Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Wednesday, September 23, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, said that the financial crisis was "cooked up" by City dealers who lacked contrition.
http://tinyurl.com/l3v63v
The Daily Telegraph: The slide in the pound delivered Britain a surplus for the first time in living memory.
http://tinyurl.com/nurvxg
The Times: Barratt Developments, the UK housebuilder, will launch a £700 million ($1.1 billion) fundraising rights issue, £200 million more than expected.
http://tinyurl.com/nvawjc
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The scale of the offences by the building industry is breathtaking and the fines imposed could have been a great deal higher.
http://tinyurl.com/mnznzn
Edmund Conway in the Daily Telegraph: Devaluation may not be comfortable, but it is Britain's secret weapon in times of crisis.
http://tinyurl.com/nb6coj
David Reilly on Bloomberg: The one thing that leaders of the G20 nations don't need to work on is accounting rules.
http://tinyurl.com/l5lw5b
Upside
New York Times: Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, two of the US's biggest banks, overhauled their debit card programs by lowering or eliminating fees.
http://tinyurl.com/lp6qe3
Reuters: General Motors, the US car giant, will restore about 3,000 jobs and raise production by up to 45 per cent next year.
http://tinyurl.com/nkoxm6
New York Times: The long-running dispute between Microsoft, the software giant, and European competition regulators is close to a settlement.
http://tinyurl.com/lxmby8
Downside
The Times: Sales at Bank, the fashion chain owned by JD Sports, fell as mounting youth unemployment is beginning to curtail spending.
http://tinyurl.com/ltc8g9
The Daily Telegraph: Magna, a Canadian car parts group, plans to cut up to 1,200 jobs at Vauxhall, the British carmaker.
http://tinyurl.com/kmmcb8
The Times: More than a hundred construction companies were fined nearly £130 million ($213 million) after illegally colluding in bids.
http://tinyurl.com/m53gmr
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Sir Win Bischoff, the chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, reshuffled the boardroom of the bank, losing two independent directors.
http://tinyurl.com/klb335
Financial Times:The Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, is the leading candidate to become deputy of a new pan-European board regulating bank risk.
http://tinyurl.com/knxwwk
The Times: United Kingdom Financial Investments, which looks after the taxpayers' stakes in banks, dismissed Odgers Berndtson, the recruitment firm.
http://tinyurl.com/n7g2uh
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Standard Chartered PLC, the financial-services company, plans to be the first foreign company to list on an Indian stock exchange.
http://tinyurl.com/mjlnbv
Wall Street Journal: Ford, the US car maker, is releasing a new low-cost small car to be made in India and planning a third assembly plant in China.
http://tinyurl.com/n49y2o
Wall Street Journal: Computer makers Lenovo Group and Hewlett-Packard are aggressively expanding sales in rural China.
http://tinyurl.com/n2hxky
Look ahead
The Times: The Bank of England will start to raise interest rates next spring and could take the cost of borrowing to 2 per cent by the end of next year.
http://tinyurl.com/nd2csh
Wall Street Journal: US Airways hopes to raise $130 million (£80 million) from a public offering expected to close next week.
http://tinyurl.com/lwyssh
Financial Times: BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, will launch an early repayment of government bail-out money within months.
http://tinyurl.com/knpyk6
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,142.60 up 0.2% (Wednesday close)
Dow 9,829.87 up 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,071.66 up 0.7% (close)
Nasdaq 2,146.30 up 0.4% (close)
Nikkei 10,370.54 down 0.7% (Friday close, closed for holidays)
Hang Seng 21,674.25 down 0.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $21,674.25/1.1066 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4815 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $70.19 down 34 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $71.50 down 26 cents (latest)
Gold $1016.90 up $1.40 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose as investors bet the US Federal Reserve will stick to its accommodative policy to foster economic recovery. Among financials, Citigroup rose 5 per cent on reports that Singapore wealth fund GIC cut its stake in the bank in half. Bank of America rose 2.1 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Insurer American International Group fell 5.4 per cent on speculation it was planning to sell shares. Search engine Google rose 0.4 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, rose 4.8 per cent on forecasting higher earnings. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar rose 3.6 per cent. Gold miner Newmont Mining rose 1.8 per cent and aluminium producer Alcoa rose 2.3 per cent on higher commodities prices.
http://tinyurl.com/nnbmks
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade on expectations the Group of 20 will continue to stimulate growth. Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second-biggest oil and gas producer, rose 4 per cent, rival Santos rose 0.7 per cent and SK Energy, South Korea's largest oil refiner, rose 4.9 per cent on higher oil prices. Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest miner, rose 1.8 per cent and rival BHP Billiton rose 0.8 per cent on higher metals prices. Geely Automobile, China's largest private carmaker, rose 19 per cent in Hong Kong on capital raising plans. Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-biggest computer-memory chipmaker, fell 7 per cent on a takeover bid. Doosan Infracore, South Korea's biggest construction-equipment maker, fell 3.9 per cent after prosecutors raided its offices. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index rose 0.5 per cent to 395.22 in early trade. The market in Japan is closed for holidays.
http://tinyurl.com/lzf67s
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Carnival yesterday gave new hope to those looking for signs that, finally, the world is on course to clear the recessionary storm. The world's largest cruise operator's shares sailed 5 per cent higher after it raised its profit forecast for the year.
Finally, it seems, people are ready to return to the holiday market, after staying at home and counting the pennies this year. Carnival said that booking volumes to mid-2010 were 19 per cent ahead of the same period last year, a significant rebound. It added that although late bookings had been triggered by heavy discounting, it did not expect rates to fall further.
Shares in the Miami-based Carnival rose 103p to £21.63, topping the FTSE 100 risers board. The stock had already been boosted on London markets after Banc of America-Merrill Lynch added it to its "Europe 1" list.
Carnival's progress helped shore up the FTSE 100's move back into positive territory after the index lost ground on Monday. But after starting the day up more than 50 points, suggesting a charge toward the key 5,200 level was possible, the FTSE-100 gained a more modest 8.24 points to close at 5,142.60.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
