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 24, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Kraft, the US food giant, is unlikely to walk away from a takeover of Cadbury, says Todd Stitzer, the UK confectioner's chief executive.
http://tinyurl.com/nu73n9
New York Times: The US Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates at close to zero per cent, but acknowledged that an economic recovery was under way.
http://tinyurl.com/m4v6ma
The Independent: Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, made an outspoken attack on the City, laying bare the disagreements about tighter financial rules.
http://tinyurl.com/md2n7s
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Despite all the cash calls earlier in the year, companies with a strong story are getting institutional money by the bucketload.
http://tinyurl.com/nhsyga
David Prosser in The Independent: Whether or not the City's current rules are too lax is not the point, whether the new rules are unacceptable is the question.
http://tinyurl.com/mz49ax
William Pesek on Bloomberg: It's now dawning on Asia that the 2000s were a time of missed opportunities.
http://tinyurl.com/ltgm43
Upside
The Times: Mortgage lending stabilised last month as rising approvals for house purchases were offset by falling levels of remortgage activity.
http://tinyurl.com/m5xxs8
New York Times: The oil industry has been supported by more than 200 major discoveries this year, despite falling prices and a tough economy.
http://tinyurl.com/nwzxk2
Financial Times: About 300 Credit Suisse staff will share SFr1.9 billion (£1.2 billion, $1.9 billion) in stock under a performance-based retention plan.
http://tinyurl.com/nsub9q
Downside
The Times: STV, the Scottish commercial broadcaster, plans to counter-sue ITV, the television network, in the ongoing row over advertising revenues.
http://tinyurl.com/lqaprz
The Independent: Blacks Leisure, the troubled outdoor retail specialist, may set up a company voluntary arrangement to safeguard its future.
http://tinyurl.com/lhzhnv
Wall Street Journal: Citigroup, the US bank, will cut its branch network to six major cities, just one year after national expansion plans.
http://tinyurl.com/nn5u3b
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Denis O'Brien, the rebel investor in Independent News & Media, aims to seize control of the publisher of The Independent and close down the newspaper.
http://tinyurl.com/krntdf
The Independent: Marius Kloppers, the chief executive of BHP Billiton, received a 51 per cent pay rise despite falling profits at the world's biggest miner.
http://tinyurl.com/mkwlkc
The Times: Yell, the troubled publisher of the Yellow Pages, announced plans to tap investors for £500 million ($818 million) and its shares fell 13.5 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/lpp2wm
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: China Investment Corp., China's sovereign-wealth fund, invested $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) in PT Bumi Resources, the Indonesian coal producer.
http://tinyurl.com/kv5nvh
The Times: Developers in India are building ultra-cheap apartments and offering sub-prime loans to reach the nation's working poor.
http://tinyurl.com/lxp6te
Wall Street Journal: Japan Airlines is considering a breakup of the company as the ailing carrier faces pressure to turn around its operations.
http://tinyurl.com/locujl
Look Ahead
The Times: BT, the telecoms group, will expand the reach of its fast copper line-based broadband network to cover 75 per cent of Britain by spring 2011.
http://tinyurl.com/lh4rec
The Daily Telegraph: The Bank of England summoned the City's leading economists for an unprecedented meeting next Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/mvqzvv
The Times: An emergency meeting over the collapse in the price of milk will be held by Europe's agriculture ministers in Brussels on October 5.
http://tinyurl.com/md464e
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,139.37 down 0.1% (Wednesday close)
Dow 9,748.55 down 0.8% (close)
S&P 500 1,060.87 down 1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,131.42 down 0.7% (close)
Nikkei 10,548.42 up 1.7% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,202.81 down 1.8% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6349/1.11 euros (latest)
Euro $1.473 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $67.63 down 36 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $68.57 down 40 cents (latest)
Gold $1012.30 down $2.10 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks initially rose sharply but fell in the last hour of trading as investors worried the Federal Reserve is closer to pulling back on measures to shore up the economy. Among banks, JPMorgan fell 3 per cent, making the stock the Dow's top drag. Home builder Toll Brothers fell 3.4 per cent. Energy giant Chevron fell 1.7 per cent on lower oil prices. Networking equipment maker Cisco Systems fell 2.6 per cent on the Nasdaq.
http://tinyurl.com/lp3mqu
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in early trade as brokerage upgrades fueled speculation that an equity rally since March can continue. Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker, rose 3.8 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Fast Retailing, Japan's biggest casual clothing chain, rose 3.8 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Lower commodity and oil prices made resource shares lower. BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, fell 1.2 per cent and Inpex, Japan's largest oil and gas explorer, fell 1.1 percent. Woodside Petroleum, Australia's No. 2 oil and gas producer, fell 1.2 per cent and Mitsubishi, a Japanese trading company that gets 39 percent of its sales from commodities, fell 0.4 per cent. Metallurgical Corporation of China, which helped build the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium in Beijing, starts trading today in Hong Kong. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7 per cent to 119.60 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/yeet2u6
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Burberry was in vogue among investors as its shares rose nearly 6 per cent after comments from Angela Ahrendts, the fashion company's chief executive, who said that its British business was "on fire". Ms Ahrendts was speaking on the sidelines of London Fashion Week when she boasted to Bloomberg in an interview that the UK business has been outperforming the market "for quite a while" and she added further gloss to the show by saying that demand for luxury goods could only get better. Shares in Burberry rose 26p to 502p, the biggest gain in the FTSE 100, on the back of the comments, with analysts noting that the company's South Korean business also appeared to be on the mend. Yet the enthusiasm for Burberry shares did not rub off on the overall market, which slipped a modest 3.23 points to 5,139.37 despite spending most of the day in positive territory. European markets dipped late in the day after a weak start on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve Meeting.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
