Financial thoughts

Singapore warned Monday that its economy will likely suffer a sharp slowdown next year as export demand from developed countries wanes.

Gross domestic product growth will probably drop to between 1 percent and 3 percent in 2012 from 5 percent this year, the Trade and Industry Ministry said.

“Singapore’s externally oriented sectors such as electronics and wholesale trade will continue to perform poorly,” the ministry said in a statement. “Although resilient domestic demand in emerging Asia will provide some support to global demand, it will not fully mitigate the effects of an economic slowdown in the advanced economies.”

Singapore, an island of 5.1 million people off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, relies on exports, finance and tourism to maintain one of the world’s highest levels of GDP per head.

Because of its high reliance on trade, Singapore is often a bellwether for the rest of Asia.

The economy grew 6.1 percent in the third quarter from a year ago and a seasonally-adjusted annualized 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, the ministry said.

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President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. economy is growing “way too slow” but that leaders at a world summit have made progress at getting their countries on a firmer footing.

“Put simply, the world faces challenges that put our economic recovery at risk,” Obama said in a news conference at the meeting of the 20 major developed and emerging economies as he promoted a jobs theme central to his re-election campaign.

He said Europe has rallied around a plan to address a debt crisis from spiraling beyond the financial emergency in Greece and potentially dealing another blow to the U.S. economy.

As for a new jobs report back at home that showed only modest employment growth, Obama said the economy was expanding too slowly.

The president said the United States had acted aggressively to manage its economic crisis a couple years ago, and he prodded his partners in Europe to do the same.

“They’re going to have a strong partner in us,” Obama said, “but European leaders understand that ultimately what the markets are looking for is a strong signal from Europe that they’re standing behind the euro.”

About one year from the 2012 presidential election, Obama brushed off the political implications of his economic agenda. Republicans have him hammered over the pace of the economic rebound.

“I have to tell you, the least of my concerns at the moment is the politics of a year from now,” Obama said. “I’m worried about putting people back to work right now because those folks are hurting and the U.S. economy is underperforming.”

The gridlock of domestic politics followed Obama to France. He urged House and Senate Republicans to join him in passing a jobs bill now moving in pieces.

The U.S. unemployment rate slipped one-tenth of a percent in October to 9 percent as the economy generated 80,000 jobs. The nation’s unemployment rate had held at 9.1 percent for three straight months.

Stalled joblessness poses significant problems for Obama, who has been unable to get Republican support for a $447 billion jobs plan. The Senate on Thursday defeated Obama’s proposal to spend $50 billion to modernize roads and bridges and put idled construction workers back on the job.

Obama spent much of the day in private meetings with world leaders. He met separately with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, telling reporters beforehand that they would discuss “how we can set an agenda that focuses on increasing prosperity and employment and opportunity for people throughout the Americas.”

After the news conference, Obama joined French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a ceremony honoring the U.S.-French alliance and service members from both countries who helped the successful allied campaign in Libya. He and Sarkozy then taped a joint interview to be aired on French television, before Obama boarded Air Force One for the trip back to Washington after a quick two days in France.

At his news conference, Obama gave a vote of confidence to European leaders and warned of the domino effect if the debt crisis wasn’t solved.

“If Europe isn’t growing, it’s harder for us to do what we need to do for the American people: creating jobs, lifting up the middle class and putting our fiscal house in order,” he said.

He added: “There’s no excuse for inaction. That’s true globally. It’s certainly true back home. And I’m going to keep pushing it.”

Obama arrived at the summit on Wednesday as leaders worried about the Greek prime minister’s call for a public vote on the bailout plan. While the referendum was scrapped, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou still faced a difficult confidence vote Friday.

President Barack Obama has arrived in France to join world leaders at a summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, a meeting overshadowed by Europe’s debt crisis and surprise plans by Greece to put a bailout deal to a popular vote.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-koh-ZEE’) is hosting the two-day meeting in Cannes (kan), France, the city known worldwide for its annual film festival.

Obama was meeting separately Thursday with Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sarkozy and Merkel helped strike a $130 billion bailout deal for Greece. But the Greek prime minister’s surprising announcement of a December referendum is raising doubts about the deal.

The White House says the U.S. can help guide Europe through its financial crisis but that it’s ultimately Europe’s problem to solve.

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Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend.

By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.

Some airline industry experts say Qantas’ surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he had no choice but to order the lockout of union workers and end months of rolling strikes that led to canceled flights, $70 million in losses and a collapse in future bookings.

Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he expected some flights to resume by mid-afternoon Monday. It was unclear how long it would take for the airline to resume a full schedule. The airline had estimated that it would lose $20 million a day during the lockout.

The Australian labor-relations court issued its ruling ending the standoff early Monday morning _ midday Sunday in the United States _ after holding an emergency hearing that included testimony from company, labor union and government officials.

The president of the labor-arbitration panel, Geoffrey Giudice, said the group acted to protect Australia’s tourism and aviation industry.

The airline said 447 flights had been canceled in the first 24 hours of the lockout. Qantas did not immediately update that figure.

Qantas is the largest of Australia’s four national domestic airlines, carrying about 70,000 passengers a day on a fleet of 108 planes that operate in 22 countries. In 2010, it was the 16th largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the trade publication Air Transport World.

Its major international destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and London. In the United States, Qantas flies to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Honolulu.

Travelers reported being ordered to leave planes that were already on the tarmac when the lockout began Saturday. More than 60 planes in mid-flight flew to their destinations, then were parked.

Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensating those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.

For several weeks, workers have carried out rolling strikes and refused to work overtime to demand higher pay and protest the airline’s plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Qantas, which has about 32,500 employees, wants to reduce costs by creating new Asia-based airlines for international flying. International flights were a roughly $200 million drain on the company last year.

The company reported in August that annual profit had doubled. But it said the business climate was too turbulent _ partly because of labor turmoil _ to forecast future earnings.

Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.

“A lot of travelers won’t take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines,” Harteveldt said. “Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition.”

Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.

If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit. So could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.

Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.

Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. CEO Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company’s vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.

“It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand,” said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. “In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially.”

Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.

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Former Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton is due to give evidence to British lawmakers investigating the tabloid phone-hacking scandal.

Hinton, who also was CEO of Dow Jones & Co., resigned in July after revelations of illegal eavesdropping by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid.

He will testify to the House of Commons media committee Monday by video link.

Hinton was Murdoch’s right-hand man until the scandal, which has convulsed Britain’s media landscape business cards.

The tabloid stands accused of illegally hacking into the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims in search of scoops.

Hinton headed Murdoch’s British newspaper division during some of the years phone hacking took place, but has said he was unaware of the wrongdoing.

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DETROIT

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U.S. stock futures are falling ahead of a vote in the Senate to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

The Treasury Department has said that Congress must raise the debt ceiling by the end of Tuesday in order to allow the government to pay all of its bills. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill before the market closes. The House passed the measure Monday night.

Investors are growing concerned about the U.S. economy and will be looking at consumer spending figures that are expected to be released before the market opens.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 41 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,999. S&P 500 futures are down 6, or 0.4 percent, to 1,274. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 9, or 0.4 percent, to 2,337.

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The 1,000-member Bricklayers Local 1 here has called a strike for midnight tonight after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Masons Contractors Associations.

Local 1 business manager Don Brown said his members will not picket unless contractors bring nonunion bricklayers onto work sites.

“We have no desire to shut down the construction industry, so there will be no blanket picketing of construction jobs,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday night. “Bricklayers will only picket those projects where someone else tries to do our work.”

The start of the strike would coincide with the expiration of the Bricklayers’ five-year contract with the contractors.

Brown said three weeks of negotiations ended in a stalemate Friday. The union said it offered the contractors an “interim contract” that would allow work to continue on existing projects.

Local 1 would not elaborate on the terms of the contract it was seeking.

The Bricklayers staged a weeklong strike in 2006 when negotiations broke down on the current contract.

The Masons Contractors Associations represents 114 local union construction companies. A representative could not be reached for comment.

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