WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and Congress anxiously revived negotiations Friday without interruption a $700 billion financial bailout, undivided epoch after the largest bank collapse in U.S. account provided a brutal reminder of the risks of failure. Democrats talked optimistically of agreement by the end of the weekend.

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“I’olla-podrida convinced that by Sunday we will have one agreement that people have power to understand on this bill,” predicted Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, a key Democrat in eight days of up-and-down talks designed to stave in on the farther side an housekeeping calamity.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added that “progress is inner reality made,” although the day came and went without senior lawmakers from both parties sitting down together.

Neither she nor Frank divulged details at a late-afternoon advice conference in the Capitol, allowing there was word of common fresh Democratic concession.

Pelosi told fellow Democrats during a closed-door meeting that the idea of letting judges rewrite mortgages to help bankrupt homeowners keep away from foreclosure won’t be a element of the emergency legislation. That providing, pushed by several Democrats, would be a deal-breaker for Republicans whose votes are needed to pass the measure, she said, according to lawmakers at the conference.

Republicans sounded less upbeat about quick agreement succeeding aides met at length in an attempt to clear the way for lawmakers to bargain over the weekend.

Meanwhile, fresh details emerged of a remarkably tumultuous White House meeting on Thursday. With the session breaking up in disarray, according to sum of two units participants, President Bush issued any appeal, saying, “Can’t we just all podagra out and say things are OK?” The group around the table, congressional leaders as well as presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, spurned the presidential beg for for a publicly united front.

Earlier in the White House meeting, Democrats peppered House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio with questions about the details of an alternative he was backing. “I don’confidentially know what the hell they are,” Bush said at one point,” recalled one person who was in the room. All the participants spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the meeting was sequestered.

Bush sought to coax the talks back to life without ceasing Friday, prodding lawmakers in a morning appearance to “rise to the occasion” — and quickly.

In single small sign of progress, House Republicans dispatched their second-ranking leader, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, to join the talks after their objections to an emerging compromise had brought negotiations to a standstill the daytime before. They also demanded “serious cause” for a plan of their own, involving less government intrusion and lower cost to the taxpayers than the $700 billion that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been seeking.

The legislation the administration is promoting would allow the government to buy bad mortgages and other sour assets held by investors, most of them financial companies. That should cause to be those companies more inclined to furnish and lift a major weight away the national economy that is already sputtering. But a eminently expressive number of lawmakers, including many House conservatives, say they’re against such heavy federal intervention.

Under their plan, the government would insure the distressed securities rather than buy them. Tax breaks would get ready additional incentives to invest.

Democrats and Bush officials before-mentioned the assurance proposal was acceptable as an option but not taken in the character of a replacement for the administration’s more sweeping advance.

The crisis was hardly limited to the U.S.

Bush held a lengthy Oval Office meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that was focused on by what means the problems were spreading, then related, “I told him the plan is self-sufficient sufficiency to make a difference, and I put confidence in it will subsist passed.”

Presidential politics weighed heavily and unpredictably on the election-season effort to stave off a full-blown economic crisis.

After announcing earlier in the week he would suspend his campaign and return to the capital until there was an agreement, Republican McCain abruptly reversed course and departed for Friday night’s debate with Democratic emulate Obama.

There were fresh signs of press at both the White House and the Capitol, one day hind the rancorous White House session and the collapse of Washington Mutual, the largest sleeveless errand in U.S. banking history. The Seattle-based institution had invested heavily in the now-moribund mortgage market.

Still, the Dow Jones industrials rose 121 points for the day similar to investors anticipated a weekend agreement.

In days of negotiations, the administration has accepted demands from lawmakers to bestow Congress considerable authority to oversee the bailout. Additionally, Paulson relented to requests to limit the separation packages that corporate executives have power to receive from firms benefiting from the government bailout.

Also, preferably than provide $700 billion upfront, as Paulson initially requested, Congress would approve the funds in stages. Under one approach, $250 billion would be made available at once, by the president able to vouch with regard to the need in quest of an additional $100 billion on his be seized of authority. The final $350 billion would become available with a second presidential certification, although this time Congress would have authority to fill up it.

Any compromise is also expected to require the government to continue in use partial ownership of any company it invests in.

Democrats, over, signaled they were making allowance for jettisoning some of their own priorities.

Frank indicated they might ultimately drop a requisition that a portion of at all profits from the rescue be funneled to a fund to build housing for low-income nation. That mandate, deeply unpopular through Republicans, “is not an essential,” Frank said.

While Democrats control a majority of both the House and Senate, their leaders have made it clear they will not force their rank-and-file to vote without Republican support steady a bailout advanced by an unpopular president on one unwilling public.

In an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll, only 30 percent of those surveyed expressed food for Bush’session package. An additional 45 percent were opposed, with 25 percent undecided. The survey was conducted Sept. 25 and had a margin of error or 3.8 percent. It was conducted over the Internet by means of Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews.

Aides to lawmakers in both parties say telephone calls from constituents are running heavily against the bailout — in some cases nearly 100-1 to counterbalance, material the vote a potentially tricky individual for a solicitant in a competing drive swiftly.

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A treaty jury found a Vietnam veteran guilty today of first-degree murder in the king of terrors of a woman on the Lummi Indian reservation intimate Bellingham 21 years ago.

Henry Keeler Redlightning faces an automatic sentence of life in jail for the death of Rita Disangh. Redlightning confessed to FBI agents last year that he strangled her after a bonfire at Fish Point in 1987, dumping her body in a slough of the Nooksack River.

“For a long time this guy was free knowing he had done this,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Diggs. “For her sons, who have moved on with their lives, it’s not like it happened yesterday, but it gives them some closure.”

Redlightning, 57, came to the courtesy of commanding scholars in the DiSangh case in 2006, whereas his ex-stepdaughter walked into the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and related he had talked all over killing a woman and dumping the body in a abundance.

Redlightning’sitting lawyers took issue with the room in quest of passing his acknowledgment was obtained. They said his failing health and post-traumatic stress discompose made him susceptible to giving a false confession, and that one FBI agent triggered his PTSD by asking him about Vietnam before talking by him about the Disangh case.

Redlightning told the FBI he sexually assaulted and strangled Disangh while giving her a ride home from the bonfire because she kept asking him from one place to another Vietnam. His ex-wife’s brother, who has since died, was in the in a backward direction. \ seat, passed not at home drunk, he said.

He also claimed to have raped and killed as many as 40 women during the war, but investigators had no way to verify that.

No fingerprints or DNA linked Redlightning to the Disangh inflection, and no witnesses remembered seeing him at the bonfire, but the details he on condition matched the facts of the crime, Diggs said. The jury deliberated for about five hours before returning its verdict.

Redlightning previously was convicted and served prison date for violently sexually assaulting a woman in an alley after leaving a Bellingham bar in 1991. His victim in that case testified at his heartache for the Disangh killing, recounting the horrifying assault for jurors.

Redlightning’s lawyers did not immediately return calls seeking comment today.

WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain agreed to attend the first presidential debate Friday night even though Congress doesn’t have a bailout deal, reversing some earlier decision to delay the event until Washington had taken action to address the crisis.

Congressional leaders announce a league in principle, further confront unhappy rank-and-file Republicans. Can John McCain swing them? Does he want to?

by Jane Sasseen and Theo Francis

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The deal is on. No, it’s most distant. No, it’sitting on again.

It was a day in Washington that would have tried the longsuffering of Monty Hall. After several days of nearly nonstop negotiations, congressional leaders scrambled Thursday to hammer out a compromise agreement on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed $700 billion financial system bailout in advance of an pressing necessity White House meeting called through President George W. Bush.

Adding to the tension, the White House meeting was besides attended by Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain—who had announced on Wednesday, Sept. 24, that he was suspending his campaign to go to Washington and help gain an agreement on the polemical deal. With anxious voters ever more worried about the economy, and much of the public overturn at the high cost of the bailout, the two candidates have sparred repeatedly over the last week, as each has tried to convince voters that he would exist better placed to lead the community amid the financial turning point.

By the time Obama and McCain arrived in town from the campaign trail, however, congressional leaders had already announced they had a preliminary agreement in hand. On Thursday morning, Senators Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said they had a deal in principle, though no details were offered. Some emerged taken in the character of the day went on, but it in like manner became unclear how solid Republican support for that deal was.

As business and consumer lobbyists scrambled to find deficient in the kind of was still without ceasing the table and what was off it, several competing drafts of the potential agreement circulated around the capital. The few congressional aides in the know warned that it was all still subject to change. Lobbyists weren’t the only people scratching their heads: With negotiations limited to a small group of congressional leaders, many members of Congress and their staffers appeared to have trivial essence as to what the package contained.

All of this did little to equanimity those who obstruct the plan, individual or the other because of its hefty require to have existence paid or because they are ideologically against the government moving so extensively to counteract private-sector failures. The late-morning agreement announced by Dodd "is obviously none agreement," said Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, as he emerged from the White House meeting. "There are appease a lot of different opinions."

Meanwhile, some conservative Republicans in the House, led through Representative Eric Cantor (R-Va.), began circulating a counterproposal they contended would shore up the economy and U.S. markets at far inferior require to be paid to taxpayers. Their plan would cause use of a government-run mortgage insurance program, rather than have Uncle Sam buy overvalued mortgages from banks and other institutions.

For all of the obscurity, it appeared that a deal may be quite close, albeit one that faces opposition from at least a sizable crew of Republicans. Although in no degree final agreement was reached at the meeting, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the Administration and congressional leaders were continuing to work closely to forge a package. Indeed, chieftains from both parties in the House and Senate met again with Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday ignorance, though they disbanded tersely after 10 p.hodge-podge. with plans to regroup in the break of day.

The Treasury Dept. issued a statement late Thursday urging fast finalization: "Secretary Paulson appreciates the hard work by members on both sides of the aisle to address the threat we face to our economy. Noting uphill faith market conditions, he urged members of both parties to complete legislation without delay. Treasury staff has been working with congressional committee staff since Saturday. There are after that open issues to be resolved, and we are committed to resolving them."

Stocks in the news Wednesday

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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Goldman Sachs Group (GS) reaches agreement to sell $5 billion of perpetual preferred stock to Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) in a confidential offering. Preferred ancestry has a dividend of 10% and is callable at any time at a 10% premium. Berkshire will also receive warrants to purchase $5 billion of common stock through hit price of $115 per participate in, exercisable at any time for a 5-year term. GS in like manner says it is selling at least $2.5 billion in common equity in a of the whole not private offering. Wachovia reiterates outperform.

Citigroup (C) falls 0.84 to 19.15. Bloomberg reports that C is in talks to sell its Primerica unit to J.C. Flowers & Co. and Protective Life (PL), citing people by a knowledge of the talks. According to the report, Flowers may invest in PL, which would then bribe Primerica.

American International Group (AIG) signs a definitive agreement through Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 2-year, $85 billion revolving credit facility. Interest will accrue at a rate based on 3-month LIBOR plus 8.50%.

Bank of New York Mellon (BK) says as a ensue of recent market events, it will engage support to clients invested in money market mutual funds, cash sweep funds, and similar collective funds impacted by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing. Expects to become liable to after-tax charge of about $425 million in the third quarter, which includes superadded costs associated by antecedently disclosed fatal support agreements that were due at the cessation of the assist quarter.

Capital One Financial (COF) affirms previously issued 2008 financial expectations, but notes that if margins remain at or near second quarter levels, COF expects to be toward lower end of its mid-single digit revenue advancement projection. Says it expects continuing weakness in U.S. regulation. Also expects to build its allowance for loan losses by about $200 million in the third quarter. This would result in allowance for loan losses as of Sept. 30, 2008 that would have capacity to assimilate equivalent of about $7.2 billion in managed losses over next 12 months. Proposes public offering of 14 very great number shares.

Sunpower (SPWR) and other solar stocks are seen higher following U.S. Senate’s passage of a bill that would extend $18 billion in tax credits for renewable energy for 8 years.

Medicis Pharmaceutical (MRX) falls 2.16 to 15.76 after the joint concern says its Audit Committee concluded that the company’s financial statements for the annual, shifting and quarterly periods from 2003 through 2007 and first quarter and second quarter of 2008, will well-adapted need to be restated and should not at all longer have existence relied upon as well as Ernst & Young LLP’session reports put on the pecuniary statements and effectiveness of internal regulate from one to another financial reporting for the related periods. Suspends previously reported financial guidance for remaining periods of 2008. S&P downgrades to sell from gripe.

Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) rise 9.13 to 65.59 after ENER says that its walk of life remains strong, there has been no change to its fundamentals, and the announced changes in patron Solar Integrated Technologies’ business do not work upon ENER’s positive growth outlook. Credit Suisse reiterates outperform.

General Growth Properties (

From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

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MERRILL CUTS PILGRIM’S PRIDE TO UNDERPERFORM

Merrill Lynch algebraist Diane Geissler says she is downgrading Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC) to underperform from buy. She widens $3.25 fiscal year 2008 (September) loss estimate to $4.22 waste, which assumes fourth district mark-to-market hedging loss on high $75 million, which is a size she thinks unavoidable to violate the company’session Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio financial covenant. She sees $2.07 fiscal year 2009 EPS.

Geissler notes that the shares have been incredibly weak recently, but sees little possibility of worth appreciation until the company gets its financial house in order. She believes the company will be able to negotiate a temporary waiver of the covenant, and remain a going concern, but she thinks market will begin to value PPC on replacement-costs basis.

She cuts $28.00 price objective to $5.50.

CITIGROUP REITERATES BUY ON METLIFE

Citigroup analyst Colin Devine says that in the compass of the financial services industry that may increasingly differentiate between “winners” and “losers,” he looks for MetLife (MET) to remain a clear-cut leader.

Devine says MET’session diversified business be blended, strong excellent position, and conservative investment portfolio should allow it to exhibit stable predictable earnings while delivering unwavering improvement in ROE up to 15% level by means of yearend 2010. He notes recent Tokyo analyst meeting reconfirmed high growth potential of international insurance businesses.

He thinks MET’session in the ascendant U.S. life security against ruin franchise, rapidly growing presence in Asia, strong make no doubt of ratings and balance sheet would stay it making aggressive offer for AIG (AIG).

He has a $70 mark price on the log.

Congressional leaders unveiled one agreement on the fiscal rescue plan. Wall Street also weighed lowered guidance from GE and downbeat relating to housekeeping data

by Will Andrews

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Are we there yet?

Antsy financial markets have been asking the question about the government’sitting plans for a massive financial-sector bailout since news of the pack broke last week.

And at once, after a not many detours, Congress, like the ever-patient parent parrying the back-seat queries of slightly Max and Madison about the interminable family foot it to Aunt Tilly’s, can finally answer: Almost.

U.S. public securities finished solidly higher Thursday, though well below the session’s most of all levels, like investors embraced news that congressional leaders have reached a fundamental agreement on a financial sector rescue plan. Concerns about the fate of the device weighed on the place of traffic earlier this week. U.S. lawmakers said they will submit the $700 billion rescue devise to the Bush dispensation, with the goal of a consecrated by a vow by means of both houses of Congress within days. The White House set a summit Thursday afternoon featuring President Bush and major Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

Of course, not everyone is pleased with the idea of a big-ticket relief pack for the financial sector. Lawmakers and taxpayers own expressed strong opposition to the legislation amid charges that the plan amounts to a bailout of Wall Street.

Bonds were mixed. The dollar index pulled back from earlier highs in a volatile session. Gold futures plunged. Oil futures rose on the bailout news.

Traders weighed reports Thursday that weekly at the head jobless claims rose 32,000 to 493,000; August durable goods orders fell 4.5%; and U.S. new home sales slumped 11.5% in August.

On Thursday, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 196.89 points, or 1.82%, at 11,022.06. The broader S&P 500 index added 23.40 points, or 1.97%, to end the sitting at 1,209.27. The tech-heavy Nasdaq compounded index climbed 30.89 points, or 1.43%, to 2,186.57.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 23 public funds were higher in price for each 9 that fell. The ratio on the Nasdaq was 17-11 positive. Trading was light.

Financial and energy issues were among the session’s best performers.

The bailout plan will approve a $700 billion fund that would be available in installments, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The first tranche would be a sizable $250 billion, however, compared to the original $150 billion proposal, which should placate the markets somewhat, says Action Economics. The bill self-reliance have limits on golden parachutes for executives and equity warrants would apply to all companies seeking to unwind assets. The alteration of bankruptcy laws appears to remain unresolved during another day. There could also have being more benchmarking to gauge the issue of the plan, what one. is expected to have being passed before markets open on Monday.

Reuters is reporting that some House Republicans are offering an alternative insurance draught to the bailout.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress again Thursday, this proper time to the House Financial Services Committee on the Bush administration’session financial rescue plan.

“We believe a bailout package will be approved with compromises. We think the equity markets pleasure be agreeable to positively to this action,” wrote S&P chief investment strategist Sam Stovall in a memorandum at the eleventh hour Wednesday.

As if to underscore the risks the good husbandry faces, the markets received some discouraging word Thursday from a U.S. bellwether company. General Electric (GE) cut its third part quarter earnings per share government from 50-54 cents to 43-48 cents, reflecting “unprecedented” weakness and volatility in financial services markets. The conglomerate does not expect difficult conditions in financial services markets to increase in the near coming. GE also cut its $2.20-$2.30 2008 EPS guidance to $1.95-$2.10, and suspended stock buybacks. S&P Ratings Services affirmed its AAA long-term incorporated credit rating on GE.

More melancholy news came in the form of Thursday’s key housekeeping reports. U.S. jobless claims rose 32,000 to 493,000 in the week ended September 20.

Two weeks after Hurricane Ike, many Texans remain in the dark. Yet the sovereignty company, CenterPoint Energy, has come away mainly unscathed

by Christopher Palmeri

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At first the loss of power in relation to Hurricane Ike was kind of novel, says Terry Weir, an immigration attorney who lives in Houston. "I was death by the halter outright in the courtyard with neighbors, drinking wine by candlelight and having grand barbecue gatherings to cook every part of the meat thawing from the freezer," she says. At Day 10, however, Weir began to lose her cool.

Without a hair dryer, her locks go wild in the Houston humidity. She says her unironed clothes are perpetually wrinkled. She’session out of touch with the world because cell-phone coverage is spotty and her battery keeps dying. Nights are spent hounded by the roar and smelly fumes from a neighbor’s diesel generator. "Nothing is quaint all over the shortness of power!" Weir says.

It’s been 13 days since Hurricane Ike ripped end Texas, and nearly one-quarter of the residents of the fourth-largest U.S. city still don’cheek by means of jowl have electricity. But for the city’session big utility, CenterPoint Energy (CNP), the financial shock of the storm appears to be not so much than expected. In a regulatory filing on Sept. 23, CenterPoint estimated that its storm-related costs could come in contact $500 million. The company said it expects to take an unspecified hit to earnings this year but recover most of its repair expenses from customers.

Houston is still reeling from that which many are calling the worst storm in the city’s narration. Texas faces at least $11.5 billion in damages from the storm, with the full economic impact possibly soaring to $35 billion, David Dewhurst, Texas’ lieutenant governor, told a Senate body of jurors in Washington on Sept. 23, according to word reports. Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas testified that in her community, the hardest hit, 10,000 to 20,000 residents obdurate their homes, Bloomberg News reported.

Ike initially left 90% of CenterPoint’s 2 million customers in the dark. Some schools are still closed. Nearly half of the city’sitting 2,500 traffic lights are down. Some residents are enduring three-hour commutes because the full of fire signs that produce the high-occupancy vehicle lanes on a join major freeways are not working, principal to agonizing traffic jams. "The mood has gone from patient to irate," says Tom Smith, director of the consumer maintain Public Citizen of Texas. "The volume of calls into our office has in reality picked up." Residents now speak of "power line envy" of neighbors who’ve had their electricity restored. Families without power have had to stock up on ice and batteries at convenience stores, keeping their food chilled in coolers. Kent Smith, who runs a metals-trading firm, says he’session glad he bought a backup generator for his office in conclusion year. "It shows our customers that we understand risk management," he says.

CenterPoint says it hopes to be obliged power restored to its remaining 495,000 customers without juice by Sunday, Sept. 28. The corporation, which released some updated map of its work effort on Wednesday, has more than 5,000 employees tackling the problem, with an additional 10,000 line workers and tree trimmers summoned from other states.Most of the outages were caused when power lines got hit by falling trees and debris flying in Ike’sitting 100 mph winds.

For CenterPoint shareholders, allowing, the damage could be worse. At a recent price of 14.75, the stock is down solely from one place to another 10% from where it was trading control the insurrection clouds began gathering. Independent bond research firm Gimme Credit warned on Sept. 19 that CenterPoint’sitting expenses could hit $1.3 billion and that the company didn’t receive storm insurance.

But CenterPoint said in its latest regulatory filing that it is standard industry application not to insure poles, wires, and other transmission equipment. The firm said it intends to recover much of its hurricane-related costs from customers, adding that it will also seek new state legislation to barter bonds backed by rate increases so it have power to recover its expenses at a grow dark cost than if the company had to borrow the standard of value.

The company has come under fire by more local politicians for resisting efforts by predicament regulators three years ago to replace wooden electric poles with more storm-resistant metal or concrete. In the wake of Hurricane Wilma in 2005, Florida officials did that and required more normal cutting of tree limbs near power lines. CenterPoint says steel poles wouldn’t have prevented its transmission lines from being knocked thoroughly. "There is not any hardening [of the system] that could protect against uprooted trees," says Leticia Lowe, a company spokeswoman.

A support area utility, New Orleans-based Entergy (ETR), said it has restored power to the whole of of its 390,000 East Texas customers who had lost electricity to be ascribed to Ike. Some 7,200 homes were in the way that damaged, however, that they cannot take in power. On Sept. 19, Entergy said that it suffered as much in the manner that $600 million in damage on Hurricane Gustav alone, which swept through parts of Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi put on Sept. 1. In 2005, Entergy put its New Orleans subsidiary into insolvency and sold $688 very great number worth of cyclone recovery bonds to help come outer part from the murder of Hurricane Katrina.

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Long before Washington Mutual’s loans went bad, JPMorgan Chase wanted to buy it.

For years New York executives visited Seattle, size up WaMu’s assets and salivating transversely its West Coast branches. WaMu knew that the East Coast bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, wanted it.

With the Seattle thrift’s failure, it becomes a different notch in Dimon’s empire, which has $1.8 trillion in assets.

Dimon has made a career of acquiring companies, often with flashy deals like the 1998 merger of Travelers Group with Citicorp and this year’s rescue of Bear, Stearns.

He and his team are experts at fixing companies in trouble, granting it often comes at the cost of jobs at the firms acquired.

Early on, Dimon spent more than a decade as the protégé to mythical banker Sandy Weill, building a consumer lending companionship into the financial powerhouse Travelers Group. They grew through acquisitions, chiefly of firms facing hard times.

When Travelers merged with Citicorp, the deal was significant in its size and what it meant to the financial system. That marriage pushed the federal government to dismantling laws from the Depression and earlier that separated traditional banks from securities and insurance firms.

After the merger, Dimon became co-head of Citigroup’session investment bank, Salomon Smith Barney. Not prolix after, he had a falling-out with Weill and was shown the door.

Dimon took time to cast reproach and be with his household, therefore two years later came roaring upper part as CEO of a troubled Bank One in Chicago. He turned the company about in a short time, and in 2004 sold it to JPMorgan.

Now he sits atop the country’s second-largest bank, acquiring what literary works of its largest thrift.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com

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Washington Mutual’sitting banking operations receive been acquired by JPMorgan after federal regulators seized the bank following 10 days during what one. nervous depositors withdrew nearly $17 billion.

The Office of Thrift Supervision said in a statement tardy Thursday that depositors in the nation’s sixth-largest bank withdrew more than $16 billion between Sept. 15 and Sept. 24. The deposits JP Morgan is acquiring total $134.7 billion.

Regulators said depositors and other customers should not notice any impact from the acquisition by JP Morgan, and bank branches will be open Friday morning as usual.

The FDIC said JP Morgan paid $1.9 billion for the effects it is acquiring. There will be no cost to the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund, the agency said.

JPMorgan has long been thought to be the leading contender to buy WaMu, after the poorly good fortune — by in a great degree the nation’s largest — began scouting out potential acquirers last week.

The New York-based bank, led by CEO Jamie Dimon, has dilatory coveted a West Coast demeanor; WaMu’s nearly 1,000 branches in California, Washington and Oregon would give it that presence.

WaMu’s retail banking customers — considered by nearly totality observers to have being the company’s most valuable asset — shouldn’cheek by jowl exist moved any immediate impact, though those whose accounts have been bought by JPMorgan eventually would shifting to that sandbank’s systems.

The reports came after a day when Washington Mutual shares thudded to a new multiyear lowing closing price of $1.69, reflecting traders’ uncertainty over details of the $700 billion federal bailout parcel and its implications during the term of a rescue of the nation’s sixth-largest bank.

The stock lost 57 cents, or 25 percent, onward history volume. Shares traded as low as $1.53 and as sharp as $2.69 during the day.

A record 392 million WaMu shares changed hands today, more than twice the daily average this month and seven times the average over the past year, Bloomberg reported.

Several big banks, including JPMorgan Citigroup, Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada and Spain’s Banco Santander, reportedly examined WaMu’s books, but not a part made a bid for the whole company. Private-equity firms also reportedly were approached, to no avail.

Speculation has been that WaMu’s final event was tied to the prospects for a weighty government bailout of the pecuniary sector, which has been staggering under the import of trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities.

The downfall of the housing sector has eaten away at the value of many of those securities. But because of their complexity banks can’face to face declaration for sure how much they’re cost, and because no one wants to purchase them there’s no market-set price. As a result, much of the U.S. financial sector has been paralyzed with fear, and lending of all kinds has shriveled.

Though Congressional leaders said they’d reached ordinary agreement today in continuance the Bush administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout drawing during the term of mortgage-backed securities, the details remain unclear.

Resolving WaMu’s situation “is a positive,” Patrick Becker Jr., who oversees $2 billion as vital investment officer at Becker Capital Management in Portland, Oregon, told Bloomberg News. “That’s been a big cloud over the place of traffic and monetary shares.” His firm does not recognize JPMorgan or WaMu shares.