Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: Zoom, the low-cost transatlantic airline, collapsed
suddenly , leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in London and Glasgow.
New York Times: The US economy grew
a surprising 3.3 per cent in the past quarter; the news cheered investors
and the Dow rose 200 points.
Financial Times: Fears are growing that Russia may cut
oil supplies to Western Europe in coming days, which would inflame
global energy markets.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: US car giants are regulars at
restructuring, but Toyota’s move is more
worrying because until recently it could do no wrong.
Jeff Randall in the Daily Telegraph: As big British firms slash
dividends, workers’ nest-eggs could end up getting
smashed .
David Prosser in The Independent: The Bank of England is well aware of
the scale of the problems facing the country, but seems unwilling
to change course .
Upside
The Times: The UK government will give local authorities cash and more
powers so they can buy repossessed and unsold properties to prop
up the housing market .
Daily Telegraph: Debt reduction
saw shares in Capital & Regional, the commercial property investor, rise 17
per cent despite it losing £201 million ($368 million).
Daily Telegraph: Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky is the first
spirit to surpass annual sales of £1 billion ($1.8 billion), says its
maker Diageo.
Downside
The Times: Toyota will cut
production at its British car factory by 15,000 vehicles; no permanent
jobs will be lost.
New York Times: Second-quarter profit at Dell, the world’s
second-largest computer maker, fell 17
per cent ; its shares fell 8.6 per cent in after-hours trade.
Financial Times: Merrill Lynch’s losses in the past 18 months amount to
about a quarter of the US investment bank’s profits from
its 36 years as a listed company.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Shares in J Sainsbury, Britain's No.3 supermarket chain,
rose 8 per cent on takeover speculation
, possibly involving the Qatari Investment Authority.
The Times: Nestor Healthcare is under pressure from banks to
sell one of its community care and out-of-hours GP businesses over a
£60 million ($110 million) debt.
Bloomberg: Google will begin its advertising partnership with rival
internet search engine Yahoo by early
October as US regulators continue to pour over the deal.
Around Asia
Financial Times: Bank of China sold $4.6 billion (£2.5 billion) of
securities from troubled US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
in the past two months.
Financial Times: Pakistani regulators will freeze
stock prices if they again hit Wednesday’s record low, setting a floor
for the KSE-100.
Reuters: General Motors will spend $200 million (£109 million) on an engine
plant in India and will launch a small car there next year.
Look ahead
The Times: Weekend meetings should
finalise Allianz’s sale of Dresdner Bank to rival German bank
Commerzbank in a €9 billion (£7 billion, $13 billion) deal.
New York Times: Lehman Brothers, the ailing Wall Street bank, plans
to lay off 1,500 employees before it announces third-quarter results on
September 15.
The Independent: Another 330,000 people will lose
their jobs by Christmas, leaving 2 million people out of work, a Bank
of England expert predicts.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,601.20 up 1.3% (Thursday close)
Dow 11,715.18 up 1.9% (close)
S&P 500 1,300.68 up 1.5% (close)
Nasdaq 2,411.64 up 1.2% (close)
Nikkei 13,047.62 up 2.2% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,372.86 up 1.9% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.8304/1.2422 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4735 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $116.77 up $1.18 (latest)
Gold $841.90 up $4.70 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose
sharply on Thursday on strong GDP growth and easing oil prices. Large
industrial companies did well, with heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar up
3.1 per cent and aircraft maker Boeing up 2.8 per cent. Financials
led the gains on news that mortgage giant Fannie Mae had restructured
its management. Fannie shares rose 22.7 per cent and Freddie Mac
shares rose 11.2 per cent. Bank of America rose 6 per cent. MBIA rose
34.9 per cent and rival bond insurer Ambac Financial rose 41.6 per
cent. American International Group, the world's largest insurer, rose
7.6 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks gained
in early trade on optimism that economic growth in the US and Japan will not
falter. Toyota rose 3.1 per cent, Nintendo, the maker of the
Wii game console, rose 1.4 per cent and Australia’s Westfield Group,
the owner of 55 US shopping malls, rose 4.2 per cent. Mitsubishi UFJ,
Japan's largest bank, rose 3 per cent, Mizuho Financial Group, the
third-biggest, rose 2.9 per cent and Bank of China rose 1.6 per cent. Fujifilm,
the world's biggest maker of liquid-crystal display film, fell 12 per cent
as profit plunged. Doosan Infracore, the maker of Bobcat earthmoving
equipment, fell 15 per cent as a broker cut its rating. The MSCI Asia
Pacific Index climbed 1.3 per cent to 124.15 in early trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
The FTSE 100 index of Britain’s most valuable companies reached its highest
level for nearly two months yesterday as better than expected US economic
data cheered traders. Financial stocks and retailers were buoyed by data
that showed the US economy grew at a solid 3.3 per cent annual rate in the
second quarter. This was in stark contrast to UK data, which showed record
falls in house prices and retail sales. The index rose 73.1 points to
5,601.2. J Sainsbury, the supermarket chain, led the charge, up 7.9
per cent on renewed takeover talk, with rumours of an imminent 500p bid.
Better news for the US economy is particularly good news for Wolseley,
the heating and plumbing giant, which makes most of its sales across the
Atlantic. Shares in the company, which have been hit in recent months by the
plummeting US housing market, rose 5.9 per cent. Kazakhmys was the
biggest faller, down 2.5 per cent, after reporting disappointing first half
results.
Peter Stiff
peter.stiff@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
Interims
AGA Rangemaster
Anglo Pacific Group
Bisichi Mining
Bloomsbury Publishing
Bradford & Bingley
Brammer
British Polythene Industries
Charles Taylor
Chesnara
Credit Agricole
Davis Service
Derwent London
Development Securities
DRS Data & Research Results
Gem Diamonds Ltd
Grafton
Hardy Underwriting Bermuda
IFG
James Fisher & Sons
JKX Oil and Gas
Lavendon
Marshalls
New Star Asset Management
New Star Private Equity Investment Trust
Oxford Biomedica
Partygaming
Punch Graphix
Puricore
Real Estate Opportunities
Regus Group
Restaurant Group
Rightmove
Robert Walters
Salamander Energy
Shore Capital
Stanelco
SVG Capital
T Clarke
Talvivaara Mining Company Ltd
Taylor Nelson Sofres
Trafficmaster
Unite Group
AGMs
Marchpole Holdings
Stagecoach
UBC Media
EGMs
F&C Asset Management
Trading statements
C&C
Stagecoach
Economics
Land Registry House Price Index - 11am
EU unemployment stats
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