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
Friday, August 21, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: More than one in three British homeowners have no way of repaying their home loans.
Wall Street Journal: The banking crisis in the US entered a new stage as lenders succumbed to toxic loans and securities they bought from other banks.
The Times: Plummeting personal and corporate tax returns forced the Government to borrow in July for the first time in 13 years.
Comment
Ian King in The Times: Worried about yesterday's awful public finance figures? The Chancellor might not be, but perhaps we should.
David Prosser in The Independent: When Rupert Murdoch announced he would no longer give away free content, no one imagined he would act so quickly.
Floyd Norris in the New York Times: US banks are now losing money and going broke the old-fashioned way: they made loans that will never be repaid.
Upside
The Times: US regulators will be able to make on-site visits to London exchanges under new rules designed to tighten regulation of the oil market.
The Independent: Tesco will create 800 jobs by opening a new call centre ahead of the retail giant launching a "full banking service".
Reuters: Morgan Stanley will hire as many as 400 traders as the investment bank tries to dig its way out of three straight quarters of losses.
Downside
The Times: Britain's big energy companies force as many as 250,000 small businesses to pay for their energy up to seven months in advance.
The Independent: The London Paper, a free newspaper owned by News Corporation, was shut down after it lost almost £13 million ($21 million) last year.
The Times: Many midcap UK companies were identified as more vulnerable than blue chips to ballooning pension fund deficits in a study by Barclays Capital.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: The former chief and ex-chief financial officers of sports-car maker Porsche are under investigation for possible market manipulation.
Wall Street Journal: Switzerland sold its stake in UBS, the troubled bank, for 1.2 billion Swiss francs (£700 million, $1.13 billion).
The Independent: Jessops, the ailing camera retailer, hired Trevor Moore, a former operations director at Coffee Republic, as its new chief executive.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Foreign firms, including some of the biggest names in US private equity, are rushing to raise Chinese funds.
Reuters: China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier, reported its slowest profit growth since 1997 and predicted user revenue would fall in coming months.
Wall Street Journal: Six South Korean banks have signed an agreement to launch a so-called bad bank to take problem loans from their books.
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: The world's leading central bankers will gather in Wyoming this weekend to discuss the global economy and signs of partial recovery.
New York Times: The US government will end its "cash for clunkers" programme on Monday, more than two months early, because it is running out of money.
The Times: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, pledged to put bankers' bonuses on the agenda of next month's meeting of G20 finance ministers.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,756.58 up 1.4% (Thursday close)
Dow 9,350.05 up 0.8% (close)
S&P 500 1,007.37 up 1.1% (close)
Nasdaq 1,989.22 up 1% (close)
Nikkei 10,250.31 down 1.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,419.41 up 0.5% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6489/1.1565 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4258 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $73.26 down 7 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $72.75 down 16 cents (latest)
Gold $941.80 up 10 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose, with the financial sector leading gains after US manufacturing data and a rebound in Chinese stocks reassured investors. Citigroup rose 8.5 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. AIG rose 21.3 per cent on reports the insurer may be able to repay its federal debts. Retailer Sears fell 11.9 per cent on an unexpected loss. Heinz, known for its ketchup, rose 2 per cent, and Hormel, the maker of Spam, rose 0.5 per cent on better-than-expected results. Search engine Google rose 3.7 per cent on an analyst's upgrade.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade, led by automakers as the US announced the end of its "cash-for-clunkers" scheme. Toyota, the world's largest car maker, fell 3.2 per cent and rival Honda fell 3.7 per cent. Among shipping companies, Mitsui OSK, the world's largest operator of iron-ore vessels, fell 1.4 per cent in Tokyo and STX Pan Ocean fell 3 per cent in Seoul on lower freight rates. Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest miner, fell 1.7 per cent as first-half earnings declined and metals prices fell. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4 per cent to 111.22 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
