KILL THE COMPETITION
Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Wednesday, August 12, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The City regulator abandoned some of its more draconian proposals suggested in March on bankers' bonuses.
Daily Telegraph: Banks were making the highest profits on mortgages since records began while customers faced record costs for overdrafts and personal loans.
The Times: Frank DiPascali, the former chief financial officer for Bernard Madoff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Business bosses tend to like Peter Mandelson, although he is playing hard ball with Ratan Tata and Jaguar land Rover.
James Moore in The Independent: Pursuit of the Phoenix Four is a diversion.
Tom Stevenson in the Daily Telegraph: More green lights than red on the rocky road to a sustained recovery.
Upside
The Times: Jaguar Land Rover rejected assistance from the British Government and found financing from foreign banks needed to secure 14,500 jobs.
The Independent: Google unveiled Caffeine, a new version of its internet search engine, promising it would make search results more comprehensive, accurate and faster.
New York Times: General Motors said its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle would achieve a fuel rating of 230 miles a gallon in city driving.
Downside
The Times: InterContinental Hotels Group, which has almost 630,000 rooms, reported a 38 per cent slump in first-half profits.
Daily Telegraph: A survey estimated British companies would slash shareholder payouts by 13 per cent this year.
The Times: The Audit Commission said too many local authorities adopted bland and unimaginative responses to the recession.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Lord Mandelson said a long-awaited report on MG Rover's demise would raise questions over the Phoenix Four as company directors.
Daily Telegraph: Alan O'Brien, founder of Sabien Technology, which makes boilers environmentally-friendly, had his 50 per cent stake rise by £3.25 million ($5.35 million) after the start-up signed contracts with Serco and a British Gas subsidiary.
The Times: Atticus Capital, the hedge fund manager co-chaired by Nathaniel Rothschild, to close two of its funds, returning $4 billion (£2.4 billion) to investors.
Around Asia
The Times: Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu faced seven years in a Chinese prison after formal charges of bribery and violating commercial secrets.
New York Times: China, the world's largest producer of household garbage, embarking on a vast programme to build incinerators as landfills run out of space.
New York Times: Recent economic data may signal a turning point in Asia's economic recovery.
Look ahead
The Times: Courts to rule today if the taxman will be allowed access to details of secret offshore accounts held by 500,000 Britons.
Daily Telegraph: Legal & General and the Lloyds Banking Group life assurance businesses on the hit list of Clive Cowdery.
The Times: WPP close to a deal on handling Vodafone's £800 million ($1.3 billion) global advertising account.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,671.34 down 1.1% (Tuesday close)
Dow 9,241.45 down 1% (close)
S&P 500 994.35 down 1.3% (close)
Nasdaq 1,969.73 down 1.1% (close)
Nikkei 10,503.58 down 0.8% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,074.21 up 0.7% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6492/1.1657 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4147 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $72.43 down 3 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $69.49 up 4 cents (latest)
Gold $949.60 up $2 (latest)
New York
Reuters: Stocks fell on Tuesday on Wall Street after a prominent banking analyst warned the sector's fundamentals had yet to improve. Financial stocks, which had gained about 25 per cent in the last month, tumbled after Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove painted a gloomy outlook for the banking industry. Adding to losses for financials, Miller Tabak cut its price targets on Zions Bancorp and Regions Financial Corp. Zions stumbled 8.4 per cent while Regions dropped 4.2 per cent. After the closing bell, Applied Materials rose 3.6 per cent as the world's largest chip equipment maker reported a sharply narrower quarterly loss on better-than-expected revenue.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade for the first time in three days as commodity prices declined and a weaker dollar reduced Japanese car makers' overseas earnings prospects. Mitsubishi, a Japanese trading company that gets more than a third of its sales from commodities, lost 1.7 per cent while rival Mitsui fell 2.9 per cent. Rio Tinto Group, the world's third-largest mining company, lost 1 per cent while Honda, which gets 45 percent of its sales in North America, dropped 1.3 per cent and Toyota 1 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.7 per cent to 112.02 in morning trade.
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
London
International Power's legion of small shareholders were celebrating yesterday after shares in the power generator rose more than 7 per cent following better than expected interim results.
The utility group, which operates six UK power plants and a further 39 in other countries including the US, Indonesia, Pakistan and Australia, was the top blue chip riser after it unveiled a 12 per cent rise in first half operating profits to £555 million. The company, up 18p to 266.40p, also announced a 19 per cent increasing in its interim dividend to 4.25p per share. The FTSE 100 fell 50.86 points to 4671.34 amid further losses for banks, miners and property companies. Lloyds Banking Group was the biggest faller, down 7 per cent, as the City continued to take a cautious view on the possibility that it could shun the Government's Asset Protection Scheme in favour of a fundraising. In the FTSE 250, ITV gained 3.4 per cent after Morgan Stanley upgraded the broadcaster to overweight from underweight saying the advertising market could recover quicker than expected and that the group did not need a rights issue.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
00.50 BST Japan: Corporate goods prices (Jul)
05.30 BST Japan: Industrial production (Jun final)
03.00 BST China: Retail sales (Jul)
06.00 BST Japan: BoJ monthly report
03.00 BST China: Industrial production (Jul)
07.45 BST France: CPI (Jul)
09.00 BST Italy: CPI (Jul final)
09.30 BST UK: Average earnings (Jun)
09.30 BST UK: unemployment rate (Jun/Jul)
10.00 BST EMU: Industrial production (Jun)
10.30 BST UK: BoE quarterly inflation report
13.00 BST Norway: Norges bank rate announcement
13.30 BST Canada: Int'l Merchandise Trade (Jun)
13.30 BST Canada: New housing price index (Jun)
13.30 BST US: Trade balance (Jun)
19.00 BST US: Monthly budget statement (Jul)
19.15 BST US: FOMC rate decision
Iceland Parliamentary agenda - vote on Icesave deal Venue: Skrifstofa Alþingis (Parliament of Iceland), Reykjavik, Iceland Vote in Parliament (the Althing) on the second reading of a deal to pay back billions of euros to the British and Dutch Governments for money lost in the high-interest Icesave accounts run by Landsbanki. The controversial accord, opposed by many lawmakers, needs to go through three readings before the deal can go ahead. Iceland must settle the so-called Icesave foreign depositor claims before the country can draw on $4.6bn in bailout funds from the International Monetary Fund and the Nordic countries. Runs to August 14.
Balfour Beatty Plc H1
BPP Holdings Plc H1
Cyprotex Plc H1
Invesco Asia Trust Plc AGM (11.00)
Micro Focus International Plc trading
Smurfit Kappa Group Plc Q2
Soco International Plc H1
TUI Travel Plc Q3
