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Business and consumer sentiment in the 17 countries that use the euro fell in August, reinforcing fears that the region’s economy will slow in the months ahead as political leaders struggle to contain a crisis over government debt.

The European Union’s economic sentiment index issued Tuesday fell 4.7 points to 98.3 _ the sixth consecutive decline, bringing the indicator below its long-term average of 100.

Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy, reported the largest drop, and it alone remains above the 1990-2011 average. The Netherlands and Austria, two other countries that have not been drawn into the debt crisis, also saw a significant fall.

The reasons for the decline included gloomier views of the future among retailers, and among consumers afraid of losing their jobs, EU economic officials said in a statement accompanying the index numbers.

Additionally, industrial managers are concerned about weaker future export orders and inventories that may be overstocked for upcoming demand.

Economists and government officials say the economy is starting to be affected by financial market ups and downs caused by fears that some governments may not be able to repay their debts. Stock and bond markets fell sharply in early August amid fears that efforts by eurozone government leaders would not be enough to keep the crisis from spreading to Italy and Spain. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already taken bailout loans from other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund to avoid default, but Italy in particular is considered too big to rescue.

European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told EU lawmakers on Monday that the market volatility was now affecting the real economy.

The European Central Bank has fought the market turmoil for three weeks by buying Italian and Spanish government bonds to reduce financial pressure on those countries, but governments are still struggling to reduce debt and find a more permanent solution guaranteed pay day loans. Leaders agreed July 21 to give new powers to the eurozone’s euro440 billion ($637 billion) bailout fund, enabling it to take over the bond purchases from the ECB and loan money quickly to troubled governments, but national parliaments have not yet ratified those changes.

Economist Christopher Weil at Commerzbank predicted the eurozone would slow but not fall into recession _ unless the debt crisis unleashes a shock to the financial system like the one after the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Even if there’s no recession, weaker growth will make the debt crisis harder to deal with, he said.

“The downturn in countries with a strong credit standing could exacerbate the debt crisis; their possibilities and presumably also readiness to help the crisis-stricken countries fall accordingly,” Weil wrote in a research note to investors.

The EU forecasts 1.6 percent growth this year for the eurozone, but those predictions are due to be lowered on Sept. 15. Easing growth in Germany has been a key reason; gross domestic product grew by a scant 0.1 percent in the second quarter.

The European Central Bank has indicated it is reassessing its inflation outlook, a sign that its key interest rate may be on prolonged hold at 1.5 percent after quarter point increases in April and July.

The EU sentiment index fell further, to 97.3, for the entire 27-member European Union, which includes countries that do not use the euro. Britain showed a sharp drop of 5.6 points because sentiment was down sharply in the services sector.

The economic index combines indicators for business and consumers: 40 percent industrial confidence, 30 percent services, 20 percent consumers, 5 percent construction and 5 percent retail.

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Asian stock markets rose in early trading Monday, after Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s prediction of long-term economic growth for the U.S. helped fuel a Wall Street rebound.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5 percent to 8,845.19. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 jumped 1.7 percent to 4,270.60 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 rose 0.6 percent to 3,314.28.

Gold-related shares rose after prices of the precious metal rebounded Friday after a volatile week. Newcrest Mining Ltd., Australia’s largest gold miner, rose 1 percent.

On Friday in New York, gold for December delivery rose $34.10 to finish at $1,797.30 an ounce after nearly hitting $1,900 an ounce as Monday’s trading ended.

The euro was slightly down at $1.4482 from $1.4484 in late trading in New York. The dollar rose to 76.74 yen from 76.66 yen.

Market optimism was fueled Friday by a highly anticipated speech by Fed chief Bernanke at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. While he announced no new economic stimulus measures, as some investors had hoped, he did leave open the possibility of more action if another recession looks likely _ and he also emphasized the strengths of the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.2 percent to close at 11,284.54. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.5 percent to 1,176.80. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 2.5 percent to 2,479.85.

The Fed has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates low until mid-2013. Low rates on investments like bonds make higher-risk bets such as stocks more attractive.

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If the delicate compromise among Missouri lawmakers holds up through next month’s special session, the future of the state’s popular historic tax credit program will look much like the program did flexcheck cash advance… last year.

The plan expected to go before the House and Senate would cut the annual cap on historic credits

Airlines began to cancel flights and get planes out of the way as Hurricane Irene barreled toward the U.S. mainland on Thursday.

The storm will likely force hundreds of flights to be cancelled through this weekend and create delays that could ripple across the country.

Airlines said passengers could rebook those trips to many East Coast destinations, from Boston to the Carolinas, for free.

American Airlines and its American Eagle affiliate, with an extensive network in the Caribbean, canceled 126 flights on Thursday. Most were in the Bahamas and south Florida, including Miami, a jumping-off spot for flights to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Delta Air Lines reported four cancelations, and United one. Those and other airlines were watching Irene’s path before deciding how many flights to scrub and where on Friday.

Even before Irene’s arrival, unrelated thunderstorms were causing delays of up to two hours Thursday at major airports in the New York and Washington areas, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. The service’s CEO, Daniel Baker, predicted that Irene-related cancelations would pick up Friday afternoon and become significant on Saturday. Thataeuros when the storm is expected to come ashore in North Carolina.

The airlines’ preparation reflects a new approach to dealing with big storms. In recent years, they have waived ticket-change fees and canceled flights long before storms arrive. That has helped reduce the number of travelers and flight crews who get stranded at airports. Canceling flights ahead of time keeps planes out of the path of damaging storms and lets airlines resume normal schedules more quickly after the bad weather passes.

But sheltering planes far from a storm carries risks. If the storm changes path and misses big airports, hundreds of flights will have been canceled unnecessarily.

Irene presents another challenge. Because major travel hubs such as Washington and New York are in its potential path, flights that are canceled or delayed there tend to ripple across the country.

“Most everyone expects New York to get hit, so you’re obviously not going to leave a lot of planes on the ground in New York, waiting for a problem,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines.

He said all the airline’s Thursday flights in the Bahamian capital of Nassau were canceled and there were delays in Miami due to heavy rain. He said the airline would track forecasts before making decisions about cancelations for Friday.

The airlines announced policies for changing trips free of the normal ticket-change charges.

Travelers on American going to 14 cities from Boston to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., could delay trips as late as Sept. 7 without penalty. Policies on Delta and United Continental were more restrictive at midday Thursday.

The offers were too late for some travelers whose long-planned trips turned soggy.

Noelia Chacon of Spain, touring the East Coast with her husband and son, were evacuated from the Smithsonian in Washington after Tuesday’s earthquake and now might limit their New York sightseeing because of Irene. Their tickets and hotel in Newark, N.J., are nonrefundable.

“We’ve had an earthquake and a hurricane so far. We’ll see what’s next,” Chacon said, as rain fogged the windows of the hotel lobby. “This is a trip we will not soon forget.”

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The percentage of homeowners who have missed at least one mortgage payment has risen for the second straight quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association says.

“It is clear that the downward trend we saw through most of 2010 has stopped,” the Mortgage Bankers Association’s chief economist, Jay Brinkmann, said.

The second-quarter delinquency rate for loans on one- to four-unit residential properties increased to 8.44 percent of all U.S. mortgages as of June 30, up from 8.32 percent on March 31 and 8.25 percent on Dec 31. The rate in Missouri was 8.18 percent. In Illinois it was 8.4 percent.

In a normal market, the percentage of delinquent borrowers is about 1.1 percent.

Delinquent mortgages have plummeted from a record high of more than 10 percent of residential mortgages a year ago. But the decline is due partly to delays in foreclosure filings that are backlogged. The end of a state and federal investigation into faulty foreclosure paperwork is likely to lead to increased foreclosures. Analysts say the increase is especially worrisome because it’s mainly because of high unemployment. And once delayed foreclosures are restarted, the economy could suffer a hit.

“The current processing delays mean this will not happen quickly, underlining our view that both the housing market and the economy will remain weak for a few years,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

Tim Logan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Stocks in Europe and the U.S. rallied Monday as investors set their hopes on the Federal Reserve to take action to revitalize the U.S. economy after a bout of panic selling last week.

However, gold prices hit a new high of more than $1,890 an ounce earlier in the day, indicating that fears of a double-dip recession are still stalking markets.

Brent crude, meanwhile, fell to near $107 a barrel as Libyan rebels’ capture of most of Tripoli boosted hopes the OPEC nation’s oil exports could resume soon.

Britain’s FTSE 100 jumped 2.6 percent to 5,171, while Germany’s DAX rose 1.9 percent to 5,585. France’s CAC 40 gained 3.1 percent to 3,111.

After a steep sell-off on Friday, Wall Street also opened higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.5 percent at 10,983 and the broader S&P 500 1.7 percent higher at 1,142.

Analysts warned that markets would likely stay volatile in the coming weeks as worries remain about the U.S. and global economies as well as bank funding amid the eurozone debt troubles.

The improved mood in Europe and the U.S. followed a jittery day of trading in Asia, where most markets closed in the red.

Throughout the week, investors will be looking with anticipation to a speech Friday by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at a retreat in Wyoming.

The Fed pledged earlier this month to keep interest rates super-low through mid-2013. Investors wonder whether Bernanke will announce, or at least preview, further steps to help the economy, including a third round of bond purchases known as quantitative easing.

“Given the absence of deflation risk, we do not expect him to announce QE3,” analysts at UniCredit in Milan wrote in a note, referring to a new round of bond buying. “But he is likely to reiterate that the Fed is prepared to ease monetary policy further if needed.”

The European Central Bank on Monday confirmed that it was taking on a more active role in fighting the eurozone debt crisis, disclosing that it spent euro14.29 billion on buying the bonds of struggling countries like Italy and Spain last week.

That’s below the euro22 billion it doled out the previous week, but has kept the yields, or interest rates, on Italian and Spanish 10-year bonds below 5 percent _ more than a percentage point below record levels seen in the week before the ECB resumed its bond buying program.

However, most economists see the ECB’s purchases as only a temporary sticking plaster in the eurozone’s fight against the debt crisis. Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU President Herman Van Rompuy both ruled out the introduction of eurobonds _ debt backed by all 17 euro countries _ anytime soon, squashing investor hopes that a more lasting solution to the currency union’s debt troubles may be in the works paydayloans.

With resistance to eurobonds in the currency union’s rich states remaining firm, analysts warn that any stabilization in stock prices is likely temporary, especially amid growing worries about banks’ funding levels.

“With the north/south divide within the eurozone becoming ever more clearly defined, the chances of finding a solution that will both placate investors and increasingly wary voters in northern Europe seem low,” wrote analysts at the Bank of New York Mellon. “The only question we therefore need to ask is quite where the next signs of stress will emerge.”

That fear manifested itself in gold prices Monday, which briefly rose beyond $1,890 an ounce before falling back to $1,873. Unsure about the outlook for the global economy and more volatile investments like stocks or bonds from weaker economies, investors have been parking their funds in save-haven assets such as gold, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen.

The recent rise in the yen contributed to losses in Asia, where most markets ended the day in negative territory.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1 percent to close at 8,628.13 _ a five-month low _ as the strong yen hurts the country’s exports by making them more expensive.

Japan intervened in currency markets earlier this month to try to reverse the yen’s climb. The decision to sell the yen and buy the dollar worked initially, sending the greenback toward 80 yen. But the dollar has been weighed down by the dimming outlook for the U.S. economy and is back down to mid 76-yen levels.

South Korea’s Kospi also took a hit, dropping 2 percent to 1,710.70. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,515.86 while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.9 percent to 1,124.17. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, meanwhile, swung into positive territory to eke out a 0.5 percent gain at 19,486.87.

Asian markets were the first to open after the developments in Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi’s regime is crumbling after rebels entered the capital of Tripoli on Sunday. Oil prices are expected to fall if the situation can quickly stabilize.

In London, Brent crude for October delivery fell $1.25 per barrel to $107.37 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Benchmark oil for September delivery, however, was up $1.89 at $84.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in line with the somewhat improved sentiment over the U.S. economy.

Libya used to export about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, but production all but ground to a halt in recent months as rebels battled to overthrow Gadhafi.

In currency markets, the dollar dipped to 76.77 yen, while the euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.441.

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Police say rioters fired gunshots at unarmed officers and a police helicopter during this month’s disturbances in the English city of Birmingham.

West Midlands Police released footage Saturday showing masked men firing shots during riots on Aug. 9.

The force said 11 shots were fired. Chief Constable Chris Sims called it “a concerted and organized attempt to kill or injure police officers.”

Police also said they had arrested an eighth suspect over the deaths of three men run down by a car in Birmingham as they protected shops from looters fast cash loans.

Four people have already been charged with murdering Shazad Ali, Abdul Musavir and Haroon Jahan.

More than 1,300 people have been charged over the riots that flared in London and other English cities for four nights.

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A tropical depression is nearing the coast of northeastern Honduras bringing rain and the possibility of tropical storm force winds.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the depression’s maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55 kph) early Friday with no significant change in strength expected. The depression formed Thursday night.

A tropical storm watch is in effect for the coast of Honduras, including the Bay Islands, and the coast of Guatemala saving account payday loan.

Meanwhile, far out in the Pacific, Hurricane Greg is expected to gradually weaken as it moves over cooler waters. The Category 1 hurricane’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 75 mph (120 kph).

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The taint of a hacking scandal is creeping closer to media baron Rupert Murdoch.

New documents published by U.K. lawmakers investigating Britain’s phone-hacking scandal apparently contradict claims made by the News Corp. chief’s former right-hand man and cast doubt on his son James Murdoch’s testimony before Parliament.

Among them is a letter claiming that illegal espionage was pervasive at Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

Former Murdoch confidante Les Hinton said in 2009 that he’d seen no evidence that phone hacking had spread beyond a single rogue reporter at the tabloid. Yet Hinton is among those copied in on the explosive letter.

Three former lieutenants are also challenging assertions by James Murdoch that he wasn’t told the full facts about the scandal.

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Qantas Airways Ltd. said Tuesday it plans to cut up to 1,000 jobs as part of a major shakeup of its international business that will include the launch of a new Asia-based airline.

The flagship Australian carrier, which is struggling to offset losses from its international operations, will buy between 106 and 110 Airbus A320 aircraft, and retire older planes as part of the five-year plan. It will also defer the delivery of six Airbus A380 superjumbo planes for up to six years.

The changes are expected to affect around 1,000 jobs, Qantas said.

The airline has forecast a loss of Australian dollars 200 million ($210 million) for the 2011 financial year, and CEO Alan Joyce said the changes were needed to ensure the airline’s profitability.

“Qantas International is a great airline with a proud history,” Joyce said in a statement. “But it is suffering big financial losses and a substantial decline in market share. To reverse that decline we need fundamental change.”

Under the plan, Qantas will invest in a new premium airline in Asia that will operate under a different name payday loans. It will also launch a budget airline in Japan to be called Jetstar Japan in partnership with Japan Airlines Co. and Mitsubishi Corp.

Unions immediately condemned the move, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions accusing the airline of showing “blatant contempt for its loyal work force.”

“This is one of the darkest days in the history of Qantas,” ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said in a statement. “Today, Qantas management has turned its back on Australia and on Australian jobs to head down the path of a race to the bottom that would see a large section of its work force employed on the pay and conditions of developing countries.”

Qantas shares were up 4.3 percent to AU$1.59 in early morning trading.

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