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Nintendo Co Ltd reported a 52 percent slide in quarterly profit on Thursday and slashed its full-year earnings forecast, as its Wii console loses its place as the videogame platform to beat.

Demand for Nintendo’s family-friendly games has cooled as rivals Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp bolster their catalog of games that appeal to die-hard players.

Nintendo’s portable game machine, the DS, also faces increasing competition from Apple Inc’s iPhone, which has become a popular platform for handheld games. And like other Japanese exporters, Nintendo has been hit by the stronger yen, which eats into the value of overseas profits.

The group slashed its annual sales forecast for the Wii by nearly a quarter and in an attempt to reignite demand said it would roll out a large-screen version of the DS.

But that falls short of being a real product advance, said Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities in Tokyo.

“A lot of what they’re doing seems to be old hat, and therefore what we need to hear is more information about their ideas going forward,” he said.

“There is still life in the current platforms with the content they can generate themselves, but there is a need for the company to demonstrate that there are new products no teletrek payday advance.”

Nintendo’s operating profit fell to 64 billion yen ($709 million) in July-September from 133 billion a year earlier, missing an average forecast of 90 billion in a poll of four analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Reuters calculated the quarterly figure by subtracting Nintendo’s first-quarter results from the first-half figures released on Thursday.

LOWER FORECAST

Nintendo cut its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2010 by a quarter to 370 billion yen, ending a three-year run during which it booked a record profit.

Analysts were expecting a full-year profit of 442.8 billion yen, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(For a graphic of Nintendo’s quarterly results, click here)

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference a lack of new, must-have titles had hurt sales of the Wii in the April-September period.

“We weren’t able to deliver the next thing, but now, at last, we have,” he said, referring to the “Wii Sports Resort” that went on sale a few months ago. 

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Ford Motor Co chose China’s Geely as preferred bidder for Volvo Cars while Magna said it still hoped to clinch a deal to buy a majority stake in Opel from GM after a board meeting on November 3

The shake-up of a car industry pummeled by the deepest crisis in decades continued, as Italy’s Fiat readied for the November 4 presentation of the five-year plan it hopes will turn around struggling partner Chrysler in Detroit.

Top officials from Canadian auto parts maker Magna and GM’s European unit Opel said they were confident the long-awaited deal — which has been held up after last-minute EU competition concerns — would be sealed.

“I am convinced that we will sign the contract soon if the EU … agrees. We are very, very hopeful,” said Siegfried Wolf, co-chief executive of Magna, which is seeking a 55 percent stake in Opel with its Russian partner Sberbank.

A source had told Reuters last week that there was still a possibility that GM’s board could opt out of a sale of Opel in favor of keeping the European carmaker.

The European Commission has been keeping a close eye on the transaction to ensure state aid is not misused for political purposes and was not skewed in favor of Magna.

FORD GOES FOR GEELY

U.S. automaker Ford’s selection of Geely moved the long-running sale process of its loss-making Swedish unit Volvo Car Corp savings account payday advance. closer to a conclusion but said more detailed talks were needed before any final agreement. The announcement signals that intellectual property concerns which threatened to derail the deal last week may have been overcome.

Ford did not disclose a possible sale price, but media reports have put it closer to $2 billion than the $6.45 billion it paid for Volvo in 1999.

Meanwhile, Swedish automaker Saab Automobile’s fate hung in the balance, after the Swedish government said it would have to wait for a decision on guaranteeing a 400 million euro European Investment Bank loan granted earlier this month. Niche sports carmaker Koeniggseg is buying the carmaker.

China’s BAIC agreed in September to take a minority stake in Koenigsegg, easing some of the funding concerns around the proposed purchase.

And in a further sign of car industry turmoil, Russia’s government denied on Wednesday that it had approved a plan by troubled carmaker AvtoVAZ — which is 25 percent owned by France’s Renault — to cut its workforce by a quarter.

(Writing by Helen Massy-Beresford, editing by Marcel Michelson)

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Intel Corp sees rising corporate spending on personal computers in 2010, Chief Executive Paul Otellini said on Tuesday.

“There is a very good chance corporate spending on PCs will improve significantly in 2010, ” Otellini told reporters at a news conference in the Indian capital.

He declined to say how many PCs could be sold in 2010. Earlier in the month, Otellini reaffirmed Intel’s outlook for flat to slightly higher sales growth in 2009.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)

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U.S. Treasury debt prices retreated Thursday as a stock market rally drew investors away from safe-haven government debt.

A little price-cutting ahead of next week’s new supply also put Treasurys on the defensive. The Treasury announced a record large $123 billion of coupon sales for next week, surpassing the previous weekly record of $115 billion seen in July.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday on a batch of strong earnings from various sector bellwethers, with financial and consumer stocks leading the way.

The earnings improvements in those sectors offered hope that both the banking sector and a consumer-driven economy were starting to recover, developments that would lessen the appeal of safe-haven investments like government debt.

After the auction announcement, prices "weakened a little bit as players positioned for some supply pressures," said John Canavan, analyst with Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, New Jersey.

Some analysts worry the huge doses of new debt — the result of a recession and various government rescue plans — will dilute the market, hurting the perceived quality of U.S. government debt and dampening appetite for it.

Some even worry this could jeopardize the United States’ top-tier credit rating.

Moody’s Investors Service told Reuters TV Thursday that the United States, which posted a record deficit in the last fiscal year, may lose its Aaa-rating if it does not reduce the gap to manageable levels in the next 3-4 years.

In late trade, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 8/32 in price, its yield rising to 3.42% from 3.39% late Wednesday.

Economic data mixed for bonds

Job market data Thursday painted a bit of a mixed picture for bonds, with weekly figures showing new claims for jobless benefits exceeded expectations, while the four-week moving average for new claims fell to the lowest level since mid-January.

"It was a split verdict," said economists at Goldman Sachs. "Initial claims went back up, though not enough to negate modest downward trend. Continuing claims fell further, from an upward revised base."

Two more data points also were mixed, with the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators rising for a sixth straight month in September to a two year high, while the Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. home prices fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in August.

"The housing recovery will be slow and bumpy," said Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

Thirty-year Treasury bonds were down 17/32. their yields rising to 4.24% from 4.21% late Wednesday, while two-year notes were unchanged in price, yielding 0.95%. 

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Malaysia cut income tax for a second straight year, aiming to spur consumer spending and private investment and help the economy recover from a recession.

The top personal tax rate will be reduced to 26 percent in 2010 from 27 percent, Prime Minister Najib Razak said in his budget speech in Kuala Lumpur today. Southeast Asia’s third- largest economy is expected to expand 2 percent to 3 percent in 2010 after shrinking 3 percent this year, the government said.

“Private sector activity is anticipated to pick up following signs of recovery, enabling the government to consolidate its fiscal position for greater policy flexibility in times of crisis,” the Ministry of Finance said in its 2009/2010 economic report today. “Emphasis will be on creating a conducive environment for businesses and entrepreneurship to thrive in a more liberalized environment.”

Najib has rolled back decades-old protectionist policies to spur investment since taking over as prime minister in April, opening up services industry to foreign investors and easing rules on ethnic-Malay ownership in companies. Najib told parliament today that he wants to transform Malaysia into a “high-income economy.”

“So far, we have been pampered with a series of promising reform-related announcements since Najib took the helm,” said Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, chief economist at Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “However, all these investor- friendly announcements will mean nothing if their execution is weak or if they fail to translate into effective action plans.”

Foreign Investment

Malaysia will review rules that may be barriers to investment, and plans to attract foreign investors to take up stakes in local companies, the finance ministry said.

“Under the second wave of privatization, selected government agencies will be privatized,” it said. The government will also provide incentives for investors in five growth corridors and promote the Islamic finance, tourism and information and communications technology industries, it said.

The budget will help open up the Malaysian economy further and address a policy adopted in 1971 that gives advantages to the ethnic-Malay majority in business, housing and government contracts, Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah told reporters in Putrajaya yesterday.

“We have to do things differently now,” Najib said in the economic report. “There has to be a paradigm shift and a change in mindset” as Malaysia is “committed” to enhance its competitiveness through market-driven policies, he said.

New Model

Malaysia can’t rely on its old model of developing indigenous, ethnic-Malay entrepreneurs, Ahmad Husni said. Local businesses will need to face market forces, he added.

The government will enable private consumption and investment to stimulate the economy in 2010 as public spending cools, Ahmad Husni said.

The budget shortfall is expected to narrow to 5.6 percent of gross domestic product next year from a 22-year high of 7.4 percent in 2009, according to today’s finance ministry report. Spending in 2010 is expected to be 189.5 billion ringgit ($56 billion), 11.3 percent smaller than this year’s outlay.

The government will review its fuel and other subsidies to ensure they benefit “target” groups and remain “lean,” the ministry said. Competitive bidding for government procurement will help reduce costs, it said.

Lower Subsidies

Subsidies paid by the government to keep prices of fuel and other essential goods and services low will fall 14.7 percent to 20.9 billion ringgit in 2010, helped by an “absence” of payments for food security, fuel cash rebates, sugar, flour and bread, the ministry said. Fuel subsidies are forecast to rise 10.7 percent to 10 billion ringgit amid higher oil prices.

The government will spend less on supplies and services as well as grants to state agencies next year, even as outlays for pensions, salaries and debt servicing increase, it said.

“The federal government will align expenditures to available resources to ensure fiscal sustainability and macroeconomic stability,” the ministry said. “The thrust of fiscal policy in 2010 is to strengthen and sustain the recovery process by further boosting domestic demand.”

A proposed new private pension scheme will boost funds available for the country’s capital markets and provide an additional savings option, it said.

Malaysia, which has unveiled 67 billion ringgit of stimulus initiatives under two packages in the past year, has spent 8.2 billion ringgit from the total as at the end of September, the finance ministry said. The impact from the stimulus will be felt more in the second half of 2009 and spill over into next year, it said.

Light Rail

Major construction projects expected by the government to boost growth next year include a light rail project in and around the capital Kuala Lumpur, a water transfer project and a new low-cost carrier terminal at the country’s main airport.

Total taxes are forecast to shrink 2.8 percent as a 28.3 percent plunge in oil income as well as lower investment, licensing and sales tax revenue counter rising collection from excise duties, company and individual taxes, the ministry said. Income taxes will be bolstered by a recovering economy, the government said.

Inflation will “rise modestly” in 2010 as global commodity prices gain, the ministry said. Malaysia’s monetary policy will “remain supportive of growth,” it said.

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Implementing tougher new credit card disclosure rules more quickly could help consumers but could also lead to unintended consequences and bank compliance problems, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.

Bernanke, in a letter to U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, said proposed legislation to accelerate the effective date for the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 to December 1 would force the Fed to implement provisions of the act without adequate public comment.

Moving the date up “could benefit consumers by providing important protections earlier than scheduled (including protections against applying increased rates to existing credit card balances),” Bernanke wrote in response to questions from Bachus. Bachus, of Alabama, is the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

“However, it would also require the Board to implement the remainder of the act without providing the public with advance notice and the opportunity to comment, which could lead to unintended consequences,” Bernanke wrote no fax payday loan.

Bernanke also said that some financial institutions, particularly smaller institutions, may have difficulty adjusting their systems and business models to implement the rules more quickly.

“Board staff understands that many small institutions (such as community banks and credit unions) rely heavily on third-party vendors to adjust their systems and that these vendors are currently overwhelmed by the demand from all the institutions they service,” he wrote.

The Fed chairman said card issuers “must be afforded sufficient time for implementation to allow for an orderly transition and to avoid unintended consequences, compliance difficulties and potential liabilities.”

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

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Half a million people are now in trial modifications under the Obama administration’s mortgage rescue plan, but getting them permanent help is proving to be difficult.

The foreclosure prevention plan, which reduces eligible borrowers’ monthly payments to no more than 31% of their pre-tax income, requires homeowners to make three on-time monthly payments before they can receive a permanent modification.

Loan servicers use the trial period to verify borrowers’ income and ascertain whether they can handle the reduced payments.

But servicers say they are having a tough time collecting the necessary documents to determine whether troubled borrowers should receive permanent adjustments. They contend that some homeowners aren’t sending in their tax returns, bank statements and pay stubs. Borrowers, on the other hand, complain that their paperwork is being lost.

The Obama administration recently made several changes to the program to give the transactions more time and streamline the plan.

Last month, it extended the trial period by two months to give servicers more time to collect the documents. And last week, it announced that servicers could automatically move qualified borrowers into permanent modifications without their signatures.

The Treasury Department said these moves should make it easier for qualified borrowers to get permanent modifications, according to a spokeswoman. Officials are discussing ways to make it even easier, she said, including allowing servicers to access tax records directly from the Internal Revenue Service.

It is in servicers’ interest to convert eligible borrowers since they only get incentive payments when the modification is made permanent, the Treasury spokeswoman said. Plus, if the government finds institutions to have wrongly deny swaths of people, it could impose penalties.

"Treasury is also working intently with servicers to help ensure that they execute in helping more borrowers convert to permanent modifications," she said.

Who’s to blame?

Servicers say they are wrestling with getting the completed documents they need to put borrowers in permanent modifications.

At JPMorgan Chase, for instance, representatives call and send letters to homeowners detailing what they still need to mail in. The bank says it has improved its system for collecting paperwork so that lost documents are not the problem. The issue, it says, is that homeowners are simply not sending in what’s required.

"At first blush, you’d think that for people who’ve made three payments, it would be a no-brainer to get the paperwork in," said Tom Kelly, a Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) spokesman. "But for some people, it just hasn’t been the case."

A Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) spokesman also said the documentation process has been challenging.

But many borrowers and housing counselors contend that homeowners send in their documents multiple times, only to be told their files are incomplete. This has been a problem that’s plagued the program from the beginning.

On top of that, housing counselors report that banks are sending homeowners forms with the wrong income data listed, which could jeopardize their chances of getting a permanent modification.

One homeowner’s problem

Many borrowers are growing increasingly nervous as they near the end of their trial modification periods with no decision from their servicers.

Jim Copley, a Minneapolis homeowner, was given a trial modification five months ago. He found he could no longer afford his $1,650 monthly payments after the housing collapse decimated his home-painting business.

After receiving a temporary adjustment that cut his payments to $955 a month, Copley sent his servicer, Bank of America, all the required income documentation in June. He was shocked to learn two months later that there was some paperwork missing. He called again and was told that his file was, in fact, complete and that he should continue making reduced payments until he was told otherwise.

"Every time I talk with them, I get a different story," said Copley, a single dad who now makes a third of his previous income selling meat to restaurants. "No matter what I do, I can’t get any kind of an answer."

A Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) spokeswoman said that Copley’s file is complete and that he should receive a decision about a permanent modification soon.

It remains to be seen how many people will qualify for permanent modifications.

"If the trial modifications don’t convert to permanent modifications, then the program won’t be considered a success," said Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America.

Have you turned into a saver because of the recession? How have your saving and spending habits changed? Please email your stories to CNNMoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

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The U.K. economy will grow twice as fast as previously forecast next year as the country pulls out of the worst recession in a generation, Ernst & Young LLP’s Item Club said.

Gross domestic product will increase 1 percent in 2010, compared with a 0.5 percent forecast in July, the researchers, who use the same model as the U.K. Treasury, said in a statement in London today. The estimate for 2009 was lowered to a 4.5 percent contraction from a 4.4 percent drop.

The Bank of England will assess the progress of its 175 billion-pound ($286 billion) program to buy bonds with newly created money as the interest rate-setting panel produces economic forecasts in November. Britain probably escaped recession in the third quarter after five quarters of contraction, a Bloomberg News survey shows.

“The outlook for the next 12 months is certainly looking more positive than the last year but it is going to be a bumpy ride,” said Peter Spencer, chief economist at the Item Club and a former U.K. Treasury official. “There could still be substantial pain.”

Gross domestic product rose 0.2 percent in the July- September period, the first increase in six quarters, according to the median of 33 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. From a year earlier, output dropped 4.6 percent, the survey showed. The Office for National Statistics will release the data on Oct. 23.

The central bank’s program to kick start the economy, so- called quantitative easing, has been “disappointing,” Spencer said. Deputy Governor Charles Bean said Oct. 13 that the bond purchases had bolstered asset prices and confidence.

‘Disappointing’ Results

“The revival in capital markets has been helped by the cash infusions from QE, but apart from that the results have been disappointing,” Spencer said. “The QE cash and low interest payments are being seen as an opportunity to pay down debt rather than spend, hindering economic recovery.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, trailing in opinion polls with an election due by June, said Oct. 12 that it’s too early to withdraw economic stimulus. His government has pledged to halve the budget deficit within four years. The spending gap will touch 12 percent of GDP this year, the Treasury forecasts.

A reduction in value-added tax and a partial holiday on stamp duty, a tax levied on home purchases, are set to expire next year. The government has planned to increase Britons’ social security contributions.

“Policy will begin to tighten in early-2010,” Spencer said. “But these measures only provide a fraction of the extra income needed to close the government deficit. Whoever forms the next government faces a once in a generation challenge.”

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Labor market, manufacturing and consumer price data released on Thursday portrayed the U.S. economy as steadily emerging from a protracted recession, with inflation under control.

The number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, while consumer prices rose slightly in September and New York state factory activity perked up this month.

“Skeptics of the recovery found no friendly economic indicators today. They all point to an economy that is starting to grow again while inflation remains dormant,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at The Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, New Jersey.

In a report that pointed to scant inflation pressure but some easing in the downward momentum on prices, the Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.2 percent last month after increasing 0.4 percent in August.

The department also said initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 10,000 to 514,000 last week, a second straight weekly drop that hinted at some easing in the pace of layoffs.

A third report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed a gauge of New York state manufacturing activity rising unexpectedly to its highest in five years on surging new orders, shipments and employment.

Stocks on Wall Street ended higher as investors overcame their disappointment over quarterly results from Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average closed above 10,000 for a second day. .N

DEFLATION RISKS EASING?

Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said this week an enormous amount of economic slack was likely to keep prices under pressure, and core prices have been trending lower even though the headline CPI already appears to have bottomed out.

See: here

“Today’s figures won’t shift the argument about inflation risks at the Fed. They don’t show deflation, but nor do they show sufficient inflation pressures to make the doves want to tighten soon,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

A Reuters poll of economists released on Thursday indicated the Fed would likely hold interest rates at their current level near zero at least until the middle of next year.

Consumer prices last month were restrained by food and housing costs. Compared to September a year ago, prices were down 1.3 percent, with the food index declining from a year earlier for the first time in 42 years.

Stripping out volatile energy and food prices, the closely watched core measure of inflation also rose 0.2 percent.

A 0.4 percent increase in new vehicle prices following the expiration of the popular “cash for clunkers” program contributed to the rise. The program, which pushed down car prices by 1.3 percent in August, had offered discounts to consumers who traded in old gas-guzzling cars for new, fuel-efficient ones. 

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The U.S. Treasury Department is pushing American International Group to cut big pay incentives it claims were needed to keep staff, but which have stoked a controversy over pay at taxpayer-supported firms.

Treasury’s “pay czar” has informed AIG management that some portion of the “total of $198 million should be reduced,” according to a report prepared by a watchdog agency for the government’s $700 billion financial bailout fund.

The report from the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program says Treasury official Kenneth Feinberg has not specified the amount by which retention payments should be reduced. It is unclear whether he can compel AIG to lower them.

Feinberg, a Washington lawyer, is supervising pay practices at seven companies, including AIG, that received extraordinary government assistance.

AIG became a focal point for congressional and public anger over pay practices at government-supported financial firms when it was revealed in March that it was offering millions of dollars in “retention payments” to employees.

The report said the payments were “consistent with the law in place at the time the payments were made,” but noted that after the public outcry about them, AIG asked for a voluntary return of part of the awards.

It said only a partial collection of the repayments asked for has been received.

The report implies that the Treasury Department should have been more attentive to AIG’s pay practices, but gives Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner a green light by saying his staff did not keep him adequately informed about an AIG plan to hand out bonus payments.

However, a source familiar with the audit said auditors only questioned New York Federal Reserve staff who were on site at AIG and did not interview Geithner or anyone in the reporting chain up through the New York Fed.

An e-mail to TARP’s special inspector seeking comment was not immediately answered.

The SIGTARP report said: “Treasury invested $40 billion of taxpayer funds in AIG, designed AIG’s contractual executive compensation restrictions and helped manage the government’s majority stake in AIG for several months, all without having any detailed information about the scope of AIG’s very substantial, and very controversial, executive compensation obligations.”

It said that represented “a missed opportunity to avoid the explosively controversial events and created considerable public and Congressional concern” about the payments.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Diane Craft and Jan Paschal)

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