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: The credit crunch tightened
its grip on families last night as two big mortgage lenders raised their
rates or withdrew deals and the price of oil hit another record.
Financial Times: Goldman Sachs is close to finalising
a plan to restructure a $7 billion special investment vehicle formerly
run by London-based hedge fund Cheyne Capital.
The Daily Telegraph: A dispute between BP and its Russian partners degenerated
into open warfare as Sir Peter Sutherland, BP's chairman, was likened to
Goebbels.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Yesterday's trading statement shows
Barclays weathering the crunch well.
It will need every morsel of good news to woo new investors.
Damian Reece in The Daily Telegraph: If this consultation is part of a regulatory
land grab by the Treasury then the move eastwards by capital to new
financial centres will accelerate.
Lex in Financial Times: With steel buyers accepting price rises of 50
per cent, ArcelorMittal may look to be at the epicentre of a bubble. But a
charge of irrational exuberance does not stick.
On the rise
The Times: Majestic Wine said inflation was creeping
into the wine cellar and that prices are about to jump by up to 10 per
cent over the coming weeks.
BBC: The price of crude oil hit a
new high of close to $140 a barrel during New York trade, despite Saudi
Arabia agreeing to increase output in July.
Financial Times: Barclays shares rose
more than 3 per cent after the bank issued a reassuring trading update
and confirmed it was considering a share issue to strengthen its balance
sheet.
Downside
The Guardian: The City is braced
for an annual inflation increase of more than 3 per cent - and a rise in
interest rates - after the latest official data are released on Tuesday.
The Daily Telegraph: Two former Bear Stearns bankers could face
criminal charges over the spectacular $6 billion (£3 billion) collapse
of two hedge funds last July.
The Independent: The number of new homes built in 2008 will be the
lowest in any year since the end of the
Second World War, the construction industry said.
Mergers and shakers
The Wall Street Journal: Intel disclosed that an internal team has been working
on technology for use in solar panels and it is being spun off to form a
new company.
The Times: Primark, the cut-price fashion chain that has transformed
Britain's high streets, said that it had been buying clothes from suppliers
who use child labour. It is to drop
three companies.
The Guardian: Charlie McCreevy, the EU internal markets commissioner,
said that credit rating agencies faced tougher, mandatory European
Union regulation.
Around Asia
South China Morning Post: China's banks risk overextending themselves
in their rush to expand abroad, said Howard Davies, formerly of the Bank of
England and an adviser to the Chinese banking regulator.
The New York Times: Honda celebrated
the start of production of its FCX Clarity, the first hydrogen-powered
fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production.
Bloomberg: China's yuan advanced,
taking its gain to 20 per cent since a peg to the dollar was scrapped in
2005, as the central bank seeks to slow inflation and curb the trade surplus.
Look ahead
The Wall Street Journal: The US Federal Reserve is almost certain to leave
interest rates unchanged when it meets next week. A rise would not
appear likely before the autumn.
The Times: Alistair Darling will announce this week the formation of a
group to look at UK competitiveness
in an attempt to repair the Government's battered relations with the City.
Financial Times: Industrial giants such as Siemens and Bosch are giving
materials and money to kindergartens in an effort to guarantee a future
generation of engineers.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,794.60 down 0.14% (Monday close)
Dow 12,269.08 down 0.31% (close)
S&P 500 1,360.14 up 0.01% (close)
Nasdaq 2,474.78 up 0.83% (close)
Nikkei 14,326.28 down 0.20% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,998.67 down 0.13% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9662/1.267 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5518 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $134.43 down 18 cents (latest)
Gold unchanged at $886.30 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US technology stocks
rose on Monday for the third consecutive session, fuelled by optimism about
sales for Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's new
iPhone. Blue-chip stocks slipped, weighed by broker downgrades of Verizon
Communications and AT&T on increasing pressure from mobile
competitors and the weak economy. But declines in the broad market were
limited by a rebound of more than 5 per cent by Lehman Brothers.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks
advanced for a third day, led by banks and miners, on speculation that
losses from the credit crisis can be contained and after metals prices
climbed. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's biggest bank,
advanced after Lehman Brothers expressed confidence in the value of the
firm’s mortgage assets. BHP Billiton, the biggest mining
company, rose to a two-week high in Sydney. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was
up 0.3 per cent in intraday trading.
Paul Larter
paul.larter@thetimes.co.uk
London
It may simply be that they are in the eye of the hurricane and that the savage
conditions will return, but a period of calm descended on housebuilding
stocks yesterday.
Vague talk of a sector-wide funding package from some big institutional
investors gave the market some encouragement. Shares in Persimmon,
Britain’s most valuable builder and its third-largest by production, rose
9.75p, 2.37 per cent, to 421.25p. Persimmon, whose shares have fallen by two
thirds over the past year. is due to be ejected from the FTSE 100 this month
and will rejoin the rest of the big housebuilders in the FTSE 250.
Taylor Wimpey, Britain’s largest builder by production, which is also
struggling with a large operation in the United States, rose 6p to 76.5p. Barratt
Developments, Britain’s second-largest, led the FTSE 250 with a rise of
11p to 97.5p. Barratt has yet to complete a vital £400 million bank
refinancing announced a month ago.
Gains across the banking sector and some positive movement in key mining
stocks could not help the wider market, with the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip
stocks falling 8.2 points to 5,794.6.
Confirmation from Barclays that it is considering taking a cash
injection from outside investors to help to relieve its liquidity pushed its
shares up 11p to 329p, a rise of nearly 3.5 per cent.
Eurasian Natural Resources led the gainers with a rise of 83p to £14.04
after brokers at ABN Amro upgraded the miner from “hold” to “buy” and lifted
its price target from £13 to £16.50.
British Airways led the FTSE 100 fallers, slipping 11.25p to 239.25p,
after the shares went ex-dividend and amid oil price concerns.
Peter Stiff
peter.stiff@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Thomas Cook Group
Domino Printing
Gooch & Housego
FINALS
Brulines (Holdings)
CML Microsystems
EBTM
Focus Solutions Group
Halma
ITIS Holdings
OMG
Park Group
Tricorn Group
AGMs
Ablon Group
Clean Air Power
Dragon Ukrainian Properties & Development
EG Solutions
Fiberweb
Premier Farnell
Ten Alps
Tex Holdings
Whitbread
EGMs
EirX Therapeutics
TRADING STATEMENT
Whitbread
ECONOMICS
UK May CPI (0930 BST)
UK independent economists appear before Treasury Select Committee on May
inflation
report (0945 BST)
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