 | March 26, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Taxman push ... Greek bailout ... Lottery soldTop storiesThe Times: Revenue and Customs was implicated in the collapse of the Jarvis engineering business and the Scottish airline Highland Airways. http://tinyurl.com/y8mrxo9 Wall Street Journal: Eurozone leaders agreed that they and the International Monetary Fund would jointly bail out Greece should its debt troubles intensify. http://tinyurl.com/yb2vbnc The Times: The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a Canadian pension fund, bought the UK's National Lottery for £389 million ($578 million). http://tinyurl.com/y9ptv2q Comment Antonia Senior in The Times: We are lying to ourselves if we think that tinkering with the pension age and changes to savings regimes will make a difference. http://tinyurl.com/yjfsk9v Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: The Treasury's forecasts would seem too dependent for comfort on a revival both in net trade and in business investment. http://tinyurl.com/yzajolu David Prosser in The Independent: It is disappointing that so many savers have missed out on the recovery in the stock market over the past 12 months. http://tinyurl.com/ydb27yo Upside The Times: The Dubai Government will pump $9.5 billion (£6.4 billion) into Dubai World, its struggling conglomerate, as part of a long-awaited rescue package. http://tinyurl.com/y8r7jn6 The Independent: Take-up of the Government's £20 billion ($30 billion) business support package was lower than expected, the UK National Audit Office said. http://tinyurl.com/yehfo2z The Times: NHS Global, a new health research organisation, could become the UK's next big export by selling research and innovation to other countries. http://tinyurl.com/y96cpeo Downside The Times: Economists criticised government plans to squeeze the rich with a new stamp duty on homes worth more than £1 million ($1.5 million). http://tinyurl.com/yd73x4v Wall Street Journal: A sudden drop-off in investor demand for US Treasury notes raised fears that interest rates will rise. http://tinyurl.com/yb3e2p3 The Times: Authorities investigating suspected bribery by Alstom, the French transport and infrastructure group, extended searches at two locations. http://tinyurl.com/yabuwgn Mergers and shakers The Times: Jarvis suspended its shares and called in administrators after its lenders would not continue to support the rail maintenance company. http://tinyurl.com/ycsmtxv The Daily Telegraph: Brady Dougan, the head of Credit Suisse, was paid $17.9 million (£12 million), the most of any investment bank boss on either side of the Atlantic. http://tinyurl.com/ybrfkhx Wall Street Journal: Alexander Lebedev, the Russian tycoon, paid £1 ($1.49) for the Independent, the struggling UK newspaper. http://tinyurl.com/ydddj7p Around Asia The Times: Many of Japan's struggling local authorities are investigating ending the nation's ban on casinos so long as they are for tourists only. http://tinyurl.com/ycs8w55 Wall Street Journal: Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the nation's biggest bank, plans to raise 25 billion yuan (£2.5 billion, $3.7 billion) in a bond issue. http://tinyurl.com/yzx3vy5 Bloomberg: Japan's consumer prices fell by 1.2 per cent in February, the 12th straight month they have fallen. http://tinyurl.com/yfh8tvm Look ahead The Times: The verdict in the trial of four executives of Rio Tinto, the mining firm, charged with bribery by China will be delivered on Monday. http://tinyurl.com/y9e8l33 The Daily Telegraph: More than 10p in every pound of tax Britons pay will within four years go straight on the Government's ballooning debt interest bill. http://tinyurl.com/ycsokcq New York Times: The European Union and the US expanded an airline accord, predicting annual trans-Atlantic traffic will increase to 75 million by 2013. http://tinyurl.com/y9u5dje MARKETS FTSE 100 5,727.65 up 0.9% (Thursday close) Dow 10,841.21 up 0.1% (close) S&P 500 1,165.73 down 0.2% (close) Nasdaq 2,397.41 down 0.1% (close) Nikkei 10,900.32 up 0.7% (latest) Hang Seng 20,785.97 steady (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.4869/1.1158 euros (latest) Euro $1.3326 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $79.79 up 18 cents (latest) West Texas crude $80.63 up 10 cents (latest) Gold $1092.80 down 1.30 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks ended flat, dropping off earlier highs as a weak US bond auction and global debt concerns continued to weigh on investor sentiment. After the bell, business software maker Oracle fell 0.7 per cent after reporting adjusted third-quarter earnings that beat expectations by a penny. During the regular session, banking giant Bank of America rose 1 per cent and rival Citigroup rose 2.9 per cent. Wireless chip maker Qualcomm rose 5 per cent on Nasdaq on a higher second-quarter earnings outlook. Electronics retailer Best Buy rose 3.6 per cent on better-than-expected results. http://tinyurl.com/yc6xpwf Asia Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks rose in morning trade as a weaker yen boosted the earnings outlook for Japanese companies dependent on overseas demand. Canon, the camera maker, rose 1.6 percent, Sony, the games console maker, rose 1.7 per cent and Mazda, the Japanese car maker, rose 1.2 per cent. Advantest, the world's largest maker of memory-chip testers, rose 2.1 per cent after US-based Qualcomm, the world's biggest maker of mobile-phone chips, raised forecasts. Mining stocks dropped on falling commodity prices. Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest miner, fell 1.9 per cent. BHP Billiton, Australia's biggest oil producer, fell 1.4 per cent and rival Woodside Petroleum fell 2.4 per cent on lower oil prices. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.1 per cent to 123.42 in early trade. http://tinyurl.com/ybt4lvq Michael Beh: michaelwbeh@gmail.com |
