Finance news. My opinion.

Russian investigators say they won’t close a probe against a Russian lawyer who died in jail of an untreated illness.

Sergei Magnitsky died in November 2009. He had been charged with tax evasion and arrested by the same police officials he had accused of a $230 million tax fraud. His death sparked outrage in Russia and globally.

Magnitsky’s family petitioned to get the probe against him closed. But the Investigative Department of the Interior Ministry said Thursday they must still contact his other close relatives to make sure they agree payday loan.

Magnitsky’s mother says Magnitsky does not have other close relatives.

Two prison doctors have been charged with oversight leading to death, but none of the officials Magnitsky accused of framing him have faced charges.

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Stocks wavered in midday trading Friday as investors balanced signs of future growth in the U.S. economy with a looming deadline for Congress to reach a deal in debt talks.

The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators rose more than Wall Street analysts were expecting, a sign that the economy may pick up in the coming months. But many investors remained cautious as a key Congressional committee remained deadlocked on ways to cut the U.S. deficit.

A bipartisan panel must agree on making at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving. If the committee fails, automatic spending cuts will take effect beginning in 2013. Economists worry that a deadlocked Congress will erode business confidence and slow the already-fragile economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 3 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 11,768 as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell 4, or 0.3 percent, to 1,213. The Nasdaq composite slid 18, or 0.7 percent, to 2,569.

The Dow had been up as much as 84 points in early trading after borrowing costs fell for Italy and Spain. That is a signal that bond investors are less fearful of a default by those countries. Spain and Italy have had to pay high interest rates because bondholders fear that that they will default. Holders of Greek bonds were all but forced to take steep losses on that nation’s debt.

Europe’s debt problems are far from settled, however. Comments by German and British leaders Friday suggested that they have divergent views on how to address the debt crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned against expecting too much from the region’s leaders. British Prime Minister David Cameron called for “decisive action” to shore up the struggling currency union.

Positive economic reports this week _ including a drop in unemployment applications and an increase in industrial production _ barely budged markets because a European meltdown would easily drag down the U.S. economy, said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

“Our economy might be improving, but the fixation is on what’s going to happen with the world banking system if defaults happen in Europe,” she said. She said investors are reluctant to take big positions because no one knows how Europe’s problems will be resolved, or how U.S. companies’ future profits will be affected.

In corporate news, ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co. fell 2.5 percent after it said its second-quarter net income fell almost 6 percent, although its adjusted results narrowly beat expectations. Sales in emerging markets remained strong, and price hikes in other areas helped offset lower volumes.

Retailer Gap Inc. slid 3.5 percent after its third quarter revenue came in slightly below Wall Street’s forecasts. The company said materials costs are continuing to eat into profit margins. Salesforce.com plunged 9 percent after its quarterly results came in below estimates.

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A former St. Peters vehicle-service contract business and its owner have settled with the state over alleged violations of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, Attorney General Chris Koster said today.

Vehicle Services, which no longer is in business, marketed what appeared to be “extended auto warranties” through the mail, the internet and by telephone, Koster said. The warranties actually were service contracts or automotive additives, he said.

The company and its owner, Steven Chapa, agreed to pay the state $25,000 in restitution and civil penalties for the costs of the investigation, said Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for Koster’s office.

Chapa could not be reached immediately for comment.

Gonder said the office has been contacting customers who filed complaints in an effort to help them get restitution.

Koster’s office received 85 complaints about the company, she said.

Koster said many customers were led to believe their current vehicle warranties were about to expire, and they had to act immediately or lose the chance to buy an extended warranty payday lenders. Many weren’t told Vehicle Serivces wasn’t affiliated with their dealership or manufacturer, he said.

He said customers who bought service contracts by telephone often learned later that the coverage was limited. Those who asked for a cancellation or refund when they discovered the provider wouldn’t pay a claim often were denied a refund or made to go to great lengths to get part of their money back, he said.

Gonder said anyone who is seeking restitution or who has complaints about businesses selling extended motor vehicle service contracts can contact the Attorney General’s Office through its website or by calling the consumer protection hotline at 1-800-392-8222.

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ATHENS

The echo boomers are finally moving out of their parents’ homes and expected to be the biggest rush of renters to hit Toronto’s housing market since the early 1990s, according to projections by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

But they’re likely to be renting for quite a while — much longer than their parents, thanks to a job market that remains tentative and offers far less of the stable, full-time employment that made their parents the most affluent generation of all time.

That boom in rental demand is already being felt with bidding wars for prime units and vacancy rates for apartments and rental condos hovering at 1.6 per cent, the lowest vacancy rate in a decade, says Shaun Hildebrand, CMHC’s senior market analyst for the GTA.

That vacancy rate has been declining steadily since 2004 when it stood at 4.3 per cent.

There are currently 325,000 rental apartments across the GTA, says Hildebrand, but just 1,500 new units are being added each year, most of them high-end rentals aimed more at affluent, downsizing baby boomers.

Even the unprecedented condo boom across the GTA, much of it driven by investors, many of whom are putting up their units for rent, is having a hard time keeping up with demand, says Hildebrand.

That is already playing out in bidding wars for brand new and two-bedroom units, with some would-be renters offering to pay more per month or offering up to six months’ rent in advance.

The GTA has seen such an unprecedented building boom the last few years that we now have almost as many condos as rental apartments.

The total number of condos now stands at 300,000 with another 80,000 under development and 60,000 more approved but yet to start, Hildebrand told bankers, developers and housing market watchers Thursday during its annual 2012 Housing Outlook Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

But there are now 875,000 echo boomers between the ages of 25 and 35 across the GTA, accounting for about 18 per cent of the population.

With the average price of a GTA home expected to hit $469,700 next year — in Toronto that’s closer to $530,000 — and condos averaging $500 a square foot, echo boomers’ dream of owning a home may be just that.

A dream.

Hildebrand expects to see growing demand for basement apartments, both as an affordable place to live for those heading into their first jobs, and for homeowners struggling to pay high mortgages.

Already the shifting demographics are playing out in increased demand for townhouses and row houses which offer all the amenities of traditional detached homes, but at more affordable prices and often on infill lots closer to the downtown core, he said.

“All eyes are on the (Toronto) condo market,” Hildebrand told the crowd, because of a “healthy level of fear” that this unprecedented boom is on the verge of bust.

Instead, he predicts the condo market — which now accounts for 25 per cent of all MLS sales — will soon start to “self correct.”

New condo prices have escalated to the point where rents can’t keep pace with costs, and that should ease demand among investors to more realistic levels, he said.

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China’s high-flying economy is starting to lose altitude. The big question is whether the world’s economic superstar will descend gradually _ or so fast that it harms a fragile global economy.

China’s comedown is being engineered by its policymakers. They want to slow its growth rate just enough to cool inflation without sapping job growth.

It’s a delicate task.

“Nobody can say with any confidence” if they’ll succeed, says Barry Eichengreen, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

China’s explosive growth remains the envy of developed nations like the United States. It grew faster than any other major economy in the April-June quarter, according to The Associated Press’ latest quarterly Global Economy Tracker. Only Argentina’s much smaller economy matched China’s 9.5 percent annual growth rate.

By contrast, the U.S. economy grew at a 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter, before expanding 2.5 percent in the July-September period.

The AP’s Global Economy Tracker monitors economic and financial data in 30 countries representing more than 80 percent of global output.

Economists worry that China’s economy could suffer what they call a “hard landing.” A sudden plunge in China’s growth would harm the economies of the United States, Europe and small countries that need China to buy their coal, copper and other raw materials.

On Tuesday, a Chinese government group said manufacturing grew in October at the slowest pace in nearly three years, partly due to weak export orders. It forecast that the economy would slow further the rest of the year.

The threat from a slower-growing Chinese economy comes as the United States is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. And an agreement last week to ease Europe’s debt crisis might not prevent the continent from sliding back into a recession that would ripple through the United States and other countries.

When surveyed this year by the Society of Actuaries, corporate risk managers in the United States, Canada and elsewhere said a slowdown in China posed the greatest threat to their business.

A hard landing wouldn’t just squeeze U.S. and European exporters. It could also destabilize Chinese society. And it could escalate global trade tensions.

Hampered by inflation above 6 percent and slowing exports, China’s growth is expected to decelerate from 10.3 percent last year to 9.5 percent in 2011 and 9 percent in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF expects the global economy to grow 4 percent this year.

Developing countries emerged faster than other nations from the Great Recession. They’re now growing much faster than rich countries. According to the AP’s global tracker:

_The three fastest in the April-June quarter were China (a 9.5 percent annual growth rate), Argentina (9.5 percent) and Indonesia (6.5 percent).

_The laggards are from the industrialized world _ Japan (down 1.1 percent), Norway (up 0.3 percent) and Britain (up 0.6 percent).

_Growth is slowing worldwide. It weakened from a year earlier in 19 of 26 countries that reported April-June data.

China’s gaudy growth doesn’t mean much to Xie Jun, who runs a factory in the southern Chinese boomtown of Dongguan. He’s enduring a tough year.

His company makes and exports headphones, cell phones and computer accessories. It’s paying 30 percent to 50 percent more this year for chemicals, fuel and other raw materials. Labor costs have nearly doubled.

Xie’s customers are reducing orders, forcing him to lay off more than 10 percent of his staff at Dongguan Jincai Real Co. and leaving him with about 100 workers.

“I just feel hopeless,” Xie, 45, says. “It’s hard to say if it will get any better next year.”

China will likely account for nearly a third of global growth this year.

Exporting countries depend on China’s demand for raw materials and consumer goods. Mines in Australia and Chile supply coal, copper and iron ore. General Motors sells more vehicles in China than anywhere else, including the United States. China was the No. 3 destination for U.S. merchandise exports last year, behind Canada and Mexico.

China’s trading partners are watching warily to see whether it can avoid a hard landing. Economist Nouriel Roubini has defined a hard landing as a drop in annual growth to 5 percent or less. He says China must expand 8 percent a year just to keep enough people employed to “maintain its social and political stability cash advances pay day loan.”

Eswar Prasad, professor of global trade at Cornell University, puts the odds of a hard landing in China at 50-50.

Other analysts say they’re confident China’s policymakers will manage to reduce inflation gently without stifling growth too much.

The authorities “are well-aware of the risks,” says Bob Mark, who runs Black Diamond Risk Enterprises and has advised Chinese banks. “It’s not like they’re going to be blindsided.”

China’s central bank has raised interest rates five times since mid-2010 to try to shrink inflation. Even so, consumer prices jumped 6.2 percent from August 2010 to August 2011. That was fifth-fastest among the 30 countries in the AP’s global tracker. In the United States, by contrast, prices rose 3.8 percent in the 12 months ending in August.

News that China’s growth dipped to 9.1 percent in the July-September quarter from 9.5 in the April-June period was met with relief by some economists. Rajat Nag, managing director of the Asian Development Bank, says it suggests a soft landing ahead.

Eichengreen notes that Beijing’s communist authorities “have lots of levers they can pull, unlike U.S. authorities.”

Senior bureaucrats in effect run the economy. The government owns most of the biggest companies and banks. It controls the currency.

Officials can, for example, suppress the value of China’s currency, the yuan. A lower yuan makes Chinese goods cheaper overseas. The United States has long accused China of keeping its currency artificially low to give its exporters an unfair edge.

Chinese policymakers can also order state-owned banks to lend if the economy slows much. They can command local governments to keep workers busy building roads and bridges.

Roubini, a New York University economist who runs a research firm, thinks China’s authorities will use all those tools to keep the economy growing briskly through 2012. They’ll want to ensure a smooth transition next year, when a new president and premier will come to power.

But Roubini and others worry that the outlook after that is bleaker. He thinks China’s growth could sink to 5 percent or less in 2013 or 2014.

At the heart of the problem is how China has stoked its expansion. It hasn’t encouraged its consumers to drive the economy with their spending, as Americans do. Instead, it’s juiced growth by pushing exports and investing in factories, roads, railways and real estate.

Such investments account for about half of China’s gross domestic product, a broad gauge of economic activity. That is a wildly lopsided share that suggests China is investing in far more construction than it needs.

In most major countries, consumer spending, not investment, drives the economy. Last year, for example, consumers accounted for more than 70 percent of GDP in the United States, 63 percent in Britain, 58 percent in Germany and 57 percent in Japan. In China, consumer spending represented just 39 percent of GDP.

Behind China’s investment boom are bank loans that might never be repaid, because the projects aren’t expected to throw off enough revenue.

Roubini’s research firm estimates that China has wasted $1.4 trillion since 2008 on investments that will likely end up as bad debts.

Optimists say China is merely planning for the future. A growing middle class will eventually occupy the new houses, ride the new trains, fly from the new airports and drive new cars on the new highways. The new factories will make goods to meet rising demand at home and abroad.

But demographics pose another problem. China is aging fast. Largely, that’s because of population control policies that limit most families to one child. This year, 8.9 percent of Chinese were 65 or older. By 2021, 12.9 percent will be.

“A significant slowdown is coming because their labor force is aging,” Eichengreen says. By 2015 or 2016, he says, China’s growth could slow to 5 percent or 6 percent.

Economists have urged China to rely more on its consumers and less on exports and dubious investments. In Dongguan, factory owner Xie would agree.

“I am thinking about focusing more on the domestic market next year,” he says. “At least we have 1.3 billion people. It is a big market.”

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President Barack Obama is using a new report on the income gap between the richest Americans and everyone else to continue pushing for passage of his stalled $447 billion jobs bill.

A report this week by the Congressional Budget Office found that average after-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households had increased by 275 percent over the past three decades while middle-income households saw just a 40 percent increase in their post-tax income. Those at the bottom of the economic scale saw their income grow by a mere 18 percent.

Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address that he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who make at least $1 million a year. But Senate Republicans blocked action on the bill, a blend of tax breaks for businesses and public works spending, because they oppose much of the increased spending and the surtax on millionaires.

“These are the same folks who have seen their incomes go up so much, and I believe this is a contribution they’re willing to make,” he said. “Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren’t paying attention. They’re not getting the message.”

Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also blocked action on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other emergency services workers.

Saying the country can’t wait for Congress, Obama has begun taking unilateral steps that he says will encourage economic growth. The actions do not require congressional approval.

On Friday, Obama directed government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace, to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly. He also called for creation of a centralized online site for companies to easily find information about federal services. He previously had announced help for people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and for the repayment of student loans. The White House also challenged community health centers to hire veterans.

“We can no longer wait for Congress to do its job,” Obama said. “So where Congress won’t act, I will.”

The CBO report, based on IRS and Census Bureau data, was released as the Occupy Wall Street movement spreading across the country protests bailouts for corporations and the income gap highlighted by the report. The Occupy Wall Street protesters call themselves “the 99 percent.”

In the weekly GOP message, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling urged Obama to support the “forgotten 15″ _ measures that Schilling’s party says would help create jobs by blocking various energy and environmental regulations and streamlining administrative procedures. The bills, passed by the Republican-controlled House, await action in the Democratic-run Senate.

Shilling said the bills give the White House and Congress an opportunity to build on the common ground created by the passage of free-trade agreements, and a measure to void a law requiring federal, state and many local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to contractors until their taxes are paid. Obama included repealing that tax in his jobs plan.

“Republicans have a jobs plan, one with some bipartisan support, but it’s stuck in the Senate,” said Schilling, owner of a pizza parlor in Moline, Ill. “We’re asking President Obama to work with us and call on the Senate to pass the `forgotten 15′ to help the private sector create jobs, American jobs desperately needed.”

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TORONTO

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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China and the European Union on Friday called off a summit of their leaders next week so European officials can remain at home for talks on the continent’s debt crisis.

The one-day meeting planned for Tuesday in the eastern Chinese city of Tianjin will be rescheduled to a later date, the Chinese government and the European Council announced.

The meeting was scheduled to include Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, EU President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other officials from the two sides. Several hundred European and Chinese businesspeople also were to have held a conference while the leaders met paydayloans.

Friday’s cancellation came after European leaders scheduled meetings through the weekend to seek a solution to the continent’s debt crisis.

In a phone call with van Rompuy, Wen said the most important thing is to prevent the debt crisis from spreading and “a serious economic recession,” according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

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