Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Tuesday, September 22, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: A compromise deal will be tabled at the G20 summit giving regulators new powers to limit what share of profits banks can spend on bonuses.
http://tinyurl.com/nj3cfn
Wall Street Journal: US insurers cut back on sales and raised prices on life insurance, aiming to replenish capital lost in poor real-estate investments.
http://tinyurl.com/mk7exw
The Times: EDF, the heavily indebted French power group building nuclear reactors in the UK, is close to a big asset swap with E.ON, its German rival.
http://tinyurl.com/kkpyef
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The preparations for the 2012 great UK pension reform are few and no one has a clue how it will operate.
http://tinyurl.com/kkrchv
Damian Reece in The Daily Telegraph: The US and UK should unilaterally decide on banking and regulatory reform and lead from the front.
http://tinyurl.com/nca477
David Prosser in The Independent: The City seems to think the RBS is not being aggressive enough about reducing its participation in the toxic debt scheme.
http://tinyurl.com/ko5ewx
Upside
The Times: Lloyds Banking Group, the UK's biggest lender, hopes to find buyers for £2.8 billion ($4.5 billion) of new securities backed by packaged-up prime mortgages.
http://tinyurl.com/nm9kwl
Reuters: Share offers expected to raise $9.1 billion (£5.6 billion) were made by Spanish bank Santander, insurance specialist Verisk Analytics and biotech firm Omeros.
http://tinyurl.com/lz3sst
New York Times: The financial condition of American International Group, the troubled insurance giant, had stabilised because of the US government bailout.
http://tinyurl.com/nkx6we
Downside
The Times: Average hourly rates for London's top commercial lawyers fell by a third last year.
http://tinyurl.com/mm2u7c
The Daily Telegraph: The EU's proposed regulation of hedge funds and private equity firms may cost €1.9 billion (£1.7 billion, $2.8 billion) in compliance costs.
http://tinyurl.com/llhxx4
The Times: UK construction firms may be fined up to £200 million ($324 million) when the Office of Fair Trading concludes its biggest cartel inquiry.
http://tinyurl.com/kntxnw
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Royal Bank of Scotland, the state-backed lender, may be forced to scrap fundraising plans because investors are reluctant.
http://tinyurl.com/lugd4b
Wall Street Journal: Dell, the personal-computer maker, bought Perot Systems, which sells information-technology services, for $3.9 billion (£2.4 billion).
http://tinyurl.com/nv7nsf
The Times: Charles Gregson, the chairman of Icap, used almost 94,000 personal shares in the interdealer broker as collateral against a HSBC loan.
http://tinyurl.com/mxzpp5
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: China has stopped granting new licenses that allow financial institutions to bid for initial public offerings.
http://tinyurl.com/mntaud
Reuters: China quietly eased restrictions on its citizens traveling from Guangdong province to Macau, sending casino stocks soaring.
http://tinyurl.com/mstlfc
Wall Street Journal: China Investment, the sovereign wealth fund, spent $850 million (£523 million) on a stake in Noble Group, the commodities trader.
http://tinyurl.com/ngjjsm
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: The market will be "flat at best" for retailers over Christmas, predicts Andrew Higginson, the second-in-charge at Tesco.
http://tinyurl.com/kk2fnf
Financial Times: Société Générale, the French bank, will launch a new plan next year with a zero-tolerance stance on errors and unapproved risk-taking.
http://tinyurl.com/kjcnd8
New York Times: The US tax office will extend its amnesty program for those suspected of using offshore accounts to evade taxes until October 15.
http://tinyurl.com/mbu3l8
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,134.36 down 0.7% (Monday close)
Dow 9,778.86 down 0.4% (close)
S&P 500 1,064.66 down 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,138.04 up 0.2% (close)
Nikkei 10,370.54 down 0.7% (Friday close, closed for a holiday)
Hang Seng 21,615.08 up 0.7% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.625/1.1042 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4718 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $69.21 up 52 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $70.16 up 45 cents (latest)
Gold $1006.90 up $2.00 (latest)
New York
Reuters: The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 index fell on lower energy and materials stocks but the Nasdaq rose on a broker's upgrade on the biotechnology sector. Oil services company Halliburton fell 2.5 per cent and petroleum refiner Sunoco fell 2.3 per cent on lower oil prices. Diversified chemicals company Dow Chemical fell 2.8 per cent on lower commodity prices. Heavy machinery dealer Caterpillar fell 1.8 per cent on lower sales data. On the Nasdaq, biotech firm Celgene rose 5 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Computer maker Dell fell 4.1 per cent after it announced a proposed take over of Perot Systems. Perot rose 65.1 per cent. American International Group rose 21.3 per cent on reports its financial state has started to stabilise.
http://tinyurl.com/n6geoc
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade on analysts' upgrade. Samsung Electronics, the world's largest computer-memory chipmaker, rose 2 per cent on higher chip prices. Battery maker LG Chem rose 8.1 per cent and rival Samsung SDI rose 5.5 per cent on an analyst's upgrades. STX Pan Ocean, South Korea's biggest commodity-shipping line, rose 8.3 per cent after securing its largest contract. Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group, a Sydney-based investor in energy and transport assets, fell 5.6 per cent on concern over a new recapitalisation proposal. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index rose 0.4 per cent to 390.97 in morning trade. Markets in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan are shut for holidays.
http://tinyurl.com/mcmwep
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
