UPI NewsTrack Business

U.S. markets turn up Monday morning

NEW YORK, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. markets turned higher Monday morning, following an upswing in Asia that may mark containment of worries over a debt crisis in Dubai.

Dubai World said Wednesday it would need to restructure $59 billion in debt. The sum is slightly larger than the bailout package supplied to General Motors Co., but the firm represents the investment activity of Dubai. The crisis sparked worries that other nations would be in default when massive debt payments came due.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.31 percent, 31.74 points, to 10,341.66, falling to 10,275.46 by noon. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.31 percent, 3.35, to 1,094.84, falling to 1,086.45 by noon. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.04 percent, 0.80, to 2,139.24, falling to 2,124.01 by noon.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 8/32 to yield 3.234 percent.

The euro rose to $1.5029 from Friday's $1.4967. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 86.51 yen from Friday's 86.58 yen.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index rose 2.91 percent, 264.03, to 9,345.55.

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Dubai stable on central bank assurances

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Markets may have overreacted to news Dubai World would seek to delay repayment of its estimated $60 billion in debt, debt-watchers said.

The pre-Thanksgiving U.S. Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.47 percent and London's FTSE froze trading due to technical problems following Wednesday's government announcement of restructuring of Dubai World, saying it intends to ask all providers of financing to "stand still" and extend maturities until May 30.

The holiday weekend seems to have dampened initial concerns.

The central UAE bank said Monday it will make additional liquidity available to local banks as needed, two UAE banks have subscribed to $5 billion in a bond issue, and HSBC chief executive officer Michael Geoghegan said the bank is "confident" Dubai and the UAE "will overcome any short-term issues they face."

"It's been a 'hate-Dubai week,'" Emirates' Group and Airlines Vice Chairman Maurice Flanagan told the Gulf News. "I'm confident Dubai will steer out of the situation soon and there will be sensible news coverage."

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MGM gambles on $8.5B Vegas project

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Las Vegas is betting an already-troubled $8.5 billion resort complex will bring customers and tourists back to the recession-ravaged Strip, officials say.

The recession and collapse of credit markets nearly killed the CityCenter project, an "urban metropolis" of hotels, condos and shopping venues, before it got off the ground, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Sunday.

The project's budget has nearly doubled and it almost bankrupted MGM Mirage, the group behind the project.

Financial problems have plagued the project, intended to be a jewel in the center of the historic Strip, since construction began in 2006, the newspaper said.

But an adviser to MGM Mirage thinks the public looks forward to the opening of CityCenter.

"Consumers coming back to Las Vegas are going to hear about this $8.5 billion thing that is supposed to be incredible from a design perspective that they need to look at," Bill Lerner of Union Gaming Group said.

The first CityCenter component to open, the Vdara hotel, will accept its first guests on Dec. 1. A dining, retail and entertainment district opens on Dec. 3, and the Mandarin Oriental hotel and condominium tower will follow on Dec. 5. Other hotels, condominiums, restaurants and shops will open in the first months of 2010, MGM Mirage said.

And Las Vegas is waiting to see if the gamble pays off. "Frankly, everything that has happened in Las Vegas over the years has been a leap of faith," one longtime observer of the gaming industry said. "CityCenter is no different."

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Street-corner job seekers increase

LOS ANGELES, Ark., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Labor experts said an increasing number of laid off U.S. workers are joining ranks of illegal immigrants seeking work on street corners.

Especially with construction work scarce, more and more laborers are loitering near home improvement stores and at busy intersections, hoping an employer will drive by and offer a job for the day, USA Today reported Monday.

"You had many, many unemployed construction workers who found themselves without any permanent or stable work. Some of them have gone on to seek employment by standing on street corners alongside immigrant workers," said Abel Valenzuela Jr., a professor of urban planning at University of California, Los Angeles.

Valenzuela said laborers born in the United States made up 7 percent of the estimated 117,600 laborers who looked for work daily by standing on conspicuous street corners in 2006.

He estimated their numbers have doubled since.

"When unemployment benefits run out, I expect to see more," laborers waiting for jobs in public places, said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network.