Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Monday, December 21, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Sports Direct, the retailer controlled by Mike Ashley, allegedly broke City rules in its attempt to buy Blacks, a smaller rival.
http://tinyurl.com/yhyps37
The Daily Telegraph: The UK is at risk of a mass sell-off of distressed properties that would lower values and impair the lending ability of banks.
http://tinyurl.com/yfslnm4Wall Street Journal: Spyker, the Dutch exotic car maker, made another bid for Saab, the Swedish car maker owned by General Motors.
http://tinyurl.com/ycoqm8lComment
Geoffrey Dicks in The Times: The United Kingdom's housing market will live to fight another day.
http://tinyurl.com/y99tts9Roger Bootle in The Daily Telegraph: The tax on bankers' bonuses is a cack-handed way of addressing legitimate concerns.
http://tinyurl.com/yautjn2Stephen King in The Independent: Next year it won't be Santa visiting your home but the Chancellor of the Exchequer to steal your money from under your nose.
http://tinyurl.com/y9uhf9yUpside
The Times: The administrators of Flyglobespan, the bankrupt Scottish airline, will meet E-Clear, its credit card payment processor, to demand payment.
http://tinyurl.com/yzkqqz5Financial Times: The BBC, the public broadcaster, was given the go-ahead for the controversial venture to bring internet services to the television set.
http://tinyurl.com/ydc3cdsThe Daily Telegraph: City Index, the spread betting firm, steps up its expansion plans despite losing more than £90 million ($145 million) in the credit crunch.
http://tinyurl.com/yce2dbtDownside
The Times: London's position as the dominant financial centre for the world carbon market could be lost after the US-brokered Copenhagen Accord was adopted.
http://tinyurl.com/ykxgvdyThe Independent: Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, threatened to move up to 20 per cent of its London-based staff to Spain over tax and bonuses rules.
http://tinyurl.com/yz6bqc8Financial Times: British embassies are making cutbacks as a budget crisis engulfs the Foreign Office.
http://tinyurl.com/ydbrv2tMergers and shakers
The Times: BAA will know whether it must hold a firesale of Stansted and one of its Scottish airports after a ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
http://tinyurl.com/yc7vlvbThe Independent: Andrey Melnichenko and Sergey Popov, the Russian billionaires, restored plans to list Suek, the coal exporter, on the London Stock Exchange.
http://tinyurl.com/yd7zrlr
Wall Street Journal: Citadel Broadcasting, the third-largest radio broadcaster in the US, filed for bankruptcy.
http://tinyurl.com/yb4pdj9Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Japan posted a bigger-than-expected ¥374 billion (£2.56 billion, $4.14 billion) trade surplus in November.
http://tinyurl.com/ydmzpt6The Times: Two Chinese state-controlled companies are among front-runners in a £3 billion ($4.8 billion) battle for Royal Dutch Shell's oil assets in Nigeria.
http://tinyurl.com/yhw6p5sWall Street Journal: Youku.com, one of China's largest video websites, raised $40 million (£25 million) in new funding.
http://tinyurl.com/yd8mwrbLook ahead
Financial Times: Oil prices will remain trapped in the $70-$80 a barrel range in the first half of 2010 as demand recovers more slowly than expected.
http://tinyurl.com/ydcsmdpThe Times: Workers face further job cuts and wage freezes next year, warns the CBI, the UK employers' organisation.
http://tinyurl.com/ycfgbwrFinancial Times: BT, the UK telecoms, is accelerating its superfast broadband network roll-out to ensure it is completed before the 2012 Olympic Games.
http://tinyurl.com/ycyqzdbUnfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
British Airways cabin crew voted for a 12-day strike from December 22 which will cause travel chaos for almost a million passengers.
http://tinyurl.com/y88bj5uThe Abu Dhabi's $10 billion (£6.1 billion) bailout of its neighbour Dubai helped boost share prices around the world.
http://tinyurl.com/yd45xl6Tuesday
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.
http://tinyurl.com/yab2nw3Boeing's 787 Dreamliner made its first flight, marking a success for the aircraft maker after two years of delays.
http://tinyurl.com/yb3paggWednesday
The US government abruptly shelved plans to sell its 34 per cent stake in Citigroup, the troubled bank.
http://tinyurl.com/ydj9slnMicrosoft agreed to offer Windows users a choice of internet browsers, ending the US software giant's dispute with the European Commission.
http://tinyurl.com/yetq2axThursday
Investment banks, upset at the Government's attacks on City bonuses, held up a £1 billion ($1.6 billion) fund for small business.
http://tinyurl.com/yca7pm5The Times: A High Court judge ruled British Airways strike illegal, but Unite, the union representing the airline's staff, vowed to keep on fighting and threatened a long battle.
http://tinyurl.com/y8kdztpFriday
A severe winter snowstorm struck the US East Coast and caused store closures, threatening retailers' final weekend sales push before Christmas.
http://tinyurl.com/ybxv6xyIcap, the money broker, paid the US Securities and Exchange Commission $25 million (£15.5 million) to settle charges of fake trades to encourage customer activity.
http://tinyurl.com/ybxx5v2MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,196.81 down 0.4% (Friday close)
Dow 10,328.89 up 0.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,102.47 up 0.6% (close)
Nasdaq 2,211.69 up 1.5% (close)
Nikkei 10,205.14 up 0.6% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,086.59 down 0.4% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6147/1.1268 euros (latest)
Euro $1.433 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $74.10 up 35 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $73.27 down 9 cents (latest)
Gold $1115.80 up $4.30 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose in choppy trade. For the week, the Dow fell 1.3 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 1 per cent. On Friday, Software firm Oracle rose 6.4 per cent and the US-listed stock of Blackberry maker Research In Motion rose 10.3 per cent on strong results. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar fell 0.6 per cent and plane maker Boeing fell 1.9 per cent as the greenback rose. Mobile phone maker Motorola rose 5.2 per cent on reports its set-top box unit has generated private equity interest. Credit card company Visa rose 2.2 per cent and was added to the S&P 500 index. Trading volume was extremely heavy.
http://tinyurl.com/yzwx9wmAsia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade for the first time in three days, led by commodity producers. Qantas, Australia's biggest airline, rose 4.4 per cent on strong profit forecasts. BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, rose 2 per cent on higher oil and copper prices. Nippon Oil, Japan's largest oil refiner, rose 3.8 per cent. Mazda, Japan's second-largest car exporter, rose 1.4 per cent after the yen weakened. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.4 per cent to 117.98 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/yb6nj5hMichael Beh
