KILL THE COMPETITION
Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Myles McIvor
Monday, December 1, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: The Royal Bank of Scotland will announce today that borrowers who cannot keep up with their mortgage repayments will have a six-month breathing space.
http://tinyurl.com/558cfq
New York Times: After spending almost $1.4 trillion to stabilise the US financial system, president-elect Barack Obama, economists and policy makers are figuring out how much must be invested to stop the recession.
http://tinyurl.com/694qqx
The Times: The Engineering Employers' Federation fears another 90,000 jobs could be lost in manufacturing next year as it makes a new plea for the Government to throw a lifeline to embattled industrial groups.
http://tinyurl.com/6kvxyd
Comment
Sam Laidlaw in The Times: To achieve an increased cut in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, we need a "carbon crunch" far greater in scale than most people imagine.
http://tinyurl.com/6r3nqz
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph: Spreads on geo-strategic risk are now widening as dramatically as the spreads on financial risk at the onset of the credit crunch.
http://tinyurl.com/6kouov
John Waples in The Times: With BHP Billiton's proposed takeover of Rio Tinto abandoned, both companies now will rewrite their business plans to reflect the changed world.
http://tinyurl.com/62acy8
Upside
The Times: Online traders should enjoy a merry Christmas as online spending this year will reach £4.7 billion ($7.2 billion), up 10 per cent on last year's £4.2 billion ($6.4 billion).
http://tinyurl.com/5cwx3j
Reuters: General Motors' board is rushing to complete a restructuring plan intended to cut costs and win support for up to $12 billion in emergency funding from the US Government.
http://tinyurl.com/6h3zde
Financial Times: Aggressive price-cutting by US retailers over the Thanksgiving holiday brought shoppers into stores in droves, according to spending estimates for the weekend.
http://tinyurl.com/5q2sse
Downside
The Times: The London Stock Exchange has lost a quarter of its near-monopoly in London business in equities to rival exchanges with Chi-X building a 15 per cent share since it entered the market last year.
http://tinyurl.com/648v8e
Daily Telegraph: The Society of Pension Consultants, the trade body for the pensions industry, called on the Government to stand behind the Pension Protection Fund as it comes under mounting pressure.
http://tinyurl.com/6ykysf
Daily Telegraph: Fine art prices could halve as rich investors show signs of reining in their spending, says Hiscox, the largest specialist insurer of fine art in Europe.
http://tinyurl.com/683zhj
Mergers and shakers
The Times: The Merger Action Group, made up of Scottish businessmen, is challenging the Government's decision to allow HBOS to be taken over by Lloyds TSB without referring the deal to the Competition Commission.
http://tinyurl.com/56upen
The Independent: Ardeshir Naghshineh, the property tycoon who owns London's Centrepoint building, is one of several potential bidders lining up to buy the 800-shop retailer Woolworths.
http://tinyurl.com/6o4hg4
Daily Telegraph: Amlin, the FTSE 250 insurer, wants to create a new insurance syndicate at Lloyd's of London funded entirely by private investors to take advantage of a sharp rise in insurance premiums.
http://tinyurl.com/6gue7u
Around Asia
The Times: Citigroup, once the world's biggest bank, is believed to be selling NikkoCiti Trust and Banking Corporation, one of its Japanese businesses, in its latest move to raise capital.
http://tinyurl.com/5uceqg
Financial Times: Japan's economy is unlikely to respond to a planned fiscal stimulus and will have to endure higher unemployment, according to Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano.
http://tinyurl.com/6gyjl8
New York Times: China's President Hu Jintao warned that the global financial crisis was threatening to undermine the country's booming economy and that China could lose its competitive edge as trade growth slows.
http://tinyurl.com/6a2bqg
Look ahead
The Times: While Opec has deferred a decision on fresh oil production curbs, a cut in crude output of up to 1.5 million barrels a day is likely to be settled at the cartel's December 17 meeting.
http://tinyurl.com/5cv3xk
Daily Telegraph: The Bank of England urged by business groups and economists to cut interest rates to their lowest in 57 years to stop the economy sliding deeper into recession.
http://tinyurl.com/6rs93u
The Independent: Tesco, the supermarket group, is pegged to unveil a slowdown in UK like-for-like sales growth when it publishes a third-quarter update tomorrow.
http://tinyurl.com/68f2dr
Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday
The Government's Pre-Budget Report revealed a £1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) debt gamble to defeat the recession.
http://tinyurl.com/56al7a
Huang Guangyu, one of China's richest men and head of its biggest electronics retailer, was reportedly detained by police investigating a stock scandal.
http://tinyurl.com/5jac58
Tuesday
BHP Billiton's hostile pursuit of Rio Tinto, its mining rival, ended, with advisers to both companies pocketing a total £400 million ($615 million).
http://tinyurl.com/5e6fb8
The US Federal Reserve offered a surprise $800 billion (£517 billion) to credit markets, bringing the bailout total to $1.7 trillion (£1.1 trillion).
http://tinyurl.com/6a2acj
Wednesday
Woolworths was put into administration; many of the retailer's 800 outlets will close for good after Christmas, putting up to 30,000 jobs at risk.
http://tinyurl.com/68k6vk
The European Commission proposed a €200 billion (£168 billion, $258 billion) rescue package and China cut interest rates by 108 basis points.
http://tinyurl.com/5wfyt9
Thursday
UBS, the Swiss banking giant, ordered executive bonuses worth £38 million ($58 million) to be forfeited and the partial end of client secrecy.
http://tinyurl.com/6keup8
Jaguar Land Rover sacked 850 workers at its West Midlands car plant just hours before industry chiefs pleaded for government help.
http://tinyurl.com/5mewzc
Friday
The British Government bought a 58 per cent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland for £15 billion ($23 billion) after investors shunned a rescue plan.
http://tinyurl.com/6o2fae
Euro zone inflation fell to 2.1 per cent, increasing expectations that the European Central Bank will make its biggest ever rates cut in the coming week.
http://tinyurl.com/5qmx99
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,288.01 up 1.5% (Friday close)
Dow 8,829.04 up 1.2% (close)
S&P 500 896.24 up 1% (close)
Nasdaq 1,535.57 up 0.2% (close)
Nikkei 8,345.83 down 2% (latest)
Hang Seng 14,180.34 up 2.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5376/1.2105 euros (latest)
Euro $1.2702 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $53 down 92 cents(latest)
West Texas crude $54.43 down 2 cents (latest)
Gold $819 up 95 cents (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rose on Friday on light volume in an abbreviated session, capping the best week for the S&P 500 since at least 1980 as investors hoped government and central bank moves would boost the economy. Economic bellwethers such as General Electric and financial stocks rallied and helped overshadow weakness in retailers' shares, which slumped on concerns the weak economy may hurt sales during the holiday shopping season. The Dow's top advancers included Caterpillar, up 4.2 per cent, and Coca-Cola, up 3.3 per cent. In the financial sector, Citigroup jumped 17.6 per cent while American Express gained 4.5 per cent, Bank of America climbed 5.3 per cent and JPMorgan Chase 3.4 per cent. Yahoo! gained 8.8 per cent and gave the Nasdaq one of its biggest lifts after billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed he has raised his stake in the Internet company.
http://tinyurl.com/5v5z48
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks fell in morning trade, snapping a four-day winning streak as Australian profit growth slowed and Japan's Morimoto became the country's second-largest bankruptcy this year. Morimoto filed for protection from creditors with 162 billion yen ($1.7 billion) of debt, nine months after its initial public offering. BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, slumped 4 per cent in Sydney as a report showed Australia's corporate profit growth slowed in the third quarter and as commodity prices declined. Mitsubishi Estate, Japan's second-biggest property developer, lost 3.9 per cent, leading declines among the country's real-estate shares after Morimoto filed for protection from creditors. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 1.4 per cent to 81.51 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/5z8mms
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
AGENDA
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