After a second consecutive month of growth in July, when GDP increased by 0.5%, government ministers Igor Shuvalov and Andrei Klepach have felt optimistic enough to suggest Russia's recession may be over - 'but the crisis has yet to be overcome'.  Sberbanks's profits fell by 93% in the first seven months of the year.  The bank will provide Rushydro with up to 20 billion rubles to fund the rebuilding of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant.  ITAR-TASS reports that mortgage loan interest rates may decrease to pre-recession levels in 2-3 years.  Opel unions will put pressure on GM to accept the Magna bid for the car maker's European unit, promising 'spectacular measures' to push a deal through.  Apparently joblessness continues to rise in 47 of Russia's regions.  Following a chorus of criticism joined by Oleg Deripaska, ...

Reuters reports that US businessmen will press Barack Obama to urge for less corruption and greater openness towards foreign companies during his visit to Moscow.  French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer have joined in the debate stoked by China and Russia about global coordination of currencies.  Troika Dialog has suggested that the Economic Development Ministry's forecast of an 8.5% contraction of GDP this year may be 'too cautious'.  The corporate sector's foreign debt has grown to $436.8 billion as of July 1, from $420.7 billion as of April 1, suggesting that borrowing has begun again.  It appears that a Russian sovereign wealth fund may be interested in buying a stake in car maker Porsche.  Despite reports of stalling, Magna's deal with Opel is apparently nearing completion.  US farm machinery maker ...

Asian markets jumped to eight-month highs Monday on expectations of a global economic recovery even as General Motors prepared to file for a historic bankruptcy protection.  A third successive rise in Chinese manufacturing also raised hopes that the worst of the economic crisis is over.  The Shanghai Composite Index in Mainland China jumped 3.4% as the country's official purchasing managers' index for May fell to 53.1 from 53.5 in April.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 4% and the Nikkei added 1.6%.

Following the overseas gains, US stock futures suggest Wall Street is headed for a higher open.  Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 1.2% to 8,586. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures jumped 1.4% to 930.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures gained 1.1% to 1,451.50.       

On Friday, a late-session rally pushed U.S. stocks to their biggest three-month run since 2007, as commodities recorded their highest monthly advance

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TODAY: US disappointed with Russia's stance on OSCE; Medvedev hopeful on Obama talks; Abkhazia's President Bagapsh wary of Russian control; Russia suggests ruble reserve currency for G8; prognosis not good for Russia-EU; gay rights parade broken up Talks on replacing the START treaty will begin today, the Economist reports.  President Medvedev is apparently optimistic that in his upcoming meeting with President Obama even thorny topics will be discussed.  US defense missile sites in Eastern Europe, one such example, will apparently be on the agenda.  Will OSCE monitoring also be?  Washington is apparently frustrated with Russia's veto of the security watchdog's activity in Georgia.  'It is disappointing and we hope that Russia will reverse its stance',  says a State Department spokesman.  An article ...

There wasn’t much activity in gold in Far East and early European trading on Wednesday morning. But by the time the Comex opened for business, gold was up a few bucks. However, every time the gold price poked its nose above $900, there was somebody there to take it right back down again.

Silver did better. It traded a few cents on either side of unchanged throughout the Far East and early London trading. That came to an end as soon as the London silver fix was in…noon in London…and 7:00 a.m. in New York. From there a rally commenced which really didn’t have much enthusiasm behind it…and it flat-lined from the end of Comex trading until electronic trading in New York was through for that day at 5:15 p.m Eastern.

Tuesday was the last day for trading the April contract in both gold and silver. There was lots of furious action

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The Russian Finance Ministry says that all of the major tax breaks have been introduced and there will be 'no sensations' in tax proposals over the next three years.  Rusal claims to have cut costs by $554 million in the first quarter, but workers suggest this is affecting safety and efficiency.  According to Ria Novosti, Rusal has seen a decrease in its primary aluminum output by 7.2% year-on-year in January-March.  Alfa Bank has restructured 5% of its loan portfolio, according to Reuters the figure stands at 15%.  Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works has agreed to restructure car maker Avtovaz's outstanding debt in a long term cooperation agreement.  Vladimir Yevtushenkov's Sistema is apparently hoping to bid for control of telecoms giant Svyazinvest.  Sberbank issued 16.5 billion rubles in mortgage loans in the first quarter.  The ...

Highlights include General Motors Corp. (GM), American International Group, Inc. (AIG), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Toyota Motor Corp. (TM).The economic numbers we have been getting recently have been a mix of "awful but not quite as bad as feared" and "just plain awful." Recently, the market has been paying more attention to the former than the latter.Auto sales came in yesterday at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 9.86 million, which -- while well below the 16 million rate we regularly saw a few years ago -- is a nice improvement over the 9.12 million SAAR in February. This morning, factory orders for February were reported as a 1.8% increase, a nice reversal from the 3.5% decline in January.A big fly in the ointment, though, was that the January number was revised down -- it was originally ...

Markets are hard to predict, says Andrew Gordon. But government policy isn’t. That’s why the effective nationalization of the auto industry is a gift to investors. It virtually assures the death of the SUV and rise of the hybrid car. Andrew says this means small-cap battery maker Ener1 (AMEX:HEV) has an “awesome future.”

This from Investor’s Daily Edge:

In early June, CNN Radio called and asked me about gas prices and autos. The first question was more like a statement. The radio host said that people were forsaking big cars and flocking to smaller models. And wasn’t that great? He added that the American consumer should be congratulated for being so willing to save on energy.

He couldn’t see me shaking my head in disagreement. I told him we haven’t turned into a nation of tree-huggers yet. And congratulations are a little early. Consumers are simply responding to price. When gas goes

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US stocks are way up today.

MarketWatch reports that the Dow had its "greatest intraday point gain on record after a frantic weekend of international government actions bolstered confidence in the banking sector and credit markets."

The US benchmark is now well on track to record its biggest ever gain in terms of percentage points.

The Dow was recently ahead 587.17 points, or 6.9%, to 9,038.36.