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, February 1, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugs group, to announce on Thursday the loss of 4,000 jobs, many of them based in its research development centres.
Financial Times: The Obama administration planned a $100 billion (£62 billion) push for US job creation as a necessary further stimulus to reduce unemployment.
The Times: Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of investment bank Goldman Sachs, expecting a $100 million (£62 million) bonus in defiance of moves by President Obama.
Comment
Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: Has Western liberal democracy lost its prestige, leaving the government-led capitalism of China as the dominant model?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Daily Telegraph: Should Germany bail out Club Med or leave the euro altogether?
David Carr in New York Times: The iPad is a device for consuming media, not creating it. So are the media providers ready to do business?
Upside
The Times: KPMG, the professional services group, planned to treble its consulting revenues to £600 million ($960 million) in the next four years.
Daily Telegraph: CEBR, the forecaster, said British house prices were set to rise 6 per cent this year, revising its prediction of 2 to 4 per cent growth.
The Times: For the first time, the London Stock Exchange today gave private investors the chance to buy corporate bonds in gilts in small packages.
Downside
Daily Telegraph: In a new book, Hank Paulson, the former US Treasury Secretary, blamed the Financial Services Authority for not helping the stricken Lehman Brothers.
The Independent: The Bank of England's MPC facing a tricky choice on Thursday whether to hold off on its quantitative easing programme or to take it further.
Bloomberg: US Toyota dealers may lose as much as $2.47 billion (£1.5 billion) in combined monthly revenue because of the halt of sales of eight models.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: President Obama's clampdown on proprietary trading forced RBS back to negotiations on the sale of its commodity trading unit after JP Morgan pulled out.
The Independent: Vedanta Resources, the Indian miner, considering a break-up of the FTSE 100 company into five or six companies plus a parent.
The Times: ITV shareholders asking whether incoming chief executive Adam Crozier was worth the broadcaster's intended £16 million ($25 million) pay package.
Around Asia
New York Times: The booming Chinese electric-bike industry spurred an $11 billion (£7 billion) global industry and impressive sales in India, Europe and the US.
Financial Times: The aerospace sector called for fresh talks between Beijing and Washington amid fears of a Chinese threat of sanctions over the Taiwan arms deal.
New York Times: China vaulted past competitors last year to become the world's largest wind turbine maker and also leapfrogged the West in producing solar panels.
Look ahead
The Times: The Government to announce financial incentives today for utilities to build fermentation plants to process waste material into biogas.
The Times: David Kappler, chairman of Premier Foods, Britain's biggest food producer, expected to stand down at the group's AGM this year.
The Times: A Canadian pension fund sounding out banks for a £1.7 billion ($2.7 billion) takeover bid for Northumbrian Water, the FTSE 250 group.
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
David Smith, the British chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, left the UK's largest carmaker amid fears of a growing rift with its unions.
Apple, the iPhone maker, reported a 50 per cent rise in profit and a 32 per cent rise in revenue for the fourth quarter.
Tuesday
Spyker, the Dutch car maker, struck a deal with General Motors to rescue Saab, the larger Swedish car maker owned by the car giant.
Yahoo slowed its revenue slide and swung to a profit as the internet company's advertising business stabilized.
Wednesday
Steve Jobs unveiled the portable computer iPad, Apple's attempt to bridge the gap between laptop and smartphone.
Alexander Lebedev denied that a £450 million ($730 million) buyout injection from the Kremlin would be used to buy The Independent.
Thursday
Ben Bernanke won a second term as Federal Reserve chairman following the closest-ever Senate vote for a US central bank head.
Germany triggered a near-panic flight from southern European debt markets by warning that there will be no EU bail-outs.
Friday
Alliance Boots opened talks with employees over plans to scrap the chemist-chain's final salary pension scheme.
Peugeot Citroen, the French carmaker, recalled nearly 100,000 cars because they have the same accelerator-related problems currently afflicting Japan's Toyota.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,188.52 up 0.8% (Friday close)
Dow 10,067.33 down 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,073.87 down 1% (close)
Nasdaq 2,147.35 down 1.5% (close)
Nikkei 10,158.75 down 0.4% (latest)
Hang Seng 19,920.05 down 1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5941/1.15 euros (latest)
Euro $1.3862(latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $71.14 down 32 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $72.52 down 37 cents (latest)
Gold $1,078.10 down $5.70 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks dropped on Friday as worries about fiscal turmoil in Europe and a drop in technology stocks pushed the S&P 500 to its worst monthly decline since February last year. Major indexes initially rose more than 1 per cent after a host of reports showed the US economy grew at a much stronger-than-expected pace during the fourth quarter. But the broader market lost ground by noon as investors sold off technology bellwethers as Apple, Microsoft and IBM. Apple lost 3.6 per cent while Microsoft fell 3.4 per cent. IBM slipped 1.1 per cent. Big manufacturers, including Boeing as well as the energy and materials sectors fell, after Honeywell set a first-quarter profit target that fell short of analysts' expectations. Boeing shed 3.1 per cent while Honeywell lost 3 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade, extending the MSCI Asia Pacific Index's January decline, after Toshiba cut its revenue forecast and concern grew China would take more steps to prevent the economy from overheating. Toshiba, Japan's biggest memory chip maker, dropped 5.6 per cent. Honda sank 3.5 per cent in Tokyo after saying it is recalling 646,000 cars primarily in North America and the UK because of faulty power windows. Baoshan Iron & Steel retreated 2.4 per cent in Shanghai after the central bank's deputy governor said the government planned to curb overcapacity in industries including steel. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.8 per cent to 115.93 in morning trade. In South Korea, Hynix Semiconductor, the world's biggest memory chip maker, slumped 4 per cent after creditors failed for the second time to sell their controlling stake in the company.
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
