 | March 17, 2010 |
Kill the competition: Nest disturbed ... China lobby ... Fed pledgeWednesday, March 17, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Outside experts said upfront charges to the new Nest fund could be expensive for some and shrink their savings in the early years. http://tinyurl.com/yzpkep4 Financial Times: China urged US multinationals to lobby the Obama administration against taking protectionist measures over China’s currency policy. http://tinyurl.com/ybbqb96 The Times: The US Federal Reserve repeated its pledge to keep interest rates low; the White House warned that unemployment was likely to remain high. http://tinyurl.com/yk6mtn6 Comment David Wighton in The Times: The National Employment Savings Trust promises a happier retirement for millions — if only it had some start-up capital. http://tinyurl.com/ygbnsm6 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Daily Telegraph: The proposed EU Greek bail-out cannot simply bypass German law. http://tinyurl.com/ycmtwjo David Prosser in The Independent: The banks send the Office of Fair Trading packing. http://tinyurl.com/yhbvzdg Upside The Times: Debenhams, the department store group, to introduce the Principles women’s wear brand to all its sites after its successful relaunch. http://tinyurl.com/yg65lfb Daily Telegraph: An eleventh-hour intervention by Gordon Brown saw EU hedge fund curbs delayed. http://tinyurl.com/y8zskjd Financial Times: KKR, the New York-based private equity firm, leading a consortium to invest $200 million in Indian’s largest coffee shop chain. http://tinyurl.com/yb99c2v Downside The Times: Royal Dutch Shell to cut a further 1,000 jobs as well as shed a third of its global petrol station network. http://tinyurl.com/ylex7ww The Independent: Britain's biggest banks given the green light to continue charging penalty fees after agreeing to a deal with regulators. http://tinyurl.com/yezt6u9 The Times: A senior Merrill Lynch trader, who mis-stated his positions to avoid showing increasing losses, banned from the City for at least five years. http://tinyurl.com/yg5wlww Mergers and shakers The Times: Charles Bean, the Bank of England deputy governor, said Britain’s public deficit was unsustainable and the pound had suffered from that. http://tinyurl.com/ykdxxoh The Independent: US food giant Kraft said it was "truly sorry" for reneging on a promise to keep open Cadbury's Somerdale factory. http://tinyurl.com/y8act2d Daily Telegraph: Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest, paid CEO Josef Ackermann almost €10 million (£9 million) last year as it swung back to profit. http://tinyurl.com/y9tde45 Around Asia The Times: The sudden departure of Sadeq Sayeed, Nomura’s European boss, raised questions on whether its Tokyo HQ is committed to investing in Europe. http://tinyurl.com/yfgulxo Wall Street Journal: Executives say shifts in Chinese policy were making it harder for foreign companies to succeed. http://tinyurl.com/yklqedc Daily Telegraph: Honda recalling 453,000 cars in the US and other markets because of problems with their brakes. http://tinyurl.com/yatkxtz Look ahead The Times: British Airways counting on e-mails and test messages to passengers to keep Heathrow running smoothly in the event of strikes. http://tinyurl.com/ykoeoh7 New York Times: A research report predicted leading drug makers needed to move quickly to expand into emerging markets or cede them to local players. http://tinyurl.com/ydm9ndq The Times: The US aimed to equip 100 million households with superfast broadband internet under an ambitious plan unveiled by regulators. http://tinyurl.com/yjkdmdj MARKETS FTSE 100 5,620.43 up 0.5% (Tuesday close) Dow 10,685.98 up 0.4% (close) S&P 500 1,159.46 up 0.8% (close) Nasdaq 2,378.01 up 0.7% (close) Nikkei 10,805.10 up 0.8% (latest) Hang Seng 21,183.60 up 0.8% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5226/1.1061 euros (latest) Euro $1.3766 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $80.67 up 14 cents (latest) West Texas crude $81.84 up 14 cents (latest) Gold $1126.90 up $4.40 (latest) New York Reuters: Stocks rose to a fresh 17-month high on Wall Street on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve held benchmark rates near zero and maintained its pledge to keep them low for an extended period. The central bank also pointed to increased momentum in the economy's recovery, and that, coupled with strength in Intel, helped the S&P 500 hit a fresh 17-month high. Intel, ranked among the Dow's top performers, was up 4 per cent on speculation that the world's top chipmaker is expected to release positive guidance for the current quarter. General Electric gained 4.5 per cent after the Dow component's chief financial officer said he expected the company's earnings and dividend to rise in 2011. Earlier in the session, stocks moved higher after Standard & Poor's ended its review for a downgrade of Greece, saying the government's recent deficit-reduction measures are supportive of the ratings. http://tinyurl.com/yl9n9cx Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade, driving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to an eight-week high, as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep borrowing costs near zero for an "extended period" and the yen weakened. James Hardie Industries, the biggest seller of home siding in the US, gained 1.1 per cent in Sydney. Mazda, which gets 21 percent of its sales in Europe, rose 2.5 per cent as the euro strengthened after Standard & Poor’s affirmed Greece’s credit ratings. Mitsui Mining surged 5.8 per cent after boosting its profit forecast and as commodity prices rose. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.7 per cent to 123.82 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/yc87vwg Myles McIvor mjclub@bigpond.com.au London The FTSE 100 squeezed 26.58 points higher to 5,620.43, though only 470,000 trades were made on the London Stock Exchange. Sentiment towards equities was bolstered by surprisingly robust housing figures from America and renewed hopes that Greece’s debt problems may soon be resolved. Standard & Poors re-affirmed its rating of the country’s debt. Crude oil had its best day in four weeks as the dollar fell and OPEC, the cartel, signalled that it would not lift output. That buoyed oil producers, with Tullow Oil among those to benefit most. The shares advanced 23p to £12.83 after Citigroup lifted its target price for them and Total, the French oil company, said it wanted to explore in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Tullow. Miners rallied in line with firmer metals prices. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation added 33p to £11.66. Tentative optimism for economies in Europe and America saw sectors marked lower that tend to perform better when economies falter. Drug companies, utilities, cigarette makers and drink groups all gave ground. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
