“The national foreclosure numbers continue to be driven by the hardest-hit states continuing to get much worse,” Jay Brinkmann, the association’s chief economist and senior vice president for research and economics, said in a news release.

The increases in foreclosures in California and Florida overwhelmed improvements in states such as Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland, he said.

“It is unsurprising that mortgage delinquencies picked up further in the second quarter,” John Ryding, chief economist, and Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist, at RDQ Economics in New York, said in commentary.

“However, the increase in delinquencies and foreclosures up to this point is most likely predominantly the product of poor underwriting standards. Going forward, we have to overlay the weak economy and labor market picture as this more traditional driver of delinquencies will probably become more of a factor,” they said.

For the quarter, a majority of the states saw relatively little change one way or the other, with California and Florida alone accounting for 39 percent of all of the foreclosures started in the second quarter and 73 percent of the increase in foreclosures between the first and second quarters, the MBA’s Brinkmann said.

The seasonally adjusted foreclosure starts rate, the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process during the April-June quarter, was 1.19 percent, up from 0.99 percent in the first three months of 2008 and 0.65 percent in the second quarter of 2007.

The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the second quarter rose to 2.75 percent from 2.47 percent in the first quarter and 1.40 percent in the second quarter of 2007. 

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Nokia’s third-quarter market share would be lower than the 40 percent it had in the second, it said on Friday, cutting a previous forecast to hold its share steady. It added it would ramp up one of its mid-range models more slowly than planned.

“In certain markets and in certain areas, including in some of the low end, we are meeting certain aggressive pricing that we believe may not be sustainable,” Chief Financial Officer Eric Simonsen told analysts and journalists on a conference call.

“So it really is not margins. What we’re talking about is units here,” he added.

Shares in the Finnish handset maker fell 10.7 percent to 13.99 euros by 1321 GMT, their lowest level since late 2005, dragging the DJ European technology index down more than 5 percent.

“Nokia expects the overall mobile device market in 2008 to be impacted by the weaker consumer confidence in multiple markets,” it said.

It added, though, that it still expected the market to grow at least 10 percent in terms of shipments and saw third-quarter volumes up from the second quarter, for the wider market.

“I think the share reaction is a bit much,” said Redeye analyst Greger Johansson. “It seems to be their own decisions to a large extent.” 

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"One thing is for certain, when Congress comes back, they’ve got to understand that we need more domestic energy, not less," Bush said in the Roosevelt Room.

He added: "One place to find it is offshore America — lands that have been taken off the books, so to speak, by congressional law — and now they need to give us a chance to find more oil and gas here at home.

"I know that the Congress has been on recess for a while, but this issue hasn’t gone away," he said in a nudge to lawmakers who return from recess on Sept. 8.

Bush, keeping a hands-on profile on the aftermath of the hurricane in contrast to the government’s poor response to Katrina, met in the Roosevelt Room with Vice President Dick Cheney and about 20 advisers, including the secretaries of Interior, Transportation and Energy.

Preliminary indications were that Gustav caused little damage to onshore and offshore facilities, though the full impact likely won’t be known for a couple of days. Some oil companies, rig owners and refiners were already putting equipment and people back in place to resume operations.

The price of oil, meanwhile, tumbled more than $8 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, suggesting traders were confident that the energy complex suffered only a glancing blow. (That followed an earlier drop of $5 in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.)

Gustav roared ashore Monday morning and eight deaths were attributed to the storm in the U.S. after it killed at least 94 people across the Caribbean.

It was downgraded to a tropical depression early Tuesday, and mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for three Southeast Texas counties. Though New Orleans was largely spared, there still was damage and anxious evacuees told not to come home yet.

In the days preceding Gustav, oil companies shut down virtually all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf, and the storm’s threat halted about 15% of the nation’s refining capacity based in the region. The U.S. Gulf Coast is home to nearly half the nation’s refining capacity, while offshore the Gulf accounts for about 25% of domestic oil production and 15 percent of natural gas output.

Bush said that during Katrina, the force of the storm moved rigs and anchors hit pipelines.

"We didn’t see much of that this time, but I will tell you it’s a little early to be making any forecasts," he said.

Bush said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has been in touch with energy-producing states to help assess damage from Gustav and determine work that needs to be done. 

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This means that San Antonio-based ATSI (OTCBB: ATSX) is one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the state of Texas.

The full list of winners will be announced at the Texas Technology Fast 50 Executive Retreat at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth on Oct. 30, 2008.

ATSI President and CEO Art Smith says this is a significant honor for the company.

“It is a tribute to our management team and employees who have consistently met or exceeded the company’s goal and objectives,” Smith says. “The ATSI team successfully grew revenues from $1.2 million in FY2004 to $42 million in FY2008 while achieving profitability in the company’s two most recent fiscal years.”

ATSI operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Digerati Networks Inc., a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company that connects calls in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America with an emphasis on Mexico. The company also owns a minority interest in ATSI Comunicaciones SA de CV, which operates under a 30-year government issued license.

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The industry has seen mine closures and output cuts as energy, labor and equipment costs rise while zinc prices drop.

And the pain will continue — the question is whether weak demand and global oversupply will keep prices falling into 2010, or whether the market will turn around next year.

“We would need very, very, very significant production losses to bring the market back to balance” in 2009, said Giles Lloyd of industry consultants CRU Group.

“Some producers are now realizing that they were being a bit hopeful thinking that the market could turn in 2010.”

The metal, mainly used to galvanize steel, is one of the worst performers in the metals complex this year. In August it dropped to its lowest level since November 2005 and is now trading around $1,745 a tonne, down almost 25 percent this year.

It’s no wonder prices have dropped.

Zinc stocks at the LME have jumped 80 percent this year to 160,000 tonnes, and a Reuters survey of analysts showed an expected surplus of about 281,250 tonnes this year, growing to 328,758 tonnes in 2009.  

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The amount itself is tiny, under 3 percent of South Korea’s $247 billion in currency reserves.

But the government debt is maturing at a crucial time. The won is already extremely weak, there is growing speculation that the Korean authorities have dropped their defense of the currency and simmering rumors that the government holds huge amounts of worthless U.S. agency debt.

Suddenly, the issue of a small amount of maturing bonds has transcended into more complex fears about the central bank’s credibility and ability to defend its currency.

As the won <KRW=> plunged 3 percent to 4-year lows on Monday, it appeared the damage had already been done. The market buzz was capital flight. The stock market fell 4 percent.

“It’s not a great deal, but it is the trigger effect,” said State Street strategist Dwyfor Evans, referring to the maturing bonds.

“If people think money will be taken out of the country, it will inspire them to put on short Korea positions.

“Then there are technical levels, stop-loss levels and, before you know it, there’s a momentum to the whole move driven primarily by speculation over the maturing bonds.” 

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Riders began gathering at Miller Park early Saturday morning for the parade, which has become a standard at Harley-Davidson anniversary celebrations. The parade got rolling along West Wisconsin Avenue about 9 a.m. Spectators lined the streets for the event, some waving and others slapping hands with riders as they passed by.

The parade, which was led by Harley-Davidson executives and a group of top fundraisers for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, continued east on Wisconsin Avenue before turning south on Milwaukee Street downtown. Riders then turned east on Erie Street to the Summerfest grounds, where Harley-Davidson is holding its 105th anniversary celebration.

The majority of riders in the parade were selected through a random lottery.

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Last week Dan Benton, whose savvy technology bets at Pequot Capital Management and Andor Capital Management catapulted him into an industry star, told investors he plans to shut down his fund in October.

Earlier this month, business journalist Ron Insana, who promised clients access to some of world’s most famous hedge funds through his extensive Rolodex, told investors that it was “imprudent” to continue business operations.

And before that, Jeff Dobbs announced plans to shut down Turnberry Capital Management after many of his investors had already asked for their money back.

“There certainly seems to be a bigger number of hedge fund managers going out of business right now than ever before,” said Brad Alford, founder of Alpha Capital Management, an advisory firm that invests in hedge funds.

While the three men gave different explanations for getting out now, a common theme seems to be that running a hedge fund may not be worth the headache.

Tumbling stock prices, the deepening foreclosure crisis, and rising unemployment rates have made for volatile trading conditions that translated into losses at many hedge funds.

The average hedge fund, after posting the industry’s worst-ever first-quarter returns, is off 3.54 percent this year through July, according to Hedge Fund Research data. 

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Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair said on Tuesday she expects more banks to join the agency’s watchlist of problem banks, which tallies institutions with financial, operational or managerial weaknesses that threaten their financial viability.

“We don’t think the credit cycle has bottomed out yet,” Bair told a quarterly news conference, adding that U.S. banks will not return to high levels of earnings anytime soon.

“We expect that banks and thrifts will keep building up reserves for the next several quarters,” Bair said.

The news initially pulled down financial shares before markets closed higher on the back of a surge in energy shares.

Nine U.S. banks have failed so far this year, including mortgage IndyMac Bancorp Inc IDMC.PK, which has drained the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund used to repay insured deposits at failed banks.

In a bid to replenish the $45.2 billion fund, Bair said the FDIC will consider a plan in October to raise the premium rates banks pay into the fund, a move that will further squeeze the industry.

The agency also plans to charge banks that engage in risky lending practices significantly higher premiums than other U.S. banks, Bair said, to encourage safer business practices. 

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The agreements bring to 8 the number of global banks that have settled the 5-month probe into claims they misled customers into believing the investments were safe. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, leading the investigation on behalf of state and federal authorities, has now reached deals to buy back $57 billion worth of auction-rate securities.

Cuomo said Thursday he is far from finished in examining both large and small players in the market, and said the investigation will intensify against Bank of America Corp. (BAC, Fortune 500) He also warned that the investigation might shift its attention to individual brokers and bank employees who sold the investments.

"This has been a great day of progress," Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. "We have a number of banks that are still under investigation, and we are obviously having conversations about resolution. The one thing the people want is their money back quickly."

He had been in talks with Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) Chief Executive John Thain through most of the afternoon before reaching a deal. Cuomo had set a deadline of Thursday for the nation’s largest brokerage to reach an agreement or face a lawsuit.

Thain said the brokerage, which last week agreed to repurchase the debt on a voluntary basis, would "accelerate the plans" by buying back $10 billion to $12 billion of the investments from investors by Jan. 2, as well as pay a fine of $125 million.

Separately, Deutsche Bank (DB), which must buy back about $1 billion of auction-rate securities, has been fined $15 million. Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) has $1.5 billion in securities to buy back, and will be fined $22.5 million.

The investigations are examining how brokerages sold auction-rate securities before the $330 billion market collapsed in February. Federal and state authorities believe that banks pitched the investments as safe.

UBS AG (UBS), Citigroup Inc. (C, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM, Fortune 500) and Wachovia Corp. (WB, Fortune 500) had previously agreed to buy back their auction-rate securities.

Also Thursday, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said Merrill Lynch agreed to settle a similar dispute.

Galvin, who is the top securities regulator in Massachusetts, said the agreement calls for Merrill to buy back, beginning Oct. 15, all illiquid auction-rate securities from investors who have less than $3 million on deposit.

In addition, after Jan. 15, Galvin said Merrill agreed to buy back auction-rate securities from investors with deposits on accounts of $100 million or less. Massachusetts filed its enforcement action on July 31.

The auction-rate securities market involved investors buying and selling instruments that resembled corporate debt, but the interest rates on the investments were reset at regular auctions, some as frequently as once a week. A number of companies and retail clients invested in the securities because they could treat their holdings almost like cash.

But the market for them collapsed in February amid the downturn in the broader credit markets. Regulators have been investigating the collapse in the market to determine who was responsible for its demise, and whether banks knowingly misrepresented the safety of the securities when selling them to investors. 

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