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 Government plans to eventually tax the better-paid and cut public spending in a £1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) debt gamble to defeat the recession.

The Times: The US Government’s bailout of Citigroup gives it the right to slash the bank’s dividend payment and rule on executive pay.

Financial Times: President-elect Barack Obama named his economic team amid predictions his bailout plans could add up to $700 billion (£460 billion).

Comment

Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: The one thing we can say for sure about the Chancellor’s predictions for Britain’s economy is that they will all be wrong .

Floyd Norris in the New York Times: The US Government’s rescue of Citigroup sent financial stocks soaring, but not enough to end fears of more bailouts.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph: The British economy faces the most sudden economic collapse since World War Two.

Upside

The Times: Investment bankers from London are flying into once-booming Dubai as the bailout of the Gulf state's banking sector begins.

Bloomberg: US authorities are set to unveil a lending program to shore up the consumer-finance market using the Government’s $700 billion (£460 billion) bailout.

Bloomberg: Office rents in London’s West End, midtown Manhattan and Tokyo have fallen for the first time in almost seven years.

Downside

The Times: Almost a quarter of investors in Barclays refused to endorse the bank’s £6 billion ($9 billion) capital raising plan.

New York Times: The median US home price fell 3.1 per cent last month and 11.3 per cent in the past year to $183,300 (£121,200).

The Times: Sales at John Lewis, the UK department store chain, were last week down 13 per cent on the same time last year, the tenth weekly fall in a row.

Mergers and shakers

The Times: Ardeshir Naghshineh, Woolworths' largest shareholder, is in last-ditch talks with banks to avoid a sale of its retail arm for £1.

New York Times: Alpharma accepted a $1.6 billion (£1 billion) takeover bid from King Pharmaceuticals, ending a hostile merger battle between the drug-makers.

Financial Times: Anheuser-Busch InBev, the newly formed beer group, launched an $8.2 billion (£5.4 billion) rights issue 70 per cent below its share price.

Around Asia

New York Times: Huang Guangyu, one of China’s richest men and chairman of its biggest electronics retailer, has vanished after reportedly being detained by police investigating a stock scandal.

Financial Times: Car sales in India were last month 6.6 per cent lower than a year earlier and are expected to decline further .

Bloomberg: San Miguel, the Philippines’ biggest food and drink company, plans to sell up to $2 billion (£1.3 billion) of debt to fund acquisitions and expansion.

Look ahead

The Times: The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers are expected to this week axe 50 jobs - about 5 per cent of their staff.

Bloomberg: The US Federal Reserve may cut its interest rate to zero per cent in January and keep it there through 2009 to counter the threat of deflation.

Reuters: Warren Buffett, in his February letter to shareholders, will detail how Berkshire Hathaway computes losses on derivatives , after requests from regulators.

MARKETS

FTSE 100 4,152.96 up 9.8% (Monday close)

Dow 8,443.39 up 4.9% (close)

S&P 500 851.81 up 6.5% (close)

Nasdaq 1,472.02 up 6.3% (close)

Nikkei 8,246.08 up 4.2% (latest)

Hang Seng 13,037.35 up 4.7% (latest)

Currencies

Sterling $1.5144/1.1752 euros (latest)

Euro $1.2887 (latest)

Commodities

Brent crude $53.65 down 28 cents (latest)

West Texas crude $54.15 down 35 cents (latest)

Gold $816.00 down $4.40 (latest)

New York

Reuters: Wall Street soared on Monday, capping the best two-day run since 1987. Citigroup, the second-largest US bank, rose nearly 60 per cent on its Government bailout. Among other financial stocks, JPMorgan Chase rose 21.4 per cent and Bank of America rose 27.2 per cent. Among tech stocks, Apple rose nearly 13 per cent and Microsoft rose 5.1 per cent. Campbell Soup fell 7.6 per cent on a disappointing profit outlook. Xerox, the world's top supplier of digital printer and document management services, rose 17.9 per cent after meeting profit predictions.

Asia

Bloomberg: Asian shares rose in early trade following US gains and a rally in commodities prices. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose 11 per cent, Fortescue Metals, Australia’s third-largest iron ore producer, rose 20 per cent and Woodside Petroleum, the nation’s second-largest oil producer, rose 12 per cent. Posco, Asia’s third-largest steelmaker, rose 9.4 per cent in Seoul. Mizuho Financial Group, Japan’s second-biggest bank, rose 8.5 per cent. Among carmakers, Daihatsu rose 7.7 per cent and Honda rose 7.2 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 2.8 per cent to 78.99 in early trade.

Michael Beh

michaelwbeh@gmail.com

London

Candover Investments fell 6 per cent on worries about the falling value of its investments, particularly Expro International.

SVG Capital lost 4 per cent on fear it may sell assets to help it meet commitments to its parent company, Permira. Confidence in the financial sector was further hurt by Standard Chartered, down 5 per cent, one of only two blue-chip fallers after it revealed a profit hit from its private equity arm.

The FTSE 100 enjoyed its biggest rally since the index was created in 1984, up 10 per cent, or 372, to 4152.96. But the rise came on low volume, driven by hedge funds closing short positions. With the FTSE 350 resource index up 21 per cent, miners were easily the biggest gainers, helped by news of a surge in copper imports by China in October.

Robert Lindsay

robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk

AGENDA

INTERIMS

600 Group

BSS

Caledonia Investments

Carclo

Chapelthorpe

CML Microsystems

Hamworthy

Intelek

Intermediate Capital

KCOM

Nationwide

Record

Severn Trent

SSL International

Superglass Holdings

Torotrak

VP

FINALS

Greencore

Imperial Tobacco

Intec Telecom Systems

Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping

Paragon

Renew Holdings

Superglass

Topps Tiles

OTHER RESULTS

Signet Jewelers (Q3)

AGMs

Blackrock Greater Europe Investment Trust

Clinton Cards

Land of Leather

Pantheon International Communications

Tenon Group

EGMs

Spirent Communications

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