 | February 26, 2010 |
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Kill the Competition: Stocks fall ... Goldman probe ... UK GDP fearsThe Times: Stock markets fell as fear of contagion from Greece’s debt disaster combined with depressing economic data. http://tinyurl.com/y86vkkn The Daily Telegraph: US authorities are investigating the role of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, in masking Greece's real debt burden. http://tinyurl.com/yku88fr The Times: Britain’s fragile "recovery" of just 0.1 per cent could be revised to zero — or even worse - on the release of GDP figures. http://tinyurl.com/yc7xhw8 Comment Ian King in The Times: Things have changed for the Royal Bank of Scotland - politicians regard it not as a problem but as a potential piggy bank. http://tinyurl.com/y8coshj Hamish McRae in The Independent: The danger is that the developed world will focus on its mistakes and miss why this expansion will be different. http://tinyurl.com/y9hocom William Pesek on Bloomberg: If Toyota executives didn’t understand the magnitude of their troubles a month ago, they do now. http://tinyurl.com/y9n7ck5 Upside The Times: Bankers at Royal Bank of Scotland will get £1 million ($1.5 million) in bonuses even though the state-backed bank made a £3.6 billion ($5.5 billion) loss. http://tinyurl.com/ybqecol The Daily Telegraph: Coca Cola Enterprises, the bottling giant, may list on the London Stock Exchange after it sold its US business to Coca-Cola, the soft drink giant. http://tinyurl.com/y9vle5s Wall Street Journal: Lombard Odier, the Swiss private bank, plans to relocate its entire credit team to London to take advantage of the City’s talent pool. http://tinyurl.com/yeppfm7 Downside The Times: British Gas was accused of fleecing millions of vulnerable customers as the utilities firm revealed record-breaking profits for last year. http://tinyurl.com/ydx55h4 Wall Street Journal: The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims in the US jumped last month. http://tinyurl.com/yc23uhc Financial Times: Telecom Italia delayed its results as the telecoms group investigated the role of one of its subsidiaries in an alleged tax evasion scam. http://tinyurl.com/ybr9fex Mergers and shakers The Times: Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, the drug maker, received a 76 per cent pay rise to £3.13 million ($4.77 million) last year. http://tinyurl.com/y8za8s4 The Times: Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB spy, and the publisher of the Independent titles are close to a deal as they made a submission to the Office of Fair Trading. http://tinyurl.com/yd82kr6 The Times: The seven nations in a partnership with Airbus to develop the A400M aircraft agreed to give the military project more money; the UK will pay £220 million ($336 million). http://tinyurl.com/ycrnhq3 Around Asia The Times: Japanese car makers Nissan, Suzuki and Daihatsu issued significant vehicle recalls because of problems with their electronics. http://tinyurl.com/y9jh4m5 Bloomberg: Japanese factory production rose 2.5 per cent last month, a sign that overseas demand may have extended the nation’s expansion into this quarter. http://tinyurl.com/yd6klb5 Wall Street Journal: China may legalise some gray-area private lenders and remove ceilings on interest rates, making it easier for small businesses to get loans. http://tinyurl.com/y9o6qml Look ahead The New York Times: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the US, plans to cut 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015. http://tinyurl.com/ybmvhrx The Independent: Virgin Media, the cable group, plans to bring superfast broadband speeds of 100Mb to 12.6 million UK homes by the end of next year. http://tinyurl.com/yecs6jt Wall Street Journal: Steel consumers face much higher steel prices in coming months as raw material prices look to rise by 70 per cent or more in 2010. http://tinyurl.com/ybuku2f MARKETS FTSE 100 5,278.22 down 1.2% (Thursday close) Dow 10,321.03 down 0.5% (close) S&P 500 1,102.94 down 0.2% (close) Nasdaq 2,234.22 down 0.1% (close) Nikkei 10,144.88 up 0.4% (latest) Hang Seng 20,601.63 up 1% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5266/1.1244 euros (latest) Euro $1.3578 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $76.70 up 41 cents (latest) West Texas crude $78.60 up 43 cents (latest) Gold $1108.50 steady (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks recovered most of their losses but ended lower after weak employment and durable goods added to recent concerns for the economy. Industrial and financial shares ranked among the biggest drags on the S&P 500. Banking giant JP Morgan Chase fell 0.5 per cent. Soft drink maker Coca-Cola fell 3.7 per cent after it said it will acquire the North American bottling businesses of Coca-Cola Enterprises. CCE rose 32.9 per cent. Computer maker Apple was among the Nasdaq's leaders and rose 0.7 per cent on rumours of a 4-for-1 stock split. Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts rose 8.5 per cent on analysts’ upgrades. http://tinyurl.com/ybg2vgw Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks advanced in morning trade as earnings at banks and retailers overshadowed declines by technology companies. Woolworths, Australia’s biggest retailer, rose 3.6 per cent on announcing a share buyback following an increase in first-half profit. ANZ Bank, Australia’s fourth-biggest lender, rose 2.8 per cent after earnings rose and rival National Australia Bank rose 2.2 per cent. In Tokyo, Aozora Bank rose 4.5 per cent. Lihir Gold, the Australian gold mining company, rose 3.1 per cent and rival Newcrest Mining rose 2.2 per cent on higher gold prices. Hynix Semiconductor, the memory chip maker, fell 4.2 per cent in Seoul on concern creditors will sell shares in the company. Harvey Norman, Australia’s largest furniture and electronics retailer, rose 0.5 per cent on good earnings. Aeon, the Japanese retailer, rose 3.3 per cent on an analyst’s upgrade. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.4 per cent to 117.45 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/ya2o9m9 Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com London A slew of gloomy news both here and in America unsettled stock markets as investors lost their appetite for risk. The FTSE 100 fell 64.7 points to 5,278.22. Fears were fanned that Britain may be lurching towards a "double dip" recession by figures showing a 5.8 per cent fall in investment by business in the final three months of last year. In the United States, disappointing unemployment figures re-kindled concerns for the world's biggest economy. Sentiment was further dampened by credit rating agencies, which said they may downgrade Greece’s debt and rumours that Japan's debt may soon head the same way. Economics aside, the day was dominated by a rash of company results. Smaller than expected annual losses by the Royal Bank of Scotland, 2.25p higher at 38.38p, prompted talk that banks generally may have turned the corner. Lloyds Banking Group, which reports this morning, added 1.41p to 54.9p. Tracker funds were buying Lloyds shares ahead of an index re-weighting last night. That takes into account the issue of three billion new Lloyds shares, or more than 4 per cent of the company, a fortnight ago. A weaker dollar and economic uncertainty hurt miners. Weaker economies use less commodities. Xstrata was hit hardest, falling 50p to £10.00. BG Group lost 34p to £11.30 as oil companies gave ground on similar concerns. Those stocks to improve largely did so on the back of good results or because buyers were attracted by their safer, more defensive qualities. Drug makers and food producers were marked higher. Shire, the pharmaceuticals group, was given a shot in the arm by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The broker, impressed by recent results, lifted it target price for the shares from £14.00 to £16.30. They added 27p to £13.92. Speculation persisted that Harbinger Capital, the New York-based hedge fund, will buy the 71 per cent of the satellite company Inmarsat that it does not already own. That, and proposals in America to increase wireless capacity for mobile phone operators, lifted the shares 17.5p to 739p. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
