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
Monday, January 25, 0730 GMT
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Top stories
The Times: HBOS, part of Lloyds Banking Group, extended a £300 million ($483 million) loan to stem a cashflow crisis at Rocco Forte Collection, the luxury hotel group.
Financial Times: Land Securities plans to invest in property-based derivative instruments in a first move by the UK's largest property company beyond physical real estate.
The Times: The cold winter weather this year will deliver a £100 million ($161 million) boost to the profits of the UK's Big Six energy companies.
Comment
Tidjane Thiam in The Times: It is clear that the rebalancing of global leadership towards the East will be a key trend in the Davos sessions.
Roger Bootle in the Daily Telegraph: Two cheers for Barack Obama's proposals for reforms to the financial industry. But they are only a start.
Stephen King in The Independent: Investors now have to think not just about what happens in Washington but also about what takes place in Beijing.
Upside
The Times: Spanish fashion retailers plan to expand in the UK this year as high street rentals fall and the pound stays low.
Wall Street Journal: President Barack Obama's plans to curb the size and spread of large US banks won approval from international regulators.
New York Times: White House officials expressed confidence that Ben Bernanke will be confirmed as Federal Reserve chairman for a second term.
Downside
The Times: Huge expanses of UK town and city centres built in the Sixties and Seventies may have to be torn down to meet carbon emission standards.
The Independent: More families will fall into debt with energy companies because of cold weather and high prices, warned consumer groups.
The Times: Administrators of E-Clear cannot find any of the £100 million ($161 million) owed by the credit card firm and are checking the personal assets of Elias Elia, its owner.
Mergers and shakers
Wall Street Journal: Steven Udvar-Hazy, the founder of aircraft-leasing company International Lease Finance, will leave AIG, its US insurer parent.
The Daily Telegraph: The British division of collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing, with loan books worth £2 billion ($3.2 billion), is up for sale.
The Independent: Chelsea and Yorkshire building societies are expected to merge this week to form Britain's second-largest society.
Around Asia
Wall Street Journal: Bank of China, a large state-owned commercial Chinese bank, plans to raise tens of billions of dollars in new capital.
Financial Times: First Eastern Investment Group, a leading Chinese financial group, is in advanced preparations to launch a Dubai-focused investment fund.
Bloomberg: The Bank of Japan is considering expanding its emergency-loan program for banks and increasing purchases of government debt should the recovery stall.
Look ahead
The Independent: The worst recession since the 1930s should be declared over tomorrow with the release of data from the Office for National Statistics.
The Daily Telegraph: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, plan to each sell five million shares of the search giant over the next five years.
Wall Street Journal: The UK will grow relatively strongly in 2010 and 2011, and will outperform both France and Germany, Goldman Sachs predicts.
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
Iconic British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury fell to an £11.7 billion ($19 billion) takeover by the US food conglomerate Kraft.
More than 400 of Britain's senior investors flocked to Goldman Sachs' Fleet Street office to be told to buy lots of equities.
Tuesday
The Governor of the Bank of England told the Chancellor to specify sharp spending cuts in his March Budget or risk a market backlash.
IBM's fourth-quarter profit rose 8.7 per cent, driven by cost-cutting and new services contracts at the technology giant.
Wednesday
World stock markets plunged amid fears that China put a plug in the liquidity that had been fuelling the economic recovery.
Chevron announced worldwide cuts to its refinery operations, placing at risk of up to 1,400 jobs at the energy giant's South Wales oil refinery.
Thursday
US President Barack Obama declared war on Wall Street with plans to limit the size of banks and bar them from the most cavalier trading practices.
Google, the search giant, reported revenue growth of 17 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Friday
Authorities closed down five failed US banks, which were then taken over by other institutions.
Maersk, the Danish shipping and oil group, called off a deal to buy the stakes in two Gulf of Mexico oilfields of Devon Energy, the US energy company.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,302.99 down 0.6% (Friday close)
Dow 10,172.98 down 2.1% (close)
S&P 500 1,091.76 down 2.2% (close)
Nasdaq 2,205.29 down 2.7% (close)
Nikkei 10,463.12 down 1.2% (latest)
Hang Seng 20,465.72 down 1.3% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6115/1.1377 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4164 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $73.00 up 17 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $74.61 up 7 cents (latest)
Gold $1099.20 up $7.20(latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks tumbled on fears the White House's plan to curb bank risk-taking would cut profits and a drop in tech shares. For the week, the Dow fell 4.1 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 3.9 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 3.6 per cent. Among financials JPMorgan fell 3.4 per cent and Goldman Sachs fell 4.2 per cent. Credit card company Capital One Financial fell 12.1 per cent, a day after warning it faced tightening profit margins. Rival AmEx fell 8.5 per cent. Shares of multinationals and commodity-related companies fell after China ordered banks to restrict lending. Aluminium producer Alcoa fell 6 per cent and machinery maker Caterpillar fell 4.6 per cent. On the Nasdaq, web search company Google fell 5.7 per cent a day after it posted disappointing quarterly revenue. iPhone maker Apple fell 5 per cent. Semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices fell 12.4 per cent on a lower sales warning.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade as concern mounted that a US government plan to limit risk-taking at financial companies will reduce profits and derail a global economic recovery. Japanese exporters to the US fell. Honda, the car maker, fell 1.1 per cent, and Sony, the electronics maker, fell 1.9 per cent. BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, fell 1.5 per cent in Sydney and Mitsubishi, the commodities trader, fell 1.8 per cent in Tokyo on lower gold and oil prices. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.8 per cent to 121.47 in early trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
