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Officials say it could take weeks or months before the bodies of the victims of New Zealand’s mining disaster are recovered.

Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said on Thursday the company was determined to recover the remains of 29 men who were declared dead after two explosions deep underground.

But there are still very high levels of potentially explosive gases in the mine that have made it too dangerous for anyone to enter since the first blast last Friday.

Whittall said various options were being considered to make the mine safe but it could take weeks.

Prime Minister John Key said it was possible the operation could take months.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

GREYMOUTH, New Zealand (AP) _ Rescue teams were in full gear and ready to begin searching for 29 missing miners when toxic gas levels suddenly increased touching off an explosion that dashed all hopes of a rescue, a lost miner’s brother and police said Thursday.

Prime Minister John Key declared the disaster a national tragedy, and across New Zealand on Thursday flags flew at half staff and many churches held services for people wanting to show respect for the miners.

Wednesday’s massive explosion deep inside the mine on New Zealand’s South Island came five days after the men were caught underground by a similar blast and only hours after rescuers reported their first progress in the rescue attempt.

A drilling team broke a narrow shaft through to the mine section believed to be holding the missing workers and two robots had crawled their way into the tunnel, providing the first view from inside the mine.

“She was all go,” said Geoff Valli whose brother Keith, 62, perished in the mine. “There was going to be more than one or two (rescuers involved)” in the rescue bid.

“They explained just how close they were to going in. It was bloody scary. It could have been so much worse,” he told National Radio.

But when toxic and explosive gas levels suddenly worsened, the first attempt to enter the mine since last Friday’s initial blast was scrapped.

Even in the unlikely event that any one had survived the first one, police said no one could have lived through the second.

“The blast was prolific,” said police superintendent Gary Knowles, in charge of the rescue operation. “Just as severe as the first blast.”

The grieving families, the company and political leaders have all pledged to retrieve the bodies of the missing men.

Mourning father Laurie Drew was one of those pleading for their retrieval from the mine.

“We are just hoping the conditions for the rescuers will allow them … to recover everything for us. Hopefully it doesn’t drag on too long to get the closure that all the families really need, as well as myself,” he said. His son Zen, 21, died in the disaster.

Pike River Coal chief Peter Whittall pledged to the families that the top priority was recovering the men from the pit no fax payday advance.

“I still want them back and their families want them back and we’ll be doing everything we can to make that happen. My love and support are with those guys,” he said.

Prime Minister Key warned it could take time to recover the 29 bodies as there would have to be efforts to stabilize the mine before people could go in.

“We know there are a number of options being explored to allow the bodies to be removed from the mine,” he said.

Key returned to Greymouth Thursday to meet with the grieving families to give them “comfort and support in probably their darkest hour.”

A series of inquiries, including a formal Commission of Inquiry and police and coroner’s investigations, are being launched into the tragedy over the next few days.

On Wednesday, shortly after the second blast, Whittall told the families a team had been getting ready to go underground _ the families applauded, thinking that a rescue was about to start.

“I had to wait till they stopped clapping to tell them … that the second explosion occurred,” Whittall said afterwards.

Some relatives collapsed. Others shouted at the police in anger.

“It is our darkest day,” said Tony Kokshoorn, the mayor of the nearby town of Greymouth, who was at the meeting.

Assistant police commissioner Grant Nicholls said that before the explosion, plans to enter the mine were in advanced stages.

“We were considering the (gas reading) assessments … as to whether or not a team could go in,” Nicholls said Thursday. “But that was simply not to be.”

Wednesday’s explosion happened with no warning, he said.

The mine was a toxic and explosive environment of carbon monoxide and methane, along with an ignition source that was likely smoldering coal, he noted.

“I can understand that people want to go in and go in quickly, but they are walking into a bomb,” Nicholls told National Radio.

Officials had become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of pulling the men alive from the mine. Nothing had been heard from them since the initial blast.

Whittall said rescue teams were not doing anything that could have set it off, and conditions inside the mine were such it could have happened at any time.

“It was a natural eventuation,” he said. “It could have happened on the second day, it could have happened on the third day.”

It was one of New Zealand’s worst mining disasters. The country’s industry is relatively small compared to other nations and considered generally safe, with 210 deaths in 114 years after the most recent tragedy.

New Zealand’s worst mine disaster was in 1896, when 65 died in a gas explosion at a mine on the same coal seam as the latest tragedy. The most recent was in 1967, when an explosion killed 19 miners in a mine near the Pike River site.

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South Korea began a 24-hour market watch as officials prepared measures to address any financial turmoil in the aftermath of what the government said was North Korean shelling of a border island.

The Bank of Korea held an unscheduled meeting late today in Seoul, and deputies from the BOK and government agencies gather tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. to discuss the market impact and potential countermeasures, the finance ministry said in a statement. Regulators will take preemptive steps if needed, the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service said.

A record stockpile of $293.4 billion in foreign-exchange reserves in October offers officials firepower to help stem any selloff in the nation’s assets. Policy makers have in recent weeks focused on stemming an influx of speculative capital into Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and intervened in the currency market this year as the won rose against the dollar.

“In the past, they’ve been active in both the currency and fixed-income markets to provide support or smoothing operations and it’s possible we could see that again if stress were to intensify,” said Tim Condon, head of Asian research at ING Groep NV in Singapore. “It will depend on North Korea — whether this turns into more than a one-day event.”

South Korea scrambled fighter jets and returned fire after North Korea lobbed dozens of shells into its waters and an island, injuring 14 soldiers, according to the government and YTN reports. Television footage showed smoke billowing from Yeonpyeong island off South Korea’s northwest coast, where the shelling set fire to houses, YTN said.

Won, Swaps

Won forwards dropped the most in more than two years and bond futures fell. The cost of credit-default swaps insuring South Korean government debt from default jumped 17 basis points to 101 basis points as of 6:40 p.m. in Seoul, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc prices.

“We will decide what to do after watching developments,” Yoon Jong Won, director general at the finance ministry in Seoul, said by telephone today. “We’re closely monitoring the financial markets.”

The ministry said in its statement that officials are monitoring markets including credit-default swaps and nondeliverable won forwards, and moves by credit rating agencies and foreign investors low fee payday loans. Finance Minister Yoon Jeung Hyun said the shelling will have a limited impact on the economy, Yonhap news agency reported.

Interest Rates

South Korea’s currency had rallied the past two months as escalating inflation pressures prompted bets the central bank would raise interest rates further. The BOK last week boosted its benchmark by a quarter point to 2.5 percent, and dropped a pledge to keep borrowing costs “accommodative.”

Policy makers also this month took steps to curb foreign inflows of capital blamed in part on monetary stimulus in advanced nations. The government is backing legislation reinstating a 14 percent tax on interest income from treasury and central bank bonds and a 20 percent capital gains levy on their sale.

The security incident “will likely have no small impact on stock, bond and currency markets tomorrow,” BOK Deputy Governor Lee Ju Yeol said at the start of this evening’s emergency session. “We all should closely monitor the financial markets with high alert and be fully prepared to take appropriate action in cooperation with the government when necessary.”

Earlier Incident

Earlier this year, the won recovered from a 10-month low after tensions escalated over the March sinking of a South Korean warship that the government said was caused by North Korea. The nation’s economic rebound from the global recession also continued, with gross domestic product expanding 7.2 percent in the second quarter from a year before.

Governor Kim Choong Soo raised the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by a quarter point from a record-low 2 percent in July. The central bank will probably keep boosting the rate to 3.75 percent by the third quarter of 2011, said Condon at ING.

“Intense political strains with the north would probably mean some change to that forecast,” Condon said. “They might even have to cut rates if things got dire enough, but I’m assuming things don’t get that dire.”

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended his monetary stimulus to fellow central bankers, saying it will aid the world economy, and made some of his strongest criticism of China’s weak-currency policy.

The best way to underpin the dollar and support the global recovery “is through policies that lead to a resumption of robust growth in a context of price stability in the United States,” Bernanke said in a speech in Frankfurt today. Countries that undervalue their currencies may eventually inhibit growth around the world and risk financial instability at home, he said.

The Fed chief is confronting criticism from officials in countries including China and Brazil who say the Nov. 3 decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities has weakened the dollar and contributed to flows of capital to emerging markets. The policy has also come under fire in the U.S., where critics, including Republican members of Congress, have said it risks fueling inflation and asset bubbles.

“Globally, both growth and trade are unbalanced,” Bernanke said. “Because a strong expansion in the emerging- market economies will ultimately depend on a recovery in the more advanced economies, this pattern of two-speed growth might very well be resolved in favor of slow growth for everyone if the recovery in the advanced economies falls short.”

As Bernanke spoke, the Chinese central bank said it will raise the reserve ratio requirement for the nation’s banks by 50 basis points from Nov. 29. The dollar fell to $1.3671 per euro at 9:35 a.m. in New York from $1.3643 yesterday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent to 1,194.17.

‘Not so Sure’

Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, said he’s “not so sure” if the Fed’s purchases will help spur growth or lower the jobless rate. The “side effect” of the easing for emerging markets is adding risks of asset bubbles in the region, including in Hong Kong, Chan told reporters in the city today.

While Bernanke didn’t identify China in his speech, he took aim at “large, systemically important countries with persistent current-account surpluses.” Bernanke’s comments come a week after leaders of the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations meeting in South Korea failed to agree on a remedy for trade and investment distortions. At the summit, President Barack Obama attacked China’s policy of undervaluing its currency.

“He’s essentially saying, ‘Don’t blame us, you’re part of the problem,’” Robert Eisenbeis, a former Atlanta Fed research director, said on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.”

Bernanke said the “sense of common purpose has waned” after officials around the world united to fight the financial crisis. “Tensions among nations over economic policies have emerged and intensified, potentially threatening our ability to find global solutions to global problems,” he said.

Promote Exports

China has tied the yuan to the dollar to promote exports that helped produce the fastest gains in gross domestic product of any major economy. China, which surpassed Japan’s GDP to become world No. 2 in the second quarter, recorded 9.6 percent annual growth in the three months through September. It holds about $2.6 trillion in foreign reserves, the most in the world.

China’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment when asked for a response to Bernanke’s speech. A China central bank spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

‘Quite Skeptical’

After the speech, Bernanke spoke during a panel discussion and responded to audience questions, saying that the use of securities purchases for monetary policy affects asset prices “quite significantly.” He said he’s “quite skeptical” of the criticism that central bankers are “pushing on a string.”

At the same time, policy makers “don’t want to overpromise” on a program whose effects are “meaningful” yet “moderate,” he said on the panel with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Brazil’s central bank president Henrique Meirelles.

It’s Bernanke’s first trip abroad since the Federal Open Market Committee made the decision, dubbed QE2 by economists and investors, to implement a second round of so-called quantitative easing. Bernanke said the term is “inappropriate” because it usually refers to policies that change the quantity of bank reserves, “a channel which seems relatively weak, at least in the U .S. context.”

‘Worthwhile Gamble’

Fed officials are trying to make the case “it was probably a worthwhile gamble for the U.S. to try to print a little bit more money to stimulate the economy without triggering inflation,” former Fed economist David Cohen, now a director of Asia forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Nov. 5 he was “dumbfounded” at the Fed’s actions, which he said won’t aid growth and will instead contribute to imbalances by driving down the currency. U.S. monetary policy is creating “grave distortions” and causing “collateral effects” on faster- growing economies such as Brazil, Meirelles said in October.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to be all that convinced one way or the other,” said Eisenbeis, now chief monetary economist with Cumberland Advisors Inc. in Sarasota, Florida. “Everybody has their own views, particularly the Germans and the Chinese.”

Bernanke said that different economies “call for different policy settings.” In the U.S., inflation has slowed since the most recent recession began in December 2007, and “further disinflation could hinder the recovery,” he said.

“Insufficiently supportive policies in the advanced economies could undermine the recovery not only in those economies, but for the world as a whole,” he said.

‘Slow Pace’

America’s unemployment rate at 9.6 percent last month is currently “high and, given the slow pace of economic growth, likely to remain so for some time,” Bernanke said. He said that “we cannot rule out the possibility that unemployment might rise further in the near term, creating added risks for the recovery.”

The asset purchases will be used in a way that’s “measured and responsive to economic conditions,” Bernanke said. Fed officials are “unwaveringly committed to price stability” and don’t seek inflation higher than the level of “2 percent or a bit less” that most policy makers see as consistent with the Fed’s legislative mandate, he said.

Bernanke, 56, also appealed to human concerns to justify the Fed’s policy.

“On its current economic trajectory the United States runs the risk of seeing millions of workers unemployed or underemployed for many years,” he said. “As a society, we should find that outcome unacceptable.”

The former Princeton University economist devoted the majority of his speech to discussing global policy challenges and tensions.

China’s vice foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, said Nov. 5 “many countries are worried about the impact of the policy,” echoing concern across Asia over the risk of a flood of capital that causes asset bubbles. Economies from Taiwan to Indonesia and Brazil have taken steps to counter inflows of speculative money, and South Korea yesterday said it will back legislation restoring a tax on foreign investment in the nation’s bonds.

Currency Intervention

Bernanke used one of nine charts to show how countries including China and Taiwan are intervening to prevent or slow appreciation in their currencies. Allowing stronger currencies would help result in “more balanced and sustainable global economic growth,” Bernanke said.

Bernanke, a scholar of the Great Depression, drew a comparison between the current period and events leading to the 1930s economic disaster. The U.S. and France maintained “persistently undervalued” exchange rates by preventing inflows of gold from feeding into money supplies, which created deflationary pressures in other countries and helped bring on the Depression, Bernanke said.

“Although the parallels are certainly far from perfect, and I am certainly not predicting a new Depression, some of the lessons from that grim period are applicable today,” Bernanke said. “In particular, for large, systemically important countries with persistent current-account surpluses, the pursuit of export-led growth cannot ultimately succeed if the implications of that strategy for global growth and stability are not taken into account.”

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An industrial espionage trial between two of the world’s biggest business software makers isn’t going to involve one of its most anticipated witnesses: the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Leo Apotheker.

The evidence part of the three-week trial wrapped up Friday without an in-person appearance by Apotheker and without Oracle Corp cheap payday loans online. playing a videotaped deposition he gave.

The cat-and-mouse game of Oracle trying to force Apotheker to testify, and Hewlett-Packard Co. refusing to allow it, has captivated technology watchers and overshadowed Apotheker’s start as the head of the world’s biggest technology company.

Oracle wanted Apotheker to testify because he was previously CEO of SAP AG, the company Oracle is suing.

But HP refused Oracle’s subpoena. It accused Oracle of harassing Apotheker cash till payday loan.

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The Federal Reserve’s decision to launch a new round of bond buying was the right medicine for an economy facing “uncomfortably low” inflation, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto said on Thursday .

“Responding to inflationary and disinflationary pressures gets to the heart of what a central bank can and must do,” Pianalto told an audience at Case Western Reserve University.

“Ensuring price stability is our job. My belief is that by promoting price stability, the Federal Reserve is following the best course for supporting the economic recovery,” she said.

The core consumer price index rose just 0.6 percent year-on-year in October, the lowest rate on records that date to 1957, the government reported on Wednesday.

Pianalto, a voter this year on the Fed’s policy-setting panel, said she viewed the inflation figure as troubling.

“Given the momentum toward lower inflation rates and sizable amounts of labor market slack already evident in today’s pricing decisions, I expect core inflation to remain quite subdued through 2013,” she said.

“Although I do not expect an outright decline in the general level of prices, with demand in the economy still weak and unemployment so high, further disinflation remains a risk to my outlook, Pianalto added. “I take this risk seriously, because in periods of significant economic slack, very low inflation risks tipping into deflation.”

Pianalto said she believed there was enough of a risk to growth and price stability to merit the Fed’s November 3 decision to buy a further $600 billion in U.S. government bonds.

She said she weighed the benefits against the risk the move would spark an unwanted inflation, but said the Fed was well prepared to counteract any build-up of price pressures.

The risk of an asset bubble was also a concern, she said, but one that was mitigated by the Fed’s willingness to regularly review the asset purchase program.

“Our economy is digging itself out of a deep hole and continues to perform far below its potential, Pianalto said, adding that she did not expect the U.S. jobless rate to fall below 8 percent before 2013.

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European inflation accelerated to the fastest in almost two years in October, led by surging energy costs.

Euro-area consumer prices rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier after increasing 1.8 percent in September, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s the fastest since November 2008 and in line with an estimate published on Oct. 29. Energy prices rose 8.5 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest gain since May.

Crude-oil prices have jumped 12 percent over the past two months just as growth in the region’s economy weakened. The European Central Bank, which has kept borrowing costs at a record low and provided banks with emergency liquidity, forecast on Nov. 4 that inflation will remain “moderate.”

“It’s purely oil-driven,” said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “Underlying inflation pressures will remain very subdued overall into 2011.”

The euro was little changed against the dollar after the data, trading at $1.3602 at 10:03 a.m. in London, up 0.1 percent on the day.

Rising energy costs are leaving companies and consumers with less money to spend, threatening to deepen the region’s slowdown. Europe’s services industry expanded at a weaker pace last month and unemployment remained at the highest in more than 12 years in September. German investor confidence dropped.

Cosmetics Maker

Beiersdorf AG, the German maker of Nivea skin creams, on Nov. 4 reported third-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates and lowered its earnings forecast. L’Oreal SA, the world’s largest cosmetics maker, said last month that Western European sales lagged behind revenue in other markets.

The ECB, which aims to keep annual gains in consumer prices just below 2 percent, forecasts that “inflationary pressures over the medium term” will remain “contained,” President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Nov. 4. The central bank said on Nov. 11 that its latest survey of professional forecasters sees inflation averaging 1.5 percent this year and next before reaching 1.6 percent in 2012.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile costs such as energy prices, quickened to 1.1 percent from 1 percent in the prior month.

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An aviation regulator tells The Associated Press that Rolls-Royce will temporarily replace entire engines suffering from oil leaks on the world’s largest jetliner.

The official says the British engine-maker will take off faulty engines and replace them with new ones. It will then fix the leaking part and swap the engine back again.

The official, who has been briefed by Rolls-Royce and some of the affected airlines, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Rolls-Royce declined to comment.

Leaking oil caught fire on Nov. 4 in one of a Qantas A380’s four engines, sending chunks of metal into vital systems in the wing before it landed safely. Qantas has said checks revealed leaks in at least three other engines.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

SYDNEY (AP) _ An electrical fault sent smoke into the cockpit of a Qantas Boeing 747 and forced pilots to turn back Monday in the latest in a string of problems for the airline since an engine explosion on a superjumbo prompted a global safety scare.

The latest incident was unrelated to the superjumbo drama, but it was the third time Qantas jetliners have aborted flights because of faults since the Nov. 4 explosion on the Airbus A380, which raised concerns about the world’s largest passenger plane.

The Airbus incident has prompted extra attention on Qantas, which prides itself on its safety record. Qantas says the three faults since Nov. 4 were far less serious than problems with the A380 and that the turnarounds were precautionary.

The airline said a Boeing 747 carrying 221 passengers and crew was an hour into a flight from Sydney for Buenos Aires, Argentina, when smoke started coming from an instrument panel in the cockpit. Pilots donned oxygen masks and turned the plane around, dumping fuel over the Pacific Ocean before making a “priority landing” in Sydney.

“This is absolutely in line with procedure to ensure that they can safely arrive, which they did,” Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth told reporters.

Passengers said the pilot informed them that there had been a problem with an instrument panel in the cockpit and the plane would return to Sydney.

“We couldn’t smell or hear anything,” passenger Samantha Gash told Nine Network television. “All we noticed, because we were next to the wing, is when the fuel was let out. Everyone was very quiet and calm. It was probably when we landed back in Sydney and there were four or five fire engine trucks behind us that people began to start to feel a bit uneasy.”

Television footage showed fire trucks tailing the plane as it taxied to the terminal, though they were not put to use. Qantas said the passengers would be put on other flights, and repairing the plane was not expected to take long.

Wirth said the problem was a “minor electrical fault” that caused a “minimal” amount of smoke in the cockpit. No smoke entered the passenger cabin.

On Friday, a Qantas Boeing 767 turned back on a domestic flight in Australia after pilots detected abnormal vibrations in one of its two General Electric engines. A week earlier, a Sydney-bound Qantas Boeing 747 landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after takeoff.

Both 747 planes were fitted with Rolls-Royce RB211 engines.

The A380 scare is being blamed on a fault in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. Leaking oil caught fire in one of the Qantas A380’s four massive engines, heating metal parts and causing the motor’s disintegration over Indonesia before the jetliner returned safely to Singapore. Experts say chunks of flying metal damaged vital systems in the wing of the Sydney-bound plane, causing the pilots to lose control of the second engine and half of the brake flaps on the damaged wing in a situation far more serious than originally portrayed by the airline.

Qantas grounded its six A380s within hours and said four days later that checks had revealed suspicious oil leaks in three engines on three different grounded A380s. Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa, which both use A380s with Trent 900 engines, have conducted checks on their superjumbos and all but one have returned to service, the airlines say.

Qantas’ six superjumbos _ the backbone of its longest and most lucrative international routes between Australia and Los Angeles, Singapore and London _ remain grounded despite what experts say is financial pressure to fly them again.

“We are taking our normal and extremely conservative approach to safety and will not operate our A380 fleet until we are completely confident that it is safe to do so,” Simon Rushton, a Qantas spokesman, said Monday.

Qantas was still hopeful of returning the A380s to service “in days, not weeks,” Rushton said.

Britain’s Rolls-Royce Group PLC, the world’s second-largest engine maker, said Friday that it would be replacing an unspecified module, or collection of linked parts, on the Trent 900. Airbus said Rolls-Royce would also be equipping the engines with software to shut them down before an oil leak could cause an engine to disintegrate.

Rushton said three engines had been removed from Qantas A380s as part of a detailed inspection program ordered by Europe’s air safety regulator and recommendations by Rolls-Royce. He declined to comment on an unsourced newspaper report that Rolls-Royce had advised Qantas that seven more engines may have to be removed, something that would cause longer delays and potential revenue losses.

Singapore Airlines, which grounded three of its 11 A380s after checks found oil leaks in three Trent 900s, said Monday that two were back in service after engine changes and that work was continuing on the third.

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Two directors of Agoracom will pay a total of $150,000 and face trading and employment restrictions under a settlement agreement that was approved Friday by Ontario’s securities regulator.

Agoracom, which runs a website that does investor relations for public companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange, will also post a notice about the settlement on www.Agoracom.com.

Agoracom founder George Tsiolis and dealer Apostolis (Paul) Kondakos acknowledged they required Agoracom staff to use hundreds of fake names and pose as investors in thousands of messages on the firm’s public online forums.

Kondakos, the firm’s chief compliance officer, also intercepted private messages between public users of the forum from July 2008 to February 2009 to gather information about companies in which he was invested cash advance companies.

Under the settlement agreement, the Ontario Securities Commission has suspended the two men’s registrations as investment professionals for 10 years.

They are also permanently prohibited from being a director or officer of any client of Agoracom or its affiliates and prohibited from being a director or officer of any public company, registrant or investment fund manager for five years.

They also aren’t allowed to trade or invest in any client of Agoracom.

The two men will pay a total of $25,000 towards the costs of the OSC investigation and $125,000 to a fund administered by the commission.

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Walt Disney Co., the world???s biggest media company, rose the most in six months after analysts said fourth-quarter profit topped estimates.

Excluding restructuring and impairment costs of $216 million (U.S.), profit amounted to 50 cents a share, according to Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. That beat the 47-cent average of 25 analysts??? estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Disney gained $1.99, or 5.6 per cent, to $37.92 at 11:05 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest intraday advance since May. Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo fully disclosed restructuring, programming and film studio writedowns during the company???s conference call after U.S. markets closed yesterday.

???Upon scanning the press release, the results seemed weak,??? Nathanson wrote in a note today. ???However, it turns out that you can???t judge a quarter by a press release.???

Thursday the stock fell $1.06, or 2.9 per cent, to $35.93 after the report was released early, before U.S. markets closed. The company said it is investigating how the information became available.

Net income fell 6.7 per cent to $835 million, or 43 cents a share, from $895 million, or 47 cents, a year earlier, Burbank, California-based Disney said yesterday. Sales slid 1.3 per cent to $9.74 billion in the period ended Oct. 2, missing the $10 billion average of 20 analysts??? estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Disney had a $100 million writedown of film inventory, a $58 million charge for programming writeoffs at its Lifetime network, and restructuring and impairment charges of $58 million, Rasulo said on the call.

Anthony DiClemente, an analyst with Barclays Capital in New York, also told clients in a note today that adjusted earnings amounted to 50 cents a share excluding the above items. Disney reported adjusted per-share earnings of 45 cents.

DiClemente and Nathanson recommend buying the stock.

Bloomberg News

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Malaysia’s central bank left borrowing costs unchanged for a second consecutive meeting as inflation and global growth eased, avoiding an increase that may attract capital inflows and strengthen the nation’s currency.

Bank Negara Malaysia kept its benchmark overnight policy rate at 2.75 percent, it said in a statement in Kuala Lumpur today, a decision predicted by all 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. This was the central bank’s final rate-setting meeting for 2010.

“Growth in the global economy has moderated in the third quarter,” the central bank said. “International financial market conditions have become more volatile with increased capital flows to emerging markets. This shift in global liquidity has brought with it risks to macroeconomic and financial stability in the emerging market economies.”

Malaysia started raising rates before any other central bank in Asia this year to reduce what it said was the risk of financial imbalances that may be caused by keeping borrowing costs too low for too long. The delay in adding to its three rate increases since early March avoids widening a gap with borrowing costs in advanced economies that’s contributed to a 9.8 percent gain in the ringgit this year.

“While we think that the bias is still towards further tightening given the impending inflationary risks going forward, Bank Negara has enough room to hold steady for now as it is ahead of the curve compared to many of its regional peers,” Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Singapore, said before the report. “We expect the central bank to reinitiate its hiking cycle from early 2011 onwards.”

‘Appropriate’ Rate

Policy makers led by Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz increased the key rate by 0.75 percentage point from March to July. With the inflation rate falling to a three-month low of 1.8 percent in September, Zeti has said the current level of borrowing costs is “appropriate.”

The current interest-rate level is “appropriate and consistent with the latest assessment of the economic growth and inflation prospects,” the central bank said today. “The stance of monetary policy continues to remain accommodative and supportive of economic growth.”

Efforts by the region’s central banks to withdraw monetary stimulus are slowing as policy makers from the U.S. to Japan take steps to shore up growth by keeping interest rates near zero and introducing quantitative easing policies. South Korea and Thailand have kept interest rates unchanged at their most recent meetings.

Capital Flight

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced plans this month to buy $600 billion of long-term government bonds in its second effort at so-called quantitative easing, prompting policy makers from Asia to South America to say the stimulus could depress the dollar and spark capital flight to emerging markets.

“While domestic financial conditions remain orderly, greater vigilance will be accorded to the potential risks arising from large and volatile capital flows,” Malaysia’s central bank said.

The ringgit is this year’s second-best performing currency in Asia excluding Japan, behind the Thai baht. The benchmark stock index reached a record high this week.

Malaysia isn’t considering capital controls for now, though the central bank is monitoring inflows, Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah said in an interview this week. Officials at a recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting discussed the idea of joint, “multilateral” measures in the future should the need arise, he said.

Exports Slow

“We are benefiting from the capital inflows and the appreciation of the ringgit,” he said.

While a stronger currency results in cheaper imports, it also makes the country’s overseas shipments more expensive. Malaysia’s exports rose at the slowest pace in 10 months in September as shipments to the U.S. and China eased.

The Southeast Asian economy, whose products include IOI Corp. palm oil and Intel Corp. computer chips, may experience some deceleration in the final quarter of 2010, International Trade & Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said last month.

The economy is forecast by the government to grow 7 percent this year, before expanding as much as 6 percent in 2011. Third- quarter gross domestic product figures will be released Nov. 22.

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