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US stocks dip as fiscal cliff deadline nears Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:23 PM PST NEW YORK: US stocks dipped Thursday in the absence of a deal to avert a "fiscal cliff" crisis as an end-of-year deadline crept closer. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session down 18.28 points (0.14 percent) at 13,096.31. The broad-market S&P 500 slipped 1.73 points (0.12 percent) at 1,418.10 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 4.25 points (0.14 percent) at 2,985.91. Washington has until the end of the month to reach a compromise on how to avert a crisis that could lead to steep tax hikes and stringent budget cuts. But with the clock ticking, a deal has yet to take shape. Experts say a fall over the so-called "fiscal cliff" could take the world's biggest economy back into recession. Still, markets appeared to be bolstered by word that the House of Representatives would reconvene on Sunday, raising hopes of an 11th-hour compromise. President Barack Obama cut short his family Christmas break in Hawaii and returned to the capital, and the Senate was also in session Thursday. "News that the House will reconvene for a session Sunday night propelled stocks to end well off the lows of the day, erasing an earlier double-digit loss on the Dow that came courtesy of discouraging remarks from Senator Harry Reid and a fall in Consumer Confidence," said analysts with Charles Schwab & Co. Traders were also digesting a sharp drop in consumer confidence in December, traditionally a key driver of the US economy. In its monthly survey, the Conference Board said the index now stands at 65.1, compared to the downwardly revised 71.5 in November. Stocks in focus included US auto giant Ford, which said Thursday it would invest $773 million to expand factories across its home state of Michigan, generating 2,350 new jobs, part of a plan to add 12,000 jobs by 2015. It fell 0.23 percent. Microsoft edged 0.4 percent higher after announcing it would open six new stores in the United States in 2013. US-listed shares of Toyota Motor Corporation climbed 2.4 percent. The Japanese automaker said Wednesday that it had agreed to pay about US$1.1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit launched by US vehicle owners affected by a series of mass recalls. Marvell Technology Group dropped 3.5 percent after a jury on Wednesday hit it with a billion-dollar verdict, ruling that the US chip maker "willfully" infringed on patents held by Carnegie Mellon University. -- AFP

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Reid Says a Deal Is Unlikely Before the Fiscal Deadline - New York Times Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:57 AM PST By JENNIFER STEINHAUER Published: December 27, 2012 WASHINGTON — Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, warned Thursday morning that there was scant time to put together a Congressional deal to avert the impending fiscal crisis and that no resolution was in sight. "I have to be very honest," Mr. Reid said as the Senate convened Thursday in an usual session between Christmas and New Year's Day. "I don't know time-wise how it can happen now." Mr. Reid offered his pessimistic assessment shortly before President Obama, cutting his vacation short, arrived back in Washington on Air Force One. White House officials said that before leaving Hawaii, Mr. Obama had spoken separately by phone with each of the four Congressional leaders about the status of negotiations, but they gave no details of the discussion. On the Senate floor, Mr. Reid excoriated House Republicans for failing to consider a Senate-passed measure that would extend lower tax rates on household income up to $250,000. He urged House members, who remained away from Washington, to return to the Capitol to put together at least a modest deal to avoid the more than a half-trillion dollars in automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to begin in January. "The American people are waiting for the ball to drop," Mr. Reid said, "but it's not going to be a good drop." House Republicans planned a midafternoon conference call among members to discuss, among other things, their possible return this weekend; members were told they would be given 48 hours notice before any impending return. Republican Senators were also planning to convene at the Capitol — normally somnolent during Christmas week — to strategize. A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, confirmed that he had spoken with the president, and said that Mr. McConnell was "happy to review what the president has in mind." But the spokesman, Don Stewart, said Senate Democrats had not come ahead with a plan. "When they do, members on both sides of the aisle will review the legislation and make decisions on how best to proceed," Mr. Stewart said. Mr. Reid said that absent a move from Republicans, the Senate would move forward this week on the national security measure concerning espionage, as well as a bill to help states that have suffered hurricane damage, with multiple votes possible. "We are here in Washington working," Mr. Reid said. "While the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here." Senators, frustrated, pessimistic and in some cases downright miserable, returned to Washington with no clear fiscal agenda. Senator Ben Nelson, a retiring Democrat of Nebraska, arrived shortly after midnight on Thursday on a flight that was delayed more than four hours. As he walked through the airport, he lamented the deteriorating political comity that he has observed during two terms in the Senate and two terms as a Democratic governor of a conservative state. "There are folks who are elected who have come here with an agenda to do nothing and want to stop everything," Mr. Nelson said in an interview. "It may be the new norm – blocking everything." For Mr. Nelson, who decided against seeking a third term, the looming fiscal crisis would be the final legislative act of a political career built around a bipartisan voting record. He said he was not confident that a real deal could be reached that would be acceptable to both sides, considering that Congress is filled with many people "who didn't accept the 2008 presidential election and haven't accepted the 2012 election either." Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

Ex-President George HW Bush in intensive care after suffering setbacks ... - Detroit Free Press Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:41 AM PST HOUSTON — Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital after suffering "a series of setbacks," including a stubborn fever, his spokesman said. In a brief email Wednesday, Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said the 88-year-old former leader had been admitted Sunday to the ICU at Methodist Hospital. McGrath said Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was alert and talking to medical staff. He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about Bush's treatment and that the former president "remains in guarded condition." He said Bush was surrounded by family. Early Thursday, McGrath told The Associated Press he had no new information on Bush's condition and that he would release another statement "when events warrant it." Bush has been hospitalized since Nov. 23, when he was admitted for a lingering cough related to bronchitis after having been in and out of the hospital for complications related to the illness. A fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet Wednesday following "a series of setbacks." "It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two," McGrath said. "It's a stubborn fever that won't go away." But he said the cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital had improved. Bush was visited on Christmas by his wife, Barbara, his son, Neil, and Neil's wife, Maria, and a grandson, McGrath said. Bush's daughter, Dorothy, arrived Wednesday in Houston from Bethesda, Md. The 41st president has also been visited by his sons, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida. He has also been visited by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a longtime confidant. Bush and his wife live in Houston during the winter and spend their summers at a home in Kennebunkport, Maine. The former president was a naval aviator in World War II — at one point the youngest in the Navy — and was shot down over the Pacific. He's skydived on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992. He suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease and in recent years has used a wheelchair to get around.

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