U.S. markets close lower Thursday

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. markets retreated from early gains Thursday despite first-time jobless claims dropping for the second consecutive week.

The Labor Department said there were 12,000 fewer initial claims in the week ending Sept. 12. In the previous week, the Labor Department reported 26,000 fewer initial claims.

U.S. markets have closed higher in eight of the last 10 trading sessions. By close Thursday, the numbers were slightly down.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed off 0.08 percent, 7.79 points, to 9,783.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 0.31 percent, 3.27 points, to 1,065.49. The Nasdaq composite index shed 6.40 points, 0.3 percent, to 2,126.75.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,338 stocks advanced and 1,704 declined on a volume of 6.6 billion shares traded.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury rose 25/32 to yield 3.384 percent.

The euro rose to $1.4735 from Wednesday's $1.4731. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 91.05 yen from Wednesday's 90.81 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index added 173.03 points, 1.68 percent, to 10,443.80.

In London, the FTSE 100 index rose 0.78 percent, 39.82 points, to 5,163.95.

Forbes unimpressed with economic policies

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. magazine publisher Steve Forbes said the $787 billion Recovery Act pushed a Democratic agenda, but has done little to stimulate the economy.

"It was really just an excuse to take a lot of programs that the Democrats had in Congress, to take them off the shelf and pass them under the rubric of the emergency," Forbes told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an interview.

"There hasn't been much spending," Forbes said, the newspaper reported Thursday.

Forbes said the tax rebates provided in the bill "are just one-shots and don't do any sustainable good." The billions spent helping the automotive industry also had little economic benefit, he said.

After its reorganization, General Motors Co. would be down to 38,000 workers, Forbes said. With billions spent to prop up GM and Chrysler, "this was just a payoff to unions -- nothing to do with stabilizing the economy," he said.

Forbes was also unimpressed with the tariff on Chinese tires announced by President Barack Obama.

"The idea that we're going to compete with China by slapping tariffs on tires and stuff like that is preposterous,'" he said.

Star Tribune bankruptcy could end soon

NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A federal judge in New York approved a debt-for-equity swap that could pull the Minneapolis Star Tribune out of bankruptcy despite having no publisher.

A steering committee has yet to chose a new chief executive officer/publisher, the Star Tribune reported Thursday.

Judge Robert Drain, however, approved the swap that would give creditors ownership of the 142-year-old newspaper.

Creditors agreed to swap $430 million in debt for ownership and $100 million in new debt.

The new owners include Angelo Gordon & Co., a private equity in New York, Wayzata Investment Partners, Credit Suisse and CIT Bank.

In 2007, Avista Capital Partners borrowed extensively to purchase the Star Tribune from McClatchy Co. for $530 million, the newspaper said. In recent years, advertising revenues for newspapers have plummeted as advertising dollars have been moving to the Internet.

Madoff beach house sells for $8.75 million

MONTOUK, N.Y., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff's ocean front home in Montauk, N.Y., has been sold for $8.75 million, a real estate agent said Thursday.

The deal for the 3,000-square-foot house should close "in a couple of weeks," Corcoran Group real estate agent Joan Hegner told The New York Times.

"We have fully signed contracts," she said.

The United States Marshals Service confirmed the sale, but declined an invitation to reveal the name of the home's future owner.

The Federal Marshals Service has also listed for sale Madoff's two-story penthouse apartment in New York City, his Palm Beach, Fla., home and his yachts.

Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud and was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Proceeds from the property sales will go to compensate victims in the Ponzi scheme who collectively lost an estimated $65 billion.

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