 | March 18, 2010 |
Kill the competition: Prudential anger ... Google TV ... Jobs dataThursday, March 18, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Shareholders of The Prudential became angry after Tidjane Thiam, the insurer’s boss, decided to be a non-executive director at Société Générale, the French bank. http://tinyurl.com/yfny9tt Wall Street Journal: Intel, the chip maker, and Sony, the electronics maker, joined with Google in the internet giant’s project to help users navigate web-based TV shows. http://tinyurl.com/ygjar9p The Times: UK unemployment figures were lower than expected but also showed a sharp rise in the number of people dropping out of the jobs market altogether. http://tinyurl.com/yfq9yad Comment David Wighton in The Times: This is not the time for Tidjane Thiam to be distracted from his day job at Prudential. Not even a bit. http://tinyurl.com/ygxackg Edmund Conway in The Daily Telegraph: The Bank of England is worried that after this crisis we will be left with a load of zombie households. http://tinyurl.com/yjcb26o David Prosser in The Independent: There are some good reasons to think about whether a bit more inflation might just be a good thing. http://tinyurl.com/ylpr4ja Upside The Times: Demand for commercial buildings in the West End and the City caused a 10 per cent rise in values for Derwent London, the property developer. http://tinyurl.com/ygkgql7 New York Times: General Motors, the car maker, said it has a "reasonable chance" of earning a profit this year. http://tinyurl.com/yf9affa Wall Street Journal: Unite, the union representing British Airways’ cabin crew, is gaining support from overseas unions for strikes that begin Saturday. http://tinyurl.com/yjdlcfq Downside The Times: The HMRC is trawling the Land Registry to identify people who have bought and sold residential properties without telling the UK taxman. http://tinyurl.com/yf9hldv New York Times: Analysts say taxpayers globally should brace themselves for more indirect taxes as governments look to plug budget holes. http://tinyurl.com/ylymzyb The Times: Four banks, UBS, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Depfa, were charged with fraud linked to the sale of derivatives to the City of Milan. http://tinyurl.com/yldd94e Mergers and shakers The Times: Geely Group, a Chinese car-maker, is poised to take control of Manganese Bronze, maker of London's black taxi. http://tinyurl.com/yjr43sp The Daily Telegraph: ABP, the Dutch pension fund, is suing Bank of America, the banking giant, for more than $90 million (£60 million) over its takeover of Merrill Lynch. http://tinyurl.com/ybkd5ru The Times: Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned transport giant, is set to take control of Arriva, the UK rail and bus operator. http://tinyurl.com/ylhl465 Around Asia The Times: Google, the internet giant, may keep many of its operations in China, even though it is resigned to closing its flagship search engine. http://tinyurl.com/ykp9p4n Wall Street Journal: PayPal, the internet payment firm, joined China UnionPay, the electronic payment provider, to let Chinese consumers shop from overseas merchants. http://tinyurl.com/yj55es3 The Times: Four executives of Rio Tinto, originally arrested in China last year on espionage suspicions, are to face their long-awaited trial hearing next week. http://tinyurl.com/yf49ok2 Look ahead The Times: The Financial Services Authority plans to hire 460 new staff this year as part of an effort to toughen up its supervision of the financial sector. http://tinyurl.com/yljpzl2 Financial Times: State-owned oil firms want the Indian government to create the country’s first sovereign wealth fund to secure global energy assets. http://tinyurl.com/yhdvpyj New York Times: Opec, the oil cartel, predicts a rebound in the world economy will increase oil demand in the coming months and so will keep production levels the same. http://tinyurl.com/yhd8gos MARKETS FTSE 100 5,644.63 up 0.4% (Wednesday close) Dow 10,733.67 up 0.5% (close) S&P 500 1,166.21 up 0.6% (close) Nasdaq 2,389.09 up 0.5% (close) Nikkei 10,830.62 down 0.2% (latest) Hang Seng 21,429.69 up 0.2% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5292/1.1146 euros (latest) Euro $1.372 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $81.70 down 26 cents (latest) West Texas crude $82.66 down 27 cents (latest) Gold $1123.40 down 80 cents (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks rose, pushing the Dow to a 17-month high, after the Federal Reserve renewed a pledge of low interest rates. Trading volume remained light before a key options expiration on Thursday and Friday. After the bell, global sporting gear maker Nike rose 3.4 per cent on better-than-expected profit. During the regular session, coal miner Massey Energy rose 5.8 per cent a day after it announced the acquisition of Cumberland Resources. Investment and insurance firm Hartford Financial Services Group rose 4.8 per cent a day after it announced a plan to repay the US Treasury. Credit card company Discover Financial Services fell 0.4 per cent although it also said it would repay government bailout funds. http://tinyurl.com/yh4ldro Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fluctuated in morning trade amid concerns a rally that drove the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a two-month high had outpaced prospects for earnings growth. Toshiba, Japan’s biggest memory-chip maker, rose 2 per cent on reports it gained market share last year. Westfield Group, the world’s largest owner of shopping malls by market value, rose 1.9 per cent in Sydney on an analyst’s upgrade. Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s largest developer, fell 2.6 per cent on an analyst’s downgrade. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed at 125.01 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/yg47y4a Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com London The FTSE 100 advanced another 24.2 points to 5,644.63, its highest since June 2008, after the Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates in America low for an "extended period". That propelled Wall Street towards its best for 17 months. Sentiment towards shares was further bolstered by moves by the Bank of Japan to combat deflation, and by upbeat economic data here. Economic optimism pricked the appetite of investors for risk, and buoyed demand for resource companies. Goldman Sachs gave the miners a lift, forecasting that demand for commodities is poised to rise and with it prices. Goldman’s comments eased recent concerns that China may raise interest rates to cool inflation there, which would curb demand for commodities. Kazakhmys, the biggest metals exporter in Central Asia, was among those to benefit most. The shares advanced 36p to £15.32 after Kazakhstan unveiled a plan to boost its copper cathode output. Oil prices rallied after a report showed a surprisingly big fall in America’s stockpile of petrol. That saw BP rise 8.3p to 630.7p. Renewed appetite for risk saw investors sell those companies that fare better when times are tougher. Drug makers, power groups, cigarette and drinks firms all gave ground. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
