NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Morgan Stanley (MS.N) plans to raise $2.2 billion in common equity to bring it closer to repaying its TARP loans, the company said on Tuesday.

Selling the shares would help satisfy criteria for repaying the $10 billion it borrowed under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank holding company said.

Some of the shares to be sold will be acquired by Morgan Stanley shareholders China Investment Corp and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T), it said.

While Morgan Stanley said approval to pay back TARP funds has not yet been granted, it hopes to make the repayment this month.

Morgan Stanley's announcement comes a day after JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and American Express Co (AXP.N) said they plan to sell common stock to position themselves to repay bailout funds.

The Federal Reserve said on Monday the government would announce next week which of the 19 lenders that underwent "stress tests" would be allowed to repay their loans. One condition for repayment is that the banks are able to raise money in the public equity markets.

Last month, Morgan Stanley -- which was required under the stress test to raise $1.8 billion -- sold $4.6 billion in stock and $4 billion in debt.

Morgan Stanley is managing the new stock offering.

(Reporting by Steve Eder, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
Global consumer confidence is stabilizing after falling for 18 months, providing a glimmer of hope for a shattered world economy in which three quarters of households cut spending, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Some 40 percent of consumers blame the banking and finance industry for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, while 19 percent also hold former U.S. President George W. Bush's administration and their own governments responsible, the Ipsos/Reuters poll of 23 countries found.

The survey of 23,000 people, conducted between April 14 and May 7, showed 29 percent thought that the economic situation in their country is very good or somewhat good, only a slight dip from 31 percent in November 2008, but well down on 43 percent in April 2008 and 54 percent in October 2007.

"It looks like we have hit bottom and so there are glimmers of hope," said Clifford Young of Ipsos Global Public Affairs, the international market research and polling company that carried out the online poll.

"What we're seeing is that consumers for the most part have been scared, they have cut expenditures and increased savings," he said. "The uptick won't be as fast as the decline, but if the United States is stabilized that's really important in the global sense."

Ipsos polled people in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, India, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, and Britain.

"The stabilization is basically happening in the United States, India and China and that has staunched a bit the bleed around the world," Young said. "That being said Europe is still dicey as well as Brazil and Russia."

In the United States, which sparked the global economic downturn, consumer confidence rose two percentage points to 13 percent, while in China it jumped to 61 percent from 46 percent and in India it increased five points to 70 percent.

The effect of the financial crisis has lagged in Brazil, but consumer confidence in Latin America's largest economy dropped to 56 percent from 61 percent in the past six months, while Russian optimism fell to 35 percent from 52 percent and Europe dropped nine points to 23 percent.

"It's an issue of confidence in institutions," Young said of the continued fall in Europe. "For better or worse in the United States the people saw the government taking extreme actions. Though this happened in Europe it happened less so."

The 23 countries polled make up 75 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

Cuts in household spending have remained constant during the past six months with entertainment, vacations and luxury items the first to go for nearly three quarters of families followed by clothing for 61 percent, energy consumption for 53 percent and gasoline/driving for 42 percent.

Respondents in the online poll were recruited and screened, the survey said. The results are then balanced by age, gender, city population and education levels. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

(Reuters) –
Electronics and appliance retailer hhgregg Inc (HGG.N) posted a 34 percent jump in quarterly profit, but forecast full-year earnings below market estimates, fearing weak sales.

Indianapolis-based hhgregg, which beat fourth-quarter estimates by a penny, sees full year earnings between 85 cents to $1.00 a share.

"This would imply an expectation of a comparable store sales decline of 7 percent to 12 percent," the company said in a statement.

For the full year, analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.07 a share, before items, according to Reuters Estimates.

During the quarter, the regional retailer's business was helped by the closure of rival Circuit City Stores (CCTYQ.PK), but said comparable sales for the first quarter might even fall below the full-year range.

For the fourth quarter ended May 31, hhgregg earned $13.9 million, or 42 cents a share, up from the $10.3 million, or 31 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Net sales rose 12.5 percent to $364.9 million, even as comparable store sales fell 6.5 percent.

Shares of the company closed at $16.87 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)