Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: Warnings that Britain will be the only leading economy to go
into recession this year threaten
the Government’s housing market rescue plan.
Daily Telegraph: British lenders may have tapped the Bank of England's
emergency funding scheme for up to £200
billion ($356 billion), double previous estimates.
The Times: Iran wants next week’s Opec meeting to agree to cut
production by 1.5 million barrels a day as the price of crude oil
tumbles towards $100 a barrel.
Comment
Carl Mortishead in The Times: The West has made a colossal
strategic blunder over energy by ignoring Russia’s sphere of influence.
Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times: Troubled US mortgage giants
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should merge
; it won’t undo their mess but will save them money.
Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph: The British Government cannot
afford to bolster the housing market or any other part of the economy
in a meaningful way.
Upside
The Times: Hedge funds Atticus and TCI will demand that senior
executives of the Deutsche Börse resign
unless there is urgent action at the Frankfurt exchange.
Daily Telegraph: Commerzbank may
retain the illustrious UK brand Kleinwort Benson, which it acquired
when it took over Dresdner, its German rival.
Daily Telegraph: Quarterly profits at Ashtead Group, the construction
equipment rental firm, rose 27 per cent
to £35 million ($62 million); its shares rose 7.75 per cent.
Downside
The Times: Recruitment in Britain has fallen to its slowest
pace in seven years , with construction and City of London jobs the
hardest hit.
Daily Telegraph: Towcester Racecourse, the 132-year-old
Northamptonshire horse track owned by Tory peer Lord Hesketh's family, is
for sale for £10 million ($17.8 million).
The Independent: Microsoft will add features to Internet Explorer and
may go to competition regulators
after rival Google launched its own web browser, Chrome.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Lonmin, the platinum miner, will talk with Xstrata about a takeover
, but only if the mining giant raises its £5 billion ($8.9 billion) offer.
The Independent: Gamingking, which supplies lottery machines to private
clubs, will merge with Orb
Holdings, which operates amusement machines in pubs.
New York Times: Ben Verwaayen, the former head of BT, became chief
executive of Alcatel-Lucent and vowed
to push ahead with integrating the troubled French-US company.
Around Asia
The Times: Central banks Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and India
have intervened in foreign exchange
markets to prop up their currencies.
The Times: Australia's central bank cut
interest rates for the first time in seven years as growth slowed; the
rate fell 25 basis points to 7 per cent.
Financial Times: With credit tight, Temasek, the Singaporean sovereign
wealth fund, will offer financing
for its $2 billion (£1.1 billion) sale of a power company.
Look ahead
The Times: The falling pound may see prices of T-shirts, shoes, sofas
and other non-food items rise by up to 6
per cent when import contracts are renewed next spring.
Financial Times: The Abu Dhabi Government will
invest $1 billion (£560 million) in Hollywood and Bollywood films over
the next five years.
Reuters: Zinc prices are predicted
to continue falling next year and possibly into 2010 because of chronic
oversupply.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,620.70 up 0.3% (Tuesday close)
Dow 11,516.92 down 0.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,277.58 down 0.4% (close)
Nasdaq 2,349.24 down 0.8% (close)
Nikkei 12,718.68 up 0.9% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,809.31 down 1.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.7825/1.2285 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4510 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $109.25 down 46 cents (latest)
Gold $810.20 down 30 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell on
Tuesday, as oil and commodity prices and tech stocks declined. The market
initially gained 1 per cent on good news about Hurricane Gustav, but fell
back sharply. Hedge fund Ospraie Management said it would close down
a fund that lost 27 per cent last month. Investment bank Lehman Brothers,
which owns 20 per cent of Ospraie, lost more than 4 per cent in after-hours
trade. Miner Freeport-McMoRan fell 7 per cent and oil giant Exxon
fell 3.4 per cent. Among tech stocks, Apple fell 2 per cent, Research
In Motion fell 2.7 per cent and Dell fell 4.1 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian commodity stocks
fell in morning trade on lower oil and gold prices, countering gains by
utility companies and airlines. Inpex Holdings, Japan's No. 1 oil
explorer, fell 4 per cent. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold
producer, fell 6.7 per cent. Lower energy prices saw Tokyo Electric Power,
Asia's largest power producer, rise 2.3 per cent and Korea Air Lines
rise 8.9 per cent. China Huiyuan Juice Group surged as much as 172
per cent in Hong Kong after Coca-Cola offered to buy it. The MSCI Asia
Pacific Index was little changed at 120.98 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Overall, the FTSE 100 rose 17.9 points to 5,620.7, as a slump in the oil price
and government proposals to boost the housing market gave a boost to
consumer-focused stocks and big users of fuel. Carnival, the cruise
ship operator, led the index, up 7.4 per cent, and British Airways
rose 4.4 per cent as oil fell as low as $105 amid early reports that
Hurricane Gustav had spared oil infrastructure along the Gulf Coast of the
United States. But gains were partly offset by oil stocks and miners
tracking lower commodity prices. John Wood, the oil services group,
was the index’s heaviest faller, down 5.9 per cent, and BHP Billiton
fell 4.1 per cent. Housebuilders rallied on government's housing measures,
with Persimmon up 10.1 per cent and Taylor Wimpey gaining 8.5
per cent.
Peter Stiff
peter.stiff@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Belgravium Technologies
Churchill China
Clarkson
DS Smith
Neteller
Playtech Ltd
Signet
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
A&J Mucklow
Quadnetics
FINALS
Northern Recruitment
AGMs
600 Group
DS Smith
DSG International
Investment Company
Quintain Estates and Development
Spice
WS Atkins
EGMs
Alapis
TDG Plc
TRADING STATEMENTS
DS Smith
Punch Taverns
WS Atkins
TRAFFIC FIGURES
BA traffic and capacity stats (August)
OTHER
Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index
BRC Shop Price Index
Stamp duty suspension for house purchases under £175k comes into force
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