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Chinese banks are expected to seek investment opportunities in Taiwan, hoping to apply new government guidelines and tap the busy cross-strait commerce, J.P. Morgan’s Brian Gu told Reuters on Monday.

Opportunities exist in the other direction too, as China represents an excellent chance for Taiwan’s financial industry to expand onshore, Gu, the Greater China M&A head at JPMorgan Chase, said at the China Investment Summit.

“If you look at the recent Taiwanese regulations around mainland investment guidelines, financials are one of the encouraged sectors,” Gu said. “It’s conceivable that Chinese banks can look at that market as a way to expand the Greater China concept and tap into cross-strait commerce.”

Gu cautioned that China-Taiwan investing involves more political considerations than economic ones. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

Beijing-Taiwan relations have recently thawed, leading some bankers to see potential deal opportunities.

“There is definitely strategic rationale for that, it just needs to be handled very carefully,” Gu said at the summit, held at the Reuters office in Hong Kong.

In addition to natural resource deals in Australia, China is also eyeing investments in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

Gu said that China M&A advisory is a business that has steadily grown in the last five years, unlike similar banking units in other parts of the world that ride market ups and downs.

“If you look at cross-border deal volume, I don’t think it correlates significantly with the A-share market,” he said.

That is driven by two factors, he said: One is that China acquisitions typically involve cash deals and not stock swaps. The other is that the financing market in China, backed largely by state banks, is more detached from stock market movements and corporate confidence.

Though not unscathed by the financial crisis that brought Wall Street to its knees, J.P. Morgan has emerged from the mess ahead of most of its peers. A combination of factors has allowed the bank to distance itself from rivals at a time when hopes are high that the global economy is recovering.

In Asia, excluding Japan, J.P. Morgan ranked second in the 2008 M&A league table category for fees from completed deals. Thomson Reuters data estimates the bank pulled in $120.3 million in fees in the region last year, behind Morgan Stanley’s $137.9 million.

In that same category for China only, J.P. Morgan was also second behind Morgan Stanley, with an estimated $30.9 million in fees.

Among the deals Gu has participated in are China Unicom’s $56 billion stock merger with China Netcom and Sinosteel’s $1.3 billion unsolicited cash offer for Midwest — China’s first hostile takeover of an Australian listed company.

Taiwan’s financial sector has long been thought to be ripe for dealmaking. The window may be opening. 

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Nine months ago, a historic meeting was breaking up in the ballroom of a Secaucus, N.J., hotel. Anheuser-Busch shareholders had just agreed to sell America’s biggest brewer to an aggressive Belgian brewer called InBev.

August A. Busch IV, whose stint as chief executive of Anheuser-Busch would end with the sale, stepped down from the podium. "A bittersweet day," he said.

And then, Busch — the fifth generation of his family to lead Anheuser-Busch — slipped out of the hotel’s lobby.

But he wasn’t supposed to slip out of the public’s eye.
The new regime had given him a seat on the board of the combined company and a lucrative consulting deal — indications that he would be a sort of public ambassador for the new Anheuser-Busch InBev. Many expected him to ease Anheuser-Busch’s transition to new ownership, and act as a liaison between the new owners and A-B’s many constituencies.

It hasn’t worked out that way.

Since the buyout, Busch has not been spotted at industry events. No quotes in media reports, no pictures at meet-and-greets. From trade meetings to sales conferences with distributors, Busch has been a no-show.

"He has not been visible in the beer industry," said Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business Daily. "I just haven’t heard of him being around."

The disappearance seems odd given how much InBev paid for Busch’s services. As part of the buyout, InBev made him a highly paid consultant for Carlos Brito, CEO of the combined company.

Busch, 45, received $10.35 million as a lump sum and started collecting additional fees of about $120,000 a month. He also got a personal security detail and free access to events sponsored by A-B.

The official merger document seemed to outline a clear role for him at Anheuser-Busch InBev. At Brito’s request, Busch would advise InBev on new products; review marketing programs; meet with retailers, wholesalers, advertisers and the media; scrutinize the quality of Anheuser-Busch’s beers; and give advice about A-B’s relationship with charitable organizations and local communities.

"He was supposed to represent continuity from one era to the next, but I don’t know if he’s played much of a role" in the combined company, said Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

The lucrative consulting deal also tied Busch and InBev to a mutual "non-disparagement" covenant, limiting what Busch could say about InBev and what InBev could say about him. The company declined to make Busch available for an interview. Reached directly by the Post-Dispatch, Busch declined to comment, citing the consulting deal.

If anyone has emerged as the public face of A-B since Busch stepped aside, it’s Dave Peacock, who was Busch’s right-hand man and is now president of Anheuser-Busch. Since InBev acquired A-B, Peacock has led the company’s efforts to maintain alliances with distributors and employees.

Peacock has represented the company for signature events such as the Super Bowl, while speaking on behalf of the company when controversies have arisen, such as the company’s decision to cut more than 1,000 area jobs in December.

A-B InBev acknowledges that Busch’s work for the company has been limited to behind-the-scenes activity. A spokeswoman told the Post-Dispatch that his contributions "have proven very valuable," especially relating to the U.S. market. She did not enumerate those contributions. The company also declined to say how many board meetings Busch attended, or when.

Did InBev ever intend to lean heavily on Busch after the takeover? Veteran consultant Tom Pirko said it was not surprising that Busch was not prominent in the new company’s dealings new car loan rates.

InBev wanted to change Anheuser-Busch’s culture and get rid of the Busch family’s hierarchy, Pirko said. The lucrative consulting arrangement was a way of hitting "the eject button" on the Busch family that had run the brewer since the Civil War.

"They wanted a clean break, without the baggage of the past," Pirko said. "When you do that, you have to remove the faces. To be a new company, you have to have new people."

The apparent withdrawal from public life isn’t just at the brewer. In January, Busch resigned as a director of FedEx Corp., a position he had held since 2003. That same month, he was granted a divorce from his wife of 2 1/2 years.

The next month, Anheuser-Busch held a large meeting of beer wholesalers in Houston. The event, aimed at introducing distributors to the new owners, would have been a perfect place to roll out August Busch IV. It would have been an opportunity to show continuity among all the changes. But he didn’t appear, according to industry observers.

Lately, Busch is splitting time between a new home near the Lake of the Ozarks and his other residence in Huntleigh. Busch, an experienced pilot, has been devoting some time to flying.

Not long ago, Busch was leading one of the world’s biggest brewers, trying to boost it out of a period of slow growth.

After being tapped in 2006 as the new chief executive, Busch became known for a management style more easygoing and low-key than that of his hard-charging father, August A. Busch III. In public appearances, the younger Busch was personable and energetic, Anheuser-Busch’s cheerleader in chief. He popped up at numerous state meetings, industry conferences and legislative summit meetings.

In April 2008, Busch IV rallied employees at a party outside A-B’s packaging plant on Pestalozzi Street to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Prohibition’s end.

"I love you guys, you ladies!" he said to rousing applause. "What an honor. An emotional day." Busch held up a bottle of Budweiser. "Here’s to our future … and another 75 fantastic years. Let’s go get ‘em!"

A few weeks later, at the company’s annual meeting at SeaWorld, Busch showed shareholders some of the company’s Super Bowl commercials, chatted about A-B’s NASCAR sponsorship and urged the hundreds of assembled investors to try some new Bud Light Lime.

Soon after A-B’s board approved InBev’s takeover bid on July 13, Busch started slipping into the shadows.

Perhaps, this shouldn’t have been a surprise, as an early scene of the A-B InBev era suggests.

It was the Monday morning after InBev’s acquisition of A-B was consummated. Busch joined the victorious Brito on a conference call with analysts and reporters. Busch spoke briefly of his faith that the Brazilian executive would "honor his public commitments and continue the traditions that have made Anheuser-Busch a success."

Then, for more than an hour, Brito talked about the future, outlining his plans for the new company. When Brito was through, he asked the St. Louis executives if they had anything to add.

Peacock offered a quick closing comment.

Busch remained silent.

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Shares of American International Group Inc. surged Thursday as analysts speculated the company might be reconciling with former CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who could help bring private capital and other business benefits to the company.

Shares of AIG continued to climb in after-hours trading and last traded at $48.30. It finished the regular session at $47.84, up $10.15, or 27 percent. The shares have traded between $6.60 and $493.60 in the past year. AIG completed a 1-for-20 reverse stock split on July 1. More than 148 million shares changed hands, nearly seven times the 3-month average volume of 22.3 million shares.

Investor interest was fueled by the news that the company may be working to mend the strained relationship with Greenberg, who was forced out of the company in 2005 after an accounting scandal surfaced.

"It’s not just that they’re shaking hands with Greenberg, there’s a real financial value in doing that," said Bill Bergman, senior stock analyst for Morningstar Inc. "Given the fact that AIG would have access to capital and business opportunities could be had, the reconciliation is meaningful."

A company spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Early this month, Greenberg agreed to pay $15 million to settle fraud charges that alleged the company had engaged in deceptive accounting practices.

Greenberg, who built AIG over his 35-year career from a small company into the world’s largest insurer, has been fighting AIG in court in an unrelated case over who controls an employee retirement fund. A judge’s decision in that case is expected by month’s end.

AIG was hit hard by the collapse of the home mortgage industry. The insurance company had divisions that originated mortgages, insured them and was heavily invested in mortgaged backed securities and other instruments tied to mortgages, Bergman said.

The credit crisis sent AIG reeling and the U.S. government rescued it from the brink of collapse with a loan bailout package worth up to $182.5 billion. The government now owns roughly 80 percent of the company.

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BreakingPoint Systems, a company that provides tools for testing computer networks, could have run an ad: "Seeking marketing director with social media expertise." Instead, the 65-employee business, based in Austin, let the ideal candidate find it by using Twitter, the popular microblogging service that allows users to send messages of no more than 140 characters.

Pam O’Neal, BreakingPoint’s vice president of marketing, received tweets from Boston marketing professional Kyle Flaherty expressing his interest in the position. (Flaherty had heard about the job from a former colleague who does business with BreakingPoint.) Impressed with Flaherty’s experience, communication skills and blog, O’Neal began a Twitter exchange with him.

Within weeks of first contacting O’Neal, Flaherty headed to Austin for an interview and met the company’s executive team, including CEO Des Wilson. After several more weeks of Twitter exchanges, Flaherty accepted BreakingPoint’s job offer and moved his family to Texas.

"I wasn’t always a social media fan," Wilson says, "but it lets you reach creative leaders like Kyle."

The company now does much of its recruiting through such sites as Twitter, Craigslist, Facebook and LinkedIn. O’Neal says social media tools are especially attractive for small businesses eager to cut hiring costs. Contracting a recruiter to find an executive who earns $150,000 annually can cost $15,000 in fees. Posting ads on job search sites like Monster.com (MWW) could mean spending hundreds of dollars — and precious hours poring over resumes. In contrast, social media tools are mostly free and offer added value: Candidates bring their own online networks, blog content and references, which speeds up the interview process.

Like BreakingPoint, Cincinnati-based Lucrum, a 100-employee IT consulting firm with 2008 sales of $15 million, recently began using social media to recruit.

"It can give you deeper insight into a potential employee," says David Bowman, Lucrum’s director of marketing. He notes that this more personal approach to hiring can benefit smaller businesses, which often place a premium on finding employees who fit the company culture. "One bad hire for a small company can be a death knell," he says.

But Bowman admits that social media isn’t a magic bullet. "Its biggest drawback in recruiting is that it won’t help you appreciate nonverbal communication dynamics," he says. "While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can provide a wealth of information about a potential job candidate, they aren’t substitutes for face-to-face communication."

Utilizing social networks to hire could also reduce workplace diversity, warns David Teten, CEO of Teten Advisors, a private investment firm in New York City.

"Generally sociologists find that people’s social networks tend to be made up of others like them," he says. Complying with employment discrimination laws is just one reason to consider diversity, Teten observes. "If your workforce looks just like you, you’ll have a more homogeneous worldview and be less likely to learn of outside market opportunities," he says.

Tableau Software, an 88-employee Seattle software firm, has mined social networks such as Craigslist, LinkedIn and Twitter to recruit employees. But the company, whose 2008 sales totaled $20 million, has also reached beyond these sources to search for highly specialized workers. Earlier this year, when Tableau CEO Christian Chabot needed a Web developer well versed in Drupal, a content-management platform used to publish Web content, he skipped LinkedIn and went straight to social-networking sites where Drupal enthusiasts gather. Tableau hired a developer it discovered in the Seattle Drupal user group.

To be sure, social media enables businesses to find talented employees efficiently. But getting to know the person behind the blog post, profile page or tweet is essential for companies determined to thrive.  

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Stocks struggled Monday, as investors turned cautious after pushing the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new 2009 highs.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 3 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost less than one point. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 3 points, or 0.1%.

All three major gauges had risen soundly through the early afternoon, with rising oil prices and continued economic optimism lifting the market. But the gains dissolved in the afternoon, with only the energy sector remaining buoyant.

"We’ve got a lot of economic news coming out later this week and I think people are kind of waiting to see if the reports confirm the economy is bottoming," said John Wilson, chief technical strategist at Morgan Keegan.

Standouts this week include a consumer confidence report Tuesday, housing reports Tuesday and Wednesday and the revised read on second-quarter GDP growth Thursday.

Crude oil prices touched a fresh 10-month high and lifted oil services stocks, including Dow components Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500). But big consumer names including Kraft Foods (KFT, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500) all declined.

Stocks rallied Friday after Fed chief Ben Bernanke said the economy is near a recovery and existing home sales posted their biggest jump in two years. That sent the Dow to its highest close since Nov. 4, the S&P 500 to its highest close since Oct. 6 and the Nasdaq to its highest close since Oct. 1.

Stocks have had a surprisingly upbeat summer, as investors have welcomed a number of better-than-expected quarterly results and economic reports.

The S&P 500 is up 52% from the March 9 lows, as of Friday’s close. And the Dow is up 45% during that same time period. After a run of that magnitude in such a short period of time, many analysts predict that stocks are due for a pullback, perhaps by as much as 15%. However, the momentum remains up, and with historically high amounts of cash held in mutual funds, the advance doesn’t appear to be flagging.

"A lot of people didn’t get in at the March lows and there’s still a lot of buying interest out there," Wilson said. "We could see a number of 3 to 5% corrections, but I think people will use them to get back in."

Company news: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Fortune 500) gained 8% after Citigroup upgraded the chipmaker to "buy" from "hold." The brokerage said that while AMD is struggling now, its businesses are starting to stabilize.

Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) shares both surged on economic optimism and in reaction to Friday news that the Federal Reserve bought $5.6 billion of Fannie, Freddie and Federal Home Loan Bank debt.

Nokia (NOK) is planning to expand its traditional cell phone business by introducing a mini-laptop early next month. The Nokia Booklet 3G will use Microsoft’s Windows software.

Dow component Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) said its selling its pharmaceuticals business to drugmaker Warner Chilcott (WCRX) for $3.1 billion. P&G shares were little changed, while Warner Chilcott shares surged 27%.

Market breadth was mixed. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners narrowly edged losers on volume of 1.23 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers seven to six on volume of 2.06 billion shares.

This last week of summer is expected to bring low trading volume as market pros head out on vacation or hold off on making any big changes in their portfolios until the fall.

World markets: Global markets followed the lead of U.S. markets Friday. Asian markets advanced, with the Japanese Nikkei rising 3.4%. European markets rallied.

Oil: U.S. light crude oil for October delivery rose 48 cents to settle at $74.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 10-month high.

Bonds: Treasury prices rallied at the start of a week that brings over $100 billion in government debt auctions. The rise in prices lowered the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.48% from 3.56% Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Other markets: COMEX gold for December delivery fell $11.10 to settle at $943.60 an ounce.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and gained against the Japanese yen.

How does your portfolio look nearly one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers? What investment choices hurt you or helped you? What strategy changes are you making for the future? Tell us your story. E-mail realstories@cnnmoney.com and your thoughts could be part of an upcoming story. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

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Opel labor leader Klaus Franz called on General Motors to pick a buyer for its European unit this week, and threatened “spectacular measures” if the U.S. group did not make a decision.

On Friday GM failed to reach a decision either in favor of the Canadian automotive firm Magna, which is Germany’s preferred buyer for Opel, or rival bidder RHJ International, leaving the carmaker’s fate up in the air.

“We have run out of patience,” Opel’s works council head Franz told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday.

“We have been calm so far, listened diligently and made comments, but that is over now. If nothing changes from General Motors’ side by the end of this week, then we will be active, and there will definitely be spectacular measures from us,” he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also expressed her regret on Sunday at GM’s failure to choose a buyer and said a decision was urgently needed for the carmaker’s future.

GM, which emerged from bankruptcy protection on July 10, last week agreed to sell its Saab car business to Koenigsegg, a tiny Swedish luxury carmaker, the first in a series of big disposals the U.S. group is planning as it slims down.

Delays have also dogged negotiations to sell GM brand Hummer. Chinese reports said over the weekend that regulators there had approved Tengzhong’s bid for Hummer, but the Chinese company said it was still awaiting official word.

In Europe, talks to sell Opel have been dragging on for months, and the German government and GM now seem to be split over who should be allowed to buy the company.

Berlin, which is facing a federal election on September 27, has offered financial backing for Magna’s bid because it believes it would be the best option to save jobs at Opel.

ANGRY REACTIONS

In Germany, Opel employs over 25,000 people in four major plants making models including the three-door Corsa subcompacts and Zafira vans. In the U.K., there are two factories that produce automobiles under the Vauxhall badge. Opel has other facilities in Belgium, Poland and Spain.

Opel and sister brand Vauxhall sold just over 560,000 cars in Europe in the first half of the year for a market share of 7.6 percent, according to data compiled by the ACEA auto industry association.

A Magna victory would be a coup for its founder and chairman, Frank Stronach, who left Europe a poor toolmaker half a century ago and built his company into one of the world’s biggest automotive suppliers.

It would mark a setback for Leonhard Fischer, the former investment banker and turnaround specialist who runs RHJ.

The failure to make a decision on the firm’s future drew angry reactions from a number of German politicians at the weekend, while they reaffirmed their support for Magna’s bid.

Berlin and GM are expected to resume talks this week.

(Writing by Paul Carrel and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Will Waterman)

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Homes continue to be more affordable than they have been in nearly two decades.

The typical American family, making the nation’s median income of $64,000 a year, could afford to buy 72.3% of all homes sold in the United States during the second quarter, according a quarterly report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500).

That’s off just a tad from the record 72.5% reached during the first three months of 2009, but up substantially from the second quarter of 2008 when only 55% of homes sold were affordable.

"The increase in affordability — along with the $8,000 federal tax credit for home buyers — is stimulating demand, particularly among young, first-time buyers," said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a homebuilder from Tulsa, Okla., in a prepared statement.

The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area’s median income could devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs.

The vast improvement this year is due to plunging prices and rock-bottom interest rates. The average U.S. home price has dropped more than 32% from its peak, which was set during the summer of 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index. And, for most of the three months mortgage rates were historically low, under 5% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan.

Long suffering sellers

The improved affordability comes, of course, at the expense of sellers. Real estate Web site Zillow reported that more than 30% of all homes sold during the three months ended June 30 went for less than what the sellers originally paid.

The longer they owned the home, the more likely they were to profit from the resale, but virtually anyone who bought within the past five years and sold during the quarter lost money on the deal, according to Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president in charge of data and analytics how to get a free credit report.

Foreclosure factor

The heartbreak among home sellers is compounded by the foreclosure problem. Many of the homes on the market got there because families lost their homes to foreclosure.

Part of the reason that home prices have become so reasonable is the volume of REOs — real estate speak for homes repossessed by banks — has spiked. There were more than 87,000 repossessions in July, about triple the number of July 2007.

Foreclosed homes are often listed and sold at steep discounts to produce quick sales, according to Brad Geisen, founder of Foreclosure.com, which markets such properties.

"The big banks are finally pricing their properties to what people will pay for them," he said. "Foreclosure inventory is now selling at about the same rate it’s coming in."

Most affordable cities

The older, industrial Midwest cities generally offer the best bargains. Indianapolis has led the NAHB’s Housing Opportunity Index for 16 straight quarters. Nearly 95% of all homes sold there were affordable to those earning the area’s median income of $68,100.

Other leaders were the Youngstown, Ohio, metro area, Detroit, Dayton, Ohio, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

The least affordable large metro areas were New York, where only 21% of homes sold were affordable, Honolulu, San Francisco,Los Angeles and Santa Ana, Calif. 

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Stocks rallied Tuesday after Home Depot’s results and forecast and a few bright spots in the day’s housing market report gave investors a reason to dip back into the market after a two-session retreat.

After the close, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) reported lower quarterly sales and earnings that topped analysts estimates.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 82 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index rose 10 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 25 points, or 1.3%.

Stocks slipped for two straight sessions, with the major gauges each losing over 3% on worries that a struggling consumer could pressure an already fragile recovery.

But Tuesday brought some better news from the retail sector and investors used it as an opportunity to move back into the market, albeit on light trading volume.

"There’s going to be a lot of volatility day-to-day as we try to figure out how much economic growth we’re going to have," said Robert McGee, portfolio manager at CS McKee.

A weaker-than-expected consumer sentiment report Friday and Lowe’s disappointing profit report Monday sparked the selling, which followed a roughly five-month advance.

But Tuesday brought better profit news from Dow component Home Depot and discount retailer Target, helping to mitigate some consumer worries. On the downside, the morning’s housing market report missed growth forecasts but investors sought out some good news when it came to single-home construction.

The S&P 500 is 46% higher since bottoming March 9. Year-to-date, it’s just up 9.6% as of Tuesday’s close.

"I think the rally is a little ahead of what the economy and fundamentals are indicating," McGee said. "We’re probably near the highs of the year and could see some give back through the fall."

Wednesday brings no market-moving quarterly results or economic news. The weekly oil inventories report from the Energy Information Administration is due in the mid-morning.

Retail: Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500) reported earnings of 66 cents per share, versus 77 cents a year ago, as the recession cut into its business. But results were better than expected and the home improvement retailer boosted its full-year earnings outlook. Shares of the Dow component gained 3% Tuesday.

Target (TGT, Fortune 500) reported earnings of 79 cents per share versus 82 cents a year earlier, topping expectations, due to cost cutting and reduced inventories. But revenue and same-store sales slipped, as consumers remained cautious. Shares gained 7.6%.

Economy: Housing starts and building permits both slipped in July, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. The report surprised Wall Street economists who were looking for an improvement free car insurance quotes.

Housing starts fell to a 581,000 annualized rate in July from a revised 587,000 in June. Economists thought starts would rise to 599,000, according to a Briefing.com survey.

Building permits, which indicate builder confidence, fell to a 560,000 annualized rate in July from a revised 570,000 annualized rate in June. Economists thought it would rise to a 576,000 annualized rate.

On the upside, the report showed that single-family housing construction rose 1.7% in July, advancing for the fifth straight month and at the fastest pace since October.

A separate report showed that inflation at the wholesale level remains in check. The Producer Price Index (PPI) fell 0.9% in July after rising 1.8% in June. Economists thought it would fall to 0.3%. The core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, fell 0.1% in July versus forecasts for a rise of 0.1%.

General Motors: The automaker is boosting production in the second half of the year and bringing 1,350 of its North American employees back to work as a result of increased demand from the government’s Cash for Clunkers program.

Separately, GM (GM, Fortune 500) said it made a deal to sell its money-losing Saab to Swedish luxury sports car maker Koenigsegg.

Other stock movers: Huron Consulting Group (HURN) rallied 37.6% in unusually active Nasdaq trading after the business consultant reported higher quarterly revenue and earnings that topped estimates.

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AXL) rallied 117% in unusually active New York Stock Exchange trading after saying it will get up to $210 million in help from former parent GM. The auto parts manufacturer is trying to restructure its debt outside of bankruptcy court.

Market breadth was positive and trading volume was light. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by almost four to one on volume of 991 million shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners three to one on volume of 1.77 billion shares.

Bonds: Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.51% from 3.47% Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Other markets: In global trading, European and Asian markets climbed.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose $2.44 to settle at $69.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose $3.40 to settle at $939.20 an ounce.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and gained against the Japanese yen. 

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U.S. authorities announced what they believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted on Monday in a scheme in which more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen.

Three men were indicted on charges of being responsible for five corporate data breaches in a scheme in which the card numbers were stolen from Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven Inc and Hannaford Brothers Co, federal prosecutors said in a statement paydayloan.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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Median home prices fell a record 15.6% during the three months ended June 30, compared to the same period in 2008, according to an industry report.

There is good news though: The survey from the National Association of Realtors reported the median home price rose 4% compared to the first quarter of 2009 — to $174,100 from $167,300.

The increase in median price was not a surprise, representing, as it did, the traditionally strong spring selling season. But the jump did offer the prospect that the worst of the price declines may be behind us.

"With low interest rates, lower home prices and a first-time buyer tax credit, we’ve been seeing healthy increases in home sales, which are a hopeful sign for the economy," said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist..

In the vast majority of metro areas — 129 out of 155 — median prices dropped year-over-year. Some of the decline can be traced to an increase in the percentage of foreclosures and short sales. They accounted for 36% of all transactions during the quarter.

These "distressed properties" are usually sold at discounts of at least 15% compared with traditional sales.

Patrick Newport, a real estate analyst for IHS Global Insight, while admitting the year-over-year results are still awful, said recent evidence indicates that prices are stabilizing.

"The state sales data show sales picking up across the country," he said.

Newport expects prices and sales to trend down again, especially when the impact of the first-time homebuyers tax credit starts to fade. The credit ends December 1. "Afterward, sales will take a hit," he said.

His forecast is for prices to drop another 5% this year, driven down by added inventory as the foreclosure plague continues to worsen no fax payday loans.

Cheapest and priciest areas

The Cape Coral metro area in Florida recorded the largest decline: 52.8% to $84,000. Davenport, Iowa, had the biggest gain: 30.6% to $113,200.

The lowest priced market in the nation is now Saginaw, Mich., where the median home sold for $55,700 during the quarter, a 30.6% drop over last year. The most expensive market was Honolulu, with a median price of $569,500 — although that’s still a 10.5% discount from a year ago. San Jose, Calif. led all mainland cities at $500,000 but that was still down a whopping 33.8% from a year ago.

Condo market

Condo prices have taken an even more severe beating. They fell 19.8% year-over-year, but rose 3.6% quarter-over-quarter.

If you’re in the market for a condo in Las Vegas, you may never find a better time. Prices dropped 54.1% compared with the second quarter of 2008 and fell 11.7% between the first and second quarters of 2009. The median price now stands at a bargain basement $66,400.

Condo prices rose year-over-year in only four of 61 metro areas surveyed by NAR. The biggest gain was in Virginia Beach, where prices went up 2.8%. Wichita, Kan. (2%), Dallas (0.7%) and Colorado Springs (0.2%) were the only other gainers.

The most expensive condo market was San Francisco, where the median price was $405,700, down 22.5% from a year ago. Las Vegas was the cheapest condo market by far, with Reno a distant second at $103,100. 

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