PITTSBURGH -- Struggling with a contentious issue, world leaders have reached basic agreement on limiting the bonuses of bankers whose risky behavior contributed to freshwater pearl jewelry the global financial meltdown, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday at a summit of the world's largest economies. In the streets outside, protesters tussled with police on the opening day.

At a news conference, Geithner also expressed optimism that summit partners would endorse the broad outlines of a U.S. proposal to pearl jewelry wholesale deal with huge imbalances in the global economy such as large trade surpluses in China and record budget deficits in the United States. He also said the U.S. supports China's efforts to gain greater voting rights in the International Monetary Fund over the reservations of European nations, who would lose influence.
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Given the rise of China's economic powers, "it's the freshwater pearl necklace right thing," and Europe recognizes that, Geithner said.

World leaders descended on the comeback city of Pittsburgh to debate how to nurture a recovering but still-wobbly global economy. Nerves are still on edge, but this summit of the world's 20 leading economies seems free of the crisis atmosphere that hung over the past two - despite the clashes between protesters and police.

The treasury secretary said the G-20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit bankers' compensation by the end of this year. He said it would involve setting separate standards in each of the countries and would be overseen the Financial Stability Board, an international group of central bankers and regulators.

Until now, European countries had pressed harder than the  freshwater pearl pendant U.S. for limits.
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"We want to have very strong standards to limit the risks that compensation practices" encourage, Geithner said.

The issue of compensation has been one of cultured pearl jewelry the more difficult ones facing the summit.

Asian stocks fell Friday morning, with sharply lower commodity prices hammering resource companies. Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 260 points, or 2.5%, to freshwater pearl jewelry 10,284. The S&P/ASX 200 index of Australian shares fell 41 points, or 0.9%, to 4,660 in early trading.

The losses follow a down day on Wall Street after U.S. sales of existing homes defied analyst expectations and fell 2.7% in August, adding to akoya pearl jewelry investor concerns over whether the slow pace of the global economic recovery can support the rapid run-up in stock prices since the spring.
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Financial shares were hard hit as the week's final trading session began, falling on stimulus concerns and the likelihood the G-20 summit gathering could impose limits on banker pay. Nomura Holdings surprised shareholders by saying it would try to raise $5.6 billion by selling stock as the investment bank struggles to integrate its purchase of Lehman Brothers ( LEHMQ - news - people )' Asian operations. Trading was suspended after the wholesale pearl jewelry
 market was flooded with orders.

Japan Airlines fell 7.6% in early trading after the government held back on granting financial aid to the money-losing carrier on concerns it won't cut costs enough. JAL has promised to slash unprofitable routes and shrink its workforce while a consortium of Western carriers is looking at a possible tie-up investment.

Video game company Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ) was down 3.2% after the firm said it would cut the price of the Wii game console by 20% after similar moves by rival Sony ( SNE - news - people ) and Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ). Sales of games, and especially game hardware, have dropped sharply due to the recession despite the industry's good track record during previous downturns.

Falling commodity prices were taking energy shares down on Friday. Japanese oil firm Inpex lost 2.6% after crude lost 4.5% on freshwater pearl pendant Thursday on growing U.S. gasoline stockpiles and weakening demand.
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In Australia, falling prices for copper, gold and other industrial materials took a toll on shares of BHP Billiton ( BBL - news - people ), which lost 1.9% while Rio Tinto ( RTP - news - people ), another mining firm, was down 2.3%.

Exchange-traded funds that track Asian markets fell on freshwater pearl pendant Thursday. The iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund ( EWA - news - people ) lost 38 cents, or 1.7%, to $21.79 while the iShares MSCI South Korea Index Fund ( EWY - news - people ) fell 88 cents, or 1.9%, to $46.34.