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
Friday, October 2, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Anglo American, the mining giant, sought a 'put up or shut up' order that could block an Xstrata bid for at least six months.
http://tinyurl.com/yadykzy
The Independent: The world economy was "on the verge of recovery", having experienced its first decline since the end of World War II, according to the IMF.
http://tinyurl.com/yfxdpuc
The Times: Gordon Brown set to leave BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence manufacturer, to the mercy of the courts over bribery allegations.
http://tinyurl.com/y9vd82w
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The threat of a criminal prosecution on corruption charges could not come at a worse time for the UK's defence industry.
http://tinyurl.com/yeg9x2m
David Prosser in The Independent: So who will blink first? BAE Systems has a month or so to get the Serious Fraud Office off its back.
http://tinyurl.com/yd39s37
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Daily Telegraph: Do money contraction signals in the US and Europe indicate serious trouble?
http://tinyurl.com/yadd2z7
Upside
The Times: The London Stock Exchange in exclusive talks to buy Turquoise, a rival trading platform set up three years ago by a consortium of investment banks.
http://tinyurl.com/yetrn8q
Bloomberg: Cisco Systems agreed to buy Norway-based Tandberg for $3 billion (£1.9 billion) to expand its line-up of videoconferencing products.
http://tinyurl.com/y8jkd8r
Financial Times: Femsa, the Latin American beverage group, in talks to sell its beer business to either SABMiller or Heineken as it focused on its Coca-Cola operations.
http://tinyurl.com/yb5beqs
Downside
The Times: Half the gas used by British families this winter would be imported from overseas as the UK's ageing gas fields cannot keep pace with domestic demand.
http://tinyurl.com/ya797cz
Bloomberg: A year-end chill in airline ticket sales and rising oil prices may push Europe's aviation industry into a new wave of failures and takeovers.
http://tinyurl.com/yd5pyh2
Daily Telegraph: Icelandic police raided KPMG and PwC offices in Reykjavik as part of an investigation into three collapsed Icelandic banks.
http://tinyurl.com/yaxu5d5
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Andy Bond, chief executive of Asda, ruled himself out as a replacement for Sir Stuart Rose at Marks & Spencers.
http://tinyurl.com/ybvpnlg
The Times: ITV shareholders line up behind Sir Michael Bishop as their preferred candidate as chairman.
http://tinyurl.com/yavr4qt
The Times: General Electric, the US's biggest conglomerate, considering the sale of a 51 per cent stake in NBC Universal to Comcast, America's biggest cable operator.
http://tinyurl.com/yb3gfzx
Around Asia
New York Times: Many economists expect China to replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy next year.
http://tinyurl.com/yan4nq9
Bloomberg: Japan's jobless rate unexpectedly retreated in August from a record peak while household spending rose.
http://tinyurl.com/ydvg4dz
Financial Times: Ford Motor quit Australia's retail car finance market after selling a $875 million (£550 million) motor loan portfolio to Macquarie Group.
http://tinyurl.com/y9v4b8x
Look ahead
The Times: Royal Bank of Scotland to appoint two new independent directors and look at different ways of strengthening its capital position.
http://tinyurl.com/y9k854h
Daily Telegraph: Pets at Home, the 230-store pet accessory retailer, appointed JP Morgan Cazenove to advise on a 2010 flotation.
http://tinyurl.com/ybju9j7
The Times: Experts predict a European court ruling could cost the British taxman £1 billion ($1.6 billion) as stamp duty reserve tax on some deals was withdrawn.
http://tinyurl.com/ydnfr2f
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,047,81 down 1.7% (Thursday close)
Dow 9,509.28 down 2.1% (close)
S&P 500 1,029.85 down 2.6% (close)
Nasdaq 2,057.48 down 3.1% (close)
Nikkei 9,733.42 down 2.5% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,407.85 down 2.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.592/1.0949 euros (latest)
Euro $1.454 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $68.50 down 69 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $70.17 down 65 cents (latest)
Gold $1001 up 30 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: The Dow and S&P 500 suffered their worst one-day fall in three months on Thursday after economic reports fuelled fears about the recovery's strength. The pullback happened a day after stocks ended the third quarter with strong gains. Cyclical stocks, sensitive to the economy's cycles, were among the worst performers, including technology and bank shares. Airlines also fell sharply. All 30 Dow components finished in the red, with the biggest decliners including JPMorgan Chase, down 5.6 per cent, and Boeing down 3.8 per cent. Bank of America slipped 4.2 per cent after chief executive Ken Lewis said he was retiring. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar, down 3.7 per cent, also ranked among the Dow's biggest decliners. Among the Nasdaq's major losers were tech bellwethers Apple, down 2.4 per cent, Qualcomm, down 5.1 per cent, and Microsoft, down 3.3 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/yfx6lc9
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a one-month low, as concerns the economic recovery will falter caused commodity prices to slump. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, sank 2.8 per cent in Sydney. Nissan, which gets 36 per cent of its sales in North America, retreated 4.3 per cent in Tokyo after worse-than-estimated US manufacturing and jobless claims reports. Panasonic, Japan's largest maker of home appliances, declined 3.6 per cent after Mizuho Securities cut its recommendation on the stock. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 1.7 per cent to 114.85 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/yb7knld
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
LONDON
The FTSE 100 index started the fourth quarter on a downbeat note yesterday as investors fretted that an economic recovery may still be some way off. The blue-chip index, fresh from recording its best quarterly performance, fell 86.09 points to 5,047.81 after weaker than expected UK manufacturing data cast a shadow over news that the International Monetary Fund believed Britain's emergence from recession next year would be stronger than previously thought.
A weak start to the session in London was compounded by figures from across the Atlantic showing a jump in US workers filing for jobless benefits, adding to fears that rising unemployment would hinder an economic recovery. There was also weak US manufacturing data. Concerns about the economy meant that banks were big fallers, with Royal Bank of Scotland losing 4.5 per cent. Lonmin was the biggest loser, falling 8 per cent, as brokers downplayed speculation Xstrata, down 5.5 per cent, may launch a fresh bid. Vedanta Resources rose 2.4 per cent on upbeat broker comments.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
