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
Tuesday, December 8, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The UK government asked American and European banks with City operations to give to a new fund that will lend to Britain's small businesses.
The Daily Telegraph: Most of the £282 billion ($464 billion) of toxic Royal Bank of Scotland assets under taxpayer protection are outside the UK.
Wall Street Journal: Citigroup and Wells Fargo disagreed with the US government over how much capital the banks need to raise to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The modest bid for Shanks, the waste business, gives us a small cause for celebration - private equity bids are back.
Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph: We will all pay for Sir Fred Goodwin's spend, spend, spend years at Royal Bank of Scotland.
Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times: The biggest reason offered by Bank of America for paying back taxpayer-provided bailout money was compensation.
Upside
The Times: Google, the search giant, made deals with Facebook and MySpace to include real-time updates from the social networking sites.
The Independent: Energy suppliers are making more money from household customers, with margins doubling in the past year, the industry regulator said.
The Times: The cross-party Commons Transport Select Committee backed the controversial third runway at Heathrow airport.
Downside
The Times: A "disappointing" rise in high street sales last month has dealt a blow to hopes that festive spending will help to power Britain out of recession.
Financial Times: Greece's financial difficulties escalated after it was warned of a possible credit rating downgrade.
The Times: An investigation into alleged bribery involving Welsh Water, one of the UK's biggest water companies, spread to ChandlerKBS, its consultancy firm.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: The six biggest lending banks to Dubai World began talks with the ailing state-owned group.
The Daily Telegraph: Shanks was offered 135p-a-share by Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, but the waste management firm wants a higher offer.
New York Times: Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, the music giants, joined with rival EMI Music to launch Vevo, a music video web site.
Around Asia
The Times: Heineken settled a dispute with Vijay Mallya, the Bangalore-based tycoon, allowing the brewing giant to brew and market its products in India.
Wall Street Journal: Japan unveiled a new economic stimulus package that includes ¥7.2 trillion (£49 billion, $81 billion) in spending.
Bloomberg: Russia and India made an agreement which allows Russia's state nuclear company to negotiate on a price for reactors in India.
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: Gilt traders are in line for bumper bonuses this year after generating big profits from the UK's quantitative easing scheme.
The Times: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange asked Rusal, the world's leading aluminium producer, to meet certain conditions, delaying its IPO until 2010.
The Daily Telegraph: Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, will close its flagship London store in the first three months of 2010.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,310.66 down 0.2% (Monday close)
Dow 10,390.11 steady (close)
S&P 500 1,103.25 down 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,189.61 down 0.2% (close)
Nikkei 10,116.35 down 0.5% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,101.40 down 1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6449/1.1084 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4841 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $76.66 up 23 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $73.99 up 6 cents (latest)
Gold $1163.70 down 30 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended slightly lower and the Dow was flat after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sparked jitters about the economic recovery. Financial and technology shares were among the biggest drags on the market. Bank of America closed down 2.4 per cent and JPMorgan Chase fell 1.2 per cent. Citigroup fell 2.2 per cent on news that it is in a disagreement with the US government over how much money the bank should raise to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program. On the Nasdaq, iPod maker Apple fell 2.3 per cent and software maker Oracle fell 1.5 per cent. Trading volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange.
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks fell in morning trade after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US economy faces "formidable headwinds." The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.1 per cent to 120.48 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
With the weather so miserable, perhaps it should come as no surprise that investors were happy to buy into the FTSE's big holiday companies.
Shares in TUI Travel gained 1.5 per centafter an upbeat "buy" note from Panmure Gordon, saying that consensus estimates on the stock were too low, with the market worried about a more difficult trading environment than booking trends indicated.
Thomas Cook rose 1.9 per cent after Manny Fontenla-Novoa, its chief executive, increased his holding.
Overall, the FTSE 100 lost 11.70 points to 5,310.66 as investors sold off stock in the banking sector before tomorrow's Pre-Budget Report, for which the Government is thought to be considering a new tax on bankers' bonuses, or even the banks themselves. Royal Bank of Scotland lost 4.7 per cent.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
