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(Reuters) - Euro zone sovereign bond markets steadied Thursday ahead of a crucial European Central Bank policy-setting meeting that investors hope will signal a more aggressive approach to fighting the currency area's debt crisis.

Yields of Italian and Spanish 10-year bonds fell in early trading before an auction in which Spain planned to sell up to 3.5 billion euros ($5 billion) of government paper after crisis telephone consultations with European Union authorities.

Japanese authorities acted to bring down the strong yen, joining Switzerland in efforts to tame currencies buoyed by safe-haven demand from investors fretting about the health of the global economy and the euro zone's debt woes.

All eyes were on the ECB, with the chief European economist of credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's urging it to re-activate its bond-buying program to stabilize battered euro zone sovereigns.

"Markets are still moving so we need someone to intervene," S&P's Jean-Michel Six said. "The only effective fireman capable of rushing out of the fire station at top speed is the European Central Bank, which has played an admirable role since the start of the crisis to calm markets.

He told France-Inter radio that until a contagion-fighting plan adopted by euro zone leaders last month came into effect, which requires parliamentary approval in some countries, the ECB had to play an interim role.

The controversial ECB program has been dormant for four months and there is strong opposition to reviving it among guardians of central banking orthodoxy in Germany who argue it compromises the core mission of fighting inflation.

The ECB bought 76 billion euros of sovereign bonds, believed to be only Greek, Irish and Portuguese, to stabilize markets last year but critics said the Securities Market Program had only limited, short-term impact and did not prevent any of those countries from requiring EU/IMF bailouts.

Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado, speaking on Wednesday night after a crisis meeting on the economy with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said the bond sale would take place as scheduled despite a surge in Spanish and Italian bond yields to 14-year highs in the past several days.

"We think the tensions will last a few more days, but the bond auction will go ahead Thursday," Salgado said.

The yield on Spain's 10-year bonds climbed as high as 6.50 percent Wednesday because of investor doubts about Madrid's ability to continue financing its debt over the long term, before drifting back to close at 6.27 percent. It fell a further 21 basis points against benchmark German Bunds in early Thursday trading.

Italy's 10-year yield fell back below the psychologically important 6.0 percent threshold, with some traders saying they expected the ECB could act, either with a longer term repo or secondary market bond-buying.

"DESPERATE"

Analysts say that if yields go much higher and stay there, markets could force Spain, the euro zone's fourth biggest economy, to follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in seeking an international bailout.

"Hearing Zapatero had canceled his holidays showed the situation was desperate. The 7 percent (yield) mark is a psychological barrier and is just not sustainable because it's far too costly to finance at these levels," said Jo Tomkins, analyst at consultancy 4Cast.

Euro zone leaders agreed at a summit last month to give the bloc's bailout fund sweeping new powers to help indebted states and intervene in the bond market, but the changes are unlikely to be passed by national parliaments until late September at the earliest.

If the ECB does not revive the program, central bank president Jean-Claude Trichet may at least indicate willingness to use it if the crisis worsens, some analysts believe.

The ECB, which has raised official interest rates twice this year, may also signal it will put any further tightening on hold because of slowing economic growth in the euro zone and globally, even though inflation is well above target.

Japan sold one trillion yen ($12.6 billion) and its central bank eased monetary policy Thursday to try to push down the yen against the dollar and euro.

Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said policymakers of major economies needed to discuss currencies at either Group of Seven or Group of 20 level -- the first official call for multilateral action since twin crises over U.S. and euro zone debt became acute last month.

Official sources in several G7 countries said Wednesday they were not aware of any move so far to involve the G7 or G20, but that France, which holds the chair of both groups this year, might consult those forums if the turmoil persists.

In Italy, the euro zone's third biggest economy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised Wednesday to step up economic reforms and called for a broad-based effort in the country to fight the market turmoil.

"The government and parliament will act, I hope, with a large political and social consensus to fight every threat to our financial stability. Today more than ever, we need to act all together," said Berlusconi, in a speech which did not give substantial new details on policy.

Berlusconi is due to meet employers' groups and unions on Thursday to try to thrash out a plan to stimulate the economy. But the head of the largest union, the left-wing CGIL, responded coolly to his speech.

Susanna Camusso said it lacked concrete proposals, and that negotiations were already "getting off on the wrong foot." The leader of the opposition Democratic party, Pierluigi Bersani, said Berlusconi should resign.

In addition to Italy and Spain, some investors are becoming jittery about the finances of France, the euro zone's second biggest economy. The spread of 10-year French government bonds above German Bunds hit a euro lifetime high of 0.81 percentage point Wednesday.

This is problematic partly because any lasting solution to the euro zone's crisis may have to involve a drastic expansion of its 440 billion euro bailout fund. That would put a greater financial burden on France, a big contributor to the fund, and could push up its yields further.

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(Reuters) - General Motors Co's quarterly profit nearly doubled, beating expectations, as the top U.S. automaker took a larger share of sales globally and raised prices on its vehicles.

Coming out of bankruptcy, GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson and other executives said the company had stripped out enough costs to recession-proof the business so it could thrive even in a weak auto market. The industry's sales slump in the second quarter and the risk of a double-dip recession could provide the first major test for that claim.

GM Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann called the quarter a "good building block" for the company.

GM is pushing heavily into smaller, more fuel-efficient cars like the popular Chevrolet Cruze, but a good portion of its profit still relies heavily on sales of more profitable trucks in the U.S. market.

Net income in the second quarter rose to $2.52 billion, or $1.54 per share, from $1.33 billion, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had expected $1.20 per share on average.

Revenue rose 19 percent to $39.4 billion, above the $36.74 billion analysts had expected during a quarter in which U.S. auto sales hit a soft patch.

GM shares rose 2 percent in premarket trading.

The results represent the second full quarter since GM's initial public stock offering last November and a restructuring intended to keep the largest U.S. automaker profitable through the industry's punishing boom-and-bust cycles.

GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 after a $52 billion taxpayer-funded bailout orchestrated by the Obama administration. The U.S. Treasury still owns 32 percent of GM's common shares.

The company boosted its second-quarter earnings before interest and taxes by $1 billion by pushing through higher prices on its vehicles globally.

However, those gains came as its Japanese rivals, led by Toyota Motor Corp, struggled with fewer vehicles to sell due to the earthquake in Japan in March.

Analysts worry that if the U.S. recovery hits a pothole in the second half, GM could be forced to raise incentives on its vehicles to lure shoppers. GM's first-quarter results were marred by heavy incentives, but the automaker dialed back those deals.

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Aug 4 (Reuters) - Italian prosecutors have seized documents at the offices of rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's in a probe over suspected "anomalous" fluctuations in Italian share prices, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

The measure is aimed at "verifying whether these agencies respect regulations as they carry out their work," Carlo Maria Capistro, who heads the prosecutors' office in the southern town of Trani which is leading the probe, told Reuters.

The documents were seized at the Milan offices of the two agencies on Wednesday, he said, adding that prosecutors had also asked Italian market regulator Consob to provide documents relating to their registration in Italy.

S&P in Italy said in a statement it believed the probe was "groundless."

"We strongly defend our work, our reputation and that of our analysts," it said.

Moody's said it "takes its responsibilities surrounding the dissemination of market sensitive information very seriously and is cooperating with the authorities."

The Trani prosecutors have opened two probes -- one for each rating agency -- after a complaint by two consumer groups over the impact of their reports about Italy on Milan stock prices.

The first complaint was filed against Moody's after it published a report in May 2010 about the risk of contagion for Italian banks from the Greek crisis.

A second complaint filed in May this year targeted Standard & Poor's after it threatened to downgrade Italy's credit rating because of its huge public debt.

The prosecutors are also investigating whether any crimes were committed during a sell-off in Italian assets on July 8 and July 11 as fears spread that the euro zone's third largest economy is being sucked into the widening debt crisis.

One of the consumer groups behind the complaints said the probe was aimed at finding out whether the market's sharp drop was due to a "precise scheme by hedge funds and other unidentified players that could be linked to the negative comments about Italian public finances by the rating agencies."

Consob last month summoned Moody's and S&P for meetings and urged them not to release their statements during market hours.

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(Reuters) - Where can investors hide when even gold and cash look dicey?

Some financial advisers were answering phone calls from panicky clients Thursday as stocks dropped 500 points, gold lost its safe-haven glitter and money markets got the jitters.

Michael Kay, a financial adviser at Financial Focus in Livingston, New Jersey, talked a client off the proverbial ledge in the morning as the market resumed its sharp downward trajectory. The client wanted to liquidate his portfolio and invest in gold.

Kay's advice? "If you think it's the end of the world, buy Progresso soup in pop-top cans because it's more valuable than gold. You can't eat gold."

So what should investors be doing as the markets zig and zag?

Alan Haft, a financial adviser in Newport Beach, California, is getting defensive. He has moved about $15 million of his client's portfolios into cash-like investments since early July. He's put much of that cash to work in the Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Fund.

"People are skittish, but the U.S. Treasury is still the safest place when you compare what is out there," Haft says.

Like the von Trapp family in the "Sound of Music," Haft sees Switzerland as a safe haven. He's parking money in Swiss fixed annuities, which are highly liquid but can only be purchased through an intermediary.

"The Swiss Franc has been rocking; many of my investors love the off-shore nature of it," Haft says. He also likes the CurrencyShares Swiss Franc ETF.

In the past few weeks, Haft says he also put $5 million into the WellsFargo Advantage Short-Term Muni Fund because the duration is "super-low" which means interest-rate risk is minimal.

"The whole thing about rising interest rates is that on one hand the economy is not getting any better (which means rates should stay low). But on the other hand with deficit stuff, rates should climb, so it's a quandary," Haft says.

FINDING ALTERNATIVES

Despite all of the turmoil in Italy and Greece, Bradley Bofford, a financial adviser at Financial Principles in Fairfield, New Jersey, says he has not received any client calls about the safety of money market instruments. But his firm has been reaching out to some clients with accounts that exceed the $250,000 FDIC limit. For these high-end clients, he recommends a Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, also known as CDARS.

CDARS (CDARS - The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service) work like super-sized CDs but offer insurance coverage up to $50 million. They rose in popularity during the 2008 financial crisis. Money is spread around in chunks across a network of "well-capitalized" banks, with maturities of four weeks to five years. The trade-off is a lower yields than traditional CDs.

According to Bankrate.com, the average one-year certificate of deposit is yielding 0.91 percent. One-year CDARS, by comparison, pay 0.26 percent, Bofford says.

TWO STYLES: STAY PUT OR ACT NOW

There are two main camps among advisers: the do-nothing crowd and the do-more crowd.

Over the last three weeks, financial adviser Rich Brooks says he has not had a single client conversation that didn't involve talking about market volatility.

So maybe that's why no one called during Thursday's big drop since it was not a huge surprise, says Brooks, who is vice president for investment management at Blankenship & Foster, which has $320 million under management for 225 clients in Solana Beach, California.

"The current sell-off hasn't really shaken our clients. If we were sitting here today asking why Congress didn't come to a budget deal, then maybe. But we've been working hard to prepare them for the headwinds," Brooks says.

Among the 'do-more' crowd is Pat Dorsey, Morningstar's former director of equity research and now vice chairman of Sanibel Captiva Trust Company, which has $500 million under management.

"My sense is that the best opportunities are going to be European multinationals?which get the bulk of revenue from outside Europe, like Siemens, Nestle or Novartis. It's not like Japanese consumers are going to stop eating chocolate," he says. "If you're willing to step up to the plate a little bit, there are interesting ways to take advantage of this volatility."

STOCKS MORE ATTRACTIVE?

Another make-a-move adviser is Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Burns Advisory Group, with offices in Oklahoma and Connecticut. At a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.98, the S&P 500 is cheaper today on a trailing 12-month basis than it has been in the past 20 years. What's more, in 1990 you could buy a 10-year U.S. Treasury note that yielded 8.6 percent -- a full six percentage points higher than what you can get today.

Courtney says there's no question stocks offer a great relative value at these levels despite the continued downturn. (And he'd like to know where investors that are pulling out after a 10 percent drop are going to put their money, or when they plan to get back in.) If you can look past the next week or month, stocks are "super attractive," he says.

William Suplee IV, a financial adviser at Structured Asset Management in Paoli, Pennsylvania, says 20 percent of his clients are worried about their portfolios right now. But a whopping 70 percent are sitting tight, "having lived through this several times previously."

And the rest - well, they are using this dip as a buying opportunity," he says. Their secret? "Strong stomachs," he says.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in volatile trade on Friday as investors saw a buying opportunity following the sharp sell-off that took the S&P 500 down 10 percent over the last 10 sessions.

The stock market extended its rebound after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said his country will introduce a constitutional principle of a balanced budget, adding that: "We will accelerate measures" in an austerity program, with the "aim of a balanced budget in 2013."

Helping the market, sources said the European Central Bank was ready to buy Italian and Spanish bonds if Berlusconi commits to bringing forward specific reforms.

"You are making or have made a tradeable low and are going to get a throwback rally," said Jeffrey Saut, Raymond James Financial chief investment strategist, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

At Thursday's close, the S&P 500 was down about 10 percent for the last 10 trading sessions.

Stocks had been lower for much of the day as worries about slower global growth remained firmly intact despite stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data.

Intense recent selling -- taking both the Dow and the S&P 500 down 4 percent and the Nasdaq down 5 percent on Thursday -- reflects frustration with politicians' inability to address pressing concerns over high public debt in Europe and the United States as growth in the world's large industrial economies shows signs of stalling.

Slower growth in manufacturing and services in the United States also have renewed concern about another U.S. recession.

Among the day's best-performing sectors were defensive ones: consumer staples and health care. The S&P consumer staples index was up 2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 132.33 points, or 1.16 percent, at 11,516.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 11.07 points, or 0.92 percent, at 1,211.14. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.86 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,561.25.

U.S. non-farm payrolls data showed a gain of 117,000 jobs in July compared with a forecast for an increase of 85,000, while the country's unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent last month from 9.2 percent in June, the Labor Department reported.

Also affecting stocks was talk of a possible S&P downgrade of U.S. debt after the close.

The recent steep sell-off has put all three major indexes in negative territory for the year.

Credit Suisse on Friday reduced its year-end view on the S&P 500 to 1,350 from 1,450, citing weaker-than-expected growth.

Other strategists saw the bearish mood as more temporary.

"If this is a market reaction to a crisis, then a bounce should be under way soon. Since WWII, there are only three instances where U.S. stocks fell 10 percent in 10 days outside of recessions," according to JPMorgan Chase strategist Thomas Lee, in a research note.

Reflecting the market's volatility, the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX whipped between positive and negative in early afternoon trading. It was last up 0.2 percent at 31.71, after earlier touching an intraday high at 39.25, its highest level since May 2010.

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