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
Thursday, November 26, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: UK bankers celebrated a landmark court victory over unauthorised overdraft fees and saw off the threat of a crackdown on pay.
Wall Street Journal: Dubai announced a six-month standstill on the debt repayments of Dubai World, the government's corporate arm.
The Times: Borders UK, the bookseller, is poised to enter administration, putting 1,100 jobs at risk.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Dubai's property sector, with its ludicrous architecture and record-breaking buildings, has collapsed.
Ian Cowie in the Daily Telegraph: The Supreme Court decision to rule in favour of the banks is good news for the vast majority of customers.
David Prosser in The Independent: There's plenty of worthy stuff in Sir David Walker's report into bank reform, but not much drama.
Upside
The Times: Production at Vauxhall's plant in Cheshire, owned by US carmaker General Motors, will rise from two to three shifts a day.
Wall Street Journal: US new-home sales unexpectedly climbed in October by 6.2 per cent.
New York Times: General Motors, the US carmaker, will not close any of its four Opel plants in Germany.
Downside
The Times: A fresh dispute for Lloyds, the UK bank, erupted after secret £62 billion ($104 billion) loans to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS were disclosed.
Financial Times: Vodafone, the mobile phone company, plans to close its £755 million ($1.3 billion) final salary pension scheme.
The Times: A new £6 ($10) tax on telephone lines to fund superfast broadband internet will leave two million households paying three times the proposed levy.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Nelson Peltz, the billionaire activist investor, reduced his stake in Cadbury, the confectioner, by 3.5 million shares.
New York Times: France Télécom agreed to pay €1.5 billion (£1.4 billion, $2.3 billion) to merge with Sunrise, the second-biggest Swiss mobile phone operator.
The Times: United Utilities sold its minority stakes in Northern Gas Networks and the Manila Water Company, the UK water company's non-core businesses.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: The International Monetary Fund sold 10 metric tons of gold to Sri Lanka for $375 million (£225 million).
New York Times: Vietnam raised its benchmark interest rate and reset its official exchange rate.
The Times: The astonishing 286 per cent surge in the price of garlic since March made it the best-performing Chinese asset class of the year.
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: The Bundesbank, the state bank, predicts bank losses in Germany of €90 billion (£81 billion, $136 billion) over the next year.
Financial Times: Some of Europe's biggest multinational companies plan to use
new global accountancy rules for their 2010 accounts, defying the delay by Brussels.
The Independent: Tesco Mobile, the telecoms division of the supermarket Tesco, will introduce the latest Apple iPhone in its UK stores before Christmas.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,364.81 up 0.8% (Wednesday close)
Dow 10,464.40 up 0.3% (close)
S&P 500 1,110.63 up 0.5% (close)
Nasdaq 2,176.05 up 0.3% (close)
Nikkei 9,445.36 steady (latest)
Hang Seng 22,468.59 down 0.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6698/1.1053 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5106 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $77.97 down 47 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $77.45 down 51 cents (latest)
Gold $1195.30 up $6.70 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose in light trading volume, supported by data that pointed to stabilisation in the labour and housing markets. Natural resource stocks got a lift from the weak dollar. US gold miner Newmont Mining rose 2.9 per cent on record gold prices. The Arca Gold Bugs index, which measures the performance of 15 gold miners with US-listed stock, rose 2.8 per cent. Energy firm Marathon Oil rose 1.6 per cent on higher oil prices. Luxury retailer Tiffany & Co rose 4.9 per cent on better-than-expected results. Deere & Co, the world's largest maker of tractors and harvesters, rose 2.7 per cent on better-than-expected results. US financial markets will be closed today to mark Thanksgiving. On Friday, the US stock market will close early at 1 pm. (1800 GMT).
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks rose in early trade, led by commodity producers after oil and metal prices climbed. BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, rose 1 per cent on higher copper prices. Woodside Petroleum, the Australian oil producer, rose 1.2 per cent on higher oil prices. The dollar declined against the yen, reducing the value of overseas sales at Japanese companies when converted into their home currency. Honda Motor, a carmaker that gets 47 per cent of its sales in North America, fell 1.8 per cent and rival Mazda fell 3.2 per cent. Sony, the maker of the PlayStation 3 game console, fell 1.2 per cent. Pioneer, which makes car-navigation and audio equipment, fell 2.5 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.2 per cent to 118.51 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
The FTSE 100 advanced 40.85 points to 5,364.81, after sentiment towards an economic recovery was given a boost by GDP data coming in as expected and encouraging US unemployment figures and new home sales.
The mining sector made ground amid higher metal prices and yet another record gold price.
Miners rose on stronger metal prices, with Lonmin up 3.2 per cent.
Man fell 4.9 per cent as it went ex dividend.
Compass was the biggest riser, up 6.1 per cent, on stronger than expected full year results.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
