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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says his strategy for battling Europe

ATHENS

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, is scaling back the eligibility of health care coverage offered to future part-timers and raising premiums for many of its full-time workers.

The discounter, which employs more than 1.4 million people, said all future employees working less than 24 hours a week, on average, would not be covered under the plan, starting next year.

Premiums will rise for many current workers, and the company will reduce by half the amount it contributes for each worker to help pay for health care expenses not covered under their plan.

A number of companies have been looking for ways to cut health care costs and have been shifting more of the burden to their employees. But Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that a big package of cuts from one company was unusual.

“While we do see increases in cost sharing, this is unusual and is outside the bounds,” said Altman.

Furthermore, Altman said that he hadn’t seen companies just drop coverage of a chunk of part-time workers. Still, only about 42 percent of overall companies offer health care coverage to part-time employees, according to Kaiser.

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TORONTO

President Barack Obama is pushing in his weekly radio and Internet address for Senate passage of his nearly $450 billion jobs bill as senators prepare to vote Tuesday on moving to debate on the measure.

Obama also asked listeners to Saturday’s address to tell their senators to support the bill, which he’s been lobbying for aggressively against Republican opposition since unveiling it a month ago.

With the economy listless and unemployment stuck above 9 percent moving into the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama said the bill “can help guard against another downturn here in America.”

“But if we don’t act, the opposite will be true,” the president said. “There will be fewer jobs and weaker growth. So any senator out there who’s thinking about voting against this jobs bill needs to explain why they would oppose something that we know would improve our economic situation.”

Obama’s jobs plan would reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers, extend benefits to long-term unemployed people, spend money on public works projects and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job.

He proposed paying for the plan mainly by closing tax loopholes for oil and gas companies and raising taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. Those proposals were rejected by Senate Democrats who substituted a tax on millionaires, with Obama’s agreement.

But with Republicans opposed to much of the new spending in the bill and to tax hikes even on millionaires, the legislation stands no chance of getting through the Republican-controlled House in its current form, even if Senate Democrats were able to muster the necessary Republican support for Senate passage.

Despite the opposition Obama intends to keep pushing for the plan in an effort to show the public that Republicans are standing in the way.

“The proposals in this bill are steps we have to take if we want to build an economy that lasts; if we want to be able to compete with other countries for jobs that restore a sense of security for the middle-class,” Obama said.

“There are too many people hurting in this country for us to simply do nothing,” he said. “The economy is too fragile for us to let politics get in the way of action.” Despite opposition to the overall bill, individual elements of it may well get through Congress, particularly an extension and expansion of a payroll tax cut that took effect Jan. 1.

Republicans used their weekly address to criticize the plan.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called it “nothing but a rehash of the same failed ideas he’s already tried, combined with a huge tax increase.”

“This is a cynical political ploy that’s designed not to create jobs for struggling Americans, but to save the president’s own job,” Thune said.

He also accused Obama of promulgating excessive regulations and too much red tape, to the detriment of business.

“We’re calling for a regulatory time-out, an affordable energy plan, broad-based tax reform including lower rates, and policies that provide the certainty and stability our economy desperately needs,” Thune said.

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Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

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A three-day rally faded on Wall Street Friday after a mixed jobs report and credit-rating cuts for Italy and Spain.

Indexes drifted between gains and losses in the morning, then turned lower after the Fitch agency cut Spain and Italy’s credit ratings, saying they are more likely to default because of the spreading debt crisis in Europe.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,089 at 12:45 p.m. Eastern time. Financial stocks led the Dow lower.

Broader indexes fell even more. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 10, or 0.9 percent, to 1,155. The Nasdaq composite index fell 32, or 1.3 percent, to 2,474.

U.S. employers added 103,000 jobs last month, about double what economists had expected, the Labor Department said earlier Friday. The government also said more jobs were added in July and August than previously reported. Economists said the report countered short-term fears that the U.S. might be entering another recession. Yet it offered few signs that strong growth will return soon.

Traders bought companies expected to do well even in a slow economy. Utilities, consumer staples and telecommunications rose the most of the S&P’s 10 industry groups.

The gains in hiring weren’t enough to lower the unemployment rate, which remained steady at 9.1 percent for the third straight month. Traders watch the employment report closely because it provides the first significant snapshot of the previous month’s economic performance and clues to the broader outlook for the U.S. economy.

The report led traders to sell ultra-safe investments that earn small returns such as U.S. Treasurys. Minutes after the report came out, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.11 percent from 1.98 percent. It fell back to 2.06 percent after the rating cuts renewed some fears about Europe.

The monthly jobs report is one of the few pieces of data powerful enough to overshadow traders’ fears about Europe’s festering debt crisis Internet Payday loans. Markets gyrated this summer as concerns intensified about a default by Greece. Many analysts now believe a default is unavoidable, and question whether Europe can prevent it from causing financial markets to seize up.

Short-term traders have reacted strongly to minor European developments, rumors and speculation. The Dow has closed up or down more than 100 points for nine straight trading days, the longest such streak since November 2008, in the middle of the financial crisis. The Dow soared 468 points, or 4.4 percent, Tuesday through Thursday.

Makers of high-tech lap equipment skidded after Illumina Inc. withdrew its annual earnings forecast, saying demand from government and academic customers had decreased in the slowing economy. Illumina lost one-third of its value. PerkinElmer Inc. plunged 9 percent; Thermo Fisher Inc. and Agilent Technologies Inc. lost 7 percent.

Sprint Nextel Inc. plunged 8 percent after the company said it needs to borrow money to build out a new high-speed data network. It had risen sharply earlier in the day after the company said its new deal to sell Apple Inc.’s iPhone will add to its revenue in the coming quarters.

Clearwire Corp. plummeted 26 percent after Sprint said it would stop selling phones that work on the company’s network at the end of next year. Sprint is building its own high-speed wireless network.

Bank of America Corp. plunged 5 percent, the most in the Dow, after weeks of sharp movements caused by concerns about legal costs the bank faces over shoddy mortgages that it sold.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. lost 3 percent. Financial stocks have been extremely volatile because of fears that Europe’s problems could spill over in the U.S. banking industry.

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Unbeknownst to most customers, AT&T Inc. has fired up a new wireless data network in five cities in the last few months, offering roughly double the speeds of its older network for a handful of devices quick guaranteed personal loans.

On Sunday, the phone company will start marketing the network in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

It won’t be selling a new data plan

The “grocery store” takes on many forms these days for shoppers like Melisa Dukes.

On a recent night, her grocery was the Target in Bridgeton where she filled her cart with frozen pizzas, grapes, milk, Pop-Tarts, Bud Select and vitamin water.

Other days, her grocery is Schnucks, where she goes for specialty items such as fresh meats cut to order.

And sometimes, it can be a CVS or Walgreens if she see sees a good deal on lunch meat payday loans.

Indeed, these days shoppers can buy soy milk from Dollar Tree, rice at Walgreens and premade salads at the local convenience store. From drug stores to gas stations, all kinds of stores have been expanding food offerings in an effort to drive more foot traffic and sales.

After testing the waters with a handful of stores, Target is now converting the rest of its local stores to the retailer’s “PFresh” format

Residents with stranded solar projects caught a small break Friday.

Those waiting