Obama seeks bailout funds

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Langi Chiang

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama sought the remaining half of $700 billion (474 billion pounds) in U.S. financial bailout funds from Congress, as sinking company earnings and weak Chinese trade figures underlined the depth of the gathering recession.

Sony Corp (6758.T) is expected to post its first operating loss in 14 years this business year, a source said, and aluminium producer Alcoa Inc. (AA.N) kicked off the Wall Street earnings season with a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.

As politicians worldwide try to alleviate sharply slowing growth and mounting job losses, Obama said he had asked President George W. Bush to formally request the remaining bailout funds so they could be ready when he takes office on January 20.

"I felt that it would be irresponsible for me, with the first $350 billion already spent, to enter into the administration without any potential ammunition should there be some sort of emergency or a weakening of the financial system," Obama said.

The $700 billion rescue programme was approved last October to bolster the financial industry plagued by bad mortgage debts that pushed several major institutions to the brink of collapse.

Chinese exports and imports fell in December for the second month in a row, data on Tuesday showed. Exports fell 2.8 percent from year-earlier levels -- small compared with declines of 42 percent and 17.4 percent reported by neighbours Taiwan and South Korea -- while imports were down 21.3 percent.

Ma Xiaoping, an economist with HSBC in Beijing, said she expected exports to fall at an annual rate of about 20 percent in coming months -- a stark contrast to the 17.2 percent increase China enjoyed in 2008 as a whole.

"Just look at the plunge in exports in Taiwan and South Korea," she said. "Chinese exporters are in a similar position to them, and you can't expect China to do a great job while everybody else is in trouble."