Business news for Thu, 29 Nov 2007 & with words market+report. 11 news.

Tennessee ranked 11th in the most recent U.S. foreclosure market report released by RealtyTrac.

October foreclosure filings were down 17 percent in Pennsylvania and 6 percent in New Jersey compared to September, according to the October 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report by RealtyTrac.

A report has found that public transport's overall share of the market declined between 2001-2005.

Georgia was in the top 10 for total foreclosure filings and foreclosure rates in October, according to RealtyTrac's October 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report published Thursday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Technology stocks opened mostly flat Thursday morning, as the broader market declined shortly after the opening bell. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index , the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index were all trading down fractionally. The Dow was off about 24 points. Dell Inc. , which is expected to report third-quarter results today, was up more than 1% on Wall Street projections of a 17% earnings growth.

Corporate Japan has devised a new industrial model, but further reform is still needed HOW much has corporate Japan changed in the past decade? A great deal, say optimists, who point to all the things that are different; not enough, say pessimists, who point to everything that has stayed the same. Both are right. In recent years Japanese companies have emerged from the gloom of the 1990s with the help of a new industrial model that combines elements of the old Japanese way of doing things with some carefully chosen bits of American capitalism. As our special report in this issue argues, the result is a hybrid, an effort to achieve the best of both worlds--rather as a Toyota Prius combines the range of a petrol engine with the energy efficiency of an electric motor. Many Japanese companies now provide merit-based pay and share options, for example, but not to the extent that American firms do. There is more shareholder activism and more mergers and acquisitions, but activists and acquirers are expected to be polite. And although the older salarymen get to keep their jobs for life, the young are less inclined to offer to "bury their bones" at the company that first hires them, and are keener on playing the market and moving around. ...

THE Dublin market soared yesterday as the financials gained considerable ground on the back of some encouraging news for the sector.

The Irish food and drink market is set to increase by almost 40% and be worth more than ?15 billion by 2020, according to a new Bord Bia report.

OIL'S rise to US$100 a barrel, which seemed a done deal as recently as two days ago, was dealt a severe blow yesterday when the US government reported an increase in stocks at the Nymex delivery terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma, which is closely watched by traders as a benchmark of oil inventory tightness. Anemic growth in demand and a jump in refinery activity also weighed on prices, which have dropped sharply in recent days on concerns about the economy and expectations supplies will grow. "The report ... added to the bearish sentiment in the market," said Eric Wittenauer, an energy analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc in St. Louis. "It comes at a period in time when OPEC is boosting production ... and considering another increase in production." Light, sweet crude for January delivery plunged US$3.80 to settle at US$90.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following Tuesday's drop of US$3.28 a barrel. That was crude's second largest two-day

WASHINGTON U.S. home prices marked a quarterly decline for the first time in 13 years in the third quarter, according to government data released today that provides fresh evidence of the housing market slump. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that oversees the big mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said in its quarterly report that home prices dipped 0.4 percent nationwide in the July-September period, compared with the previous quarter. Compared with the third quarter of 2006, the agency's index of U.S home prices posted an increase of 1.

The last time any serious bid rumours did the rounds at Alliance & Leicester, the suitor was Crédit Agricole and the alleged takeout price was 1,500p per share. Barring a miracle of epic proportions, investors are not going to get anything like that if rumours are true about a bid coming from Santander, the Spanish banking giant.