 | March 19, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Green Bank ... Car sales up ... Motor investmentTop storiesThe Times: The Conservative Party will announce its energy policy with a state-backed Green Investment Bank to finance wind parks and nuclear reactors. http://tinyurl.com/ylzzmqy Wall Street Journal: A rise in US car sales during the first half of March lifted expectations that the month’s totals will show good recovery. http://tinyurl.com/ylnn9hd The Times: The UK motor industry has received £2.6 billion ($4 billion) worth of investment, safeguarding or creating thousands of jobs. http://tinyurl.com/yfrzd6r Comment David Wighton in The Times: Prudential’s controversy was not allowed to fester for long but the episode leaves some nagging doubts. http://tinyurl.com/yh77h6k Kamal Ahmed in The Daily Telegraph: That the UK public finance figures are slightly better than forecast will give something of a fillip to the coming Budget. http://tinyurl.com/ygj3ed9 Hamish McRae in The Independent: What is happening to the economy in Ireland might give some sort of guide to what might happen here. http://tinyurl.com/yzda9g8 Upside The Times: Improving tax receipts led experts to predict that the UK deficit forecast could be undershot by as much as £13 billion. http://tinyurl.com/ygbnl3x The Independent: Nearly 37,500 more cars rolled off UK production lines last month than in February 2009, the fourth successive monthly rise. http://tinyurl.com/yhbqaaw The Times: SharesPost, a publicly available online stock exchange, was launched to show the value of some high-tech private companies. http://tinyurl.com/yh32h5u Downside The Times: Germany hardened its stance against a European bailout of Greece. http://tinyurl.com/yjfm2d3 The Daily Telegraph: Germany suggested it may deploy spies to monitor investors who target currencies as its fear of financial speculators grew. http://tinyurl.com/ylfnafm Wall Street Journal: Problems in the oil-inventory data of the US were exposed, casting doubt on figures that affect the price of the world's most important commodity. http://tinyurl.com/yhe3tte Mergers and shakers The Times: Tidjane Thiam, Prudential’s chief, abandoned plans to take up a controversial second directorship at the French bank Société Générale. http://tinyurl.com/yfjsx39 The Daily Telegraph: Michael Grade, the ITV executive chairman, left the broadcaster with a £1.2 million ($1.8 million) bonus after resigning last year. http://tinyurl.com/yhnel8n The Times: Sir Stuart Rose topped the chairman’s pay league as Marks & Spencer revealed his £875,000 ($1.3 million) annual salary for his last few months with the retailer. http://tinyurl.com/yjxs3l3 Around Asia Wall Street Journal: Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest electronics company, expects revenue to grow at a double-digit rate this year. http://tinyurl.com/ybqzxor Reuters: The World Bank approved a record $1.1 billion (£720 million) credit line to help get more children into schools in India. http://tinyurl.com/ycuzkqw Wall Street Journal: China’s banks may face a spike in bad debts as a result of a government-backed lending surge, said Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. http://tinyurl.com/yb24t9j Look ahead Wall Street Journal: Apple, the computer maker, is still trying to secure media content for the iPad with just weeks to go before the tablet computer's release. http://tinyurl.com/yzt9lq3 Financial Times: UBS will allow a formal vote of confidence in board members and senior executives at the Swiss bank’s annual meeting next month. http://tinyurl.com/yk26coa Wall Street Journal: Experts project that the supply of foreclosed US homes will rise to about 733,000 next month, then will begin to decline again gradually. http://tinyurl.com/ykjovmm MARKETS FTSE 100 5,642.62 steady (Thursday close) Dow 10,779.17 up 0.4% (close) S&P 500 1,165.83 steady (close) Nasdaq 2,391.28 up 0.1% (close) Nikkei 10,815.52 up 0.7% (latest) Hang Seng 21,318.29 down 0.1% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5242/1.1192 euros (latest) Euro $1.3619 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $81.14 down 34 cents (latest) West Texas crude $81.85 down 35 cents (latest) Gold $1123.70 down $3.80 (latest) New York Reuters: The Dow industrials rose for an eighth consecutive session while a mixed group of economic figures kept the broader S&P 500 in check. Plane maker Boeing rose 2.2 per cent on the Dow on reports its 787 program is making good progress. After the bell, smartphone maker Palm fell 13.5 per cent on disappointing revenue forecasts. During the regular session, courier FedEx rose 3.2 per cent on better-than-expected quarterly profit. Rival United Parcel Service rose 2.5 per cent. Oil service companies' shares dropped after UBS downgraded the sector. Nabors fell 4.8 per cent and Helmerich fell 5.3 per cent. Sportswear maker Nike rose 5.3 per cent on better-than expected profit. Video game retailer GameStop rose 6.6 per cent on good results. On the Nasdaq, chipmaker Intel fell 0.2 per cent on an analyst’s downgrade of the semiconductor sector. http://tinyurl.com/yzhvspj Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after US jobs and manufacturing reports boosted confidence in a global economic recovery. Sony, maker of the PlayStation 3 video-game system, rose 2.2 per cent in Tokyo. Honda, a Japanese carmaker that gets 44 per cent of its sales in North America, rose 1.4 per cent. Advantech, an industrial-computer maker that gets a third of its sales in North America, rose 7 per cent in Taipei. Kia Motors, South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, rose 3.7 per cent after saying it will boost production capacity in Europe. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.2 per cent to 124.58 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/yca8hgb Michael Beh:michaelwbeh@gmail.com London The FTSE 100 trod water, as gains by drug companies and oil producers were offset by losses among banks and miners. London’s leading index fell 2.01 points to 5,642.62. Many investors chose to stay on the sidelines ahead of "quadruple witching" this morning, when stock and index futures and options contracts expire. Neither did the latest domestic economic data offer much temptation totrade. The Government may have borrowed less than expected last month, but mortgage lending and factory orders both fell again. Softer metals prices unsettled miners. Fresnillo, the Mexican silver miner, eased 17.5p to 836.5p. Drug companies gained ground, with GlaxoSmithKline adding 47.5p to £12.72 after Novartis, a big Swiss rival, handed backed a planned generic substitute for GSK’s Advair asthma drug to Vectura Group, a smaller British company. That suggested Novartis does not think VR315 will prove an effective alternative to Advair and caused Vectura to tumble 15.2p to 48.25p. But another biotech minnow, GW Pharmaceuticals, was chased 19p higher to 121p after regulatory approval for Sativex, its treatment for multiple sclerosis derived from cannabis, in the UK and Spain moved a step closer. Final approval will trigger a £10 million payment from GW’s German partner, Bayer. The oil price eased but BG Group still rose 18p to £11.91 after the rumour was re-heated that America’s ExxonMobil may be mulling a bid. Gary Parkinson: Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
