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ST. LOUIS

Stock futures rose Wednesday on hopes that Europe will finally take the bold steps needed to stem its financial crisis.

The European Union is expected to present a new plan Wednesday to strengthen weak banks and lower Greece’s debt burden. The plan is considered the boldest yet to stem the debt crisis that threatens to push the global economy into another recession.

The plan comes a day after Slovakia rejected a bill that would have given more power to Europe’s financial rescue program. Sixteen other countries that use the euro have already approved the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support. Still, there are ways around Slovakia’s opposition, and investors predict the bill will ultimately pass.

Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 95 points, or 0.8 percent, to 11,425 about 45 minutes before the opening bell.

Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 10, or 0.8 percent, to 1,199. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 26, or 1.1 percent, to 2,314.

Earnings season is under way, and so far results are mixed. PepsiCo Inc. rose 1.4 percent in premarket trading after the company said its profit rose because of stronger sales of its snacks and beverages, particularly in overseas markets.

Yet Alcoa Inc. dropped 4.1 percent ahead of the opening after the aluminum maker reported earnings that were weaker than analysts expected. A 12 percent drop in aluminum prices in the third quarter dragged down results.

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. fell 3.2 percent after the lodging real estate investment trust lowered its full-year forecast for funds from operations, a key measure of its financial performance.

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BRUSSELS

A three-day rally in the stock markets faded on Friday after a mixed jobs report and credit-rating cuts for Italy and Spain.

Indexes drifted between gains and losses in the morning, then turned lower after the Fitch agency cut Spain and Italy

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc., and visionary whose enduring legacy is held firmly in the hands and hearts of millions of people around the world, died Wednesday evening.

The man who will be remembered as one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century was 56 years old.

Apple confirmed Jobs

The stock market’s worst quarter since the end of the financial crisis closed Friday on another down note.

Stocks fell broadly on fresh signs that Europe’s debt problems and the U guaranteed payday loan.S. economy continue to languish. Makers of raw materials, industrial companies and banks

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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PARIS

Libyan revolutionary forces faced fierce resistance as they streamed into one of the remaining bastions of support for Moammar Gadhafi on Friday, while the Turkish prime minister met with the country’s new rulers in the capital Tripoli.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit came a day after the French and British leaders traveled to Libya as the international community rallies around the interim government’s efforts to establish legitimacy and start rebuilding the country despite continued fighting against loyalists of Gadhafi, who remains on the run.

Libyan fighters in dozens of pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons made their way from the north into the center of town of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli. Explosions and gunfire resounded across the area and smoke billowed into the sky as fierce clashes broke out.

One of the fighters, Hisham Nseir, said the frontline is “very heated and chaotic” and his troops were meeting with heavy resistance from Gahdafi’s men.

Libyan fighters also have converged on Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte to the north of Bani Walid.

NATO airstrikes continued to pound pro-Gadhafi targets. The alliance said it struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility in Sirte on Thursday. NATO has conducted over 8,500 strikes on Libya since late March.

As revolutionary forces battle pro-Gadhafi holdouts centered in Bani Walid, Sirte and the city of Sabha, deep in the southern desert, Libya’s interim leadership has been pushing forward with efforts to form a new government.

Erdogan was greeted at the airport by Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council, the closest thing Libya has to a government. He traveled to Libya as part of a tour of the Arab world, including Egypt and Tunisia, that is aimed at offering help for the countries and advancing his growing status as a regional leader.

He was expected to discuss how to resume investments in Libya, where Turkish contractors were involved in 214 building projects worth more than $15 billion before the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi personal loan for poor credit.

Erdogan’s tour comes as once-strong ties between Turkey and Israel are unraveling due to Israel’s refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists last year.

The flotilla incident and Turkey’s desire to broaden its influence in the Middle East and the Arab world could dramatically affect the power dynamics in the region since the revolutions now known as the Arab Spring.

Turkish companies have been involved in lucrative construction projects worth billions of dollars, building hospitals, shopping malls and five-star hotels in Libya before the uprising began in mid-February.

The bilateral trade with Libya was $2.4 billion in favor of Turkey before the chaos and the two countries had waived travel visas to boost that trade.

The United States and more than 30 other nations formally recognized Libya’s main opposition group as the country’s legitimate government in a July meeting in Istanbul, giving the rebel movement a major boost. The move came after Turkey escalated its pressure on Moammar Gadhafi despite its long-standing ties to the Libyan leader.

Erdogan has said: Gadhafi has ignored calls for change in Libya and instead preferred “blood, tears and pressure against his own people.”

Turkey has recently reopened its embassy in Tripoli which was shut down due to deteriorating security. The Turkish consulate in the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi remained open throughout the conflict.

Turkey initially balked at the idea of military action in Libya, but as a NATO member it is helping to enforce an arms embargo on Libya and volunteered to lead humanitarian aid efforts.

Erdogan also was expected to appear on the Martyrs’ Square, which was renamed from the Gadhafi-era Green Square, in Tripoli and to travel to the cities of Misrata and Benghazi.

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Rogers Communications wants to be your bank, as well as your phone, cable and Internet supplier.

The company says it has applied to the federal government for a banking license.

But Rogers won’t be jostling on for space on prime street corners with the Big Five banks, the company says.

Instead, it will be “primarily focused on credit, payment and charge card services,” said Carly Suppa of Rogers in an email.

“We have no plans to become a full-service deposit-taking financial institution.”

The company hasn’t set a target date for plunging into the financial services sector. In fact, it hasn’t made a final decision.

“The license, if granted, would give us the flexibility to pursue a niche credit card opportunity to our customers should this make sense at a future date,” Suppa said.

In any case, she added, the licensing process is a rigorous one that could take more than a year.

David McVay of McVay and Associates Ltd. said Rogers probably wants to capture a share of the fees generated by credit and debit cards.

When a consumer pays with a credit card, the merchant gets paid about 98 cents on the dollar for the transaction. The other two cents is divided between the card issuer and the clearing house that tracks the payments.

“I suspect they may want to get in the middle of that process to get some of that revenue,” McVay said.

Debit card transactions generate a set fee per transaction, rather than a percentage of the purchase value.

But Rogers may also be looking to new telephone technology that’s just over the horizon, McVay said.

“It may actually relate to the cellphone becoming a payment device. Not far off, you’ll be able to wave your cellphone by a payment terminal and it will debit your account or charge your credit card.”

That, too, will generate fees that Rogers, as a phone company, will want to capture more of.

If that is the goal, McVay warned it’s no slam dunk.

Wal-Mart entered the banking sector so it could issue MasterCards, he said, and has had difficulty winning market share.

“The cards that the banks offer are so rich in rewards right now, there’s not a good reason for consumers to switch,” he said.

“I think it’ll be tough slogging for anybody up against the major banks, because they are very big, and very good.”

That hasn’t deterred some retailers from offering financial services.

Canadian Tire Financial offers a MasterCard, while President’s Choice — a brand carried by grocery chain Loblaw — provides a host of other banking services including credit cards and mortgages. Also read: Are low-fee banks worth it?

10 fees to avoid

With files from the Canadian Press

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