Making homes suitable for elderly occupants is easy to describe, but it can be very expensive to do. The cheapest solution is to make homes senior-friendly when they are built, rather than trying to retrofit them. Some of the most elegant and cost-effective solutions are recognized each year by AARP and the National Association of Home Builders. The winning designs employ imaginative solutions that reduce energy consumption and use smart communications tools for home security and health-related "telemedical" applications. It will be some time before these "early adapter" designs are widely available. But they point the way toward solutions that older residents should explore for their existing homes or in new housing if they are considering such a move.

[Slide Show: Design Awards Enable Aging in Place.]

Universal design is the broader and official term that encompasses senior-friendly housing. Stripped of high-tech and innovative green solutions, universal design boils down to making housing spaces and commonly used features more accessible to the broadest range of occupants. If you have trouble grasping what this means, imagine trying to navigate your home in a wheelchair. Could you even get into your home without someone else's help? Could you use the bathroom? Navigate hallways and living areas? Fix a meal in your kitchen?

[See America's Most Affordable Places to Retire.]

Here are some of the features in the recently announced AARP-NAHB awards that enable these activities and much more.

Eskaton Senior Residences in Roseville, Calif., won a builder's award for homes of less than 2,500 square feet. The house was developed as a demonstration home for Eskaton, which offers a range of senior support services to more than 14,000 people in northern California. It includes easy-access features and, like other winners, enables future accessibility modifications by, for example, including extra wiring in the walls and reinforcing key areas of the home for future installation of railings and grab bars. Since it's a demonstration model, this home is packed with more bells and whistles than you might ever need, or could afford, including:

--A telemonitoring system, which has screen-based controls that work with a network of installed sensors. Beyond surveillance, the system can tell when no one is in a room and turn off lights. Motion sensors activate lighting pathways to bathrooms when it's dark. The sensors can even identify the locations of family members in the house.

--Health monitoring systems that let residents take basic medical readings and upload them to remote caregivers cash advance today. The system includes touch-screen games to enhance brain fitness.

--Lowered kitchen work surfaces and imaginative pull-down and pull-out drawers to make appliances and cooking aides more accessible. The stove's burners are cool to the touch and heat only what's being cooked. They also turn off automatically if left on too long.

--A solar power system and a tankless water heater.

[See Functional Design Solutions for Aging Homeowners.]

Yorkshire Enterprises in Atlanta won an award for residences exceeding 2,500 square feet. Its four-story home has a ground-floor master suite with a bathroom that has a waterproof floor, roll-in shower, and wheelchair-accessible sink. The home's levels can be accessed by an elevator. Like other winning designs, the home minimizes entry elevations and has very wide hallways and doorways. The kitchen features easily accessible appliances, including a microwave in a drawer.

ZAI in Seattle won an award for architectural home design. While single-floor home layouts provide easy access solutions for older residents, they tend to beexpansive and therefore may not be feasible in more densely populated areas and older neighborhoods. ZAI's multistory design includes a separate ground-floor living unit with its own kitchen and bathroom for use by a senior or a caregiver. It includes an elevator shaft that is currently filled with closets and nooks on three living levels but which could be cost-effectively converted into an elevator if the need arises. Stairways are broken into smaller runs of a few stairs to minimize the impact of falls. Level doorway thresholds and curbless showers are included, and doorknobs are replaced with lever handles. A base cabinet under the bathroom sink is on lockable rollers and can be removed if the occupants need wheelchair access to the sink.

The Lakota Group in Chicago won the fourth award for developing the NorthCenter Senior Campus. The three residential buildings include many attractive common-area social, health, and recreational features for occupants of the 282 living units. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the affordable housing complex is that it was built at all. Pulling together the 8-acre former hospital site on Chicago's congested North Side required an extensive partnership of government and private interests. One of the existing medical buildings was saved and can provide accessible healthcare services to residents and other citizens.

Design Awards Enable Aging in Place

FLINT, Mich. — The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.

It was a Saturday afternoon, April 19, 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree.

Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly, leaving her family stunned at how such an accident could happen to someone who was in good health, never had a speeding ticket and so hated driving fast that she avoided taking the freeway.

Her car was not among the millions of Camry models and other Toyotas recently recalled for sticky accelerator pedals. And it also did not have floor mats at the time, which were part of a separate recall.

Instead, the crash is now being looked at as a possible example of problems with the electronic system that controls the throttle and engine speed in Toyotas.

Such computerized systems are part of a broader inquiry by federal regulators into problems with sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyotas, beyond the issues that have led to the company’s recent recalls. Toyota denies there is a problem with such systems.

In a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Genesee County, Mich., Mrs. Alberto’s family claims that Toyota and one of its suppliers, the Japanese firm Denso, were negligent in manufacturing an electronic throttle system that caused her death.

“We think Toyota has a safety problem with the electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models,” said Eric Snyder, a lawyer for the family.

The case materials include a rare deposition from a Toyota executive about how the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agreed to categorize different accidents when the agency investigated throttle control issues in 2004 on certain models.

For example, according to the deposition, the 2004 investigation excluded incidents of high-speed acceleration lasting several seconds from a larger universe of low-speed incidents of engine speed increasing briefly.

In his deposition — part of the public case file provided to The New York Times by the Albertos’ lawyer — the Toyota executive, Christopher Santucci, said the company did not provide details of high-speed incidents because federal regulators had not requested them.

He also testified that the electronic throttle control system in Mrs. Alberto’s 2005 Camry was similar to the computer equipment in other Toyotas now under recall for sticky pedals and unsecured floor mats.

Toyota said on Monday that it had found no problems with its throttle control system, which it began using in 2002. “It is not an electronics issue,” said James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota’s United States sales division.

But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that federal regulators will “continue to look” into whether Toyota’s electronic systems pose a safety concern.

Mrs. Alberto’s accident has drawn comparisons to the fiery crash that killed an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, Mark Saylor, and three members of his family in August. In that case, witnesses said that the Lexus sedan that Mr. Saylor was driving was going more than 100 miles an hour before crashing near San Diego.

In both cases, witnesses said the cars appeared to be steadily increasing in speed until the accident.

Lilia Alberto, a daughter of Mrs. Alberto, said her mother was a cautious driver who never had a traffic violation. “Something caused this car to trigger the throttle to open all the way and make the car start speeding,” she said in an interview.

In response to the lawsuit, Toyota wrote that it “denies any and all allegations of defect” and that the company was in any way responsible for her death us fast cash. A company spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.

Mrs. Alberto was a Honduran immigrant who settled in Flint with her husband, Abraham, and family in the 1960s. Mr. Alberto worked for 26 years for General Motors at its huge Buick City factory, and his wife worked for 15 years at a G.M. truck plant.

After the couple left G.M. in the early 1990s, they ran a small, neighborhood grocery in a downtrodden section of Flint. The store has a large piece of bulletproof glass separating the customers from family members working the cash register.

The Camry was a Christmas present to Mrs. Alberto from one of her daughters, who thought her mother should stop driving her older-model Buick.

At first, Mrs. Alberto and her husband were chagrined to own a Toyota because of their deep ties to G.M. “I said, ‘We don’t want Toyota because we are from G.M.,’ ” Mr. Alberto, 82, said. “But they gave it to her as a present, and it was cheaper than the Buick LeSabre.”

Despite her age, Mrs. Alberto worked regular hours in the store. “The day before the accident, she was in the store carrying cases of soda and stacking them,” Douglas Alberto, a son, said.

At about 2 p.m. on that April day, Mrs. Alberto loaded her Camry with pots of spaghetti and shrimp to take to the store, where she planned to make dinner for her husband.

As she drove down her street, witnesses said her car began going faster and faster. The Camry ran at least three stop signs and then crossed a busy four-lane street, swerving to avoid oncoming traffic.

When the car hit the tree, neighbors told Douglas Alberto that it sounded “like a cannon had been shot off.” He also said the speedometer on the Camry was stuck at 80 miles per hour.

The car, which is now impounded as evidence, had only 17,000 miles on it and had never needed service except for three oil changes, Lilia Alberto said.

In December, Mr. Santucci, Toyota’s manager of technical and regulatory affairs, was deposed by the Alberto family’s lawyers in Washington. He was asked about Toyota’s role in cooperating with the national safety agency in a 2004 investigation of throttle control concerns.

Mr. Santucci, who had previously worked for the safety agency, said the company had discussions with the agency about limiting the type of acceleration incidents to be investigated.

“I recall them saying to us, Toyota, myself, that they were not interested in reports alleging uncontrolled acceleration that occurred for a long duration,” Mr. Santucci testified.

In fact, the safety agency had decided to look only at cases of unintended acceleration in which drivers had not applied their brakes — ostensibly to rule out potential braking concerns from the scope of the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, Olivia Alair, said on Thursday that incidents in which the brakes were applied raised questions of whether the driver had mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake.

“The shorter incidents without brake use seemed to involve pure cases of engine surging due to a possible defect,” she said.

Mr. Santucci testified that limiting the vehicles to short-duration incidents was beneficial for both Toyota and the safety agency. “I think it worked out well for both the agency and Toyota, meaning Toyota provided what they were looking for,” he said.

The government closed the investigation a few months later without any finding of a vehicle defect. “A defect trend has not been identified at this time, and further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted,” the agency said in a document dated July 22, 2004.

Lawsuit Over a Crash Adds to Toyota’s Difficulties

NEW YORK – Stock futures are pointing to a lower opening after new jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week.

The report is damping hopes that the government's January jobs report due Friday will show that employers added workers in the first month of the year.

The Labor Department says Thursday that weekly unemployment claims rose 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000 last week. Economists had predicted claims would drop to 460,000.

Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 91, or 0.9 percent, at 10,150. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are down 6.90, or 0.6 percent, at 1,089.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures are down 6.00, or 0.3 percent, at 1,779.50.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures are pointing to a lower opening Thursday, following declines in overseas markets.

Investors are hesitant to make big bets as they await new reports on jobless claims, factory orders and monthly retail sales for better insight into the economic recovery.

Stocks rallied early this week on fresh signs surging economic growth at the end of last year was carrying forward into 2010. However, markets fell modestly Wednesday after a report showed the service sector did not expand as fast as expected last month.

European markets tumbled Thursday as concerns swirl around debt-plagued countries, particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal. The fresh concerns come as the European Central Bank is expected to keep a key interest rate at 1 percent.

The euro hit a seven-month low against the dollar. A stronger dollar can drag down stocks in the U.S. because it hurts companies that have large international operations.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 44, or 0.4 percent, to 10,197. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.20, or 0.5 percent, to 1,091.20, while Nasdaq 100 index futures dropped 9.50, or 0.5 percent, to 1,776.00.

A Labor Department report is expected to show the number of workers filing for unemployment benefits fell last week by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 460,000, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters free business cards.

The report is due out at 8:30 a.m. EST.

The weekly claims report comes a day ahead of the monthly employment report that often sets the tone for trading in the following weeks. High unemployment is a major obstacle to a robust economic recovery.

Friday's report is expected to show employees added 5,000 jobs in January, but the unemployment rate crept higher to 10.1 percent. December's rate was 10 percent.

A separate report Thursday from the Commerce Department is expected to show factory orders likely rose for a fourth consecutive month in December. Economists predict orders increased 0.5 percent.

The report is due out at 10 a.m. EST.

Earnings continued to provide a mixed picture of the economy. Cigarette maker Reynolds American said its profit fell as shipments declined. Its fourth-quarter profit just missed expectations.

Cosmetics maker Avon Products Inc. saw a drop in North American sales more than offset by international sales.

Burger King Corp.'s profit topped expectations as it brought in more cost-concious eaters.

Stocks are trying to bounce back from a modest decline Wednesday. Major indexes halted a two-day rally after the Institute for Supply Management said its index of the service sector rose to 50.5 in January. While a reading above 50 indicates growth, the January level fell short of what economists had forecast.

Meanwhile, bond prices rose Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.69 percent from 3.71 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar strengthened against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.7 percent, Germany's DAX index was dropped 0.6 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.7 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.5 percent.

Stock futures point lower as jobless claims rise

NEW YORK – A standoff between Amazon.com and a leading publisher that has limited the availability of Andrew Young's "The Politician" and a wide range of other books may be ending.

CEO John Sargent of Macmillan, which has been fighting Amazon over e-book prices, released a memo Thursday saying that a resolution was "near at hand."

Since last Friday night, Amazon has stopped selling new copies and electronic editions of Young's best-seller about former presidential candidate John Edwards and of works by Barbara Ehrenreich, Jonathan Franzen and other Macmillan authors low fee payday advance.

Fight between Amazon and publisher may be ending

Stop over-thinking your portfolio. Take a mental "time out" and try some deep-breathing exercises. Do whatever it takes to rein in your caveman brain, because right now, your mind is one of your biggest liabilities -- emotionally and financially.

That's right: The ingrained tools that keep us out of harm's way -- our drive to seek more and more information, to look for patterns, to compare options, and even to flee to safety -- are the very same ones that compel us to make boneheaded financial mistakes. Worst of all, often we're not even conscious that we're on a financial suicide mission until it's over.

Re-train your brainThe good news is that, with pointed, conscious effort, you can tame your gray matter and neutralize the psychological noise that leads to bad investing decisions. The first step is to recognize the analytical and emotional tripwires in your head.

Here are four major cognitive biases to focus on nipping before they get the better of you and your money.

Myopic loss aversion: When things go swimmingly, it's a snap to keep a long-term perspective. When the bad news keeps coming and we're terrified of losing money, our time horizons shrink dramatically. We no longer project what will happen to the market, or to our investments, over the course of the next three to five years. Instead, we focus on what happens over the next three to five minutes.

The cure: Go long. If you think like a short-term trader, then you'll be tempted to start acting like one. And right now, nothing could be worse for your sanity and your savings. Remember that investing success is not measured in minutes or even months: At The Motley Fool, we pick stocks for their long-term potential. Stick to your core investing principles, and you'll do fine.

Information bias: With stock market news dominating every major outlet, we're bombarded with information -- and we keep watching because we just can't seem to get enough. Worse yet, most of the information isn't even relevant to the decisions we face.

The cure: Avoid information overload. Turn off CNBC. Immerse yourself in a novel, not the Internet news sites. Watching the market's conniptions and CNBC pundits' breathless banter simply makes the situation seem more dire and puts you at the mercy of our next cognitive bias ...

Social proof/herd mentality: It's easy to assume that when the market drops 18% over the course of the week, "it" knows something we don't empire payday loans. That assumption gains credence as others presume the same. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, explains how this pile-on takes place: "The greater the number of people who find an idea correct, the more the idea will be correct." So everyone starts selling in a panic -- "The market is going down and I want out first!"

The cure: Ignore "them." Like your mother said, just because everyone else is jumping off a bridge doesn't mean you should. Instead, stick to your plan. Invest on a schedule and tune out the crowd. While everyone else is trying to game the system, you should be on the lookout for the opportunity to buy great businesses, with strong balance sheets, on sale. Tune out the noise and brush up on the basics. Hard times can be learning opportunities, which is a lot more productive than curling up in the fetal position and rocking back and forth for hours.

Anchoring: Focusing solely on a number is one of the most dangerous mental hiccups to your bottom line -- and lately we're drowning in a sea of numbers (stock prices, market indices, etc.). Here's how it works: Suppose you go to a used-car dealership and find a car priced at $7,000. You return later that afternoon to find that it has been marked up to $9,000. Nine grand strikes you as too expensive, even though you know nothing about the actual value of the vehicle. However, had you first seen the car priced at $11,250 and talked the salesperson down to $9,000, your mind would tell you that you were getting a great deal. The car is downright cheap! In both cases you anchored on a number -- a completely arbitrary number.

The cure: Anchor on value, not price. Anchoring is devastating in investing terms: Remember, a stock isn't cheap because it was more expensive yesterday or even last year. So rather than anchoring on price, anchor on value. Do your research and determine the price you're willing to pay for the company's future earnings stream before you look at the stock price.

For more Foolishness:

Why We Care About Idiot HomeownersAvoid These Cash Machines5 Boring Stocks That Won't Let You Down

Keep Emotions Out of Your Portfolio

FRANKFURT -- Enel SpA , an electricity operator in Italy, was upgraded on Thursday to overweight from neutral at J.P. Morgan. Enel will host a strategic update event on March 18, at which most of the concerns that have led to the recent underperformance of the stock will be addressed, the bank said no fax payday loan. Enel's high dividend yield, profit stability and declining capital expenditure are reasons for the upgrade of the stock, J.P. Morgan said.

Enel SpA Raised To Overweight At J.P. Morgan

AMSTERDAM – Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Thursday reported a fourth quarter net profit of $1.96 billion, due to higher oil prices, but said refining margins were poor and announced plans for 1,000 new job cuts.

The profit compares with a loss of $2.81 billion in the same period a year ago, when the company had to write down the value of its inventory after a sharp fall in the price of oil.

However, stripping out the cost of inventories, profit was $1.18 billion, down 75 percent from $4.79 billion.

"Oil prices have increased compared to a year ago, but gas prices and refining margins have declined sharply," said Chief Executive Peter Voser in a statement, blaming weak demand and high inventory levels.

"We are not assuming there will be a quick recovery and the outlook for 2010 is uncertain."

Shares fell 1.7 percent to euro20.04 in early trading in Amsterdam.

He said moves in October 2009 to cut costs, including shedding 5,000 jobs, or 5 percent of the company's work force, have led to $2 billion in savings on operating costs. He said the company plans to cut an additional 1,000 jobs in 2010, mostly at its refining operations, and to save another $1 billion in costs free credit score online.

The company's production arm saw profits fall 46 percent in the fourth quarter to $2.54 billion, due only partly to a one-time gain of $1.4 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Although oil prices rose, Shell produces about as much gas as oil, and a sharp decline in natural gas prices meant that Shell's selling prices actually fell.

Also, combined production of oil and gas fell by 2 percent to 3.33 million barrels per day.

At Shell's refining division, the loss narrowed to $952 million, as intake fell and margins remained negative — but Shell was spared the massive writedown on inventory it took in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The company said Thursday it expected to pay a dividend of $0.42 per share in the first quarter.

Shell makes Q4 profit of $1.96B, to cut more jobs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Genetic data analysis instrument maker Affymetrix Inc. reported a fourth-quarter profit Wednesday on a mix of higher revenue and a lack of hefty charges seen a year prior.

The company earned $2.8 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with a loss of $318.7 million, or $4.65 per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue rose to $88.8 million from $78.6 million.

In the year-ago period the company had an impairment charge of about $3.49 per share and a restructuring charge of about 21 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 10 cents per share on revenue of $82 payday loan.9 million.

For the full year, the company lost $23.9 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with a loss of $307.9 million, or $4.49 per share, in 2008. Revenue fell to $327.1 million from $410.2 million.

Shares of Affymetrix rose $1.13, or 19.9 percent, to $6.80 in after-hours trading after falling 11 cents to close at $5.67 during the regular trading session.

Affymetrix reports 4Q profit, shares rise

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Cadence Design Systems Inc., a maker of chip manufacturing equipment, on Wednesday reported a profit for the fourth quarter as lower costs more than offset a drop in revenue.

The San Jose, Calif., company earned $1.8 million, or a penny per share, compared with a loss of $1.63 billion, or $6.55 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. The 2008 quarter included a $1.36 billion noncash charge to write down the value of its assets.

Excluding one-time items, in the latest quarter Cadence earned $15 million, or 6 cents per share, compared with a year-ago loss of $11 million, or 4 cents per share.

Analysts forecast profit of 3 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. Analyst estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Revenue fell to $220.3 million from $227.3 million. Analysts forecast revenue of $220.7 million.

For the year, Cadence said it lost $149.9 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.86 billion, or $7.30 per share, in 2008 no credit check payday loan. Excluding one-time items, the company lost $16 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with a loss of $10 million, or 4 cents per share.

Looking ahead, Cadence said it expects to post first-quarter revenue of $210 million to $220 million with earnings. On a per-share basis, the company expects results to range from breakeven to profit of 2 cents per share.

Analysts expect the company to break even on revenue of $213.9 million.

For the year, Cadence projected revenue of $865 million to $900 million, with adjusted income of 5 cents to 15 cents per share. Analysts forecast revenue of $900.6 million and earnings of 11 cents per share.

Shares of Cadence fell by 18 cents, or 3 percent, to $5.90 in after-hours trading. They earlier finished the regular trading session down a penny at $6.08.

Cadence Design posts 4Q profit on lower costs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. safety regulators are satisfied with a Toyota Motor Corp. plan for fixing an accelerator problem that is part of a widening global recall and unprecedented sales and production halt, a government official said on Saturday.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) engineers have reviewed Toyota's proposal for preventing gas pedals in eight models from sticking and have raised no objections, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be publicly announced.

Toyota has issued a series of recent recalls covering 5.6 million vehicles in the United states due to sudden acceleration in some vehicles. It is the largest ever recall for Toyota and among the biggest for an automaker in U.S. history.

The problem has affected popular selling Toyota cars as well as its luxury Lexus models and is suspected of causing crashes that led to 19 fatalities over the past decade, government officials have said.

Nearly 2 million vehicles also have been recalled in Europe. PSA Peugeot Citroen said on Saturday it would recall 100,000 Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 models made at a factory in the Czech Republic where the French group and Toyota jointly make cars.

Some 75,000 Toyota vehicles have been recalled in China.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized for the recall, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.

"We're extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy," Toyoda said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in comments that were broadcast by NHK.

Toyoda last commented publicly on the matter in October, when he expressed regret for the deaths of four people in a California crash linked to the defects last year.

Most of the vehicles recalled in the United States were singled out over concerns that gas pedals could get jammed on floor mats. Toyota is modifying gas pedals, redesigning floor mats, and taking other steps to address that issue.

The subject of the fix reviewed by NHTSA this week and expected to be announced by Toyota within days covers more than 2 million vehicles equipped with gas pedals that may not spring back as designed payday loan with savings account.

The remedy being readied by Toyota and its accelerator supplier, CTS Corp, involves a shim, also called a spacer, that will be placed in the accelerator to keep it from sticking, sources have said.

NHTSA regulators are not required to approve the remedy but they can reject the approach if they consider it inadequate.

Toyota said in a statement late on Saturday that it had reviewed the pedal fix with NHTSA and was finalizing details.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that NHTSA, which is part of his agency, closely reviewed the proposal.

LaHood said he was satisfied with Toyota's overall response to the acceleration issue, which has dented its reputation and prompted rivals, like government-owned General Motors Co., to try and lure its customers to their brands with incentives.

As part of the recalls, Toyota has been forced to suspend sales of eight models in the United States, including its Camry sedan, the best-selling car in the world's second-biggest auto market. It also temporarily halted production of the eight models at six U.S. and Canadian plants.

Sources briefed on Toyota's U.S. sales plans told Reuters on Friday the sales shutdown would continue until at least mid-February.

A resumption assumes a smooth and swift rollout of a remedy to fix faulty accelerators in vehicles already sold or for sale at dealerships, the sources said.

Toyota announces third-quarter financial results on February 4. Analysts estimate the sales halt could cost Toyota at least $550 million in operating profit per month.

Separate congressional committees have scheduled hearings into the matter next month. LaHood, NHTSA Administrator David Strickland and Toyota North American President Yoshimi Inaba are expected to testify.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki and Bernie Woodall in Detroit, Chang-Ran Kim and Aiko Hayashi in Tokyo; Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris; editing by Paul Simao)

U.S. satisfied with recall fix, Toyota chief apologizes

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's economy shrank 6.8 percent in 2009, the worst result in at least 30 years, the Treasury Department said Friday.

The decline in full-year gross domestic product outpaced the 6.2 percent fall during Mexico's currency and debt crisis in 1995.

A bright spot was a 1.2 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the third quarter, although the level of economic output was 3 percent lower than the same period of 2008, the report said.

Still, it was the second consecutive quarter of GDP growth. The economy expanded 2.9 percent in the third quarter.

The report represented something of a comeback from the steep 10 payday advance.3 percent decline in the second quarter, and officials had previously estimated a full-year 2009 contraction of around 7 percent.

The Treasury Department said it expects GDP to grow about 3 percent for all of this year, while noting "the recent evolution of the economy suggest the probability that growth may be greater than that prediction is considerable."

It said the country lost 181,271 formally registered jobs in 2009. Many of Mexico's 107 million people work in the informal sector.

Mexico GDP down 6.8 percent in 2009

A jury ruled on Friday in favor of shareholders who said the French media group Vivendi lied to the public about its shaky finances, setting the stage for a possible distribution of billions of dollars in damages to investors.

Go to your Portfolio »

The company was found liable, but not its executives, according to the verdict in United States District Court in Manhattan.

The jury deliberated for 14 days before reaching its verdict. Vivendi said it would appeal.

Lawyers for the investors said that the potential payout could total $9.3 billion. Arthur Abbey, one shareholders’ lawyer, said he believed the award was the largest securities class-action jury verdict in history, measured by the number of people affected and the dollars involved.

A lawyer for Vivendi said it was impossible at this stage to estimate actual damages because it was not clear how many investors were in the class and who would seek payouts.

Lawyers on both sides said any potential payment was more than a year away.

Thousands of investors from the United States, France, Britain and the Netherlands said Vivendi covered up its troubles in 2001 and 2002 as the onetime public water company grew into a media and communications empire. The company flirted with bankruptcy before reorganizing successfully.

Jean-Marie Messier, who took over the company’s top post in 1996, was forced out as chief executive in July 2002, when the company was known as Vivendi Universal.

Defendants in the trial were Vivendi, Mr. Messier and the former chief financial officer, Guillaume Hannezo.

The jury concluded on 57 separate claims that Vivendi was 100 percent responsible for misstatements or omissions that misled shareholders no fax pay day loan. It concluded that Mr. Messier and Mr. Hannezo were not responsible.

It found that Vivendi acted recklessly rather than knowingly in causing the damages. It also concluded that at times the misstatements or omissions inflated the company’s stock by as much as $11 a share.

The amount of money plaintiffs will receive if the verdict stands is based on the jury’s calculation of how much the shares were inflated as a result of Vivendi’s alleged misdeeds.

Outside court, a Vivendi attorney, Paul Saunders, said the company was disappointed and was focused on its appeal, which he said “we expect to win.”

“We feel very good about the appeal,” he said, adding that the company would ask the judge within a month to toss out the case entirely.

He said the company was pleased that the jury gave the plaintiffs only half of the rate per share that they were requesting.

“To that extent, this is a partial victory for us,” he said.

He said that if the case was not thrown out, it would take at least a year to determine how many people deserved compensation and how much money was at stake.

“We have just really begun to fight,” he said. “We are going to challenge everything we can challenge.”

Mr. Saunders said the company would challenge on appeal whether the court had proper jurisdiction over a foreign company, whether it was proper to calculate damages by estimating the amount of inflation that resulted to share prices and whether the judge’s rulings were wrong during the trial.

Court Finds Vivendi Liable For Misleading Investors

TOKYO – Japan's government says unemployment declined slightly and prices fell further in December.

The unemployment rate eased to 5.1 percent from 5.2 percent in November.

The number of jobless rose more than 17 percent from a year earlier to 3.2 million, while the number of employed people declined 1.7 percent to 62.2 million.

Deflation also deepened, with core consumer prices down 1 cheap business cards.3 percent from a year earlier. The key consumer prices index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, has now fallen for 10 straight months.

Japan's jobless rate down, but prices keep falling

WASHINGTON – The government's report Friday showed the economy has grown for two straight quarters — and accelerated at the end of last year. It was the most compelling evidence to date that the recession ended last year.

Going back to 1947, only one recession — in 1969-1970 — has included two straight quarters of economic growth.

Yet the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Cambridge, Mass.-based group that determines the start and end of recessions, has yet to declare this one has ended.

That's typical. The NBER normally takes its time in declaring a recession has started or begun.

The NBER announced, for example, in December 2008 that the recession had actually started one year earlier — in December 2007.

Similarly, it declared in July 2003 that the 2001 recession was over. When did it actually end? Twenty months earlier — in November 2001.

Besides reviewing the figures that make up the nation's gross domestic product, the NBER reviews incomes, employment and industrial activity low fee payday loans.

Its determination is of interest to economic historians — and political leaders. Recessions that occur on their watch pose political risks.

In President George W. Bush's eight years in office, the United States fell into two recessions. The first started in March 2001 and ended that November. The second started in December 2007; its end date is pending the NBER's determination.

The timing of the NBER's decision likely means little to ordinary Americans now in the grip of a sluggish recovery and tight job market.

Many will continue to struggle. Unemployment usually keeps rising well after a recession ends. After the 2001 recession, for instance, unemployment didn't peak until June 2003 — 19 months later.

If the economy is growing, has recession ended?

A Texas judge’s ruling on Friday in a dispute over a proposed nuclear project may make it easier for one partner to withdraw, casting further doubt on whether the reactors will be built.

The municipal utility serving San Antonio, CPS Energy, is suing the other partner, NRG, over terms of their agreement to build a third and fourth reactor adjacent to the existing South Texas Project. Their proposal is near the head of the line for loan guarantees from the Energy Department.

NRG, a New Jersey-based generation company, said it hoped to continue and to bring in at least one other partner payday loans.

The project’s estimated costs have risen to $12 billion, from $8 billion, but a spokesman for NRG, David Knox, said his company was negotiating the price back down with Toshiba, the reactor vendor. One problem, he said, is the declining value of the dollar against the yen.

Each party has spent about $400 million so far.

Ruling Could Halt Nuclear Project

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near a six-week low below $74 a barrel Friday in Asia amid a strengthening U.S. dollar and a pullback in global stock markets.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 10 cents to $73.74 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 3 cents to settle at $73.64 on Thursday, the lowest since Dec. 14 when crude dropped to $73.46.

Oil has skidded about 12 percent since reaching $84 a barrel earlier this month as investors eye a stronger dollar and slumping equities. Traders often buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation and a weaker dollar and sell them when the U.S. currency rises.

The euro fell to $1.3930 on Friday in Asia from $1.3972 on Thursday while the dollar little changed near 90 yen payday loan.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.1 percent Thursday while most Asian stock markets fell in early Friday trading.

Investors are also looking at U.S. crude demand, which has so far not rebounded strongly from a slide last year.

"A clear turning point in the U.S. demand cycle is yet to be reached, still waiting for distillate demand to kick in," Barclays Capital said in a report.

In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil rose 0.47 cent to $1.92 a gallon, while gasoline gained 0.90 cent to $1.93 a gallon.

In London, Brent crude for March delivery rose 11 cents to $72.24 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil hovers below $74 as traders eye dollar, stocks

SEOUL — Samsung Electronics announced its quarterly results Friday and said it expected a rapidly recovering demand for its premium computer memory chips and flat-screen televisions to drive its growth this year, with the unwinding of global stimulus measures being the key risk for its sales.

The world’s top maker of memory chips and liquid crystal display screens said the rising won, the South Korean currency, could dent earnings, although most analysts were optimistic about the outlook for a company that has become a global brand in the space of 10 years.

Moves by China to tighten monetary conditions have raised concerns about a potential slowdown in the Chinese economy, hurting the outlook for countries like South Korea, which sells about a quarter of its exports to China.

Those worries and weak results from U.S. technology companies put pressure on Samsung shares Friday, which ended down 3 percent, or 5 percent for the week.

“Talk of exit strategies can weigh on Samsung as well as the entire market in the coming months,” said Choi Jong-hyeok, a fund manager at Midas Asset Management. “But I am confident about Samsung’s business this year.”

Chips and LCDs are doing well, and Samsung is working on its smartphones, although it was a little late to start.

Samsung, one of the world’s biggest makers of televisions and mobile phones, reported a quarterly operating profit that slightly exceeded market forecasts as the technology sector recovery bolstered chip prices and consumers bought televisions and mobile phones.

Consolidated operating profit in the fourth quarter rose to 3 guaranteed payday loans.7 trillion won, or $3.18 billion, beating an average forecast profit of 3.58 trillion won and in line with the company’s forecast earlier this month.

Fourth-quarter sales rose 19 percent to 39.24 trillion won.

Analysts said they expected net profit at Samsung to grow by a third to 13 trillion won this year.

A revival in corporate demand for personal computers and robust demand for television panels driven by Chinese buyers and major sports events like the World Cup of soccer should lead to a strong first half, bucking the usually weak seasonal trend, Samsung said.

The company said it was considering increasing its investment in memory chips to meet demand.

It was the first time Samsung had reported earnings since Choi Gee-sung took over as chief executive in a management reshuffle in December, promising Samsung would improve its PC, appliance and camera businesses.Samsung made a remarkable recovery last year from the global downturn, expanding its share to more than one-fifth of the global market for LCD televisions and mobile phones from the mid-teens two years ago.But tough competition in smartphones poses a challenge, while companies like Sony and Panasonic are improving their television products to grab market share.Jeffrey Lee, chief investment officer at Phillip Capital in Singapore, said he had recently sold shares in Samsung on concerns about prospects for the company’s mobile phone business.

Samsung Forecasts Strong Year

DAVOS, Switzerland (MarketWatch) -- The world's bankers are paying for the sins of a relative few to the potential detriment of an economic recovery, Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackerman said Friday at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

Bankers who gathered in this Swiss ski resort for the annual gathering of top CEOs, world leaders and government officials feel that "seldom have so few done so much damage to the many," said Ackermann, who chairs the World Economic Forum's financial services panel. See full coverage of Davos.

Most bankers managed the crisis "remarkably well," he said, and have increased profits and market share. An ongoing "blame game" and uncertainty over future regulatory changes threaten to weaken the financial sector, potentially inhibiting a recovery, he said, in delivering a summary of the Davos bankers' deliberations.

Critics charge that many of the bankers that have boosted profits and market share have done so only because of massive government intervention, particularly in the United States and Britain.

Deutsche Bank's Ackermann said bankers favor increased capital requirements, better liquidity management and improved market infrastructure, as well as a framework that would allow failed banks to be wound up without bringing down the system pay day loan lenders. Measures should be coordinated across the globe to ensure a level playing field, he said.

Bankers here have pushed back against U.S. President Barack Obama's calls to limit the size of banks and to restrict them from a range of activities, including a bar on trading for their own account and operating hedge funds and private-equity funds. Read about the debate over bank regulations.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, earlier Friday predicted that a version of Obama's plan would be passed later this year.

"A majority of the institutions will be unhappy with the product," Frank told a Davos audience, saying that would be a measure of its success.

Deutsche Bank chief: Stop blame game

BRUSSELS (AFP) – One in 10 workers across Europe's core euro currency area is now unemployed, according to new European Union data issued on Friday that showed Spain bearing the brunt of a jobless recovery.

The human cost of structural economic adjustment post-recession could be seen when the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 euro countries hit a miserable 10 percent in December.

The EU's Eurostat agency estimated that an extra 87,000 people fell out of work in the weeks before Christmas -- down from the 102,000 people joining the benefit queues in November.

It was the highest rate since the currency was launched a decade ago and up from a downwards-revised 9.9 percent in November.

Initial figures for November published earlier this month had pegged the eurozone rate at 10 percent.

Across the 27-nation EU, the rate hit 9.6 percent in December, up from 9.5 percent and corresponding to 163,000 more people unemployed.

The statistics agency says more than 23 million people were out of work across the world's biggest open trading bloc, 15 bad credit payday advance.763 million of whom were in the eurozone.

That meant that in the last year, 4.628 million people joined the ranks of the jobless, 2.787 million of whom were in the core euro area.

Spain's rate hit a massive 19.5 percent, although only very slightly up from the previous month.

Separate data from Madrid showed that the unemployment rate in Europe's fifth-largest economy soared to 18.83 percent throughout the fourth quarter of 2009, with a total of 4.326 million people out of work, up more than one million from a year ago.

Experts have repeatedly expressed fears of a "double-dip" recession on the Iberian peninsula -- itself struggling with huge deficits way above EU targets.

Eurozone unemployement hits 10%

The United States economy grew at its fastest pace in over six years at the end of 2009, but a sluggish job market is still souring economists on the sustainability of the recovery.

Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, well above analysts’ expectations. It had grown at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in the previous quarter.

The biggest lift to economic activity came because businesses ran down their stockrooms at a much slower rate than they had earlier in the year.

Slower inventory depletion is not the most promising way to guarantee growth going forward, but economists are hoping that once companies become more confident about the recovery, they may ramp up production to refill their bare stockroom shelves.

Consumer spending and exports have also grown, but the pace has been disappointing to many economists, given the trends in previous recoveries.

The biggest challenge is the job market, economists say quick payday loan.

On net, the economy lost 208,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last quarter. As long as the labor market remains weak, consumers — whose purchases makes up the bulk of economic output each quarter — will be reluctant to spend money. That means businesses will need to look for other sources of demand, like exports.

The G.D.P. number is a broad measure of the economy’s total output of goods and services. While it is, by definition, a backward-looking figure, analysts watch it to get a sense of where the country may be headed.

The number can be subject to major revisions, especially when the economy is at a turning point. The annual growth rate initially reported by the government for the third quarter of 2009 was a breakneck 3.5 percent, but was later revised down to 2.2 percent.

Growth of U.S. Economy Accelerated in Fourth Quarter