House rejects $700B bailout in stunning defeat, driving stocks down; Treasury vows more work

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a vote that shook the government, Wall Street and markets around the world, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, leaving both parties' lawmakers and the Bush administration scrambling to pick up the pieces. Dismayed investors sent the Dow Jones industrials plunging 777 points, the most ever for a single day.

"We need to put something back together that works," a grim-faced Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after he and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke joined in an emergency strategy session at the White House. On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders said the House would reconvene Thursday, leaving open the possibility that it could salvage a reworked version.

Senate leaders showed no inclination to try to bring the measure to a vote before they could determine its fate in the House. President Bush, meanwhile, was scheduled to make a statement on the rescue plan Tuesday morning, the White House said.

All sides agreed the effort to bolster beleaguered financial markets, potentially the biggest government intervention since the Great Depression, could not be abandoned.




But in a remarkable display on Monday, a majority of House members slapped aside the best version their leaders and the administration had been able to come up with, bucking presidential speeches, pleading visits from Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and urgent warnings that the economy could nosedive without the legislation.

In the face of thousands of phone calls and e-mails fiercely opposing the measure, many lawmakers were not willing to take the political risk of voting for it just five weeks before the elections.

The bill went down, 228-205.

The House Web site was overwhelmed as millions of people sought information about the measure through the day.




The legislation the administration promoted would have allowed the government to buy bad mortgages and other sour assets held by troubled banks and other financial institutions. Getting those debts off their books should bolster those companies' balance sheets, making them more inclined to lend and ease one of the biggest choke points in a national credit crisis. If the plan worked, the thinking went, it would help lift a major weight off the national economy, which is already sputtering.

Hoping to pick up enough GOP votes for the next try, Republicans floated several ideas. One would double the $100,000 ceiling on federal deposit insurance. Another would end rules that require companies to devalue assets on their books to reflect the price they could get in the market.

In the meantime, Paulson said he would work with other regulators "to use all the tools available to protect our financial system and our economy."

"Our tool kit is substantial but insufficient," he said, indicating the government intended to continue piecemeal fixes while pressing Congress for broader action.




Stocks started plummeting on Wall Street even before Monday's vote was over, as traders watched the rescue measure going down on television. Meanwhile, lawmakers were watching them back.

As a digital screen in the House chamber recorded a cascade of "no" votes against the bailout, Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York shouted news of the falling Dow Jones industrials. "Six hundred points!" he yelled, jabbing his thumb downward.

The final stock carnage far surpassed the 684-point drop on the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In the House, "no" votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill. Several Democrats in close election fights waited until the last moment, then went against the bill as it became clear the vast majority of Republicans were opposing it.




Thirteen of the 19 most vulnerable Republicans and Democrats in an Associated Press analysis voted against the bill despite the pleas from Bush and their party leaders to pass it.

In all, 65 Republicans joined 140 Democrats in voting "yes," while 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted "no."

The overriding question was what to do next.

"The legislation may have failed; the crisis is still with us," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a news conference after the defeat. "What happened today cannot stand."




Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader, said he and other Republicans were pained to back the measure, but in light of the potential consequences for the economy and all Americans, "We need to renew our efforts to find a solution that Congress can support."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said there was scant time to reopen legislation that was the product of hard-fought bipartisan negotiations.

"What happened today was not a failure of a bill, it was a failure of will," said Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman. "Our hope is that cooler heads will prevail, people will think about what they did today and recognize that this is not just scare tactics -- it's reality."

A brutal round of partisan finger-pointing followed the vote.

Republicans blamed Pelosi's scathing speech near the close of the debate -- which assailed Bush's economic policies and a "right-wing ideology of anything goes, no supervision, no discipline, no regulation" of financial markets -- for the defeat. It was not much different from her usual tough words against the president and his party.

"We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House," Boehner said.




Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the whip, estimated that Pelosi's speech changed the minds of a dozen Republicans who might otherwise have supported the plan.

That amounted to an appalling accusation by Republicans against Republicans, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the Financial Services Committee: "Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country."

More than a repudiation of Democrats, Frank said, Republicans' refusal to vote for the bailout was a rejection of their own president.

Indeed, many GOP lawmakers spurned Bush's urgent calls for action. "We have a gun to our head," said Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., who opposed the bill. "This isn't legislation -- it's extortion."

The two men campaigning to replace Bush watched the situation closely -- from afar -- and demanded action.

In Iowa, Republican John McCain said his rival Barack Obama and congressional Democrats "infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame; it's time to fix the problem."

Obama said, "Democrats, Republicans, step up to the plate, get it done."




Lawmakers were under extraordinary pressure from powerful outside groups, which gave notice they considered the legislation a "key vote" -- one they would consider when rating members of Congress.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said opponents of the bailout would pay for their stance.

"Make no mistake: When the aftermath of congressional inaction becomes clear, Americans will not tolerate those who stood by and let the calamity happen," said R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber's top lobbyist, in a letter to members.

The conservative Club for Growth made a similar threat to supporters of the bailout.

"We're all worried about losing our jobs," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote. "Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it -- not me.'"

"We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, Heaven help us," he said.




If Congress doesn't come around on a bailout, more pressure would fall on the Federal Reserve.

The Fed, which has been providing billions in short-term loans to squeezed banks to help them overcome credit stresses, could keep expanding those loans to encourage lending. And, it could keep working with other central banks to inject billions into financial markets overseas.

It also has the power to expand emergency lending to other types of companies and even to individuals if they are unable to secure adequate credit.

Bush warns 'entire economy is in danger'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday that lawmakers risk a cascade of wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, lost jobs and closed businesses if they fail to act on a massive financial rescue plan. "Our entire economy is in danger," he said.

"Without immediate action by Congress, American could slip into a financial panic and a distressing scenario would unfold," Bush said in a 12-minute prime-time address delivered from the White House East Room that he hoped would help rescue his tough-sell bailout package. "Ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."

Said Bush: "We must not let this happen."

The unprecedented $700 billion bailout, which the Bush administration asked Congress last weekend to approve before it adjourns, is meeting with deep skepticism, especially from conservatives in Bush's own Republican Party who are revolting at the high price tag and massive private-sector intervention by government. Though there is general agreement that something must be done to address the spiraling economic problems, Bush has been forced to accept changes almost daily, based on demands from the right and left.

Seeking to explain himself to conservatives, Bush stressed he was reluctant to put taxpayer money on the line to help businesses that had made bad decisions and that the rescue is not aimed at saving individual companies. He tried to address some of the major complaints from Democrats by promising that CEOs of failed companies won't be rewarded, while warning he would draw the line at regulations he determined would hamper economic growth.

"With the situation becoming more precarious by the day, I faced a choice: to step in with dramatic government action or to stand back and allow the irresponsible actions by some to undermine the financial security of all," Bush said.

The president turned himself into an economics professor for much of the address, tracing the origins of the problem back a decade.

But while generally acknowledging risky and poorly thought-out financial decisions at many levels of society, Bush never assigned blame to any specific entity, such as his administration, the quasi-independent mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or the Wall Street firms that built rising profits on increasingly speculative mortgage-backed securities. Instead, he spoke in terms of investment banks that "found themselves saddled with" the toxic assets the government is now proposing to buy and banks that "found themselves" with questionable balance sheets.

Intensive, personal lobbying of lawmakers is not usually Bush's style as president, unlike some predecessors. He does not often make calls or twist arms on behalf of a legislative priority.

But with the nation facing the biggest financial meltdown in decades, Bush took the unusual step of asking Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, one of whom will inherit the financial mess in four months, and key congressional leaders of both parties to a White House meeting on Thursday to work on a compromise.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator would attend the meeting scheduled for the afternoon, and senior McCain advisers said he would, too. The plans of the other invitees were unknown. The White House said that the idea for the joint meeting was McCain's and that aides went about setting it up after Bush and McCain spoke Wednesday afternoon.

In another move welcome at the White House, Obama and McCain issued a joint statement using their own dire language to urge lawmakers to act. The two candidates -- bitterly fighting each other for the White House but coming together over this issue -- said the situation offers a chance for politicians to prove Washington's worth.

"The plan that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush administration is flawed, but the effort to protect the American economy must not fail," they said. "This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe."

However, the Oval Office rivals were not putting politics aside entirely. McCain asked Obama to agree to delay their first debate, scheduled for Friday, while Obama said it should go ahead.

White House and administration officials have warned repeatedly in recent days of a coming "financial calamity."

But that has not closed the deal, which for many recalls previous warnings of grave threats from Bush -- such as before the Iraq war -- that did not materialize. So Bush's goal with his speech, his first prime-time address in 377 days, was to frame the debate in layman's terms to show the depths of the crisis, explain how it affects the people's daily lives and inspire the public to demand action from Washington.

He said that more banks could fail, the stock market could plummet and erase retirement accounts, businesses could find it hard to get credit and be forced to close, wiping out jobs for millions of Americans.

He ended on a positive note, predicting lawmakers would "rise to the occasion" and that the nation's economy will overcome "a moment of great challenge."

With so many crises hitting the United States at once, the presidential race has taken a back seat and so has Bush's involvement in politics. Bush canceled a campaign trip to Florida on Wednesday to deal with the problem, the third time in a week that he has scrapped his attendance at out-of-town fundraisers, either because of the market turmoil or Hurricane Ike.

The economic crisis also is almost certain to overshadow the rest of Bush's four months left in office and could hugely impact his legacy. It has been assumed that the long-term view of Bush's presidency was to be shaped largely by Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, the dire economic problems and the aftermath of the government's attempted solution will certainly be added to that list.

Goldman raises $5 billion in public stock offer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., seeking to improve not only its balance sheet but its standing with investors, has undertaken a huge capital-raising program that includes an investment of at least $5 billion from Warren Buffett and a common stock offering for another $5 billion.

Just a week earlier, Goldman looked to be on precarious ground as its stock price plunged in response to fears that it could not survive as an independent investment bank. But the company contended Wednesday that the current crisis in the financial markets, which sent Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy court and Merrill Lynch & Co. into a sale to Bank of America Corp., wasn't the catalyst for the deals.

"Although we felt we were under no pressure to raise capital, we've always said if an opportunity arose, we would look at it," Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag said. Raising capital "gives us greater firepower and greater flexibility," he said.

Goldman said Wednesday it was raising $5 billion through a common stock offering, doubling the amount it announced just the night before. Goldman priced 40.65 million common shares at $123 apiece. An additional 6.1 million shares may be sold to cover overallotments, potentially boosting proceeds by $750.3 million.

Buffett, considered among the top investors in the world, will buy through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. $5 billion in preferred Goldman stock and receive an option to purchase an additional $5 billion in common stock.

Buffett said during an interview on CNBC "there's no better firm on Wall Street." Buffett acknowledged other investment banks, including Lehman, had approached him in recent months, but he passed on those investment opportunities. He declined to discuss the deal beyond the comments made on CNBC.

The investment by Buffett -- which Goldman called an anchor for its common stock offering -- will likely provide reassurances to a nervous market, said Brad Hintz, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein and a former chief financial officer at Lehman.

Wall Street appeared pleased with the moves. Goldman stock rose $4.95, or 4 percent, to $130 on the New York Stock Exchange.

"If one thing is for sure, Goldman knows how to reorient itself for a changed environment, and this move is what was needed now," Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo wrote in a research note. "The result should be increased confidence."

Buffett's investment will be his second major foray into Wall Street. In the late 1980s, Berkshire Hathaway invested in Salomon Brothers Inc. When the investment firm admitted wrongdoing in bidding for U.S. Treasury bonds in 1991, Buffett became interim chairman and helped Salomon reach a settlement with the government before stepping down in 1992. Salomon was later sold to what is now Citigroup Inc.

The preferred stock purchase by Buffett will pay a dividend of 10 percent annually and can be repurchased by Goldman at anytime for a 10 percent premium. The warrants to buy common shares are exercisable by Buffett at anytime in the next five years at a price of $115 per share.

Goldman's efforts to raise capital come just two days after the company received approval to convert to a bank holding company, and less than two weeks after the bankruptcy filing of Lehman set off fresh concerns about the fragile credit markets.

Goldman's conversion to a commercial bank also provides it broader and permanent access to borrow federal money and the ability to build a stable base of deposits -- which some analysts says provides further reassurance to the market.

"Lehman's failure spooked the market," Hintz said.

Within days of Lehman's collapse, Merrill agreed to sell itself to Bank of America and American International Group Inc. was rescued by a government loan of $85 billion that included the government receiving a 79.9 percent ownership stake in the insurer.

Amid the problems, shares of financial firms and the broader stock market tumbled as credit markets further seized up. Investors feared the stand-alone investment bank model was no longer viable. Although Goldman was widely considered one of the best performing banks during the crisis, its shares fell as low as $85.88 last week.

The broader credit crisis has forced financial firms worldwide to write down the value of their soured real estate holdings by more than $300 billion, but Goldman has taken less than $5 billion in write-downs. Still, despite the relatively small amount of damage it suffered, its stock plunged as investors lost confidence in the entire sector.

Credit markets began to deteriorate in 2007 as mortgages increasingly defaulted and investors worried that bonds backed by the troubled loans would default as well -- which left investors shying away from all but the safest debt, essentially shuttering the credit markets.

The series of dramatic events last week -- the Lehman failure and the Merrill and AIG deals -- led the government to announce plans to provide up to $700 billion in support to the financial services industry, a proposal still being debated on Capitol Hill.

With the new capital, Goldman positioned itself to ensure stability regardless of whether the government can push through the $700 billion bailout.

If the government is able to pass through its $700 billion plan, Goldman Sachs could be a buyer of distressed assets, using some of the new capital it raised, while its competitors might not have the flexibility to do so, van Praag said.

He added that if the government plan is not completed, the new capital provides Goldman with "better ability to withstand a longer period" of problems or uncertainty in the financial markets.

Mayo said the new capital could be used to purchase distressed assets or even consider an acquisition. With its new status, that acquisition could include a depository institution.

Ahead of the US Bell: Bernanke briefing

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to return to Capitol Hill Wednesday to provide lawmakers an up-to-date assessment of the economy, and again make the case for Congress to speedily enact the $700 billion financial bailout package.

Bernanke's first stop will be Congress' Joint Economic Committee, where he'll discuss the economy, which has been badly bruised by the housing and credit debacles. That hearing is slated to begin at 10 a.m. EDT.

Unemployment has climbed to a five-year high of 6.1 percent as nervous employers cut jobs, and consumers are hunkering down as the bracing tonic of the government's tax rebates disappears.

Oil prices are up about $15 in the past week, momentarily halting a precipitous two-month slide from the all-time high of $147.27 a barrel reached in mid July.




Appearing Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke warned that the economy could face grave consequences if credit problems persist because Congress doesn't step in and enact the financial bailout. More jobs would be lost, more homes would fall into foreclosure and the economy will contract, he said.

The plan would let the government buy bad mortgages and other troubled assets held by banks and other financial institutions. Getting those debts off their books, should make them more inclined to lend, breaking through the credit jam and reviving the economy. Congressional leaders predict passage but want significant changes to better protect taxpayers.




Later on Wednesday, Bernanke is scheduled to appear before the House Financial Services Committee, along with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to talk about the state of financial markets and make a fresh pitch for the Bush administration's bailout package. That hearing is slated to begin at noon EDT.

Wall Streets heads for higher open on Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs

NEW YORK (AP) -- Financial markets showed some signs of stabilizing Wednesday as investor Warren Buffett's $5 billion bet on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. renewed confidence that U.S. financial firms will survive the credit crisis. Stock futures pointed to a higher opening, although the credit markets, waiting for further news on the government's bank rescue package, were still restrained.


Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Tuesday it was investing at least $5 billion in Goldman -- a move Wall Street took as strong sign of support for the independent investment bank model.




Besides buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman's common stock. Goldman also said late Tuesday it would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering; the company and Morgan Stanley earlier this week were granted approval to become bank holding companies, which would help them strengthen their balance sheets.

Though Buffett's move soothed nervous investors, it could also lead to new questions from lawmakers for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs. He and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are scheduled to appear before Congress for a second day Wednesday to brief lawmakers on a $700 billion bailout measure for financial services firms.

Their appearance on Capitol Hill Tuesday unnerved stock investors, who questioned whether lawmakers were beginning to doubt the necessity and form of the government bailout.



The Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 97, or 0.89 percent, to 10,951. The Dow fell more than 160 points on Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 13.20, or 1.11 percent, to 1,200.20, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 19, or 1.15 percent, to 1,669.50.

In the bond market, demand for short-term government Treasuries remained strong as investors again sought safe places to keep cash. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill, considered the safest short-term financial asset, was at 0.71 percent early Wednesday, down from 0.79 percent late Tuesday. In other Treasury trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.78 percent from 3.80 percent late Tuesday.

The dollar, whose weakness earlier this week contributed to intense volatility in the markets on Monday, was up against the euro and Japanese yen.




Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.92 to $108.53 a barrel premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.20 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.24 percent, Germany's DAX index was up 0.37 percent, and France's CAC-40 was up 0.11 percent.

US hedge fund Paulson bets big against UK banks

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks steadied on Wednesday and safe-haven government bonds rose after Warren Buffett's investment in Goldman Sachs failed to calm anxiety over the prospects for Washington's $700 billion bank bailout.

Billionaire investor Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc will invest $5 billion in Goldman, a major boost for the Wall Street bank whose shares fell 50 percent from their 2007 record high in this month's market turmoil.

However, the news failed to significantly boost risky assets after the U.S. government's push for quick congressional approval of its financial rescue plan hit a wall of opposition on Tuesday among senators who said the plan puts taxpayers at risk.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testifies again later, after warning lawmakers on Tuesday that a failure to act could doom the economy to a recession.





"The market is still nervous about the outcome of the proposed U.S. plan as politics seems to be making the deal more complicated," said Ryuji Shimai, market analyst at Shinko Securities in Tokyo.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index erased early gains to stand flat on the day while the MSCI world equity index was broadly steady.

U.S. stock futures were up more than 1 percent, pointing to a stronger start on Wall Street later.

"Buffett's legendary status as a value investor gives the bulls reason for optimism, as some will see his move as a sign to call the bottom of the recent declines," said Chris Hossain, senior sales manager at ODL Securities.

The December bund future rose 30 ticks as jittery investors sought safety in government bonds.





Strains in the interbank money market lingered, with overnight dollar rates rising 195 basis points above the Fed's target rate at one point, before falling to stand around 30 bps above the rate.

The Fed moved for the second time within 24 hours to provide liquidity, acting in concert with Australia and Scandinavia, while the euro zone, Britain, Japan and Australia injected billions of dollars into their banking systems.

Once a byword for safety and liquidity, the short-term lending market where banks lend to each other has repeatedly seized up in the financial crisis because of increasing worries over the creditworthiness of borrowers.

The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies while the euro stood unchanged on the day at $1.4654 .





Emerging sovereign spreads tightened 3 basis points while emerging stocks rose 0.4 percent on the day.

U.S. light crude rose 1.6 percent following forecasts of a drop in U.S. crude stocks. Gold rose edged lower to $887.80 an ounce.

SMFG seen eyeing Goldman as Japan shops on Wall

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (Tokyo:8316.T - News), Japan's No. 3 bank, plans to invest in Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS - News), Japanese media said, in what would be the third big Japanese investment this week on Wall Street.


SMFG said the bank had no deal in place at the moment but media said it wanted to join the list of Japanese financial firms using the upheaval in the United States to aggressively expand abroad.

The purchases, including a big stake in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News) and the Asian and European assets of failed Lehman Brothers (Other OTC:LEHMQ.PK - News), are a major turnaround for Japanese banks that were nearly crushed by bad loans just a few years ago and needed massive injections of public cash to stay afloat.

Late on Tuesday, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK-A - News; NYSE:BRK-B - News) agreed to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, a big boost for the Wall Street bank from the world's best-known investor, but a Goldman spokesman said he could not confirm the report SMFG would follow suit.

SMFG's investment in Goldman Sachs would total several hundred billion yen, Kyodo news agency said, while the Nikkei business daily said the bank would consider investing up to 100 billion yen ($946 million).





SMFG played down the reports, which both cited unnamed sources.

"At this point, it is not true that we've decided to invest in Goldman Sachs," said SMFG spokeswoman Chika Togawa, who declined to comment further.

In a broader rally of financial stocks, shares of SMFG finished up 1.2 percent at 684,000 yen, compared with a 0.1 percent decline in Tokyo's broad TOPIX share average.

"If they take a big position in Goldman, you can definitely say it would be a positive over the medium- to long-term," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"If they take a big enough position so that they can benefit from Goldman's know-how and human resources, it will be positive."





Once considered too naive and cautious for the high-risk, high-return world of investment banking, cash-rich Japanese firms have largely avoided the huge credit losses of the subprime mortgage crisis, leaving them well-placed to pick up the best assets from the carnage on Wall Street.



Nomura Holdings Inc <8604.

Japan's top bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (Tokyo:8306.T - News), has agreed to buy up to 20 percent of Morgan Stanley for as much as $8.5 billion.

Back from a one day market holiday on Tuesday, shares of Nomura rose 5.2 percent to 1,505 yen, and Mitsubishi UFJ gained 4.2 percent to 936 yen. Tokyo's index of bank stocks (-IBNKST - News) rose 1.1 percent.

"Nomura was able to buy Lehman after it filed for bankruptcy so I think investors think that Nomura got Lehman on the cheap," said Nana Otsuki, banking analyst at UBS in Tokyo.

"It kind of seems that MUFG might have been able to get Morgan Stanley cheaper if they had waited a little," she added.

Both Goldman and Morgan Stanley secured approval from the Federal Reserve to become commercial, deposit-taking banks this week, signaling the end of an era for Wall Street's free-wheeling, investment banking model.





Some analysts had previously speculated that Goldman could turn to SMFG for funding, because the two companies have a history of investing in each other.

In 2003, Goldman bought 150 billion yen in convertible preferred shares of SMFG, giving it a much-needed capital injection while in the 1980s, SMFG's predecessor bank helped bail out Goldman.

Sumitomo Mitsui said in June it would pay 500 million pounds ($927 million) to take a 2 percent stake in British bank Barclays Plc (LSE:BARC.L - News).

SMFG's President, Teisuke Kitayama, later told Reuters the two banks would work together on private and commercial banking outside of Japan.

US Stocks extend fall as Street weighs bailout plan

NEW YORK (AP) -- Financial markets extended their declines Tuesday as investors worried that lawmakers were beginning to doubt the necessity of a broad government bailout for financial institutions as a way to revive ailing credit markets.


Top economic officials updating Congress about efforts to work out a $700 billion financial rescue plan faced a greater degree of second-guessing from lawmakers than some investors had expected. The Dow Jones industrials, which had been higher for the first half of the session ended at the lows of the day, tacking a 161-point loss onto a steep drop from Monday.




Still, trading appeared more orderly than Monday, when investors rushed into hard assets like oil and gold. Meanwhile, demand remained high for 3-month Treasury bills, considered the safest short-term financial asset, while the dollar regained some ground after being hard hit Monday.

After days of intense gyrations in financial markets, investors are anxious about whether the plan to absorb bad mortgages and other risky assets will help steer the economy onto more solid footing -- and also about resistance to the plan in Congress.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox testified before lawmakers, who are working alongside others in the Bush administration to complete the details of the bailout.




Traders grew nervous, and sent the stock market lower, as the officials faced questions about whether the government's planned response was appropriate. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for example, asked whether $150 billion might be adequate to get the program started if investors were told more money could be added if necessary.

The market remains uncertain about how long it will take for the bailout plans to take effect, and assuming they do, how effective they will be.

"There's skepticism about whether the $700 billion number is the right number," said Jim Herrick, manager and director of equity trading at Baird & Co.




Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee Congress risks triggering a recession if it doesn't act on the plan. He said inaction could leave a range of businesses unable to borrow the money while consumers could find it impossible to finance big purchases like cars and homes.

While financial markets showed uneasiness as investors listened to the testimony, there wasn't the level of fear and volatility that dominated Monday's trading.

Demand for short-term Treasurys remained high. The yield on the 3-month T-bill fell to 0.79 percent from 0.88 percent on Monday; last week, it was around zero after investors flooded money into T-bills as the credit markets seized up. That spurred government officials to propose a debt buyout plan.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which trades opposite its price, fell to 3.80 percent from 3.85 percent late Monday.




The dollar, whose decline Monday drove some of the frenetic trading in other markets, regained some of its lost ground against the euro, while gold prices declined after starting the week with a big advance.

The Dow fell 161.52, or 1.47 percent, to 10,854.17 after having risen more than 125 points in the early going and then falling by more than 180. With Monday's 370-point decline, the blue chips are down 534 points, or 4.69 percent, for the week.

Broader stock indicators also fell Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 18.87, or 1.56 percent, to 1,188.22, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 25.67, or 1.18 percent, to 2,153.34.




Investors also were watching oil prices after anxiety over the government bailout and a huge short-covering rally pushed crude to the biggest one-day gain.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell $2.76 to settle at $106.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The October contract, which expired Monday, surged as much as $25.45 to $130 before falling back to settle at $120.92, an advance of $16.37. While that gain was due to technical market dynamics, the price of oil has moved higher over the past week amid increasing concerns about the U.S. financial system.

"We're going to see this volatility for a while even after this package passes because I think we're still facing a fundamental slowdown in the economy worldwide which is going to have some impact on earnings," said J. Stephen Lauck, chief executive and portfolio manager at Ashfield Capital Partners.




Financial stocks finished mixed as some investors worried that the government's plan could prove inadequate to save some banks. Should the government pay too little for assets some banks might be forced to book ruinous write-offs and risk going under.

Bank of America Corp. fell 85 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $33.30, while Washington Mutual Inc. fell 13 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $3.20.

Some energy names lost ground as oil declined. Occidental Petroleum Corp. fell $4.08, or 5 percent, to $77.16 and XTO Energy Inc. declined $1.14, or 2.2 percent, to $51.30.

In addition, some industrial stocks slid as investors worried about the well-being of the global economy. Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. fell $1.21, or 4.5 percent, to $25.59. Seed company Monsanto Co. fell $4.85, or 4.2 percent, to $112.14.

Some technology stocks advanced as investors looked for areas outside the financial, energy and industrial sectors. Computer chip maker Intel Corp. rose 13 cents to $18.63, while Sprint Nextel Corp. rose 27 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $6.77.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 5 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.11 billion shares, compared with 5.22 billion traded Monday.




The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 11.25, or 1.56 percent, to 709.19.

Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.91 percent, Germany's DAX index slid 0.64 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.98 percent. Japanese financial markets were closed Tuesday for a national holiday.

Berkshire buying $5 billion stake in Goldman Sachs

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is investing at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, a huge vote of confidence for one of the survivors of the credit crisis that felled two of its investment banking peers.


In addition to buying $5 billion in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another $5 billion in Goldman's common stock. Goldman also said late Tuesday it would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering.

The news sent shares of Goldman Sachs and stock index futures soaring in electronic trading, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a triple-digit decline for the second day in a row.




It also could lead to new probing questions from lawmakers for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs. He and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress hours earlier that quick action on a $700 billion bailout measure for financial services firms was needed to prevent economic havoc.

Goldman Sachs' shares had been tumbling ahead of the announcement of the government rescue plan last Friday as investors feared it could face the same kinds of funding squeezes as Bear Stearns and Lehman. Now members of Congress have to deal what may look to many taxpayers like Wall Street is already cashing in.

Buffett, one of the most successful investors in history, made no mention of what is happening in Washington, but he did heap praise on the New York-based company.

"Goldman Sachs is an exceptional institution," the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said in a news release. "It has an unrivaled global franchise, a proven and deep management team and the intellectual and financial capital to continue its track record of outperformance."




Buffett's investment comes two days after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the last two independent investment banks on Wall Street, won approval from the Federal Reserve to change their status to bank holding companies.

By becoming commercial banks, the two companies avoided the fate of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers -- the first taken over in a fire sale and the second now bankrupt -- by giving them broader access to borrow federal money and the ability to build a stable base of deposits.

But it also comes with closer regulatory oversight that likely limit its ability to generate the kinds of sky high profits that were topped by few others companies.

The strict rules set by the Federal Reserve will limit opportunities for big payoffs from what is known as proprietary trading, using borrowed funds to place high-octane bets on everything from the price of oil to currencies and other commodities.

Berkshire's preferred stock in Goldman will pay 10 percent and can be bought back any time at 10 percent premium. The warrants allow Berkshire to buy $5 billion in common stock at $115 per share any time over the next five years.

Goldman's shares rose $4.27, or 3.5 percent, to close at $125.05 Tuesday in the regular trading session, and jumped another $8.46, or 6.8 percent, to $133.20 in after-hours trading following the announcement of Buffett's investment.




Morgan Stanley's shares rose 91 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $28 in the regular session, then soared $3, or 10.7 percent, to $31 in after-hours trading.

Morgan Stanley got its own cash infusion on Monday, agreeing to sell a 20 percent stake for more than $8 billion to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank.

Mark Lane, an analyst who follows Goldman for William Blair & Co. in Chicago, said he had expected Goldman and Morgan Stanley to raise capital after getting the Fed's approval to become bank holding companies.

Buffett's investment "sends a pretty strong message of support for the independent-bank business model," Lane said. "It sends a stabilizing signal to the market."

On Sept. 14, the No. 4 investment bank, Lehman Brothers, filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, weighed down by fouled commercial real estate holdings and a loss of faith from investors, and on the same day ailing Merrill Lynch & Co. arranged a hasty deal to be bought by Bank of America Corp.

Wall Street's troubles came as a freeze-up in credit markets threatened to clog the global financial system. The U.S. government arranged an $85 billion loan last week to rescue the huge insurer American International Group Inc. and is seeking approval from Congress to buy back some $700 billion in bad mortgages and other toxic debts from financial institutions.




A message left for a Berkshire spokeswoman seeking further comment on the transaction wasn't immediately returned Tuesday. Berkshire officials do not typically comment on its stock investments beyond what they are legally required to disclose.

A spokeswoman at Goldman Sachs said no one was immediately available to talk about the deal.

At last report, Berkshire had total assets of nearly $278 billion, including significant stakes in companies such as Wells Fargo & Co., American Express and the Washington Post Co.

Bailout debate mulls making Wall Street pay

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The planned $700 billion bailout to shore up the battered U.S. financial system looked set to drag into next week as Washington lawmakers haggled over how exactly they could make Wall Street pay for its rescue.







Stocks and the U.S. dollar tumbled on Monday as emerging details of the plan left many players skeptical that the rescue, which would give powers to the U.S. Treasury Department to buy up toxic mortgage-related debt from financial groups, would work.

"The big detail we want to know is how is the government going to buy these securities, and what they will pay, how that reverse auction will work," said Giri Cherukuri, head trader at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois. "And the big question is, 'Will this bring us out of the woods?"'

A day after America's last two big investment banks, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News), ended Wall Street's swashbuckling era by securing Federal Reserve approval to become commercial banks, all eyes shifted to Washington.

U.S. lawmakers and Bush administration officials were hammering out details of a deal they hope will end the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.





U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke start two-days of congressional hearings on Tuesday to hasten approval of the bailout.

With the economy the No. 1 issue in a U.S. presidential election that is about six weeks away, lawmakers want a plan in place quickly, fearing delay could send markets reeling again.

But with one-third of the U.S. Senate and the entire U.S. House of Representatives up for re-election on November 4, lawmakers will want to sound tough on such hot-button issues as the pay of reckless executives.

"We are not sending a blank check to Wall Street," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after holding bipartisan talks.

With so many ideas being floated in Washington on Monday, one congressional aide who asked not to be identified likened the scene to a "Turkish bazaar of public policy ideas."

The crisis has unsettled world markets, and Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank heads promised "heightened close cooperation" to safeguard the global economy.





The latest jitters came after the deal late Sunday scrapped the investment bank model synonymous with Wall Street, ensuring Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley will avoid the fate of rivals that collapsed or were bought in the brutal meltdown of recent weeks.

Morgan Stanley went a step further, striking a deal with Japan's largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (Tokyo:8306.T - News), on Monday to spend as much as $8.5 billion for about one-fifth of the prestigious 73-year-old investment bank, sending Morgan's shares higher before closing down.

ANGER AT BAILOUT

After Monday's talks, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a top Democrat, said the U.S. government would take equity in the companies seeking a bailout. But the U.S. Treasury is against that idea, sources close to Treasury told Reuters.

The White House said it agreed to an oversight board to monitor the bailout, which Democrats had pushed for. And Frank said there was also agreement that the plan should minimize the number of Americans who will lose their homes to foreclosure.

But lawmakers and Treasury officials were at odds on the emotional issue of whether executives at the companies in need of rescue must agree to limits to their compensation.





With details still in dispute, Frank said the legislation could take until next week to complete.

Earlier, U.S. President George W. Bush said, "Failure to act would have broad consequences far beyond Wall Street."

But U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, voiced outrage at the notion of any bailout without a cap on executive pay.

"The (Bush) administration's plan ... would enrich the Wall Street executives whose reckless investments caused the financial crisis," the powerful California Democrat said. "The taxpayer is being asked to risk billions to protect the bonuses of investment bankers."

Even some Republicans came out against the bailout.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said he feared the bailout was "neither workable nor comprehensive."

"It would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted," he said.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, told Reuters after a meeting of fellow Senate Banking Committee members, "I suspect there will be opposition. We're not there. We don't even have a product yet."

South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint called the Bush plan "completely unacceptable."

The uncertainty caused stocks to lose most of the gains seen on Friday, when word of the plan sparked Wall Street's best one-day gain since 1987. The S&P 500 index (^SPX - News) dropped 3.8 percent.

Buoyed by the dollar's near 2 percent decline, U.S. crude oil futures soared $16.37 to settle at $120.92, the biggest ever jump in a trading session. At one point, oil was up a stunning $25.45, or 24.3 percent.





In a crisis that has lurched from issue to issue since the U.S. economy first showed weakness and home prices began to tumble last year, prompting a credit crunch and the collapse of investment banking, some wondered where it would end.

"The thing that scares me is the breadth of it," said Robert MacMahon, managing director for restructuring at GE (NYSE:GE - News) Corporate Lending.

Democrats, who control both chambers of Congress, pushed for changes to the plan on concerns that it could expand the powers of the executive branch without adequate oversight -- a frequent Democratic criticism of the Bush administration.

GLOBAL CRISIS

The crisis is threatening global markets. Central banks from Europe to Japan sought to shore up banks by injecting money into the banking system. (ID:nLM163631). Even in the oil-rich Gulf region, the crisis was felt.

The United Arab Emirates Central Bank launched its first-ever emergency funding facility to help fund banks as global lending between institutions shriveled.

The Fed's agreement to convert the once high-flying Goldman and Morgan Stanley investment banks into more conventional depositary institutions was Washington's latest effort to restore calm to chaotic markets and avoid a deep recession.

Both Goldman and Morgan will now face a thicket of new regulations, which will bolster their resources but also curb the spectacular profit growth that made investment bankers among the highest paid in the nation.

The rescue came together after seismic shifts on Wall Street that saw Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (Other OTC:LEHMQ.PK - News) file for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (NYSE:MER - News) agree to sell itself to Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - News), and the Fed stage an $85 billion rescue of American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG - News).





AIG shares gained 23 percent on Monday on reports its investors were hatching a plan to prevent the insurer from falling into government ownership, by repaying the Fed's loan.

Goldman and Morgan Stanley were the last of the big five investment banks that shaped 20 years of Wall Street history after Bear Stearns collapsed earlier this year.

Congress, Bush team agree on some bailout terms

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scrambling for a swift deal on the $700 billion bailout for failing financial firms, key Democrats and Bush administration officials agreed Monday to include mortgage help for beleaguered homeowners but wrangled over other issues, including "golden parachutes" for executives who benefit from the unprecedented rescue.







Democrats demanded that the measure limit pay packages for executives of companies helped by the biggest financial rescue since the Great Depression. The administration was balking at that, and also at a proposal by Democrats to let judges rewrite mortgages to lower bankrupt homeowners' monthly payments.

President Bush prodded Congress during the day to pass the rescue plan quickly, declaring, "The whole world is watching."

Rep. Barney Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, said the administration essentially had forced Congress to the negotiating table by creating an expectation in financial markets that a massive bailout was on the way.





"By the declaration that they made, by sending this proposal, I think we have to recognize the reality that we don't have a choice now of debating whether this is a good or a bad thing," said Frank, D-Mass, who was leading negotiations with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"We have gotten closer," Frank said, but "We're not there yet."

Congressional aides said the House could act on a bailout bill as early as Wednesday, but leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting late Monday with no firm timetable for action.





House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said only that leaders were working to give the markets confidence that "this legislation will pass, and it will pass soon."

However, Wall Street wasn't comforted by the progress of the talks. The Dow Jones industrials plummeted 372 points, oil prices soared $25 a barrel at one point and gold prices surged anew as investors searched for a safe place to park their money. And despite encouraging talk on Capitol Hill, lawmakers on both the right and left were already assailing the deal-in-progress.

The emergency legislation would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms in a bid to unlock the flow of credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.

In one expansion of its original proposal, the administration is asking for broad power to buy up virtually any kind of bad asset -- including credit card debt or car loans -- from any financial institution in the U.S. or abroad in order to stabilize markets.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, has proposed granting that request; Frank said he was working to limit the bailout to mortgage-related investments.





Differences remained with the administration on Democrats' proposal that the government take an ownership stake in the troubled companies it bails out so that taxpayers could benefit from future profits. Frank said Paulson had accepted the idea in principle, but several staff aides at work on the plan said there was no agreement yet on how the concept would work.

Frank said he and Paulson had agreed to create a congressional oversight board as part of the bailout and to mandate that the government come up with a plan to avoid foreclosures on any mortgages it acquires in the rescue. A government official with knowledge of the talks confirmed the administration backs those provisions.

As for tottering financial firms, there still were divisions on which would be helped and what kind of assets the government could buy as part of the bailout.

And in a fresh sign of a challenging road ahead, Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Banking Committee Republican, blasted the emerging plan as "neither workable nor comprehensive."

"In my judgment, it would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted and may actually cause the government to revert to an inadequate strategy of ad hoc bailouts," Shelby said.

Lawmakers on both extremes of the political spectrum assailed the plan as a massive, poorly conceived bailout. Conservative House Republicans and liberal House Democrats both and huddled privately to express their concerns.

A partisan battle was brewing over the bankruptcy provision for homeowners' mortgage payments, a key Democratic demand.

"We'll see how hard they fight -- it's something we care about," Frank said.

Lawmakers in both parties appeared to be coalescing around the idea that executive compensation limits should be part of the bailout, although Paulson is said to be concerned that such curbs would discourage companies from participating.





"Some element of that has to be in this package," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.

Investors were uncertain just how successful the administration's plan would be in unfreezing credit markets, which many businesses depend on to fund day-to-day operations, and for propping up the still-weak housing market.

Bush said, "Obviously, there will be differences over some details, and we will have to work through them. That is an understandable part of the policymaking process." But he also said, "It would not be understandable if members of Congress sought to use this emergency legislation to pass unrelated provisions, or to insist on provisions that would undermine the effectiveness of the plan."

Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said, "We are confident that we can get a bill done this week."

The fast-moving negotiations between the administration and Congress unfolded a day after the government approved a request by investment houses Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to change their status to bank holding companies.

That change will allow the two venerable institutions to set up commercial banks that will be able to take deposits, significantly bolstering the resources of both institutions. It will also grant them permanent access to emergency loans supplied by the Fed rather than the temporary loan status they have had since last March when the Fed moved to prop up investment banks following the forced sale of Bear Stearns.

Oil prices make biggest single-day price jump ever on bailout unease, contract expiration

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices briefly spiked more than $25 a barrel Monday, shattering the record for the biggest one-day gain as unease about the government's $700 billion bailout plan pummeled the dollar and spurred investors to buy safe-haven assets. An expiring crude contract added fuel to the frenzied rally.






Light, sweet crude for October delivery jumped as much as $25.45 to $130 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before falling back to settle at $120.92, up $16.37. The contract expired at the end of the day, adding to the volatility as traders rushed to cover positions; the October price began accelerating sharply in the last hour of regular trading, a common occurrence when a contract is about to go off the board.

Still, the rally, which shattered crude's previous one-day price jump of $10.75, set June 6, showed the intensity of emotion in the market. The Nymex temporarily halted electronic crude oil trading after prices breached the $10 daily trading limit. Trading resumed seconds later after the daily limit was increased.

The November crude contract, which became the front-month contract at the end of Monday's session, settled at $109.37, up $6.62, still a very sharp gain.

The severity of the price move shocked veteran market participants and prompted the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to launch an investigation into whether illegal manipulation was to blame.

Acting CFTC Chairman Walter Lukken said the agency's surveillance and enforcement staff was analyzing the price spike "to ensure that no one is taking advantage of the current stresses facing our financial marketplace for their own manipulative gain."






Phil Flynn, analyst and oil trader with Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said the late-session surge in oil appeared to be the result of a large investment fund scrambling to cover their short positions, or bets that prices would fall.

"When people sense that someone is short, it's like blood on the streets. It just accelerates the rally," Flynn said.

In other trading, gold prices shot up more than $44.30 to settle at $909 an ounce, and other safe-haven commodities also rallied, underscoring investors' uncertainly about the direction of the economy and their fear of more turmoil ahead.

"We're off to the races again," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "There's a renewed scramble for commodities because of a general weakness in the dollar."

Crude has gained about $30 in a dramatic four-day rally that has at least temporarily halted oil's steep two-month slide below $100. At this rate, crude is within striking distance of its all-time record of $147.27, reached in July.

The rally came as energy traders grappled with the implications of the government's proposed initiative to stem the U.S. financial crisis by absorbing billions of dollars of banks' bad mortgage-related securities. Anxiety over the plan also sent stocks sharply lower Monday; the credit markets were calmer than they were last week, but still showing the effects of investors' nervousness.





Investors fear that the government will have to dramatically ramp up borrowing to pay for the mammoth rescue effort, an inflationary move that could further devalue the dollar and trigger another wave of safe-haven buying in investments like commodities.

"They're going to have to continue auctioning off a whole lot of Treasurys to finance these projects, so the dollar is going to suffer," said Matt Zeman, head trader at LaSalle Futures in Chicago. "Right now it's fear and anxiety driving people who want tangible assets."

The 15-nation euro rose to $1.4796 in afternoon trading, up from the $1.4470 on Friday. A weak greenback was a catalyst for the commodities boom of the past year, and analysts said large investment funds were expected to pour money back into the sector.

"That trade was very successful in past so if the dollar keeps weakening, a lot people are going to want to own hard assets like crude," said Andrew Lebow, senior vice president and broker at MF Global in New York.

Crude's resurgence could halt steadily sliding pump prices. A gallon a regular shed 1.8 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.739, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.





But there is still much uncertainty about what impact the U.S. rescue plan will have on energy demand. Oil's run-up near $150 a barrel in July and a weak U.S. economy has forced Americans to cut back on their driving and led business to scale down operations. Though pump prices have eased from record levels above $4 a gallon, they remain expensive, and more softening in the economy would likely further curtail energy use in the world's thirstiest consumer.

Given the dire economic outlook, some analysts questioned whether oil prices would keep rising.

"We've already seen that the world can't afford oil at these prices. If it keeps going up, demand will drop off again," Flynn said.

However, he cautioned that oil's future direction hinged on the outcome of the government bailout plan and its effect on the U.S. economy.

"If the dollar keeps getting whacked and everybody panics, then we are going up again," he said.

U.S. congressional leaders endorsed the plan's main thrust, saying passage might occur in a matter of days. But they also want independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.





Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pushed lawmakers, who received the package on Saturday, to approve the proposal as soon as possible.

The Federal Reserve also announced late Sunday it granted a request by investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to change their status to bank holding companies, a move that will allow the two institutions to open commercial banking subsidiaries, greatly bolstering their resources.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 14.52 cents to settle at $3.043 a gallon, while gasoline futures rose 10.41 cents to settle at $2.7038 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 9.5 cents to settle at $7.943 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, November Brent crude rose $6.43 to settle at $106.04 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

U.S. Stocks Fall, Led by Regional Banks; Regions, M&I Tumble

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell following the biggest two-day rally since 1987, dragged down by regional banks, on concern smaller lenders are unlikely to profit from the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial system.
Regions Financial Corp., Alabama's biggest bank, tumbled 17 percent and Marshall & Ilsley Corp., Wisconsin's largest, dropped 21 percent after Merrill Lynch & Co. said the Treasury's proposal may accelerate credit losses at small and mid-sized banks by forcing them to write down real-estate assets. D.R. Horton Inc. and Lennar Corp. led declines among all 15 homebuilders in Standard & Poor's indexes. Ford Motor Co. and American Airlines' parent AMR Corp. lost more than 5 percent as oil had its biggest four-day gain since 2000.




The S&P 500 lost 17.85, or 1.4 percent, to 1,237.23 at 10:36 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 131.02 to 11,257.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 28.63, or 1.3 percent, to 2,245.27. Three stocks retreated for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
``They really haven't changed the economic fundamentals at all,'' said Jeffrey Coons, co-director of research at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc. in Fairport, New York, which manages $18 billion. ``We still have a debt-laden U.S. consumer facing falling employment. That's going to be overhanging our economy for some time.''
Regionals Pare Rally
The S&P 500 Regional Banks Index slumped 7.4 percent today as all 12 of its companies declined. The group rallied 101 percent from its July 15 low through Sept. 19, more than three times a measure of large-cap financial companies in the index. Zions Bancorp., the Salt Lake City-based lender with operations in 10 Western states, led regionals with a 163 percent advance, while Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares Inc. climbed 143 percent.
The government's plan to purge banks of toxic assets and crack down on speculators who bet against shares of financial companies sent the S&P 500 up 8.5 percent in the final two days of last week.
For Barclays Global Investors' Russ Koesterich, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's move to shift the burden of subprime- mortgage related losses to taxpayers ``put a floor under the equity markets.'' James Swanson, who oversees about $200 billion at MFS Investment Management in Boston, says the S&P 500 may rise 15 percent after the Treasury immunized investors from ``the brunt of the economic cycle.''
Two-Day Rally




The S&P 500's rally at the end of last week followed a rout that began when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. was sold to Bank of America Corp. and the U.S. took control of American International Group Inc.
The Federal Reserve yesterday approved bids by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to become banks, ending the ascendancy of the securities firms 75 years after Congress separated them from deposit-taking lenders.
More than $500 billion in losses at banks stemming from the first nationwide drop in home prices since the 1930s has pushed the S&P 500 15 percent lower in 2008. U.S. economic growth may slip to 1.7 percent this year and 1.5 percent in 2009, the slowest since the last recession in 2001 and its aftermath in 2002, according to the median of 80 economist forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.
Bailout Widened
The Bush administration widened the scope of its plan to include assets other than mortgage-related securities. The change to potentially allow purchases of instruments such as car loans and credit-card debt may force an increase in the size of the package as the legislation proceeds through Congress.
Morgan Stanley rallied $3.23 to $30.44. Mitsubishi UFJ will buy 10 percent to 20 percent of the securities firm and decide on a price after conducting due diligence, the Japanese bank said in a statement.




Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slipped 74 cents to $129.06. The announcement that the two firms will become banks paves the way for Goldman and Morgan Stanley, both of which will now be regulated by the Fed, to build their deposit base, potentially through acquisitions. That will allow them to rely more heavily on deposits from retail customers instead of using borrowed money -- the leverage that led to the undoing of Lehman and Bear Stearns Cos.

Goldman, Morgan Stanley Bring Down Curtain on an Era

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Wall Street that shaped the financial world for two decades ended last night, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley concluded there is no future in remaining investment banks now that investors have determined the model is broken.
The Federal Reserve's approval of their bid to become banks ends the ascendancy of the securities firms, 75 years after Congress separated them from deposit-taking lenders, and caps weeks of chaos that sent Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and led to the rushed sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp.
``The decision marks the end of Wall Street as we have known it,'' said William Isaac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ``It's too bad.''
Goldman, whose alumni include Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary presiding over a $700 billion bank bailout, and Morgan Stanley, a product of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that cleaved investment and commercial banks, insisted they didn't need to change course, even as their shares plunged and their borrowing costs soared last week.
By then, it was too late. As financial markets gyrated -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average whipsawed 1,000 points in the week's last two days -- and clients defected, executives at the two firms concluded they had no choice. The Federal Reserve Board met at 9 p.m. yesterday and considered applications delivered that day, said Michelle Smith, a spokeswoman for the central bank. The decision was unanimous, she said.
`Blood in Water'
``There's blood in the water in the industry and the sharks are circling,'' Peter Kovalski, who helps oversee about $10 billion at Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC, said at the end of last week. ``It all comes down to perception and the current trust within the community.''
Morgan Stanley rose 16 percent to $31.60 as of 9:31 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Goldman advanced 3 percent to $133.37.
Wall Street hasn't had such a shakeup since the 1980s, when firms including Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. went public and London's financial markets were altered forever with the so- called Big Bang reforms implemented in 1986. Bear Stearns disappeared in March, when it was bought by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The announcement paves the way for the two New York-based firms, both of which will now be regulated by the Fed, to build their deposit base, potentially through acquisitions. That will allow them to rely more heavily on deposits from retail customers instead of using money borrowed in the bond market -- the leverage that led to the undoing of Bear Stearns and Lehman.
Depositors Rule
Morgan Stanley has taken $15.7 billion of writedowns and losses on mortgage-related securities and other types of loans since the credit crunch started last year. Goldman's tally stands at about $4.9 billion. While both companies have remained profitable and avoided money-losing quarters suffered by Lehman and Merrill Lynch, their revenue from sales and trading and investment banking has been declining this year.
``Deposit-banking is king right now,'' said David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York. ``It's the only meaningful critical-mass way to make money.''
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank, said today it will pay up to 900 billion yen ($8.4 billion) for as much as a fifth of Morgan Stanley. The deal would mark the biggest overseas acquisition by a Japanese financial company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Building Deposit Base
The Japanese bank will become ``a valuable partner as we transition to a bank holding company and build our bank services and deposit base,'' Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack said in a statement today.
The deal announced today came after Morgan Stanley held talks last week to pursue a merger with Wachovia Corp. That deal became less likely now that Morgan Stanley is becoming a bank holding company, said Tony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest securities firm until this week, had $36 billion of deposits and 3 million retail accounts at the end of August. The company plans to convert its Utah-based industrial bank into a national bank.
``This new bank holding structure will ensure that Morgan Stanley is in the strongest possible position,'' Chairman and CEO Mack, 63, said in a statement last night. ``It also offers the marketplace certainty about the strength of our financial position and our access to funding.''
Citigroup, JPMorgan
Goldman, the largest and most profitable of the U.S. securities firms, will become the fourth-largest bank holding company. The firm already has more than $20 billion in customer deposits in two subsidiaries and is creating a new one, GS Bank USA, that will have more than $150 billion of assets, making it one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., the firm said in a statement last night. The firm will increase its deposit base ``through acquisitions and organically,'' Goldman said.
``Goldman Sachs, under Federal Reserve supervision, will be regarded as an even more secure institution with an exceptionally clean balance sheet and a greater diversity of funding sources,'' Lloyd Blankfein, 54, Goldman's chairman and CEO, said in the statement.
The Washington-based Fed is the primary regulator of bank- holding companies, which are firms that own or control banks. Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan are bank- holding companies regulated by the Fed.
Less Risky
Securities firms, by contrast, had been regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC's future becomes dimmer with the change in Goldman and Morgan Stanley's structures.
``You can't kiss goodbye to the last two important investment banks without noting that the house is empty,'' said David Becker, a former SEC general counsel who is now a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Washington. ``It's a downward spiral where the less significant the population you regulate, the less your available resources.''
The change is also likely to lead to less risk-taking by the companies and possibly lower pay for their employees. Both Goldman and Morgan Stanley held more than $20 of assets for every $1 of shareholder equity, making them dependent on market funding to operate.
Goldman, in particular, has been remarkable for the high bonuses it pays to its employees. Goldman's CEO and two co- presidents were each paid more than $67 million last year.
``They're going to have to protect their deposit bases by law, and the days of high leverage are gone,'' said Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, who wrote ``Wall Street: A History.'' ``The days of the big bonuses are gone.''

Federal Reserve changes status of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to bank holding companies

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve said Sunday it had granted a request by the country's last two major investment banks -- Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley -- to change their status to bank holding companies.

The Fed announced that it had approved the request of the two investment banks. The change in status will allow them to create commercial banks that will be able to take deposits, bolstering the resources of both institutions.

The change continued the biggest restructuring on Wall Street since the Great Depression.

The request for the change to bank holding companies was granted by a unanimous vote of the Fed's board of governors during a late Sunday meeting in Washington.

The change of status means both companies will come under the direct regulation of the Federal Reserve, which regulates the nation's bank holding companies. The banking subsidiaries of the two institutions will face the stricter regulations that commercial banks are required to meet. Previously, the primary regulator for Goldman and Morgan Stanley was the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of both institutions had come under pressure ever since the bankruptcy filing last week by investment bank Lehman Brothers and the forced sale of investment bank Merrill Lynch to Bank of America.

Investors feared that the last remaining independent investment banks would not be able to survive in their current form. There had been speculation that both institutions would be acquired by commercial banks, whose ability to take deposits would give them a stable source of funding.

The decision by the two giants of finance to get approval from the Fed to change their own status represented another dramatic development in one of the most turbulent periods in Wall Street history.

In the surprise announcement late Sunday, the central bank said that to provide increase funding support to the two institutions during the transition period, they would be allowed to get short-term loans from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York against various types of collateral.

The Fed said its action would take final effect after a five-day waiting period required under law.

The decision means that the Goldman and Morgan Stanley will be able not only to set up commercial bank subsidiaries to take deposits, giving them a major resource base, but they will also have the same access as other commercial banks to the Fed's emergency loan program.

After the collapse of Bear Stearns and its forced sale to JP Morgan Chase last March, the Fed used powers it had been granted during the Great Depression to extend its emergency loans to investment banks as well as commercial banks. However, that extension was granted on a temporary basis.

But as commercial banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will have permanent access to emergency loans from the Fed, the same privilege that other commercial banks enjoy.

The action by the Fed's board of governors in Washington came on a day when the Bush administration continued to campaign for quick congressional approval of its request for authority to use $700 billion to purchase a mountain of bad mortgage debt held by financial companies. The effort represented the boldest action yet aimed at stabilizing chaotic financial markets.

Democrats in Congress said they would demand provisions in the bailout measure to protect people in danger of losing their homes as well as seeking to cap executive compensation at firms who get to unload their bad mortgages debt onto the government. But the proposal was expected to win quick congressional passage because both parties are concerned about the adverse reaction in financial markets should the measure look like it was being delayed.