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Global stocks recovered Tuesday after another big sell-off on Wall Street, as investors awaited a key speech from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke following a run of weak economic news.

Fears over the global economy have grown due to a raft of underwhelming economic indicators around the world, particularly out of the U.S., which culminated in last week’s much weaker than expected U.S. payrolls report for May.

As a result, there is speculation that the Fed may retain its super-loose monetary policy for much longer than initially thought.

The Fed’s current $600 billion monetary stimulus is due to expire this month and the prevailing view in the markets until recently was that the central bank would drop the program and possibly start raising interest rates by the end of this year.

However, the recent soft batch of economic data has led some in the markets to speculate that the Fed may consider more monetary stimulus and keep interest rates at the record low of near zero percent well into next year.

Bernanke’s speech later at the International Monetary Conference in Atlanta, Georgia could have a huge impact on markets.

“Bernanke’s speech provides the Fed chairman with an opportunity to update his views on the state of the economy,” said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital. “In light of the soft data on house prices, industrial production and the labour market there is no doubt that the Fed’s projection of 3.1-3.3 percent GDP growth for this year is demanding.”

In the run-up to the speech, which is due to be delivered around 1945 GMT, stocks were relatively solid. European shares were further buoyed by news that retail sales in the 17 countries that use the euro rose by 0.9 percent in April, three times the rate anticipated.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 percent to 7,130 while the CAC-40 in France was 0.6 percent higher at 3,887. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.3 percent at 5,878 .

Wall Street was also poised to recoup some recent losses, which have pushed the main indexes to their lowest levels since late March free business cards. Dow futures were up 0.4 percent at 12,132 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.5 percent to 1,291.

The other big theme in the markets, aside from the state of the global economy, remains Europe’s debt crisis.

Last Friday’s effective decision by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to give Greece the next euro12 billion batch of bailout funds and signals it may get a second bailout have helped ease worries that the country will default on its mountain of debts.

The relief is particularly notable in the performance of the euro, which was trading near one-month highs of $1.4674. Earlier, it struck its highest level since May 5 at $1.4682.

Asian shares, meanwhile, turned in a mixed performance.

Though Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.7 percent at 9,442.95, South Korea’s Kospi index slipped 0.7 percent to 2,099.71,

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.4 percent to 22,868.67 while mainland Chinese shares gained as investors kept on snapping up bargains following recent sell-offs. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent to 2,744.30, while the Shenzhen Composite Index of China’s smaller, second exchange gained 0.7 percent to 1,132.69.

Oil prices meanwhile continued to trade in a fairly narrow range around the $100 a barrel mark ahead of a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 11 cents to $99.12 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Analysts are looking for clues on what OPEC will do about oil production when the cartel meets Wednesday in Vienna. OPEC ministers could decide to try to lower oil prices by increasing production. Some OPEC officials have said that they believe oil prices are too high and threaten global economic recovery.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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There are some pretty basic rules about personal finance, and my money mistake involves violating them all. This was no accident mind you. I did it willfully and with no small sense of pleasure. (Keep this article away from young children.)

I was posted to New York at the age of 28 as a business journalist, and intended to live within the somewhat modest means of a newspaper correspondent. And I stuck to my guns, for at least six months. Then I abandoned my guns, hopped over the wall into no man’s land, went AWOL. And in retrospect I’m glad I did, because the investment in my career and the experiences were worth more than the thousands of dollars I figure it cost me.

I blame my fall on the city: Her high rent, irresistible restaurants, the plays, the fashion, the travel beckoning, the fascinating people from all over the world. But for all of that, I might never have strayed.

It’s not hard to keep track of whether you can afford something or not — that’s what bank statements are for. But, I reasoned, this is New York. I will only live here once, and to live and work here and not absorb all its delights would be criminal. The real gamble was that my future, post-New-York self would reap a reward in the form of a higher salary and a better job and that would presumably help me pay down all the debt.

First I gave up the uptown studio apartment that fit my budget and moved to more convenient SoHo on the lower West Side. Then I bought the clothes that kept me in fashion in cutting-edge New York. I shopped smart, sales in out of the way stores.

My new friends liked to dine out (most people I knew in New York used their oven as additional storage space) and pretty soon we were traveling too. Italy, Spain, Italy, the Hamptons, Italy. We travelled together, and an Italian villa back then was a steal — I was practically saving money by going.

Within a few years, I was rich in experience, a billionaire in sights and sounds, a queen of couture. And tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. The lowest moment, financially speaking, was when I cashed in my RRSP — paid a huge chunk of tax on it, lost the compounding potential, and used the money to pay off a credit card. Or most of it.

Now financial experts would say that’s not the worst move — after all, no investment return will net you the 19 to 29 per cent you pay on credit card debt.

It seems to me I broke every one of the three cardinal rules of personal finance.

Live within your means. As Dickens said: If you spend even a penny less than you earn, happiness follows, a penny more, misery. I certainly did that — minus the misery.

Start saving early. The miracle of compound interest means the sooner you start the less you will need to save later. Throw in the tax benefits of a registered retirement savings plan and you get a real kick to your savings.

I started saving in an RRSP pretty much as soon as I had income after university. I managed, by my mid-twenties, to be maxing out my annual amount. Then I cashed it all out, losing $40,000 and a lot more potential. But there’s more.

Avoid credit card debt. Paying only the monthly minimum on a big balance is the surest route to penury. Though you will find yourself newly popular with credit card companies who will generously raise your spending limit. Knowing this, I dutifully avoided credit debt until I got to New York. Until then I had used it for the inevitable short-term bridging periods incurred by a combination of extreme poverty and an inconvenient need for food.

So there you have it. Money mistakes one through three. But as for the outcome — well, Dickens would not approve. It ended pretty much the way my 28-year-old self thought it would. I got a higher profile, a high paying job in New York and, when that helped me land a better, even higher paying job back in Canada, I paid off my credit card debt in six months.

Was it a mistake? On a straight math basis yes. It was foolish. But would I do the same thing over again? In a New York minute.

Manitoba native Amanda Lang is CBC’s senior business correspondent for TheNational, and is co-host of the Lang & O’Leary Exchange. She has worked for CNN, the Financial Post and the Globe & Mail.

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Where did all the workers go?

The labor force

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and the CEO of Chrysler say it

Stock futures are pointed higher as traders await economic reports that could signal the relative strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 39 points, or 0.3 percent, at 12,571. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are up 4, or 0.3 percent, at 1,343. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 6 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,368.

The Labor Department reports ahead of the market opening on the number of new unemployment claims last week. Economists expect a decline to 420,000 from 434,000.

Reports are also due on existing home sales and leading economic indicators.

Sears Holding Corp. reports that softer sales at its Kmart and Sears stores caused a first-quarter loss of $1.58 per share, worse than analysts expected. The results signal persistent weakness in the U.S. consumer recovery.

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Most St. Louis banks are improving their profitability as they continue to claw their way out of the real estate crisis. Yet tepid business loan demand is making it difficult for banks that are trying to shift their focus away from the commercial real estate market and into other areas such as lines of credit to buy inventory.

The more than 70 banks chartered in the St. Louis area reported a combined $35.9 million profit in the first quarter of 2011, up from an $8.3 million in the first quarter of 2010, according to data released this week by the Federal Reserve. The quarterly figures don’t include financial services firm Stifel Financial or banks based outside of St. Louis, such as M&I Bank and Bank of America.

A surge in mortgage refinancings originated in 2010 and a decrease in interest rates paid on customer deposits boosted profits for most banks in the first quarter, but loan activity remained weak. Total loans from St. Louis-based banks at the end of the first quarter stood at $20.6 billion, declining 3.5 percent compared to the fourth quarter, and a 12.5 percent drop compared to the first quarter of 2010.

“What the market is really focusing on is top-line revenue growth that’s a function of loan growth, and that’s just not materializing,” said Tom Lewandowski, a financial services analyst at Edward Jones. “Smaller banks, without that added pick-up, you’re going to see a movement toward lower-yielding securities instead of making new loans, which is going to lead to lower net interest income.”

Business loan growth is the life-blood of typical small banks, as the credit quality is higher and there are lower levels of nonperforming loans.

Without increased local lending activity, many banks face the prospect of shrinking.

“There’s very little loan growth in the market in general,” said Mike Walsh, chief executive of Eagle Bank and Trust Co. He said Eagle is not contemplating adding branches beyond its current 12 locations anytime soon.

Many banks have been decreasing their exposure to commercial real estate, which includes loans to finance office buildings, malls and land development.

St. Louis banks’ commercial real estate loans dropped to $7.4 billion in the first quarter, down from $7.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, and down from $8.9 billion a year ago.

Reliance Bank has struggled with high default rates in its commercial real estate loan portfolio, which contributed to the bank’s loss of $4.6 million in the first quarter, the highest loss of any St. Louis-chartered bank.

“Our first-quarter profitability is reflective of our concentration in commercial real estate loans and the costs of maintaining and liquidating those assets which we have taken back,” said Thomas Cooke, a spokesman for Reliance. “Small and mid-sized banks are still wrestling with the commercial real estate overhang.”

Eleven percent of Enterprise Bank & Trust’s loans are in construction and development, down from a high of 18 percent in 2007, said Enterprise’s chairman and chief executive, Stephen Marsh. Enterprise is seeking to lower that figure to below 10 percent.

“We’ve whittled it down,” Marsh said. “Most of the nonperforming loans over the past three years have been in construction and development financing.”

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Instead of commercial real estate-heavy portfolios, many bankers here are seeking to increase commercial and industrial lines of credit for manufacturers, distributors and service-related businesses. But there’s decreasing demand for C&I loans locally as many businesses are waiting to borrow until there’s more certainty in the economy, said Joe Stieven of Stieven Capital Advisors in St. Louis.

“A lot of companies have strong cash positions, and when the economy starts to pick up a little, the first things they do is use cash before using lines of credit,” Stieven said.

St. Louis-chartered banks’ C&I loans totaled $3.3 billion at the end of the first quarter, a 3.2 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2010, and a 14.9-percent plunge from a year ago. Nationally, C&I loans grew in the first quarter, to $1.27 trillion, compared to $1.11 trillion at the end of 2010.

“Maybe that tells us that St. Louis’ economy is weaker,” said First National Bank of St. Louis President Rick Bagy. “We don’t have a strong manufacturing base like when McDonnell Douglas was here, and when all the car plants were here.”

Julie Stackhouse, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said some nationally-based banks have been more successful in business loan growth.

“The larger banks who are players here and have a presence here have been the ones who have competed most aggressively in that area,” Stackhouse said.

Enterprise was able to grow its C&I loans in the first quarter, but Marsh said it’s an increasingly competitive segment. “Even though we’re maybe at the last legs of the recession, there are still a lot of borrowers that are concerned about using lines of credit, they’re not making acquisitions and they’re not building their inventories,” Marsh said.

Banks jockeying to increase C&I loans could result in better terms for borrowers.

“With loan demand being minimal, I think we’ll see a lot more competition as banks try to win customers away,” said Tom Holloway, president of the Bank of Edwardsville. “The effect will be lower rates.”

Nonperforming loans

A failure. An embarrassment. A joke.

In the bruising world of Ontario politics, opponents would sometimes hang those harsh criticisms on Mike Harris.

But the former premier is facing some of the same brickbats from shareholders such as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, proxy groups like Glass Lewis & Co. and advocates of corporate governance over his performance leading the board at auto parts powerhouse Magna International.

Underlining their disdain, proxy advisers say Magna shareholders should snub Harris and other directors when their re-election comes up for a vote at the annual meeting next Wednesday. They have little regard for his expertise and the practical skills he acquired in governing the country’s biggest province for almost seven years.

Homebuilders are more pessimistic about the housing market this month, a dismal sign at the start of the spring-buying season.

The National Association of Home Builders says its index of industry sentiment for April fell slightly to 16. It had risen modestly in March, to 17, after four straight months at 16. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the market. The index hasn’t been above that level since April 2006.

Last year was the worst in more than a decade for sales of previously owned homes and the worst for new-home sales in nearly a half-century.

Fewer homes mean fewer jobs. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the builders’ trade group.

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China faces a 60 percent risk of a banking crisis by mid-2013 in the aftermath of record lending and surging property prices, according to a Fitch Ratings gauge.

Fitch sees the risk of “holes in bank balance sheets” should a property bubble burst, Richard Fox, a London-based senior director, said in a phone interview on March 4. The risk assessment is from a macro-prudential monitor used by the ratings company.

Chinese banks fueled record property-price gains by extending a record 17.5 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion) of loans over 2009 and 2010 under the stimulus program that propelled the nation through the financial crisis. Regulators’ efforts to contain the risks for lenders have included stress tests for declines in house prices and a crackdown on lending to local- government financing vehicles.

China’s risk of a systemic crisis is based on the nation’s MPI3 classification, the highest of three risk categories, in a Fitch monitor begun in 2005. The indicator signaled crises in Iceland and Ireland and has been tested back to the 1980s, Fox said.

In contrast with Fitch’s concern, the Hang Seng Finance Index (HSF), which includes five Chinese banks traded in Hong Kong, advanced 1.5 percent as of 3:34 p.m. local time.

Lenders including China Minsheng Banking Corp. and Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. (1288) have announced plans to sell more than 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) of shares and 70 billion yuan of subordinated bonds this year.

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Ireland’s government braced itself for a heavy defeat Friday as voters went to the polls enraged about public service cuts, higher taxes, soaring unemployment and the country’s embarrassing bailout.

The opposition Fine Gael party has enjoyed a wide lead in opinion polls during a campaign dominated by debate on how to rebuild an economy brought low by the collapse of a property boom, which in turn led to a bailout of Ireland’s banks. Unemployment has soared to more than 13 percent.

The opposition has used Ireland’s dire economic situation as a rallying call for change _ Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, 60, campaigned in northwestern Ireland on Thursday, urging voters to “turn your anger into action.”

The governing Fianna Fail party is bracing for a rout. It led the government through Ireland’s boom years in 1994-2007 and into the economic meltdown that precipitated a humiliating bailout from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In his final appeal on Thursday, Kenny spoke of a nation “reeling from the national confidence trick pulled on us by the government and those they ceded power to: developers and banks. Every week, a thousand mothers and fathers watch their children pack up their lives, put their degrees in beside their dollars and their bitter disappointment and head for Sydney, Brisbane and Vancouver.”

“I’m asking people to turn their anger into action and vote with their power, vote with their pride, vote for our plan _ the only plan _ that will get Ireland working,” Kenny said Payday advance.

The Labour Party hoped to pile up enough votes to deny Fine Gael an outright majority in the Dail, the lower house of Parliament, and secure Labour a place in a coalition government.

That pitch appealed to Mark Fortune, a civil servant who fear Fine Gael’s plans to cut 20,000 public service jobs.

“I think Labour would hold them back a bit,” Fortune said.

Margaret Leehy, a young nurse, wanted to vote for Fine Gael but she was far away from the constituency in Cork where she is registered.

“I think they are the best of a bad lot,” she said, adding that she and her husband are both working full time to make ends meet.

Ireland’s plight has inspired a lively contest with a record 566 candidates including 179 independents for the 166 seats in Ireland’s lower house in parliament, the Dail. Nearly 49,000 people have rushed to register to vote in recent weeks.

Opinion polls suggest that Ireland’s 3.1 million voters will usher in a new government led Fine Gael party, which until now has been the perennial runner-up to Fianna Fail.

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