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 23, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The French Government ordered 129 armoured vehicles from BAE Systems, the UK defence supplier, in a £220 million ($351 million) deal.
The Daily Telegraph: The Campaign for Real Ale will mount a legal challenge to a recent competition ruling in favour of Britain's biggest pub companies.
The Times: The Office of Fair Trading conceded defeat in its long-running legal battle against Britain's banking sector over unauthorised overdraft charges.
Comment
Ian King in The Times: The issue is whether, as in days gone by, Britons can ever resort to the practice of putting a little by each month for a rainy day.
Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph: Banks should regulate themselves and treat their customers fairly.
David Prosser in The Independent: I wonder if the data are good enough for Santa to bring Alistair Darling a fourth-quarter recovery.
Upside
Wall Street Journal: More than a dozen investors submitted bids to the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp for its portfolio of failed real-estate loans.
New York Times: Existing home sales in the US rose, indicating the economic recovery, while still uneven, has carried into the end of the year.
Wall Street Journal: OPEC, the oil cartel, left its production target quotas unchanged.
Downside
The Times: The US Treasury fined Lloyds Banking Group $217 million (£136 million) over allegations that the British bank violated US sanctions.
The Daily Telegraph: Fitch Ratings bluntly warned Britain and France that they are at risk of losing their AAA status.
The Independent: More businesses have gone bust in this than in any previous recession, Conservative party research found.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Authorities cleared the merger of Ticketmaster Entertainment, the music ticket agency, with Live Nation, the live music promoter.
The Daily Telegraph: Mike Clasper, a former BAA chief, will replace Sir James Crosby, the ITV director, as senior non-executive director of the broadcaster.
New York Times: Chris Albrecht, the former chief executive of broadcaster HBO, will become president and chief executive of Starz, a Liberty Media firm.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Japan unveiled a ¥1 trillion (£6.8 billion, $11 billion) plan to improve job growth, support local economies and help small businesses.
Bloomberg: China CNR, the maker of rail cars used in Beijing's subway, raised 13.9 billion yuan (£1.3 billion, $2 billion) in its initial public offering.
Wall Street Journal: Chinese state-owned banks are expanding their lending in Africa and dealing directly with African banks and companies.
Look ahead
The Times: Peter Rabbit will return to television in 2011 in a new series by Chorion, the intellectual rights firm, and Frederick Warne, the original publisher.
The Times: A ruling by a US court will prevent Microsoft, the software giant, from selling any versions of Word 2003 or Word 2007 after January 11 2010.
The Times: Iraq will more than double its exports of crude oil to China next year.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,328.66 up 0.7% (Tuesday close)
Dow 10,464.93 up 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,118.02 up 0.4% (close)
Nasdaq 2,252.67 up 0.7% (close)
Nikkei 10,378.03 up 1.9% (Tuesday close, Wednesday closed for holiday)
Hang Seng 21,072.25 down 0.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5964/1.119 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4266 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $73.60 up 14 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $74.58 up 18 cents (latest)
Gold $1088.40 up $1.70 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rallied on a surge in existing home sales which boosted optimism about the economic recovery. Home builders led the way. DR Horton rose 3.8 per cent and Toll Brothers rose 4.5 per cent. Computer maker International Business Machines rose 1 per cent after it scored a 10-year outsourcing deal. Software giant Microsoft rose 1 per cent. After the bell, chip maker Micron Technology rose 2.2 per cent on its first quarterly profit in more than two years. iPod maker Apple rose 1.1 per cent. Plane maker Boeing rose 1.5 per cent after it bought a stake in the plant that assembles the fuselage for its 787 Dreamliner.
Asia
Reuters: Asian shares edged higher in morning trade, led by a spurt in Australian stocks to a three-week high. Strong activity in Australia pushed the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan up by 0.2 per cent. Gloucester Coal rose more than 25 per cent as it resumed trading after rival Macarthur Coal offered to buy it. Trading in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea was subdued because Tokyo's stock market was closed for the Emperor's birthday holiday.
Michael Beh
London
There was little Christmas cheer for United Utilities yesterday as Bank of America Merrill Lynch stuck the boot in. The broker said current trading at UU, down 0.4 per cent, was unispiring, that Ofwat, the water regulator, had imposed a tourniquet on future water utility profits and that the group may require an equity injection even after disposals at its Contract Solutions division. Overall, the FTSE 100 continued its so called Santa rally, gaining 34.67 points to 5,328.66, although volumes were barely touching half the recent daily average. Oil groups rose, with Royal Dutch Shell up almost 2 per cent, but miners fell, with Xstrata down 1.1 per cent.
Peter Stiff
