Mortgage rates took a beating last week. Even the most aggressive lenders are now creeping towards 5.00% (for WELL-QUALIFIED borrowers).

During the course of the holiday shortened work week, benchmark Treasury note yields rose persistently which lead mortgage backed security prices lower and forced lenders to offer even higher mortgage rates. I say “even higher” as a reminder of something that AQ has been writing all over Mortgage News Daily lately.

As always with Treasury auctions, supply is known in advance so market participants look at the demand for our nation’s debt to gauge its success or failure. Despite record amount of U.S. borrowing, demand for our nation’s debt has been quite strong all year, especially from foreign central banks, which has helped keep mortgage rates near historic low levels. If mortgage rates are to stop rising, we need foreign central bankers, China and Japan specifically, to continue providing support heading into 2010.

With the holidays in full swing, tax season seems like a long way off. But there are only 10 days left to lower your 2009 tax bill.

Generally speaking, taxpayers who expect their income to drop next year should try to reduce this year’s bigger bite. Similarly, if you expect to land in a higher tax bracket next year, you might want to pay extra taxes now to ease the burden later.

Lastly, do not forget that any money in flexible spending accounts must be spent before the end of the year (though some plans might have grace periods).

Canoel International Energy Ltd. (“Canoel” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:CIL) is pleased to announce that it has issued and sold to subscribers, by way of a private placement under prospectus and registration exemptions, an aggregate of 1,260,000 units (“Units”) at a price of $0.17 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $214,200.

Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of Canoel, one-half of one common share purchase warrant (“Year 1 Warrant”) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (“Year 2 Warrant”).

Each whole Year 1 Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of Canoel at $0.30 for a period of one year from the date of the first sale of Units under the Offering and each whole 2 Year Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of Canoel at $0.40 for a period of two years from the date of the first sale of Units under the Offering, subject to early termination if, at any time following four months and one day from the date of the last closing under the Offering, the closing price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange exceeds $0.40, in the case of Year 1 Warrants, and $0.50 in the case of Year 2 Warrants for 15 consecutive trading days.

Kforce’s KFRC government staffing division was recently given notice by the Department of Interior that it is suspending Kforce from any further government work in which the firm is not already engaged. The issue relates to work Kforce executed for the Bureau of Land Management.

Kforce helped the bureau prepare requirements for a statement of work for a project. The project was later awarded to Kforce. No further details were divulged by either the firm or the federal government.

Insurers have for the first time released official data on their payout rates for critical illness cover (CIC) and life insurance policies, showing that, on average, more than 90 per cent of claims are paid.

The data from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) marks the first time industry-wide statistics on claims for these products have been formally compiled. The products have suffered from a poor reputation in recent years due to controversial disputes over claims rejections, particularly for critical illness.

Private investors have increasingly been selling shares as the stock market rally slows, in order to take profits on holdings bought earlier in the year, according to the latest analysis of trades by 1.6m UK shareholders.

In October and November, individual investors sold a net £637m-worth of equities, more than treble the amount they pulled out of the market in August and September. Figures from Capita Registrars, which records private shareholdings in more than 2,000 UK and Irish companies, show that this latest sell-off takes the total value of shares sold in the past five months to £900m.

Discover Financial Services said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 19 percent as the rate of bad loans increased.

Shares of the credit card lender fell $1.03, or 6.3 percent, to $15.39 in morning trading. The stock has ranged from $4.73 to $17.35 over the past year.

Discover’s provision for loan losses, or the amount it sets aside to cover bad loans, was $989 million, down from $1.11 billion in the same quarter a year ago but up from $924.4 million in the second quarter.

The company was one of hundreds of banks that received government assistance during the financial crisis. Unlike many large financial companies, however, Discover has yet to pay back the government. Earlier this week, Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. announced stock offerings to raise the cash needed to repay the bailout loans.

A recent report from TransUnion noted that auto loans that are at least 60-days late on payment increased to 0.81 percent during the third quarter of this year, which is up from the second quarter’s rate of 0.73 percent.

When compared to the same time last year, auto loan delinquenciesare up 1.25 percent.