Stocks rose broadly in morning trading Monday on hopes for a plan to restore long-term confidence in the euro.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 140 points, led by banks. Italian bond yields dropped sharply after a new government there introduced new austerity measures aimed at restoring confidence in that country’s debt. The euro and commodities prices rose.

The leaders of France and Germany, the two strongest countries in the euro area, pushed for a new European Union treaty that would avert another crisis by forcing fiscal discipline on member countries. Ballooning deficits in Greece, Portugal and Ireland have forced those countries get bailouts from their neighbors.

As more nations near the fiscal precipice, there is greater fear that the stronger nations will be unable to bail out the weaker ones. Investors are hoping that a summit of European leaders this Friday will produce concrete measures for preventing a messy breakup of the euro currency, which is shared by 17 nations. Investors have feared that a disintegration of the euro could cause a sharp recession in Europe that would spread through the world economy.

Yields on Italian bonds dove to their lowest level in a month, suggesting traders believe that Italy is far less likely to default. The main Italian stock index jumped 3 percent

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 143 points, or 1.2 percent, to 12,162 in the first hour of trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 19, or 1.5 percent, to 1,263. The Nasdaq composite index gained 38, or 1.4 percent, to 2.665.

The gains were broad, lifting 28 of the 30 stocks in the Dow and all 10 industry groups in the S&P 500.

Financials stocks were among the biggest winners. Investors have feared that U.S. banks might be dragged down by their close connections to the unstable European financial system.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 4.5 percent, the most in the Dow. Bank of America was the second-biggest gainer of the Dow 30, rising 3.7 percent. Citigroup Inc. rose 6 percent, Morgan Stanley 4.3 percent.

Monday’s strong gains follow the best week in more than two years for U.S. stock indexes. The S&P 500 rose 7.4 percent last week, the most since March 2009. The Dow jumped 7 percent, the most since July 2009.

Markets are hopeful that, given the gravity of the situation afflicting the euro zone, the German and French leaders will come up with a common proposal for tighter integration on budget matters. Analysts say that such a plan could lead to further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, possibly through the International Monetary Fund.

Italy’s borrowing costs pulled back from a level that might have forced the nation to default. Analysts say bailing out Italy would be too costly and would hurt the credit standing of German and France, which have the strongest economies in the euro group.

The yield on the 10-year Italian bond plunged half a percentage point to 5.98 percent. It rose above 7 percent in November, a level at which other nations were forced to take bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe’s largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.

The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.3481. Crude oil rose $1.30 a barrel to $102.25 in New York.

In corporate news:

• Gannett Co. leapt 11.8 percent after the media company was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by analysts at Lazard Capital Markets.

• Incyte Corp. fell 3 percent after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the drug maker to “neutral” from “buy,” saying its new blood-disease drug Jakafi might not work as a long-term treatment.

• SuccessFactors Inc. soared more than 50 percent after the company agreed to be sold to German software company SAP for $3.4 billion. SuccessFactors makes software specializing in human resources tasks. The deal is part of SAP’s plan to compete with software rival Oracle Corp.

NEW YORK – Occupy Wall Street has a benefit album planned with Jackson Browne, Third Eye Blind, Crosby & Nash, Devo, Lucinda Williams and even some of those drummers who kept an incessant beat at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.

Participants in the protest movement said Wednesday that “Occupy This Album,” which will be available this winter, will also feature DJ Logic, Ladytron, Warren Haynes, Toots and the Maytals, Mike Rimbaud, Aeroplane Pageant, Yo La Tengo and others.

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore is also planning to sing.

Musician Jason Samel, who is putting together the disc, said the goal is to raise between $1 million and $2 million to help fuel the movement, which is protesting income disparity.

“It’s really going to be an amazing help for years to come,” Samel said.

Money raised will go through the nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice. The initial plan is that half of the proceeds will go to the New York movement that was based in Zuccotti Park until being kicked out last week, and the other half to offshoots across the world who apply for specific projects, he said.

There’s a long history of benefit albums, from George Harrison’s “Concert for Bangla Desh” that raised millions for flood victims through Unicef in 1971, and the “We Are the World” single in the 1980s, which raised more than $60 million for famine relief in Africa.

Amnesty International also announced Wednesday that it will put on sale in January a 75-song set of Bob Dylan covers by various artists to benefit the human rights organization.

The Occupy Wall Street album will be available in digital form first, with plans for a physical CD still unclear.

The music will generally be a mixture of live cuts and new songs. Third Eye Blind, for example, has already posted its song, called “If There Ever Was a Time,” which specifically addresses the protest movement.

Haynes has offered a live version of “Rivers Gonna Rise,” a song from his last disc.

Some little-known artists who have participated in the protest will also be included, such as Kaneska Carter and Matt Pless, who wrote “Something’s Got to Give.”

“The lyrics convey a universal feeling of compassion and a hope for a better existence that I believe are the common threads that wind through everyone,” Pless said. “The positive spirit behind this song is a reflection of what birthed the movement and still exists at its core.”

One song will feature the loosely-formed group of people that would beat on drums at the entrance to Zuccotti Park, much to the consternation of neighbors and even some demonstrators as they tried to get some sleep.

Musicians like Tom Morello, David Crosby and Graham Nash had impromptu concerts for some of the demonstrators.

(Reuters) – Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp (7733.T) may sell assets to help pay down $3.4 billion in debt under a plan aimed at keeping the support of lenders in its battle to survive an accounting scandal, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

Olympus's bank creditors are crucial to its prospects of coming through the scandal, given the company is relatively highly geared and is expected to have to make some hefty writedowns once its accounts are put straight.

The once-proud maker of cameras and medical equipment put forward the proposal at a meeting with creditors on Wednesday, offering to cut its debt by about 260 billion yen ($3.38 billion) over the next three years, the Nikkei said.

"It appears to be considering selling assets as a means of repaying debts, in addition to tapping cash reserves and cash flow," the newspaper said in an unsourced report, although it quoted a senior banker as saying Olympus did not face any imminent cash crunch.

The company has lost about 70 percent of its market value, and is under investigation by police and regulators, after admitting this month to hiding investment losses from investors for decades and using payments linked to mergers and acquisitions to aid the cover-up.

The M&A payments included a huge $687 million fee paid to obscure financial advisers for Olympus's $2.2 billion purchase of UK medical equipment firm Gyrus in 2008. The fee is the world's biggest, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Olympus has told its creditors that its acquisition costs for Gyrus were overstated by 33.4 billion yen ($434 million) at the end of fiscal 2010, the Nikkei said, though an independent panel commissioned by Olympus was still probing the matter.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper said Olympus would have to write off this amount from its books, though it added that its equity would still exceed its net debt after this restatement.

At Wednesday's meeting, which involved about 100 bankers, two major creditors, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) said they would continue to support the firm, multiple sources told Reuters.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp is the core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), and BTMU is the main unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T).

Olympus' interest-bearing debts stood at about 650 billion yen ($8.45 billion) on a consolidated basis as of end-March. SMFG and BTMU have total loans of over 400 billion yen to the firm, which also borrowed about 100 billion yen in syndicated loans, according to banking sources.

Olympus's battered shares have staged a comeback this week, on hopes the company can avoid a delisting from the Tokyo stock exchange and that the brunt of any punishment will fall instead on executives found responsible for the scandal.

Delisting would effectively cut the company off from equity capital markets and make it tougher for it to survive.

But some experts say it may be difficult to prevent delisting, given past precedents, the Tokyo exchange's own rules and a sense in some quarters in Japan that the company deserves to be brought low for its failings.

Exchange rules state that a firm will be delisted if it has made "false statements" in its annual or half-year reports and those falsehoods would have a material impact on the shares.

($1 = 76.950 Japanese Yen)

(Reporting by Shounak Dasgupta in Bangalore; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Thursday after the European Central Bank launched fresh liquidity measures to help banks weather the euro zone's debt crisis, easing one of the major concerns overhanging markets.

But a decision not to cut interest rates in the region and tough comments about the risks facing the economy by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet left some investors disappointed and added to volatility.

Anxiety that the region's lingering debt crisis could lead to a bank collapse has pressured equities and pushed the S&P 500 briefly into bear market territory earlier this week.

The ECB, wary of the region's fiscal woes spiraling into a global crisis, said it will revive 12-month loan operations and purchases of covered bonds, while it kept key interest rates unchanged at 1.50 percent.

The ECB's buying of covered bonds is intended to boost confidence in stocks and other risky assets such as commodities and high-yielding bonds.

Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), which have been hurt recently by fears about its exposure to European banks, rose 5.8 percent to $15.37. The S&P financial index (.GSPF) gained nearly 2 percent and was the best-performing sector.

"That has been the worry for the past six months that the banks would suffer some real problems and the fact that the ECB is going to back them up, or potentially back them up, is alleviating some of the concerns," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville

Thursday's advance marked the third up day for Wall Street with a nearly 5 percent gain for the S&P 500 over the three days.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 89.68 points, or 0.82 percent, to 11,029.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) rose 11.93 points, or 1.04 percent, to 1,155.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 26.40 points, or 1.07 percent, to 2,486.91.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU's top executive body proposed a coordinated recapitalization of banks amid the region's sovereign debt crisis. Officials said nothing was finalized.

Meanwhile, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the economic outlook "remains subject to particularly high uncertainty and intensified downside risks" after the ECB kept interest rates on hold, though some investors had hoped for a cut.

Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) fell 4.8 percent to $15.15 after advancing late Wednesday. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) may make another bid for Yahoo, Reuters reported, citing sources. A deal between the two fell apart in 2008.

U.S.-listed shares of Research in Motion Ltd (RIMM.O)(RIM.TO) rose 2.5 percent to $24.18 on continued speculation the BlackBerry maker could be acquired.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) rose 1 percent to $382 a day after co-founder Steve Jobs, the driving force behind the creation of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, died at the age of 56.

New claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week, hinting at an improved labor market a day before the closely watched September non-farm payrolls report.

On Friday, the government will report non-farm payrolls data, which is expected to show a return to growth in September after August's flat reading. On Wednesday, a report from payrolls processor ADP showed overall private-sector payrolls rose by 91,000, topping forecasts.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks fell toward the previous week's 14-month low on Monday and the euro hit a 10-year low against the yen as doubts grew over how effective Europe's latest crisis-battling steps would be in containing the continent's sovereign debt problems.

European policymakers began working on new ways to stop fallout from Greece's near default, focusing on ways to beef up their existing 440-billion-euro rescue fund.

But deep differences remained over whether the European Central Bank should commit more of its massive resources to shoring up Europe's banks and help struggling euro zone member countries.

Concerns over the potential effect from Greece's possible default, especially on the banking sector, and worries over a U.S. economic slowdown have been weighing on world stocks, fanning safety-seeking flows into top-rated government bonds.

"Overall it's still an inconclusive situation — no tangible action plan coming out of the weekend gathering so the net result will still be risk aversion," said Rainer Guntermann, strategist at Commerzbank.

MSCI world equity index fell 1.1 percent, having hit its lowest since July 2010 on Friday. The index has fallen more than 23 percent since hitting a three-year high in May and is also down 17 percent since January.

European stocks lost 0.8 percent while emerging stocks hit their weakest since September 2009.

"The lurch lower in risk appetite can only reflect a growing fear that policymakers will be incapable of acting in time or with sufficient potency to turn things around," said Herv Goulletquer, analyst at Credit Agricole.

U.S. crude oil dropped 1.8 percent to $78.40 a barrel.

Bund futures were up nine ticks before trimming gains.

The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies.

The euro fell as low as 101.90 yen and hit an eight-month low of $1.3361.

(Additional reporting by Emelia Sithole-Materise; Editing by Toby Chopra)

FRANKFURT, Germany – The leaders of Germany and France are welcoming plans by Italy and Spain to cut their budget deficits and improve their competitiveness, and are urging “complete and speedy” implementation.

In a joint statement Sunday, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy underscored their commitment to “fully implement” decisions taken by a summit last month to give the eurozone rescue fund expanded powers — allowing it to buy bonds on secondary markets.

The leaders said they stress the importance of the fact that “parliamentary approval will be obtained swiftly by the end of September in their two countries.”

Merkel and Sarkozy welcomed the plans of Italy and Spain and said that Rome’s pledge to balance its budget a year before its previous schedule “is of fundamental importance.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is holding an emergency telephone conference Sunday on how to fend off financial collapse in Italy while officials from rich and developing countries discussed ways to stabilize markets when they reopen after Friday’s U.S credit-rating downgrade.

A eurozone official told The Associated Press that central bank leaders were to discuss possible purchases of Italian government bonds — a risky move but one that could help drive down bond interest yields that are threatening the heavily indebted country’s finances.

The official declined to be identified without authorization to discuss the meeting. A spokeswoman for the ECB declined to comment.

European officials are trying to keep Italy from being dragged into the same kind of interest-rate death spiral that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international bailout loans after they could no longer borrow at affordable rates.

Officials from world’s 20 leading economies on Sunday also discussed the stability of financial markets after the historic U.S. credit downgrade rattled investors already worried about European debt crises.

Deputies from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies talked by telephone about proposals to minimize market shocks following the downgrade, South Korea’s central bank said.

Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported Sunday that G-7 deputy finance ministers had agreed on a conference call among the higher-level ministers, who are likely to discuss the U.S. downgrade as well as the eurozone sovereign debt concerns.

The G-7 includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and Japan, while the G-20 includes those countries as well as large emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Russia and India.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said last week that the bank was reviving its bond-buying program after leaving it dormant for four months, and the head of Belgium’s central bank said it bought Irish and Portuguese bonds but not those from Spain and Italy, implying those countries had to do more to fix their finances first.

Responding to market pressure, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Friday promised to balance the country’s budget by 2013, a year early, and to bring forward other reforms such as including an amendment in the constitution requiring the government to balance its budget.

Italy’s bond yields have risen from under 4 percent late last year to over 6 percent on Friday, a potentially serious burden for the government’s finances.

The government has debt equivalent to 120 percent of economic output, the second highest in the eurozone behind Greece, and weak prospects for economic growth that would help pay debt.

Sunday’s phone meeting comes just hours before the opening of financial markets in Asia, after Friday’s downgrade of the United States’ credit rating from AAA to AA plus by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has led to fears of more stock market plunges.

Last week already saw markets around the world deep in the red amid fears the global economy may be weakening and the uncertainty created by Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

In a sign of early fallout, Middle East markets tumbled Sunday on the first day of business after the downgrade.

Middle East markets, open Sunday through Thursday, were the first to react to the downgrade. Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index fell more than 4 percent, and other Gulf markets also were sharply lower.

Israel’s Tel Aviv Stock Exchange delayed the start of the week’s first session after pre-market trade showed the benchmark index dropping more than 6 percent because of concerns over the U.S. debt rating cut. Exchange spokeswoman Idit Yaaron said the start was pushed back by 45 minutes “so market players will have time to react logically and not under pressure.”

Israel’s benchmark TA-25 index plunged 7 percent to close at 1,074 points.

U.S. markets and others reopen Monday but have had rough patches recently. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 512 points Thursday, its worst performance since the financial crisis of 2008, and regained only a fraction of that drop Friday.

Many economists see the world’s big central banks as the last line of defense at this moment in the crisis, after policymakers in Europe and the U.S. have failed to agree on the kind of shock-and-awe moves that many investors demand.

Investors have also been calling on the U.S. Federal Reserve to start pumping money into the American economy again to help underpin the slowing economic recovery.

___

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Kelly Olsen in Seoul, South Korea; Adam Schreck in Dubai; and Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed to this report.

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japanese government plans to issue 10 trillion yen ($128 billion) in reconstruction bonds and cut spending by 3 trillion yen to pay for more projects to rebuild the devastated northeast, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

Investors are counting on reconstruction spending to help the world’s third-largest economy pull out from a slump caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March and to resume moderate growth in the third quarter.

A government source told Reuters last week it was planning additional spending of 13 trillion yen for reconstruction projects, on top of a combined 6 trillion yen already set aside in two extra budgets.

The source had said the government was considering issuing special bonds, scaling back other spending plans and selling national assets. The Ministry of Finance was planning on five-year bonds, with the government considering raising taxes to repay them, according to the source.

The Nikkei said about 8-9 trillion yen of the 13 trillion yen would be spent to improve infrastructure, while 3 trillion yen would go toward building schools and creating jobs.

The draft blueprints for the government’s reconstruction projects will be finalized this month by a reconstruction task force headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the paper said.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)

HONG KONG – Italian fashion house Prada plans to raise up to $2.6 billion in a listing on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, according to a person familiar with the deal, joining other foreign companies flocking to cash in on China’s rising fortunes.

Prada plans to sell some 423.3 million shares in range of 36.50 to 48 Hong Kong dollars, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment officially.

If the shares are sold at the top of the indicative price range, Prada would raise HK$20.3 billion ($2.6 billion). The price will be finalized on June 17 and the shares will start trading on June 24, the person said.

Prada, which was founded in 1913, also owns the Miu Miu, Church’s and Car Shoes brands.

In a pre-listing document filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange, Prada said it expects Asia to be the company’s fastest growing region, and China to be its fastest growing market.

China’s strong economic growth, increasing urbanization and higher spending by the rich will drive annual sales growth of 15 to 20 percent from now until 2014, the company forecast.

Prada plans to open 70 stores in Asia by 2014, with 30 of those in China. It will also open 30 Miu Miu stores in Asia during the same time frame, up from 25 currently.

“We believe further growth is possible due to continuing growth of the Chinese economy, which enables us to further our penetration into Chinese cities,” the document said.

Prada is holding a fashion show and presentation for investors Tuesday evening in Hong Kong as it prepares for the initial public offering.

The company is also looking at expanding in the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe, according to the document.

Swiss commodities trader Glencore and luggage maker Samsonite have also listed in Hong Kong this year. Luxury handbag maker Coach plans a Hong Kong listing later this year.

HONG KONG – Luggage maker Samsonite International S.A. is planning to raise $1.5 billion from a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday, joining a slew of foreign companies cashing in on investor interest in China.

Samsonite will sell 671.24 million shares in the initial public offering, equivalent to a 47.7 percent stake in the company, said the person, who was not authorized to reveal details of the IPO and requested anonymity.

The company will hold a press conference later Thursday to discuss the listing plan.

The shares will be sold for between 13.50 Hong Kong dollars and 17.50 Hong Kong dollars, the person said. That would raise 9.1 billion to 11.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.2 billion to $1.5 billion).

The listing is scheduled for June 16, the person said.

Samsonite, which was founded in 1910 in Denver, Colorado, plans to focus on developing its business in high-growth Asian markets, especially China and India, according to pre-listing documents filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Asia generated about a third of the company’s sales last year, about the same as Europe but ahead of North America, which brought in a quarter.

Samsonite is the latest in a string of foreign companies to hold IPOs in Hong Kong as they seek to ride growing investor interest in China.

MGM China, a Macau casino operator controlled by Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International, raised $1.5 billion last month in the fourth largest global gaming IPO on record, according to deal tracking company Dealogic.

Global commodities trader Glencore International PLC chose Hong Kong for its secondary listing when it went public last month. Italian fashion house Prada is also planning a Hong Kong IPO.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners owns about 54.3 percent of Samsonite while Royal Bank of Scotland owns 30 percent.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the offering will allow CVC to sell much of its stake.

LONDON (Reuters) – Exchange giant NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) is looking to set up two parallel clearing services if it seals its proposed deal to buy Anglo-French clearing house LCH.Clearnet as well as merging with Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE).

NYSE Euronext, which agreed a $10.2 billion combination with its German peer on February 9, has partnered with data vendor Markit in early talks about a possible joint takeover of LCH.Clearnet, a source close to the talks said on Monday.

Deutsche Boerse already owns and operates the Eurex Clearing business, which handles trades on both its Eurex futures market and the boerse’s Xetra share market.

“NYSE Euronext would be looking to keep its existing plans to move listed derivatives to Eurex Clearing,” the source told Reuters on Monday.

“If successful (this) would provide the group with an option to create more customer synergies between the listed and over-the-counter (OTC) markets,” the source said.

The plan is for Eurex Clearing to act as the clearer of choice for instruments traded on an exchange, while LCH.Clearnet will become the venue for the far larger off-exchange or OTC markets, the source said.

Details of the NYSE Euronext plan emerged after media reports on Friday said that the transatlantic exchange operator, along with its rival Nasdaq OMX (NDAQ.O) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) have all made bids for LCH.Clearnet, which is based in London and Paris.

This prompted LCH.Clearnet to confirm on Saturday that it had received a number of offers from exchange operators about a possible tie-up, declining to comment further.

However, the LSE said on Sunday it is not currently in talks with the clearing house.

Clearing, which has been thrust into the spotlight since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in late 2008, provides trading counterparties with a guarantee against the other party defaulting on its obligations.

The sector has been given a huge boost by regulators in Europe and the United States who are planning to pass into law new rules to force large swathes of the $600 trillion OTC market in derivatives, such as interest rate and credit default swaps, to use clearing houses.

This has prompted many of the world’s largest exchange operators, some of which own there own clearing providers while others use third party specialists like LCH.Clearnet, to review their clearing strategies.

NYSE Euronext, which along with the LSE uses LCH.Clearnet, said last year it will set up in 2012 its own European clearing services and move business off LCH — a model used by Deutsche Boerse.

“NYSE Euronext wants to in-source its clearing in Europe and LCH.Clearnet would present a ready-made clearing solution for them, as well as complementing their clearing presence in the U.S.,” said Herbie Skeete, managing director at exchange consultancy Mondo Visione.

NYSE Euronext also launched in March this year New York Portfolio Clearing, the exchange’s joint venture with U.S. clearing giant the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, to handle interest rate futures trading in the United States.

NYSE Euronext is the largest shareholder in LCH.Clearnet, with about 9 percent of the firm’s stock, while the next largest owner is the London Metal Exchange with 8 percent.

The remaining 83 percent is owned by LCH.Clearnet’s largest banking and brokerage clients, most of whom would need to approve any takeover of the firm.

(Editing by Douwe Miedema and Greg Mahlich)