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
Thursday, September 3, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The value of BP gushed above £100 billion ($160 billion) after a giant oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.
Financial Times: Lord Turner, the Financial Services Authority chairman, backed living wills for banks, wind-down plans in the event they failed.
The Times: Gordon Brown's trillion-dollar global rescue package unravelling as some countries call for the bailout to be scaled back.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Insurers have a fight on their hands to stop European regulators imposing rules that could cut annuities by up to 20 per cent.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Daily Telegraph: Reform of banking will once more top the agenda for finance ministers meeting in London.
James Moore in The Independent: The Federation of Small Businesses is continually banging on about the time taken to pay invoices submitted by its members. This time we should listen.
Upside
The Times: Harmony restored as YouTube settled a dispute with PRS over royalties for music played in Britain.
The Independent: The Australian government said it beat recession to be the best performing country in the advanced economic world.
The Times: Research showed hiring an outside pay consultant could almost double the pay of a FTSE 100 company boss compared with businesses that set their own pay policy.
Downside
The Times: A drop-off in civil engineering contracts and further job cuts behind the 18th month of negative growth in the construction sector.
Daily Telegraph: Senior directors of KeTech Group were aware of pensions arrears before taxpayers rescued the group.
New York Times: The Securities and Exchange Commission repeatedly missed chances to head off the fraud by Bernard L. Madoff, the agency's watchdog said.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Bookies install John Dixon as internal favourite to succeed Sir Stuart Rose in running Marks & Spencer.
New York Times: Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, to pay $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion) to settle civil and criminal allegations it had illegally marketed painkiller Bextra.
The Times: London's Mayor Boris Johnson labelled "out of touch with reality" for his attempts to water down draft EU legislation on hedge funds.
Around Asia
The Times: China planned to choke off the global supply of technology minerals used in products as diverse as hybrid cars and laptop computers.
Financial Times: India's greenhouse gas emissions set to at least quadruple over the next 20 years as its economy expanded.
Daily Telegraph: Doing business in China was getting harder, not easier, according to a new report by European businesses.
Look ahead
The Times: The fate of The Independent to be decided next month by a vote after a demand by Denis O'Brien, the company's second biggest shareholder.
New York Times: YouTube, the largest video site, in negotiations with Hollywood studios for a deal that would let its visitors pay to watch full-length movies.
The Times: Tisbury Capital, one of London's biggest hedge funds, seeking $750 million (£460 million) from investors this autumn.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,817.55 unchanged (Wednesday close)
Dow 9,280.67 down 0.3% (close)
S&P 500 994.75 down 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 1,967.07 down 0.1% (close)
Nikkei 10,244.05 down 0.4% (latest)
Hang Seng 19,526.89 unchanged (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.625/1.1393 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4263 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $67.41 down 25 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $68.05 unchanged (latest)
Gold $977.20 down $1.30 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell on Wednesday as jitters about the economy prompted investors to unload some shares for a fourth straight day even after a sharp drop in the previous session. Financial stocks once again were top decliners. Regional banks such as SunTrust Banks were down 7.2 per cent while Regions Financials was down 6.3 per cent. Moving up were shares of gold producers as the price of gold rallied to $981.50 an ounce with Gold Fields up 11.3 per cent. On the Nasdaq, Dell was up 0.9 per cent, helping the tech-heavy index cap some losses. Leap Wireless International also climbed 7.5 per cent on speculation that AT&T was interested in buying the wireless service provider. Another bright spot in Wednesday's market was the health insurance group. WellCare Health gained 1.9 per cent while Aetna climbed 2.9 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks fell in morning trade, led by carmakers and electronic companies, as US employers cut more jobs than forecast and the yen climbed. Mining companies rose. Honda, which gets 45 percent of its revenue in North America, dropped 2.6 per cent in Tokyo while Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, lost 1.5 per cent. Sony, which makes three quarters of its sales abroad, lost 1.6 per cent as the yen rose to a seven-week high versus the dollar. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold miner, climbed 6.2 per cent after gold climbed the most in more than five months. Lihir, Australia's second biggest gold mining company, jumped 6.8 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 112.10 in morning trade.
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
