 | March 25, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Political Budget ... Euro tumbles ... Advisor arrestedThursday, March 25, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, raided the rich and stole Conservative ideas in a highly political Budget that delayed spending cuts until after polling day. http://tinyurl.com/y9g5kqe The Daily Telegraph: The euro tumbled after Portugal’s rating was downgraded to AA- and markets considered the likelihood of an IMF rescue for Greece. http://tinyurl.com/y8kkr87 The Times: The Deutsche Bank executive arrested over alleged insider dealing advised the UK Government on financial stability during the financial crisis. http://tinyurl.com/yaflxhr Comment Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: The Chancellor’s picture of the future is coherent and consistent with reality, even if it may turn out to be wrong. http://tinyurl.com/yf2u82y Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: The Chancellor wants to nurse the economy back to fiscal health, but he's still not telling us how he plans to do it. http://tinyurl.com/yzsgkrd David Prosser in The Independent: Once the taxpayer-funded stimulus is withdrawn, it is Britain's businesses which will have to deliver a sustainable recovery. http://tinyurl.com/yzcdvfy Upside The Times: G4S, the UK security firm, won a £70 million ($104 million) contract to protect diplomats in Afghanistan. http://tinyurl.com/ylnz4qu Wall Street Journal: Bank of America, the large US bank, said it would cut mortgage-loan balances by up to 30 per cent for thousands of troubled borrowers. http://tinyurl.com/yj4xvhj The Times: Panmure Gordon and Numis are among a number of brokers and small investment banks no longer caught by the 50 per cent bonus tax. http://tinyurl.com/yhymmn5 Downside The Times: Three executives of the UK division of Alstom, the French infrastructure firm, were questioned on suspicion of bribing officials. http://tinyurl.com/yj7oxrd The Independent: Sainsbury's, the supermarket chain, blamed the wider slowdown in the grocery sector for its weakest quarterly sales increase in five years. http://tinyurl.com/ykdq96g The Times: Unions condemned the 15 per cent pay rise to Phil Bentley that gave the managing director of British Gas a total package of £1.3 million ($1.9 million). http://tinyurl.com/ykchkf6 Mergers and shakers The Times: A US court will hear a dispute between Terra Firma, Guy Hands’ private equity firm, and Citigroup, the bank which advised on his acquisition of music label EMI. http://tinyurl.com/yfoogbx Wall Street Journal: Wells Fargo, the banking giant, agreed to acquire a portfolio of receivables from GMAC as the unprofitable lender right-sizes itself. http://tinyurl.com/ylzzzzt The Times: The appointment of Carolyn McCall as chief executive of easyJet wiped nearly £20 million ($30 million) off the budget airline’s market capitalization. http://tinyurl.com/ygk5hdj Around Asia Bloomberg: Li & Fung, the big Chinese supplier to retailers including Wal-Mart, reported lower-than-expected profit and its first annual sales drop in 18 years. http://tinyurl.com/yjqpblk The Times: DP World, the ports operator owned by Dubai World, announced a 46 per cent slump in annual net profits to $333 million (£222 million) for 2009. http://tinyurl.com/ygu9ncw Bloomberg: Nomura Holdings, Japan’s biggest brokerage, will start a US stock trading business and are hiring two traders from Barclays, the UK bank, to run it. http://tinyurl.com/yffadv6 Look ahead Wall Street Journal: The auction for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will be delayed until mid-May as creditors are unwilling to sell the film studio at a discount. http://tinyurl.com/yzxa4us New York Times: The US social security system will pay out more than it receives this year, a threshold it was not expected to cross until 2016. http://tinyurl.com/yhajh6l Bloomberg: Caterpillar, the heavy equipment maker, expects to record a charge of $100 million (£67 million) this quarter resulting from the new US health-care law. http://tinyurl.com/yg6nat6 MARKETS FTSE 100 5,677.88 up 0.1% (Wednesday close) Dow 10,836.15 down 0.5% (close) S&P 500 1,167.72 down 0.6% (close) Nasdaq 2,398.76 down 0.7% (close) Nikkei 10,826.02 up 0.1% (latest) Hang Seng 20,712.10 down 1.4% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.4897/1.1177 euros (latest) Euro $1.3328 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $79.39 down 23 cents (latest) West Texas crude $80.34 down 27 cents (latest) Gold $1087.90 down 90 cents (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks fell as Portugal's credit rating downgrade and a weak Treasury note auction stirred concerns about sovereign debt. Energy giant Chevron was one of the top drags on the Dow and fell 1.1 per cent on lower oil prices. Bank of America, the largest US bank, rose 2.6 per cent on plans to offer about $3 billion (£2 billion) in loan forgiveness to troubled homeowners. Drug maker Genzyme was the Nasdaq’s biggest drag and fell 6.4 per cent on reports authorities will take enforcement action at one of its plants. Packaged food producer General Mills fell 1.9 per cent on a disappointing forecast. Homebuilder Lennar rose 3.7 per cent on better-than-expected results. http://tinyurl.com/yb2qfjh Asia Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks fell in morning trade as reports of disappointing earnings overshadowed advances among Japanese exporters. Li & Fung, the biggest supplier for retailers including Wal-Mart Stores, fell 9.7 per cent and Unicom, China’s No. 2 mobile-phone company, fell 4.3 per cent on disappointing earnings. Newcrest Mining, the Australian gold producer, fell 1.5 per cent in Sydney on lower gold prices. Toyota, the Japanese car maker, rose 0.7 per cent on a weaker yen which boosts the nation’s exporters. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 per cent to 123.50 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/yeekzvp Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com |
