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
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, January 4, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The UK struggles to raise £1 billion ($1.6 billion) from banks to finance its National Investment Corporation fund to help small businesses.
The Daily Telegraph: UK house price growth is likely to be limited for the next 10 years because of the damaging legacy of the past decade.
Financial Times: Economists warn the UK is in danger of a budgetary crisis this year.
Comment
Ben Broadbent in The Times: The rise in government debt represents a transfer of resources from young to old.
Roger Bootle in the Daily Telegraph: In 2010 the economic news will probably continue to be dire and it will be too early for a revival of self-confidence.
Liu Mingkang on Bloomberg: The worst of the crisis seems to be over, yet even with this rosy picture, challenges are ever present in China.
Upside
The Times: Kraft shares rallied, saving the US food giant £167 million ($269 million) as it plans to raise its £10.1 billion ($16.3 billion) bid for Cadbury, the UK confectioner.
Wall Street Journal: "Avatar", the science-fiction movie, made $68 million (£42 million) in the US last weekend, continuing its stellar returns.
The Independent: The UK Office of Fair Trading strongly criticised Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, on its optional items charges.
Downside
The Times: British companies that supply services to Europe face hundreds of thousands of pounds in costs because of new VAT rules effective from January 1.
New York Times: Regulatory failure caused the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis, said Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve chairman.
The Times: The rush to the shops petered out earlier this year as retailers abandoned January sales for a post-Christmas surge.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Three of Scotland's biggest news groups joined Tinopolis, the TV production firm, to bid for the contract to provide Scottish regional news.
The Daily Telegraph: Diageo, the global drinks giant, emerged as the biggest corporate creditor to First Quench Retailing, the troubled retailer.
Wall Street Journal: Britain's Cambridge University is set to issue bonds for the first time in its 800-year history.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: The Tokyo Stock Exchange will launch a high-tech replacement to its creaky trading platform today.
Bloomberg: Japan Airlines' shares rose after the Development Bank of Japan, the state-run bank, said it would double its credit line to the troubled carrier.
Wall Street Journal: Chinese companies banned from doing business in the US for allegedly selling missile technology to Iran are still trading with US firms.
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: European equities are forecast to give a 14 per cent return over the year.
Bloomberg: US economic growth may falter this year because of a lack of stimulus, predicts Martin Feldstein, a Harvard University economics professor.
The Daily Telegraph: Three banks are expected to be cleared for a new licence in the coming weeks.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,412.88 up 0.3% (Thursday close, Friday closed for a holiday)
Dow 10,428.05 down 1.1% (close)
S&P 500 1,115.10 down 1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,269.15 down 1% (close)
Nikkei 10,669.41 up 1.2% (latest)
Hang Seng 22,007.03 up 0.6% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6106/1.1275 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4285 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $78.48 up 55 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $79.97 up 61 cents (latest)
Gold $1098.40 up $2.20 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks ended 2009 with their best gains since 2003, driven by optimism about the economy's recovery and a brighter outlook for profits. For Thursday's session alone (the markets were closed for a holiday on Friday), US stocks fell in a late-day sell-off. The S&P 500's top-performing stock for the year was financial services company XL Capital, which rose 395.4 per cent in 2009. On Thursday it fell 0.4 per cent. Computer maker IBM rose 55.5 per cent and software company Microsoft rose 56.8 per cent for the year. Credit card company American Express rose 118.4 per cent in 2009. For the day, IBM fell 1.3 per cent, Microsoft fell 1.6 per cent and American Express fell 0.7 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after Chinese manufacturing expanded in December and a stronger dollar boosted the earnings outlook for Japanese exporters. Nippon Yusen KK, Japan's biggest shipping line, rose 1.4 per cent on optimism trade with China will rise. Honda, which gets 42 per cent of its revenue from North America, rose 1.9 per cent on a weaker yen. Japan Airlines rose 31 per cent on reports the Development Bank of Japan will double the amount of credit it will provide for the carrier. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5 per cent to 121.08 in early trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
