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 6, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: A Christmas truce by both sides in the postal dispute; two planned 24-hour walkouts for today and Monday called off.
http://tinyurl.com/y9go77k
Daily Telegraph: Barack Obama stepped into the row on the future of Vauxhall and Opel as anger at General Motors' decision to keep its European operations grew.
http://tinyurl.com/y99qszp
The Times: UK house prices could temporarily dip next year, according to Savills, who forecast a 6.6 per cent decline by mid-summer.
http://tinyurl.com/yav2ke6
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The Bank of England is pretty confident that its injection of huge amounts of new money into the economy is working.
http://tinyurl.com/yl5l54r
Hamish McRae in The Independent: Growth is returning but what will happen when QE is wound up?
http://tinyurl.com/yfzwbw7
Edmund Conway in Daily Telegraph: The money-printing blizzard pioneered by the Bank of England still has at least another three months to go.
http://tinyurl.com/yjue5uh
Upside
The Times: The Government took control of the troubled East Coast rail franchise with National Express facing a battle to keep its remaining two franchises.
http://tinyurl.com/yzvadrg
New York Times: US retailers posted a second consecutive month of sales increases, their best performance in more than a year.
http://tinyurl.com/yhn5vbs
The Times: Starbucks, the global coffee shop chain, raised its earnings guidance as consumers increased their number of visits and spending per visit
http://tinyurl.com/ylkszo4
Downside
The Times: Worry over the economy worsened as the Bank of England agreed to a further £25 billion ($41 billion) stimulus.
http://tinyurl.com/yd3ks9a
The Times: Fears for viability of Pension Protection Fund after its deficit more than doubled to £1.23 billion ($2 billion).
http://tinyurl.com/yla2zxx
The Times: Dubai Investment Capital forced to put £53 million ($88 million) of extra cash into Doncasters, its engineering business, to prevent a breach of banking covenants.
http://tinyurl.com/yhmp667
Mergers and shakers
The Times: US prosecutors charge 14 more over an alleged $53 million (£32 million) web of insider trading surrounding Galleon, the New York hedge fund group.
http://tinyurl.com/yaao4w3
The Independent: Cable & Wireless resurrecting plans to split in two a year after shelving the move, but also warned on profits as its Caribbean business suffered.
http://tinyurl.com/ygszflh
The Times: Sir John Ritblat tipped to buy back Merchant Inns less than a month after its fall into administration.
http://tinyurl.com/yed2sz8
Around Asia
The Times: Yardley, the iconic British toiletries brand, sold off its businesses in emerging markets to Wipro, the Indian outsourcing group, for $45.5 million (£27.5 million).
http://tinyurl.com/ykyhj9h
New York Times: Toyota said it had returned to a profit in the latest quarter as aggressive cost cuts and government incentives buoyed its bottom line.
http://tinyurl.com/yh6gmyl
New York Times: Lawmakers unhappy that a Texas wind farm project would create many more jobs in China than in the US.
http://tinyurl.com/yfmn3rp
Look ahead
The Times: British Airways to go ahead with new work practices but facing trial in the High Court in February on a possible contract breach.
http://tinyurl.com/yc5g7sf
New York Times: A bigger-than-expected decline in workers seeking benefits expected today in monthly US unemployment report.
http://tinyurl.com/yhbbmrr
The Times: The Treasury expected Northern Rock to lose billions of pounds in retail deposits once the Government removes financial guarantees in the spring.
http://tinyurl.com/yer5x9s
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,125.64 up 0.4% (Thursday close)
Dow 10,005.96 up 2.1% (close)
S&P 500 1,066.63 up 1.9% (close)
Nasdaq 2,105.32 up 2.4% (close)
Nikkei 9,838.85 up 1.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,479.08 down 0.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6573/1.1149 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4865 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $78.40 up 41 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $79.96 up 34 cents (latest)
Gold $1,090.70 up $1.40(latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks jumped on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500 up for a fourth day, as economic data boosted confidence in the recovery and strong results from Cisco Systems suggested a rebound in technology spending. The market's advance was broad-based and the Dow ended above 10,000 for the first time in two weeks. Cisco, which makes computer network equipment, rose 2.8 per cent and helped lead the session's gains, a day after it posted a stronger-than-expected profit and said business was recovering. After the bell, coffee chain operator Starbucks rose 1.5 per cent. During the regular session, tech stocks climbed across the board. DuPont rose 3.7 per cent after its chief executive outlined plans for growth in 2010 and after. On the downside was CVS Caremark, which tumbled 20.1 per cent after comments from chief executive Tom Ryan on weakness in the pharmacy benefit management business.
http://tinyurl.com/ydu285p
Asia
Bloomberg: Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose as lower-than-expected jobless claims and higher worker productivity in the US boosted confidence the global economy was recovering. Sony, Japan's biggest exporter of televisions, added 2.9 per cent while Canon, the world's largest camera maker which derives more than 75 per cent of its revenue from overseas, advanced 3.3 per cent. Toyota Motor, the world's biggest carmaker, gained 0.6 per cent after narrowing its full-year net loss forecast. Elpida Memory, Japan's biggest computer memory-chip maker, rose 3.7 per cent after raising its estimate for capital spending in the current fiscal year by 50 percent. Bridgestone, the world's largest tyremaker by sales, dropped 3 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/yfjwl8k
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
London
Rentokil Initial was in demand yesterday after the ratcatcher received a boost from its house broker on the eve of its third-quarter results. Shares rallied 3 per cent after Merrill Lynch added the services group to its "most preferred list", saying that the figures out today should prompt full-year upgrades and reinforce the turnaround potential of the business.
The FTSE 100 advanced 38.40 points to 3,708.73, bouncing back from early session lows after the Bank of England said that it would extend its quantitative easing programme and keep interest rates at 0.5 per cent.
Vodafone made ground, up 1 per cent, after reports that India could cut the annual licence fee paid by large operators by up to a third.
Cable & Wireless was the biggest faller, dropping 6.2 per cent, after the telecoms group cut full-year earnings guidance due to a poor performance in the Caribbean, which overshadowed confirmation that it was pressing ahead with a demerger.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
