Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: The Government will press France’s EDF and Centrica, the
owner of British Gas, to lift the
£12 billion ($24 billion) bid for British Energy.
Telegraph: Northern Rock, the state-owned bank, will reveal that 20 per
cent of its mortgage customers face
negative equity and unveil a substantial loss.
Financial Times: Decisions to keep
rates on hold are expected from the Federal Reserve on Tuesday and the
European Central Bank and the Bank of England on Thursday.
Comment
Gary Duncan in The Times: Credit
drunks have binged for years, but the credit crunch is akin to the US’s
Prohibition and whole economies have the shakes.
Roger Bootle in the Telegraph: The faster house prices fall, the sooner
that they can get back to a reasonable level and the better
off we all will be .
William Pesek on Bloomberg: China will find that controlling
inflation is even more difficult than controlling the internet.
Upside
The Times: Clifford Chance, the world's biggest law firm by revenue, opened
an office in Abu Dhabi, joining the legal fraternities rush into the
Middle East.
The Times: Starbucks will push ahead with expansion
plans in Britain despite closing 600 stores in the US and 61 of its 84
Australian stores.
Bloomberg: Time Warner’s Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” was again the
weekend’s top film in North America
, taking $43.8 million (£22.2 million), and could set a US box-office
record.
Downside
The Times: Manufacturers’ confidence has
fallen in every region of the UK to its lowest level since 2001.
Financial Times: HBOS will sell a £400 million ($790 million) portfolio
of investments in private companies to shrink its balance sheet.
Reuters: US regulators closed
small Florida-based bank First Priority; it is the eighth US bank to fail
this year.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: British Airways will launch a
third bid to beat US competition laws and merge its transatlantic
operations with partner American Airlines.
The Times: Sinopec, the Chinese oil company, is understood to have
approached Imperial Energy about trumping an existing £1.3 billion
($2.6 billion) offer for the London-listed energy group.
Telegraph: Akzo Nobel will sell
Crown Paints in Britain to gain European regulators’ approval for its £8
billion ($15.8 billion) takeover of Dulux paints maker ICI.
Around Asia
Financial Times: Kuwait planned to “double
or triple ” its investment in Japan and could take its commitment there
to $50 billion (£25 billion), its finance minister said.
The Independent: HSBC will press
ahead in its long battle to buy Korea Exchange Bank despite the
deadline for regulatory approval of the £3.2 billion ($6.3 billion) deal
passing.
The Times: TauRx Therapeutics, a little-known Singapore-based drug
company founded by Aberdeen scientists, is getting global
attention because of its Alzheimer's drug Rember.
Look ahead
The Independent: More credit crunch
damage should be revealed when HSBC reports today and Barclays and
Royal Bank of Scotland report on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Bloomberg: Tropical storm Edouard, which has a 24 per cent chance of
becoming a hurricane and is due to hit Texas on Tuesday, helped
drive oil prices up for a second day.
Reuters: New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo plans to imminently
charge Citigroup , accusing it of fraudulent marketing and destroying
subpoenaed documents.
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
Tesco bought the Royal Bank of
Scotland out of their joint venture Tesco Personal Finance for £950 million
($1.9 billion) as the supermarket giant moves to take on the banks.
Ryanair announced it would cut fares
5 per cent to start a price war that it expects will drive it into the red;
its shares plunged 23 per cent.
Tuesday
Talks on a global trade agreement
collapsed over tariff protection for farmers in poorer countries, sparking
fears of a protectionist backlash.
British Airways began merger talks
with Iberia, the Spanish national carrier, in a deal that will create
Europe's largest airline.
Wednesday
British Gas increased prices by a
record amount; gas bills will go up an average of 35 per cent and
electricity bills 9 per cent.
ArcelorMittal , the world's biggest
steelmaker, reported second-quarter profit surged 114 per cent to $5.8
billion (£2.9 billion) and its shares rose 8.2 per cent.
Thursday
Exxon Mobil , the oil giant, again set
the record for US quarterly profit, at $11.68 billion (£5.9 billion), but
the market expected more.
A top options trader who accepted a job with Tullett
Prebon but then changed his mind was ordered to pay the broker £603,000
($1.2 million).
Friday
Yahoo ’s board of directors won strong
backing from shareholders at its annual meeting, with embattled chief
executive Jerry Yang receiving 85 percent approval.
General Motors reported a $15.5
billion (£7.9 billion) quarterly loss as sales plunged; its shares fell 7.6
per cent.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,354.70 down 1% (Friday close)
Dow 11,326.32 down 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,260.31 down 0.6% (close)
Nasdaq 2,310.96 down 0.6% (close)
Nikkei 12,927.63 down 1.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,630.59 down 1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9751/1.2681 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5576 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $125.96 up 86 cents (latest)
Gold $919.00 up $1.50 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell on
Friday on the back of a $15.5 billion quarterly loss from General Motors
and a rise in oil prices. General Motors shares fell 7.6 per cent. Falling
commodity prices saw aluminum maker Alcoa fall almost 5 per cent and
heavy equipment maker Caterpillar fall 2 per cent. Shares of Sun
Microsystems, the world's No.4 business computer maker, lost 12.3 per cent
as it warned of a poor outlook. For the week, the Dow ended down 0.4 per
cent, the S&P closed up 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq ended flat.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell
for a second day, led by automakers and raw-material producers. Nissan,
Japan’s third-largest carmaker, posted a 43 per cent drop in profit and its
shares fell 5 per cent and Toyota, the largest, fell 2.2 per cent.
Falling commodity prices took a toll, with BHP falling 2.1 per cent, Rio
Tinto falling 1.7 per cent and Sumitomo Metal, Japan's biggest
nickel producer, falling 5 per cent to 1,324 yen. Daewoo Shipbuilding,
the world's third-largest shipbuilder, plunged 11 per cent after an order
was cancelled. Japanese musical instrument maker Yamaha fell 13 per
cent after dropping 7.4 per cent on Friday. Lend Lease, the
Sydney-based developer building London's 2012 Olympic Village, dropped 11
per cent. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index lost 1.2 per cent to 129.07 in morning
trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Bradford & Bingley
Fidessa
HSBC Hldgs
Intertek
SDL
Senior
Ulyta Electronics Hldgs
FINALS
Eckoh
TRADING STATEMENTS
Sage
AGMs
Bristol Water
Greatfleet
ECONOMICS
UK July PMI construction (0930 BST)
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