 | March 31, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Bank rip-off ... BP's Iraq gusher ... Irish 'bad bank'Top storiesThe Times: A consumer watchdog accused banks of paying derisory interest rates on cash Isas in a £3 billion ($4.5 billion) a year rip-off. http://tinyurl.com/yz43f9l Wall Street Journal: BP awarded $500 million (£330 million) in contracts to drill wells in Iraq's giant Rumaila oil field. http://tinyurl.com/ya8e3ob The Times: The Irish Government to inject billions of euros into the country's banking sector by putting a large chunk of the lenders' problem loans into a "bad bank". http://tinyurl.com/yb95ujs Comment David Wighton in The Times: The banks came in for a good bashing from the three Chancellors on Monday night. And yesterday brought yet more evidence of how richly deserved the public abuse seems. http://tinyurl.com/y9yvmv8 David Prosser in The Independent: How long-term performance plans became a sure thing. http://tinyurl.com/ydgxa5q Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: The two-faced Tories can't have it both ways If Britain is facing an economic Dunkirk, we can't protect every spending programme. If not, Cameron should say so. http://tinyurl.com/yehqpf5 Upside The Times: ONS figures showed the UK emerged from its recession more strongly than previously thought; economy grew 0.4 per cent between October and December. http://tinyurl.com/ydnae37 Daily Telegraph: Domino's Pizza reported strong sales over the start of 2010 despite having to temporarily close numerous outlets because of cold weather. http://tinyurl.com/y8bqn3v New York Times: Toyota, which introduced generous incentives in a bid to attract customers, said its US sales probably rose by a third in March. http://tinyurl.com/ylgjc9p Downside The Times: Industry data showed sales at Britain's supermarkets in the latest three months grew at their slowest rate for 2 1/2 years. http://tinyurl.com/yc37jn6T Daily Telegraph: Independent valuer said Northern Rock shares were worthless and there was no requirement to pay compensation to those who lost money. http://tinyurl.com/yeb7hh4 Wall Street Journal: An Australian business group warned the conviction of four Rio Tinto employees could affect confidence among foreign investors in China. http://tinyurl.com/yc9cepu Mergers and shakers The Times: Gartmore suspended Guillaume Rambourg, its second-most senior fund manager, amid allegations that he had broken the company's trading rules. http://tinyurl.com/ye7bq39 The Times: Taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland fined £29 million ($44 million) for sharing confidential pricing information on loans with Barclays. http://tinyurl.com/ycnjcgk The Times: Richard Glynn, the new Ladbrokes chief executive, stands to collect £12 million ($18 million) if he can double the bookmaker's share price over the next five years. http://tinyurl.com/y89b46x Around Asia The Times: Vale and BHP Billiton to price iron ore to Japanese steelmakers quarterly from April 1, signalling the demise of annual fixed-price deals. http://tinyurl.com/y96pnrc The Times: Web users in China unable to get search results from Google after it made changes to its site resulting in a technical glitch. http://tinyurl.com/y9dqlyx The Times: Standard Chartered, the London-based bank, hoped to raise $750 million (£500 million) through the issue of Indian Depository Receipts in Mumbai. http://tinyurl.com/ye65tzu Look ahead The Times: Businesses to bid to run hundreds of UK schools as politicians open the door to new education providers. http://tinyurl.com/yd63r2j Daily Telegraph: Giles Thorley, chief executive of Punch Taverns, stepping down at the end of next month from Britain's biggest pub company. http://tinyurl.com/yehkkbk Daily Telegraph: Tony Fadell, the "godfather" of the iPod, severing all ties with Apple, days before the release of its latest product the iPad. http://tinyurl.com/yl27qpl MARKETS FTSE 100 5,672.32 down 0.7% (Tuesday close) Dow 10,907.42 up 0.1% (close) S&P 500 1,173.27 unchanged (close) Nasdaq 2,410.69 up 0.3% (close) Nikkei 11,130.98 up 0.3% (latest) Hang Seng 21,314.48 down 0.3% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5074/1.1247 euros (latest) Euro $1.3403 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $81.29 up 1 cent (latest) West Texas crude $82.35 down 2 cents (latest) Gold $1107.10 up $1.40 (latest) New York Reuters: Wall Street stocks rose in a slow session on Tuesday on data showing more stabilisation in the economy, while Apple rallied on a report that it was developing a new iPhone. Apple hit an all-time record closing high, up 1.5 per cent, after the Wall Street Journal reported the company was developing a new iPhone to work on Verizon's mobile network. Verizon advanced 2.6 per cent. Industrials, the best-performing S&P 500 sector this quarter, also rose. 3M shot up 3.6 per cent and contributed the most to the Dow's advance. A KPMG study showed U.S. manufacturing executives were more upbeat on the recovery than their European Union colleagues. After the bell, Honeywell, a major manufacturer, raised its first-quarter profit outlook, sending its stock up 2.3 per cent. Financials kept the S&P 500 under pressure, with Bank of America down 1.6 per cent and Citigroup slid 2.2 per cent as investors continued to weigh the implications of the US Government's planned sale of its Citi stake. http://tinyurl.com/ydb5klw Asia Bloomberg: Most Asian stocks declined in morning trade amid concerns a rally that took the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to a 10- week high yesterday had overvalued earnings prospects. BHP Billiton lost 0.8 per cent, leading declines by material producers, the region's best performing stocks in the past five days. Samsung Electronics increased 2 per cent in Seoul after the Korea Economic Daily reported the company's semiconductor business may achieve its full-year profit target during the first half. Canon, which gets 28 per cent of sales from the Americas, gained 0.9 per cent in Tokyo as a weaker yen boosted the prospects for exporters' earnings. Seven stocks declined for every six that rose on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, which lost 0.2 per cent to 125.68 in morning trade. Newcrest Mining, Australia's largest gold producer, dropped 0.9 per cent and Sumitomo Metal slipped 0.5 per cent. Mazda, which gets 30 per cent of sales in North America, climbed 4 per cent and Fanuc, a maker of industrial robots that has more than 70 per cent of its revenue outside Japan, gained 0.6 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/ye9qs9g Myles McIvor: mjclub@bigpond.com.au London Big jumps in the price of bulk commodities including iron ore and coking coal helped lift the mining sector yesterday. BHP Billiton said that it had agreed a shift from the controversial system of pricing iron ore once a year to quarterly contracts, a move that the company hopes will give it more exposure to rising demand for the metal. Its shares rose under 1 per cent. Overall, the FTSE 100 lost 38.34 points to 5,672.32 despite upbeat UK GDP data and US consumer confidence figures.The banking sector was the biggest drag after Irish regulators set new capital requirements expected to lead to the effective nationalisation of two or three more banks. Royal Bank of Scotland lost 3.4 per cent after being fined £28.6 million, the largest UK regulatory penalty against a financial institution, for giving confidential pricing data to Barclays, which lost 2.4 per cent. Peter Stiff: Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk |
