Finance news. My opinion.

European stock markets headed higher in early trading Monday, while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed flat following the New Year’s holiday weekend.

Britain’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.1 percent at 5,572.28. Germany’s DAX was 1.1 percent higher at 5,960.04. France’s CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,174.76.

South Korea’s Kospi index, which lost 11 percent of its value last year, closed nearly unchanged at 1,826.37. Most other Asian markets were closed for an extended New Year’s holiday.

South Korea’s tech sector move higher, with Samsung Electronics up 2.1 percent and LG Electronics gaining 2.3 percent. Steel giant POSCO slid 1.1 percent and Korea Electric Power shed 1.8 percent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX, which was also open for business Monday, fell 1.7 percent to 6,952.21. Foxconn Technology, the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer, which makes iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc., fell 0.9 percent. Personal computer maker Acer Inc. shed 2.3 percent.

Benchmarks in the Philippines and India rose while Indonesia fell.

The Asian-Pacific region’s major benchmarks, including Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Australia’s S&P ASX 200, were closed. Markets in the U.S. are also closed in observance of New Year’s Day.

Last year was one that traders would prefer to forget: most Asian equity indexes closed out 2011 deeply in the red unsecured personal loans. The Nikkei in Tokyo ended the year at 8,429.45 _ its lowest closing since 1982.

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, closed Monday, endured a 21 percent loss for the year as the impact of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar stimulus faded and the government tightened curbs on lending and investment to cool blistering economic growth.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished at 18,434.39 _ a precipitous slide of 19.7 percent from a year ago. Singapore’s Straits Times Index took a 17.5 percent dive when it closed at 2,646.35 on Friday.

Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 ended the year at 4,140.4 _ 14.5 percent lower for 2011.

India’s benchmark Sensex index fell more than 22 percent in 2011, making it one of the worst performers globally. The rupee also lost about 14 percent this year and recently hit an all-time low, breaching 54 rupees to the dollar.

In hopes of reducing volatility and attracting foreign cash, India announced Sunday that it would allow individual foreign nationals to invest directly in its stock market starting Jan. 15. Currently, foreign investors are limited to indirect investments such as mutual funds.

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Gold fell, capping the longest slump since October 2009, and silver tumbled to a three-month low as Europe’s deepening debt crisis drove commodities and stocks lower.

The euro dropped to an 11-month low against the dollar as lending to financial institutions sent the European Central Bank’s balance sheet to a record high. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 raw materials and the MSCI World Index of equities were poised for the biggest declines in two weeks.

Platinum approached the lowest since November 2009, and palladium dropped almost 3 percent.

The ECB said lending to euro-area banks jumped 214 billion euros ($276.9 billion) to 879 billion in the week ended Dec. 23, bolstering credit to the economy during the financial turmoil. Gold has slumped 19 percent from a record $1,923.70 an ounce on Sept. 6, partly on sales to cover losses in other markets.

“What’s going on in Europe is very worrying,” James Dailey, who manages $215 million at TEAM Financial Management LLC in Harrisburg, Pa., said in an e-mail. “The dollar’s strength is working against all commodities, including gold.”

Gold futures for February delivery declined 2 percent to settle at $1,564.10 at 1:47 p.m. on the Comex in New York. The price dropped for the fifth straight session, the longest slide since October 2009. The commodity headed for the first quarterly slump since September 2008.

Silver futures for March delivery fell 5 quick guaranteed personal loans.2 percent to $27.234 an ounce on the Comex. Earlier, the price touched $27.10, the lowest since Sept. 26. The metal has plummeted 45 percent from a 31-year high of $49.845 on April 25.

Gold imports by India, the biggest consumer, may drop as much as 50 percent this month after the rupee plunged, according to the Bombay Bullion Association. China restricted gold trading in spot and futures contracts to the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange to crack down on illegal buying and selling of commodities.

Platinum futures for April delivery declined 3.2 percent to $1,392.40 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the price touched $1,388.60. On Dec. 15, the metal declined to $1,376, the lowest since Nov. 13, 2009.

Palladium futures for March delivery slumped 2.9 percent to 647.15 an ounce on Nymex, the biggest drop since Dec. 14.

This year, gold has advanced 10 percent, heading for the 11th straight annual gain, on demand for an alternative investment amid slumping equities.

“Gold has been one of the best performers this year, so it comes as no surprise that we are seeing some end-of-year profit-taking,” said Ronald Stoeferle, a commodity analyst at Erste Group Bank AG in Vienna.

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Traders doubled bets on Israeli interest rate cuts in the past two weeks, speculating the central bank will act to insulate the economy from a global slump as inflation slowed to a one-year low.

The Bank of Israel may lower the 2.75 percent key rate 41 basis points over the next 12 months, compared with 21 basis points of cuts priced in on Dec. 8, according to interest-rate swaps, an indicator of investor expectations. Policy makers review borrowing costs today, with 12 out of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecasting a 25 basis-point reduction.

Sony’s long-awaited PlayStation Vita portable game machine has hit stores in Japan as thousands of game enthusiasts lined up at shops from early in the morning.

Sony is predicting brisk sales, even though Saturday’s launch may have missed some holiday shoppers. A successful debut would help the company offset the rest of its struggling business.

The device is a touch-interface and motion-sensitive handheld seen as a successor to the PlayStation Portable. Vita’s launch will heat up competition with rival Nintendo Co.’s 3DS.

Many of the purchasers Saturday had made advance orders on the Internet so they can start playing immediately.

The PS Vita goes on sale in North America and Europe on Feb. 22.

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Facebook has opened its new Timeleine feature to all 800 million of its users, the social network announced on Thursday morning.

The new feature replaces a user

It’ll be a little easier for companies in St. Louis City and County to play in the global economy after the region’s Foreign Trade Zone was expanded to include all of both counties.

In an announcement Monday morning, city and county officials said that their application has been approved to grant Foreign Trade Zone status to the whole area. Previously, the region’s Foreign Trade Zone has been roughly 800 acres around Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Foreign Trade Zone status makes it easier and quicker for companies to get reduced customs duties on goods they ship to or from the U payday loan.S. The goal, said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, is to help grow exporting, manufacturing and logistics companies in the region

Slay and Dooley applied to the Commerce Department for the larger trade zone last fall. The approval makes St. Louis one of a few dozen regions to have the new, expanded, status.

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Michael Woodford, who was fired as chief executive of Japanese camera and medical equipment company Olympus after blowing the whistle on dubious spending, said Thursday that he is resigning from the board.

Woodford said the decision was difficult because he still cares about Olympus Corp. and hopes it will come clean. Woodford was still a member of the board because dismissal from it can only be done by shareholders.

Although it initially denied wrongdoing, Tokyo-based Olympus has acknowledged a $687 million payment for financial advice and expensive acquisitions to cover up investment losses dating to the 1990s.

“It has been a difficult decision for me to resign from a company that I have devoted my entire life to,” said Woodford, 51, a Briton who worked at Olympus for about three decades and became a rare foreigner to head a major Japanese company.

But he said he lost hope that the Olympus board would move toward reform after seeing a Nov. 28 message from Olympus’ new president, Shuichi Takayama. He said he now thinks that the Olympus board will not change.

He also said stakeholders should decide who should lead Olympus and called for a shareholders meeting. He will be working with stakeholders to propose a new board, he said.

Woodford, fired Oct. 14, has called for the entire board to resign and to bring in outside members to the board for more transparency.

Olympus’ bookkeeping is now under investigation in Japan, the U.S. and Great Britain. The fiasco has evolved into one of Japan’s biggest corporate scandals.

Woodford was in Japan last week to speak with Japanese prosecutors and police and also spoke with the Olympus board during the visit. He says he is also speaking with U.S. and British authorities.

Speculation is rife that the amount that Olympus has falsified in its financial reports could be massive. Japanese magazine Facta was first to report on the dubious money.

Olympus must submit a proper financial report by Dec. 14, or it risks being delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

“I am strongly of the view that it’s completely inappropriate for the current management team who are tainted by its past mistakes to make choices about the identity of new board members,” Woodford said.

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St. Louis-based Concordia Publishing House on Tuesday won one of four 2011 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards.

The company’s “focus on customers” with the goal that they recommend the business to others was a key factor in the nonprofit being recognized, said Bruce G. Kintz, Concordia’s president and CEO.

The award is the nation’s highest presidential honor for business performance through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.

Kintz said he implemented a business model used when he was a director at McDonnell Douglas Corp./Boeing Co. after coming to Concordia in 2001. In short, the model puts each customer’s needs first, he said.

Concordia is the only nonprofit business named as a Baldrige Award winner this year. The other recipients announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson were Henry Ford Health System of Detroit, Schneck Medical Center of Seymour, Ind., and Southcentral Foundation of Anchorage, Alaska, all health care agencies.

Concordia Publishing House, or CPH, is the publishing arm of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It has about 250 employees. In 2009, CPH received a Missouri Quality Award from the Excellence in Missouri Foundation.

“With God’s grace, CPH has achieved a level of excellence that few major corporations realize,” Kintz said. “As a Christian organization we are humbled by our achievements, and as a thriving publishing house we are proud to represent both innovation and sustainability in this ever-changing marketplace.”

The 2011 Baldrige Award recipients were selected from a field of 69 applicants. All were evaluated by an independent board of examiners. The evaluation process for each of the recipients included about 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by a team of examiners.

Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th secretary of commerce, the Baldrige Awards were established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses.

The 2011 recipients are expected to get their awards at an April 2012 ceremony in Washington. More information on the awards is available at www.nist.gov/baldrige.

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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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Protesters camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London say they are staying put despite a deadline for them to take down their tents or face legal action.

London officials attached eviction notices to the tents Wednesday, demanding they be removed from the churchyard by 6 p.m. (1800 GMT, 1 p.m. EST) Thursday.

The Occupy London group say they will not leave, but will mark the passing of the deadline with a rally outside the cathedral. The City of London Corporation says that if the tents are not removed it will go to court seeking an eviction notice _ a process that could take months low fee cash advance.

More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the famous domed church since Oct. 15 in a protest against capitalist excess inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street.

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