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Chesapeake Energy Corp. has received a $3 billion loan from Goldman Sachs and Jefferies Group, giving the company more time to sell assets and lower its debt.

Chesapeake has been aggressively selling oil and gas assets, but its stock tumbled Friday after the company suggested that some of its planned sales could be delayed. Investors, who worried about a cash crunch if any sales were delayed or halted, sent Chesapeake’s stock down 13.8 percent to close at $14.81 on Friday.

But the Oklahoma City company’s shares climbed 3.7 percent to $15.35 in after-hours trading on news of the unsecured loan.

“This short-term loan from Goldman and Jefferies provides us with significant additional financial flexibility as we execute our asset sales during the remainder of 2012,” Chairman and CEO Aubrey McClendon said in a statement.

Chesapeake said late Friday that it plans to complete $9 billion to $11.5 billion in asset sales during the remainder of 2012 and will use part of the proceeds from those sales to pay back the loan. The company previously outlined plans to sell as much as $14 billion of assets this year.

Chesapeake anticipates closing on the sale of its Permian Basin property in Texas and its Mississippi Lime joint venture during the third quarter, saying it has received strong interest for both assets from potential buyers.

Chesapeake also said that it will use the loan’s net proceeds to repay borrowings under an existing revolving credit facility. The new facility expires on Dec. 2, 2017.

Shares of the company had drifted lower earlier on Friday after a published report said the company didn’t tell investors about $1.4 billion in liabilities.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Chesapeake has raised $6.4 billion since 2007 by signing oil and gas production deals with a number of banks. Those deals are essentially debts that Chesapeake must repay with oil and natural gas. The Journal said the full cost of meeting those obligations over the next 10 years wasn’t disclosed.

Chesapeake spokesman Michael Kehs disagreed. He said a portion of those liabilities were included in a May 1 regulatory filing as part of its operating costs for 2012. Kehs said the rest of the $1.4 billion is reflected in an estimate of future net revenue from Chesapeake’s oil and natural gas reserves, which the company put at $48 billion in a Feb. 29 regulatory filing.

A series of negative headlines have called Chesapeake’s leadership and oversight into question recently. During the past few weeks, news reports revealed that McClendon took out personal loans from a company while that company was planning to buy Chesapeake assets. Reuters also reported that McClendon ran a private hedge fund that made bets on the price of oil and natural gas _ commodities that Chesapeake produces.

Chesapeake has stripped McClendon of his board chairmanship. It’s also ending a program that allows McClendon to make personal investments in the company’s wells. On Friday, Chesapeake said McClendon received $108.6 million from January to April from sales of company well assets.

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Ford Motor Co. is raising its forecast for U.S. auto sales this year, citing improving consumer confidence, employment, low interest rates and other factors.

Ford’s Americas President Mark Fields said Wednesday that the company now expects full-year U.S. sales in the range of 14.5 million to 15 million. That’s up from 13.5 million to 14.5 million at the beginning of this year.

“We had been planning for industry sales to improve to this level, but it has happened a bit sooner than we planned,” Fields said guaranteed approval cash loans.

Fields said Ford will likely lose market share because it won’t make enough vehicles to satisfy demand. The company may add production capacity in the fourth quarter, he said.

Automakers posted their best monthly sales since 2007 in March, with 1.4 million vehicles sold.

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Learn what faxless payday loans are and how online payday loans can be used as a quick fix to pay off your bills.

Asian stock markets fell Friday, dragged down by reports of a manufacturing slowdown in China and a deepening economic malaise in Europe.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1 percent to 10,027.72 as the country’s formidable export sector faded amid fears of slowing overseas demand.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9 percent to 20,712.70 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.3 percent to 2,019.79.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 percent to 4,264.50 as the country’s mining and resource shares took a pounding over worries of reduced demand from China, the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials.

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, lost 1.3 percent in Sydney. Steel makers also took a hit. South Korea’s POSCO lost 0.9 percent while Japan’s JFE Holdings dropped 2.2 percent.

On Thursday, data showed China’s manufacturing is contracting. An index compiled by HSBC fell to 48.1 in March from 49.6 in February. Figures below 50 indicate that manufacturing is shrinking.

That’s a negative sign because growth in China has played a key role in shoring up the global economy since the financial crisis of 2008.

And in another sign of cooling growth in the world’s No. 2 economy, new home prices dropped in 45 Chinese cities in February as the government implemented measures to cool property speculation.

Worries about China’s deceleration were compounded by a survey Thursday showing slower growth in Europe. An index of economic activity from financial information company Markit fell to 48.8 in March from 49.3 a month earlier. The index combines both the services and manufacturing.

Japanese exporters whose fortunes are closely linked with European demand came under pressure. Honda Motor Corp. lost 2.3 percent and Mazda Motor Corp. shed 2.1 percent. Sharp Corp. slid 2.9 percent and Sony Corp. lost 2.6 percent.

A rare gainer was Japanese food processor Yukiguni Maitake Co., which rose 0.6 percent a day after announcing a study showed that maitake mushrooms might help fight obesity, Kyodo News reported.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 17 cents to $105.52 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.92 to finish at $105.35 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3198 from $1.3181 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 82.88 yen from 82.59 yen.

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It affects everything from mortgages to credit cards to student loans, and now some of the world’s biggest banks are at the center of a criminal investigation into whether they manipulated it for their own benefit.

The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, is a measure of the cost of borrowing between banks that serves as a benchmark for over $350 trillion worth of financial products worldwide.

Higher Libor rates translate into higher borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, while lower rates could make lenders reluctant to lend since they can’t charge as much in interest. In addition to consumer loans, certain bonds and interest rate swaps also use it as a benchmark.

With all the different loans and investments tied to Libor, there are serious consequences if the process is tampered with.

"If you move it even a little bit, it can cause massive redistribution of resources because it’s so extensively used," said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a former economist with the Federal Trade Commission.

Last week, the Justice Department said in a letter to a federal judge that it was conducting a criminal investigation of alleged Libor manipulation. Officials in Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom are also looking into the issue, according to disclosures in several banks’ public filings.

In addition, a number of banks, including Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Citigroup (, Fortune 500), HSBC, JPMorgan (, Fortune 500) and Credit Suisse (), are defendants in a U.S. civil case brought by investors — ranging from mutual funds to individual traders to the city of Baltimore — who say they lost profits due to Libor distortion as far back as 2006.

Law enforcement officials and the banks targeted in the suit either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

How Libor works: Libor rates are set each business day through a process overseen by the British Bankers’ Association.

Between seven and 18 large banks are asked what interest rate they would have to pay to borrow money for a certain period of time and in a certain currency. In all, the process generates rates for 10 currencies across 15 different time periods, ranging from one day to one year.

The responses are collected by Thomson Reuters, which removes a certain percentage of the highest and lowest figures before calculating the averages and creating the Libor quotes.

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Banks trying to appear stronger and more creditworthy may have been tempted to submit lower numbers, particularly during the financial crisis.

In addition, if the banks coordinated their submissions, they could adjust trading positions tied to Libor in order to profit from their advanced knowledge of its movements.

"The banks involved in this were largely trusted by the public to be setting these rates in a fair way — it was supposed to be a transparent measure of the cost of borrowing," said Arun Subramanian, a lawyer representing plaintiffs involved in the civil litigation. "To the extent that the banks were colluding to manipulate these rates, everyone was harmed and the public trust was violated."

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No banks have been formally accused of wrongdoing in the United States.

However, Japanese regulators temporarily suspended some transactions by UBS () and Citi in December after it was revealed that traders at both banks attempted to influence yen Libor rates and the related Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate, or Tibor.

UBS also recently revealed in public documents that it was providing information to U.S. and Swiss officials investigating possible Libor manipulation in exchange for leniency and conditional immunity, depending on the jurisdiction.

There’s no telling how long all the various probes will take to resolve, but if the allegations are proven, liabilities could be in the billions, said Jonathan Macey, a professor at Yale Law School. There’s also the possibility of criminal charges should conspiracy among traders be established, as well as the potential for more lawsuits from private plaintiffs.

"It’s a very serious issue when you’re talking about banks manipulating these rates across the globe," Subramanian said. "I think the liability for the banks is going to be staggering." 

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Six world powers are urging Iran to answer questions meant to defuse concerns it seeks nuclear weapons, while stressing that diplomacy is the way forward.

The six also are asking Iran to open its Parchin military site to International Atomic Energy Agency perusal, amid signs that Tehran might be cleaning it of evidence of nuclear-arms related experiments.

The six _ the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany _ issued a joint statement Thursday at a 35-nation IAEA board meeting.

Concerns about Parchin are high. Diplomats who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday said satellite footage from the area appeared to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the miltiary facility, indicating an attempted cleanup of radioactive traces.

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Faced with growing competition from the likes of Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, more than 100 community banks have joined forces to take on the megabanks.

Once rivals, these smaller financial institutions have banded together under a common brand called Kasasa. A total of 128 banks and credit unions across 35 states have joined this brand alliance to pool their advertising and marketing resources and offer more competitive products to their customers.

The banks’ customers still conduct business directly with their individual bank (and their account is still FDIC-insured through the bank), but they are also getting the added benefits of being part of the broader network. For example, customers of member banks are able to open free Kasasa-branded rewards checking accounts and Kasasa high-interest savings accounts.

Started in 2009, Kasasa is the brainchild of Gabe Krajicek, the CEO of BancVue, which serves as the parent company of the alliance. Once a bank joins Kasasa, the company trains the staff on setting up Kasasa-branded accounts and handles all of the marketing and promotion for the banks.

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In exchange, the bank pays a series of fees, both upfront and ongoing. There’s a setup fee, a monthly software license fee and a success fee for each Kasasa-branded account that the bank opens. All of these costs depend on the size of the institution. Plus, the banks give a portion of their marketing and advertising budget to Kasasa.

For many of the banks that have joined Kasasa, the fees have been worth it.

Fighting a megabank invasion: As the megabanks kept opening branches in his area, David Krause, CEO of Pioneer Bank in St. James, Minn., reached out to his competitors to discuss banding together.

"I’ve been in banking for 25 years and viewed every other bank as a competitor," said Krause. "But over the past couple years, I’ve realized that other banks like us that serve their communities shouldn’t be the ones we’re competing with. We should really be highlighting our strengths and looking at megabanks as the competition."

A small community bank with six branches and only $223 million in deposits, his outfit was no match for banks like Bank of America, with nearly $1 trillion in deposits. Pioneer didn’t have the resources to market itself or offer products that could compete with the big banks in terms of online features, rates and incentives.

So last year, Krause held a meeting at a local hotel with a handful of other community bank presidents. And by the time the meeting was over, he had convinced two other banks to join Kasasa faxless cash advances.

Pioneer Bank currently offers three of Kasasa’s products and has more than 1,500 Kasasa account holders with deposits totaling more than $14 million. In the first 15 months that the bank has offered the accounts, checking and savings deposits have increased 25%, compared to an increase of only 5% for the 15 months prior to that.

Economies of scale: The more banks that sign on from a specific region, the more money Kasasa has to reach potential customers in that area.

By getting seven banks in Ohio to join forces, for example, Kasasa was able to become the official sponsor of the Cleveland Cavaliers this January — something one of the seven community banks would never have had the resources to do on its own, said Krajicek.

Are big banks really changing their ways?

Momentum has been picking up recently as more consumers seek alternatives to fee-heavy big banks. Last year, Kasasa nearly doubled the number of community banks and credit unions in its network. Nearly all of the new members joined in the last four months of 2011.

At the rate things are going, Krajicek expects to double its membership by the end of the year and hit 1,000 members in three to five years. It is currently in discussions with 49 additional institutions. By the end of the first quarter, it expects to have an advertising budget of about $13.5 million.

Jeff Elsea, CEO of the Bank of Weston in Missouri, is one of the network’s new recruits. After watching the number of community banks shrink from 10 to 3 as banks like Chase and Bank of America popped up in the area, he started reaching out to his rivals.

"[Megabanks] come in and put a branch here and there, and because of their marketing power they can run four-page ads all over the ‘Kansas City Star,’ they have billboards everywhere, and us little people can’t do that," said Elsea.

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Over the first two years of becoming part of Kasasa, the bank has generated $12 million in new deposits — about a 10% increase — which is a "big deal" for a bank with only about $100 million in total deposits, he said.

While some bankers were initially skeptical about teaming up with their rivals, he’s confident that they will soon be following his lead.

"They were curious as to why in the world I would be calling them up and getting them to meet up, and the first time we got together there was some skepticism, but once they see the results we’ve had, I think they’ll be coming back around," he said. 

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JEFFERSON CITY - The gambling industry will fight Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposal to raise casino entrance fees by $1 per patron to help finance the state’s veterans homes.

Casino lobbyist Mike Winter told the House Veterans Committee on Tuesday that the proposal amounts to “a bottom-line hit of $53 million for our companies” each year and could prompt cuts in marketing, capital projects and staffing at the state’s 12 casinos.

Legislators said they’re open to compromise but made clear that they’re adamant about finding a dedicated source of money to operate the state’s seven nursing homes for veterans and possibly, build a new home to accommodate a mounting waiting list.

“Our veterans are out of money in 2013,” said Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webbb City. “If something doesn’t happen, where are they going to go?”

The Missouri Veterans Commission’s $80 million budget is funded roughly 40 percent from federal money, 35 percent from charges paid by residents of veterans homes and 25 percent by the state.

In recent years, as tax collections have lagged, the state has reduced the general revenue it puts into the veterans commission’s budget, from nearly $31 million in 2009 to $18.6 million this year.

The state now wants to tap the veterans commission’s surplus to help pay operating expenses at the homes, which include one in Bellefontaine Neighbors in St. Louis County.

But that trust fund was designed to cover repair bills when a boiler breaks at a veterans home, as well as the state’s share of construction costs for any new homes. The fund also pays operating costs at the state’s six veterans cemeteries and grants for local programs that help veterans sign up for federal benefits.

While the trust fund now stands at $17 million, it will run dry by June 2013 if it is used at the projected rate of spending, Larry Kay, the commission’s executive director told the House committee on Tuesday.

Kay said the veterans commission needs a funding source that provides at least $35 million a year “just to stay even.”

Nixon’s budget proposal, which he released last week, would pump about $50 million a year into the veterans commission’s budget through a $1 fee increase for every gambler who goes through the casino turnstiles.

The current entrance fee is $2, with half going to the state and half to the home-dock city or county. Last year the veterans trust fund got $6.5 million under a law that divvies up the state’s share of those proceeds.

Winter, who lobbies for the Missouri Gaming Association, noted that casinos also pay a tax equaling 21 percent of their adjusted gross revenue, with most of that money going toward elementary and secondary education.

Combining the tax and the entrance fee, Missouri’s effective tax rate is about 27 percent for casinos now, which he portrayed as high compared to states such as Nevada, which he said charges only 6.75 percent.

However, the Missouri Gaming Commission’s annual report showed Missouri is competitive with most nearby states.

At 27.18 percent, Missouri’s effective tax rate is lower than Illinois (33.92 percent) and Indiana (31.31 percent) but higher than Kansas (25.08 percent), Iowa (22.33 percent) and Mississippi (11.94 percent), according to the latest report.

Legislators pointed out that casinos could pass any entrance fee increase on to their patrons. But Winter said they have no plans to do so. They absorb the current $2 fee.

The gambling industry got some backing from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which said veterans homes were a statewide responsibility that should not be borne by “a single sector.”

But Dewey Riehn, who represents the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said a higher admission fee wouldn’t break casinos, which pulled in $1.8 billion last year.

“If they think they can convince me that a $1 entry fee will cause them to close boats, that’s ridiculous,” Riehn said.

Missouri has the 14th largest population of veterans, according to federal statistics.

In addition to St. Louis County, the state operates veterans homes in Cameron, Cape Girardeau, Mexico, Mt. Vernon, St. James and Warrensburg.

The state’s 1,350 beds are 99 percent full; there are 1,691 people on the waiting list.

In addition to a higher casino entrance fee, legislators are considering asking state voters to pass a constitutional amendment establishing a special Missouri Lottery ticket, with proceeds earmarked for veterans programs.

The sponsor, Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs, said a dedicated lottery ticket would not provide a “total fix” but had helped pump money into veterans programs in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

“We need to take care of our veterans,” said Solon, who also sponsors the casino fee increase. “These brave heroes have defended us.”

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Service industries in the U.K. grew at the fastest pace in five months in December and strengthened in the U.S., suggesting their economies are partly withstanding to the euro-area debt crisis.

A gauge of U.K. services activity based on the survey of purchasing managers (PMITSUK) rose to 54 from 52.1 in November, Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply said today in London. A U.S. services index rose to 52.6 in December from 52 the previous month.

The data suggest the U.K. economy strengthened in December after surveys earlier this week showed construction and manufacturing improved. Still, the euro-area crisis is clouding the outlook for the global recovery. The Bank of England said today banks may toughen loan terms because of the debt turmoil, hampering growth, while some Federal Reserve officials have said prospective economic conditions may warrant

Rupert Murdoch might be tweeting his billionaire media mogul thoughts to the world, but his wife, Wendi Deng, isn

Deutsche Telekom and AT&T vowed Thursday to press ahead with the planned sale of the German company’s T-Mobile USA unit to the U.S. cell phone operator despite concerns raised by American authorities.

Nevertheless, AT&T said it plans to take a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the current quarter to reflect the break-up fees that would be due to Deutsche Telekom if regulators block the deal.

The two companies said they had withdrawn applications to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the merger and intended to seek its approval again “as soon as practical.”

They took the step to consider “all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice,” which filed a lawsuit in August to stop the deal, AT&T said in a statement.

“Both companies are continuing to pursue the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T,” Deutsche Telekom stressed.

Both U.S. agencies worry that the deal would hamper competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T Inc. made their move after the chairman of the FCC earlier this week came out against the merger.

Julius Genachowski made his position known in a document he circulated to fellow commissioners Tuesday.

He recommended sending AT&T’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile to an administrative law judge for review and a hearing. That’s what the FCC does when it opposes a merger.

In a research note Thursday, Jefferies International analyst Ulrich Rathe said the withdrawal of the FCC application, as well as the opposition by the Justice Department, indicate that “the companies are already well into working out a new version of the deal.”

The analyst, who rates Deutsche Telekom “Buy,” said the charge confirms the break-up fee will be difficult for AT&T to avoid if the deal is not completed.

In Frankfurt, Deutsche Telekom shares closed down 0.6 percent Thursday at euro8.69 ($11.67), almost mirroring the 0.5 percent decline in the DAX index of blue-chip stocks.

The proposed deal, announced in March, would vault the combination of America’s No. 2 carrier AT&T and No. 4 T-Mobile into the top spot ahead of Verizon.

Dallas-based AT&T has about 101 million wireless subscribers. T-Mobile, the Bellevue, Washington-based subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, has 34 million.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, has about 108 million, while Sprint Nextel Corp. has 53 million.

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