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UBS Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel, under pressure after a rogue trader lost $2.3 billion of the Swiss banking giant’s money, kept silent Friday after facing the institution’s board of directors in Singapore.

Gruebel was the first of UBS’s top management and board to leave the meeting at the bank’s office and refused to answer reporters’ questions as he sat alone in the back of a chauffeured Mercedes.

Several UBS board members left about 30 minutes later and also declined to comment.

Some analysts have speculated that Gruebel’s job is at stake, though he said last weekend that he will not resign. UBS leadership may also be mulling whether to keep its investment banking arm to go along with its wealth management business.

Earlier this week, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. _ the largest UBS shareholder _ said in a rare public rebuke that it was concerned about lapses at UBS and called on the bank to restore confidence.

The sovereign wealth fund, which owns about 6.4 percent of UBS, has suffered heavy losses on its investment as the bank’s share price has more than halved since GIC became a shareholder.

A UBS spokeswoman said Friday that no further meetings among the board and top management are planned for this weekend.

The bank’s board was scheduled to meet in Singapore this week because UBS is a major sponsor of the Formula One race being held on the island Sunday, and it plans to entertain clients at its luxury suite.

London-based UBS trader Kweku Adoboli was arrested last week and charged with fraud and false accounting for the loss. A judge ordered him Thursday to be held in jail until a hearing next month.

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Americans are depressed about their economic prospects but continue to spend their way through their latest downturn in sentiment, new consumer confidence data showed Tuesday.

The latest survey from the New York-based Conference Board, a business-research center, had its consumer confidence index plunging almost 15 points to 44.5 in August, down from 59.2 points in July. The steep drop reflected the lowest point in consumer confidence since April 2009, a month when the economy shed 539,000 jobs amid recession and financial crisis.

Blame fell on Washington’s political brinksmanship over the debt ceiling, which took the nation to the verge of a first-ever debt default.

As bad as Tuesday’s confidence number was, there was offsetting positive news in the broader report from the Conference Board, as well as in Monday’s Commerce Department report that consumer spending rose 0.8 percent in July, the best showing in five months.

“Digging deeper in the (Conference Board) report, we find that consumers’ buying attitudes do not reflect their confidence levels,” economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch noted.

The number of consumers who indicated they would be purchasing automobiles in the next six months rose from 11.9 percent in July to 12.9 percent in August. And for the first time in nearly a year, more than 50 percent indicated that they would soon buy big appliances. Almost 47 percent of respondents planned to take vacations.

“We shouldn’t be seeing more consumers planning to take more vacations or purchase large items if they truly thought that another recession was on its way,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s report noted. “We think the drop in sentiment in August was a result of the dysfunction in Washington over raising the debt ceiling and also the S&P’s downgrading of the U.S.’s credit rating.”

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The Nordic region’s largest bank Nordea AB says it will lay off around 2,000 employees in 2011 and 2012, partly due to the increased costs imposed by new global bank regulations.

The bank Monday said it has started negotiations with unions in Sweden, Finland and Denmark to lay off between 500 and 650 staff in each country. It has also started negotiations with unions in Norway to reduce its work force there by between 200 and 300 people overnight pay day loans.

The bank said the “increased costs imposed by new global regulation will create challenges for all banks,” and the layoffs are part of a scheme to maintain its place among the top-league banks in Europe.

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Egypt’s government says it plans to lift the country’s hated emergency law before democratic parliamentary elections later this year.

The law, imposed in 1981, gave ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s security forces wide powers to arrest and detain Egyptians without charge. Lifting the law has been a key demand of the protesters behind Egypt’s uprising earlier this year.

Government spokesman Mohammed Hegazy told reporters Thursday that lifting the emergency law will “prepare for fair and free elections.”

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The Toronto stock market was higher Tuesday afternoon as the U.S. Federal Reserve acknowledged that the U.S. economy is weaker than it had thought with increasing risks, yet offered no measures to soften the blow of deteriorating conditions.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 75.57 points or per cent to 11,746.53 after earlier gaining as much as 378 points. The TSX had earlier surged as much as 378 points earlier in the session as investors bought up stocks that were beaten down in price during a series of plunges that brought the TSX to its lowest level in a year.

Gains disappeared after the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to come up with new stimulus measures at the end of their meeting on interest rates. The Fed is keeping interest rates near zero and tried to reassure rattled markets by saying that rates will stay that low through mid-2013. The Fed had previously only said that it would keep it low for

The purchase of a nine per cent stake in Ireland

U.S. stocks indexes inched higher Friday, trimming their losses for the week. The gains were held back by a budget deadlock in Washington and worries that Europe’s debt crisis could spread.

The stock market was headed for one of its worst weeks this year. Indexes have fallen four of the past five days after Italy appeared to be the next European country headed for a fiscal calamity.

Those concerns ebbed after Europe’s banking authority said only eight banks failed the latest round of tests designed to show how well they would stand up under severe financial strain. A total of 90 banks were subject to the tests.

The market opened higher after Google Inc., Mattel Inc. and Citigroup Inc. all reported strong quarterly earnings. Buyout offers for Clorox Co. and Petrohawk Energy Corp. also lifted stock prices.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 3 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,312 in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14, or 0.1 percent, to 12,451. The Nasdaq composite index rose 18, or 0.7 percent, to 2,781.

In Washington, lawmakers and President Barack Obama made little visible progress in negotiations over raising the nation’s borrowing limit ahead of an Aug. 2 deadline. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said Thursday there is a 50 percent chance it will downgrade the government’s credit rating within three months because of the impasse. A day earlier, Moody’s Investor Service said it is reviewing America’s bond rating for a possible downgrade.

Many analysts believe that a default by the U.S. is unlikely and would be corrected quickly. But concerns about Europe and a weak data on U.S. factory output continued to weigh on stocks, as they have since early this spring.

Those worries have kept traders’ expectations and stock prices relatively low, said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist Schaeffer’s Investment Research. If corporate earnings remain strong and Europe stabilizes, he said, stocks might rally in the second half of the year. That happened last year, after fears about Europe held the stock market back all summer.

“With all the talk about European debt and the U payday loan lenders.S. issues, the fact that earnings are coming in pretty strong is a good sign,” Detrick said. “Once those issues work their way through the system, long-term growth is going to come from earnings.”

The government said early Friday that U.S. factories produced fewer autos in June and overall factory output was flat. It was third straight weak month for manufacturers. Auto production declined in all three months because automakers were unable to obtain parts after the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.

Major indices are down for the week following two weeks of gains. The S&P 500 is down 2.4 percent, the Dow 1.7 percent. Traders hoped to extend recent gains after an eight-week slump fed by Europe’s worsening debt troubles.

Mattel shares rose 2 percent after the company said its net income jumped 56 percent in the second quarter, helped by strong demand for Barbie and “Cars 2″ toys.

Google jumped 13 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after the company said its income increased 36 percent from the year-ago quarter and revenue hit an all-time high. Google reported after the markets closed Thursday.

Clorox Co. shares surged 8 percent after billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered to take the company private in a deal that values the household products company at $10.2 billion. He offered 12 percent more for shares than they were worth at Thursday’s close.

U.S. oil and gas producers rose after Australian natural-resource giant BHP Billiton Ltd. said it would buy Petrohawk Energy Corp. for $12.1 billion, feeding speculation about which company might be the next takeover target. BHP was attracted to the long-term value of Petrohawk’s U.S. natural gas reserves.

Petrohawk shares soared 63 percent, lifting other companies with natural gas holdings. Among the strongest gainers: Range Resources Corp. rose 10 percent, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. rose 9 percent and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Southwestern Energy Co. rose 8 percent.

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Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn unveiled an ambitious six-year plan for growth Monday, including a target of boosting the carmaker’s share of the global auto market to 8 percent.

Nissan Motor Corp. hopes to reach the market share target in the fiscal year ending March 2017, in part by focusing on growth in countries such as China, Brazil, Russia and India.

Nissan had a record 5.8 percent market share in the fiscal year ended March 2011.

“We are definitely on the offensive,” Ghosn said at the automaker’s Yokohama headquarters.

The plan underlines how Nissan is readying for expansion despite the production disruptions from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that are projected to drag profit down 15.4 percent to 270 billion yen ($3.4 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2012.

The maker of the March subcompact, Leaf electric vehicle and Infiniti luxury models is not being deterred by the recall woes at Toyota Motor Corp., which were blamed on overly rapid expansion.

Ghosn, who also heads Nissan’s alliance partner Renault SA of France, said Nissan was in good shape to go on the growth track because it now had no “handicap” in cash reserves, market presence or product lineup.

The business plan also includes a focus on Nissan’s trademark green technology, the electric vehicle. The automaker expects cumulative electric vehicle sales of 1.5 million vehicles for the Renault-Nissan alliance by the fiscal year ending March 2017.

Nissan will have a production capacity of 1.2 million vehicles in China by 2012, becoming Nissan’s single largest global market, it said. Nissan aims to boost its market share in China to 10 percent under the six year plan from the current 6.2 percent.

Nissan also hopes to boost its operating profit margin to 8 percent over six years from the current 6 guaranteed high risk personal loans.1 percent.

“We will accelerate our growth, bringing more innovation and excitement to our products and services as well as cleaner, more affordable cars for everyone around the world,” said Ghosn.

But some were skeptical.

Mamoru Katou, auto analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research, said Nissan sees an opportunity to boost its presence while rivals Toyota and Honda Motor Co. are ailing from disaster-related problems. But he said they will also be recovering soon.

“It’s true it has momentum,” he said of Nissan’s plans to raise production capacity around the world. “But Toyota and Honda will be back, and competition will intensify.”

Japan’s No. 2 automaker said last week that it plans to sell more cars around the world at 4.6 million vehicles in the current fiscal year, up 9.9 percent and a record for Nissan. Sales revenue is expected to edge up 7.1 percent to 9.4 trillion yen ($117.5 billion).

Ghosn, who took over Nissan when it was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, said the first few years had been devoted to cost cuts and salvaging Nissan.

That was followed by a period of growth in the early part of last decade. Then the company had to invest in new headquarters and plants, and is now ready to reap the benefits of that in the years ahead, he said last week.

Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan suffered production disruptions in Japan because of parts shortages after the March quake and tsunami destroyed key suppliers. The automaker says it has mostly recovered and will be back to normal by October.

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Europe sought Monday to put a firewall between the financial turmoil ravaging Greece and the destinies of Ireland and Portugal, the two other eurozone countries that have already received international aid.

The region’s finance ministers signed off on important changes to their bailout funds, which they hope will reinforce confidence in the eurozone’s struggling economies even though Greece’s crisis is at a new boiling point.

As Greece risked defaulting on its debt next month, market pressure was increasing on countries like Portugal, where borrowing rates hit record highs on Monday.

“Times are difficult, the reform fatigue is visible in the streets of Athens, Madrid and elsewhere, and so is the support fatigue in some of our member states,” said Olli Rehn, the European Union’s Monetary Affairs Commissioner.

But Rehn urged countries to press on with the austerity. “We are about to complete a decisive response to the worst crisis since the Second World War,” he added.

To boost market confidence, ministers agreed to raise their guarantees for bailout loans from the current rescue fund to euro780 billion($1.1 trillion) from euro440 billion, said Klaus Regling, who manages the Luxembourg-based fund. That will allow the fund to lend out a total of euro440 billion, up from about euro250 billion currently.

The European Financial Stability Facility, as the fund is known, requires significant over-guarantees to get a good credit rating and raise cash.

The increase had been agreed in principle in March, but putting it into force required states to almost double their commitments to the fund _ an unpopular move at a time when citizens in rich countries are increasingly frustrated with the cost of helping their weaker neighbors.

On top of that, the ministers also made an important change to their future rescue fund, which they hope will help already bailed-out countries regain access to debt markets.

The so-called European Stability Mechanism, which will come into force in mid-2013, when the EFSF expires, will not have preferred creditor status when it helps countries that have already been bailed out, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who also chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers.

That means the fund would not be repaid before any private creditors. Giving the fund preferred creditor status had been criticized for discouraging private investors, who would be last in line to be repaid in the case of a default.

The ESM kicks in at a time when Ireland and Portugal have to re-enter international debt markets and start raising some money again by selling bonds. However, investors will be reluctant to buy these bonds if they have a high risk of not being repaid if the economic situation in the two countries worsens again.

The ESM will retain preferred creditor status for bailouts for countries that have no previous support programs.

The International Monetary Fund said in a statement that further changes to the fund _ such as giving it the power to buy bonds of struggling countries on the open market _ were necessary and that “failure to undertake decisive action could rapidly spread tensions to the core of the euro area and result in large global spillovers.”

The warning came a day after eurozone finance ministers had delayed decisions on vital new loan money for Greece to heighten pressure on the country to pass more spending cuts and economic reforms.

Greece will have to wait until an extraordinary finance ministers meeting on July 3 to get the eurozone to sign off on a euro12 billion loan installment without which it would default on its massive debts by the middle of the month.

By then, the Greek parliament will have to pass austerity measures worth some euro28 billion as well as an unpopular euro50 billion privatization program. Its European creditors and the International Monetary Fund are also pushing for the main opposition party to support the measures, which have already sparked violent street protests and forced Prime Minister George Papandreou to reshuffle his Cabinet.

“The greatest weight of responsibility lies on the shoulders of the new Greek government” as well as the other main political forces in the country, said Rehn.

In talks that lasted into the early hours of Monday morning, the finance ministers also agreed to asks banks and other private creditors to share some of the burden of a second bailout for Greece, likely to be similar in size to the euro110 billion it was already granted a year ago. However, the ministers stressed that any private-sector involvement would have to be strictly voluntary and could not be considered a partial default by rating agencies.

Greece’s newly appointed finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said the eurozone’s decisions showed that urgent action was necessary in Athens. “We have plenty to do, on a daily basis,” he said in a statement. “The political time has been compressed a lot; each day is of extreme importance and hence we cannot afford to waste a single hour.”

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Toronto has become more of a destination for seasoned world travelers as fewer Americans are driving north for long-gone bargain vacations.

Following a decline over the last three years Tourism Toronto