That stock News

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Wednesday:

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BRUSSELS — European officials searched urgently for ways to contain the region's debt crisis, amid expectation that a rebound in government bond markets would prove only temporary.

The EU's monetary affairs chief, Olli Rehn, lobbied for further action from the European Central Bank such as government bond purchases to help calm financial markets, a day ahead of a key meeting of the bank's governing council.

Meanwhile, EU regulators loosened rules on bank bailouts for at least another year, while Spain announced additional cutbacks, trying to dispel concerns its economy — regarded as potentially too big to bail out — might falter.

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LONDON — The European Central Bank appears set to keep its special measures to flood banks with cash and could even step up purchases of government bonds to help countries contain a debt crisis that threatens to spiral out of control even after last weekend's bailout of Ireland.

A new boost for the European economy from Thursday's ECB meeting would be a far cry from what was planned just a week or two ago. It was certainly was not on the agenda at last month's gathering.

Expectations the bank will step up its efforts, while keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record low of 1 percent, are one sign of how quickly the debt crisis has sharpened worries that a financially weak member of the eurozone such as Portugal might join Greece and Ireland in needing a bailout — and, even more dangerous, that larger countries such as Spain might run into trouble as well.

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BERLIN — Stocks and the euro rebounded strongly after a run of buoyant economic data from around the world and mounting expectations that the European Central Bank will be stepping up its government bond purchase program in an attempt to ease the pressure on highly indebted Portugal and Spain. Germany's climbed 2.7 percent, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 2.1 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 1.6 percent higher.

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SHANGHAI — China's manufacturing boom accelerated in November, supported by stable demand and rising purchasing prices, according to surveys.

Stocks rose in Asia. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed up a scant 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 finished up 0.5 percent

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was unchanged.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — A stronger Chinese currency would help not just the United States and other trading partners but China itself by cooling rising inflation, economist Nouriel Roubini says.

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UNITED NATIONS — Recovery of the world's economy is starting to lose speed and all signs point toward weaker growth next year, a new United Nations report said.

In releasing the first section of its annual economic report for 2011, the U.N. said that it expects the world economy to grow by 3.1 percent next year and 3.5 percent in 2012. That's far from enough to help recover jobs lost because of the global economic crisis, it said.

The report says that failure by countries to better coordinate their monetary policies have made global markets more volatile, and says nations need to work together for the situation to improve.

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DUBLIN — Ireland must consult the IMF and European authorities over any major change to its economic policy, according to documents outlining details of the country's international bailout.

Finance minister Brian Lenihan said Ireland had also been set quarterly targets for its recovery under the deal for up to 67.5 billion euros ($89 billion) in international loans.

The documents show the country had promised to take "any corrective actions" necessary to fix its ravaged economy in order to win the deal.

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ATHENS, Greece — A Greek official said lagging budget revenues picked up significantly in November, raising hopes that the debt-ridden country will meet its revenue boosting targets at the end of the year.

Greece is fighting to tame a vast budget deficit through deep spending cuts and increased taxation, but so far the growth in revenues has been below target.

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SYDNEY — Australia's economic growth slowed in the September quarter to an annual rate of 2.7 percent, slightly less than expected by economists as a surge in the country's currency contributed to a drop in exports.

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BERLIN — German retail sales jumped by 2.3 percent during October, suggesting consumer spending may be helping an economic recovery that has so far depended on exports.

The October rise came after two months of declines — a 1.8 percent drop in September and 0.4 percent drop in August, according to revised figures from the Federal Statistics Office — and beat the 1.2 percent consensus forecast of economists.

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MADRID — Portugal had to pay a higher interest rate on a sale of 500 million euros ($650 million) in treasury bills, though analysts said the auction went better than some had feared amid the debt crisis.

The bills, which mature in November 2011, were auctioned off at an average interest rate of 5.3 percent, up from 4.8 percent two weeks ago. The sale attracted a lot of interest, however, and was 2.5 times oversubscribed.

Pressure has being building for debt-burdened Portugal to seek a bailout like that of Ireland and Greece.

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MADRID — Spain will sell off a third of its national lottery business, partially privatize airports and cut both a key jobless benefit and taxes for small companies in an unexpected move announced by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodrigo Zapatero to soothe market fears about the country's debt crisis.

The fresh government austerity push — particularly the politically sensitive abolition of a monthly 420 euros ($549) payment to people whose unemployment benefits have expired — show how anxious the government is to avoid a deterioration in market turmoil.

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LONDON — Britain's central banker harbored grave concerns over what he perceived as the economic inexperience of Prime Minister David Cameron and his Treasury chief George Osborne, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King voiced doubts about Cameron and Osborne in the months before they assumed power in Britain's May general election, according to a secret U.S. embassy cable published by the WikiLeaks website.

The exchange — which was front-page news in Britain — raises questions about the qualifications of the two men now engaged in Britain's biggest deficit reduction program since World War II — and about King's impartiality.

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GENEVA — A top Swiss banking official said relations with the United States were improving after the Internal Revenue Service ended its legal action against Swiss bank UBS AG.

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LONDON — A major British mortgage lender says that average house prices fell 0.3 percent in November compared to the previous month as the market remained quiet.

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