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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says he would be reluctant to use the central bank’s emergency lending program to help struggling U.S. auto companies.

In a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Bernanke wrote that any decision about whether to provide financial aid to Detroit is best left to Congress.

Congress and the White House are pushing to clear the final obstacles to a $15 billion bailout of the auto industry, seeking agreement by the end of the day followed by swift passage classic car insurance. 

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Malaysia’s central bank, which cut interest rates yesterday for the first time since 2003, may reduce borrowing costs further next quarter as risks to economic growth heighten, economists said.

The overnight policy rate, which was lowered to 3.25 percent from 3.5 percent, will probably fall to 2.75 percent by March, according to Aseambankers Malaysia Bhd., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc. CIMB Investment Bank Bhd. expects a similar reduction by the end of 2009.

Central bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who had held rates steady as Asian neighbors announced cuts last month, said today the full effects of the financial crisis that has triggered recessions from the U.S. to Japan may only be felt next year. Sustaining growth is the government’s main challenge, Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop said today in Kuala Lumpur.

“Bank Negara Malaysia’s focus has shifted decisively in favor of the growth outlook,” Matthew Hildebrandt, an economist at JPMorgan, wrote in a report dated yesterday. There’s a “risk of further cuts later in the year if the growth outlook deteriorates more than expected” in 2009.

A slump in the price of crude oil and palm oil, the nation’s largest agricultural exports, will put a strain on Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy, Nor said in a prepared speech today.

Currency Gains

Malaysia’s three-year bonds rose, pushing yields to the lowest level since May 2007, on speculation the central bank will keep cutting rates. The ringgit advanced 0.3 percent to 3.6215 against the U.S. dollar.

Malaysia’s central bank said in its monetary-policy statement late yesterday that “the global economic and the international financial conditions are expected to continue to remain volatile and uncertain business card maker.” The bank will “undertake the appropriate policy response to avoid a severe economic downturn,” it said.

Malaysian companies including Malayan Banking Bhd., the nation’s largest bank, Sime Darby Bhd., the world’s biggest palm-oil producer, and planter IOI Corp. have already said profit in their current financial years will fall.

The central bank will probably cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point at each of its January and February policy meetings, Tai Hui, an economist at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a report dated yesterday. Borrowing costs will probably stay on hold for the rest of next year, he said.

Asian Slowdown

Central banks from India to Australia have already lowered rates in recent weeks to spur growth as the U.S., Japan and the euro region slipped into recession. The International Monetary Fund said yesterday Asian economies may ease “substantially’‘ as the global slowdown erodes demand for their exports.

Malaysia’s government expects economic growth to slow to 3.5 percent next year from at least 5 percent in 2008.

That’s even after a 7 billion-ringgit ($1.9 billion) stimulus package that includes providing funds for homes, public transport and industry. The government also said it would let workers pay less into their pensions. Nor said today the measures would translate into 1.6 percentage points of gross- domestic-product growth.

To free up funds for lending, the central bank also cut the so-called Statutory Reserve Requirement, the amount of money commercial banks must set aside, to 3.5 percent from 4 percent. It was the first reduction in a decade.

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European producer-price growth slowed more than economists forecast in September as oil prices plunged from their all-time high earlier this year.

Producer prices in the 15 euro nations rose 7.9 percent from a year earlier after increasing 8.5 percent in August, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists forecast that producer-price inflation would slow to 8 percent, based on the median of 23 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

Easing inflation pressure is giving the European Central Bank space to cut interest rates as policy makers across the globe seek to limit the economic damage from the credit crisis. The Frankfurt-based ECB this week will probably cut its key rate by half a percentage point for the second time in a month and follow that with another reduction in December, a survey of economists shows.

“The upshot of all this is that with factory-gate prices continuing to ease and only pointing to modest further rises in core consumer-price inflation, the ECB will not hesitate to cut interest rates sharply over the next year or so,'' said Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics in London. The rate “may eventually reach 1.5 percent by the end of next year,'' compared with 3.75 percent currently.

Crude oil reached a record $147.27 a barrel in July, which pushed producer-price inflation to 9.2 percent in August, the highest since the data series began in 1990. Oil has since dropped almost 60 percent to around $65.

Energy Prices

Energy-price inflation eased to 20 loan till payday.3 percent in September from 22.6 percent in August. From the previous month, energy prices dropped 0.9 percent, while overall prices slipped 0.2 percent. The core rate of inflation, which excludes energy, slipped to 4.8 percent from 4.9 percent.

European government bonds rose today. The yield on the two- year note, which is most sensitive to the outlook for rates, dropped 5 basis points to 2.48 percent by 12:34 p.m. in London. The yield on the 10-year German bund, Europe's benchmark government security, slipped 2 basis points to 3.81 percent.

The euro rose 0.9 percent to $1.2754 against the dollar. It earlier fell to $1.2527, the lowest since Oct. 28.

The European Commission said in a report yesterday that euro-area economic growth will slump to 0.1 percent in 2009, the worst performance since 1993. It also estimated that gross domestic product will shrink for three consecutive quarters this year and cut its forecast for full-year 2008 growth to 1.2 percent.

Data published last week showed that consumer-price inflation in the euro area eased to 3.2 percent in October from 3.6 percent in September. The ECB, which aims to keep inflation just below 2 percent, holds its next governing council meeting on Nov. 6. A half-point cut at the meeting would reduce its benchmark rate to 3.25 percent.

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Tesoro Corp. offered an advance estimate of third-quarter earnings that projects earnings-per-share to be in the range of $1.70 to $1.90 per share.

The company says earnings were positively affected by expanded margins for light products at the retail level and heavy products, including fuel oil and coke.

“In addition, the decline in crude and natural gas prices positively impacted the company’s internally produced and purchased energy costs,” Tesoro (NYSE: TSO) said in a prepared statement.

The company reported net earnings of $4 million, or 3 cents per share, on revenues of $8.7 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. This compares to net income of $443 million, or $3.26 per share, on revenues of $5.6 billion for the same period a year ago.

The company also reported that it had no borrowings on its revolving credit facility as of the end of September due to strong cash flow and that it lowered its net-debt-to-net-capitalization ratio to 30 percent payday advance.

Separately, Tesoro also announced that Goldman Sachs sold 251,100 shares of Tesoro stock owned by company Chairman, President and CEO Bruce Smith.

“The shares were sold in accordance with an existing margin agreement to meet a margin call,” the company said in a prepared statement. “Depending on the direction of Tesoro’s common stock price, further sales may be required.”

The company’s stock closed at $8.36 per share on Friday, Oct. 10; its 52-week trading range is between $7.61 and $65.98 per share.

Tesoro is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products. The company operates seven refineries in the western United States, including the one in Kapolei, and operates 900 gasoline stations in Hawaii and the U.S. West.

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A monthly gauge of consumer confidence nudged up slightly in September as improving economic expectations offset growing pessimism about current conditions, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

The index, which gauges opinions on business conditions, the labor market and inflation from a sample of 5,000 U.S. households, increased to 59.8 for the month from 58.5 in August. The increase followed a bump in confidence in August as the index continued a rebound from historic lows in May and June.

Responses collected for the September confidence survey were collected through Sept. 23, nearly a week before the U.S. House of Representatives defeated the proposed $700 billion economic bailout package and sent the nation’s financial markets tumbling.

“These results did not capture all of the tumultuous events in the financial sector this month, and until the dust settles a bit more, we will not know the full impact on consumers’ expectations,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a release.

The month’s confidence score shows continued erosion in consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions paydayloans paydayloans.com. More than one in three respondents, 34.2 percent, said business conditions were bad, up from 32.7 percent in August. Those viewing jobs as hard to get increased to 32.8 percent from 31.7 percent.

At the same time, short-term expectations on the future nudged up slightly, though they remain historically low. Of the 5,000 respondents, 21.3 percent said they expect business conditions to worsen over the next six months, an improvement from 25.2 percent in August. The share of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the coming months fell to 26.8 percent from 30 percent in August.

The monthly survey is conducted for the Conference Board by research company TNS.

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Barclays PLC said Tuesday it will acquire Lehman Brothers’ North American investment banking and capital markets businesses for $250 million in cash.

Lehman (LEH, Fortune 500) filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after it was unable to find financing or fresh capital to shore up its balance sheet amid the continued downturn in the credit markets.

Barclays (BCS) said it will acquire Lehman’s North American banking operations, which include Lehman’s fixed income and equities sales, trading and research and investment banking business. About 10,000 employees work in the divisions.

Barclays will also purchase Lehman’s New York headquarters and its two data centers in New Jersey for $1.5 billion.

.The third-biggest British bank had withdrawn from weekend talks with Lehman Brothers about a possible outright acquisition americashadvance faxless payday advances. There have been reports that Barclays can pick up the assets it wants for about $2 billion to $3 billion.

The deal must get approval from the bankruptcy court.

Also on Tuesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee said it would hold a hearing Sept. 25 to examine the "regulatory mistakes and financial excesses" that led to Lehman’s bankruptcy filing. It asked Lehman Chief Executive Richard Fuld to testify before the committee. 

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France's tradedeficit narrowed in July from a record as slowing economic growth led to a decline in imports of goods such as oil and cars.

The trade shortfall shrank to 4.83 billion euros ($6.8 billion) from 5.36 billion euros in June, the largest ever, the Trade Ministry said in Paris today. Economists had expected a deficit of 5 billion euros, according to the median of 11 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

The trade balance may worsen because French exporters, who have been facing the consequences of a euro that traded as high as $1.6038 in July, are now grappling with an economic slowdown in the euro region, where they do most of their business. The French economy contracted 0.3 percent in the second quarter, with trade shedding 0.5 percentage points from growth.

“The good news should be tempered,'' Cedric Thellier, an economist at Natixis in Paris told Bloomberg Television. “One- third of France's exports go to Germany, Italy and other European countries that are also facing a major economic slowdown.''

Exports rose to 34.97 billion euros from 34.86 billion euros in July, while the slowdown in Europe's third-largest economy meant imports fell to 39.8 billion euros from 40.22 billion euros paydayloan fast payday loan no faxing. Imports of oil products and cars fell.

“There's a weakness of French trade and the euro's depreciation over the past weeks is not going to have a positive effect before the end of the year,'' said Gilles Moec an economist at Bank of America in London. “French exporters are not well positioned on markets that pull growth, such as Asia's emerging economies or eastern Europe.''

Airbus SAS said it sold 27 airplanes in July for 1.19 billion euros.

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Bakers Footwear Group Inc. said Tuesday that it received notice it was again in compliance with a Nasdaq Stock Market requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Bakers had received a letter June 9 from Nasdaq that it was at risk of having its stock delisted after the company's common stock failed to maintain a minimum market value of publicly held shares of $5 million for the previous 30 consecutive trading days, as required by Nasdaq market rules. Bakers had 90 days to regain compliance.

Nasdaq notified Bakers in a letter that it had determined the company's minimum market value of publicly held shares has been $5 million or more for at least 10 consecutive trading days and has regained compliance.

Nasdaq defines "publicly held shares" as all shares outstanding less any shares held by company officers, directors, and beneficial owners of 10 percent or more of the company's shares payday advance electronic check payday advance.

St. Louis-based Bakers Footwear Group (Nasdaq: BKRS) is a mall-based retailer of footwear and accessories operating stores under the Bakers and Wild Pair names. It currently operates more than 240 stores nationwide.