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, November 13, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: British Airways and Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, announced a deal to create Europe's largest airline.
The Daily Telegraph: Hedge funds and private equity firms want to alter a European Union plan that may force them to defer up to 60 per cent of their annual pay.
The Times: Intel, the computer-chip giant, agreed to pay Advanced Micro Devices $1.25 billion (£755 million) to settle all disputes over competitive and licensing issues.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: Bigger may prove to be better, but stapling together two loss-making airlines does not guarantee that both will improve.
Hamish McRae in The Independent: The world is dividing into the "haves" and the "have debts", and the distinction will be quite important.
Samuel Brittan in the Financial Times: The hole in the world economy can only be filled by deficit spending by the stronger Western governments.
Upside
The Times: Strong sales growth at its Asda supermarkets in the UK and other overseas operations helped to boost quarterly profits at Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer.
The Independent: British Gas, the utilities company owned by Centrica, expects profits to rise by 43 per cent to £541 million ($897 million).
The Daily Telegraph: O2, the mobile phone company spun-out of British Telecom, has become Britain's biggest telecoms provider.
Downside
The Times: Lloyds Banking Group is owed more than £700 million ($1.2 billion) after the collapse of Kenmore Property Group, a property developer.
Financial Times: Brussels delayed the introduction in the European Union of a radical overhaul of accounting rules for banks and insurers.
Wall Street Journal: The capital reserves at the US Federal Housing Administration fell to very low levels, increasing the likelihood of a bailout.
Mergers and shakers
Wall Street Journal: Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs may form investment pools to fund acquisitions of failed lenders by former bank executives.
The Times: At least 37 BBC executives earn more than the Prime Minister, as the UK broadcaster disclosed the scale of its senior salaries for the first time.
The Times: 3i, the UK's biggest equity backer of small and medium enterprises, has not made a single new investment in the past six months.
Around Asia
The Times: Tesco, the supermarket group, plans to open three huge shopping centres in China and Apple, the maker of iPhones, will open two stores in Shanghai.
New York Times: Baghdad's first trade fair since the invasion six years ago attracted 396 companies, but companies from the US were notably absent.
Wall Street Journal: Asian countries lead the world in investments in "green" technologies, said the head of Siemens, the engineering conglomerate.
Look ahead
The Times: Peugeot-Citroën, the French car maker, will offer a pre-paid car-by-the-day scheme in Europe this winter and in the UK before the summer.
Wall Street Journal: Economists expect the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates around September 2010 in the lead up to midterm elections.
The Independent: The Council for Mortgage Lenders predicts there will be 48,000 UK home repossessions this year, a much lower number than earlier feared.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,276.50 up 0.2% (Thursday close)
Dow 10,197.47 down 0.9% (close)
S&P 500 1,087.24 down 1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,149.02 down 0.8% (close)
Nikkei 9,752.13 down 0.5% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,409.96 up 0.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6584/1.1161 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4859 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $75.82 down 20 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $76.57 down 37 cents (latest)
Gold $1104.00 down $2.60 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell as a drop in oil prices pulled energy stocks lower and a guarded outlook from Wal-Mart fanned worries about consumer spending. Stocks were also undermined by a US dollar rally. Among energy firms, Hess fell 2.5 per cent and Occidental Petroleum fell 1.6 per cent on lower oil futures. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, rose 0.5 per cent after it reported a higher quarterly profit. After the market's close, entertainment company Walt Disney rose 3.6 per cent on better-than-expected results. Chipmaker Advance Micro Devices rose 21.8 per cent after it agreed with rival Intel to settle all outstanding legal disputes. Network equipment maker 3Com rose 31.1 per cent after rival Hewlett-Packard agreed to buy it. Hewlett-Packard fell 0.6 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in early trade as commodity-related shares fell on lower crude oil and metal prices. BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, fell 1.9 per cent, rival Rio Tinto fell 1.3 per cent and Woodside Petroleum, Australia's second-largest oil producer, fell 1 per cent. BlueScope Steel, Australia's largest steelmaker, fell 1.4 per cent, on expectations of a loss in the first half. Japanese glass maker Central Glass fell 5.3 per cent and rival Nippon Sheet Glass fell 5.7 per cent after reporting losses. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3 per cent to 117.51 in early trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
The FTSE 100 advanced 9.75 points to 5,276.50, with the blue chip index edging closer to its year-high.
British Airways was the biggest riser, climbing 7.5 per cent, amid speculation it was on the cusp of agreeing a merger with Iberia, the Spanish carrier. Both sides confirmed they were trying to seal the deal.
BT Group was another strong performer, up 3.7 per cent, after the telecoms business raised its outlook for the full year after successfully cutting costs.
The mining sector lost ground amid weaker metal prices, with Kazakhmys falling 1.6 per cent.
3i Group fell 4.1 per cent after disappointing first half results.
In the FTSE 250 Genus, the cattle breading group, lost 11 per cent after warning first half results would be lower than last year.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
