 | March 22, 2010 |
Kill the competition: Saved by songs ... Bankers angry ... Drinks taxesMonday, March 22, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: EMI plans to lease its US catalogue to rivals in a £400 million ($600 million) move to stop Citigroup, the bank, from taking over the music company. http://tinyurl.com/yzcchb4 The Daily Telegraph: Bankers reacted angrily to proposals from the UK's two main political parties to impose an industry levy. http://tinyurl.com/yhtuyl8 The Times: Diageo, the UK drinks giant, attacked the Government’s duty regime and warned that further tax rises could threaten investment and jobs. http://tinyurl.com/yftvd4e Comment Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: To avoid vicious circles, governments have to come up with credible plans for fiscal consolidation for the rest of the decade. http://tinyurl.com/ylheflz Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Daily Telegraph: The likely failure of EU leaders to get together a Greek bail-out is a "game-changer" in market parlance. http://tinyurl.com/yz4r9e2 Willaim Pesek on Bloomberg: As the epic finger-pointing contest between the US and China unfolds, we are all losers. http://tinyurl.com/yc7l3eh Upside The Times: Nuffield Health, a charity that runs hospitals, will spend £30 million ($45 million) to convert former health clubs into fitness and wellbeing centres. http://tinyurl.com/yloxtn9 The Times: Barack Obama, the US president, promised to use every tool at his disposal to reform Wall Street. http://tinyurl.com/yfevvrk The Times: Areva, the world’s largest nuclear energy company, is developing a new type of nuclear reactor that could permanently "destroy" atomic waste. http://tinyurl.com/yjr5gw7 Downside The Times: City bankers scoffed at the pay and terms being offered by the Treasury in recruiting top-flight staff for the Asset Protection Agency. http://tinyurl.com/yktsj82 Wall Street Journal: Many US municipalities are losing money on interest-rate deals they made during the bull market and are now trying to undo the contracts. http://tinyurl.com/yjjv9vt The Times: Britain’s female students are turning their backs on careers in the City, with the Square Mile seen as unethical and rife with discrimination. http://tinyurl.com/ykmc8by Mergers and shakers Wall Street Journal: HSBC, the UK bank, quietly opened 18 retail branches in the US in 2009 and plans six additional locations this year. http://tinyurl.com/yks6lal Financial Times: Ocado, the online retailer, narrowed its losses and delivered a sharp rise in sales ahead of its planned £1 billion initial public offering. http://tinyurl.com/yjmx92m Wall Street Journal: Arrow Energy agreed to sell the bulk of its Australian coal seam gas assets to Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina for A$3.4 billion (£2.1 billion, $3.2 billion). http://tinyurl.com/yf283qk Around Asia Wall Street Journal: Foreign companies are closely watching the Chinese trial of four Rio Tinto mining executives for fear they could face similar cases. http://tinyurl.com/yjgbbkt Bloomberg: Neptune Orient Lines, owner of South-East Asia’s largest container line, plans to boost capacity by 7 per cent as trade and freight rates rise. http://tinyurl.com/ygcrynr Wall Street Journal: Measures aimed at squeezing foreign technology companies out of the government-procurement market are making US companies feel unwelcome in China. http://tinyurl.com/yhn2yzd Look ahead New York Times: The IMF gives a grim prognosis for the world’s wealthiest countries because of high debt levels and expects they will cut spending next year. http://tinyurl.com/ygxhv46 The Times: FedEx and Lufthansa, the air cargo companies, plan to add to their fleets this year as demand increases on routes from Asia to Europe and the US. http://tinyurl.com/yf7c72v New York Times: A sweeping overhaul of the US health care system would give the industry as many as 32 million extra paying customers in the next few years. http://tinyurl.com/yke9zxd Unfinished business - last week wrapped up Last Monday The European Commission gave warning that Britain must do more to curb its spiralling debt. http://tinyurl.com/ydmeag7 The pound fell after Moody’s, a leading ratings agency, said that the UK had come closer to losing its AAA rating. http://tinyurl.com/yknlqj5 Tuesday 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 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 Wednesday Prudential shareholders 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 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 Thursday The UK motor industry received £2.6 billion ($4 billion) worth of investment, safeguarding or creating thousands of jobs. http://tinyurl.com/yfrzd6r 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 Friday Lloyds Banking Group revealed faster-than-expected improvements in bad debt rates and cost-cutting will help the state-backed bank return to profit. http://tinyurl.com/yj7vn2o Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian miner, signed a deal with Chinalco, the Chinese state-backed aluminium giant, to develop a West African iron ore project. http://tinyurl.com/yhb9hum MARKETS FTSE 100 5,650.12 up 0.1% (Friday close) Dow 10,741.98 down 0.4% (close) S&P 500 1,159.90 down 0.5% (close) Nasdaq 2,374.41 down 0.7% (close) Nikkei 10,824.72 up 0.8% (Friday close, closed Monday for a holiday) Hang Seng 21,120.43 down 1.2% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5008/1.1104 euros (latest) Euro $1.3516 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $79.46 down 42 cents (latest) West Texas crude $80.11 down 57 cents (latest) Gold $1106.30 down $1.30 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks fell as renewed worries about Greece sparked a climb in the dollar. For the week, the Dow rose 1.1 per cent, the S&P rose 0.9 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 0.3 per cent. Sectors sensitive to dollar moves were hit hard, including materials, chip makers and energy. Energy company Exxon Mobil fell 0.5 per cent on lower oil prices. Healthcare insurance stocks were among the rare winners, ahead of an impending congressional vote to overhaul the US healthcare system. Health insurer Aetna rose 3.7 per cent after it forecast first-quarter earnings above consensus. Diversified manufacturer 3M fell 2 per cent and was the top drag on the Dow. On the Nasdaq, smartphone maker Palm fell 29.2 per cent a day after it warned that quarterly revenues would be far below expectations. Solar panel maker SunPower fell 14 per cent on analysts’ downgrades. http://tinyurl.com/yllg4wc Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade on concern central banks in Asia will step up efforts to curb inflation. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, fell 1.5 per cent and rival Rio Tinto fell 1.3 per cent on lower commodity prices. Newcrest Mining, the Australian gold producer, fell 1.3 per cent on lower gold prices. Posco, Asia’s biggest maker of stainless steel, fell 2.6 per cent in Seoul on speculation global demand will slow. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index fell 1.2 per cent to 416.39 in morning trade. Markets in Japan are closed today for a holiday. http://tinyurl.com/ycn7nfq Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com |
