 | April 22, 2010 |
BHP talks ... UK growth cut ... Oil explosionThursday, April 22, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, is in talks with the Serious Fraud Office and the US Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged corruption. http://tinyurl.com/2bbudaj The Daily Telegraph: The International Monetary Fund cut its 2011 UK growth forecast to 2.5 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/29bnmn6 The Times: Rescuers searched for up to 12 oil workers after an explosion ripped through a rig leased by BP, the UK oil producer, in the Gulf of Mexico. http://tinyurl.com/2f5xcbj Comment David Wighton in The Times: It is bizarre that there is no national water industry framework and no incentive for companies to pipe water between regions. http://tinyurl.com/246c58r Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: The west is unable to return to past economic dynamism while the developing world is continuing to power ahead. http://tinyurl.com/25tfv95 David Prosser in The Independent: The joblessness waters are very muddy and it is far from certain that we have turned the corner on jobs. http://tinyurl.com/2fbbop8 Upside The Times: Facebook announced plans to weave its social networking service into all websites, using its new Open Graph platform. http://tinyurl.com/2b8cdd5 Wall Street Journal: US car firms signalled a turnaround after General Motors repaid its debt to the US government and Chrysler made a first-quarter operating profit. http://tinyurl.com/274qzsb The Times: Morgan Stanley, the US bank, reported first-quarter net profits of almost $1.8 billion (£1.2 billion), at the top end of analysts’ estimates. http://tinyurl.com/24oejt4 Downside The Times: Airlines have lost $1.7 billion (£1.1 billion) as a result of the chaos caused by volcanic ash, the International Air Transport Association said. http://tinyurl.com/2dq7hwv New York Times: The Goldman Sachs’ trader accused of fraud by US regulators and at least three of the bank’s top executives will testify before a Senate panel. http://tinyurl.com/24psqya The Times: Unemployment hit a 15-year high in the three months to February and experts have warned that Britain faces a jobless recovery. http://tinyurl.com/2flnb7h Mergers and shakers The Times: Pearl & Dean, the cinema advertiser, was sold for just £1 ($1.50) to Image, a new company set up by Thomas Anderson, a director of Empire Cinemas. http://tinyurl.com/23t3hjn Wall Street Journal: Visa, the credit card company, will pay $2 billion (£1.3 billion) for CyberSource, an electronic-payment security services provider to online merchants. http://tinyurl.com/2b4vuyh The Times: David Jones, the third senior banker at Northern Rock to be investigated by authorities over the bank’s cover-up of bad mortgages, quit. http://tinyurl.com/2dv747w Around Asia The Daily Telegraph: Ansh Jain, co-head of Deutsche Bank's global investment bank, sold his stake in the Mumbai Indians, an Indian Premier League cricket team. http://tinyurl.com/2c8gold Wall Street Journal: Japanese exports rose 43.5 per cent from a year earlier in March. http://tinyurl.com/28uwqcz Bloomberg: Bank of Communications, China’s fourth-largest publicly traded lender, made fewer mortgage loans in February and March. http://tinyurl.com/2d46ngw Look ahead The Times: Network Rail, the rail infrastructure company, plans for 500 maintenance workers to lose their jobs by the end of next month. http://tinyurl.com/257et8v New York Times: Talks over details of an international aid package for Greece began and a joint framework will be agreed on by May 15. http://tinyurl.com/2fa7ut3 Wall Street Journal: Boeing will decide in the coming weeks whether to raise production rates on the aircraft maker’s best-selling 737 model. http://tinyurl.com/24ycjxq MARKETS FTSE 100 5,723.43 down 1% (Wednesday close) Dow 11,124.92 up 0.1% (close) S&P 500 1,205.94 down 0.1% (close) Nasdaq 2,504.61 up 0.2% (close) Nikkei 10,881.66 down 1.9% (latest) Hang Seng 21,283.47 down 1.1% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5418/1.1523 euros (latest) Euro $1.338 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $85.40 down 30 cents (latest) West Texas crude $83.24 down 44 cents (latest) Gold $1146.10 down $2.70 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks finished little changed as disappointing outlooks from healthcare companies offset strong earnings from Morgan Stanley and Apple. After the bell, chipmaker Qualcomm fell 6 per cent and EBay, the internet auctioneer, fell 6.4 per cent on disappointing forecasts. In regular trade, banking giant Morgan Stanley rose 4 per cent on better-than-expected profit. Regional bank KeyCorp rose 4.2 per cent on a smaller-than-expected loss. Apple, the iPhone maker, rose 6 per cent, a lifetime closing high, a day after posting good results. Healthcare stocks took a beating after both Abbott Laboratories and Gilead Sciences, the therapeutics companies, cut profit forecasts due to the impact of costs from US healthcare reform. Gilead fell 9.6 per cent and Abbott fell 2.4 per cent. Drugmaker Merck fell 3.6 per cent and rival Bristol Myers fell 1.3 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/28r28nq Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade after commodity prices fell and the yen strengthened. Rio Tinto, the world’s third-biggest miner, fell 2.3 per cent and rival BHP Billiton fell 1.4 per cent in Sydney. Mitsubishi, Japan’s largest commodities trader, fell 1.8 per cent in Tokyo. OneSteel, Australia’s second-biggest steel producer, fell 5.4 per cent. Japanese exporters fell as the yen strengthened. Nintendo, the games console maker, fell 2.2 per cent. Sony, an electronics maker, fell 2.7 per cent. Fanuc, a maker of industrial robots, fell 3.1 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.2 per cent to 125.69 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/2acubfg Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com |
