 | March 10, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Trade war fear ... swaps under fire ... Liberty splitWednesday, March 10, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Lord Mandelson trying to head off a transatlantic trade war over Washington’s handling of a $35 billion Pentagon procurement project. http://tinyurl.com/yj48wt6 Wall Street Journal: US regulators and European leaders sought stricter oversight on derivatives trading. http://tinyurl.com/yezyp26 The Times: Liberty International to split its £6 billion ($9 billion) property portfolio into two separate companies, one a trust managing 13 shopping centres. http://tinyurl.com/y98nzeq Comment David Wighton in The Times: Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam needs to learn you can’t build trust in 45 minutes. http://tinyurl.com/yk2h5rr Jeremy Warner in Daily Telegraph: Just how low does sterling have to go to boost exports? http://tinyurl.com/y8sjbt3 David Leonhardt in New York Times: President Obama’s health reform plan is a mixed bag, but it may be the only program passed. http://tinyurl.com/yld22tv Upside The Times: Npower became the fourth of the UK’s big six energy companies to cut its prices, reducing its gas bills by 7 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/y9n7cfx New York Times: Bank of America to do away with overdraft fees on purchases made with debit cards, putting pressure on other banks to do the same. http://tinyurl.com/ykkdxa3 The Times: Kevin Foster, a former cab driver who tricked thousands of their savings by promising high returns, convicted of a £34 million ($50 million) Ponzi fraud. http://tinyurl.com/ykjqjvf Downside The Times: Pound took a beating after Britain’s trade deficit widened to almost £8 billion ($12 billion) in January, the biggest total since August 2008. http://tinyurl.com/y93ozxc New York Times: Chevron Corporation to cut 2,000 jobs this year and sell some overseas operations, including its Pembroke refinery in southwest Wales. http://tinyurl.com/yd2pzcs The Times: Aer Lingus’ operating losses quadrupled during 2009 from €20 million (£18.5 million) to €81 million (£74 million) because of a collapse in air fares. http://tinyurl.com/yhbky6b Mergers and shakers The Times: Merlin Entertainments, the company behind Legoland and Madame Tussauds, could again try a £2 billion ($3 billion) stock market flotation this year. http://tinyurl.com/yhjovsb Wall Street Journal: Barclays hunting for a retail bank that would give it more deposits and build on the presence of Barclays Capital in the US. http://tinyurl.com/y99r9ok The Times: Shore Capital, a London broker, to shift head office to Guernsey in a bid to save tax and expand under a more benign regime. http://tinyurl.com/y95n9d7 Around Asia Wall Street Journal: A runaway Toyota Prius on a California highway prompted a new probe by Toyota and US federal investigators into sudden acceleration. http://tinyurl.com/yknmga7 Wall Street Journal: Tom Albanese, the Rio Tinto CEO, to visit China this month for a conference that usually attracts top Chinese officials. http://tinyurl.com/yejy48k The Times: Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, said Middle East countries must open up their markets to foreigners and renounce media censorship. http://tinyurl.com/y9x3wf7 Look ahead The Times: At least 20 City law firms preparing to raise outside funding under new rules that allow non-lawyers to own a stake in legal practices. http://tinyurl.com/yl384ge New York Times: Demand for lithium set to take off as awareness spread that the metal was an ingredient for hybrid cars. http://tinyurl.com/yksj95h The Times: Lara Croft franchise to launch a 1980s-style arcade game this summer via digital download, allowing people to play Tomb Raider together. http://tinyurl.com/ybkh43b MARKETS FTSE 100 5,602.30 down 0.1% (Tuesday close) Dow 10,564.38 up 0.1% (close) S&P 500 1,140.45 up 0.2% (close) Nasdaq 2,340.68 up 0.4% (close) Nikkei 10,559.05 down 0.1% (latest) Hang Seng 21,200.74 unchanged (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.4964/1.1006euros (latest) Euro $1.3596 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $79.70 down 21 cents (latest) West Texas crude $81.213 down 26 cents (latest) Gold $1,121.50 down 80 cents (latest) New York Reuters: A year to the day after stocks fell to their worst close in more than 12 years, the US market spent most of Tuesday spinning its wheels. Major US averages ended slightly higher as falling commodity prices pressured materials stocks, offsetting gains in the telecom and industrial sectors. But the weakest financial companies dominated market activity, as Citigroup, American International Group and others ran up on strong volume amid speculation that regulators could consider clamping down on short sales of specific issues. Top gains came from Capital One Financial, up 2.1 per cent, while Citigroup shot up 7.3 per cent, the largest daily percentage gain since last August. Telecommunications and internet devices companies rose after Cisco Systems unveiled a higher capacity router that AT&T said it had successfully tested. Cisco, which gained almost 4 percent Monday on anticipation of the announcement, was flat. Apple, maker of the iPhone, rose 1.8 per cent. Airline stocks jumped as major US carriers said they would continue to explore new fees and cost-cutting measures to enhance profitability, and demand for business travel picked up. AMR, parent of American Airlines, rose 9.3 per cent, and UAL, parent of United, gained 3.6 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/yz5u8kh Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fluctuated in morning trade as shipping lines declined after a measure of cargo-transport-rates fell, while Australia’s largest telephone company rose on speculation it would avoid a forced break-up. STX Pan Ocean, South Korea’s largest bulk-shipping line, dropped 1.9 per cent in Seoul and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Japan’s third-largest line, fell 1.7 per cent in Tokyo after shipping rates fell for the first time in almost two weeks. BHP Billiton, Australia’s largest oil producer, lost 0.9 per cent as crude oil futures declined for a second day. Telstra climbed 2.1 per cent in Sydney after a newspaper said Australia’s government may fail to force it to split. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed at 122.73 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/ybmopqm Myles McIvor mjclub@bigpond.com.au London The FTSE 100 dipped 4.42 points to 5,602.3 after weaker banks and miners offset gains by oil companies. Banks were unsettled by Jonathan Pierce, sector analyst at Credit Suisse. The "elephants in the room" for lenders, he wrote, were the tougher capital requirements on the way and possible funding difficulties; profit margins may improve but revenues will stagnate. Royal Bank of Scotland eased 0.49p to 38.98p, while Lloyds Banking Group lost 0.47p to 53.18p. A stronger dollar squeezed commodity prices and put miners under pressure. Rangold Resources fell 75p to £50.05. Antofagasta, the copper miner, bucked the trend. The shares advanced 11p to £10.05 after it said production was still likely to grow by about 23 per cent this year, despite the earthquake that hit Chile two weeks ago and forced the company to shut its flagship Los Pelambres mine. Safer, more defensive issues were in demand after confidence about the global economy was dented by news of weak exports from the UK and disappointing consumer confidence in America. Power groups, food companies and drug makers were all marked higher. But UBS, the Swiss bank, urged clients to sell Imperial Tobacco shares and take profits after a 41 per cent rise over the past 12 months. They lost 54p to £20.91 as a result. Among the mid-caps, losses were steeper still for Shanks. The waste management group tumbled 18.2p to 102.2p after takeover talks with the American private equity group Carlyle broke down. Housebuilders were unsettled a by a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which said that house prices grew at their slowest since August last month. Persimmon fell 13.3p to 420.4p. Surprisingly strong results from Gartmore buoyed other fund managers. Henderson Group added 4.6p to 131.9p. JP Morgan gave United Business Media a push after upbeat results on Friday. The broker reckoned worries over the resilience of the publisher's businesses, competition and a tax payment - all of which held back the shares over the past year - had now eased. UBM added 17.6p to 511.5p. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
