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The new green logo is essentially Starbucks' representation of a female siren -- a half-human mythical temptress who led sailors to their deaths. The change, announced during a Webcast

of a company meeting, comes as Starbucks is building new billion-dollar brands sold outside its cafes.

"Even though we have been, and always will be, a coffee company and retailer, it's possible we'll have other products with our name on it and no coffee in it," Chief Executive Howard Schultz said on the Webcast.

The company, based in Seattle, Washington, has not changed its logo since it went public in 1992.

Self-described Starbucks fanatics were not impressed and, among hundreds of comments on Starbucks' website, called for the company's name to be put back into the logo.

"Who's the bonehead in your marketing department that removed the world-famous name of Starbucks Coffee from your new logo? This gold card user isn't impressed!" wrote one customer who identified herself as MimiKatz.

Another wrote: "I have been a big supporter of (Starbucks) since the early days, taken expensive rides in taxis to get my morning coffee, even waded through two feet of snow in my business suit ... but I do not see the logic of your Business Development folks for the removal of the Starbucks name."

Executives said the logo, designed in-house, would be phased in, appearing first on paper products like cups and napkins in March. Starbucks declined to say how much it would cost to switch to the new logo.

Starbucks has come through a restructuring over the past few years, during which it closed almost 1,000 stores around the world and put more emphasis on brands like instant coffee Via and Seattle's Best Coffee.

It is now fighting Kraft Foods Inc (KFT.N) for control of its grocery distribution business.

"IT'S NUTS"

Some brand experts questioned whether the logo change was a smart move, and even likened it to a recent ill-fated attempt by clothing chain Gap Inc (GPS.N) to change its well-known brand image.

"I think it's nuts," said James Gregory, chief executive of brand consulting firm CoreBrand. "What's it going to be -- the coffee formerly known as Starbucks?"

The new logo probably will not hurt cafe sales in the near term because most Starbucks customers are enthusiasts, Gregory said. But, he said, a nameless logo was a bad fit for Starbucks products sold by grocery stores and other retailers.

Copper climbed 1 percent to a high of $9,654.25 a tone, nearing a record high of $9,754 struck on Tuesday, after an ADP report showed a record 297,000 U.S. private sector jobs were created in December, the clearest signal in months that a recovery in the world's biggest economy was shifting up a gear.

The figure prompted analysts to raise their forecasts for the closely watched non-farm payrolls data, with estimates now centering on an increase of 175,000 jobs, up from 140,000 in an earlier Reuters survey.

While some analysts were skeptical of the size of the jump in the ADP job report, it does follow a string of recent upbeat U.S. data showing the economy is picking up steam.

"Markets will now wait for U.S. payrolls on Friday for confirmation of the strong trend," said Hiroaki Osakabe, a fund manager at Chibagin Asset Management. "But investors will then focus on how the U.S. data will impact the dollar/yen rate."

Japan's Nikkei 225 index .N225 rose 1.2 percent and breached the psychologically important barrier of 10,500 to reach its best level since May 2010.

Major exporters including Canon Inc (7751.T) and Toyota Motors (7203.T) climbed more than 1 percent.

MSCI's Asia Pacific index excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, however, slipped 0.1 percent, having drifted in and out of positive territory. Earlier this week technical indicators showed it was close to being overbought after a strong end-2010 rally, making investors wary that markets were due for a pullback.

South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index .HSI were both flat, while China's Shanghai Composite index .SSEC shed 0.7 percent.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO reversed early gains ad slid 0.4 percent as concerns over severe floods in the country's northeast made investors unsure of how to judge company earnings in 2011.

Global miner BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) fell 0.5 percent and Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) eased about 0.1 percent.

DOLLAR FIRM

The dollar rose to 83.39 yen, reaching highs not seen since December 23, while the euro wallowed below $1.3200, having fallen below that level overnight for the first time since December 29.

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies, was little changed at 80.218, after topping out at a fresh one-week high of 80.353.

"As long as the key jobs data on Friday is in line with expectations, the dollar is likely keep its gains, but it looks hard for it to climb higher as the market has already priced in good numbers," said Hideki Hayashi, a global economist at Mizuho Securities.

U.S. crude oil edged up 0.1 percent to $90.42, after trading as high as $90.71, not far from a 27-month high of $92.58 set in the first trading day of the year.

(Addititional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Private employers added 297,000 jobs last month, payrolls processing company ADP Employer Services said on Wednesday. It was the largest gain on ADP records dating to 2000.

The data came two days ahead of the government's more comprehensive employment report for December, the world's most closely watched economic indicator, and led many economists to raise their payrolls forecasts.

The report sparked a sharp cut in U.S. Treasury debt prices, and the U.S. dollar gained 1.5 percent against the yen, on pace for its biggest one-day gain in more than three months as investors bet on a stronger recovery. Stocks and crude oil futures reversed losses and headed higher.

"Sometimes numbers come as bolts from the blue; this is one of them," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

"Nothing in any other indicators of the state of the labor market last month -- jobless claims, help wanted, surveys -- suggested anything like this was remotely likely."

But some economists cautioned the report may have been skewed by how ADP tracks employment and adjusts the data for seasonal fluctuations. Others said simply it is not a reliable guide to predicting the government's payroll count.

Still, the data was the latest in a series, ranging from trade to retail sales, suggesting the U.S. recovery is gaining speed.

A separate report on Wednesday showed service sector activity also picking up. The Institute for Supply Management's index of national services activity rose to 57.1 in December, the highest level in more than four years, from 55.0 in November. Economists had expected a reading of 55.6.

"Yet another number that beats consensus and keeps the positive sentiment on the economy alive with some momentum going into the new year," Sean Incremona, an economist at 4Cast Ltd in New York, said of the service sector data.

MOMENTUM INTO THE NEW YEAR

Nonfarm payrolls are now expected to have increased 175,000 in December, according to a revised Reuters poll, up from the previous pre-ADP 140,000 forecast. The jobless rate is expected to slip to 9.7 percent from November's 9.8 percent, a projection untouched by the ADP data.

Adding to the improving employment picture, the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell last month to the lowest level in 10 years, according to a report by consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

And a survey of chief executives of small companies showed a majority planned to add employees in 2011 for the first time in three years, according to small business group Vistage.

The brighter labor market outlook is a boost for President Barack Obama, whose administration has struggled to create jobs as the economy started to recover from the huge hit it took in the financial crisis.

Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) are among the book runners, these sources said. Bankers made their pitches to the privately-held company in November, one of the sources said.

"An IPO is just one of many tactics that we could consider," a spokesman for LinkedIn said on Wednesday. He declined further comment.

Internet companies such as LinkedIn and Zynga, a popular maker of online social games, are considering offerings well ahead of a potential IPO of Facebook, two sources said.

"Some of these companies want to go public because they want to beat Facebook and others out," said one of the sources. "If Facebook went public before Linkedin, do you think anyone would pay that much attention to Linkedin?" You might want to surpass the beast."

Zynga couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

Facebook is not expected to file for a public offering until late 2012, Facebook board member Peter Thiel told Reuters in September.

But that could change. Regulators are scrutinizing a $500 million investment and a commitment to raise at least $1 billion more in Facebook this week by Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies, one of the sources said.

The SEC is reviewing whether the number of shareholders in Facebook has exceeded a 499 limit in order to remain private. If the SEC decided Facebook has moved past the threshold, it could accelerate Facebook's timeline for an offering, the source said.

Facebook and Goldman have declined to comment.

The people familiar with the process said LinkedIn is hoping to attract investors on its reputation as one of the Web's fastest growing social network sites.

The site claims more than 85 million members.

The filing of LinkedIn's S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which contains the basic financial information of an issuer, could take months, said one of the sources.

"There are lots of things that are worked on that they could put on hold; they miss numbers; they want to grow a little more," another of the sources said.

Linkedin, which does not disclose financial results, makes money from advertising and premium services. The valuation of a Linkedin IPO was not given by the sources.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty found on Wednesday an "absence of ample allegations that Barclays did not truly believe" how it valued its subprime and other real estate assets, and offered "substantial risk disclosures" regarding its valuations to investors who bought its securities.

The Manhattan judge also dismissed dozens of additional defendants. Among these were Barclays directors, including current Chief Executive Robert Diamond and his predecessor John Varley, and more than one dozen underwriters such as Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Royal Bank of Canada and UBS AG.

The lawsuit is one of many by investors to accuse major banks of inflating their share prices by hiding or being too slow to report credit deterioration on their balance sheets.

It was brought by investors who said they bought some of the $5.45 billion of American depositary shares that Barclays issued between April 2006 and April 2008.

They said the shares lost 73 percent to 78 percent of their value by the time the lawsuit began in March 2009, and that Barclays should compensate them for losses they suffered.

David Rosenfeld, a lawyer for the investors, did not immediately return requests for comment. Barclays spokesman Brandon Ashcraft said the bank is pleased with the ruling.

The investors accused Barclays of failing to disclose in materials accompanying the ADS offerings its more than 36 billion pounds ($55.8 billion) of credit exposure, including to subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations.

They also said Barclays' disclosures remained inadequate until the bank took a 2.8 billion pound ($4.3 billion) writedown on subprime mortgages and other risky debt in August 2008.

In his ruling, Crotty said the plaintiffs failed to show how Barclays violated accounting and regulatory reporting rules or misled them about its risk management practices, and waited too long to bring some of their claims.

Barclays closed Wednesday up 35 cents at $17.45 in New York.

The case is In re: Barclays Bank Plc Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-01989.

(1 British pound = US$1.55)

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Andre Grenon, Bernard Orr)

The ADP Employer Services private sector jobs report on Wednesday comes two days ahead of the U.S. government's closely watched payrolls report. Many economists raised their forecasts for a wider reading of jobs growth on Friday.

"Sometimes numbers come as bolts from the blue; this is one of them," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

"Nothing in any other indicators of the state of the labor market last month -- jobless claims, help wanted, surveys -- suggested anything like this was remotely likely."

In another sign of strength in the U.S. economy, an industry group on Wednesday reported its gauge of the massive U.S. services sector reached its highest level in over four years.

The data sparked a sharp cut in prices of U.S. Treasury debt as investors bet on a stronger recovery.

The U.S. dollar gained more than 1 percent against the yen and the euro. Stocks reversed losses and posted moderate gains on the data.

Private employers added a surprising 297,000 jobs last month, the biggest rise ever and up from a gain of 92,000 in November, the ADP data showed. The ADP data goes back to 2000.

Shortly afterwards, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of national services activity rose to 57.1 in December from 55.0 in November -- better than economists' median forecast of 55.6.

The data was the latest in a series, ranging from trade to retail sales, suggesting the U.S. recovery is gaining speed.

"Yet another number that beats consensus and keeps the positive sentiment on the economy alive with some momentum going into the new year," Sean Incremona, an economist at 4Cast Ltd in New York, said of the service sector data.

The government's comprehensive labor market report, which includes both public and private sector employment, is due on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters expect it to show a rise in overall nonfarm payrolls of 140,000 in December, including a rise in private payrolls of 145,000.

"We now have to expect a much bigger number on Friday, 250,000?" said High Frequency's Shepherdson.

Adding to the rosy employment picture, the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell last month to the lowest level in 10 years, according to a report by consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

And a survey of chief executives of small companies showed a majority planned to add employees in 2011 for the first time in three years, according to small business group Vistage.

Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said in a research note on Wednesday that if Borders ended up closing all of its stores, including about 500 superstores, that would ease pressure on Barnes & Noble.

Balter raised his rating to "neutral" from "underperform" and increased his target price to $16. Barnes & Noble shares were up 2.3 percent at $15.85 in early trading, while Borders gained 3.9 percent to 87 cents.

Barnes & Noble operates 717 namesake superstores and has won between 17 percent and 20 percent of the growing e-book market since the 2009 introduction of its Nook e-reader device.

Borders started its e-bookstore in July, but has not developed its own e-reader. It has only garnered a small share of the e-book market.

Balter said about 70 percent of the chains' stores overlap. Fewer Borders stores would ease pressure on Barnes & Noble, whose retail sales of paper books have fallen as readers migrate to e-books.

Barnes & Noble would take about 18 percent of Borders sales, bringing in an additional $400 million, if the rival chain were to close all of its stores, Balter estimated.

Borders shares fell as low as 83 cents on Tuesday, their lowest price since April 2009, and closed down 74 percent from their 52-week high last April. Sales at Borders superstores open at least a year fell by double-digit percentage rates in 2009 and 2008.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Private employers added 297,000 jobs in December, triple the median estimate by economists and up from the gain of 92,000 in November, an ADP Employer Services report showed on Wednesday.

The news reduced early losses in stock index futures, though the stock market was still expected to open lower. The jobs report helped send the price of the 30-year Treasury bond a full point lower.

"You cannot ignore the strength of this report," Tom Porcelli, a U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets. "With small business now beginning to start to ramp up hiring, it's safe to feel better about the labor backdrop."

Adding to the rosy picture, the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell last month to the lowest level in 10 years, according to a report by consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Tempering some of the optimism on Wednesday, an industry group said applications for home mortgages ebbed in the last couple of months of the year, with loan rates hovering around their highest levels in seven months.

The U.S. dollar extended gains against the yen and the euro.

The ADP figures came ahead of the government's much more comprehensive labor market report due on Friday, which will include both public and private sector employment.

That report is expected to show a rise in overall nonfarm payrolls of 140,000 in December, based on a recent Reuters poll of analysts, but a rise in private payrolls of 145,000.

Economists often use the ADP report to fine-tune their forecasts for the payrolls numbers, though it is not always accurate in predicting the outcome.

The ADP report is jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer)

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity rose 2.3 percent for the week ended December 31 and dipped 3.9 percent in the prior week.

The index has been dragged lower since October by applications to refinance loans, as a spike in interest rates reduced incentives for the homeowners that can qualify under today's tight credit standards. The MBA expects total loan originations will drop to $967 billion this year, down 36 percent from 2010 and less than half that of 2009.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates jumped to 4.93 percent in the week ending December 24, the highest since May 7, before ending the year at 4.82 percent, the MBA said. The rate is three-quarters of a percentage point higher since early October, as reports of solid consumer spending, and expectations of government and Federal Reserve stimulus plans lifted 2011 outlooks.

Relatively soft application volume follows other recent data points that suggest the U.S. housing market may be on the verge of another downturn. Single-family home prices in October dropped for the fourth straight month, according to the latest Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller index, and analysts are predicting more declines under the weight of foreclosures.

However, housing may draw some demand if recent economic strength gains momentum. The combination of economic recovery and relatively low interest rates has helped boost pending sales of previously-owned homes more than expected in November, the National Association of Realtors said last week.

Broken down, the MBA's seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications index rose 3.9 percent in the latest week but fell 7.2 percent for the week ended December 24. The index of loans earmarked for home purchases fell 0.8 percent and rose 3.1 percent in those weeks.

(Reporting by Al Yoon; Editing by Diane Craft)

Dogan Yayin is also preparing to sell its flagship Hurriyet daily newspaper separately, another source close to the process told Reuters, adding investment bank Goldman Sachs will invite initial bids by February1.

The starting price for the assets on sale, other than Hurriyet, was expected to be $1.6-$1.8 billion, and U.S. private equity funds KKR and TPG were among the shortlisted bidders, sources said.

A Dogan Yayin official declined to comment on plans for Hurriyet's sale.

Dogan Yayin, embroiled in a legal battle against crippling tax fines, said last month that while it was selling media units, it would not withdraw from the sector entirely.

Hurriyet shares jumped 11 percent to 2.06 lira at 0930 GMT, with Dogan Yayin shares up 3.5 percent to 2.06 lira and parent company Dogan Holding up 1.8 percent at 1.15 lira.

In October, Dogan Holding sold its controlling stake in fuel retailer Petrol Ofisi to Austrian group OMV, its joint venture partner, for 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion).

(Editing by Louise Heavens and Dan Lalor)

($1 = 0.7530 euro)