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 Financial Services Authority is assembling a team of outside advisers to deal with a possible wave of corporate crises in the insurance sector.

New York Times: Wall Street had one of its biggest rallies in 69 years, with the Dow Jones rising almost 11 per cent - 9 per cent in the last two hours.

Financial Times: Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields shows.

Comment

Patrick Hosking in The Times: Unless money has been invested for longer than 25 years, bonds will have beaten shares ; the faith in equities is being tested.

Jeff Randall in the Daily Telegraph: History tells us that the bigger the party, the longer it takes to clear up the mess.

Lex in the Financial Times: The confidence of US consumers has not yet even begun to crack .

Upside

The Times: BP, the British oil giant, reported a record three-month profit of £6.4 billion ($10.2 billion), as the Prime Minister called for petrol prices to fall .

New York Times: For a few minutes, Volkswagen was the world’s most valuable company as Porsche’s takeover of the rival carmaker saw prices soar and short sellers panic.

Bloomberg: Hungary will receive a €12.5 billion (£9.9 billion, $15.7 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Downside

The Times: Lloyds TSB will no longer let borrowers switch from repayment mortgages to interest-only deals, removing a lifeline for struggling homeowners.

Reuters: US consumer confidence dived to a record low in October on the back of plunging home values and a severe financial crisis.

New York Times: US credit card issuers are tightening standards as credit card bad debt is tipped to hit $76 billion (£47 billion) for this year and next.

Mergers and shakers

Financial Times: Homeowners in some of central London’s wealthiest areas are now feeling the full impact of the property slump.

The Times: The Board of Australia’s Queensland Gas unanimously recommended a £2 billion ($3.2 billion) buy-out offer from BG Group.

Bloomberg: San Miguel, the Philippines' biggest food and beverage company, plans to buy a controlling stake in Petron, the nation’s largest oil refiner.

Around Asia

Financial Times: The International Monetary Fund has less than a week to prevent a full-blown financial crisis in Pakistan, Germany’s foreign minister warned.

Financial Times: The crisis in Kuwait’s banking sector deepened as the chairman of Gulf Bank resigned and Moody’s warned it could downgrade the bank’s credit rating.

Bloomberg: Japanese companies plan to cut production this month and next as the global financial crisis increases the likelihood of a worldwide recession.

Look ahead

The Times: British retailers are facing a "very challenging " run-up to Christmas after high street sales continued to fall during October.

Daily Telegraph: ITV expects advertising revenues across its family of television channels to fall 9 per cent in November.

The Times: Honda will reduce production at its British factories by another 10,000 cars and extend its short-time working hours until March.

MARKETS

FTSE 100 3,926.38 up 1.9% (Tuesday close)

Dow 9,065.12 up 10.9% (close)

S&P 500 940.51 up 10.8% (close)

Nasdaq 1,649.47 up 9.5% (close)

Nikkei 8,109.34 up 6.4% (latest)

Hang Seng 13,101.39 up 4% (latest)

Currencies

Sterling $1.6018/1.2592 euros (latest)

Euro $1.2721 (latest)

Commodities

Brent crude $62.25 up $1.96 (latest)

West Texas crude $64.65 up $1.92 (latest)

Gold $749.50 up $9.00 (latest)

New York

Reuters: Wall Street had its second-best day ever as investors, convinced that central banks worldwide will cut rates even more, scooped up stocks that had been driven down to their lowest prices in more than five years. Big oil companies gave the Dow its biggest boost. Exxon rose 13.3 per cent and Chevron rose 13.5 per cent. Boeing rose 15.5 per cent after the aircraft manufacturer reached a tentative agreement with its largest union to end a strike. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, rose 11.1 per cent. In telecommunications, Verizon rose 14.6 per cent and AT&T rose 13.2 per cent. Whirlpool, the world’s biggest appliance maker, fell 8.3 per cent after slashing its earnings outlook.

Asia

Bloomberg: Asian stocks gained in early trade amid speculation Japan will cut interest rates and China will take steps to boost equities. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s biggest bank, rose 10 per cent, Mizuho Financial Group, the second largest, rose 5.2 per cent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the third biggest, rose 7.2 per cent. Panasonic, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, rose 10 per cent. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose 5.7 per cent and Rio Tinto, the third largest, rose 5.8 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 4.9 per cent to 81.52 in early trade. The Korea Exchange halted program trading after index futures surged.

Michael Beh

michaelwbeh@gmail.com

London

Shares in Cable & Wireless fell almost 4 per cent, making a 30 per cent drop in the past four weeks, on fears that mounting liabilities in its pension fund will derail its demerger plan. C&W offloaded some pension liabilities to Prudential last month, but that will take care of only the 5,000 former staff already in retirement. C&W still has to fund pensions of another 10,000 staff and former staff who have yet to retire. The FTSE 100 rose 73.79 points to 3,926.38 in low volume ahead of expected interest rate cuts in the US, which helped currencies such as sterling to rise against the dollar. Aviva, the insurer, rose 5.6 per cent and BP, the oil major, gained 5.4 per cent, aided the mood with reassuring trading statements.

Robert Lindsay

robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk

AGENDA

INTERIMS

Advent Capital

Worldspreads Group

RESULTS

CSR (Q3)

Shire (Q3)

FINALS

Namakwa Diamonds

TRADING STATEMENTS

Cairn Energy

Photo-Me International

Stagecoach

AGMs

Photo-Me International

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