WaMu may seek merger as pressure mounts: Merrill
(Reuters) - Washington Mutual's (WM.N) board would seriously consider a merger offer even at a discount to what the Seattle-based thrift believes it is worth, as it faces mounting pressure to pursue options amid credit-rating downgrades, an analyst at Merrill Lynch said.
"Recent markets disruption and lack confidence that Washington Mutual can withstand the credit cycle are increasing the likelihood that it will need to seek shelter from the storm through a merger," analyst Kenneth Bruce said in a note dated Sept 16.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgrade of the thrift to "junk" status, "is likely to add more impetus to Washington Mutual to act quickly," Bruce, who lowered his price target on the stock to $1 from $3, said.
The S&P downgrade came on Monday, and followed downgrades last week by Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings.
S&P had expressed concern about the thrift's share price, and said "it increasingly appears that market conditions could overtake credit fundamentals and leave the company with greatly diminished financial flexibility."
Washington Mutual's stock has lost almost 94 percent of its value from its 52-week high of $39.25 on September 19, 2007, to its close on Tuesday of $2.36, as investors worry about continued losses related to risky real-estate loans.
The company's woes has led to speculation that it is primed for a takeover.
On Wednesday the New York Post reported, citing sources, U.S. federal regulators recently called a number of banks asking if they would consider buying Washington Mutual should it eventually falter.
In recent days federal banking regulators contacted Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), HSBC (HSBA.L) and several other financial institutions to gauge their interest in a possible acquisition of the largest U.S. savings and loan institution, the paper said.
Merrill's Bruce said the retail-bank footprint of the company remains attractive to potential buyers, but the poor quality of its balance sheet may hinder prospects getting full-value from a sale.
Shares of Washington Mutual were trading down 20 cents at $2.16 Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Meltdown in US finance system pummels stock market
NEW YORK - The upheaval in the American financial system sent shock waves through the stock market Monday, producing the worst day on Wall Street in seven years as investors digested the failure of one of its most venerable banks and wondered which domino would be next to fall.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 500 points, more than 4 percent, its steepest point drop since the day the stock market reopened after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. About $700 billion evaporated from retirement plans, government pension funds and other investment portfolios.
The carnage capped a tumultuous 24 hours that redrew U.S. finance. Lehman Brothers, an investment bank that predates the Civil War and weathered the Great Depression, filed the largest bankruptcy in American history. A second storied bank, Merrill Lynch, fled into the arms of Bank of America.
It was by far the most stomach-churning single day since a financial crisis began to bubble up from billions of dollars in rotten mortgage loans that have crippled the balance sheets of one bank after another and landed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the control of the federal government.
"We are in the middle of a deep, dark recession, and it won't end soon. Here it is, and it is pretty nasty," said Barry Ritholtz, who writes the popular financial blog The Big Picture and is CEO of research firm FusionIQ.
And the fallout was far from over. American International Group, the world's largest insurer, was fighting for its very survival: New York Gov. David Paterson moved to allow the company to tap one of its subsidiaries for an emergency loan to stay above water.
"AIG still remains financially sound," Paterson said, even as the company's stock tumbled almost 60 percent. Almost $20 billion in AIG's shareholder value was wiped out Monday.
In Washington, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who refused to toss a financial lifeline to Lehman, was unapologetic as the Bush administration signaled strongly that Wall Street shouldn't expect more rescues from Washington.
The American people should remain confident in the "soundness and resilience in the American financial system," Paulson told reporters at the White House.
Six months ago, Paulson moved to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns, brokering a deal for JP Morgan Chase & Co. to buy the firm at a fire-sale price with Federal Reserve backing. Earlier this month, he stepped in to help the government seize Fannie and Freddie in hopes of reversing the housing and credit crises.
But Monday, Paulson said he "never once" considered it appropriate to put taxpayer money at risk to resolve the problems at Lehman Brothers, which was saddled with $60 billion worth of soured real estate holdings.
The result was one of the most momentous days in Wall Street history since legendary banker J. Pierpont Morgan helped broker the rescue of financial markets during the Panic of 1907.
The Dow industrials dropped 504.48 points to close at 10,917.51, the first time since July they have finished under 11,000. It was the sixth-largest point drop ever and the worst since Sept. 17, 2001, when the average fell 684.81 points on the first day of trading after the terror attacks.
In percentage terms, the fall for the Dow on Monday was its worst since the summer of 2002. The index has shed nearly a quarter of its value since its record high last October.
Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost more than 4 1/2 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index lost more than 3 1/2 percent.
Financial stocks fell as investors worried about the strength of banks' balance sheets. Washington Mutual Inc. fell 27 percent to $2 a share, while Wachovia Corp. fell 25 percent to $10.71.
While Lehman Brothers was filing for Chapter 11 and AIG was scurrying to find financing to stay afloat, Merrill Lynch was avoiding a similar fate with a $50 billion transaction to become part of Bank of America Corp.
The deal would create a financial giant rivaling Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank in terms of assets. Bank of America has the most deposits of any U.S. bank, while Merrill Lynch is the world's largest and most widely recognized brokerage.
"It was an opportunity of a lifetime," said Ken Lewis, Bank of America's chairman and CEO.
Lewis made the announcement at a news conference where he was flanked by a smiling John Thain, Merrill's chief executive. The two put the deal together in 48 hours, while they were taking part in marathon discussions at the New York Federal Reserve over the weekend to save Lehman Brothers. Merrill stock rose a penny Monday.
One huge concern is that the Lehman bankruptcy will probably trigger even tighter credit — making it more difficult for everyone from large companies to small businesses to American homebuyers to borrow money.
It was a dark day for Lehman workers, too. Many of them brought gym bags, shopping totes and Lehman travel bags to cart home personal files and pictures from their desks at the company's midtown Manhattan headquarters. Gawkers lined up behind metal barricades, and bystanders took pictures with their cell phones.
The failure of Lehman and probable job losses at Merrill are also a blow to the New York City economy, which is still trying to absorb a blow from shrunken tax revenues after the collapse of Bear Stearns in March. The city and its outlying suburbs rely heavily on taxes paid by workers in the financial services industry.
In marathon sessions Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, government officials and the chief executives of major U.S. and foreign banks huddled at the New York Fed's fortress-like building in downtown Manhattan, trying to work out a way to save Lehman.
They failed at that. But a group of 10 banks that includes JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup formed a $70 billion pool that banks or brokerages can tap to cover short-term funding needs.
There were also worries that Lehman's problems would infect other financial companies and spread to global stock markets, further harming the U.S. and global economies.
The Fed meets Tuesday to decide interest rate policy. It's widely expected to keep rates at 2 percent, but some economists believe it could lower them to soothe Wall Street's frazzled nerves.
The financial turbulence could also further derail consumer confidence in the economy just as stores prepare for the critical holiday shopping season. The upheaval in the financial system also means that those consumers with marginal credit history will have an even harder time getting loans, cutting into consumer spending.
"The backdrop even without this was tough. This certainly adds to the worry level," said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at The International Council of Shopping Centers.
Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain assailed "greed and corruption" on Wall Street and promised to clean it up, while his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, blamed White House policies and said his opponent would only deliver more of the same.
Obama called it "the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression." McCain declared in a new TV ad that "our economy is in crisis" and that only he and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, could fix it. McCain also told voters in Jacksonville, Fla., "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."
By PATRICK RIZZO and JOE BEL BRUNO
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Gasoline rises on Ike, but crude dips below $100
NEW YORK - Gasoline prices jumped at the wholesale level Friday as Hurricane Ike swept through Gulf of Mexico, prompting companies along the Texas coast to shut down refining and drilling operations.
Crude oil on the futures market, however, briefly sank below the psychologically important $100-a-barrel mark for the first time since April 2 — showing that investors believe a worsening global economy will continue to drive down demand for some time in the United States and elsewhere.
The fact that U.S. fuel demand is so weak right now might mean the recent surge in the wholesale price of gasoline — which rose to about $4.85 a gallon in the Gulf Coast market Friday — might not be passed along to consumers unless Ike's impact is severe and long-lasting.
"Major oil companies are sensitive to raising prices in this environment," said Ben Brockwell, director of data pricing and information services at the Oil Price Information Service.
Ike is forecast to land early Saturday as a Category 3 hurricane near Galveston, a barrier island about 50 miles southeast of Houston. The Houston region is home to about one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity, and the site of a major fuel and grain distribution channel.
Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf Coast moved further into uncharted territory Friday, as refineries anticipated that Ike would lead to at least a significant pause in their operations, and at worst damage to their facilities. On Thursday, the Gulf Coast wholesale price of gasoline last traded at around $4.75 a gallon, according to OPIS, up substantially from about $3.25 Wednesday and less than $3 Tuesday.
Wholesale prices were much lower in other regions such as Chicago, New York and Los
Angeles, but even those areas saw prices rise.
"Hopefully it's a temporary phenomenon, but we won't know until next week," Brockwell said.
Wholesale prices are determined by major players in the supply chain including refining and trading companies, which constantly buy and sell barrels. These prices end up deciding what refineries charge distributors, before they get marked up further at the retail level for the consumer.
The average U.S. retail price for gasoline edged up less than a penny to $3.675 Friday from Thursday, according to auto club AAA, OPIS and Wright Express.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 31 cents to settle at $101.18 a barrel, after briefly sinking to $99.99.
October gasoline futures climbed 2.08 cents to settle at $2.7696 a gallon on Nymex.
"All week long, it's been a gasoline story more than anything. If you just looked at the crude market independently, you wouldn't know that we had a couple of hurricanes," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, referring to Ike and last week's Gustav.
"This dichotomy could persist for a few more days next week," he said. But "once the storm factor subsides, we'll see a much higher correlation between gasoline and crude oil."
Also, the demand for crude tends to fall off when refineries shut-in, as the have done this week, because they are not taking new crude shipments.
Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil Co. have begun halting operations as the Category 2 hurricane headed straight for the nation's biggest complex of refineries and petrochemical plants. U.S. wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday.
As of Friday, nearly 98 percent of crude production and more than 94 percent of natural gas production in the Gulf were shuttered, according to the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service.
By Friday afternoon, Ike was a Category 2 storm centered about 165 miles southeast of Galveston, moving to the west-northwest at nearly 12 mph. Forecasters warned it could become a Category 3 storm with winds of at least 111 mph before the eye strikes land.
Ike is huge, taking up nearly 40 percent of the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center said tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph extended across more than 510 miles.
Ike and last week's Hurricane Gustav have helped to stanch a sharp downturn in oil prices. Concerns over slowing economic growth on a global scale and a strengthening U.S. dollar have led funds to liquidate their commodities holdings, pushing crude prices down about 30 percent from their record $147.27 set on July 11.
U.S. fuel demand in June was down 5.6 percent from the same period a year ago, according to a recent report from the Energy Department, so many market watchers are expecting oil prices to resume their tumble.
"With demand being down as much as it is, the market, some argue, is a bit oversupplied," said Stephen Maloney, a senior consultant in energy risk management at Towers Perrin. "When you ask, how does Ike affect things? Its impacts are going to be in the context of lower demand for products than a year ago."
In other Nymex trading, October heating oil futures rose 2.36 cents to settle at $2.9391 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery rose 11.8 cents to settle at $7.366 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, October Brent crude fell 6 cents to settle at $97.58 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange, after closing at a six-month low in the previous trading session.
By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer
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Marketers Focus More On Global `Tribes'Valentin Chapero, chief executive of Swiss-based Phonak Group, knows that baby boomers around the world dread the thought of needing his company's hearing devices. Whether they live in London, Los Angeles or Lima, Peru, they tend to resist buying a product associated with aging.Yet tens of millions of people over the age of 50 already have some hearing loss. To woo them, Mr. Chapero and his managers are addressing their common qualms. Phonak's new Audeo device comes in 15 fashionable colors, looks more like a sleek ear phone than an old-fashioned hearing aid and is being marketed as a 'personal communication assistant.' Advertisements in a dozen languages feature youthful-looking customers who lead interesting lives, such as a hedge-fund manager who is also an amateur boxer.'We'll only get close to baby boomers -- who, whether they're Europeans or Americans all have a similar psychology -- if we take away the stigma and show them a product that is high-tech and hip and easily improves the quality of their lives,' says Mr. Chapero.Executives seeking to expand their companies' global reach long have focused on tailoring products to fit the local tastes of consumers in different countries. Increasingly, however, they also have a strong sense of the commonality of their global consumers. As the world shrinks, especially for young, Internet-savvy consumers, they must now also cater to particular subcultures of customers who share very similar outlooks, styles and aspirations despite their different nationalities and languages.'We're seeing global tribes forming around the world that are more and more interconnected through technology,' says Melanie Healey, president, Global Health and Feminine Care at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati.Among these tribes: teenagers from every continent who socialize on the Internet and like the same music and fashions, working women trying to juggle careers and families, and baby boomers. 'If you focus on the similarities instead of the differences [in these tribes], key business opportunities emerge,' says Ms. Healey.Managers in P&G's feminine-care products division, for example, are using this approach to efficiently reach more global customers. After conducting extensive market research, they concluded that teenage girls on every continent have the same concerns and questions about puberty. That means 'we can write all the answers at once for the Web site -- which is available in 40 countries -- and then translate these into many languages,' says Bob Arnold, Global FemCare interactive manager and head of P&G's beinggirl.com Web site. 'It's more efficient -- and we don't need offices all over the world to do this.''Historically we used to be focused on discovering the common hopes and dreams within a country, but now we're seeing that the real commonalities are in generations across geographical borders,' adds James Haskett, brand franchise leader of P&G's Global Always/Whisper brands.This doesn't mean that P&G sells identical products everywhere, however. The company's Always Fresh brand has a light fragrance in the U.S. and Latin America, for instance, but is unscented in other parts of the world.Sujay Wason, associate marketing director for feminine care, believes in blending the two marketing strategies. 'You've got to be both local and global and understand what will work in several places, and what won't' by spending lots of time with customers. Last week, he and colleagues visited customer homes in Dallas, after working in Brazil and Mexico in prior weeks.Clinique, a unit of Estee Lauder, sells skin-care products and makeup in 130 countries, but markets products that sell to particular skin types and skin tones regardless of the consumers' nationalities. Because women all around the world buy about the same fashions and cosmetics on the Internet, beauty regimens, in general, are becoming more universal, says CEO Lynne Greene.So are household-cleaning and food-cooking practices. Alfa, the Mexican conglomerate, is finding in its market research that Mexican women increasingly want foods that are easier to prepare. 'They don't want entirely premade the way many Americans do because they still want to get credit for doing the cooking, but they want shortcuts,' says Tom Kuczmarski, president of Kuczmarski & Associates, a Chicago marketing consultant.Of course, selling food is different from selling washing machines. 'There may be more consistencies when selling nondurable consumer products globally than cars or other heavier equipment,' says Marti Barletta, who runs the TrendSight Group in Winnetka, Ill.Even so, she says, female consumers can cut across lines. Women everywhere, she says, 'respond to marketing that emphasizes people.''Going global isn't a big mystery,' adds P&G's Ms. Healey. 'There is so much common ground, so much universality among people.'
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What Is Motorola's Worth?Motorola Inc. is living on the Razr's edge these days, but slicing up the company may not be so easy.Signs are growing that the telecommunications-equipment maker may be contemplating a breakup in the wake of the collapse in popularity of its Razr cellphone.Such a move would satisfy activist investor Carl Icahn, who this year ran an unsuccessful proxy fight to gain a board seat. He says carving up Motorola could produce almost $20 billion of additional shareholder value. That translates to nearly $8 more a share and would make the stock worth roughly 50% more than its current price.Analysts agree in principle with Mr. Icahn's math, although many caution that Motorola needs to fix underlying problems in the handset division to maximize the value of a breakup. Breaking Motorola into stand-alone units would highlight uncertainties facing its lesser-known businesses and would go against the trend of consolidation in the telecommunications-equipment business. And any effort to sell one or more of the businesses could fail because of the frozen credit markets.Speculation could lift Motorola's stock more than an actual split-up. The shares fell to a low of $14.87 in November from a little more than $20 at the start of the year. They were up six cents to $16.19 yesterday in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading.Motorola has floundered this year since the Razr ran aground, with a portfolio of new cellphones that failed to meet demand either for high-end multimedia phones or for low-cost phones for the developing world. The company stanched its losses in the third quarter by cutting costs.Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander rejected Mr. Icahn's proposal, but he is stepping down. President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Brown is taking over, and director Tom Meredith, the former finance chief of Dell Inc., is acting finance chief. Mr. Brown is seen as a deal maker and open to restructuring. Last week, Mr. Meredith said that while he believed 'there's every opportunity for us to create significant economic value as a whole,' that doesn't mean other options aren't viable. 'A change in circumstance sometimes requires a change in action. So I will leave it at that,' Mr. Meredith told a Lehman Brothers investor conference.Motorola has three divisions: the mobile-devices operation that produces cellphones; the enterprise-and-government division that makes public-safety radios and hand-held devices for workers on the road; and the home-and-networks division that makes cable-television set-top boxes and telecommunications-network gear.The breakup talk is driven by simple math. Mr. Icahn says the company's two lesser-known pieces are worth $29 billion, and that plus the $4 billion in cash on the balance sheet comes close to Motorola's market value, meaning the company's shares are trading as if the loss-making cellphone business, which accounts for 51% of Motorola's $39 billion in sales, were worth next to nothing.Mr. Icahn believes the cellphone division could sell for the value of one year's revenue, or about $20 billion. Shares of Nokia Corp., which dominates the global handset business with a 38% market share, trade at about twice annual sales.'The point is that if the handset business was spun off, with over $20 billion in revenue in a growing industry, it is obviously worth a great deal more than zero,' Mr. Icahn said in a telephone interview. As of Sept. 30, he owned 3.3% of the company's shares, making him the third-largest shareholder, after fund managers Dodge & Cox Inc. and Capital Research & Management Co., according to FactSet Research Systems Inc.Analyst Ping Zhao of research concern CreditSights values the parts of Motorola, without the mobile-devices division, at $33 billion.One obstacle to a breakup is whether the credit-market crunch has reduced the number of potential buyers. Another option would be to spin out the units as publicly traded companies, either through initial public offerings or stock dividends to shareholders.The question is how much would a buyer pay for each of the pieces. One industry banker says the cellphone piece could sell for less than one times sales if its problems aren't fixed.The public-safety-radio business, where Motorola holds a near monopoly, could appeal to defense contractors, although splitting off such a business would destroy the synergies it has with the handset business. The picture also is mixed for the cable-box business, where profit margins could come under pressure from cable operators who want lower prices.Many analysts believe Motorola would have sold its small networks business if it had found a buyer in recent years.A Motorola spokeswoman said the company remains committed to 'the current strategy of providing integrated communications solutions across its businesses as well as improving the financial performance of its mobile-device division.'
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Tesco is to enter China's fast-growing but increasingly competitive retail market with the £140m ($260m) purchase of a 50 per cent stake in a Taiwanese-owned hypermarket chain.The deal with Ting Hsin, one of the region's largest food groups, will enable the UK group to join international rivals such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour and a number of Asian companies in gaining a foothold in China.The move to buy half of the Hymall chain from Ting Hsin is part of Tesco's expansion away from the UK and into the emerging markets of Asia and eastern Europe.Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, said on Wednesday that expanding into China was an important strategic step to becoming a "truly international retailer".About £2.8bn of the group's £34bn turnover comes from its 179 stores in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia but China was becoming "the economic driver" of the region.The price offered by Tesco, which values the 25-superstore group at more than 50 time last year's earnings, underlines the high valuations foreign investors are prepared to pay to buy into China."It is a market we have researched extensively over the last three years," said Sir Terry. It was key to find the right partner that had already shown it could grow fast in what can be a difficult market," he said.Ting Hsin, which opened its first Hymall store six years ago, "is already profitable and has shown that it can grow from scratch".The two companies will have equal represenation on the board, with Tesco poised to name the venture's president and Ting Hsin to retain the chairman and chief executive post.Hymall's superstores had sales of £330m and an after tax profit of £5.5m in 2003. The group plans to open 10 more outlets this year, which should help to increase sales to an estimated £450m this year, according to Tesco. The stores, which are mainly in the east, north and north-east of China, serve some 2m customers a week.Ting Hsin, which was established in Taiwan in 1958 and in China in 1988, has large businesses making and selling cup noodles, a staple of Asian fast-food and operates a fried chicken restaurant chain on the mainland.Wal-Mart expects to open seven stores in China this year, bringing its total to 41 and Carrefour has plans to add to its existing 43 outlets. Metro, the German retailer, plans to build 40 more stores, taking its total to 58. Tesco's purchase will give it immediate scale to compete with its rivals without having to go through the often difficult and complex government approval process.

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Study: Googling oneself is more popular
Have you ever "Googled" youself?More Americans are Googling themselves — and many are checking out their friends, co-workers and romantic interests, too.In a report Sunday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.That is more than twice the 22 percent of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised the growth wasn't higher."Yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines," she said.Americans under 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google — in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona.Meanwhile, Pew found that 53 percent of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, celebrities excluded.Often, it's to find someone they've lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.In many cases, the search is innocuous, done to find someone's contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else's photo.Few Internet users say they Google themselves regularly — about three-quarters of self-searchers say they have done so only once or twice. And most who have done so consider what they find accurate.Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to restrict who can see their profiles at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace.
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World's richest got even richer last year: report

The old saying holds true: The rich do get richer.Even as world financial markets broke down last year, personal wealth around the world grew 5 percent to $109.5 trillion, according to a global wealth report released on Thursday by Boston Consulting Group.It was the sixth consecutive year of expanding wealth. The fastest growth was among households in developing regions, such as China and the Gulf States and among families who were already rich.That wealth also is increasingly concentrated among the richest.The top 1 percent of all households owned 35 percent of the world's wealth last year. Meanwhile, the top 0.001 percent, ultra-rich households holding at least $5 million in assets, commanded $21 trillion -- a fifth of the world's wealth.The planet also continues to mint new millionaires rapidly. The biggest jumps in 2007 came from emerging countries in Asia and Latin America. Overall, the number of millionaire households grew 11 percent to 10.7 million last year.BCG notes that, while the rich are still rich, they have been making some adjustments as a result of the financial crisis.This year, assets are being shifted to more conservative investments, more money is being kept onshore in home markets and some individuals have curtailed new investment.Yet BCG cautioned the outlook for wealth markets and the banks who serve them, is dimmed by the current financial crisis.North American personal wealth growth slowed to 3.8 percent last year, compared with 9 percent in 2006, reflecting the mortgage crisis and the onset of the credit crunch last summer.BCG, which advises banks and wealth managers, forecasts personal wealth will continue growing, but at a slower pace.

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