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

Top stories

The Times: Car sales fell to a 40-year low and average house prices fell £25,400 ($44,700) in the past year, but the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged.

New York Times: US stock markets returned to bear territory as slumping retail sales and rising unemployment reinforced fears of another financial crisis.

The Times: TNK-BP will become an independent oil major , expanding beyond Russia and moving into retailing, under a deal between BP and its Russian partners.

Comment

David Wighton in The Times: The TNK-BP peace deal creating an independent oil company is another potential row in the making.

Floyd Norris in the New York Times: Corporate defaults are increasing ; it has started with weak companies in struggling sectors, but it will not end there.

Lex in the Financial Times: Many City strategists say that with markets down 17 per cent, now is the time to buy but the arguments they put forward are flawed.

Upside

Financial Times: One of the UK’s largest local authorities is championing a plan for councils and hospitals to unite to buy oil futures and cut their energy bills.

The Independent: Whitbread increased second-quarter profit by 18 per cent as cash-strapped business customers turned to its budget hotels and restaurants.

Reuters: Market rumours of a potential takeover bid by US oil giant Exxon Mobil pushed shares of BG Group, the British oil and gas company, up 3.9 per cent.

Downside

The Times: Banks must put up more collateral to borrow money from the European Central Bank because of fears they have been dumping poor securities there.

The Times: Power station breakdowns caused the first energy shortage of the autumn and the National Grid had to call on expensive oil-fired generators.

Daily Telegraph: Own-brand toothpaste and washing-up liquid maker McBride will cut 250 UK jobs after annual profit fell 47 per cent to £15.7 million ($27.6 million).

Mergers and shakers

The Times: Paul Polman, a former executive with Procter & Gamble and Nestlé, becomes the first outsider to lead Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch food and soap multinational.

New York Times: Altria, the US’s largest cigarette maker, is in talks to buy UST, a leader in smokeless tobacco products, for $10 billion (£5.7 billion).

The Times: Informa, the events and exhibitions firm, dismissed a £1.9 billion ($3.3 billion) bid from private equity players Providence Equity, Carlyle Group and Blackstone.

Around Asia

New York Times: China’s central bank is running short of capital as exchange and interest rates devalue its $1 trillion (£570 million) investment in US bonds and debt.

The Times: Telefónica, the Spanish parent company of O2, will invest €800 million (£650 million, $1.1 billion) in the merger of China Netcom and China Unicom.

Financial Times: India’s Tata Group is considering floating its international steel assets to bankroll the steel unit’s expansion.

Look ahead

Financial Times: EDF, the French utility, is in talks to revive its rejected bid for British Energy, the nuclear generator, before its September 17 board meeting.

Reuters: Senior Federal Reserve officials said there was a threat of another economic slowdown over the next few months, hinting that US rates will stay on hold.

New York Times: Lehman Brothers, the ailing Wall Street bank, is considering splitting itself into a “good” bank and a “bad” one in a bid to survive.

MARKETS

FTSE 100 5,362.10 down 2.5% (Thursday close)

Dow 11,188.23 down 3% (close)

S&P 500 1,236.83 down 3% (close)

Nasdaq 2,259.04 down 3.2% (close)

Nikkei 12,238.61 down 2.5% (latest)

Hang Seng 19,800.52 down 2.9% (latest)

Currencies

Sterling $1.7569/1.2305 euros (latest)

Euro $1.4278 (latest)

Commodities

West Texas crude $107.79 down 10 cents (latest)

Gold $798.60 down $4.60 (latest)

New York

Reuters: Wall Street had its steepest decline in more than two months on Thursday. Caterpillar, the maker of bulldozers and excavators, fell 5.6 per cent and construction equipment maker Terex fell 19.7 per cent after cutting its profit target. Plane maker Boeing fell 4.6 per cent after workers voted to strike. Investment bank Lehman Brothers fell 10.5 per cent. Among technology companies, networking equipment maker Cisco Systems fell 4.4 per cent, Blackberry maker Research In Motion fell 6.4 per cent and iPhone maker Apple fell 3.4 per cent. Communications equipment maker Ciena slashed its outlook and fell 24.9 per cent.

Asia

Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell for a fifth day in morning trade and were set for the biggest weekly decline in a year. Sony fell 3.7 per cent on news of a global laptop recall. Sumco, the world's second-largest maker of silicon wafers, fell 11 per cent on lower profits. In South Korea, carmaker Hyundai fell 2 per cent after workers rejected a pay deal. Among Japanese carmakers, Honda fell 1.9 per cent, Toyota fell 2.3 per cent and Mazda fell 6.2 per cent. Mizuho, Japan's second-biggest bank, fell 5.9 per cent and Australia’s Commonwealth Bank fell 3.1 per cent. Miners also were hurt with Rio Tinto down 2.1 per cent, BHP down 0.9 per cent and Sumitomo Metal Mining, Japan's largest gold producer, down 5.2 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 2 per cent in early trade to 116.84.

Michael Beh

michaelwbeh@gmail.com

London

Amid another day of market turmoil the FTSE 100 dived for the second day running falling 137.6 points to 5,362.1 as data from across the Atlantic and growth warnings from Europe hit stocks. Figures from Halifax, the home loan provider, showing house prices in the UK fell 10.9 per cent in August also weighed on the index. Banks were worst hit with Barclays down 6 per cent and Lloyds TSB falling 5.7 per cent. Retailers such as Marks & Spencer, down 5.4 per cent, and miners such as Ferrexpo, down 6.3 per cent, also suffered. Investors in BG, up 0.8 per cent, found some comfort as the petrochemicals group rose on bid talk.

Peter Stiff

peter.stiff@thetimes.co.uk

AGENDA

INTERIMS

HMV Group

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Go-Ahead

JD Wetherspoon

AGMs

HMV Group

TRADING STATEMENT

JD Wetherspoon

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