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
Wednesday, September 9, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Competition authorities may not allow the planned merger of Orange and T-Mobile to create Britain's biggest mobile phone company.
The Daily Telegraph: Liabilities in defined-benefit workplace pensions in the UK have broken through the £1 trillion mark ($1.7 trillion).
Financial Times: Moody's, the rating agency, is set to preserve Britain's triple A credit rating as politicians acknowledge the need to cut public spending.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Everyone's a winner from the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Orange - except, perhaps, the staff, suppliers, and customers.
Tom Stevenson in The Daily Telegraph: Gold and other real assets may be a profitable way of playing the upcoming inflation problem.
David Prosser in The Independent: Politicians on either side of the divide have yet to even identify where the tough choices about spending cuts will be made.
Upside
The Times: Economic output in Britain has grown for the first time in 15 months, with carmakers the latest to deliver a fillip.
The Daily Telegraph: The price of gold rose above $1,000 for the first time in six months.
New York Times: US consumers slashed their borrowing in July by the largest amount on record.
Downside
The Times: Flight taxes will need to rise to make carbon dioxide emissions from aviation fall to 2005 levels, the UK Committee on Climate Change says.
New York Times: More than half of all Web sites selling electronic goods may be breaking the law according to the European Union.
The Times: Britain's small law firms face increases of 20 per cent in the cost of insurance because of the threat of negligence cases caused by the recession.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Hershey, the American confectionery group, is considering a counterbid for Cadbury after Kraft offered £10.2 billion ($16.8 billion).
The Independent: Jaeger, the retailer, acquired Aquascutum in a deal that returns the struggling 158-year-old luxury fashion label to its British roots.
The Times: A group of 72 former Dresdner Kleinwort traders sued the bank's new owner Commerzbank claiming it reneged on guaranteed bonus payments.
Around Asia
The Daily Telegraph: McDonald's, the fast food giant, lost the battle in Malaysia's highest court to protect its "Mc" prefix trademark from McCurry.
New York Times: China signed an agreement with First Solar, a US solar developer, to build a 2,000-megawatt photovoltaic farm in the Mongolian desert.
Wall Street Journal: China Investment, China's sovereign-wealth fund, is eyeing big investments in distressed US real estate.
Look ahead
The Independent: Burberry, the luxury fashion retailer, will enter the FTSE 100 for the first time tomorrow, after media group Thomson Reuters ends its London listing.
The Times: BAE Systems, Europe's largest defence company, and BP, the oil giant, will run trials of a system to protect oil tankers against pirates next year.
New York Times: Defaults linked to unconventional mortgages are expected to hamper the real estate recovery in the US for years to come.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,947.34 up 0.3% (Tuesday close)
Dow 9,497.34 up 0.6% (close)
S&P 500 1,025.39 up 0.9% (close)
Nasdaq 2,037.77 up 0.9% (close)
Nikkei 10,358.48 down 0.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,970.57 down 0.5% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6526/1.14 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4497 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $69.28 down 14 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $71.07 down 3 cents (latest)
Gold $1002.50 up $2.70(latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose on an increase in corporate deal activity and gains in commodities. Kraft Foods, North America's biggest food company, fell 5.9 per cent after it said it was intent on pursuing Britain's Cadbury. Other food companies rose, including Hershey, which rose 1.3 per cent. In the oil sector Chevron rose 2.2 per cent and Exxon Mobil rose 2.1 per cent on higher oil prices. Miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold rose 3 per cent on higher gold prices. General Electric rose 4.5 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. iPod maker Apple rose 2.6 per cent on an analyst's upgrade.
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks fell in morning trade as downgrades of Japanese banks by JPMorgan Chase overshadowed gains among commodity producers. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Japan's largest bank by value, fell 1.8 per cent and rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, fell 1.6 per cent on an analyst's downgrade. Rio Tinto Group, the world's third-largest miner, rose 1.3 per cent in Sydney, and Inpex, Japan's largest oil explorer, rose 3.1 per cent on higher oil and metal prices. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3 per cent to 115.58 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
