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Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. led Arizona stocks in 2009 riding a wave of increasing metals prices for a gain of more than 200 percent.

Three other companies posted triple digit gains in 2009, according to the Phoenix Business Journal’s analysis that runs from Dec. 31, 2008, to Dec. 18, 2009. Six of the 21 billion-dollar companies posted a decline during the year, which saw stock indexes begin to climb out of their recession low in March.

As for 2010, analysts predict all of the top five and bottom five companies will see an improved bottom line, however, equipment rental firm RSC Holdings and US Airways Group are expected to remain in the red. No estimates were available for Mesa Air Group, which has struggled with the recession as well as a contract dispute with Delta Airlines.

Over the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 18 percent from 8,776 to 10,329. The Nasdaq Composite gained 40 percent closing at 2,122 Dec. 18.

Click here to see how Arizona’s billion-dollar companies performed for the fourth quarter of 2009. Click here to see performance since December of 2007, when the recession took hold, which significantly changes the fortunes for Freeport and some of the other top companies.

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Consumer spending in the U.S. probably rose in November for the sixth time in seven months as households took advantage of holiday discounting.

Purchases increased 0.7 percent for a second consecutive month, according to the median estimate of 72 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The report may also show incomes grew by the most in six months. Confidence and new-home sales probably also climbed, other reports may show.

Retailers such as Best Buy Co. are cutting prices on some items to help Americans overcome the worst employment slump in the post-World War II era and mounting foreclosures. Growing sales indicate consumers will contribute to, rather than hold back, the economic expansion in coming months.

“The U.S. consumer is mounting a comeback.,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. “Despite a 10 percent unemployment rate, credit restrictions and political uncertainty, spending is growing again.”

The Commerce Department’s report is due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent.

The report may also show incomes rose 0.5 percent last month, the biggest gain since May, according to the survey median. Estimates ranged from increases of 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent.

Auto dealers are among retailers seeing demand improve long after the government’s so called cash-for-clunkers plan expired. Cars and light trucks sold at a 10.9 million unit annual pace last month, up from a 10.5 million pace in October. Sales slumped in September, the month after the trade-in incentive ended.

More Discounting

Best Buy, the largest U.S. electronics retailer, is promoting notebook computers and $299 flat-screen televisions to lure consumers. As a result, the Richfield, Minnesota-based company will see its gross margin decline by as much as 1 percentage point in the fourth quarter, Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn said on a Dec. 15 conference call with analysts.

The labor market remains a hurdle. The jobless rate is projected to exceed 10 percent through the first half of next year. Payrolls fell by 11,000 last month, bringing total job losses to 7.2 million since the recession began in December 2007, the most of any contraction since the Great Depression.

Consumer Confidence

Stock-market gains are boosting optimism among Americans. The Reuters/University of Michigan final reading on consumer sentiment for December, due about 10 a.m., is projected to climb to 73.8, its highest level since January 2008.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index yesterday closed at the highest level in almost 15 months after existing home sales in November topped forecasts. The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously owned houses rose 7.4 percent from the prior month to an annual pace of 6.54 million, the highest level in almost three years.

Another report from the Commerce Department today, due at 10 a.m., is forecast to show purchases of new homes rose 1.9 percent to a 438,000 annual pace last month, the highest level since August 2008, according to the survey median.

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The Toronto stock market ended Friday in negative territory as weakness in base metals and materials edged out gold and better-than-expected earnings from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed 9.66 points lower to 11,463.40 in a volatile session that slipped into the red during the final hour on high volume trading.

The Canadian dollar was ahead 0.38 of a cent to 93.81 cents (U.S.)

Pulling the index lower was weakness in the base metals sector, which fell 1.4 per cent with HudBay Minerals down nearly 9 per cent to $12.83 (Canadian).

The materials sector also dropped 0.8 per cent with shares in Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan 6 per cent lower to $112.00 on concerns about potash prices.

Soleil Securities downgraded the company’s stock to "sell" from "hold" on weakening prices, particularly in China.

On the upside, gold stocks were up 0.9 per cent as the February bullion contract closed $4.10 (U.S.) higher to $1,111.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The TSX energy sector slipped 0.9 per cent as reports surfaced from the Iraqi government that an oil well had been taken over by a group of armed Iranians. The February crude contract gained 34 cents to close at $74 personal loan for poor credit.42, while the less active January contract ended 71 cents higher to $73.36.

RIM, a heavyweight on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index, was ahead 10 per cent after managing to beat expectations in an earnings report issued after the closing bell Thursday. The TSX Venture Exchange was up 9.05 to 1,430.20.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials rose 20.63 points to 10,328.89. The Nasdaq composite index was up 31.64 points to 2,211.69, while the S&P 500 index increased 6.31 points to 1,102.39.

Statistics Canada said wholesale sales edged up 0.3 per cent to $41.1 billion (Canadian) in October, the fourth increase in five months.

Drugmaker Patheon said its fourth-quarter earnings were $4.6 million, down from a year-ago profit of $37.3 million. The Canadian company’s shares rose five cents to $2.47.

Bombardier Transportation signed a $138 million contract with a Chinese rail company to provide metro cars and training. Its shares closed up five cents at $4.78.

From the Star’s wire services

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EVERETT, Wash. — Boeing’s new 787 jetliner finally got airborne Tuesday, the long-delayed inaugural flight of the world’s first commercial plane constructed with half its components made from lightweight composite materials.

The jet lifted off from Everett’s Paine Field on a flight over Washington state, beginning an extensive testing program needed to obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification.

The two-member crew performed a variety of basic system checks before landing at Seattle’s Boeing Field about three hours later.

Deteriorating weather brought the plane back about an hour earlier than planned, but company spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the pilots managed to test the landing gear and flaps.

The plane is the first of six 787s Boeing will use in the nine-month flight-test program that will subject the planes to conditions well beyond those found in normal airline service.

Chicago-based Boeing, which has orders for 840 of the jets, plans the first delivery to Japan’s All Nippon Airways late next year.

The 787 is a radical departure in aircraft design. Where other passenger jets are made mostly from aluminum and titanium, about half of the 787 is made of lightweight composite materials such as carbon fiber payday loan lenders.

Those materials have long been used on individual parts such as rudders, and on military planes, but the 787 is the most ambitious use of the technology aboard a passenger plane.

Boeing says the aircraft will be quieter, produce lower emissions and use 20 percent less fuel than comparable planes, while giving passengers a more comfortable cabin with better air quality and larger windows.

Boeing has relied on suppliers to build huge sections of the plane, which are later assembled in Everett. But that approach so far has proved problematic, with ill-fitting parts and other glitches hampering production.

The first flight was supposed to be in 2007. Boeing was forced to push that back five times — delays that have cost the company credibility, sales and billions of dollars.

The version being tested will be able to fly up to 250 passengers about 9,000 miles. A stretch version will be capable of carrying 290 passengers and a short-range model up to 330.

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Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle on Monday released two lists of judicial nominees given to her by the Judicial Selection Commission to fill one vacancy each on the state Intermediate Court of Appeals and 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu.

The nominees for associate judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals are Sabrina S. McKenna, 1st Circuit Court judge; Steven M. Nakashima, partner, Marr Jones & Wang; Karen T. Nakasone, deputy public defender in Honolulu; Lawrence M. Reifurth, director of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; and Michael K. Tanigawa, adjunct professor, Kapiolani Community College.

The nominees for circuit judge in Honolulu are R saving account pay day loan. Mark Browning, district family court judge; Colette Y. Garibaldi, district judge; Ed Kubo Jr., former U.S. Attorney; Lanson K. Kupau, partner, Kobayashi Sugita & Goda; Steven M. Nakashima, partner, Marr, Jones & Wang; and Dean E. Ochiai, vice president and managing attorney, First Insurance Company of Hawaii.

Lingle has 30 days to make her choice, which still must be confirmed by the state Senate.

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Russia’s economic decline abated in the third quarter as companies began restocking inventories depleted during a record slump in the first half of the year.

Gross domestic product fell 8.9 percent from a year earlier, in line with the government’s estimate, after a 10.9 percent contraction in the second quarter, the State Statistics Service said on its Web site today. On the quarter, output grew a non-seasonally adjusted 13.8 percent.

“The model of economic development has rapidly changed,” said Anton Struchenevsky, an economist at Troika Dialog in Moscow. “Investors are much more sensitive to risk. The euphoric component has gone and this is impeding lending. There is a slight improvement, but it would be a great illusion to think we will return to the pace of growth we had before the crisis.”

The plunge in output is slowing in Russia after the government pumped $26 billion of stimulus into the economy in the first 10 months and oil prices rebounded from the start of the year. President Dmitry Medvedev has called the country’s dependence on oil “humiliating,” even as it pushes the economy toward a 1.6 percent expansion in 2010 after a forecast 8.5 percent drop this year.

Almost 9 percentage points of the 10.4 percent plunge in output in the first half was because of “a massive inventory adjustment,” says Martin Gilman, former head of the Moscow office of the International Monetary Fund, and OAO Gazprom, the world’s No. 1 gas producer, accounted for most of the slump. European consumers tapped stored gas as the delayed effect of dearer oil drove up gas prices earlier this year.

Worst Performance

Russia’s economy is the worst performer among the so-called BRIC group of emerging markets that include Brazil, China and India.

The ruble strengthened 1.3 percent to 30.0150 against the dollar at 1:01 p.m. in Moscow. The currency gained 1.2 percent versus the euro to 44.2867. Russian stocks pared gains after the report, up 0.3 percent to 1308.97 at 1.02 p.m., after earlier rising as much as 0.9 percent.

Gazprom said last month that sales volumes to Europe and other export markets fell 24 percent in the first half from a year earlier as the economic slowdown eroded demand. Since July, Gazprom’s exports were higher than in the same periods of 2007 and 2008, the company said.

‘Major Driver’

“A major driver of Russia’s sharp contraction was the inventory correction and we are seeing the end of that,” said Vladimir Osakovsky, an economist at UniCredit Bank in Moscow, before the data was released payday loans. “Any improvement in Russia’s overall economic performance is linked to this process.”

The price of Urals crude oil has rebounded 70 percent this year as global demand for commodities recovered. Energy, including oil and gas, accounts for about 70 percent of Russia’s export earnings.

The recovery may be slow. Nine interest rate cuts since April failed to spur bank lending and rekindle growth in industry and a slump in manufacturing deepened last month after export demand sagged.

VTB Capital’s Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 49.1 from 49.6 in October. The index, which is based on a survey of 300 purchasing executives, in September rose above 50, signaling the industry’s first expansion in 14 months.

Output Contraction

A contraction in industrial output accelerated in October to 11.2 percent from 9.5 in the previous month, the statistics service said last month.

“Industry hasn’t returned to stable growth,” Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said this week. “There are still problems.”

Lenders’ corporate loan books fell 0.5 percent in October, after declining 0.7 percent in September, according to data published on the central bank’s Web site Dec. 3. Lending to consumers dropped 0.7 percent for a ninth consecutive monthly decline.

The contraction this year may have been as much as 3 percentage points deeper without anti-crisis spending, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said on Dec. 10. The economy will probably shrink between 8.5 percent and 8.7 percent this year, he said.

As of Nov. 1, the government had spent 784 billion rubles ($26 billion) of 1.14 trillion rubles earmarked for stimulus measures, Deputy Finance Minister Tatiana Nesterenko said the same day.

Next year “there will be growth, but it will be growth after a big fall,” Kudrin said. The recovery will be complicated as governments retract stimulus programs and raise interest rates. “In the next two to three years this will be a factor that increases the cost of money and slows growth.”

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The euro is poised to decline to a three-month low of $1.4446, Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd. said, citing trading patterns.

The 16-nation currency, which climbed to a one-year high of $1.5144 last month, has entered a near-term downtrend as the spot price has fallen below its 60-day moving average, said Tsuyoshi Okada, managing director at the research unit of Japan’s largest foreign-exchange margin dealer in Tokyo.

“The charts are now showing signs of change for the euro, and herald an end of its rising trend,” Okada said. “Should the decline of the euro gain traction, the immediate target will be mid-$1.46 and the next target will be the $1.4446 level.”

The euro traded at $1.4732 as of 9:34 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.4732 yesterday in New York. The currency has declined 2 no fax cash advance.7 percent since reaching a 15-month high on Nov. 25.

The single currency last traded below $1.4446 on Sept. 8. “This level has served as a key resistance level for the euro’s rising trend that began early this year and lasted until August,” Okada said. A resistance level is where sell orders may be clustered.

The euro’s 60-day moving average was $1.4844 yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The currency remained above the average from Aug. 19 until Dec. 4.

In technical analysis, investors and analysts study chart of trading patterns and prices to forecast price changes in a security, commodity, currency or index.

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Sales at U.S. retailers probably rose in November for the third time in the past four months, a sign consumer spending will sustain growth into 2010, economists said before a government report this week.

Purchases climbed 0.7 percent after a 1.4 percent gain the prior month, according to the median estimate of 62 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before Commerce Department figures on Dec. 11. Other reports may show the trade gap widened in October and consumers grew more confident this month.

Gains in sales show American households have survived the worst employment slump in the postwar era and are poised to join in the emerging expansion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the labor market is moving closer to a period of job creation instead of losses, which may give the economy an additional lift early next year.

“Job gains are in sight,” said Ken Mayland, president ClearView Economics LLC in Pepper Pike, Ohio. “With employment increases, we can expect people to begin buying some more homes, cars, appliances, etc.”

A Labor Department report last week showed the economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, the smallest decline since the start of the recession in December 2007. The jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 10 percent from 10.2 percent.

The report showed “progress, but not good enough,” Geithner said in a Dec. 4 interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.”

Geithner on Economy

“The key test is when you see companies across the country starting to create jobs and add to payrolls,” Geithner said. “We’re getting closer to that point — that’s the important thing. The economy is now growing and growth seems to be gradually strengthening.”

Auto sales are improving even after the federal “cash- for-clunkers” incentives ended in late August.

General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC all posted November sales that beat analysts’ estimates. The seasonally adjusted sales rate was 10.9 million vehicles, up from 10.45 million in October, according to industry figures released last week.

Excluding automobiles, retail sales probably rose 0.4 percent after a 0.2 percent increase the prior month, according to the Bloomberg survey. A gain would be the fourth straight.

Holiday shoppers are turning out. Sales on Black Friday and the weekend after Thanksgiving advanced 0.5 percent as discounts on electronics and toys drew budget-conscious crowds, according to the National Retail Federation.

Electronics Sales

Best Buy Co., the biggest electronics chain, had bigger early-morning crowds than last year, said Brian Dunn, chief executive officer and president of the Eden Prairie, Minnesota- based company. He said shoppers would continue to see discounted pricing into the year-end holidays.

“You’re going to see great values throughout the holiday selling season,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Nov. 27.

TJX Corporation Inc. reported sales up 15 percent in the four weeks ended Nov. 28 from a year earlier. The operator of T.J. Maxx and other low-priced apparel retailers forecasts strong sales through the end of the year.

“We are confident in our momentum,” said Carol Meyrowitz, chief executive officer of TJX, said in a statement on Dec. 3.

Gaining Confidence

The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment for December probably rose to 69 from 67.4 a month earlier, according to the Bloomberg survey before the Dec. 11 release.

The economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter following four quarters of contraction that marked the deepest recession since the 1930s. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg early last month forecast growth will accelerate to 3 percent in the current quarter.

The recovery is spurring demand for imports. That probably caused the trade deficit to widen to $37 billion in October from $36.5 billion in September, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg before the Dec. 10 report from the Commerce Department. The collapse in trade earlier this year brought the deficit down to a near-decade low of $26.4 billion in May.

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DETROIT–General Motors Co. chairman Ed Whitacre Jr. urged the troubled automaker’s employees to forget their old bureaucratic culture, telling them Friday not to fear being fired for taking risks.

Whitacre, who also announced key management changes, wants to speed up the automaker’s shift to an entrepreneurial culture where decisions are made quickly.

"We want you to step up. We don’t want any bureaucracy,” Whitacre told employees, strolling back and forth across a stage at the company’s headquarters.

"We’re not going to make it if you won’t take a risk," he told the audience of 800.

In a 45-minute presentation that was broadcast to employees on internal television networks and over the Internet, Whitacre also unveiled a mission statement to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles.

Whitacre, who peppered his address with self-deprecating humour, named vice-chairman Bob Lutz, who has long advocated for a more risk-taking culture, as his adviser for product development.

Whitacre also said he is recombining sales and marketing, placing them under Susan Docherty no faxing payday loans.

She became head of sales when former CEO Fritz Henderson separated the roles of sales and marketing. Henderson left the company earlier this week.

Lutz, 77, who had been in charge of marketing, will help Whitacre learn about the business, he said.

In another key move, the chairman, who joined GM in June, promoted engineering chief Mark Reuss to run North American operations. Reuss recently was named head of engineering, and before that ran the company’s Holden operations in Australia.

GM board member Stephen Girsky, a former auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, will also be an adviser to Whitacre.

During his speech, Whitacre set a tone of humility and encouraged employees to give him ideas.

"I’m on the 39th floor of the RenCen. You’re all welcome," he said.

"You’re a terrific bunch of employees. You have our support. Let’s go hit it and make this thing big."

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A key House committee, culminating months of debate over how to reform bank rules, voted Wednesday in favor of legislation that aims to prevent firms from growing too big and threatening the financial system.

The House Financial Services Committee passed the bill by a margin of 31-27 along strict party lines, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. The bill, which proponents consider key to preventing the kinds of problems that caused last year’s crisis, will now move to the full House of Representatives for debate and a vote.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the committee, said Wednesday that he believes the full House will consider and vote on the package next week.

The bill would impose stronger supervision of Wall Street and impose tougher capital requirements for banks, while proposing a new way to take over big firms such as American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500). It also includes legislation to regulate derivatives and create a consumer financial protection agency.

But on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, the bill is moving much more slowly and final passage is likely months away.

Also, the bill faces a potential hangup in the House, as the Congressional Black Congress (CBC) on Wednesday announced its displeasure with the lack of support for minority communities in prior financial sector bailout legislation. The CBC said its support for such bills that do not support minority communities, which were hit particularly hard during the recession, "stops today."

"This particular moment provides an opportunity," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a member of the Financial Services Committee and the CBC. "If we’re going to support this bill, which gives regulators extraordinary powers, we have to make sure those powers will benefit small and minority owned businesses as well."

The House bill creates a new kind of unwinding process for big firms, and forces them adhere to stronger supervision mostly by the Federal Reserve working with an oversight council.

Most observers, including those in the financial industry, agree that government officials didn’t have the right tools to properly manage the failures of insurer AIG and investment bank Lehman Brothers.

The bill would also tax big banks to create a $10 billion fund to pay for government takeovers.

One of the most controversial parts of the House bill is a provision to allow the Government Accountability Office to audit Fed activities. Some fear the proposal would interfere with the central bank’s ability to carry out independent monetary policy online payday loans.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, decried the proposal and one in the Senate bill that aims to strip the Fed of its regulatory powers over banks.

"These measures are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks, and they would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the United States," Bernanke wrote.

House Republicans have generally opposed the "too big to fail" package, because they say it gives government too much power. They would prefer that Congress establish a special bankruptcy process to allow big firms to be liquidated through the court system.

Senate moving slower

The Senate, led by Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn, lags the House in trying to reform financial regulation.

Dodd’s bill, only recently unveiled, includes several far-reaching proposals, such as the creation of a super-regulator for all banks — a move the Fed opposes.

Dodd had also said he wants the Senate Banking committee to start working on his bill next week. But myriad objections to the legislation, coming from both Republicans and fellow Democrats on his committee, has pushed the bill into closed-door negotiations that could last a few weeks.

"Barney Frank will get a bill out of committee and through the House, and it will look pretty similar to what he’s been proposing," said Brookings Institution economist Douglas Elliott, a former J.P. Morgan investment banker. "The bigger wild card is the Senate. It’s not clear whether Sen. Dodd has sufficient level of his support for his ideas."

Additionally, the creation of a consumer financial protection agency, already passed by the House committee, could be a deal-breaker for Senate Republicans. The proposed agency would be charged with ensuring that personal financial products, such as mortgages and credit cards, are fair to consumers.

While the new consumer agency is a White House priority, ranking Republicans in the Senate really don’t like it and could filibuster to prevent it from coming to the floor if their demands aren’t met, Elliott said.

– CNNMoney.com staff writer David Goldman contributed to this story 

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