NEW YORK – Even King Kong might go ape over this possible business deal: The Empire State Building could become part of a publicly traded real estate investment company.

Malkin Holdings LLC., the family-owned company that supervises the portfolio of office properties that includes the iconic Manhattan skyscraper, is weighing that possibility, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

The filing, called an 8-K, does not necessarily mean that an initial public offering is imminent or even likely.

Scott Sweet, a senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, said the 8-K filing is rare, and could be an attempt at a trial balloon or simply as a method of informing potential investors and traders. It also might be a means to communicate with shareholders that something is afoot.

“They’re going through the legal channels of announcing there could be something happening and are making it clear what it could be,” he said.

In the one-paragraph filing, the company said it could not disclose further information at this time because of legal reasons.

But the company said in the filing that more information could be forthcoming in about three months.

The company echoed its filing in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

It declined to answer specific questions about any possible public offering.

The Empire State Building, a 102-story tower completed in 1931, is famous for its rooftop view and for its role as the building that the giant ape scaled in the 1933 film “King Kong.”

Earlier this year, the building announced it was completing a $550 million renovation project with the replacement of its elevators.

LOWELL, Mass. – A new national poll released Sunday shows neither Wall Street nor Occupy Wall Street conjuring up strong favorable impressions among the American public.

But protesters fared better than their wealthy corporate targets in the poll conducted for the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and the Boston Herald.

Among 1,005 adults surveyed, 35 percent had a favorable impression of the protest movement that began in New York City and gained support worldwide. Only 16 percent could say the same for Wall Street and large corporations.

Twenty-nine percent had a favorable impression of the tea party movement and 21 percent of government in Washington.

Knowledge Networks conducted the survey, asking participants their impressions of the four groups.

Wall Street and large corporations tied with Washington government in unpopularity, with 71 percent of those polled saying they had an unfavorable impression of big business and Washington. The tea party got a 50 percent unfavorable response and Occupy Wall Street 40 percent.

The group surveyed was selected randomly and the poll conducted online from Oct. 28 through Nov. 1. It had a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, meaning the results could go up or down by that amount.

Last month, an Associated Press-GfK poll showed some 37 percent supported the Wall Street protesters. Fifty-eight percent said they were furious about America’s politics, up from 49 percent in January.

WASHINGTON – Most Americans say politics makes them angry. But that doesn’t mean there is wide support for the Wall Street protests against the nation’s power brokers.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows that 37 percent of people do back the protests that have spread from New York to cities across the country. It’s one of the first snapshots of how the public views the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

But more Americans — 58 percent — say they are furious about the country’s politics than did in January, when 49 percent said they felt that way.

Nearly nine in 10 say they are frustrated with politics and nearly the same say they are disappointed.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton insists she’s committed to returning to private life after President Barack Obama’s first term and says “I think it’s time for others to step up.”

Clinton has said previously that she didn’t plan to remain in government after next year’s election. And in an NBC interview broadcast on the “Today” show Monday, she stresses once more that she won’t run for president again. The secretary declares, “No, no.”

Clinton says people will just have to “watch and wait” to see what she does next, but she says that a return to writing and teaching is a high priority.

On international diplomacy, Clinton tells the network that “we cannot abdicate leadership around the world because when we do, it comes back to bite us.”

DETROIT – A six-week stock slump has caused Ally Financial Inc. to delay an initial public stock offering that had been scheduled for late June, two people briefed on the decision said Friday.

The $5 billion to $7 billion IPO by the former finance arm of General Motors was meant to repay the U.S. government for $17.2 billion in aid that Ally received during the financial crisis. The offering has been postponed indefinitely until markets improve, said the people, both of whom asked not to be identified because the decision has not been made public.

Ally would not get any money from the sale. It has returned $4.9 billion to the government through dividend payments and the sale of trust preferred securities. The government currently owns 74 percent of Ally’s stock.

Ally and the U.S. Treasury have not said officially when the company would go public or how many shares the government will sell.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 12,000 on Friday for the first time since March. It was the market’s sixth-straight weekly loss — the longest down series since the fall of 2002. Stocks have suffered this month as weak economic news dampened hopes for a quick economic recovery.

The Dow fell 172 points, or 1.4 percent, to close at 11,952.

Ally spokeswoman Gina Proia and Treasury spokesman Matthew Anderson would not comment on the delay, which was reported Friday by the Financial Times.

Ally, formerly known as GMAC Inc., makes loans to GM and Chrysler customers and finances dealer inventories of cars and trucks. The Detroit-based company received government aid in late 2008 as part of the Bush administration’s assistance to the U.S. auto industry. The Obama administration invested additional sums in May and December 2009.

In addition to Ally common stock, Treasury owns $5.9 billion in preferred shares, which are convertible into common stock. For Treasury to break even on the $17.2 billion it gave Ally, it will have to sell the preferred stock for the $5.9 billion it is valued at and make about $6.4 billion from the sale of the common stock.

The company, which also had a mortgage lending division, Residential Capital LLC, had suffered from a strained credit market, the housing downturn and sliding demand for new cars during the recession. At the time, analysts had speculated that the company might have to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down without financial help.

Ally is among the lenders facing billions in potential fines stemming from government investigations into improper mortgage foreclosures. Federal financial regulators already ordered Ally and 15 others to reimburse homeowners who were foreclosed on improperly.

Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are managing the IPO. The four banks were also involved with GM’s IPO last year.

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AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report from Washington.

MANAMA, Bahrain – Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that U.S. secretary of state will be her final public position, seeming to close the door on speculation that she would run for president or take another post in the Obama administration.

“I think I’ll serve as secretary of state as my last public position and then probably go back to advocacy work, particularly on behalf of women and children, and particularly around the world because if you look at what is still happening to women in many parts of the world it is tragic and terrible,” she told a Bahrain TV interviewer.

The interviewer began by asking if she planned to run for president.

“No, I do not,” she said.

She then launched into a detailed review of her career, noting that she began as an advocate for neglected and handicapped children.

“I’ve had a fascinating and rewarding public career,” she said, recounting her time with the Children’s Defense Fund, her years in Arkansas, in the White House as first lady and in the Senate. She then said her present position would be her last in government.

Some had speculated she might succeed Robert Gates after his expected retirement next year as secretary of defense, or run as President Barack Obama’s vice presidential candidate in 2012.

WASHINGTON – The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday the public shouldn’t be able to see details of the SEC’s policing of financial firms because it could make the agency’s job more difficult.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro told a House panel that the agency needs the exemption for some cases because firms won’t provide information voluntarily if they know it could be viewed by anyone, including competitors.

Lawmakers want to close a loophole in the new financial overhaul law that allows the SEC an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act. Those records are related to its monitoring of firms such as hedge funds and investment advisers.

Legislation is moving through Congress and is backed by open-government advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Society of Professional Journalists and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill unanimously on Thursday. The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to examine the exemption, and is likely to follow the Senate panel’s lead.

“I am convinced that it went too far,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House panel, told Schapiro at the hearing. “It is clear that legislation is required.”

The exemption allows the SEC to hold back a range of data it collects from financial firms during its inspections. In most cases, financial firms voluntarily provide the information.

Proponents of closing the exemption say the public should have a right to review the data because firms could be making risky moves. They cite the case of Bernard Madoff, who is serving a life sentence in federal prison for conducting a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, as a reason for making the data public.

But Schapiro said firms are concerned that competitors could exploit the public records laws to review proprietary information, such as their investment strategies or trading formulas. That would lead many firms to stop volunteering the information and that could damage the SEC’s ability “to obtain in a timely manner the sensitive or confidential information needed for comprehensive examinations” of firms, Schapiro said.

The FOIA law is aimed at promoting openness and transparency in government. It requires that government records be released to anyone who asks, unless they fall under one of nine exceptions to the law. The financial overhaul law enacted in July broadened the SEC’s ability to invoke those exceptions.

Lawmakers from both parties are concerned about exempting the SEC from oversight just as it flexes new powers it gained under the landmark overhaul. The law gives the SEC new authority to oversee hedge funds, derivatives and other aspects of the financial industry.

The proposed fix to the FOIA exemption would be the first change to the financial regulatory law.

Schapiro tried to assuage lawmakers’ concerns by saying she’s directed her staff to apply the exemption in limited cases.

But Angela Canterbury, director of public policy at the Project on Government Oversight, said, “We do not believe that internal SEC guidance is sufficient to allay the risks to the public interest.”

An audit commissioned by the SEC inspector general, released a year ago, found that the agency had inadequate or incorrect FOIA procedures for determining whether responsive documents exist and how exemptions from disclosure are applied.

The report found that the agency was more inclined to withhold information from public view than share it when requested. The SEC’s rate of compliance with FOIA rules was “significantly lower” than the average of those for federal agencies, it said.

The inspector general made 10 recommendations in the report. Schapiro noted in her testimony that the agency has carried out nine of them since then.