Kill the Competition: Seven charged ... Debt circle ... Strikes ahead
Thursday, April 1, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Seven men were charged by the Financial Services Authority in the regulator’s first prosecution of an alleged insider dealing ring.
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The Daily Telegraph: PIMCO, the US bond fund, warned that the UK risks a vicious circle of rising debt costs as global investors demand a penalty fee on gilts.
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The Times: The UK faces months of strikes if the public sector bears the brunt of spending cuts, warned Brendan Barber, the head of the trade union movement.
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Comment
Carl Mortished in The Times: Let us hope all this investment is Britain’s green industrial renaissance.
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Neil Midgley in The Daily Telegraph: In a globalised digital era we must stop being so parochial and let British companies grow and succeed, even BSkyB.
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Jonathan Weil on Bloomberg: The US Securities and Exchange Commission is on the hunt for Lehman-style accounting tricks but it is way too late, as usual.
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Upside
The Times: Regulators ordered BSkyB, the cable TV service, to cut the price that it charges rivals such as Virgin Media for its premium sports channels.
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The Times: President Barack Obama opened up 167 million acres (67 million hectares) of US coastal waters to oil drilling.
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The Times: Government carbon inspectors will compel thousands of UK companies to disclose full details of their carbon emissions under a mandatory new scheme.
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Downside
The Times: Jarvis axed 1,100 jobs after administrators admitted rescue hopes for the rail maintenance company were slim.
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Wall Street Journal: US private employers cut 23,000 jobs in March dashing the expectations of analysts.
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The Times: EMI, the struggling music group, broke its banking covenants after abandoning a rescue plan involving the sale of its US back catalogue to rivals.
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Mergers and shakers
The Times: The timetable for the proposed merger of British Airways and Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier, slipped because of "technical issues".
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Wall Street Journal: Amazon.com, the online retailer, agreed to halt discounting e-book best-sellers in new pricing deals with two major publishers.
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The Daily Telegraph: Brady Dougan, the head of Credit Suisse, will be paid $66 million (£44 million) under a controversial five-year bonus plan.
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Around Asia
The Times: Procter & Gamble is suing Hindustan Unilever for 1 billion rupees (£15 million, $22 million) over a laundry detergent advertising campaign in India.
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Wall Street Journal: Lihir Gold, the Australian gold miner, rejected an A$9.2 billion (£5.5 billion, $8.4 billion) takeover offer from rival Newcrest Mining.
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Bloomberg: China’s manufacturing expanded at a faster pace in March, reinforcing an economic rebound in the wake of a record expansion of credit.
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Look ahead
Wall Street Journal: A looming deadline could force businesses and charities to pay millions of dollars into their US private pension plans this year.
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Financial Times: Kleiner Perkins, the technology investment firm, forecasts that the iPad, a new tablet computer, will cause a wave of innovation on its release on Saturday.
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Wall Street Journal: Greece plans to raise up to $10 billion (£6.6 billion) in a global bond issue this month or the beginning of May.
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MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,679.64 up 0.1% (Wednesday close)
Dow 10,856.63 down 0.5% (close)
S&P 500 1,169.43 down 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,397.96 down 0.5% (close)
Nikkei 11,168.91 up 0.7% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,437.85 up 0.9% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5202/1.1258 euros (latest)
Euro $1.3503 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $82.30 down 40 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $83.33 down 43 cents (latest)
Gold $1114.90 up 40 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks fell as data showed a surprising drop in private-sector employment. The session's laggards included this quarter's best performers. Aircraft maker Boeing fell 1.3 per cent and diversified manufacturer 3M fell 0.8 per cent. Home improvement firm Home Depot fell 1 per cent and retailer Macy's fell 1.6 per cent. After the bell, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion fell 7.4 per cent on disappointing results. On the Nasdaq, software giant Microsoft fell 1.6 per cent and iPhone maker Apple fell 0.4 per cent. Oil giant Chevron rose 0.7 per cent after a legal ruling in its favour. Energy stocks rose on President Barack Obama's announcement of an expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling. Oil driller Apache rose 1.8 per cent. For the first quarter, the Dow rose 4.1 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 4.9 per cent, and the Nasdaq rose 5.7 per cent. US stock markets are closed tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday.
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Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade on higher commodity prices and takeover offers in Australia. Mitsubishi, the Japanese commodity trader, rose 1.3 per cent, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose 0.9 per cent and rival Rio Tinto rose 1.3 per cent on higher commodity prices. Lihir Gold, the No.2 gold miner on the Australian stock exchange, rose 29 per cent after it rejected a takeover offer from rival Newcrest Mining. Newcrest fell 2 per cent. CSR, Australia’s second-largest building products maker, rose 6.7 per cent after Bright Food Group, Shanghai’s biggest food company, raised its bid on the company. Dai-ichi Life Insurance, Japan’s second-largest life insurer, is set to rise 12 per cent on the world’s biggest initial public offering in two years when it starts trading in Tokyo later today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 per cent to 125.43 in early trade.
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Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, has raised £17 million in the past six months in a series of complex financial transactions using the budget airline's shares.
The word is that entrepreneur is poised to buy a pile in Chelsea or Kensington for his easyHotel chain.
Sir Stelios has lodged 1 million easyJet shares with UBS, the Swiss bank, in return for £4.5 million.
That is on top of the £5 million he raised last month and a further £7.5 million in September.
Sir Stelios also put in place a collar and cap to protect against any fall in the value of the shares. UBS covers the losses should the shares fall below 411p, but pockets any upside should they climb above 568p. Yesterday, they rose 3.2p to 458.9p.
Overall, the FTSE edged 7.32 points higher to 5,679.64 as more solid gains for the miners and the banks offset weakness among more defensive shares.
Morgan Stanley became the latest broker to lift its target price for a rash of mining companies. Anglo American was among those to benefit most, rising 40p to £28.74 as Morgan Stanley told clients they could hit £32.74.
Banks also gained ground amid relief that the Irish government had purged its banking system. Lloyds Banking Group, the lender 41 per cent owned by the taxpayer, advanced 1.41p to 62.77p
Unilever, the Pot Noodle-to-Persil consumer goods giant, rose 23p to £19.35 after Bank of America Merrill Lynch told clients the shares were cheap and urged them to buy. The broker pointed out that Unilever is the only company it watches that has given ground in the current stock market rally.
Unilever’s were among the few "defensive" shares - those typically to fare better when the economy is suffering - to gain ground yesterday.
Tentative economic optimism saw utilities, cigarette makers, pubs and supermarkets all fall.
SABMiller, owner of Grolsch and Peroni lager, was among those hardest hit, losing 19p to £19.32. Imperial Tobacco, maker of Rizla, eased 20p to £20.10.
Gary Parkinson
Gary.Parkinson@thetimes.co.uk
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