Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying
Top stories
The Times: Airlines EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic will team
up to back a £2.5 billion ($3.7 billion) bid for Gatwick Airport,
London’s second airfield.
New York Times: The Dow fell 4 per
cent in morning trade but finished almost 7 per cent above its opening
mark in a chaotic day on Wall Street.
Daily Telegraph: Germany became the first of the G7 powers to declare
an official recession ; it will almost certainly be followed by France
and Italy.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Financial regulators had a rare opportunity
to show that they are serious about cracking down on insider dealing. They
fluffed it .
Floyd Norris in the New York Times: Hopefully the rest of the US
bailout will be handled carefully ;
the first handouts were made in a process that looks absurd.
Hamish McRae in The Independent: With a recession looming, we need
to work out if its shape will be a V, a W or a U – or, for the very
pessimistic, an L.
Upside
The Times: Richard Ralph, a former ambassador and governor to the
Falkland Islands, was fined for
insider training but avoided criminal prosecution.
New York Times: Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, reported a 10
per cent increase in third-quarter profit, but it cut its yearly
forecast.
Financial Times: US-based Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, will
build a $60 million (£41 million) stem cell research centre in Britain.
Downside
The Times: BT will axe 10,000 jobs and Royal Bank of Scotland 3,000, bringing
the total of job cuts announced by
big companies this week to 18,000.
The Times: Trinity Mirror will close
28 local newspapers after the publisher reported advertising revenue fell
21 per cent in the past four months.
New York Times: Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate, reported a
€2.4 billion (£2 billion, $3 billion) quarterly
loss following huge write-offs.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Barclays’ Gulf investors refused
to rewrite the terms of their £6 billion ($9 billion) injection,
quelling a shareholder revolt at the bank.
The Independent: Russian suggestions its state-owned monopoly Gazprom
could buy a stake in Repsol, the
energy conglomerate, was greeted with shock bordering on panic in Spain.
The Times: George Soros, the billionaire investor, told US lawmakers
that the global financial meltdown would wipe
out 75 per cent of the money they manage.
Around Asia
Financial Times: China’s rate of increase of industrial production
dropped to the lowest level in
seven years, with steelmaking particularly hard hit.
New York Times: China will loosen
restrictions on foreign news and information providers, settling a
trade dispute with the US, the European Union and Canada.
Financial Times: Emaar Properties, one of the world’s largest
developers, is preparing to cut jobs
as Dubai’s stock market falls and its real estate cools.
Look ahead
The Times: Anticipating trouble ahead, the London Stock Exchange suspended
its share buyback plan despite half-yearly profit rising 30 per cent to
£127 million ($188 million).
Daily Telegraph: Sterling slumped to a 12-year
low and analysts predict that it will fall further over the coming
weeks and months.
The Times: The OECD predicts that the US, Japan and the eurozone are
all sliding into the grip of simultaneous
recession .
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,169.21 down 0.3% (Thursday close)
Dow 8,835.25 up 6.7% (close)
S&P 500 911.29 up 6.9% (close)
Nasdaq 1,596.70 up 6.5% (close)
Nikkei 8,589.79 up 4.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 13,656.41 up 3.3% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.4854/1.1640 euros (latest)
Euro $1.2762 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $56.51 up 27 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $58.58 up 34 cents (latest)
Gold $729.20 up $24.20 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks surged in a
late rally, breaking a three-day losing streak. In a volatile session,
energy stocks led the way. Chevron rose 12.5 per cent and Exxon
Mobil rose 9.4 per cent on higher oil prices. Intel, the computer
chip maker which had slashed revenue forecasts, reversed an earlier decline
to close up 6.7 per cent. Other tech stocks benefited with Microsoft
up 4.7 per cent and Apple up 7 per cent. Citigroup was the
biggest drag on the Dow, with the bank falling 2 per cent. Auto giant General
Motors fell 4.2 per cent. Wal-Mart finished up 4.4 per cent after
an up-and-down day.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose
in early trade, paring a weekly decline, as commodity producers climbed and
investors saw bargains. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose
5.8 per cent, Japanese oil explorer Inpex rose 7.7 per cent and SK
Energy, South Korea's largest oil refiner, rose 3.4 per cent. Nippon
Steel, the world's second-largest steelmaker, rose 6.2 per cent and JFE
Holdings, the third biggest, rose 5.5 per cent. Isuzu, Japan's
largest maker of light trucks, rose 5.5 per cent. Nintendo, the
world's largest maker of handheld video-game consoles, rose 6.5 per cent,
snapping a six-day, 21 per cent slide. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine
Engineering, the world's third-largest shipbuilder, gained by the daily
limit of 15 per cent in Seoul. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 2.4 per cent
to 84.22 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
RBS, lost 6 per cent after Bruce Packard of Evolution cut it to reduce with an
18p target. He downgraded all UK banks except HSBC, which
outperformed, losing only 0.6 per cent despite Cazenove downgrading it to
“underperform” on fears of an Asian recession.
HBOS lost 7 per cent, Lloyds TSB fell 4 per cent and Barclays
lost 6 per cent. It is also falling on worries that shareholders will vote
down its Middle Eastern bailout.
The FTSE 100 lost 12.81 to 4,169.21 on thin volumes.
Icap was one of the worst performers, losing 10 per cent after a
warning that the market for the securities the interdealer broker trades was
set to dive next year as prime brokers such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan
move to become full service banks and cut their proprietary trading and
broking desks. Morgan Stanley also double downgraded fellow interdealer
broker Tullett Prebon from “overweight” to “underweight” cutting its
target to 195p. Tullett fell 5 per cent.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
INTERIMS
Aberdeen All Asia Investment Trust
Invesco Property Income Trust
RESULTS
Atlas Estates (Q3)
Rok (Q2)
FINALS
Glasgow Income Trust
JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust
Schroder Oriental Income Fund
Schroder Income Growth Fund
Schroder Asia Pacific Fund
TRADING STATEMENTS
Logica
Novae Holdings
Ocean Wilson
Tullett Prebon
Yule Catto & Company
AGMs
Bluebay Asset Management
Centaur Media
EGMs
De La Rue
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