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 9, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: M&S fell to third spot among Britain's fashion retailers, giving up supremacy to George at Asda and Primark.
http://tinyurl.com/yf62n6r
Daily Telegraph: Britain overtook the US for top spot in a ranking of the world's leading financial centres.
http://tinyurl.com/y9su7ra
The Times: Lord Mandelson withholding £400 million ($640 million) of loan guarantees from Magna, the new owner of Vauxhall, because of a jobs row.
http://tinyurl.com/yfvdnvu
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: There are big differences of opinion on how and when and whether quantitative easing should be withdrawn, and what it is in the first place.
http://tinyurl.com/ykwuzpz
Damian Reece in Daily Telegraph: Unions must let Royal Mail deliver a service fit for the modern world.
http://tinyurl.com/yjaaj2j
Dan Sabbagh in The Times: They're all swapping sides: papers turning into freesheets, TV channels that are thinking of charging. Will anyone win?
http://tinyurl.com/yf4wf49
Upside
The Times: The Powerfuel "clean coal" power plant in Yorkshire set to collect £165 million ($265 million) in funding from the European Commission.
http://tinyurl.com/yk4joxc
New York Times: Half a million troubled US homeowners have had their loan payments lowered under an Obama administration programme.
http://tinyurl.com/ylf3lkv
The Times: British companies could be in line for a big payout if they apply for internet gambling licences in a newly liberalised French market.
http://tinyurl.com/yg592ql
Downside
The Times: Mail-order companies warn they could go out of business if Royal Mail workers take nationwide industrial action.
http://tinyurl.com/yfd7dfg
New York Times: PepsiCo reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue and cautioned it did not expect a major revival of consumer spending next year.
http://tinyurl.com/yfevyqo
The Times: A sharp divide in opinion emerged over whether the Bank of England should widen its policy of quantitative easing next month.
http://tinyurl.com/yfhtrvo
Mergers and shakers
The Times: The Competition Commission provisionally blocked a proposed merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
http://tinyurl.com/yhjjf54
The Times: Regulators deciding if Lloyds can safely avoid the Asset Protection Scheme with its £11 billion ($17.6 billion) rights issue.
http://tinyurl.com/yk6vqfd
The Times: Carphone Warehouse to pay less for Tiscali UK after accusing the Italian company of overstating its customer base.
http://tinyurl.com/yl66pnu
Around Asia
The Times: Asian central banks propped up the dollar as it slumped to a 14-month low against leading currencies.
http://tinyurl.com/yhohzgj
Bloomberg: General Motors close to an agreement to sell its Hummer sport-utility vehicle business to China's Tengzhong for $150 million (£94 million).
http://tinyurl.com/ygamrs8
Financial Times: SKS Microfinance, India's largest lender to the poor, mandated three investment banks for its initial public offering.
http://tinyurl.com/ykljp9h
Look ahead
The Times: A reprieve loomed for Living Room, the trendy bar chain, with the Orchid Group expected to conclude a sale in the next six weeks.
http://tinyurl.com/ylr4xrw
Daily Telegraph: Royal Dutch Shell unveiled plans to build a 480m vessel, the world's largest, to house a liquefied natural gas plant.
http://tinyurl.com/yfcmk82
The Times: Fresh from announcing a rights issue, Ladbrokes warned about its third-quarter profits following "the worst run of football results in history".
http://tinyurl.com/yjw2ryu
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,154.64 up 0.9% (Thursday close)
Dow 9,786.87 up 0.6% (close)
S&P 500 1,065.48 up 0.8% (close)
Nasdaq 2,123.93 up 0.6% (close)
Nikkei 9,934.05 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,486.03 unchanged (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6023/1.0887 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4718 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $69.23 down 54 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $71.19 down 50 cents (latest)
Gold $1047.50 down $8.80 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose on Thursday as a surprising quarterly profit from Alcoa got third-quarter earnings off to a strong start. Alcoa gained 1.1 percent, a day after the Dow component posted its first profit after three consecutive quarterly losses, on cost savings and higher aluminium prices. Retailers posted their first monthly sales increase in more than a year, suggesting that recession-battered consumers might be regaining their ability, and desire, to spend again. Store chains such as Macy's rose 5.1 per cent and Abercrombie & Fitch gained 5.5 per cent. Kohl's rose 2.4 per cent. US crude oil futures prices gained 3 per cent, pushing Chevron up 1.3 per cent. On the Nasdaq, Adobe Systems rose 3.2 per cent after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the company. On the downside was PepsiCo, whose shares slipped 1.3 per cent after the world's second-largest soft drink maker reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue.
http://tinyurl.com/yzr6qw2
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks rose in morning trade, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index set for its biggest weekly gain in a month. Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 1 memory-chip maker, climbed 3.9 per cent after chip prices rose to a 16-month high while Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest computer-memory maker, climbed 2.1 per cent. Record gold prices drove Zijin Mining, China's largest producer, up 10 per cent in Shanghai, where markets traded after an eight-day holiday, while Shandong Gold climbed 10 per cent. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold producer, gained 1.3 per cent. Mitsubishi, which generates more than half of its profit from commodities dealing, rose 0.7 per cent. Electric Power Development sank 2.2 per cent in Tokyo, leading declines by utilities, and Chugoku Electric Power dropped 2 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed at 118.58 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/yzcbnjs
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
LONDON
The mining sector, which has underpinned much of the recent stock market strength, has once again shored up investor confidence after output data from Indian-focused miner Vedanta Resources helped drive further gains. Vedanta pointed to a near 16 per cent increase in its zinc output during the second quarter while iron ore output rose 27 per cent. The increased volumes reflected the company's investment in new mines and smelters and triggered an 85p rise in the company's shares to £21.90. With US aluminium giant Alcoa also reporting strong results in the US overnight, the mining sector was in demand as base metal prices tracked higher, accounting for eight of the top 10 FTSE-100 risers. The biggest movers included Kazakhyms, which gained 54p to £11.52, Antofagasta, up 37p at 834p, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp., up 41p at 942p, and Xstrata, which leapt 40p to 965p.
The mining spike helped push the FTSE-100 back into positive territory after recording a modest dip on Wednesday. The index of leading shares gained 45.74 points to 5,154.64, following markets across Europe higher, but still traded below the 5,200 level that it hit last month.
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
