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 16, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: A scheme that allowed wealthy individuals to cut their tax bills by claiming tax relief on charitable donations was closed by the UK tax office.
New York Times: Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank, may pay a fine of $536 million (£330 million) to settle accusations that it violated sanctions in its dealings with Iran.
The Times: British Airways will seek an emergency injunction at the High Court to avert a 12-day strike by the airline's staff over Christmas.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: We are barely out of the worst recession since the Second World War and already inflation is surging.
David Prosser in The Independent: The battle is still on at Royal Bank of Scotland where management will not back down on their right to pay bonuses.
Iain Martin in the Wall Street Journal: The answer as to why the crisis happened is to be found our perennial tendency to value hope more than we do experience.
Upside
The Times: Royal Bank of Scotland will negotiate a new long-term bonus plan for the state-backed bank's chief executive and other senior directors.
Wall Street Journal: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner made its first flight, marking a success for the aircraft maker after two years of delays.
The Times: Cadbury, the UK confectioner, made a deal to outsource part of its ailing pension fund to Pension Corporation, the specialist fund manager.
Downside
The Daily Telegraph: Moody's, the credit rating agency, warned that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest in 2010.
The Independent: The Consumer Prices Index unexpectedly rose to 1.9 per cent in November and the rising price of petrol was blamed.
The Daily Telegraph: The Arab states of the Gulf region agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Richard Pym, who was brought in to stabilise Bradford & Bingley, the bank, will chair the rump of state-owned Northern Rock as well.
Wall Street Journal: Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group, and Danielle Chiesi, a former hedge-fund consultant, were charged in relation to an insider-trading scheme.
The Daily Telegraph: BSkyB quit talks with Google about making the broadcaster's hit shows freely available on YouTube, the search giant's video-sharing site.
Around Asia
New York Times: China is preparing to build three times as many nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world combined.
Wall Street Journal: ABN Amro China uncovered potential irregularities in the banking franchise's small and medium-size enterprise banking business.
Bloomberg: Foreign direct investment in China climbed for a fourth month in November from a year earlier.
Look ahead
New York Times: The European Union will cut the tariff paid on bananas from Latin American countries in eight stages, starting in the next few months.
The Independent: The global airline industry faces another $5.6 billion (£3.5 billion) of losses next year, predicts the International Air Transport Association.
Financial Times: The package of cuts announced by Ministry of Defence will save £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) over the next three years.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,285.77 down 0.6% (Tuesday close)
Dow 10,452.00 down 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,107.93 down 0.6% (close)
Nasdaq 2,201.05 down 0.5% (close)
Nikkei 10,184.05 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,694.19 down 0.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6252/1.1174 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4545 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $72.21 up 16 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $70.79 up 10 cents (latest)
Gold $1127.10 up $4.10 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell as a climb in producer prices raised inflation concerns.
Diversified manufacturer General Electric, considered an indicator of the US economy's health, fell 1.3 per cent after it issued a cautious outlook for 2010. After the bell, design software maker Adobe Systems rose 0.1 per cent after it posted lower quarterly profit and sales. During the regular session, Best Buy, the top US electronics retailer, fell 8.5 per cent, after it issued a tepid outlook for the holidays. The New York-listed shares of the Swiss banking company Credit Suisse fell 3.4 per cent after it said it will pay $536 million (£330 million) to settle a US investigation. Plane maker Boeing fell 0.7 per cent after the first flight of its troubled Dreamliner jet.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade, heading to their biggest gain in almost two weeks. Among Japanese banks, Shinsei Bank and Aozora Bank both rose 15 per cent on reports tighter rules on bank-capital ratios will be delayed. Japanese financial companies had the 20 biggest gains in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, rose 1.1 per cent on reports it may post a full-year profit. Santos, Australia's third-biggest oil and gas producer, rose 1.3 per cent on higher oil prices. News Corp rose 3.4 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5 percent to 119.91 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
The London Stock Exchange held its Christmas party on Monday night and could have further cause for celebration this week by finally winning control of Turquoise, the rival trading platform.
Market speculation suggested the group, down 11p to 752p, was on the verge of agreeing a deal to combine its Baikal dark pool trading platform with Turquoise and take a 60 per cent stake in the new company.
While the LSE has yet to put pen to paper on an agreement, it is thought a deal is very close and could be completed as soon as this week.
Overall, the FTSE 100 dropped 29.57 points to 5,285.77, as investors were happy to cash in on recent gains.
Legal & General was the biggest riser, climbing 2.6 per cent, amid renewed speculation the insurer may be subject to a bid from Resolution, down 0.4 per cent. The latest tale doing the rounds was that Resolution may offer 125p per share.
Royal Bank of Scotland also made ground, up 2.1 per cent, after the bank's board denied it had threatened to quit over a government veto on pay at a shareholder meeting.
However, much of the banking sector fell, as investors booked profits and some fretted about news from Austria, where OeVAG, the country's fourth largest bank by net assets, may have to be nationalised. HSBC lost 2.5 per cent.
British Airways dropped 2.2 per cent amid continuing fears abouts the impact of Christmas strikes.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
