KILL THE COMPETITION
Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Tuesday, December 1, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The Government of Dubai refused to honour the debt obligations of its largest company, prompting fears that creditors could be wiped out.
The Daily Telegraph: The UK may become the first G10 country to risk capital flight and a full-blown debt, predicted Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank.
The Times: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, plans to force lenders to reveal more details about top-earning bankers.
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: The jostling investors of Mitchells & Butlers should offer to buy the company or they should drink up and find another pub more to their liking.
Jeremy Warner in The Daily Telegraph: The possibility of Dubai's desert storm turning into something much nastier is still very real.
David Prosser in The Independent: The Bank of England's £200 billion ($329 billion) quantitative easing programme is working not a jot.
Upside
The Times: 47 million new gas and electricity meters will be installed in every British household at a cost of £9 billion ($15 billion).
The Independent: Britons cut their credit card, loan and overdraft debts by £579 million ($951 million) in October.
Wall Street Journal: US online shopping sites reported an 11 per cent rise in sales on "Cyber Monday".
Downside
The Times: Vauxhall announced more than 350 job cuts at the car maker's Luton plant.
New York Times: American International Group, the troubled insurer, has a $12 billion (£7 billion) shortfall in its property and casualty business.
The Times: Ofcom, the communication regulator, raised the prospect of introducing "overlay" codes to overcome a drought in phone numbers.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Ian Norris, the retired chief executive of Morgan Crucible, the components manufacturer, launched a challenge against his extradition to the US.
Wall Street Journal: General Electric, the US conglomerate, agreed to buy partner Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal, the media company, for $5.8 billion (£3.5 billion).
The Times: Mitchells & Butlers, the pub and restaurant operator, accused rebel shareholders led by Joe Lewis of banding together to seize company control.
Around Asia
The Times: India's economy grew at a far stronger rate than predicted in the second quarter of the fiscal year.
Bloomberg: Zijin Mining Group, the Chinese copper producer, agreed to pay A$545 million (£304 million, $500 million) for Indophil Resources, part-owner of a large copper and gold deposit.
Wall Street Journal: Japan passed into law a conditional moratorium on loan repayments by small businesses and home owners.
Look ahead
The Times: Tesco, the grocery retailer, will give its Clubcard scheme members an extra £67 million ($110 million) of spending power before Christmas.
Wall Street Journal: Teva Pharmaceuticals will postpone the sale of a generic version of Abott Laboratories' blockbuster cholesterol drug until March 2011.
The Independent: Global Publishing Group is preparing to launch The London Weekly, a free commuter newspaper, on 1 February, 2010.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,190.68 down 1% (Monday close)
Dow 10,344.84 up 0.3% (close)
S&P 500 1,095.63 up 0.4% (close)
Nasdaq 2,144.60 up 0.3% (close)
Nikkei 9,256.67 down 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,817.96 steady (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6433/1.095 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5007 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $78.59 up 12 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $77.34 up 6 cents (latest)
Gold $1180.30 down $2 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose on hopes that possible fallout from Dubai's debt woes will be contained. An index of bank stocks .BKX rose more than 3 per cent as investors bet bank exposure to Dubai's debt problems would be limited. Amazon.com, the maker of the Kindle electronic book reader, rose 3.2 per cent on good November sales. After the bell, jeans and apparel maker Guess rose 8.5 per cent on better-than-expected profit. During the regular session major US department stores fell as investors worried that the holiday shopping season might have gotten off to a tepid start. Macy's fell 3.9 per cent and Saks fell 6.4 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade on concerns share valuations were too high given profit outlooks. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the second largest bank in Japan by market value, fell 3.2 per cent as it sought to sell subordinated debt. Mitsui OSK Lines, which operates the world's biggest fleet of merchant vessels, fell 4.1 per cent on reports the company will sell bonds. China Eastern Airlines rose 4.9 per cent after it won regulatory approval to take over Shanghai Airlines. Qantas Airways, the Australian carrier, rose 3.5 per cent after passenger numbers rose. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1 per cent to 116.53 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Lloyds Banking Group was the biggest faller yesterday as the FTSE 100 fell below the 5,200 points barrier amid further concerns about the impact of Dubai's debt woes.
Shares in the bank fell 5.9 per cent, with investors continuing to worry about potential exposure to Dubai and downbeat comments from Deutsche Bank, which cut its target price on Lloyds to 70p from 115p amid fears of a double dip in the economy.
Elsewhere in the sector, Dubai worries meant Royal Bank of Scotland lost 4.5 per cent and Barclays fell 1.9 per cent.
However, HSBC managed to buck the trend, rising 0.1 per cent, on the back of a bullish note Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Overall, the FTSE 100 dropped 55.05 points to 5,190.68 with commercial property stocks also under pressure.
Property stocks were also under pressure after HSBC warned of higher lending costs, with Segro losing 3.5 per cent.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
