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U.S. stocks were poised to open lower to kick off a holiday-shortened week Monday, as news of progress on Ireland’s rescue package underlined concerns about other troubled European economies.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures all edged lower ahead of the opening bell. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Stocks eked out gains Friday, ending a volatile week with a whimper. The volatility was driven by nervousness over China’s efforts to temper bank lending and a potential bailout for Ireland. Optimism over General Motors’ (GM) initial public offering helped limit the downside.

On Sunday, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen formally requested substantial "financial assistance" from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The group is now working to hammer out final details of a rescue package worth tens of billions of dollars.

That move could give U.S. markets a boost because it removes a piece of uncertainty, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist for Avalon Partners.

But jitters will remain over debt levels in Portugal and Spain, he said.

Trading could be choppy this week, with many market participants taking time off ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday — when all U.S. markets will be closed.

World markets: European stocks were mixed in morning trading amid progress on Ireland’s international bailout. Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.7%, the DAX in Germany was flat, and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.5%.

Asian markets ended the session mixed. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.4%, while the Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.9%.

China’s economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, said Monday that it would work to keep domestic prices stable. The organization said it would increase subsidies for the low-income bracket in accordance with price hikes.

Aggressive anti-inflation controls or interest rate increases could hamper economic activity in China, Cardillo said. But he added that growth is so strong, it would take major action to adversely affect the market.

"Will they raise rates to the point where they cripple economic growth? I don’t think so," he said.

Economy: Investors will have to digest a full plate of top-tier economic indicators before packing it in for the week.

Reports on the agenda Tuesday and Wednesday include a revised reading on U.S. economic growth, housing data and durable goods orders, as well as personal income and spending figures. In addition, the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release minutes from its Nov. 3 policy meeting on Tuesday.

Companies: Dow component Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) is among the companies due to report quarterly results after the market closes.

Analysts expect the computer products maker to post fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $1.27 per share on sales of $32.75 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar weakened against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil for January delivery gained 81 cents to $82.79 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery rose $5 to $1,357.30 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 2.87% from 2.88% late Friday.  

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Facebook will be awarded a trademark for the word "face," pending some action from the social network, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

As first reported by TechCrunch, The U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent Facebook a Notice of Allowance, which means the government will award the social networking site the trademark under certain conditions.

The type of application Facebook filed requires the company to provide a sworn statement that it intends to use the trademark on products. The company will have to file that "Statement of Use," and then it will have to use the "in commerce" before it has actual legal claim to the word "face."

Patent lawyers had been skeptical that Facebook would be granted the trademark to such a generic word.

But once Facebook completes the paperwork and uses "face" in commerce, the USPTO will grant the trademark for: "Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter."

In August, Aaron Greenspan received an extension of time to file an opposition to Facebook’s "Face" trademark attempt. Greenspan is the president and CEO of Think Computer, the developer of a mobile payments app called FaceCash. He would not comment on whether he did file an opposition to the "face" trademark."

Greenspan, a former Harvard classmate of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, claimed he had a hand in developing the social networking giant. The case was settled last year.

Facebook has also waged wars against sites using the word "book." In August, Facebook sued start-up site Teachbook.com — which claims it is merely a teacher’s community. The social networking giant also forced the travel site PlaceBook to change its name to TripTrace this past summer.

A representative for Facebook could not immediately be reached for comment. 

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New Zealand’s prime minister says that hope is fading for 29 coal miners missing for four days underground after an explosion.

John Key says that police are now planning for the possible loss of life following the massive blast in the mine that is now swirling with toxic gases.

Key told Parliament Tuesday that it is still too dangerous to enter the mine to find what has happened to the men. He says he shares the families’ frustration that a rescue team can’t be sent in because of the toxic gas levels in the mine.

He says the miners are tough, resourceful and stoic men who look after each other in the same way a father looks out for a son.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

GREYMOUTH, New Zealand (AP) _ The bid to rescue 29 New Zealand coal miners trapped underground by a massive gas explosion ran into more problems Tuesday as a mechanical robot broke down inside a tunnel and hard rock layers slowed progress on drilling to test the air.

Police superintendent Gary Knowles said the army robot sent in to transmit pictures and assess toxic gas levels was damaged by water and out of commission. Authorities were urgently seeking other such robots from West Australia and the United States to replace the broken one, Knowles said.

“I won’t send people in to recover a robot if their lives are in danger,” he said. “Toxicity is still too unstable to send rescue teams in.”

Making matters worse, the drilling team boring into the mine tunnel had hit “very hard rock” overnight, Knowles said. The police superintendent’s statements came as rescuers waited impatiently for a chance to test if air quality underground was safe enough for them to go in to pull out the miners, who have been trapped for nearly five days.

Family members have expressed frustration with the pace of the response as officials acknowledge it may be too late to save the miners, who have not been heard from since a massive explosion ripped through the Pike River Mine on the country’s South Island on Friday.

A buildup of methane gas is the suspected cause of the explosion. And now the presence of that gas and others _ some of them believed to be coming from a smoldering fire deep underground _ are delaying a rescue over fears they could still explode.

A diamond-tipped drill was put to work as workers hit layers of hard rock and came within 33 feet (10 meters) of the tunnel where they believe some of the miners are trapped, police superintendent Gary Knowles said. The 500-foot (160-meter)-long shaft they are creating will allow them to sample gas levels _ including explosive methane and carbon dioxide _ and determine if rescuers can finally move in days after the blast cash advance loans.

Knowles said rescuers planned to drop a listening device down the hole to see if they could hear anything _ such as tapping sounds _ that might indicate that the miners were still alive.

“This is a very serious situation and the longer it goes on, hopes fade, and we have to be realistic. We will not go underground until the environment is safe,” Knowles said.

Two workers stumbled out of the mine within hours of Friday’s explosion, but there has been no contact at all with the remaining 29. A phone line deep inside the mine has rung unanswered.

“The families are showing grief, frustration and probably anger,” said Laurie Drew, whose 21-year-old son, Zen, is among the missing. “I have my moments I can keep it together but deep down my heart’s bleeding like everybody else’s.”

Knowles appealed for patience.

“You can’t put men underground as a rescue team until it’s a safe environment,” he said. “I’ve looked at other rescuers and the chance of rescue teams dying or being critically injured (in a fresh explosion) is great.”

Those trapped include a teenager who was so excited about his new job he persuaded mine bosses to let him start his first shift three days early _ on the day of the deadly gas explosion _ his mother told local media.

Joseph Dunbar was one day past his 17th birthday and the youngest among them when he joined his fellow miners in the pit.

Mine shift supervisor Gary Campbell said Dunbar was desperate to be part of the team.

His mother, Philippa Timms, said her son “got offered this chance to have a career _ and that’s how he saw it, as a career,” she told TV One.

The wait to begin the rescue bid for the men had been frustrating, but Timms said she understood why.

“They can’t just rush in there because, I know right from the word go, I know how it works,” she said. “If the oxygen rushes in and it hits that methane, then bam, they’re gone, (in) another blast.”

Police have said the miners, aged 17 to 62, are believed to be about 1.2 miles (two kilometers) down the tunnel.

Each miner carried 30 minutes of oxygen, and more fresh air was stored in the mine, along with food and water that could allow them to survive for several days, officials say.

New Zealand’s mines are generally safe. A total of 181 people have been killed in the country’s mines in 114 years. The worst disaster was in March 1896, when 65 died in a gas explosion. Friday’s explosion occurred in the same coal seam.

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Ireland won’t be required to raise its corporate tax rate as part of a European Union bailout, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, addressing an issue that looms as a stumbling block to an aid agreement.

“When you have to tackle a deficit, you have two levers, spending and taxes,” Sarkozy said yesterday in Lisbon at a summit of NATO leaders. “I can’t believe that our Irish friends, in full sovereignty, won’t look at both since they have more room for maneuver given that their tax rates are lower. But that’s not a demand or a condition, just an opinion.”

Irish leaders have said they’ll fight to keep a 12.5 percent corporate tax, which helped make Ireland a destination for investment by companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Pfizer Inc. Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell and EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn have indicated the rate may be increased toward the level in continental nations as part of the financial rescue.

Rehn said Nov. 8 that “Ireland will not continue as a low- tax country.”

Irish officials and experts from the EU and International Monetary Fund are working through the weekend in Dublin, racing to finish an aid deal and avoid a setback in the markets.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said yesterday that the country’s corporate tax rate and four-year budget plan wouldn’t be significantly changed, the New York Times reported. Cowen spoke to reporters on a visit to Arranmore Island off Ireland’s northern coast, according to the Times.

Cabinet Meeting

Cowen said he would return to Dublin for a cabinet meeting today to work out final details of a four-year deficit reduction plan, the newspaper said.

Allied Irish Banks Plc, Ireland’s second-biggest bank, emphasized the fragility of the financial system Nov. 19, reporting a 17 percent decline in deposits this year. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Europe is moving “too slowly” to resolve the sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece.

The deposit outflow at Allied Irish “looks grim,” said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. “It underscores the urgency in the situation and need to reach a resolution. A big package is needed to reassure the markets.”

The aid talks began three days ago after a meeting of EU finance ministers urged Ireland to agree to a package within days. The plan, which will focus on a banking industry reeling from the 2008 property crash, may total as much as 100 billion euros ($136 billion), according to Barclays Capital.

Irish Bonds

Investors dumped Irish bonds this month on concern about the nation’s ability to keep its financial system afloat. They pared some of the loss when Cowen abandoned a refusal to seek assistance. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said on Nov payday loans. 18 that it was clear the country would need aid as the banks had become “unmanageable.”

The premium that investors demand to hold Irish 10-year bonds over the benchmark German bonds rose 3 basis points Nov. 19 to 544 basis points. The spread, a measure of the risk of investing in Irish debt, declined from a record 646 basis points on Nov. 11 as investors anticipated a rescue.

Amid the talks, Cowen campaigned in Donegal in northwest Ireland before a Nov. 25 election to fill a vacant parliamentary seat. The vote threatens to erode Cowen’s majority. He has the support of 82 lawmakers, including independents, compared with 79 for the combined opposition.

Contingency Funding

Lenihan said last week he would welcome the creation of “substantial contingency capital funding” for Irish banks as Irish officials said they’d resist any demand by the EU to raise revenue by increasing a corporate tax rate.

Ireland’s Trade Minister Batt O’Keeffe said last week the corporate tax rate isn’t “up for negotiation.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday dodged the question of whether the tax was in jeopardy if Ireland tapped the bailout fund.

“Every country that’s in need of this mechanism can use it,” she said at a briefing in Lisbon. “Everything beyond that is the decision of each individual country.”

A 2011 budget, due for release on Dec. 7, may placate investors concerned over a budget deficit that will be about 12 percent of gross domestic product this year, or 32 percent when the costs of the banking rescue are included.

Irish lenders have become more reliant on European Central Bank funding after being frozen out of wholesale markets. The amount of ECB loans to the country’s banks rose 7.3 percent to 130 billion euros in October from the previous month.

Central Bank Funding

Allied Irish has tripled its reliance on funding from central banks since the end of June as deposits fled. The bank’s dependence on “monetary authorities” rose to 27 billion euros from a “high single-digit” billion-euro amount on June 30, Alan Kelly, general manager of group corporate services at Allied Irish, said in a telephone interview Nov. 19.

Irish banks’ failure to wean themselves off the ECB lifeline prompted EU officials to step in, in an effort to halt the crisis before it spreads across the euro region.

“The current view seems to be if Ireland accepts bailout funds, at least for the banking sector, that might help fend off any move by the bond vigilantes to move onto Portugal,” said James Shugg, a London-based economist at Westpac Banking Corp.

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European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank can raise interest rates before withdrawing all of its non-standard policy measures.

“We consider that we can determine standard and non- standard measures largely independently,” Trichet said at a conference in Frankfurt today. “We consider that we are not bound to unwind non-standard measures before considering interest-rate increases; we could do one or the other or both.”

The ECB has held its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent since May 2009 to help the euro-area economy through the global financial slump payday loans in California. It also introduced non- standard measures such as unlimited lending to banks, which it has left in place longer than initially intended after Europe’s sovereign debt crisis roiled financial markets. In May the ECB started buying government bonds.

“The ECB did not embark on non-standard measures because we thought the scope for further standard easing of the monetary policy stance had been exhausted,” Trichet said. “Rather, our view was that non-standard measures were required to ensure that the stance of monetary policy was effectively transmitted to the broader economy, notwithstanding the dysfunctional situation in some financial markets.”

Adjusting interest rates “depends on the outlook for price stability,” Trichet said, while the removal of non-standard measures “depends on the degree of functioning of the monetary policy transmission through the financial system and financial markets.”

At the same time, Trichet said the non-standard measures are “temporary” in nature “to the extent that they have to be strictly commensurate to the degree of dysfunctionality of markets cheap payday loans.”

“The central bank must guard against the danger that the necessary measures in a crisis period would evolve into a dependency as conditions normalize,” he said.

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Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the government could accept an aid package for its banks after talks with the European Union and International Monetary Fund conclude.

It’s possible that the funds would be made available “but not drawn down,” Lenihan told lawmakers in Dublin today cashadvance. His comments are the clearest signal yet from a government minister that the country will ask for a bailout.

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Ontario’s projected deficit for 2010-11 has been reduced to $18.7 billion.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says that’s a 25 per cent reduction from last fall, when the deficit was $24.7 billion.

Duncan credits improved corporate tax revenues and reduced spending for the big drop in the deficit.

However, the opposition parties say the implementation of the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax in July was the big revenue generator for the Liberal government.

Duncan insists the increased revenues from the HST are offset by the personal and corporate tax cuts the government introduced this year.

The finance minister released the deficit figure today in advance of Thursday’s fall economic update, which is also expected to include some sort of relief from soaring electricity bills.

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India’s inflation slowed in October to the lowest level in nine months, reducing pressure on the central bank to extend Asia’s fastest round of interest-rate increases this year.

The benchmark wholesale-price index rose 8.58 percent from a year earlier after an 8.62 percent increase in September, according to a commerce ministry statement in New Delhi today. The median forecast of 22 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an 8.5 percent gain.

Governor Duvvuri Subbarao, who raised rates on Nov. 2 for the sixth time this year, said the central bank may refrain from boosting them for three months, partly to ward off the risk of inflation-stoking capital inflows from overseas. The Reserve Bank of India also wants to assess the impact of the monetary tightening on consumer demand. The government said on Nov. 12 factory output growth dropped to a 16-month low in September.

“We see an interest-rate pause for now,” Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. in Mumbai, said before the report. “They will resume raising rates next year if inflation does not drop fast enough.”

India’s central bank is aiming to cool inflation to 6 percent by March 31.

So far this year, the interest-rate differential between India and advanced countries spurred an unprecedented $10 billion inflow into rupee debt, strengthening the currency by 3.8 percent to 45.03 against the dollar since Sept. 1. Overseas funds also invested a record $28.5 billion into Indian stocks since Jan. 1 on prospects of faster economic expansion in the South Asian nation, driving the stock index to near a record.

Rate Differential

The Reserve Bank’s benchmark repurchase rate is 6.25 percent. By comparison, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s target for overnight interbank loans is zero to 0.25 percent, where it has been since December 2008. The Fed Nov. 3 left unchanged its pledge to keep rates low for an “extended period” and said it will buy an additional $600 billion of Treasuries through June.

The Bank of Japan last month unveiled a 5 trillion-yen ($61 billion) fund that will buy government and corporate debt, as well as invest in real-estate investment trusts and exchange- traded funds to spur growth.

Shubhada Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank in Mumbai, said India’s central bank may pause its rate-increase cycle for an “extended” period as counterparts abroad ease their monetary policies.

Industrial Output

“Also, there has been some moderation in industrial output and food inflation has also fallen in recent weeks,” Rao said. “Therefore, we think rates have seen their peak in India.”

India’s industrial output rose 4.4 percent in September after growing 6.9 percent in August, the statistics office said on Nov. 12.

Steel Authority of India Ltd., the nation’s second biggest producer, and rival JSW Steel Ltd., said they cut prices of flat products, used to make cars, by as much as 2 percent for November.

India’s food inflation slowed to a one-year low of 12.3 percent in the week ended Oct. 30. Food prices in India are declining after the country received the heaviest rainfall in three years in the June to September monsoon season, helping spur farm production.

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Rolls-Royce Group PLC says the failure of a Qantas A380 engine last week was specific to the Trent 900 series of engines and confined to specific component of the turbine engine that started an oil fire.

In a trading update Friday, London-based Rolls-Royce says the incident will cause full year profit growth “to be slightly lower than previously guided.”

Chief Executive John Rose says safety is the highest priority for the company and it regrets the disruption it has caused. Qantas and Singapore Airlines have grounded nine A380s between them, while checks are also being run on Trent 900s used by Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa.

Rose says Rolls-Royce is working with plane manufacturer Airbus to enable airlines to “progressively bring the whole fleet back into service.”

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DETROIT—Nissan Motor Co. is recalling more than 600,000 vehicles in North and South America and Africa due to steering or battery cable problems.

The Japanese automaker said Thursday the steering recall affects 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks and 283,000 Xterra sport utility vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Nissan said a corrosion problem with the lower steering column joint and shaft can limit steering movement, making the vehicles difficult to steer. In some cases the corrosion can cause the joint to crack.

Nissan said the steering problem was discovered from cases in Brazil and Canada, and there have been no field reports in the U.S.

Nissan also is recalling 18,500 Sentra sedans because of a battery cable terminal connector problem that can make the cars difficult to start or stall at low speeds.

In Canada, a total of 16,300 vehicles are being recalled — 4,500 Frontiers, 9,900 Xterras and 1,900 Sentras

The company says no injuries or accidents have been reported because of either issue.

The Frontiers covered by the recall are from the 2002 through 2004 model years and were made from July 9, 2001, to Oct. 20, 2004, in Smyrna, Tenn., for the North American market, Nissan said in a statement payday loans no faxing. Frontiers made from Nov. 30, 2001, to June 26, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are in the recall.

The 2002-2004 North American Xterras in the recall were made from July 9, 2001, to Jan. 6, 2005, also at the Smyrna plant. Xterras made from Feb. 17, 2003, to June 13, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are affected.

Nissan also said it will replace the positive battery cable terminal on affected Sentras. The vehicles were built at the Aguascalientes, Mexico, plant from May 22, 2010 to July 8, 2010.

“The isolated field reports from Brazil and Canada are likely related to some unique environmental conditions not commonly present in other areas, combined with a greater percentage of off-pavement usage,” Nissan spokesman Colin Price said in an email, referring to the steering problems. “Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided that field action is appropriate in all the potentially affected markets.”

About 240,000 Frontiers, 261,000 Xterras and 14,000 Sentras are affected in the United States.

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