Here is a look at some of Tuesday's top business stories:
Fed seen holding target rate steady
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider interest rates, with most economists expecting no change in either rates or the Fed's policy stance.
CNN reported Tuesday that the Fed funds target rate is likely to remain at its 40-year low of 1.25 percent. Further, "policy-makers are unlikely to change the wording of the policy statement that announces their decision."
Such statements give indications of the Fed's economic thinking and affect the markets, even when rates aren't changed.
Last month's meeting yielded a larger than expected, 50 basis-point cut in the Fed funds target rate -- the Fed's first rate action this year. Last year, there were a record 11 cuts, some made between scheduled meetings.
An economic stimulus plan from the White House -- reported to be $300 billion -- means the Fed "will be reluctant to risk fueling future runaway inflation by slashing rates at the same time," CNN said.
Bush to meet with incoming Brazilian leader
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Brazil's leftist president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is to meet President George W. Bush on Tuesday and will tell the U.S. leader that his "socially minded" economic approach won't disrupt relations with foreign investors.
The visit by Lula, as he is popularly known, is seen as "an opportunity for the former hard-line leftist to fortify his new image as a matured leader capable of taming a brewing economic crisis," the Washington Post reports Tuesday. Lula takes office on Jan. 1.
The economy is facing many difficulties: foreign debt stands at about $230 billion, the currency is down about 40 percent against the dollar this year, and poverty is widespread. And just three weeks before Lula takes office, several key economic posts are unfilled.
Lula is expected to differ with Bush on several key issues, especially free trade and Washington's planned Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Report: List narrows in search for new SEC head
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- All the economic attention for the past few days has been focused on the Treasury, but the search continues for a new leader for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Wall Street Journal reports Tuesday that there is no clear favorite, but at least one new name has emerged: Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Linnet Deily. She is also the country's ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
Advisers to President George W. Bush have considered about half a dozen candidates to succeed Chairman Harvey Pitt, who resigned on Nov. 5 but is remaining at the SEC until his successor is in place.
The Journal quotes "people close to the White House" as saying that Deily is receiving "serious consideration" for the SEC post. She's a former official of financial services firm Charles Schwab Corp. and served on the University of Texas board of regents, to which she was appointed by Bush when he was governor of the state.
Also being considered are Peter Fisher, a U.S. Treasury official; Robert Glauber, the chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers and Stephen Hammerman, deputy commissioner of legal affairs for the New York City Police Department.
U.S. Treasury to propose new pension rules
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The Treasury Department is to propose on Tuesday new rules allowing employers to resume converting traditional pension plans to new "cash balance" plans, which can lower benefits to long-serving workers.
The Washington Post, reporting Tuesday on the proposal, said that such conversions "are highly controversial. Critics contend that they discriminate against older workers in violation of federal law."
Traditional "defined benefit" plans determine pension payments based on the final years of employment, when salaries are often higher, especially for those who have had a long career with a particular employer.
In cash-balance plans, companies create accounts for workers and credit a percentage of pay to it annually. Such plans tend to help short-term workers, who get better pensions in such companies than under a "defined benefit" plan.
The Post quotes a Watson Wyatt survey, which found that 33 percent of the companies in the Fortune 100 offer cash-balance pension plans vs. just one company in 1985.
There's been a moratorium on such conversions for three years, after the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service stopped approving them following complaints by workers and some members of Congress.
The new regulations, the Post said, "conclude that cash-balance plans are not inherently age-discriminatory, as long as pay credits earned by older workers are the same as or better than those earned by younger workers. But the rules would require that benefits earned by workers under the previous plan be protected."
There will be a 90-day comment period and an IRS hearing on the proposals.
Phone-maker Nokia restates 4Q sales estimate
HELSINKI, Finland, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Telecommunications equipment maker Nokia Corp. said Tuesday that overall mobile phone demand was in line with expectations and it remains confident in its 400 million handset global volume estimate for 2002.
But in a scheduled mid-quarter statement to the Helsinki Stock Exchange, it said that while handset sales were "seasonally strong," they "have tended toward the mass-volume end of the product portfolio in the lead up to the holiday season."
As a result, fourth-quarter group sales were likely to reach $8.8 billion to $9 billion, which would be "at the lower end or slightly below earlier sales guidance."
Final figures for the fourth quarter and the full year are to be released on Jan. 23.
Nokia is the world's largest cell phone maker with about 40 percent of the market.
