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
Monday, September 7, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: France's top bankers could soon be on the move after France refused to back down over demands to cap traders' bonuses at the G20 meetings in London.
Daily Telegraph: Strict balance sheet rules laid down by the G20 could force France and Germany to semi-nationalise more of their stricken banks.
The Times: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Britain's biggest accounting firm, charged £2.25 billion ($3.7 billion) in fees last year and made £667 million ($1.1 billion) profit.
Comment
Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: We now know G20 governments and central banks will do everything in their power to ensure the recovery does not falter.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph: There are three ways out of our mess, and the only responsible one involves sweat and toil.
Moisés Naím in the Financial Times: Oil, gas, copper and diamonds are almost always bad for a poor country's health.
Upside
The Times: Credit crunch law suits helped Britain's top commercial barristers increase their combined turnover last year to £750 million ($1.2 billion).
New York Times: US arms suppliers secured two-thirds of the world's arms trade in deals worth $38 billion (£23 billion) in 2008.
Financial Times: The European Union wants to end its long-running trade battle with the US over state aid to aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.
Downside
The Times: E.ON, the power and gas firm, is owed hundred of millions of pounds as industrial customers delay paying their bills to solve cashflow problems.
New York Times: The latest scheme from Wall Street bankers is to buy life insurance policies from sick and elderly people and bundle them into bonds.
The Times: The founders of Skype will keep suing over the internet telephony service despite online retailer eBay selling a majority stake in it.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Almost half of Thomas Cook, the holiday group, will be sold by the banks of Arcandor, the German conglomerate that filed for bankruptcy in June.
The Times: BAE Systems, Europe's largest defence company, may pay a fine but admit no guilt to Serious Fraud Office allegations of bribery and corruption.
The Times: HSBC, the UK banking giant, tabled a bid for ING's private banking businesses, in a deal estimated to be worth more than £1 billion ($1.6 billion).
Around Asia
The Times: Proposals to change India's tax system could scare multinational companies away because it would tax their global revenue.
Wall Street Journal: Richard Li, the Hong Kong tycoon, will pay $500 million (£300 million) for part of asset management business of AIG, the beleaguered US insurance giant.
The Times: Entertainment Capital Advisors, a new London-based film financer, will seek cash from the Middle East and Asia to fund small-budget productions.
Look ahead
The Times: British industrial decline has slowed, but conditions will remain tough well into next year, manufacturing bosses predict.
Daily Telegraph: The Bank of England may introduce negative interest rates for the first time in British history this week to prevent banks hoarding cash.
Daily Telegraph: The Government will cut the defence research budget by £100 million ($160 million) next year.
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
The Shanghai stock market fell 7 per cent amid fears that the "China effect" on the global economy is about to fizzle out.
Falling sales of Jaguar and Land Rover luxury vehicles helped push Tata Motors, the Indian conglomerate, to a quarterly loss.
Tuesday
EBay sold a 65 per cent stake in Skype to a private investment group; the deal values the internet telephony business at $2.75 billion (£1.7 billion).
US financial shares suffered their biggest fall since late June amid concerns over the profitability of banks during the economic downturn.
Wednesday
The value of BP gushed above £100 billion ($160 billion) after a giant oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.
Bookies installed John Dixon as internal favourite to succeed Sir Stuart Rose in running Marks & Spencer.
Thursday
The Spanish-led consortium bidding for National Express increased its offer to £765 million ($1.25 billion); it also sold its UK bus and rail divisions to Stagecoach.
Jon Moulton quit early as head of Alchemy Partners, then lambasted his replacement Dominic Slade.
Friday
Gold eased below $990 an ounce after a two-day rally that took the market to within a whisker of $1,000.
US employers cut a fewer-than-expected 216,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high, the Labor Department reported.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,851.70 up 1.2% (Friday close)
Dow 9,441.27 up 1% (Friday close)
S&P 500 1,016.40 up 1.3% (Friday close)
Nasdaq 2,018.78 up 1.8% (Friday close)
Nikkei 10,290.78 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,596.55 up 1.4% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6390/1.1441 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4325 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $66.91 up 9 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $67.97 down 5 cents (latest)
Gold $993.60 down $3.10 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks closed higher on Friday, although the unemployment rate hit a 26-year high. Technology shares led the charge. Intel rose 1.1 per cent and Microsoft rose 2.1 per cent. Memory chip developer Rambus rose 11.4 per cent on takeover speculation. Mortgage giant Fannie Mae rose 7.9 per cent and smaller rival Freddie Mac rose 5.4 per cent after meeting NYSX listing rules. Volumes were light. The market will be closed on Monday for Labor Day.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade, led by technology companies and car makers. Chartered Semiconductor, the world's fourth largest semiconductor maker, was halted from trading in Singapore as Advanced Technology Investment, owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, bid for the firm. Toshiba, Japan's largest chipmaker, rose 3.9 per cent on reports it will contract out production to cut costs. Canon, the office equipment maker, rose 2.3 per cent, and Toyota, the world's No.1 car maker, rose 1 per cent on good US job data. Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest miner, rose 1.2 per cent, while rival BHP was little changed after reports the two miners may merge their diamond operations. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6 per cent to 113.43 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
