 | May 5, 2010 |
Kill the Competition: Sachs settlement ... Markets sink ... Spill helpTop storiesThe Times: Goldman Sachs, the beleaguered investment bank, may enter settlement talks with US regulators over the fraud charges brought against it last month. http://tinyurl.com/3y655uu Wall Street Journal: International stock and bond markets sank, as a weekend deal to bail out Greece failed to ease concerns the government-debt crisis would spread. http://tinyurl.com/2vltsq7 The Times: Half of Britain’s emergency stockpile of the chemical dispersants used to combat oil spills could be flown to the US under a government plan. http://tinyurl.com/2cz4tfw Comment David Wighton in The Times: The sell-off in BP shares may be overblown, but we may be underestimating the impact of the disaster on the wider oil industry. http://tinyurl.com/28uc94f Martin Wolf in the Financial Times: The attempted rescue of Greece is just the beginning of the story. http://tinyurl.com/2wpw858 Sean O’Grady in The Independent: The problem has been not that Britain's banks took too many risks, but that the risks they took were so economically futile. http://tinyurl.com/2vjhvwc Upside The Times: Activity at British factories soared to a 15-year high helped by the weaker pound. http://tinyurl.com/2d8cgl8 The Independent: Standard Chartered and UBS became the latest banks to report bumper earnings, providing fresh evidence that the banking sector is recovering. http://tinyurl.com/38t2cqx The Times: The estate of the late Jeffry Picower, a former investor in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, may hand over $2 billion (£1.3 billion) to victims of the fraud. http://tinyurl.com/29l9ced Downside The Times: British Airways must prove itself sufficiently British to stay in the FTSE 100 after its proposed merger with Iberia. http://tinyurl.com/2ewz9bq The Daily Telegraph: Shares in Essar Energy, the Indian energy firm, fell 7 per cent in the worst debut performance in London of any new listed company for eight years. http://tinyurl.com/336gahp The Times: Prudential, Britain’s biggest insurer, scrambled to price its record $21 billion (£14 billion) rights issue amid turmoil in world markets. http://tinyurl.com/27qywcx Mergers and shakers The Times: A major legal merger involving SJ Berwin, a City law firm, collapsed after Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco firm, abandoned talks. http://tinyurl.com/2eculv2 The Daily Telegraph: Pearson, the publisher, will collect $2 billion (£1.3 billion) from the sale of its stake in Interactive Data, the market data provider. http://tinyurl.com/27z9s4c The Times: Inspired Gaming, the gambling software group, bowed to a £134 million ($2.3 million) approach from Vitruvian Partners, the private equity company. http://tinyurl.com/23h3qaj Around Asia Wall Street Journal: Westpac Bank, the large Australian bank, said first-half net profit rose 32 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/2euvvv5 Nikkei: Office rents for both new and existing buildings in Tokyo dropped for a second consecutive year in mid-April. http://tinyurl.com/2d9vcxd Wall Street Journal: Agricultural Bank of China, the big state-run lender, began the process for its $30 billion (£20 billion) dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong. http://tinyurl.com/25c8wot Look ahead Wall Street Journal: Google, the internet giant, plans to begin selling digital books in late June or July. http://tinyurl.com/38w8vty The Times: Westfield’s giant shopping centre next to London’s Olympic Park has let 60 per cent of its space with 18 months still to go before opening day. http://tinyurl.com/233xacz Wall Street Journal: European ministers agreed to have some key parts of new aviation rules operational by the end of the year. http://tinyurl.com/26nmd4a MARKETS FTSE 100 5,411.11 down 2.6% (Tuesday close) Dow 10,926.77 down 2% (close) S&P 500 1,173.60 down 2.4% (close) Nasdaq 2,424.25 down 3% (close) Nikkei 11,057.40 up 1.2% (Friday close, closed for a holiday) Hang Seng 20,379.13 down 1.9% (latest) Currencies Sterling $1.5136/1.1677 euros (latest) Euro $1.2962 (latest) Commodities Brent crude $85.20 down 47 cents (latest) West Texas crude $82.35 down 39 cents (latest) Gold $1168.40 down 80 cents (latest) New York Reuters: Investors dumped US stocks in Wall Street's worst session in three months on the fear that even with a bailout for Greece, Europe's debt crisis could spread to other weak euro zone countries. Big exporters to Europe tumbled. Technology firm Hewlett-Packard fell 3.9 per cent and heavy equipment maker Caterpillar fell 4.6 per cent. Airline shares were hit, with the Arca Airline Index falling 5.4 per cent. Drug maker Merck rose 1.5 per cent and rival Pfizer rose 2 per cent on better-than-expected earnings. Retailing giant Wal-Mart rose 0.5 per cent and was the only other blue-chip to gain. After the bell, media conglomerate News Corp posted better-than-expected quarterly profits. It initially rose 4 per cent but finished down 3.6 per cent. http://tinyurl.com/3xjsb6d Asia Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade, extending a global rout, as concern grew that Europe’s government debt crisis will spread beyond Greece. BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, fell 1.1 per cent and Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s No.2 oil and gas producer, fell 2.1 per cent on lower commodity prices. New Zealand Oil & Gas fell 3.2 per cent and Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil producer, fell 2.9 per cent. Westpac Bank, the Australian lender, fell 3.9 per cent in Sydney and 5.4 per cent in Wellington even after reporting a surge in first-half profit. The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index fell 1.6 per cent to 411.69 in morning trade. Markets in Japan, South Korea and Thailand are closed today. http://tinyurl.com/2cqcygb Michael Beh michaelwbeh@gmail.com London Airlines lost altitude yesterday after more flights were cancelled because of volcanic ash from Iceland. British Airways fell 12p to 216.3p after airspace over Ireland and Scotland was closed. Ash again drifted this way from the same Icelandic volcano that grounded flights across Europe for six days last month. The International Air Transport Association yesterday put the cost of April’s disruption at more $1.7 billion (£1.1 billion) of lost revenues for Europe’s airlines. On top of that, fewer flights means those affected airlines may be entitled to fewer free emissions certificates when the European Emissions Trade System is extended to cover their industry in 2012. Under the ETS, each airline will receive a certain number of free certificates, essentially licences to pollute, based in part on emissions this year. Above that allocation, airlines must pay for further certificates. Meanwhile, Ryanair eased 11 cents to €3.615 and EasyJet fell 7.6p to 464.8p as sentiment towards airlines was further dampened by quarterly losses from Germany’s Lufthansa that were steeper than had been expected. Airlines were by no means alone in giving ground, as a toxic mixture of bad news - both real and imagined - drove global stock markets sharply lower. In London, the FTSE 100 tumbled 142.18 points to 5,411.11, as investors fretted about whether Greece would be able to push through swingeing budget cuts. Bears sharpened their claws as a rash of unsettling rumours swirled around dealing rooms: Supposedly, Spain had asked for a €280 billion rescue - a suggestion dismissed by its Prime Minister as "complete madness"; Apparently, the country was poised to suffer further downgrades by ratings agencies - Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service later underscored their AAA ratings and stable outlooks for the country's sovereign debt; An unnamed "major fund" was rumoured to have collapsed. None of those tall tales contained substance. Yet, they all spooked investors. So too did a bomb scare that saw part of the City cordoned off by police and buildings evacuated, including an office belonging to Royal Bank of Scotland, 3.6p lower at 50.75p. Gary Parkinson Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk |
