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, November 11, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: British Midland (bmi) may not be able to continue as a going concern beyond next year because the Derby-based airline faces an acute funding crisis.
The Daily Telegraph: Britain is at greater risk of losing its top-tier credit rating than any other major economy, according to leading agency Fitch.
The Times: Two former hedge fund managers of Bear Stearns, the US investment bank, were acquitted of fraud charges.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: It is hard to see how the near-perfect market conditions for investment banks earlier this year can continue much longer.
James Moore in The Independent: Even a relatively small ratings agency still has the power to introduce a flutter in the markets.
Martin Wolf in the Financial Times: The great virtue of liberal democracies and market economies is their ability to reform and adapt. They must show this virtue again.
Upside
The Times: HSBC and Barclays, Britain's biggest banks, reported significant improvements in underlying profits.
Wall Street Journal: US Democrat Senators circulated a plan to impose sweeping curbs on the Federal Reserve as part of an overhaul of US financial regulation.
The Daily Telegraph: Barclays may raise its investment bankers' base salaries to avoid the worst of the City regulator's crackdown on bonuses.
Downside
The Times: Lloyds Banking Group will shed another 5,000 back office jobs, taking the total to about 12,500 since the bank was created.
New York Times: The percentage of uncollectible credit card balances in the US hit a record and consumers face rising interest rates and higher fees.
Wall Street Journal: The European Commission opened an investigation into the real-time market-data services of Thomson Reuters, the news and financial-data company.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: National Express, the UK transport company, will launch a £350 million ($586 million) rights issue.
The Daily Telegraph: John Paulson, the US hedge-fund manager, increased his stake in Cadbury, the confectioner subject to a hostile takeover bid by Kraft.
Financial Times: General Electric, the US conglomerate, is in talks to sell its security systems unit to rival United Technologies for more than $1.5 billion (£900 million).
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Singapore Telecommunications reported second-quarter net profit rose 10.1 per cent on stronger operating revenue.
Bloomberg: Orders for Japanese machinery rose to 10.5 per cent, more than twice the pace economists estimated in September.
Wall Street Journal: The $3.3 billion (£2 billion) initial public offering by Maxis, the Malaysian mobile phone operator, may boost the nation's market.
Look ahead
The Times: Families will reap the benefits of a supermarket price war in time for Christmas as grocers ramp up efforts to increase market share.
New York Times: Renault and Nissan will begin selling a small car in India in 2012 that would cost less than any other car sold in the world.
The Times: Natural gas supplies will be in surplus by 2015, weakening Russia's grip over Europe's energy supplies, predicts the International Energy Agency.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,230.55 down 0.1% (Tuesday close)
Dow 10,246.97 up 0.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,093.01 steady (close)
Nasdaq 2,151.08 down 0.1% (close)
Nikkei 9,892.29 up 0.2% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,487.37 up 1%(latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6726/1.116 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4988 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $77.40 down 10 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $79.06 up 1 cent (latest)
Gold $1106.40 up $3.90 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks closed mostly lower as cautious statements on the economic outlook from several Fed officials underscored the belief that easy monetary policy will remain intact well into next year. Credit card company American Express rose 1.6 per cent after credit card spending increased in October. Home builder DR Horton fell 3.6 per cent and rival KB Home fell 3.3 per cent on falling home prices. Bond insurer MBIA fell 26.7 per cent after it posted a loss. Agricultural company Monsanto rose 5.2 per cent after it announced plans to accelerate launches of new products. Insurer American International Group rose 3.9 per cent on reports it will be able to repay the government's bailout and much of its preferred equity stake. Online travel agency Priceline.com rose 17.6 per cent on better-than-expected earnings.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after Japan's machinery orders increased more than economists expected and shipping rates climbed. Mori Seiki, a maker of precision lathes, rose 1.9 per cent and Fanuc, the world's largest maker of industrial robots, rose 1.6 per cent as orders for Japanese machinery rose. Komatsu, the world's second-biggest maker of construction equipment, rose 0.9 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. STX Pan Ocean, South Korea's biggest bulk carrier, rose 3.2 per cent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Japan's third-biggest shipping line operator by sales, rose 1.5 per cent on higher shipping rates. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold producer, rose 0.7 per cent on higher gold prices. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7 per cent to 118.83 in early trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Cookson was one of the best performing stocks in the FTSE 250 yesterday, rising 9.3 per cent, after the materials business said that its full-year profits would be at the top end of City forecasts. The group, which makes castings and linings for the steel industry, said that trends continued to improve in its electronics end markets and steel production.
The FTSE 100 eased 4.63 points to 5,230.55 as losses for Barclays, Vodafone and the mining sector offset gains elsewhere. Banks were in focus as Barclays and HSBC both gave trading updates. Barclays was the biggest faller, down 5.1 per cent, after investors were underwhelmed by the performance of its investment banking business. However, HSBC was the best performing blue-chip stock, rising 4 per cent, after saying that bad debts had eased.
Vodafone also weighed on the index, falling 1.5 per cent, after the mobile phone group's first-half results left some analysts fretting about the group's dividend.
Among the miners, Kazakhmys shed 2.6 per cent amid weaker metals prices.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
