 | April 7, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Borrowings rise ... Internet appeal ... Construction growthWednesday, April 7, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: A sudden sell-off in Greek sovereign bonds pushed up the cost of borrowing for the embattled state to record levels. http://tinyurl.com/ydn82rd Wall Street Journal: A US appeals court ruled that regulators overstepped when citing Comcast, the cable-giant, for slowing some internet traffic on its network. http://tinyurl.com/ya9b6zx The Times: Activity growth in the services and construction sectors suggests that the UK economy grew in the first three months of the year. http://tinyurl.com/ye3os2f Comment Anatole Kaletsky in The Times: None of the three political leaders is capable of steering the economy back to prosperity and safety — at least, not on his own. http://tinyurl.com/ydjpexf David Prosser in The Independent: Who we choose to run the country may not, in the end, make as much difference to our economic wellbeing as we imagine. http://tinyurl.com/ybdudkv Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times: It is time to ask the biggest names on Wall Street why boards knowingly rewarded failure. http://tinyurl.com/ydcnu8x Upside The Times: Tesco, Britain’s largest private employer, snubbed the business campaign against the Government’s rise in national insurance. http://tinyurl.com/ydlpl9t The Times: Shoppers are benefiting from the lowest food price inflation in three years as retailers fight to attract their custom. http://tinyurl.com/yarhv4t The Times: The price of copper passed $8,000 a tonne for the first time in 20 months, but traders said it may be about to fall steeply again. http://tinyurl.com/ygojxbg Downside Wall Street Journal: US authorities are concerned about the proposal by Google, the search engine firm, to buy AdMob, the mobile-advertising company. http://tinyurl.com/yk2m4u8 The Daily Telegraph: BSkyB, the broadcaster, lost the exclusive rights to show Premier League football highlights on mobile phones to rival ESPN. http://tinyurl.com/ya23cqy New York Times: The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by $17 billion (£11 billion) and may fail if the carmakers do not return to profitability. http://tinyurl.com/yhz2tmu Mergers and shakers The Times: Tidjane Thiam, the boss of The Prudential, received bonus shares worth just under £3 million ($4.6 million) at today’s prices. http://tinyurl.com/yacnwct The Independent: Virgin Money, Sir Richard Branson's banking operation, launched its bid to wrest 300 Royal Bank of Scotland branches from front-runner Banco Santander. http://tinyurl.com/yhl26pf The Times: AOL, the struggling internet company, plans to sell or shut down Bebo, the online social network, only two years after buying it. http://tinyurl.com/y89bsff Around Asia The Times: The Shanghai Futures Exchange moved to the top of the world rankings of commodity exchanges ahead of its rivals in New York and London. http://tinyurl.com/yk8jo78 New York Times: Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, started his first official trip to India. http://tinyurl.com/ygpvjrw The Times: The Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates to 4.25 per cent, the fifth rise since October. http://tinyurl.com/yj7mxnf Look ahead The Daily Telegraph: Britain's business leaders warned of market volatility ahead of the general election next month. http://tinyurl.com/yecws5r The Independent: A fight is brewing between small and large UK retailers about full day trading on Boxing Day, which falls on a Sunday this year. http://tinyurl.com/ygt9p34 The Daily Telegraph: The UK housing market may be trapped in a long-term bear market and may not bounce back to its 2007 peaks for generations. http://tinyurl.com/yc2ptzw MARKETS FTSE 100 5,780.35 up 0.6% (Tuesday close) Dow 10,969.99 steady (close) S&P 500 1,189.44 up 0.2% (close) Nasdaq 2,436.81 up 0.3% (close) Nikkei 11,321.29 up 0.4% (latest) Hang Seng 21,805.40 up 1.3% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5246/1.1392 euros (latest) Euro $1.3383 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $86.16 up 1 cent (latest) West Texas crude $86.79 down 5 cents (latest) Gold $1135.50 down 50 cents (latest) New York Reuters: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose modestly as the banking sector got a lift from positive analyst comments and the Federal Reserve indicated it may keep interest rates low. Bank of America rose 2 per cent and JPMorgan Chase rose 1.1 per cent. The Dow ended just below break-even. Insurer Travelers Companies, a Dow component, fell 1.4 per cent on an analyst’s downgrade. Among regional banks, Regions Financial rose 4.4 per cent and Synovus Financial rose 6.2 per cent on an analyst’s upgrade. On the Nasdaq, online retailer Amazon.com rose 3.1 per cent on optimism that Apple’s iPad device could expand the market for e-publishing. Home builder KB Home fell 2.8 per cent on an analyst’s downgrade. http://tinyurl.com/yjgwqvq Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade as investors bet the Federal Reserve would leave the benchmark US interest rate at a record low. Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest miner, rose 0.7 per cent in Sydney on higher oil and metal prices. Sumitomo, which trades commodities, rose 0.8 per cent in Tokyo. China Construction Bank may be active in Hong Kong later in the day on speculation it plans to sell shares to raise capital. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 per cent to 127.75 in early trade. http://tinyurl.com/ye2c4wm Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com London The trend towards splitting big companies in two gathered pace yesterday when Petrofac completed the spin-off of EnQuest, its North Sea oil exploration business. EnQuest, which also comprises the British assets of Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum, made a steady stock market debut, rising 6.2p to 103.7p. Meanwhile Petrofac, an oil services company, advanced a further 76.5p to £12.65 as traders continued to talk up the prospects for its core construction and exploration business. This latest demerger comes hard on the heels of spin-offs last month at Carphone Warehouse, 1.75p higher at 167.25p, and Cable & Wireless, up 1.1p at 57.7p. With takeovers and private equity deals still thin on the ground, demergers are reckoned to be a less risky way to deliver value to shareholders. Daniel Stillit, an analyst at the Swiss bank UBS, has noted that the number of European companies planning spin-offs this year already exceeds the past two years combined. Overall, the FTSE 100 rose 35.46 points to 5,780.35 after solid economic data from America late last week was chased yesterday by an encouraging report on the British construction industry. A European index of investor confidence touched its highest in two years. Optimism about economic recovery drove commodity prices still higher and buoyed miners and oil companies. With the price of copper at its best since 2008, Kazakhmys rose 48p to £16.30. Brent crude edged above $86 a barrel; BP followed, climbing 15p higher to 646.3p. But the renewed optimism about economic recovery saw cigarette makers, drug companies, supermarkets and utilities all marked lower. These types of company tend to relatively well when the economy is doing worst. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
