TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian consortium seeking to buy TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, said on Thursday it could give regulators the right to supervise clearing and settlement prices in order to gain approval of the C$3.8 billion (C$3.76 billion) takeover deal.

Under its TMX takeover proposal, the Maple Group consortium of Canadian financial services companies wants to also buy Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS), which clears and settles trades in Canada. This aspect of the deal has spurred fears of an unfair monopoly, and Maple said it is ready to compromise to get the deal done.

"We will be announcing a model and a structure and so forth with regards to fees," Luc Bertrand, the public face of Maple and vice chairman of National Bank Financial, told a public hearing held by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

"Our proposal would be that the model would be part of the recognition order, which, in our view, would give the commission the … explicit responsibility on a go-forward basis to … reject or approve fees."

Bertrand said Maple remains committed to a one-tier system that keeps fees accessible for all market participants.

Maple's offer to take over the TMX Group is contingent on it also getting regulatory approval to buy CDS as well as Alpha Group, TMX's top stock trading competitor.

"Our deal is based on getting regulatory approval for both. If we don't have Alpha or we don't have CDS there is no Maple transaction," Bertrand said in an oft-repeated pledge.

CDS handles all of the back-office processing of cash and securities after a trade is made, acting as a central counterparty for trades.

Opponents to the deal say that if Maple wants to integrate CDS, it should be forced to keep CDS's current cost-recovery model in place. CDS currently runs on a not-for-profit basis but Maple wants to make it a for-profit operation.

Handing oversight to regulators may allay concerns about Maple having monopoly control over pricing.

The concerns about fees were flagged earlier in the week by federal Competition Bureau Commissioner Melanie Aitken.

"Our work with the Competition Bureau continues and we will update the market on its progress at the appropriate time," Bertrand said.

In its submission to the OSC, the committee representing the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada said CDS clearing and settlement costs, among the lowest globally, would rise under a for-profit model.

"We're concerned the conflicts of interests they have can be used to limit access to the non-Maple members and drive prices higher," said Jeffrey Kennedy, spokesman for the IIROC committee and chief financial officer at Cormark Securities.

"The three issues are access, pricing and governance. What we're concerned about is the conflicts of interest from the investor dealer affiliates of the Maple Group."

Maple, comprised of 13 of Canada's most powerful financial institutions, stressed to the OSC that its proposal would benefit all market players.

The hearing continues on Friday.

($1=$1.01 Canadian)

(Editing by Peter Galloway)

FRANKFURT, Germany – Stocks pushed higher Friday as better than expected U.S. retail sales data and positive corporate news overshadowed fears from Europe’s debt crisis.

U.S. retail sales for September rose 1.1 percent, ahead of 0.7 percent market expectations. That indicated to some that the world’s largest economy might not be in as much trouble as feared earlier.

“Today’s data suggests a better outcome for third quarter consumption,” said Robert Lynch at HSBC Global Research. “That is an encouraging development in an economy that has generally been on the receiving end of bad news.”

The markets took the news as positive despite some economists fears that a weak labor market and the need for consumers to save and pay down debt will mean the retail bounce is only temporary.

A batch of corporate news from companies like Google and Unilever had earlier buoyed sentiment.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 1.2 percent at 5,466.36, while Germany’s DAX 30 rose 0.9 percent to 5,967.20. France’s CAC 40 ended 1 percent higher at 3,217.89.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 percent to 11,551 and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 share index was up 0.9 percent at 1,214.

Evidence of the more risk-on backdrop was evident in oil prices and the performance of the euro currency too — New York Mercantile month-ahead crude was up $2.20 to $86.43, while the euro traded 0.9 percent higher to $1.3852.

Markets appear for the moment to have priced in expectations that European leaders will sort out key aspects of a more aggressive solution to their debt crisis in time for a European summit Oct. 23 and a Group of 20 meeting in early November. That confidence kept sentiment in check despite a downgrade of Spain’s debt from credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s and Fitch’s warning about a number of banks around the world.

European officials have outlined what they say will be a decisive effort to quell the debt crisis, renegotiating a new debt relief deal for Greece that could inflict higher bond writedowns on creditor banks. Ahead of that, the European Union is seeking to force banks that are deemed to be insufficiently capitalized to increase their financial cushions, a step that can lead to shareholder losses and reduced dividends. Key details — such as the amount of new losses for Greek bondholders — remain open.

Earlier, most Asian markets had ended lower, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index falling 0.8 percent to close at 8,747.96, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 1.4 percent to 18,501.79.

The Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China slipped 0.3 percent to finish at 2,431.37 after authorities said China’s inflation rate eased to 6.1 percent in September. It’s still well above the official target though.

Analysts said China’s September inflation data was another sign that price increases are moderating after peaking in July, but they didn’t expect the government to ease back on inflation-fighting measures just yet.

“Too many policy obstacles still lie ahead” regarding the European debt crisis, strategists at Credit Agricole CIB said in a research note, adding that questions remain unanswered over the size of recapitalization needed for European banks and how much of a loss investors will have take on Greek bonds.

____

AP Business Writer Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

NEW YORK – A diverse group of powerful unions joined demonstrations near Wall Street on Wednesday, lending some focus, credibility and potentially hundreds of participants to a group that started out with a few camped-out college students.

Among those planning to join the clamor were members of the Chinatown Tenants Union and the Transit Workers Union, the liberal group MoveOn.org, and community organizations like the Working Families Party and United NY. Organizers have called for students at college campuses across the nation to walk out of class in protest.

“We’re really excited that labor is part of the protest,” said Sara Niccoli, spokeswoman for the Labor-Religion Coalition, an Albany, N.Y.-based organization that aims to “do justice” for workers.

On Wednesday, the groups will embark on a march starting at Foley Square in lower Manhattan, an area encircled by courthouses and named for “Big Tom” Foley, a former blacksmith’s helper who became a prominent New York Democratic Party leader.

The marchers will head to Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters where protesters have been camped out in sleeping bags. It’s unclear how many people will be joining the march on Wednesday, but some organizers said thousands could show up.

The Occupy Wall Street protests started on Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds have set up camp in a park nearby and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal. Other groups have periodically gathered and protested in spots throughout the country.

Police said that United NY had sought a permit for the rally Wednesday and were expecting about 2,000. They were planning to use microphones at the square, but not at the park.

“I think they’re capturing a feel of disempowerment, feeling like nobody is listening to them,” said Camille Rivera, executive director of United NY. “What do you do when no one is listening to you? You speak up, you take action.”

No one needs a permit to protest. Picket lines and marches go on nearly every day in New York. But a permit allows demonstrators to do things that would normally be illegal — like filling an entire street. During the U.N. General Assembly, thousands of protesters took to the streets, but police were aware and facilitated and planned for traffic disruptions.

But, for example, during one day of the assembly, six demonstrators attempted to block traffic and were arrested.

“That was more in the tradition of civil disobedience,” said Paul Browne, spokesman for the NYPD. “It seemed their aim was to get arrested.”

About 700 members of the Wall Street group were arrested and given disorderly conduct summonses for spilling into the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday despite warnings from police.

It’s not clear whether the protesters meant it as civil disobedience; some say they were tricked by police into entering the road and were wrongly arrested. Police video shows officers with bullhorns telling them to keep off the road.

Browne said that the department is prepared for a large group march Wednesday, and that officers were anticipating spillover onto the streets.

“Officers will be in the lane next to the sidewalk, and we will try to keep people on the sidewalk, but we realize they may need to walk on the street if it’s crowded,” he said.

The type of activity that could result in arrest would be if members of the group, say, purposefully try to stop traffic on Broadway, Browne said.

MoveOn.org is planning a “virtual march” on its website by encouraging people to post photos of themselves with the caption: “I’m the 99 percent” — a reference to those people not among the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and the debate over whether they should be taxed more. The group’s executive director, Justin Ruben, called the protesters “brave young people” who have successfully inspired others to join them.

“From our perspective, we’re protesting kind of the greed that led to the collapse of our economy,” Ruben said. “The fact that these banks aren’t paying their fair share.”

NEW YORK – Strong earnings from technology companies including Intel Corp. sent stocks sharply higher Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite index had its biggest one-day jump in a month, and the Dow Jones industrial average traded near a new high for the year.

The Nasdaq rose 48, or 1.8 percent, to 2,793 in afternoon trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179 points, or 1.5 percent, to 12,446. If it holds onto the gains, the Dow would have its highest close this year, toppling the 12,426 mark reached April 6.

Intel rose 6 percent, the most of the 30 companies in the Dow average, after the chip-maker reported that its income rose 29 percent in the first quarter because of rising demand for personal computers. The results easily beat analysts’ expectations and allayed concerns that surging sales of tablet computers would hurt Intel’s results.

Amphenol Corp. rose 6 percent, the most of any company in the S&P 500 index, after reporting that its earnings per share rose 31 percent. The company makes fiber optic connectors and electrical equipment.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 16, or 1.2 percent, to 1,328.

The stronger corporate earnings reports came after mainly disappointing results released last week. Google Inc. and Alcoa Inc. were among the big companies whose earnings didn’t live up to expectations.

“The contrast from last week is driving stocks,” said Clark Yingst, chief market analyst at investment bank Joseph Gunnar.

Several other prominent companies also reported much stronger earnings. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. jumped 3 percent after the mining company’s income came in well ahead of analysts’ expectations.

Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. rose 4 percent after its income rose 17 percent, also beating Wall Street expectations. The company also raised its forecast for 2011 profit.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. rose 7 percent after its revenue climbed 39 percent. The casino operator opened a new Macau resort and won more money from gamblers at table games in Las Vegas.

IBM Corp. also beat earnings expectations but the stock was flat after the company said it signed fewer overseas contracts.

Yahoo Inc. rose 5 percent after reporting that cost-cutting efforts pushed its earnings above Wall Street’s expectations. Yahoo also reported a 10 percent jump in display advertising.

Not all companies beat expectations. Altria Group Inc. fell 0.6 percent after reporting that it sold fewer cigarettes.

AT&T Inc. fell 0.5 percent after saying it pulled in the lowest number of new subscribers for iPhones because of competition from Verizon.

Wells Fargo & Co. fell 5 percent. The bank reported a sharp decline in new mortgages.

NEW YORK – Strong earnings from technology companies including Intel Corp. sent stocks soaring Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite index had its biggest one-day jump in six months.

The Nasdaq rose 57, or 2 percent, to 2,802 in early afternoon trading. The technology-focused index hasn’t risen that much since Oct. 5.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 200 points, or 1.6 percent, to 12,467.

Intel rose 6 percent, the most of the 30 companies in the Dow average, after the chip-maker reported that its income rose 29 percent in the first quarter because of rising demand for personal computers. The results easily beat analysts’ expectations and allayed concerns that surging sales of tablet computers would hurt Intel’s results.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 19, or 1.5 percent, to 1,331.

Amphenol Corp. rose 6 percent, the most of any company in the S&P 500 index, after reporting that its earnings per share rose 31 percent. The company makes fiber optic connectors and electrical equipment.

Several other prominent companies also reported much stronger earnings. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. jumped 4 percent after the mining company’s income came in well ahead of analysts’ expectations.

Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp. rose 4 percent after its income rose 17 percent, also beating Wall Street expectations. The company also raised its forecast for 2011 profit.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. rose 7 percent after its revenue climbed 39 percent. The casino operator opened a new Macau resort and won more money from gamblers at table games in Las Vegas.

The stronger corporate earnings reports came after mainly disappointing results released last week. Google Inc. and Alcoa Inc. were among the big companies whose earnings didn’t live up to expectations.

“The contrast from last week is driving stocks,” said Clark Yingst, chief market analyst at investment bank Joseph Gunnar.

IBM Corp. also beat earnings expectations but the stock was flat after the company said it signed fewer overseas contracts.

Yahoo Inc. rose 5 percent after reporting that cost-cutting efforts pushed its earnings above Wall Street’s expectations. Yahoo also reported a 10 percent jump in display advertising.

Not all companies beat expectations. Altria Group Inc. fell 0.6 percent after reporting that it sold fewer cigarettes.

AT&T Inc. fell 0.5 percent after saying it pulled in the lowest number of new subscribers for iPhones because of competition from Verizon.

Wells Fargo & Co. fell 4 percent, the most of any company in the S&P 500. The bank reported a sharp decline in new mortgages.

LONDON – Growing optimism over upcoming U.S. jobs figures helped stocks rally for the second day on Friday despite further increases in oil prices due to tensions in Libya.

Though investors are keeping a close watch on developments in Libya as the regime of Moammar Gadhafi attempts to fight back against rebels, who now control around half the country, the main point of interest will be the U.S. government’s nonfarm payrolls data for February — often a key driver for markets for a week or two after their release.

Following an upbeat survey from the ADP payrolls firm and an unexpected decline in weekly jobless claims, expectations for the U.S. government report have ratcheted higher. The consensus before the ADP survey was that U.S. employers added around 175,000 jobs. Some analysts now think the figure could be around the 250,000 mark.

Investors, though, are aware that the payrolls reports are volatile and hard to predict — the past two months they had hiked their forecasts ahead of the release, only for the figure to come in much weaker than expected.

Marc Ostwald, a strategist at Monument Securities, said the optimism is “somewhat better placed on this occasion,” with the more reliable anecdotal evidence from this week’s two surveys from the Institute for Supply Management.

Though the payrolls figures are often subject to big revisions on a monthly basis, they are routinely at the heart of financial markets’ attentions, especially at a time when investors are trying to work out when the Federal Reserve may start raising interest rates once again.

The prevailing view is that the Fed will continue to pump more money into the U.S. economy and keep its main interest rate near zero percent until there is clear evidence that the unemployment rate is heading down towards 7 percent. At the moment, it’s around the 9 percent mark.

Ahead of the figures, European markets continued the solid tone that emerged Thursday following a difficult start to the week.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.6 percent at 6,040 while Germany’s DAX rose 0.8 percent to 7,283. The CAC-40 in France was 0.6 percent higher at 4,083.

Wall Street was poised for a perky opening, though that will depend on the jobs figures, which come out an hour before the bell. Dow futures were up 21 points at 12,260 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 1.6 point at 1,331.30.

In the currency markets, traders were still dealing with the repercussions from Thursday’s heavy hint from European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet that the bank may increase interest rates next month — way earlier than anticipated.

Speaking after the bank left its main interest rate unchanged at the record low of 1 percent, Trichet said “strong vigilance” was warranted and that an interest rate increase next month was “possible” though “not certain.”

Those comments prompted a sizable rally in the euro as the markets had not been positioned for a rate hike so soon — in fact, the expectation was that rates would remain on hold until the tail-end of the year.

After sharp gains on Thursday, the euro lost momentum and was trading flat at $1.3961.

Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency research at the Bank of Toky0-Mitsubish UFJ, said an April rate hike is now a “done deal” and is fully priced in by the markets.

However, he said it’s notable that the one cent advance Thursday was well within a normal trading day’s range and does “suggest that a significant amount of what is now expected by the ECB in the rates market is fully priced in the foreign exchange market.”

As such, he said the euro’s advance towards $1.40 and above could be a “slow grind.”

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei 225 stock average, Japan’s main benchmark, climbed 1 percent to close at 10,693.66, while South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.7 percent to 2,004.68.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.2 percent to 23,408.86. In China, Shanghai’s Composite Index ended the week at its highest level so far this year, gaining 1.4 percent to 2,942.31. The Shenzhen Composite Index of China’s smaller, second exchange rose 1.1 percent to 1,286.22.

Hovering in the background is the crisis in Libya as Gadhafi tries to claw back some ground and protests against his regime in the capital city of Tripoli.

As a result, oil prices continued to rise, with the New York rate up 86 cents at $102.77 a barrel while the equivalent Brent rate in London rose $1.12 to $115.91 a barrel.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tighter budgets at the Securities and Exchange Commission could mean killing vital technology upgrades needed to catch swindlers, the agency’s chief said on Friday in a blunt appeal for more funding.

With Republicans in Congress threatening to restrain her budget, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the agency faces severe challenges in doing its existing job and in taking on new duties mandated under 2010′s Dodd-Frank market reform law.

SEC enforcement head Robert Khuzami said budget constraints are hurting the agency, but nevertheless defended its record against critics who say too few Wall Street financiers have been held accountable for the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

“Credit crisis cases continue to be a priority,” Khuzami said, citing cases brought against Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and former mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial, which was acquired in 2008 by Bank of America Corp.

Schapiro said the SEC desperately needs resources to catch more bad guys.

Eliminating needed SEC budget increases could force “our market analysts to continue to use decades-old technology to recreate market events or to monitor trading that occurs at the speed of light,” Schapiro told the SEC Speaks conference.

“We need to ask ourselves if we want our chief securities regulator to have to pull the plug on data management systems and on a digital forensics lab needed to recreate the data that sophisticated fraudsters leave on hard drives and iPhones.”

WALL ST OUTSPENDS

Schapiro said some of the Wall Street firms regulated by the SEC spend more money on their technology budgets alone than the agency spends on its total operating costs.

Appointed two years ago to head the investor protection agency, Schapiro is caught between two powerful political forces. On the one hand, she must implement and enforce scores of market reforms that were approved last year after the worst financial crisis in generations. That costs money.

On the other, Republicans swept to power in November in the House of Representatives are demanding deep federal spending cuts, partly to address the budget deficit problem and partly to undermine the Dodd-Frank reforms that they opposed.

The SEC is scrutinizing stock-offering rules, Schapiro said, following the news that Goldman Sachs planned a special investment vehicle for clients to invest in Facebook, the red-hot online social network company.

Goldman last month said it would limit its private placement of Facebook shares to investors outside the United States, citing “intense media coverage.

In addition, Schapiro said the agency is working on reforms in response to the May 6 flash crash, when U.S. stock markets plunged about 700 points before staging a partial recovery, raising questions about computerized high-frequency trading.

“All of these tasks – all of these confidence-enhancing measures – require resources,” Schapiro told the conference hosted by the Practising Law Institute.

Because Congress has not approved a new budget, the government is running under a stop-gap measure.

That is imposing “a strain that is already having an impact on our core mission – separate and apart from the new responsibilities that Congress gave us to regulate derivatives, hedge fund advisers and credit rating agencies,” she said.

Keith Davis, principal and research analyst at Farr, Miller & Washington, said the agency’s new responsibilities necessitate funds, despite black marks like the SEC’s failure to stop Bernard Madoff’s estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

“The fact that they’re already underfunded and consistently miss things like Madoff and others suggest that more resources should probably be devoted to them,” Davis said.

Then again, a good chunk of additional funds is going to issues such as consumer protection and pay reform, which distracts the SEC from its core business, said Gary Townsend, chief executive of Hill-Townsend Capital, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

“If we are forcing regulators to utilize resources on things that are not as important as safety and soundness and the safety of markets, then we’re wasting taxpayers’ money.”

More details on the Republican fiscal hawks’ goals may come soon. House Republicans are expected next week, likely on Thursday, to unveil specific proposals for funding the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

DODD-FRANK TARGETED

The “Volcker rule” aimed at curbing risky bank trading and new limits on the derivatives market are being targeted for review by House of Representatives Republicans, according to a draft oversight plan obtained this week.

The SEC’s budget will also be examined, the document showed, by the House Financial Services Committee, which is now chaired by Representative Spencer Bachus.

House Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman Scott Garrett told Reuters last week that budget restraint is just one way Republicans are trying to “throttle” parts of Dodd-Frank.

Unlike the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Federal Reserve, both important regulators, the SEC has to ask Congress each year for its budget. The FDIC and the Fed pay for their own operations through fees they assess.

The SEC assesses fees, too, totaling more than enough to cover its budget. But the commission’s fee income goes into the general revenue coffers.

Congress must adequately fund the SEC or let the agency fund itself, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter, a Democrat, said at the conference. “Cutting or freezing the commission’s budget … especially when the SEC generates enough revenue through transaction and registration fees to fund itself, puts markets and investors at risk,” she said.

Thomas Sporkin, chief of the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence, did note, however, that the agency is already reaping enforcement benefits from the reform law, which gives whistleblowers a payout for tips that yield penalties.

The number of “high value” tips on fraud and other violations of securities law numbered about two dozen a year before the law. Since July, the agency has been receiving about one a day, Sporkin said at the annual conference.

Commissioner Luis Aguilar called for stiffer sanctions against companies that violate securities laws and suggested the agency consider forcing defendants to admit wrongdoing in settlements.

(Sarah N. Lynch and Dave Clarke; Writing by Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)