividend. Sales increased four per cent in its latest quarter, but profit weakened.

Sino-Forest Corp. (TSX: TRE), which runs tree plantations in China, toppled $1.51 to $11.30 after announcing an issue of 30 million shares for $330 million.

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Shares of Bank of America Corp rose 7.7 percent to $11.49 in premarket trading on Monday, after some analysts issued positive comments on the stock.

Goldman Sachs added it to its conviction buy list no fax pay day loans.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Theodore d’Afflisio)

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OTTAWA – The pension plan at Canada Post lost 19.3 per cent in 2008, hammered by the financial and economic turmoil in Canada and around the world.

The plan held total net assets of $11.71 billion at Dec. 31, 2008, compared with $14.67 billion at the end of the previous year.

The Canada Post pension plan ended 2008 with an estimated solvency deficit of $1.19 billion, representing a solvency funding ratio of 91 per cent.

However, chief investment officer Douglas Greaves said the plan was fully funded on a going-concern basis, with an estimated surplus of $675 million totally free credit score.

"While the short-term impact on investment returns has been negative, the plan is designed to achieve the long-term returns required to fund pension benefits for members, retirees and beneficiaries," Greaves said in a statement.

The Canada Post pension plan is a defined benefit plan that provides inflation-protected benefits to almost 80,000 active members, retired members, deferred pensioners and beneficiaries.

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Chinese businesses are slightly less worried about the economic outlook and their prospects than they were three months ago, according to a quarterly survey by the central bank.

The survey of more than 5,500 firms showed that, while businesses saw the economy as being significantly worse in the first quarter than the final three months of 2008, their expectations about growth in the second quarter improved somewhat.

They also saw their own businesses improving in the April-June period, the People’s Bank of China said on its website.

The index measuring businesses’ assessment of the economy in the first quarter registered -38.6 percent, which the central bank said was close to the lowest ever since the survey began in 1993 instant payday loans. The outlook for the second quarter was a touch better at -31.6 percent.

The survey also showed that businesses were more satisfied about access to bank loans in the first quarter, though that sub-index was still in negative territory at -15.8 percent.

However, Chinese enterprises have felt the pinch from sharp declines in both domestic and overseas orders. The sub-index measuring domestic orders dropped by 4 percentage points to -10.7 percent, while the overseas order gauge sank 5 percentage points to -17.8 percent.

(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Aileen Wang; Writing by Jason Subler)

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The global economy is likely to shrink for the first time since World War II, and trade will decline by the most in 80 years, the World Bank said.

The World Bank’s assessment is more pessimistic than an International Monetary Fund report in January predicting 0.5 percent global growth this year. The Washington-based World Bank didn’t provide a specific estimate in its report yesterday.

World growth will be 5 percent below its potential, the bank said. Developing nations will bear the brunt of the contraction. They will face a shortfall of between $270 billion and $700 billion to pay for imports and service debts, the bank said.

“We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a statement. Action is needed by governments and multilateral lenders “to avoid social and political unrest.”

East Asia will be hit the hardest by the decline in global commerce, the bank said. Global industrial production is expected to be as much as 15 percent lower than in 2008.

The World Bank said that a surge of debt issuance by rich nations risks “crowding out many developing country borrowers, both private and public.” Emerging nations that can access capital markets will be forced to pay higher rates of interest cheap payday loans.

The report said that 94 out of 116 developing countries had experienced a slowdown in economic growth, with poverty increasing in 43. The economic crisis will swell the ranks of the poor by 46 million this year, the report says. The result would be growing dependence on foreign aid.

‘Bigger Bang’

Justin Lin, the bank’s chief economist, said that developed nations should funnel part of their stimulus spending to poorer countries where it would be more effective at boosting demand. Channeling infrastructure investment to the developing world can have a “bigger bang for the buck,” he said.

Developing nations will be hurt by tighter credit, withdrawals of foreign direct investment, and a decline in the amount of money sent home by workers overseas, the report said. The decline in such remittances will have the biggest impact in countries including Honduras, Lebanon and Tajikistan.

Maturing debt is another major risk for many emerging nations, the report said, estimating that more than $1 trillion of corporate debt and as much as $3 trillion on government debt will come due this year.

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Congress is racing to pass a giant bill to stimulate the economy. But a key piece of it may be a little slower in coming than many people expect.

The biggest single tax break in the Democrats’ proposed economic recovery package is the $145 billion "Make Work Pay Credit."

The credit, which President Obama championed, would reach close to 95% of workers and be paid primarily through paychecks. It would be worth $500 per worker or $1,000 for working couples who file jointly. The full credit will be available to those making $75,000 or less, or $150,000 or less for couples. Even workers in those income groups with no tax liability would get it.

The bill is still being debated. But as things currently stand, workers may not see that money until June. And some of the lowest wage workers - those who economists say are most likely to spend the money rather than save it - may not see their credit until they file their 2009 federal tax return sometime next year.

But for the credit to be paid out in workers’ paychecks, employers will need to change how much tax they withhold. And they would need new withholding tables from the Treasury Department to do that.

Thomas Barthold, a deputy chief of staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation, told lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday that he understood Treasury may not be able to get those tables to all employers before June 1.

That means it could take 15 weeks if the bill is enacted by President’s Day, as Democrats have promised.

The American Payroll Association paints a slightly more optimistic picture. The trade group, which represents payroll specialists, was told by Senate staffers that Treasury might need only 10 weeks to revise and distribute the withholding tables, said Michael O’Toole, APA’s senior director of government relations and publications.

Meanwhile, a Ways and Means staffer told CNNMoney.com Thursday, "We’ve heard they will do them as quickly as possible."

A Treasury spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Economists have been urging lawmakers for months to act swiftly to get money distributed to states, businesses and consumers to help stem the economic downturn payday loan lenders. And many, like Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute, have stressed that the timing of stimulus is paramount to its success.

"This would have been great a year ago, but now consumers are so defensively oriented that the boost to the economy will be more limited," Achuthan said. "Any substantial delay from today increases the risk that the economy will tumble into a much deeper recession, which will be all the more difficult to climb out of later."

Mark Zandi, founder of Moody’s Economy.com whose research has been relied upon by the Democrats to make their case for stimulus, was a little more optimistic. He said June 1 is not too late but that an earlier start would help boost the economy more.

"Every day matters," Zandi said. "The economy will be under severe pressure early this year, and the benefit of the stimulus could be overwhelmed if it doesn’t get into the economy quickly."

Even if Treasury is able to turn out new withholding tables on a dime, the way the provision is currently structured, the lowest income workers may not see their 2009 credit until the first quarter of 2010.

"The biggest sticking point is for people who have very little or no income tax withheld because they earn too little or take a lot of exemptions. They’d have to wait for some or all of their credit until they file [their tax return]," O’Toole said.

Of course, the lowest paid are also those most likely to be living paycheck to paycheck and more likely to spend the money quickly.

Even middle-income folks will have to wait to get some of their 2009 credit since the full $500 per worker likely wouldn’t all be paid out this year since it would go into effect after a considerable number of pay periods have passed. Workers could claim the unpaid portion of the 2009 credit on their federal tax return due April 15, 2010, according to the Ways and Means Committee. 

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The New York Times Co. said it will get a $250 million investment from one of the world’s richest men, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, a move that will give the company much-needed time to clear financial hurdles.

Slim, 68, who already owns 6.9 percent of the Times’s stock, will receive warrants in the company that could give him an eventual 17 percent interest in the publisher.

That would make him one of the largest shareholders in the venerable newspaper publisher, following the Ochs-Sulzberger family that has controlled the company for more than 100 years. It is unclear what Slim’s eventual aim is with the company.

The investment comes at a critical time for The New York Times. The company, which owns the namesake newspaper as well as The Boston Globe and other local U.S. papers, is struggling to pay off more than $1.1 billion in debt in the next few years, even as advertising revenue deteriorates.

The Times has $46 million in cash, but faces a $400 million credit facility that expires in May. The company is trying to sell its stake in the holding company that controls the Boston Red Sox baseball team and might sell more properties.

Slim, the world’s second-richest man with a net worth of $60 billion, according to Forbes magazine, has not said what his eventual intention is with the Times. A spokesman on Sunday declined to answer questions, including whether Slim wants to eventually buy the Times.

The drop in advertising revenue at publishing companies has partly come from a fundamental change in the way people read news fast payday advance. More people are getting it online for free and dropping print subscriptions. The world financial crisis has accentuated the fall in advertising revenue and media stocks have taken a battering.

The Times’s shares have dived 70 percent from their 12-month high of $21.14 in April 2008 to $6.41 on Friday.

Times Chief Financial Officer James Follo said Slim’s interest is purely financial, echoing a statement Slim made in September when he disclosed a 6.4 percent stake.

Slim approached the Times about an investment several months ago, Follo said.

RICH PATRONS

The investment illustrates how newspapers are turning to rich patrons to give them a lifeline to keep producing journalism even as their own financial fortunes wane.

It is an unusual move for the Times, which has been controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family since 1896 through a special class of shares. The family also owns about 20 percent of the company in publicly traded and special shares.

The Times had not allowed outsiders on its board until last year, when hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners bought a stake about equal to that of the Sulzberger family. The fund demanded the company give it representation and consider selling non-core properties to turn around its flagging stock price.

Under the terms of the deal, Slim will invest through his Banco Inbursa S.A., Institucion de Banca Multiple, Grupo Financiero Inbursa and Immobiliaria Carso. 

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TOKYO– Sony Corp. is slashing 4 per cent of its worldwide workforce, reining in spending and shutting plants as it tries to ride out a looming worldwide recession that is battering Japan’s export-reliant manufacturers.

Tokyo-based Sony, which is cutting 8,000 of its 185,000 jobs, said yesterday it will shut five or six plants – about 10 per cent of its 57 factories.

Sony also plans to reduce its electronics investments by about one-third by the end of March 2010, although it did not give specific numbers. Sony will also cut at least 8,000 temporary jobs.

The job cuts are the most drastic here since the U compare car insurance prices.S. credit crunch hit over the summer.

Sony has been recovering from internal problems in recent years under cost-cutting reforms led by chief executive Howard Stringer.

Sony said the moves will deliver $1 billion (U.S.) in savings a year by March 2010.

As well, Sony will trim spending in semiconductors and will outsource output planned for image sensors for mobile phones.

Associated Press

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ALBANY, N.Y. — Financially troubled American International Group, now supported by a federal bailout, has agreed to freeze millions of dollars in compensation and bonuses for former executives.

In a letter Wednesday to AIG’s new chairman, Edward Liddy, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wrote that after his office’s review of company documents, the insurance and finance giant agreed to stop payments under former chief executive Martin Sullivan’s $19 million pay package.

AIG also confirmed that no payments will be made from the $600 million compensation and bonus pools of its Financial Products subsidiary, including $69 million the former head of the subsidiary, Joseph Casano, could have been paid and about $93 million that five other top executives might have been eligible to receive.

"The Financial Products subsidiary was largely responsible for AIG’s collapse, and Casano has been terminated," Cuomo wrote. Taxpayers’ financial interests should take priority over those managers, he said.

Company spokesman Joe Norton said Cuomo’s letter was consistent with AIG’s actions and discussions with the attorney general internet pay day loan. After a meeting last week, Liddy and Cuomo issued a joint statement that payments to outgoing chief financial officer Steven Bensinger were stopped and the company would help Cuomo recover any illegal expenditures.

Cuomo said Wednesday that the next step for his office will be investigating how to recoup executive bonuses paid previously, saying a fraud law could apply depending on timing, circumstances and contracts. Handling AIG’s case should be regarded as a template for other companies that require government help, he said.

"Taxpayers are, in many ways, now like shareholders of your company, and the new AIG has a responsibility to them in the first instance," Cuomo wrote Liddy, noting the $120 billion bailout will leave the U.S. Treasury with AIG stock.

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Only five U.S. companies filed initial public offerings in the third quarter, an 87 percent drop from the third quarter of 2007, according to Hoovers Inc.

The five companies that went public on U.S. exchanges last quarter raised $917 million. That is down considerably from the 38 companies that went public a year ago, raising $11.2 billion.

“The IPO market is as bad as we’ve seen since 2003, and the ongoing troubles of the U.S. financial sector aren’t making conditions any friendlier for IPO aspirants and their underwriters,” said Tim Walker, Hoover’s industry expert.

The sobering third-quarter figures come on the heels of a 77 percent year-over-year drop in second-quarter filings and a 73 percent drop in first-quarter filings.

Among the companies that filed in the third quarter, Energy Recovery Inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) of San Leandro, Calif. had the best first day of trading, with shares gaining 16 percent. Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) of San Antonio had the worst first day—its shares dropped 20 percent the day it went public.

“Any company coming to the IPO market wants to feel sure that it can get a favorable hearing from potential investors,” said Walker. “If you’re Google or Visa, your brand ensures you’ll get that hearing. But if you’re anybody else – even a billion-dollar arm of an existing business that wants to spin off – you’re gambling right now that the week of your debut won’t be a market roller-coaster.”

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