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Republican senators and Gov. Jay Nixon have sparred regularly the last few years about how to grow Missouri’s economy. Now they’re sparring over who to put in charge of the effort.

Senate leaders are poised this week to sink Nixon’s nomination of St. Louis attorney Jason Hall to lead the Department of Economic Development, claiming the 36-year-old lacks the experience necessary for the job. The Senate committee that approves nominations declined to take up Hall’s on Wednesday. And if they don’t by week’s end, not only will his nomination expire, but Hall will be barred for life from holding the post.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Mayer, R-Dexter, said Wednesday he has no plans to approve Hall this week, and people familiar with the talks said his nomination is basically dead.

But there was no official word from Nixon’s office, which put out a statement saying Hall is “highly qualified.” Hall himself did not return messages seeking comment.

The son of a Granite City steelworker and founder of a group for gay lawyers in St. Louis, Hall was an attorney at Bryan Cave before Nixon tapped him to lead the quasi-governmental Missouri Technology Corp. in 2009. In December, Nixon picked Hall to replace outgoing DED director David Kerr, calling him “exactly the type of bright, energetic leader we need to help create jobs and move Missouri’s economy forward.”

But Hall’s nomination came on the eve of an election year, on the heels of a legislative special session where lawmakers couldn’t agree on job-creation tools, and amid probes into DED’s handling of a sweetener plant deal that collapsed in Moberly last fall.

All those factors likely played a role in Senate opposition to Hall, said Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“This appointment became that much more critical and focused on,” Mehan said. “It was going to get attention because there is this opinion out there, rightly or wrongly, that [DED] needs to be fixed.”

Mehan is one of several business leaders who’ve said they support Hall’s nomination. He called Hall well-qualified, and pointed out that Missouri has had many officials - from both parties - who served in top roles while in their 30’s.

“[Hall’s] a quality guy and would be a great benefit to the state,” Mehan said.

Mayer sees it differently. Talking to reporters in Jefferson City today, he noted the nominee has “very little experience in private industry or business.”

“Most senators believe he’s a bright, articulate young man,” Mayer said. “But at this stage in his life, I don’t think he’s ready to take on the position of the Department of Economic Development.”

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Those that count out exact change for their morning brew at Tim Hortons will either have to practice ordering a different size or fork over a few extra pennies.

The beloved Canadian coffee joint will shift the names of its sizes starting next Monday to make room for a 24 oz. cup

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Things are looking up in Europe, at least for now, as borrowing costs in Italy and Spain eased Thursday following strong debt auctions.

Spain’s auction of nearly €10 billion worth of bonds in three different maturities met with strong demand, as did Italy’s €8.5 billion of 12-month bills.

The European Central Bank was "supplying quite a bit of liquidity" by buying an undisclosed amount of bonds to prop up the market, as it typically does, said Frances Hudson, global thematic strategist for Standard Life Investments in Edinburgh, Scotland.

But the auctions were also driven by newfound confidence in the new leadership of the Spanish and Italian governments, she added. "You go into a halo effect because you’ve got a new government so people are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt."

German and Italy sound upbeat on debt crisis

David Rodriguez, quantitative strategist at DailyFX, noted that Spain wound up selling nearly twice the amount it had planned on auctioning, which signals real market demand for bonds, not just support from the ECB.

"Maybe the ECB stepped in, but the ECB wouldn’t have the firepower to put €5 billion into that auction," he said. "I think what investors are seeing is the probability that these nations will remain solvent for the foreseeable future."

The healthy demand for Italian and Spanish bonds helped to drive up European stocks. London’s FTSE () closed higher by 1.2%, the DAX () in Frankfurt rose 2 no teletrack payday loan.5% and the CAC 40 () in Paris jumped 2.3%.

The auction results also helped to drive down bond yields. The average yield for the Italian 10-year bond slipped to 6.63%, remaining below the anxiety benchmark of 7%, and the average yield for the 10-year Spanish bond dropped to 5.13%.

But Hudson cautioned against extrapolating too much from the Italian bond auction and its impact on the 10-year bond yields, since it was for bills, not bonds. Also, she said she wasn’t sure how long the renewed confidence would last.

Don’t get too comfortable with European bonds, urged Marc Chandler, strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, noting that more auctions lie ahead.

The euro’s fatal problem isnt’ spending

"Risk lies with the bond sale tomorrow, especially with the large increase in Italian bond prices today as the 5-year yield is off 60 [basis points] and the 10-year yield has dropped about 40 [basis points]," wrote Chandler, in a market report. "The year is long, and the amount that the sovereigns and banks need to raise is large."

The euro also got a modest boost Thursday, edging to $1.28 against the U.S. dollar, after hitting an 18-month low of $1.26 on Wednesday.

"At least on the short end of the curve, you see a little bit of confidence returning to the market," said Rodriguez, referring to the euro and European bonds. 

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St. Louis Place, a 20-story office building in downtown St. Louis, is facing foreclosure after its owner apparently was unable to renegotiate its real estate loan with U.S. Bank.

The building, at 200 North Broadway, is nearly 90 percent full. The primary occupant is the headquarters of Fleishman-Hillard, the public relations firm with offices worldwide.

A foreclosure sale is scheduled for Jan. 27.

Records show that Behringer Harvard, a Dallas-based real estate investment trust, and affiliates paid Trizec Properties $30.15 million for St. Louis Place in 2004. The red brick building, designed by the Peckman Guyton Albers & Viets architecture firm and completed in 1983, is distinctive for balconies set beneath a large overhang spanning the middle floors.

A Behringer Harvard official was unavailable for comment Monday. A lawyer for U.S. Bank declined to comment.

In a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission in November, Behringer Harvard said its St. Louis Place property manager and asset manager was in talks with the lender to restructure the loan No teletrack payday loans. The report said there was “no assurance that this loan will be restructured,” adding that foreclosure or surrendering the building to the lender was possible.

Also in November, U.S. Bank went to court to get a receiver appointed to take over the building’s operation.

On Thursday, St. Louis Circuit Judge Mark Neill appointed Cassidy Turley, a commercial real estate firm, to manage St. Louis Place.

Lingering weakness in the downtown property market has put pressure on building owners to maintain occupancy and lease rates while trying to pay off large real estate loans.

At least one big downtown company has decided to stay put and buy its leased space instead of building a new headquarters. In August, Stifel Finacial Corp. said it would buy its headquarters at 501 North Broadway instead of investing in a new headquarters at Ballpark Village.

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Regions Financial is days away from announcing a sale of its Morgan Keegan unit, according to a Wall Street Journal report. And it seems St. Louis-based Stifel Financial may not be out of the bidding.

The news follows a more than six-month-long effort by Birmingham-based Regions to sell Morgan Keegan, a Memphis based brokerage with 1,200 financial advisers nationwide.

Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg News said last week that Regions had ended the talks with Stifel.

However, the Wall Street Journal also is reporting online today that Stifel remains in the hunt to buy Morgan Keegan and is bidding against Raymond James, a St. Petersburg-based brokerage with 5,400 financial advisers. Stifel has about 2,000 financial advisers.

The Wall Street Journal’s report says the sale price for Morgan Keegan will range between $900 million and $1 billion, which is less than what Regions sought for the unit when it placed it up for sale last June Payday advance. Regions bought Morgan Keegan in 2001 for $789 million.

Regions owes the U.S. Treasury $3.5 billion from participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, in 2008, and is seeking to use the proceeds from the Morgan Keegan sale to pay a portion of the TARP money it owes.

A Regions spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the status of the Morgan Keegan sale.

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Manufacturing in India and China improved in December, a sign the world

Stocks closed down more than 1% Wednesday, as investors continued to fret over how Europe could solve its debt troubles in 2012. Selling intensified ahead of the close.

On a light trading week, investors have few other economic or corporate indicators to mull before 2011 ends.

Still, traders and analysts said the low volumes led to more pronounced swings, and some of the moves are coming from year-end portfolio rebalancing rather than convictions over the trajectory of all stocks or a particular stock.

"I don’t know what to read into today," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. "There’s nothing going on in the U.S. market. It’s a holiday week."

The S&P fell back into negative territory for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average () closed down 140 points, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 () slid 16 points, or 1.3%. The Nasdaq () lost 35 points, or 1.3% .

Dragging down the technology sector Wednesday were RIMM, () Netflix () and Fossil (). The Nasdaq is down roughly 2% for 2011.

Despite Wednesday’s sell-off, the Dow remains up 5% for 2011.

Some traders still hope to close the year poised for a January bounce. To get there, some say 1260 would be the magic number for the S&P to clear on Friday.

"If we could clear 1,260 by the end of the week, we could see a strong rally in January," said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

If the S&P clears 1258 by year-end, it would mark the third straight year of gains. The index remains about 11% below where it closed at the end of 2007.

Still, after closing at 1250 Wednesday, stocks need to commence a substantial two-day rally to get there.

U.S. stocks have been buoyed recently by signs of improvement in the US economy, including declines in weekly claims for unemployment benefits and an uptick in new home construction.

But investors say the market remains vulnerable as the debt crisis in Europe continues to threaten the outlook for the global economy and financial markets easy to get unsecured personal loans.

One bright spot for Europe on Wednesday was an Italian auction of 3- and 24-month bonds that drew strong demand and yields half as high as the previous month’s auctions. The results helped lift European equities and banks.

Investors will be more closely watching Thursday’s auction of Italian 10-year bonds, which have seen yields continue to flirt with the 7% danger zone. That level is worrisome because it flashed the first warning signs for Ireland, Portugal and Greece, which all eventually needed bailouts.

U.S. stocks ended a listless session little changed Tuesday as investors weighed reports on consumer confidence and home prices.

World markets: Europe’s markets finished lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 () eased 0.1%, the DAX () in Germany slumped 2% and France’s CAC 40 () lost 1%

Economists a bit more optimistic

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite () rose 0.2%, the Hang Seng () in Hong Kong fell 0.6% and Japan’s Nikkei () lost 0.2%.

Currencies and commodities: Oil prices eased off the previous sessions spike, slipping $1.64 to $99.70 a barrel. On Tuesday, crude prices jumped 2% after Iran threatened to choke off the flow of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Gold futures for February delivery fell $31.40 to $1,564.10 an ounce.

The dollar fell against the British pound and the Japanese yen but edged higher against the euro.

Companies: Shares in the financial sector remained under pressure throughout the trading day.

Top stocks of 2011

Citigroup (, Fortune 500), Credit Suisse (), Wells Fargo (, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (, Fortune 500) closed down between 1% and 4%.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury moved up sharply, with the yield falling to 1.928% from 2.01% from late Tuesday.  

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Yemeni soldiers battled al-Qaida-linked militants Monday outside the southern city of Zinjibar, which remains partly under the control of the Islamists. Five soldiers and four fighters were killed, a military official said.

The intense fighting in northern and eastern Zinjibar included artillery and rocket shelling on militant hideouts, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

He said the military units were engaged in pitched battles with armed gangs deployed on the streets, and have advanced on areas controlled by the militants.

At least 60 people, including 23 soldiers, have been killed in the fighting since last week.

Islamic militants, including some with links to the al-Qaida branch in Yemen, seized control of Zinjibar and another town in April and May. They were taking advantage of the turmoil surrounding the popular uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh to expand their area of operations.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was behind several nearly successful attempts to attack U.S. targets, including the failed attempt to down a passenger jet bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Washington believes it is the most dangerous of several al-Qaida’s offshoots around the globe.

President Saleh has cooperated with the U.S. in fighting the group and used the threat of al-Qaida in arguing that he could not relinquish power in Yemen despite the protests calling for him to go since February payday loans.

The U.S. withdrew its support of Saleh in the summer, and the autocratic leader signed a deal last month to transfer power in exchange for immunity from prosecution over the deaths of protesters and corruption during his 33 years in power.

The deal has failed to quell the protests in Yemen, which have recently expanded to include labor strikes, calling for Saleh loyalists to be removed from office and for Saleh to be put on trial.

On Monday, Yemen’s military agreed to replace a commander accused of corruption, apparently settling a brief strike by 1,000 soldiers, said Anwar Abdullah, an officer in a military department that deals with public affairs and army morale. Abdullah said that the strikers demanded the ouster of department head Maj. Gen. Ali al-Shater for mismanagement, accusing him of running his own prison, in which some soldiers were jailed even for minor offenses. Some were kept in chains.

Abdullah said after the prime minister intervened in the dispute Monday, it was agreed that al-Shater would be replaced.

The soldiers said they would end their strike when the defense minister appoints a new commander.

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Natural rubber demand in China, the world

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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