KILL THE COMPETITION
Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, what you should be thinking from Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com
Monday, December 14, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The US launched a security investigation into the proposed sale of a stake in Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space company to Arab investors.
The Independent: Borders, the troubled bookseller, will close all of its stores by Christmas Eve.
The Times: Income in nearly a third of UK households dropped by at least £1,200 ($1,900) a year.
Comment
Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: One parallel between public debt and climate issues is that the costs of both will fall on future generations.
Margereta Pagano in The Independent: The income tax increases may prompt a new brain drain of some of our brightest young talent.
Roger Bootle in the Daily Telegraph: The UK is a hardy perennial and there is opportunity for it to flower again.
Upside
The Times: Cadbury, the UK confectioner, will unveil bullish growth projections in response to a £10 billion ($16 billion) offer by Kraft, the US food group.
Wall Street Journal: The Airbus A400M military transporter flew for the first time but the delayed European plane is still burdened by an inflexible contract.
The Times: The UK is considering a radical plan to privatise up to a quarter of the public sector by creating at least two public-sector "outsourcing giants".
Downside
The Times: Last-ditch negotiations between British Airways and union leaders failed to broker a truce and the airline is braced for Christmas strike action.
The Daily Telegraph: Britain's financiers and entrepreneurs are leaving the UK at the rate of 10 a week to avoid the new 50 per cent top tax rate.
Bloomberg: Negotiators at global warming talks in Copenhagen argued as developing countries said "no money, no deal".
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Spinvox, the troubled technology firm, is likely to accept a $150 million (£92 million) takeover offer from Nuance Communications, a US rival.
Wall Street Journal: Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, hired Gregory Fleming, the former Merrill Lynch president, to run its investment-management arm.
New York Times: Paul Samuelson, the first American Nobel laureate in economics and the foremost academic economist of the 20th century, died.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Beijing Automotive, one of China's state-owned auto makers, made a deal to acquire some assets and intellectual property of General Motors' Saab unit.
Bloomberg: AMP, the Australian asset manager, and Axa, the French insurer, raised their bid for Axa Asia Pacific, the wealth manager, to A$12.9 billion (£7.2 billion, $11.8 billion).
Wall Street Journal: Vodafone, the UK telecoms firm, may sell its 4.4 per cent indirect stake in Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator by revenue.
Look ahead
New York Times: US jobs are likely to grow by spring, predicts Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama's top economic advisor.
Daily Telegraph: The winner of the first phase of a £4 billion ($6.5 billion) armoured reconnaissance vehicle contract will be announced in February.
New York Times: Google, the search engine, plans to begin selling its own smartphone to rival Apple's iPhone early next year.
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
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.
The Times: Google, the search giant, made deals with Facebook and MySpace to include real-time updates from the social networking sites.
Tuesday
President Barack Obama unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at turning around the US's beleaguered job market with an emphasis on small businesses.
Rolls-Royce won a $2 billion (£1.2 billion) contract with United Airlines to supply Trent aero engines for 25 Airbus A350s.
Wednesday
Chancellor Alistair Darling's Pre-Budget Report landed himself or his successor with a budget deficit running at more than £170 billion ($275 billion).
Organisational failures and outdated systems meant HM Revenue & Customs missed out on £11.2 billion ($18.3 billion) in taxes.
Thursday
UK treasury gilt futures plunged over concern about the Chancellor's fiscal plans.
Royal Mail, the postal operator, reported a record deficit in its pension fund of £10 billion ($16 billion).
Friday
Unexpectedly strong data showed US consumers stepped up their spending in November and grew more optimistic this month.
Terra Firma accused Citigroup of fraud and sued the bank for billions in damages in connection with the UK private equity firm's purchase of music business EMI.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,261.57 up 0.3% (Friday close)
Dow 10,471.50 up 0.6% (close)
S&P 500 1,106.41 up 0.4% (close)
Nasdaq 2,190.31 steady (close)
Nikkei 10,030.88 down 0.8% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,644.38 down 1.2% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6215/1.1079 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4636 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $71.36 down 52 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $69.07 down 80 cents (latest)
Gold $1123.80 up $3.80 (latest)
New York
Reuters: The Dow and S&P 500 rose after several solid consumer-related reports reinforced investors' confidence. For the week, the Dow was up 0.8 per cent, the S&P was near flat and the Nasdaq fell 0.2 per cent. Bank of America rose 2.8 per cent after financial system legislation was approved. Miner Alcoa rose 8.2 per cent on an analyst's upgrade of the sector. Semiconductor maker National Semiconductor fell 3.6 per cent on concerns about its ability to regain market share. Among airlines, Delta Air Lines rose 13.9 per cent and US Airways rose 10.5 per cent after several carriers improved their 2010 outlooks. Plane maker United Technologies rose 2.2 per cent on reports it expects profits to rise.
Asia
Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks fell in morning trade, led by commodity producers, after oil and gold prices declined. Santos, Australia's third-biggest oil and gas producer, fell 2.6 per cent and BHP Billiton, the nation's biggest oil producer, fell 0.6 per cent. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold producer, fell 0.3 per cent and rival St Barbara fell 8.1 per cent. Nissan, the Japanese carmaker which gets more than a third of its revenue from North America, rose 0.7 per cent and rival Honda rose 0.7 per cent as US consumer confidence increased more than forecast. Qantas, Australia's biggest airline, rose 3.5 per cent in Sydney on its plans to raise international airfares. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 per cent to 119.46 in early trade.
Michael Beh
