The United States will avoid a “double dip” recession, with real gross-domestic-product growth topping 2% next year, according to Standard & Poor’s Corp. The research firm is estimating a 1.7% annualized growth rate in the fourth quarter, and a rate of 2.4% by the end of next year, Sam Stovall, S&P’s chief investment strategist, said in a conference call today. The corporate earnings free-fall will end this year, and bottom lines should improve in 2010, Mr.

In an apparent first, a registered representative and his individual practice have been sued in a potential class action stemming from oil-and-gas private placements that the SEC claims were fraudulent. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Idaho, alleges that Bradley K. Hofhines and his firm, Summit Retirement Advisors LLC, failed to disclose to clients that returns from investments in Provident Royalties LLC securities did not come from revenue generated by actual investments in oil-and-gas properties.

Al Frank Asset Management Inc. today announced it has acquired Innealta Portfolio Advisors LLC, a quantitative asset management firm specializing in the creation and tactical management of exchange-traded fund portfolios. “This acquisition marks our most recent step in an aggressive plan for building a boutique provider of world-class investment expertise and solutions for the evolving needs of advisers and individual investors,” Jeff Montgomery, chief executive of Al Frank Asset Management, said in a statement

State securities regulators are pushing to get House support for legislation allowing states to have greater oversight over private-placement offerings. The North American Securities Administrators Association Inc.

Shares of Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. jumped more than 11% Tuesday morning after the company said it repurchased $44.5 million of publicly traded convertible-trust preferred securities at a 44% discount to their issuance price in 2004.

December 1, 2009 Crude prices up; gold hits new record by Elaine Frei The price of crude oil was up Tuesday as the US dollar weakened and several reports that manufacturing activity was up in both the US and China last month raised hopes that demand for oil and oil products could begin to improve soon. January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had added $1.57 to $78.85 per barrel at just before 1:30 p.m. local time on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January Brent crude was up $1.20 to $79.67 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London