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India’s inflation rate remained above 9 percent in November, leaving the central bank with little leeway to reverse interest rate hikes that have choked growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The plunging value of the rupee, which hit a fresh record low against the dollar Wednesday, is pushing up the cost of fuel and manufactured products even as big increases in food prices start to wane, government figures showed.

Although November’s 9.1 percent inflation rate was the lowest in a year, it remains far above government targets.

“The concern about inflation cannot be taken away from the monetary authority,” C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, told reporters.

The country’s economic problems have been exacerbated by a deadlocked Parliament and the weakness of the ruling Congress Party. Measures that could encourage investment and growth have been stalled by political bickering. Uncoordinated fiscal and monetary policy hasn’t helped either.

India’s economy grew 6.9 percent in the September quarter, the slowest in over two years and industrial output has contracted for the first time in over two years.

Many economists and business people say India needs to enact difficult but crucial reforms to kickstart the economy and reassure investors. Government officials, in contrast, have emphasized the global factors dragging on the investment cycle, and some seem to hope lower interest rates will offer a quick fix instead.

“There is a slowdown across the world,” said Ajay Shankar, secretary of the government’s National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council fast cash without a hassle. “The interest rate should come down. Then you get a better investment climate.”

Thirteen rate hikes since March 2010 haven’t tamed inflation, which has topped 9 percent in 20 of the last 22 months. The central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady this week.

D.K. Joshi, chief economist at research and ratings agency Crisil, said without the Reserve Bank of India’s aggressive rate hikes, inflation would have likely soared above 10 percent.

The central bank’s anti-inflation stance has been weakened by government spending in the run up to important state elections and fuel price hikes, which have been needed to keep the government’s ballooning fuel subsidy bill in check.

“The demand created through government expenditure has offset some of the moves of RBI, that’s having an impact,” Joshi said. “The fuel inflation has been kept suppressed. Now when you have a fiscal burden you have to pass that on to the consumer.”

The rupee has plunged over 20 percent since July and hit a fresh low of 53.76 on Wednesday. That’s bad news for a country that runs a current account deficit and imports about three quarters of its oil. Rising wages and raw material costs have also hit manufacturers.

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An early rally fizzled on the stock market Friday but still left the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 7.4 percent for the week, its biggest gain since March 2009.

A surprise drop in the U.S. unemployment rate sent stocks higher in early trading, but the gains faded during the afternoon.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.61 of a point to close at 12,019.42. The Dow ended the week up 7 percent, the largest weekly gain since July 2009.

Bank stocks rose sharply, continuing a weeklong rally. JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 6.1 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow average. Morgan Stanley leapt 6.9 percent, the second-biggest gain of any stock in the S&P 500 index.

European stock indexes and the euro rose after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a speech pushing for tighter rules on government spending. Merkel said the 17 countries that use the euro must quickly restore market confidence by making financial controls stricter.

Bond yields for Spain and Italy fell, a sign that investors are becoming more confident in the ability of those countries to pay their debt. France’s CAC-40 and Britain’s FT-SE each rose 1.1 percent.

Markets could be in for more volatility next week as European leaders prepare for a summit to propose new measures for containing the crisis.

The Labor Department reported before the market opened that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent last month, the lowest level in 2 1/2 years. Economists had expected the rate to stay at 9 percent. But a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was that more than 300,000 people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The Nasdaq composite index inched up 0.73 to 2,626.93. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.31 of a point to 1,244.28. The S&P surged 7.4 percent over the week, the most since March 2009.

Decisive steps by world leaders to right Europe’s teetering economy sent stocks soaring on Wednesday. The Dow jumped 490 points, its biggest gain since March 2009 and its seventh-largest one-day point gain in history. The weekly point gain of 787 in the Dow was the second-biggest in its history, following a 946-point gain in October 2008.

“This market has been gripped with fear for a long time,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. “And I think some of these fear factors are beginning to dissipate.”

This week’s strong stock performance is partially a reflection of the market’s increased volatility since August, when concerns that Europe’s debt was spinning out of control made dramatic stock price swings the norm. On Monday the S&P 500 broke a 7-day slide that had taken the index down 7.9 percent.

The improvements in the U.S. job market are “another illustration that the US economy is, for now at least, shrugging off the global economic downturn and fears about the collapse of the euro-zone,” Capital Economics Chief U.S. Economist Paul Ashworth said in a note to clients.

Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Monday to discuss changes to European Union treaties. The talks will culminate in a Dec. 9 summit of EU leaders, where the proposals are expected to be debated and detailed. Analysts say stricter controls on spending could encourage the European Central Bank to offer more short-term help for governments struggling with their debts.

If the European Central Bank takes a larger role in buying government debt, “it will certainly be a relief to markets,” Cardillo said, “and maybe even mean Europe avoids falling into a deep recession. Not that it’s going to cure all the problems of Europe.”

In corporate news:

_ Western Digital Corp. soared 7.5 percent, the most in the S&P. The data storage provider raised its revenue estimate for the current quarter and said that recovery efforts at its facility in Thailand following massive flooding there were proceeding faster than had been expected.

_ Big Lots Inc. slumped 8.7 percent, after the retailer reported a 76 percent plunge in income because of lower margins and a loss related to a newly acquired Canadian business. The company buys overstocked items including food and housewares and sells them at a discount.

_ H&R Block Inc. fell 6.4 percent. The country’s largest tax-preparation company reported a wider quarterly loss late Thursday. H&R Block also said there was a jump in claims tied to bad loans made by its former subprime mortgage unit.

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For three years now, Efrem Rone has been keeping a close eye on an Adelaide St. E. parking lot, watching for a condo sales centre to rise from the asphalt.

“I know how things work,” says Rone, 45. “If you don’t get on the list (to get into the sales centre early), the best units are gone, prices start going up and you’re stuck with the leftovers.”

His agent was getting nowhere, despite registering early to view floor plans for the 22-storey Ivory on Adelaide project. So Rone was surprised last weekend to walk past an Ivory on Adelaide sales centre bustling with activity.

“On the door was taped an ad from a Chinese newspaper with a picture of what the project would look like. Deals were being done,” says Rone. “It looked like the sales centre was open for business, but only to people of a certain ethnicity.”

Toronto’s condo market is on fire. And much of the frenzy is being fuelled by investors, many of them Asians, who are being given preferential treatment — early access to the best and cheapest units.

“It may look like discrimination, but these people have actually earned the right to be first in line. Any business will go to their best customers first,” says realtor turned condo developer Brad Lamb.

Almost 68,000 new units are now in the planning stages or under construction across the GTA as investors, a lot of them immigrants with ties to Hong Kong and mainland China, the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Russia and Brazil, look to cash in on the biggest condo boom in the world.

A record 20,729 units have been sold in the GTA as of the end of September — smashing the pre-recession record for the same period in 2007 of 17,285. An estimated 45 to 60 per cent have been snapped up by investors, with estimates closer to 90 per cent in some newer downtown condo projects.

They are looking for solid investments in a shaky world — the keys to hard assets like real estate.

“We are a tranquil island in a sea of despair,” says one of Toronto’s leading condo development consultants Barry Lyon. “If it wasn’t for the multicultural community, we would have no condo market to speak of right now in Toronto.”

Even realtors who find themselves, and their clients, with no hope of being among the first buyers in all these new glass and steel towers springing up on Toronto’s skyline understand why this is happening.

Targeting agents with strong ties to big buyers in the multicultural community — one developer calls them his “rainmaker list” — means developers can sell 70 per cent of the units in a project faster, which keeps costs down. That’s what most banks demand before they will free up loans to start construction.

The practice has paid off: In 2005, it took an average of 13 months for condo builders to sell 70 per cent of their units, says George Carras, president of RealNet Canada, which monitors building activity across the GTA.

This year, they’re hitting the threshold in just four months, largely because of their “growing sophistication” in wooing brokers who can deliver multiple investors.

Carras likens the process to Initial Public Offerings of stocks. Those willing to spend the most and not afraid of risk potentially get the biggest payback.

But some agents complain that a handful of condo builders, such as Plaza Corp., are being so aggressive at racking up early sales, it’s becoming impossible for the average buyer, looking for a home or little investment property, to get in before prices are less affordable.

It also gets tougher to find the most desirable units, such as the cheapest one-bedroom corner units high enough to have a view.

Several realtors spoke to The Star about the focus on investment buyers, but none would be named for fear of being blacklisted from getting access to any units at all, which are now essential to their livelihood.

One Asian agent who has sold numerous Plaza Corp. units, said he had to pull strings to get clients a peek at their York Harbour Club project on the Railway Lands: “I’m not part of their stable of VIP agents.”

“York Harbour Club was a little bit unfair to the public,” concedes Plaza Corp. vice-president Scott McClellan. “The (pre-sales) took off on us a little bit and we probably didn’t have as much as we wanted to have for the general public.”

By the time the public could buy, just 30 per cent of units were available.

“This isn’t new. Everybody does it,” says McLellan of what he calls his “rainmaker list” — realtors who can deliver 15 or more buyers willing to buy from floor plans, rather than wait for built units.

McLellan says all of the early buyers of Ivory on Adelaide are Canadian citizens, buying units as long-term investments or as homes for their kids or relatives who might be migrating from overseas.

No one knows how much is offshore investment.

Lyon points out that investors have become essential landlords in a city where almost no one is building apartments. He also sees the units as “warehousing” for first-time buyers who can rent while saving up a down payment. Often investors are willing to sell without requiring the 20 per cent down payment a bank demands.

“These investors bear no relationship to the speculators of the 1980s,” Lyon says. “They’re very sophisticated” and recognize Toronto as a bargain compared with other major cities in the world.

A lot of developers point out they hold back units so less high-achieving realtors, and the public, don’t miss out altogether. Often they are at higher prices — parking spots alone can be almost $10,000 more expensive — but McLellan says there are no plans to raise unit prices on Ivory on Adelaide when the public gets their first crack this weekend.

Rone is fairly savvy — he has been involved in the condo market since 2006 — but is still shaking his head: “This just seems unfair.”

He finally got his email invitation to the “grand opening” of the Ivory on Adelaide sales centre Friday. Like everyone else who may walk through the doors, he has no clue that almost half — 43.5 per cent — of the 358 units have already been sold.

McLellan insists that no buyer is being left out. Even those who’ve dropped by the last few days have been asked to leave their names.

But Rone’s agent now knows she gained nothing by registering early and that the smallest and most affordable places will likely be gone.

“I’m not going to lie and tell you that I haven’t heard this (complaints about the early sales process) before,” McLellan says. “I have people who have called me upset. We figure it out for them.

“Have him give me a call.”

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U.S. stock futures rose Monday after Caterpillar raised its profit forecast on expectations that the economic recovery will continue and companies announced a flurry of takeovers.

Investors are still worried about Europe’s debt problems, which have helped drag global stocks up and down the last two years. European leaders said they made progress at a weekend summit, but they likely won’t unveil concrete plans to help resolve the crisis until Wednesday.

But even with the global economic worries, Caterpillar and other U.S. companies are still reporting bigger profits. “Although there is a good deal of economic and political uncertainty in the world, we are not seeing it much in our business at this point,” Caterpillar Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman said.

The maker of construction equipment said its profit rose 44 percent in the latest quarter from a year earlier. It shares rose 5 percent in premarket trading.

Caterpillar joins McDonald’s Corp. and other U.S. companies that have reported stronger third-quarter earnings. Those reports helped the Dow Jones industrial average last week to rise for the third straight week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished the week at its highest level since Aug. 3, before Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating on Aug. 5 and helped trigger big swings in global markets.

Analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to report total earnings growth of 14 percent for the third quarter, according to FactSet.

Other big companies expected to report earnings results this week include UPS Inc instant credit reports., Ford Motor Co. and Procter & Gamble.

Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to say their revenue rose 10 percent last quarter. But their expenses likely climbed too. Higher costs for raw materials helped drag down profit for Kimberly-Clark Corp. by 8 percent. The maker of Huggies and Kleenex fell 1 percent in premarket trading.

A flurry of corporate deals helped lift stock futures.

RightNow Technologies Inc. rose 19 percent ahead of the bell after Oracle said it will buy the tech service company for about $1.5 billion.

HealthSpring rose 33 percent after Cigna said it will buy the health insurer for about $3.8 billion in cash.

Mattel rose 1.6 percent after it agreed to buy Hit Entertainment, the owner of the Thomas & Friends and Barney brands, for $680 million in cash.

Asian and European markets rose earlier Monday after Japan said its exports grew for a second straight month in September and a report showed China’s industrial production returned to growth in October. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.9 percent.

Thirty minutes ahead of the opening, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 43 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,800. S&P 500 index futures rose 2.90, or 0.2 percent, to 1,238.10. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8, or 0.3 percent, to 2,342.25.

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Suzuki Motor Corp. says it has sent Volkswagen AG a notice accusing the German automaker of numerous breaches of their 2009 alliance agreement.

The Japanese car maker is seeking “remedies” from Volkswagen or a return of its shares.

Volkswagen owns 19.9 percent of Suzuki under a partnership inked two years ago that has unraveled in recent months.

Suzuki’s board of directors decided last month to dissolve the alliance payday loans. In response, Volkswagen said it has no plans to sell its stake in Suzuki.

Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki says the deal was intended to give Suzuki access to Volkswagen’s technologies. He says he is “disappointed that we have not received what we were promised.”

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Stocks wavered Tuesday as investors worried that Slovakia might block an expansion of Europe’s financial rescue program.

Sixteen countries that use the euro have approved a measure to strengthen a European rescue fund, but Slovakia hasn’t signed off on the plan yet. The measure would increase the size and powers of Europe’s financial rescue fund, allowing large amounts of money to be released quickly to banks and struggling governments before a full-blown crisis sets in. A vote is expected later in the day. If Slovakia blocks the measure, it could complicate efforts to address Europe’s debt jam.

The Dow Jones industrial average bounced between small gains and losses while other major indexes edged up.

The Dow fell 4 points, to 11,428, shortly before noon. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1, or 0.1 percent, at 1,196. The Nasdaq rose 13, or 0.5 percent, to 2,579.

The weak trading comes a day after the Dow jumped 330 points, its largest increase since Aug. 11.

Investors worry that if Greece defaults on its debts, it would hurt banks in Europe and in the U.S. by causing the value of Greek government bonds they hold to plunge. With weaker balance sheets, those banks could become even more reluctant to lend to each other and to businesses and consumers. That could slow down an already weak global economy.

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. fell 1.9 percent after the car-rental company said it was taking itself off the market after failing to get acceptable takeover proposals from Hertz or other companies.

Discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores Inc. rose 4.4 percent. Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have offered to buy the company for $22 per share in cash, a 7 percent premium from Monday’s closing price.

Sprint Nextel Corp. fell 2.9 percent. The stock has plunged 26 percent since Friday, when Sprint said it wants to speed up plans to revamp its high-speed wireless network. Analysts say that will raise its expenses dramatically.

After the closing bell, aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. will become the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report third-quarter results. Analysts expect earnings from S&P 500 companies to rise about 12 percent from the same period last year, according to data provider FactSet. Revenue is expected to rise 11 percent.

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Forecasters say Tropical Storm Jova could become a hurricane later in the day out in the Pacific Ocean.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday that Jova had maximum sustained winds near 70 mph (113 kph) but was still far from land. It was about 460 miles (740 kilometers) west-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, on Saturday morning.

Current forecast models show Jova could make landfall over Mexico by next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Irwin was beginning to make a U-turn and is expected to start moving toward land in the next couple of days Faxless payday loans. Irwin had maximum sustained winds of about 75 mph (120 kph) and is expected to remain a Category 1 storm for now.

In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Philippe continued to swirl far from land.

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Energy companies EdF SA, Eni SpA and Wintershall AG on Friday signed a shareholder deal with Russian gas exporting monopoly Gazprom to take 50 percent in a European gas pipeline project.

The agreement, signed by the companies’ chief executives, gives Italy’s Eni 20 percent in the project while France’s EdF and Germany’s Wintershall get 15 percent each.

The South Stream project is meant to transport Russian natural gas to Europe under the Black Sea. The pipeline, which is expected to start in 2015, would ship up to 63 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Italy in one leg and Croatia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey in a second.

The three were previously named as Gazprom’s partners but Friday’s deal is the first time they signed a legally binding agreement easy to get unsecured personal loans.

Eni’s chief executive Paolo Scaroni told Russian news agencies that South Stream partners would present an investment plan to potential creditors in the first half of 2012. Scaroni said the construction of the underwater section alone is likely to cost $10 billion.

South Stream is rivaling a EU-backed Nabucco pipeline that’s slated to ship gas from the Caspian region to Austria via southern Europe.

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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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