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, December 2, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The board of General Motors, the struggling US carmaker, sacked Fritz Henderson, its president and chief executive.
The Daily Telegraph: Extra taxes on UK properties should be charged to avoid a future housing crash, said Adam Posen, a Bank of England policymaker.
The Times: The UK Treasury demanded the right of veto over the size and terms of bonus payments at Royal Bank of Scotland, the state-backed lender.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: At last the Government has come clean on bankers' bonuses. Size does matter.
Richard Fletcher in the Daily Telegraph: The markets had been hoping for some clarity from the Dubai: but the emirate's ruler wanted instead to philosophise.
David Prosser in The Independent: The large banks have survived the crisis, while the blameless mutual movement may be purged by a regulatory backlash.
Upside
New York Times: Sales of new vehicles rose in November in the US.
Financial Times: Governments, banks and companies are issuing more longer-dated bonds in a sign of increased investor confidence.
New York Times: The number of US homes with sales pending reached its highest level in three years in October.
Downside
The Times: Dubai World's creditors asked lawyers to assess their rights over the state-owned company's trophy assets, which include P&O Ferries and the QE2 cruise liner.
The Independent: BT, the telecoms giant, may be allowed by regulators to lift wholesale charges by 4 per cent to help cut its pensions deficit.
Wall Street Journal: US factory activity unexpectedly grew at a slower pace in November, although there are signs the sector is recovering.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Mitchells & Butlers, the pub and restaurant operator, sacked the four non-executive directors appointed at the behest of dissident shareholders.
The Daily Telegraph: Chelsea Building Society struck a deal with bondholders to ensure its rescue takeover by rival mutual Yorkshire does not come unstuck.
Wall Street Journal: At least two candidates for the top job at Bank of America told directors that the giant bank should consider breaking itself up.
Around Asia
Financial Times: The UN carbon trading body refused to fund many Chinese wind farms amid questions about how the country's policies affected its applications.
Wall Street Journal: Morgan Stanley, the financial services giant, shortlisted bidders in the sale of its stake in China International Capital Corporation.
New York Times: Japan's central bank decided to pump short-term funds into the nation's banking system.
Look ahead
The Times: Residential rents are set to rise next year as the number of properties put up to let dwindles to levels not seen since 1998.
Wall Street Journal: Airbus, the European plane maker, aims to get its troubled A400M military transporter airborne for the first time next week.
The Times: Logica, the computing group, plans to close its final-salary pension scheme from the second quarter of next year.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,312.17 up 2.3% (Tuesday close)
Dow 10,471.58 up 1.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,108.86 up 1.2% (close)
Nasdaq 2,175.81 up 1.5% (close)
Nikkei 9,556.02 down 0.2% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,367.55 up 1.2% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6599/1.1002 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5087 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $79.22 down 13 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $78.09 down 28 cents (latest)
Gold $1207.10 up $6.90 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose as a weak dollar boosted natural resource companies and economic data reinforced hopes for a sustainable recovery. Among commodity-oriented companies US Steel rose 1.2 per cent, Alcoa rose 2.2 per cent and Newmont Mining rose 3.8 per cent on the lower dollar. Oil giant Exxon Mobil rose 1.3 per cent on higher oil prices. Staples, the office supplies retail chain, rose 4.8 per cent on better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Troubled insurer American International Group rose 8.6 per cent after it made a deal with the New York Federal Reserve Bank that slashes its debt. Trading volume was below average on the New York Stock Exchange.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after commodity prices increased. Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest miner, rose 2.9 per cent and rival BHP Billiton rose 1.5 per cent on higher gold and metals prices. BlueScope Steel, Australia's largest steelmaker, rose 4.3 per cent after boosting production capacity. OneSteel, Australia's No. 2 steel producer, rose 2.3 per cent. Panasonic, the world's biggest maker of home electronics, added 1.4 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6 per cent to 120.15 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Shares in Informa leapt more than 10 per cent after the publishing and events group ended talks to buy Springer Science & Business Media. The group said it could not do a deal in the timeframe required by the debt laden company's private equity owners, who are believed to have wanted to finalise a sale before Christmas.
The FTSE 100 rose more than 2 per cent, up 121.49 points to 5,312.17, as concerns about Dubai's debt problems faded.
Banks, which had been worse hit amid fears about their exposure to the emirate, made ground, with Royal Bank of Scotland rising 3.3 per cent.
Cable & Wireless was also in demand, up 1.6 per cent, after ING said the telecoms group's demerger could attract a bid, with its Worldwide business a particularly interesting target.
Close Brothers ticked up 2.7 per cent despite Arden Partners hitting out at the group's lack of communication, which it said was a contributing factor to its recent poor performance.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
