Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, what you should be thinking

Top stories

The Times: Microsoft is understood to be in preliminary talks with Time Warner about buying AOL, the media group's internet unit.

Financial Times: BlackRock, the US asset manager, is to buy a portfolio of subprime mortgage debt from UBS for $15 billion (£7.6 billion).

The Wall Street Journal: Sprint Nextel, the US mobile provider, is considering spinning off or selling its ailing Nextel unit.

Comment

Gerard Baker in The Times: Even if the US has a recession this year, the chances that it will turn into a full-blown slump are not high.

Lex in Financial Times: Mobile mergers that improve scale and market structure are the nearest the sector gets to heaven. Deutsche Telekom is right to consider this deal.

Stephen King of HSBC in The Independent: Political leaders have done little to discuss income redistribution to ensure the losers from globalisation are compensated.

Upside

Bloomberg: Crude oil traded near a record $120.36 a barrel in New York on speculation that demand will rise during the peak summer driving season in the US.

The Daily Telegraph: Virgin Active, the health club operator that bought the rival Holmes Place in 2006, saw earnings rise 28 per cent over the year to December 31.

The Times: City employers appear to be holding their nerve and not scaling back sharply on recruitment in the light of the credit crunch and feared job losses.

Downside

The Times: Brit Insurance, of the Lloyd's insurance market, is considering shifting its corporate headquarters outside the UK in light of unpopular tax proposals.

The Daily Telegraph: The post-credit crisis economic recovery could be "snuffed out" by high oil prices, the influential Ernst & Young Item Club said.

BBC: Shares in EADS, the European aerospace firm, have fallen on reports that Airbus could be forced to further delay deliveries of its A380 superjumbo.

Mergers and shakers

The Times: Apollo, the American private equity group, is understood to have approached Barratt Developments to offer to buy a stake in the troubled UK housebuilder.

The Daily Telegraph: Manchester Airports Group, Britain's second-biggest airport operator, would be interested in buying any airports that BAA might be forced to sell.

The Independent: The number of properties being repossessed has soared to the highest level in 17 years as the effects of the credit crunch push up court orders.

Around Asia

Financial Times: Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile operator, has made a multibillion-dollar bid for control of Johannesburg-listed MTN, a player in Africa and the Middle East.

The Times: Globaltrans, Russia's second-biggest freight operator, has tapped the London market for $449 million (£228 million), starting a huge and lengthy fund-raising.

The Daily Telegraph: Vedanta Resources, the mining giant, has rejected allegations that one of its major expansion projects will destroy the way of life for an entire Indian tribe.

Look ahead

The Times: Most of the City of London believes that the chances of a back-to-back cut in interest rates on Thursday are only slight.

Reuters: Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive of NYSE Euronext, said that the New York Stock Exchange's trading floor population could decline 15 to 20 per cent this year.

BBC: A review by Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, into business practices at BAE Systems is set to be released soon.

MARKETS

Dow 12,969.54 down 0.7% (Monday close)

S&P 500 1,407.49 down 0.5% (close)

Nasdaq 2,464.12 down 0.5% (close)

Hang Seng 26,191.88 up 7.9 points (latest)

Currencies

Sterling $1.9728/1.2715 euros (latest)

Euro $1.5516 (latest)

Commodities

West Texas crude $120.17 up 20 cents (latest)

Gold $876.30 up $2.20 (latest)

New York

Reuters: US stocks fell on Monday on concerns that Bank of America may walk away from buying Countrywide Financial, the troubled lender. Microsoft's decision to abandon its $50 billion offer to buy Yahoo! added to gloom, causing the market to break a two-day winning streak. Berkshire Hathaway fell more than 2 per cent after Warren Buffett's holding company reported a big drop in earnings.

Asia

Bloomberg: Asian stocks declined for the first time in three days, led by financial companies, after Kookmin Bank and St George Bank reported lower profit amid turmoil in credit markets. BHP Billiton, the biggest mining company, advanced after crude oil prices passed a record $120 a barrel and copper futures gained. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index was down 0.2 per cent in intraday trading. Japan's markets were closed for a holiday.

Paul Larter

paul.larter@thetimes.co.uk

AGENDA

INTERIMS

Addax Petroleum Corporation (Q1)

Randgold Resources (Q1)

United Drug

FINALS

Chagala Group

Datacash Group

Freeplay Energy

Teleset Networks

AGMs

AngloGold Ashanti

Capita Group

Delta

Public Service Properties Investments

RAB Capital

Rightmove

Tenneco

Xstrata

EGMs

None scheduled

TRAFFIC FIGURES

British Airways (April)

TRADING STATEMENTS

Lloyds TSB

Rentokil Initial (Q1)

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Playtech

OTHER

Severn Trent to appear in front of Crown Court to be sentenced for mis-reporting data

to regulator

ECONOMICS

UK April services PMI (0930 BST)

FSA’s Callum McCarthy, Hector Sants appear before Treasury Select Committee (0945 BST)

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