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Much work remains to maximize U.S. employment and stabilize prices, and the central bank will do its part, an influential Federal Reserve official said on Friday.

The pace of the U.S. economic recovery remains “sluggish” and is likely to slow somewhat this year, said New York Fed President William Dudley. Unemployment is likely to remain “unacceptably high” for some time, he added, while inflation is likely to be below the Fed’s new 2-percent objective for several years.

“Clearly, much work remains to achieve the Fed’s dual mandate of maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability,” Dudley told reporters in a regular briefing.

The Fed, which has kept interest rates near zero for more than three years, “has done and will continue to do its part in supporting the recovery - but it is not all-powerful,” he added.

“Other complementary policy actions in housing, fiscal policy and structural adjustment or rebalancing of the economy will be essential if we are to achieve the best available recovery.”

Aside from the low rates, the Fed has also bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities in an unprecedented drive to spur growth and revive the economy after the worst recession in decades. Yet the recovery has been slow and the outlook issued by the Fed this week was bleak, leading the central bank to say it expects to keep rates “exceptionally low” at least through late 2014.

Dudley, a permanent voter on the Fed’s policy-setting committee, added that he expects “moderate” growth this year, and warned the risks are skewed to the downside in part because of Europe’s debt crisis business cards design.

The economy continues to operate with “significant excess slack,” he said, adding: “Inflation has retreated and may be headed down further.”

On Wednesday, Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed stood ready to offer more stimulus in the form of bond purchases if inflation remains below 2 percent - a formal target unveiled earlier that day - and if unemployment, now at 8.5 percent, remains high.

The speech by Dudley, a policy dove focused on driving down the high jobless numbers, could add confidence to those who, since the Wednesday meeting, see another round of asset purchases - including mortgage-backed securities - as all but inevitable.

Still, the slow overall recovery has cast some doubt on the U.S. central bank’s far-reaching strategy, with some, including congressional Republicans, warning that the massive quantitative easing efforts over the last few years could crimp the Fed’s ability to tighten policy when the time comes.

The Fed’s ultra easy monetary policy stance, to nurse the recovery, got some support from data on Friday showing U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2011.

It was a sharp acceleration from the 1.8 percent clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010. But it was a touch below economist expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3-percent rate, and nearly 2 percentage points were attributed to the build-up in business inventories.

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Nintendo Co.’s upcoming Wii U game console will come with a controller that has a big, touch-enabled screen. At first glance, that seems like an obstacle to the kind of casual multiplayer gaming that made the first Wii console such a breakout hit.

But in demonstrations Tuesday, the company emphasized that the Wii U will work with the cheaper, stick-like Wii controllers as well, making family multiplayer games feasible.

The Japanese company is giving some journalists hands-on time with the console on the sidelines of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started Tuesday in Las Vegas.

It’s the second time the U.S. media is getting a glimpse of the device, which was first shown in June. Nintendo said the device will go on sale after the next Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles in June.

Nintendo went against conventional wisdom with the original Wii in 2006. The quirky, cheap game console relied not on high-end graphics and complex buttons to lure in hardcore players, but on simple motion controls to lure in everyone.

Although the company successfully courted casual gamers with the Wii, it is now facing increased competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other devices that offer simple games. It had hoped to win new gamers through a 3-D handheld device. But sales were slow, and Nintendo slashed prices on the 3DS within six months.

The Wii U will be sold as a bundle with one touch-screen controller, which is almost as big as the game console itself. Nintendo hasn’t said what the package or an extra controller will cost. Touch screens are expensive, often accounting for nearly half of the cost of a phone or a tablet computer.

Nintendo’s demonstrations reveal that the touch-screen controller is designed to work with older controllers free credit report and score. For example, in one of Nintendo’s demonstration games, four players with Wii remotes chase a fifth, who uses the touch controller. The fifth player uses the screen on the controller to guide his movements, which are thus kept secret from the other players. The other players keep track of their own movements on the TV screen.

In another demonstration game, two players with Wii remotes collaborate to fight a third, who zooms around in a spaceship, controlled through the touch controller.

The integration of the older remotes and the touch controller goes even further. The existing Wii console is able to keep track of where the old-style Wii remotes are with the help of a “sensor bar” that attaches to the TV set. That’s how the Wii remote can be used to “point” to things on the screen. The new Wii U controller has its own sensor bar, so the Wii U can figure out where a Wii remote is in relation to the controller, not just the TV set.

This sounds complicated, but it enables simple, unexpected forms of game play. For instance, Nintendo showed in a video how the Wii U controller could be placed on the floor for a golf game. The screen of the controller shows a teed-up golf ball. Swinging a Wii remote like a golf club above the controller gets the ball flying.

While the ability to use older remotes will appeal to consumers, supporting multiple remotes could pose a challenge for game developers, who might decide to drop support for older hardware. To make things more complicated, there are two versions of the Wii remote, with differing motion-sensing abilities, and an accessory “Nunchuck” controller.

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Treasuries (YCGT0025) had the biggest annual return since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008 as Europe

Except for his time in the military, James Coplin, 53, has lived his entire life in a modest brick house much like those of his neighbors in the 3600 block of Hickory Street.

Across the street is a stretch recently cleared of similar dwellings owned by St. Louis University. In their place is vacant ground, behind which looms St. Louis University Hospital.

Coplin, who works for a cleaning company, says he believes that SLU is now interested in houses on his side of the street. He said that two or three times in recent months a real estate agent has dropped by to ask if he is interested in selling.

“I told him to make an offer, but he never did,” Coplin said.

SLU’s purchases on Hickory are among dozens it has made in recent years near the medical school, city records show. As it did on Hickory, SLU often demolishes the homes and other structures it buys, then plants the sites with grass. As for the school’s plans for the future with its accumulated real estate, details are scarce.

The real estate agent who knocked on Coplin’s door declined to identify who he was representing but referred a reporter to SLU. University officials did not respond to numerous requests for information about the school’s development plans.

Within the past two years, SLU has bought houses across the street from Coplin’s lifelong residence, he said. Leases on the street’s rental properties were not renewed, he added. As tenants moved out, crews moved in to board up the houses.

“A couple of months later, they started tearing them down,” he said.

SLU has largely consolidated its property holdings in the approximately 60-block area bounded by Chouteau Avenue, South Compton Avenue, Park Avenue and 39th Street. Within the area of recently purchased parcels is SLU’s new track and recreation field, but much of the recently purchased property is vacant. The university also has bought some industrial tracts north of Chouteau between South Compton and South Spring Avenue.

SLU’s president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, did not respond to a request for information about long-range campus development.

In a statement provided Friday, a university spokesman said SLU generally did not discuss real estate matters, including plans for acquiring property. But the spokesman said that like many urban universities, SLU has bought property near or adjacent to its campus for potential expansion.

The purchase attracting the most attention is that of the Pevely Dairy complex at Chouteau and South Grand Boulevard. SLU disclosed in August that it had bought the historic buildings from developer Rick Yackey, who had planned to convert the vacant structures into apartments and commercial space.

At the time, the university said it had no specific plan for the site. Only after SLU’s intent to demolish the buildings was publicized this month did the university say it planned to replace the structures with a building for its SLUCare physician’ practice.

Clayton Berry, SLU’s spokesman, said Friday that the university studied the Pevely buildings extensively and determined they did not meet the needs of a modern health care facility.

“SLU is planning to construct a multimillion-dollar outpatient ambulatory health center that will provide a wide variety of health care services and procedures for hundreds of thousands of adult and child patients,” he said. “This significant investment isn’t just essential for the university, but also will benefit the neighborhood, the city and the region.”

The city’s Preservation Board is scheduled to consider at its meeting Nov. 28 SLU’s application filed Oct. 26 for permits to tear down the Pevely complex. The city’s Cultural Resources Office has denied the university’s application. Mayor Francis Slay tweeted on Tuesday that the office would not approve an application to demolish the buildings.

SLU’s move to raze the Pevely buildings, which are on the National Register of Historic Places, prompted formation of the Pevely Preservation Coalition and a Facebook page, “Save the Historic Pevely Dairy.”

Many of the coalition’s members also led the effort this year to save the 1960s “flying saucer” building on South Grand near SLU’s main campus. Yackey, the saucer building’s owner, eventually agreed to preserve the unusual structure and incorporate it into a new retail development.

Randy Vines, a participant in both preservation efforts, said destruction of historic buildings made no sense when SLU owned plenty of vacant property suitable for its SLUCare expansion.

He and other coalition members want SLU to preserve at least the four-story main building and smokestack at the Pevely complex, which dates to about 1913 and sits prominently south of the university’s main campus.

“The greater result we’re hoping for is to force SLU to change its vision for that part of its campus,” Vines said.

Another coalition member, architect Paul Hohmann, said university officials might have a dozen better locations to expand SLUCare.

“SLU has acres and acres and acres of land all over the place to build their medical office buildings,” he said. “You’ve got to think they have a 20-year master plan on what to do with all that property. After all, they’re buying it. But if they have such a plan, they’re not showing it.”

Master plan or not, SLU officials may be smart to continue to buy as much property as possible near campus, said Bob Lewis, president of Development Strategies, a consulting firm.

“They’re protecting themselves, if nothing else,” he said. “Don’t wait around. If it becomes available, grab it.”

Lewis noted that the effort to redo the Pevely complex as apartments never got going. That plan took a hit in 2009 when a fire destroyed one of the three main buildings. SLU’s decision to buy properties near its medical center complex could bolster two growing economic sectors

Online broker E-Trade Financial Corp. shares plunged nearly 5 percent in after-market trading following its announcement that it had concluded a strategic review and has no plans for a sale.

Shares fell 34 cents to close at $9.48. After it made the announcement, shares fell 46 cents, or 4.9 percent.

The company said it has concluded the review begun in August that was designed to consider all alternatives including a possible sale. The board unanimously determined that the continued execution of the company’s business plan is currently the best alternative, it said.

That also was the recommendation of Goldman Sachs & Co., hired as an adviser for the review.

E-Trade’s largest shareholder and bondholder, Citadel Advisors LLC, pushed the company earlier this year to seek a buyer.

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World stocks climbed Wednesday, bolstered by receding inflation in China and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s promise to resign once a new budget is passed that could prevent the country becoming engulfed in a debt crisis.

Benchmark oil rose to nearly $97 per barrel as the Chinese inflation numbers reinforced expectations that the world’s second-largest economy can continue robust growth and strong demand for crude. The dollar gained against the euro but slipped against the yen.

European shares advanced in early trading on the heels of broad gains in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.2 percent to close at 8,755.44. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent to 5,587.13, Germany’s DAX rose 1.1 percent to 6,027.96, and France’s CAC-40 added 0.6 percent to 3,163.50.

But Wall Street was set to fall, with Dow Jones industrial futures losing 0.4 percent to 12,076 and S&P 500 futures dropping 0.6 percent to 1,265.90.

Italy became a key focus for investors this week after doubts emerged that the country would go through with a tough package of austerity measures. Many investors saw Berlusconi as an obstacle to sweeping economic reforms needed to help Italy avoid sinking into a debt crisis.

Berlusconi is the second recent political casualty of the European debt crisis. In Greece, a new interim government _ one that won’t be led by the current prime minister, George Papandreou _ is to be announced Wednesday. New leadership was needed for the passage of an austerity plan in Parliament that would entitle debt-laden Greece to euro130 billion ($179 billion) in new European rescue money.

Some analysts said the political shakeup in Italy won’t stem the tide of debt the country faces. Italy’s borrowing cost spiked to nearly 7 percent this week. That number is important because Greece, Portugal and Ireland were forced to receive financial lifelines after their rates rose above 7 percent. Unlike those countries, Italy is too large to be bailed out by its European neighbors.

“It doesn’t matter who the politician is. They still have the same debt,” said Martin Hennecke, associate director of investment advisers Tyche Group in Hong Kong. Greece’s situation is “peanuts” compared to the financial devastation that could be wrought should Italy default.

“That would sink the whole eurozone rescue process in an instant. That would sink France, too, because of the exposure of French banks to Italy. It’s about seven times more than their exposure to Greece,” Hennecke said.

Yet the optimism generated by Europe’s efforts to contain its debt crisis led investors to plow money back into emerging market equity funds, which posted their biggest weekly inflow since early April, according to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based fund tracker EPFR Global payday lenders.

For the week ending Nov. 2, equity funds posted net inflows of $4.9 billion for the week. Emerging market funds took in 70 percent of that total, EPFR said.

Among Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent to 1,907.53 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.7 percent to 20,014.43. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.2 percent to 4,346.10.

Benchmarks in India, Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines were also higher, while those in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand fell. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 2,524.92 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.6 percent to 1,071.04.

Another market cue came from China, with the release Wednesday of data showing the country’s stubbornly high inflation fell in October as rapid rises in food costs eased. The decline was seen positively by investors as it gives Beijing more room to stimulate China’s economy.

Japan’s Olympus Corp. fell 20 percent as it may be booted off the Tokyo stock market after it admitted Tuesday it covered up investment losses dating back to the 1990s. Brokerage firm Nomura Holdings rose 4.1 percent, a day after hitting its lowest price of the year amid fears that securities companies might have been involved in the coverup.

Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co. rose 3.3 percent and China National Offshore Oil Corp., known as CNOOC, gained 4 percent. In mainland China trading, China National Software & Service Co. gained 6.1 percent while several media companies hit the daily limit of 10 percent.

U.S. stock indexes fell early Tuesday after Berlusconi narrowly survived a confidence vote. But the market turned higher immediately after news reports said Berlusconi had promised to step down after economic reforms are passed, likely next week.

On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.8 percent to close at 12,170.18. The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent to 1,275.92. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.2 percent to 2,727.49.

Benchmark crude was down 10 cents at $96.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.28 to settle at $96.80 on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro slipped to $1.3789 from $1.3835 in late trading Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.67 yen from 77.70 yen.

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Stock futures are rising on hopes that a solution will be found to expand Europe’s financial rescue program.

Slovakia rejected a bill Tuesday that would have increased the powers of the regional rescue fund. The 16 other countries that use the euro have already signed off on the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support. Still, there are ways around Slovakia’s opposition, and investors expect the bill to ultimately pass before a meeting of European leaders next week.

About 90 minutes before the opening bell Wednesday, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 86 points, or 0.8 percent, at 11,416. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are up 8, or 0.7 percent, at 1,198. Nasdaq 100 index futures are up 21, or 0.9 percent, at 2,310.

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The tropical depression named Ophelia has regenerated in the Atlantic east of the Leeward Islands and is expected to strengthen.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday the depression with top sustained winds of 30 miles per hour (45 kph) was about 175 miles (285 km) east-southeast of the Leewards. It could become a tropical storm Wednesday on a forecast track that could steer it toward the north Atlantic.

Far out in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Philippe was heading northwest and continued to weaken.

Philippe had maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph (65 kph) and should become a tropical depression Wednesday as it heads west-northwest.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Hilary is also weakening and doesn’t pose any immediate threat to Mexico’s coast.

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Hundreds of jailed members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA have called for an end to violence as a tool for achieving Basque independence, boosting pressure for ETA to disband and prompting the government on Saturday to call the appeal significant but insufficient.

A group representing the 700 ETA prisoners in Spain and France made the appeal in a statement Friday night, adding that they themselves should be granted amnesty.

The call endorsed a groundbreaking agreement reached late last year by pro-independence Basque political parties _ chiefly the remnants of ETA’s banned political wing, Batasuna _ and civic groups that said Basque independence should be achieved through peaceful means, not by shooting people or setting off car bombs.

But the prisoners stopped short of calling on ETA to dissolve, as demanded by Spain, and reiterated traditional demands that the government also rejects, such as letting the Basque people decide whether to break away or remain part of Spain.

ETA declared a cease-fire in September 2010 and went further in January by calling the truce permanent and saying it was prepared to let international observers verify it.

ETA has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at forcing the government to allow creation of an independent Basque homeland straddling the Basque provinces of northern Spain and southwest France. But the group has been decimated in recent years by arrests of its leaders and members, and has not killed anyone in Spain in more than two years.

Government spokesman Jose Blanco said Saturday the prisoners’ appeal was unprecedented.

“It is an important step, a significant one. But it is not the one that society in general and the government wanted because it is not definitive, nor is it the one that announces the end of ETA,” Blanco said.

Debate among ETA prisoners _ seen as holding much sway in the organization _ on whether to renounce violence has been under way for months.

The appeal comes now with a general election due in Spain in November. The governing Socialists, who negotiated with ETA in 2006, are expected to lose badly to the opposition conservatives, in large part because of the dismal state of Spain’s economy.

While many in Spain see Europe’s last major armed militancy as being on its last legs, one big question mark is whether ETA will make some kind of big announcement before the voting on Nov. 20.

Some in Spain say ETA’s demise _ the golden ring that successive Spanish governments have sought in vain for decades _ might conceivably be enough to save the Socialists by letting them claim credit for what would be a historic event.

Meanwhile, Basque police said some 10,000 protesters marched through the region’s main city, Bilbao, Saturday evening to protest a 10-year jail term given Sept. 16 to activists who include Arnaldo Otegi, the former Batasuna leader who has been credited with leading the pro-independence community to reject violence as the way to achieve a Basque state.

A court in Madrid convicted Otegi and four others of forming an organization to replace Batasuna and serve as a political tool for ETA. Many Basques reacted angrily, saying the conviction dashed hopes for peace just as momentum toward it seemed to be building.

At the march, protest leaders hailed the decision by the ETA prisoners as setting the stage for a settlement. Many demonstrators waved the red, white and green Basque flag and chanted slogans calling on the government to transfer ETA prisoners scattered around the country to prisons in the Basque region _ a long-standing ETA demand.

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