 | March 23, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Google leaves ... Pay review ... US tanksTuesday, March 23, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Google effectively closed its flagship search site in China, redirecting web users of its Google.cn service to its Hong Kong-based site. http://tinyurl.com/yh5fesr Wall Street Journal: Kenneth Feinberg, the US pay czar, will review executive pay at firms that took government bailout funds to see if that money should be returned. http://tinyurl.com/yzv9kp3 The Times: A £4 billion ($6 billion) tank-building contract was awarded to General Dynamics, the US-based group, putting BAE System's Tyneside tank factory at risk of closure. http://tinyurl.com/y9te4rn Comment David Wighton in The Times: To see the Rio Tinto case as a move by China to make life difficult for foreign companies could be quite possibly wrong. http://tinyurl.com/ydv7zod Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: Taxing the banks isn't going to make them any safer; we need to make banking robust to shocks. http://tinyurl.com/ygljwwz James Moore in The Independent: When news of a bid breaks, there is precious little talk about whether it's a good or a bad idea. http://tinyurl.com/y9gedtp Upside Wall Street Journal: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants, will not be allowed to return to a pre-crisis structure, Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said. http://tinyurl.com/ye2q2ff New York Times: Apple signed a deal with two independent publishers to sell electronic versions of their books on its new iPad device. http://tinyurl.com/y92oygm The Independent: Ofcom, the UK communications watchdog, launched an investigation into Lycatel Distribution, the pre-paid international calling card firm. http://tinyurl.com/y9xm3qe Downside The Times: Four executives of Rio Tinto, the mining giant, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in a Shanghai court, but dispute the amounts they allegedly received. http://tinyurl.com/yb5wbey The Daily Telegraph: Greece accused Germany of exploiting the debt crisis to enrich its banks and drive down the euro for global export advantage. http://tinyurl.com/y9ary7k New York Times: A strike by cabin crew of British Airways, the UK carrier, entered its third day and labour strife spread to other European airlines. http://tinyurl.com/y987vf4 Mergers and shakers The Times: Babcock International will make a formal takeover bid of 730p per share for VT Group, valuing its British defence services rival at £2 billion ($3 billion). http://tinyurl.com/ydw9o2q The Times: Wolfgang Berndt, the head of the Lloyds Banking Group pay committee, will resign after agreeing to a large bonus for Eric Daniels, the chief executive. http://tinyurl.com/y9y459e The Times: Barclays, the UK bank, plans to restructure its businesses in several overseas markets, including exiting retail banking in Indonesia. http://tinyurl.com/yesf52a Around Asia Wall Street Journal: India is looking for $41 billion (£27 billion) in private-sector investment for road projects over the next three to four years http://tinyurl.com/ychmk4v The Times: Vietnam, which is hoping to earn $1 billion (£660 million) a year from nut exports, opened an electronic cashew trading exchange. http://tinyurl.com/yemt4hk Wall Street Journal: TerraPower, an energy start-up backed by Bill Gates, is in talks with Toshiba, the Japanese conglomerate, to develop a small-scale nuclear reactor. http://tinyurl.com/y86cuf3 Look ahead The Times: Wolseley, the large plumbing goods distributor, will offload half of its 41 businesses if they do not meet performance targets over the next two years. http://tinyurl.com/y93rbf9 The Daily Telegraph: Sir David King, the former chief UK scientist, warns of oil shortages within three years because of exaggeration of oil reserves by a third. http://tinyurl.com/ybqddud The Independent: Opel/Vauxhall, the European arm of US car giant General Motors, expects finance talks with European governments to finish within a few weeks. http://tinyurl.com/ydeshv3 MARKETS FTSE 100 5,644.54 down 0.1% (Monday close) Dow 10,785.89 up 0.4% (close) S&P 500 1,165.81 up 0.5% (close) Nasdaq 2,395.40 up 0.9% (close) Nikkei 10,797.51 down 0.3% (latest) Hang Seng 21,165.81 up 1.1% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5082/1.113 euros (latest) Euro $1.355 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $80.55 up 1 cent (latest) West Texas crude $81.61 up 1 cent (latest) Gold $1104.10 up $4.60 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks rose as the healthcare system Bill was passed, ending uncertainty about the issue. Drug company Pfizer rose 1.4 per cent and rival Merck rose 0.6 per cent. Insurance companies were mixed. WellPoint fell 1.1 per cent and Aetna rose 0.5 per cent. Molina Healthcare, which may gain from the extension of Medicaid benefits, rose 3.6 per cent. Aircraft maker Boeing rose 1.9 per cent on an analyst’s upgrade. On the Nasdaq, iPod maker Apple rose 1.2 per cent. Business software maker Oracle rose 1.8 per cent ahead of its results. Google fell 0.4 per cent on reports it is redirecting Chinese visitors to its Hong Kong-based engine. US-listed shares of Chinese internet search firm Baidu rose 1.6 per cent. CNX Gas rose 23 per cent a day after its parent company, Consol Energy, reached a deal to tender CNX shares. Consol fell 1.9 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/yhnxvjg Asia Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks rose in morning trade, led by commodity and finance companies. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose 1.2 per cent and rival Rio Tinto rose 1 per cent on higher oil and copper prices. Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s second-biggest oil and gas producer, rose 1.3 per cent and rival Santos rose 1.9 per cent. ANZ Banking, the Australian lender, rose 1.9 per cent after saying it will add branches in Taiwan. Rival National Australia Bank rose 1.5 per cent and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s largest lender, rose 1.4 per cent. Fukuoka Financial Group, the Japanese bank, rose 3.1 per cent on an analyst’s upgrade. Toshiba rose 3.6 per cent in Tokyo on reports it will collaborate with Bill Gates’s TerraPower to develop a nuclear reactor. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 per cent to 124.64 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/ydgwdjd Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com |
