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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