 | May 25, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Takeover disaster ... BP strategy ... iPad blitzTuesday, May 25, 0730 GMTTop stories The Times: Executives at AIA, the Hong Kong-based company that Prudential wants to buy, predict the takeover of AIG’s Asian insurance business will be a disaster. http://tinyurl.com/36l635s The Independent: BP, the oil giant, unveiled a fifth strategy to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak and announced a $500 million (£350 million) impact study. http://tinyurl.com/2btdrca The Times: Apple plans a high street blitz for the British launch of its iPad on Friday, but people ordering online may wait more than two weeks for delivery. http://tinyurl.com/2b5adzd Comment Ian King in The Times: It is tempting to ascribe the FTSE 100’s recent slump to sovereign debt fears, but BP is also playing its part. http://tinyurl.com/3yj4o2j Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: I worry about the consequences if everyone in Europe pursues the same hair-shirted austerity all at the same time. http://tinyurl.com/2568j6q Matthew Lynn on Bloomberg: Germany has two choices: It can adapt to the way the euro now works and start paying the bills or it can quit the single currency. http://tinyurl.com/2fykmtf Upside The Times: George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced an immediate £6.2 billion ($8.9 billion) of spending cuts but warned that the worst was yet to come. http://tinyurl.com/2g9rg9p Wall Street Journal: Sales of existing homes in the US increased in April as buyers took advantage of the government's home-buyer tax credit. http://tinyurl.com/28asvz7 New York Times: About 720,000 investors outside the US who lost money to convicted swindler Bernard Madoff have settled with their banks. http://tinyurl.com/2fajdev Downside The Times: The International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning to Spain after the collapse of one of the nation’s regional banks. http://tinyurl.com/33tfd54 The Daily Telegraph: Britain is at risk of a Japan-style episode of deflation, and may be worse-equipped than the Asian country to escape, warned a Bank of England policymaker. http://tinyurl.com/2782mvw Financial Times: Eurozone countries will have to impose an upfront levy on banks to insure against future financial failures under new European Union proposals. http://tinyurl.com/28u4vaj Mergers and shakers The Times: Tony Blair, the former prime minister, signed up as an adviser with Khosla Ventures, a US venture capital firm specialising in green technology. http://tinyurl.com/36rcqcz The Daily Telegraph: The London office of Bank of New York Mellon is facing a £1 million ($1.4 million) lawsuit from a senior executive for workplace stress. http://tinyurl.com/32wapkc The Times: IBM bought Sterling Commerce, a business-to-business software and services company, from AT&T, the telecoms firm, for $1.4 billion (£970 million). http://tinyurl.com/33n9w2w Around Asia The Times: The row between two of the world’s biggest miners and the Australian Government over a proposed tax on the country’s mining industry escalated. http://tinyurl.com/3xzye8s Wall Street Journal: Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund, appointed Hsieh Fu Hua as its president and executive director. http://tinyurl.com/234hnl2 Bloomberg: Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, will have insufficient profit to warrant an upgrade of its credit rating this year, Moody’s, the ratings agency, said. http://tinyurl.com/24efmfw Look ahead The Times: Pace, the UK maker of set-top boxes, is predicted to cement its position at the top of the world’s market this year. http://tinyurl.com/24dy35c The Independent: Albemarle and Bond, the pawnbroker, will step up its store openings by two-thirds over the next year, as consumers flock to its shops. http://tinyurl.com/2b79ub2 Wall Street Journal: Ford will make more components in the US as part of the car giant’s effort to increase the number of low-emission cars offered in the next few years. http://tinyurl.com/2crgs4f MARKETS FTSE 100 5,069.61 up 0.1% (Monday close) Dow 10,066.57 down 1.2% (close) S&P 500 1,073.65 down 1.3% (close) Nasdaq 2,213.55 down 0.7% (close) Nikkei 9,526.67 down 2.4% (latest) Hang Seng 19322.04 down 1.8% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.4370/ 1.1675 euros (latest) Euro $1.2310 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $70.55 down 62 cents (latest) West Texas crude $69.53 down 68 cents (latest) Gold $1189.80 down $4.20 (latest) New York Reuters: US stocks slid, driving the Dow to its lowest level since February 10 as fresh signs of Europe's banking problems emerged. Financial shares were among the day's largest decliners. Wells Fargo fell 4.7 per cent on an analyst’s downgrade. iPad maker Apple rose 1.8 per cent and internet giant Google rose 1.1 per cent on analysts’ upgrades. Computer maker IBM said it plans to buy Sterling Commerce, the business software maker, from telecoms firm AT&T. IBM fell 0.8 per cent and AT&T fell 1.7 per cent. Gentiva Health Services, the home healthcare service provider, rose 13.1 per cent after it agreed to buy rival Odyssey HealthCare. Odyssey rose 38.7 per cent. Trading volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. http://tinyurl.com/39c5lj3 Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade as rising borrowing costs stoked concern Europe’s debt crisis will hurt the global economic recovery. ANZ Bank, the Australian lender, fell 2.6 percent, KB Financial Group, the owner of South Korea’s largest lender, fell 3.1 per cent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Japan’s second-biggest publicly traded bank, fell 2.8 per cent after the London interbank offered rate rose. Canon, the world’s biggest maker of digital cameras, fell 2.3 per cent and Olympus, an endoscope maker, fell 3.4 per cent after the euro weakened versus the yen. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest miner, fell 2.9 per cent and rival Rio Tinto fell 2.5 per cent on lower copper and oil prices. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.3 per cent to 109.78 in morning trade. http://tinyurl.com/36j47bm Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com London The FTSE 100 closed up 6.68 points to 5,069.61 yesterday after a volatile day’s trading, with traders unfazed by the government's announcement of spending cuts. The gains were largely driven by the mining sector, with Rio Tinto rising 1.7 per cent amid higher metal prices. However, Lonmin fell 1.3 per cent after more problems at its main furnace. BP was the biggest faller, down 2.7 per cent, amid further concerns about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Peter Stiff Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk |
