 | April 20, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Sachs fighting ... Airline losses ... Deloitte hiresTop storiesThe Times: Goldman Sachs, the investment bank charged with fraud in the US, is fighting attacks on four fronts, including the possible loss of UK government work. http://tinyurl.com/y5e5brw The Daily Telegraph: The European airline industry is losing £165 million ($253 million) a day due to the impact of the volcanic ash cloud. http://tinyurl.com/y52pjxb The Times: Deloitte is preparing to replace John Connolly, its chief executive, after a decade in charge of the Big Four accountant. http://tinyurl.com/y63p7f6 Comment David Wighton in The Times: The evidence against Goldman Sachs shows there was no meticulous plan to mislead, but buyers have indeed been seriously misled. http://tinyurl.com/y7s4kmd Tracy Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph: All investment banks manage complex conflicts of interest, since trading inevitably creates losers and winners. http://tinyurl.com/y33nbk2 David Prosser in The Independent: The damage done to Goldman by the SEC directly will be relatively small, but the erosion of trust is potentially ruinous. http://tinyurl.com/yymgscf Upside The Times: Gross mortgage lending in the UK rose by 24 per cent between February and March, but the market is still subdued, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said. http://tinyurl.com/y4u29e3 New York Times: Citigroup, the large US bank, reported a $4.4 billion (£2.9 billion) profit in the first quarter. http://tinyurl.com/y53varz The Daily Telegraph: Royal Bank of Scotland shares rose above the Government's purchase price, making the taxpayer £180 million ($276 million) in profit. http://tinyurl.com/yygt3xd Downside The Times: Lansdowne Partners, the successful UK hedge fund, made a £47 million ($72 million) bet that life insurer Prudential's share price would fall. http://tinyurl.com/y4w4m5r Wall Street Journal: A growing number of software technology companies are turning to debt to raise capital in anticipation of a wave of dealmaking. http://tinyurl.com/y4uokwg T The Times: UK electricity industry leaders demanded an end to "unfair" National Grid charges that they claim are putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. http://tinyurl.com/y4cn779 Mergers and shakers The Times: GDF-Suez, the energy group, made a five-year, £600 million ($920 million) deal to supply electricity to five of the UK's biggest water companies. http://tinyurl.com/y3oldlc The Times: Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax, bid $600 million (£392 million) to buy the movie studio from Walt Disney. http://tinyurl.com/y22ny5t The Times: Paul Walker, the chief executive of Sage, is to stand down from FTSE 100 software developer. http://tinyurl.com/y5cgah2 Around Asia Wall Street Journal: Toyota, the Japanese car giant, paid a $16.4 million (£10.7 million) fine in the US to settle claims about dangerous safety defects. http://tinyurl.com/y2k4mc2 Bloomberg: AMP, the Australian asset manager, may bid again for Axa Asia Pacific Holdings after regulators blocked a competing offer from National Australia Bank. http://tinyurl.com/y4nvrpg Wall Street Journal: Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest bank, hired Lee Zhang, a Deutsche Bank executive, to be one of its vice presidents. http://tinyurl.com/y627zuv Look ahead The Times: Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer, will open a two-storey store in Iraq's Kurdish north in September. http://tinyurl.com/y2p7kzm The Independent: Many crucial decisions at the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF this week may be deferred by disrupted attendees' air travel plans. http://tinyurl.com/y384ryj Wall Street Journal: General Motors plans to repay $4.7 billion (£3.1 billion) in US government loans ahead of the car giant's self-imposed June deadline. http://tinyurl.com/yyndo5s MARKETS FTSE 100 5,727.91 down 0.3% (Monday close) Dow 11,092.05 up 0.7% (close) S&P 500 1,197.52 up 0.5% (close) Nasdaq 2,480.11 down 0.1% (close) Nikkei 10,955.01 up 0.4% (latest) Hang Seng 21,547.06 up 0.7% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5319/1.1375 euros (latest) Euro $1.3467 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $84.65 up 42 cents (latest) West Texas crude $81.94 up 49 cents (latest) Gold $1137.70 up $1.90 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks rose late as investors reassessed the potential damage of the fraud case against Goldman Sachs and earnings optimism grew. Goldman Sachs rose 1.6 per cent on expectations it will report good earnings today. Banking group Citigroup rose 7 per cent on its best results since 2007. In regular trade IBM rose 1.2 per cent. The computing giant fell 1.8 per cent in after-hours trading even as it reported stronger-than-expected results. Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, fell 1.3 per cent on the Nasdaq. Mobile phone maker Palm fell 12 per cent after the chief of its phone software division quit. Rival Sprint Nextel rose 2.7 per cent after it said retailer RadioShack is phasing out Palm's Pre and Pixi phones for two Sprint devices. http://tinyurl.com/y3wh39u Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in early trade, led by finance companies, as concern eased over the impact increased scrutiny on banks will have on profits. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 1.4 per cent in Tokyo as Morgan Stanley upgraded the nation's banks and Citigroup profit beat estimates. National Australia Bank, the nation's third-biggest lender, rose 2.8 per cent. Honda, the car maker, who exports to North America, rose 1.7 per cent in Tokyo after the yen weakened against the dollar. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.6 per cent to 126.30 in early trade. http://tinyurl.com/y6hyp76 Michael Beh: michaelwbeh@gmail.com London UK taxpayers were last night sat on a £453.2 million profit on their investment in the Royal Bank of Scotland. The windfall came as RBS's share price rallied above 49.9p per share, the average price at which the government bought shares in the bank, for the first time since the taxpayer took an 84 per cent interest in the lender in November last year. RBS rose 4 per cent on hopes of compensation from Goldman Sachs as the biggest victim of alleged fraud at the US investment bank and upbeat broker comment. Overall, the FTSE 100 fell 16.05 points to 5,727.91 amid the continuing fallout from the Goldman Sachs fraud case and Icelandic volcano ash. Barclays fell 0.8 per cent. Thomas Cook lost 1.6 per cent after it put the impact of the severe disruption to flights and holidays at about £7 million a day. Peter Stiff: Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk |
