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China’s manufacturing remained stagnant in September due to sluggish demand both at home and abroad, according to a survey released Friday.

The monthly survey by HSBC released Friday also showed prices for materials and other manufacturing inputs rising at the fastest pace in four months _ suggesting sustained inflationary pressures.

The full survey followed a more pessimistic preliminary version published last week that prompted a sell-off in global markets as investors reacted to the possibility that China’s robust growth might falter, further dimming the world economic outlook.

HSBC said its purchasing managers index for September was steady at 49.9 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 show activity contracting. The preliminary reading was 49.4.

The index, which showed its lowest quarterly average since early 2009, suggests a “negligible rate of deterioration in manufacturing sector operating conditions,” HSBC said.

Chinese industrial production has slowed following repeated interest rate hikes and other curbs as the government tries to tame growth and cool inflation that is hovering near a three-year high of over 6 percent.

The lack of change “shows some signs of stabilizing,” said HSBC economist Hongbin Qu. “This implies that although the lagged effects of credit tightening will continue to cool industrial activity in the months ahead, there is little need to worry about a sharp slowdown.”

The HSBC survey was released a day early due to an upcoming weeklong national holiday. A similar government-sponsored survey may be issued as usual on the first of the month.

The HSBC survey noted a negligible increase in manufacturing output and a marginal decline in new orders. New export business also fell at a negligible rate, it said.

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An early rally is fading on Wall Street as traders worry about Europe’s ability to contain its debt crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that the second Greek bailout package might have to be renegotiated. European leaders want banks to take bigger losses on Greek bonds. News reports indicate that France and the European Central Bank oppose the idea.

Technology companies rose after Amazon.com announced a new tablet computer and Microsoft said it was expanding a smartphone partnership with Samsung.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 65 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11,257 shortly before noon Wednesday. It had been up as many as 126 points earlier.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,178. The Nasdaq composite fell 2, or 0.1 percent, to 2,545.

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Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has promised at a German industry forum that his country will live up to all the commitments it has made in the debt crisis.

A potentially disastrous debt default looms just weeks away for Greece. It needs to convince its rescue creditors, including Germany, that it is enforcing its reforms to access the loans needed to avoid bankruptcy in mid-October.

The prime minister said Tuesday: “I can guarantee that Greece will live up to all its commitments.” He promised that Greeks will “fight our way back to growth and prosperity.”

Ahead of a meeting Tuesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Papandreou called for Europe to unite and show it has a grip on the crisis.

He warned against heaping “only punishment and scorn” on his compatriots.

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

BERLIN (AP) _ Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou says his debt-ridden country has “great potential” and can emerge from its deep economic and financial crisis easy to get unsecured personal loans.

As a potentially disastrous debt default looms just weeks away for Greece, Papandreou said Tuesday at a conference of the Federation of German Industries that “we are borrowing to repay.”

Papandreou will meet later Tuesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Greece’s international creditors are pressing Athens to implement fully austerity measures. Without the next batch of loans, Greece would default in mid-October.

The prime minister outlined Greece’s efforts to enforce reforms agreed in exchange for the loans.

He said that “so many people in Greece ask me, is all the pain worthwhile, can we make it? … my answer is, yes we can.”

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The international bank lobbying group that has been leading negotiations on giving debt-ridden Greece easier terms for its bonds on Sunday rejected calls to impose larger losses on private investors.

Forcing private creditors to write down their Greek bond holdings by more than the 21 percent tentatively agreed to in a July deal would quickly cause a “domino effect” that would see the crisis spread to other parts of Europe, warned Josef Ackermann, the outgoing chairman of the Institute of International Finance.

Such a move would ultimately cost taxpayers much more than just bailing out Greece and erode confidence in the euro, said Ackermann, who is also the CEO of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, a major lender to Greece.

Germany and other rich eurozone nations have been pushing for a re-negotiation of the July deal, arguing that the economic situation in Greece has significantly deteriorated since then and may require a steeper cut in the country’s debt load.

However, Ackermann quickly rejected that push, saying that the agreement was fair and already placed a heavy burden on banks at a time of major market turmoil.

“If we now start reopening this Pandora’s box we will lose a lot of time and I’m not sure people would be willing to participate,” Ackermann told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund.

Under the July deal, Greece is asking banks and other large private investors to swap their existing Greek bonds for ones with longer repayment deadlines, a lower face value or lower interest rates. The IIF says the deal would save Greece some euro54 billion by 2014 and euro135 billion by 2020.

However, most analysts say that those savings are far too small to make Greece’s massive debts _ which amount to some 160 percent of economic output _ sustainable again. At the same time, there have been growing doubts that investors will agree to swap 90 percent of their bond holdings, a minimum threshold that Athens set to make the deal worthwhile.

Getting private creditors to agree to the deal comes at a heavy cost for Greece. Apart from temporarily being rated in “selective default” _ a first for a eurozone nation _ the country has to spend some euro42 billion on setting up a collateral fund that would secure the remaining value of the bonds.

If at some point Athens decides that a steeper cut in its debt was necessary, that money would go to the bondholders.

“If the July deal goes ahead, Greece would be locked into this perpetually,” said Sony Kapoor, managing director of Re-Define, a Brussels-based economic think tank.

Greece has been relying on euro110 billion in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In July, when it became clear that Athens needed more help, eurozone leaders agreed on a second, euro109 billion bailout, although several aspects of that deal still need to be finalized.

To make the second aid package acceptable for their taxpayers, several rich countries led by Germany pushed for banks and big insurance companies to share some of the pain of bailing out Greece _ despite opposition from the European Union and the European Central Bank, the central bank for the 17 nations that use the euro as a common currency.

But since July, the eurozone’s debt crisis has significantly worsened, partly because investors now fear that they may also face losses on bonds from already bailed-out Portugal and Ireland as well as struggling Italy and Spain. The Greek economy is now set to shrink 5.3 percent this year, up from a June estimate of a 3.8 percent decline, followed by a further contraction in 2012.

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Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. recouped some of their previous day’s hefty losses Friday but investors remained skeptical about whether the world’s leading economies will come up with a coordinated plan to shore up the global economy.

Fears over another recession in Europe and the U.S. contributed to Thursday’s slide, which prompted the finance ministers of the Group of 20 leading developed and developing economies to say they will work together to stabilize markets.

Their pledge to “take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of the banking systems and financial markets” and to make sure banks have the cash they need to pay their day-to-day expenses, helped cushion markets from a repeat of Thursday.

But investors will be looking for more during the weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

“I think many in the markets are no longer reassured by platitudes, we want to see action and not just words _ more walking the walk and less talking the talk,” said Louise Cooper, an analyst with BGC Partners. “The G20 communique was more eloquent on the problems facing the world than the solutions to be found.”

In Europe, France’s CAC-40 closed up 1 percent at 2,810.11 while the DAX in Germany rose 0.6 percent to 5,196.56. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares ended 0.5 percent higher at 5,066.81.

Wall Street pushed higher too _ the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.1 percent at 10,745 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.5 percent to 1,134.

Despite the modest gains Friday, the worries are piling up for investors: a U.S. Federal Reserve warning earlier this week that the American economy is in significant difficulty, a raft of downbeat European and Asian economic indicators, and the continued concern over Greece’s debt.

“The markets are eagerly awaiting a resolution or at the minimum, a more rigid strategy to reduce Greeces debt liabilities,” said Giles Watts, head of equities at City Index no checking account payday advance.

Bank stocks have led the way down in recent days as investors fret over their potential exposure to the debts of Greece. Those fears have become more acute as the markets increasingly price in the likelihood of a Greek default.

Athens has had a series of meetings with its creditors this week to try to avoid that, but it’s unclear whether it will be able to dig itself out of its debt hole, even with the help of billions from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Even the normally tightlipped head of the French market authority, AMF, told France Inter radio Friday that “the situation is very, very worrying. We are in a worldwide situation of crisis,” pointing to debt in Japan, “imbalances” in the United States, and Europe’s sovereign debt troubles.

“We must take urgent measures on the international level,” said Jean-Pierre Jouyet.

Those concerns have knocked confidence in the euro over the past week or two. After Thursday’s plunge it was trading a little bit steadier, up 0.4 percent at $1.3522.

Joaquin Almunia, who runs the department in the EU’s executive Commission that has to clear bank bailouts, suggested earlier this week that one solution might be to extend crisis rules that make it easier for governments to rescue failing lenders. He also said that even banks that passed stress tests this summer may need to raise more money.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4 percent to 17,668.83 after losing nearly 5 percent the day before. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 1.6 percent to 3,903.20.

South Korean shares took a large hit, with the Kospi tumbling 5.7 percent to 1,697.44. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4 percent to 2,433.16. Japan’s market was closed for a holiday.

Oil prices were down again alongside equities _ benchmark crude fell 27 cents to $80.24.

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Stock futures are plummeting after the Federal Reserve indicated the U.S. economic slump could last for years.

The Fed took steps to stimulate the economy Wednesday that had largely been expected. But investors were troubled because the central bank’s statement showed it expected a deep and persistent downturn.

A government report Thursday morning on new claims for unemployment benefits will give traders news on the country’s jobs crisis _ one of the major economic challenges cited by the Fed.

Ninety minutes before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 211 points, or 1.9 percent, at 10,796. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures are down 24, or 2.1 percent, at 1,131. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 43, or 1.9 percent, at 2,202.

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Stocks are opening mixed amid uncertainty about what steps the Federal Reserve might take to stimulate the U.S. economy.

Concerns that Greece could fail to qualify for fresh bailout funds also pushed stocks lower.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke plans to discuss the central bank’s policy decision at midday Wednesday. Most economists expect some sort of stimulus measures.

Investors are also concerned about European debt. Greek finance ministers said Wednesday the country will have to enact more austerity measures before international lenders will release rescue funds.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 11 points, or 1 percent, at 11,399. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up less than 1 point. The Nasdaq composite is up 11, or 0.4 percent, at 2,601.

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A year after Rawlings lunged back into the football helmet business, the sports equipment manufacturer is gaining momentum.

Rawlings, based in Town and Country, is best known for its signature emblazoned on baseball bats and gloves. The company started manufacturing football helmets last fall after a 20-year absence. Now company officials say Rawlings is on track to capture between 6 percent and 7 percent market share in its first year, and its unit sales are triple what the company forecast a year ago.

“People respect the brand, and they know it,” said Mike May, spokesperson for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, a nonprofit trade group based in Silver Spring, Md. “They’re not some new kid on the block. It’s tough to penetrate any market when you have two established brand names, Schutt and Riddell, that have been around with football helmets for years. But it helps to have some established credibility on the street, which Rawlings has.”

Rawlings was founded in 1887 and was the first company to develop shoulder pads for football. But it stopped making football helmets more than two decades ago.

Mike Thompson, Rawlings’ senior vice president of marketing, said Rawlings spent nearly three years researching the market and developing its helmet before last year’s launch. “We’re far exceeding our expectations,” Thompson said this week.

Rawlings re-entered the market focusing on youth, high school, college and professional players, and started taking orders in March.

Rawlings is owned by consumer products conglomerate Jarden Corp., based in Rye, N.Y., a Fortune 500 company with $6 billion in sales last year. Many of Jarden’s brands

Drivers of electric and other alternative-fuel vehicles enjoy a special perk: They can drive solo in California’s carpool lanes.

But under a controversial plan proposed by local traffic agencies, those drivers will have to pay to use two heavily used carpool lanes that are being converted to toll roads.

It has riled electric-car shoppers and alternative-fuel-vehicle advocates who worry that this is the first step in chipping away at a California tradition of letting solo drivers of autos with new technology and low emissions into carpool lanes paydayloans.

Officials plan to convert 25 miles of freeway carpool lanes into toll lanes. Carpoolers and buses will be able to use the lanes for free, while solo drivers

It looks like the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. are nearing an agreement on a new contract.

UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, the union’s chief negotiator, told workers in an email update Friday that bargainers are getting “very close” to the framework of a deal.

“I am optimistic that the negotiations process is entering its final stage,” Ashton wrote. “I truly believe that a settlement is within reach.”

But Ashton also cautioned that both sides still need to do more work, saying that agreements of this size undergo many revisions before they are final.

Contract talks between the union and GM, Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. began in July and will determine wages and benefits for factory workers at all three companies. They will also set the bar for wages at auto parts companies, U.S. factories run by foreign automakers and other manufacturers, which employ hundreds of thousands of people. The talks are the first since GM and Chrysler needed government aid to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009.

Workers at all three companies have stayed on the job under terms of a contract that expired Wednesday night. Workers at GM and Chrysler cannot strike over wages under the terms of the companies’ 2009 government bailouts. Ford workers can still strike. Each company negotiates with the union separately.

Negotiators with GM and the union bargained until around 9 p.m. Thursday and resumed talks on Friday morning.

“We continue to make progress in negotiations,” GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said, declining further comment.

The union is seeking bigger profit-sharing checks, guarantees of more jobs, signing bonuses and raises for entry-level workers. Ford and GM want to cut their hourly labor costs, which still are higher than Asian automakers with U.S. factories. Chrysler is trying to hold its costs steady.

Talks with Chrysler and Ford also are continuing, but have slowed as the union concentrates on GM. Any deal with GM would be used as a template for the other two companies, although unlike past years, there will be differences to match each company’s finances.

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