The painful collapse of the housing market along with the credit crunch will weigh down economic growth in the final three months of this year and cause economic activity to lag in 2008. The latest look-ahead from the National Association for Business Economics says the gross domestic product is on track to expand at just a 1.5 percent pace from October through December. Oil prices increased with more talk among OPEC members about converting their cash reserves to the euro and away from the U.S. dollar. There is also doubt a possible OPEC output hike next month would get more supplies to market in time for the northern winter. The national average price for gasoline rose about 13 cents over the last two weeks. According to oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg, the average price of regular gasoline was $3.09 a gallon, mid-grade was $3.21, and premium was $3.32. Xerox (XRX) announced its first quarterly cash dividend in six years, a sign that the business is again healthy. A dividend...