KILL THE COMPETITION: Auto aid near ... Office plunge ... Steel support

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

Monday, December 8, 0730 GMT

Top stories

The Times: Barack Obama, the US President-elect, gave US auto chiefs a warning as Congress drew up bailout plan worth $15 billion, half of what the car firms requested.
http://tinyurl.com/57jnxy

Daily Telegraph: The value of Britain's offices and factories will more than halve by the end of next year, surveyors predict.
http://tinyurl.com/6y4b8p

Financial Times: Steelmaker Corus, one of the UK's largest employers, will ask the Government for help to keep thousands of workers at home rather than sack them.
http://tinyurl.com/6f9w6j

Comment

Gary Duncan in The Times: In trying to weigh the true scale of the crisis, it is worth peering back at past recessions; sadly, there are plenty to ponder.
http://tinyurl.com/6pprnd

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph: Debt deflation has gone beyond the extremes of the 1930s and monetary policy is being pushed to the limits.
http://tinyurl.com/6yn4yk

Lex in the Financial Times: It would be bad enough if sovereign wealth funds stopped buying Western assets, but what if they started selling?
http://tinyurl.com/653ohx

Upside

The Times: Today is Mega Monday; online shopping is tipped to peak about 1.30pm, hit £16,000 ($23,500) a second and total £450 million ($660 million) for the day.
http://tinyurl.com/5gygxh

Financial Times: The video game industry is bucking a retail recession, with sales up 25 per cent this year.
http://tinyurl.com/5hjv78

The Times: A board of ten to twenty City professionals will be recruited to promote London as a world financial centre in response to the economic downturn.
http://tinyurl.com/5vs74c

Downside

The Times: Global advertising spending is predicted to fall 0.2 per cent next year, further than in the 1990s recession.
http://tinyurl.com/662v28

New York Times: The Tribune Company, which owns The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times newspapers, has hired advisers for a possible bankruptcy filing.
http://tinyurl.com/5ond3j

The Times: Oilexco, the North Sea oil producer, has been put up for sale two weeks after it had to scrap a fresh capital raising.
http://tinyurl.com/5jlwmk

Mergers and shakers

The Times: British Airways will try to convince Caja Madrid, the bank and Iberia shareholder, to back a three-way airline merger with Qantas.
http://tinyurl.com/6c45o4

Daily Telegraph: The FTSE 100 on Wednesday faces one of its most significant reshuffles following months of share price slides and volatility.
http://tinyurl.com/5umgxe

The Times: Informal talks to create the world's biggest exchange operator by merging Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext ended without result.
http://tinyurl.com/5kpx7u

Around Asia

The Times: Deflation may be returning to Japan as its economy is hit by a perfect storm of crashing commodity prices and a surging yen.
http://tinyurl.com/5of69s

Financial Times: India lifted its economic stimulus package by $4 billion (£2.7 billion) to $60 billion (£40 billion); business leaders said it was not enough.
http://tinyurl.com/5gzort

Nikkei: A stronger yen will push end-of-year price cutting on luxury brands in a bid to spark demand.

Look ahead

The Times: Wagon Automotive, the car parts maker, is set to go into administration this week, putting 500 British jobs at risk.
http://tinyurl.com/5f6eon

Financial Times: Corporate bankruptcies will hit a record next year with 200,000 in Europe and "an explosion" in the US, the world's largest credit insurer predicts.
http://tinyurl.com/6kj4cq

The Times: The CBI predicts significant job losses in the coming months, particularly in accountancy, the law, hospitality, travel and leisure.
http://tinyurl.com/6djyfy

Unfinished business - last week wrapped up
Last Monday

On the same day shares fell 9 per cent, the National Bureau of Economic Research officially declared the US went into recession in December 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/5srcgf

Bank of America, the biggest US retail bank, raised $9 billion (£6 billion) in the largest bank bond sale since regulators agreed to guarantee the debt.
http://tinyurl.com/56evpm

Tuesday

British Airways entered merger talks with the Australian airline Qantas; a deal would create the world's first global airline.
http://tinyurl.com/573mv3

The heads of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler offered to work for $1 a year if the US Government gave the carmakers a $31 billion (£21 billion) loan.
http://tinyurl.com/5gfqer

Wednesday

Dire economic news drove the pound to 13-year lows and convinced many that the Bank of England would cut rates by up to 150 basis points.
http://tinyurl.com/64yzqx

AAim, a £3 billion ($4.4 billion) property investment company backed by HBOS and chaired by Sir David Frost, went into administration.
http://tinyurl.com/55ymj3

Thursday

The Bank of England cut interest rates by 100 basis points to their lowest in 50 years, and said Britain's recession was deepening despite rescue efforts.
http://tinyurl.com/5hbr6l

Central banks cut interest rates; Europe cut 75 basis points to 2.5 per cent, Sweden cut 175bp to 2 per cent and New Zealand cut 150bp to 5 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/6q5ol5

Friday

Official figures showed more than 500,000 Americans lost their jobs last month, the worst result in 34 years, and oil prices plunged.
http://tinyurl.com/6flcq7

Shareholders approved Bank of America's takeover of Merrill Lynch, which will create a banking giant leading in almost every area of the financial system.
http://tinyurl.com/6fzlha

MARKETS

FTSE 100 4,049.37 down 2.7% (Friday close)

Dow 8,635.42 up 3.1% (close)

S&P 500 876.07 up 3.7% (close)

Nasdaq 1,509.31 up 4.4% (close)

Nikkei 8,120.71 up 2.6% (latest)

Hang Seng 14,565.35 up 5.2% (latest)

Currencies

Sterling $1.4744/1.1551 euros (latest)

Euro $1.2764 (latest)

Commodities

Brent crude $41.36 up 91 cents (latest)

West Texas crude $42.45 up $1.64 (latest)

Gold $761.70 up $9.50 (latest)

New York
Reuters: US stocks jumped on Friday as investors bet that a steep drop in oil prices would boost consumer spending, offsetting terrible jobs figures. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, rose nearly 6 per cent and iPhone maker Apple rose nearly 3 per cent. Hartford Financial lifted its product outlook and said it had enough capital and its share price more than doubled. Boeing, the aircraft maker, overcame early falls to finish up 1 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/5ojy7v

Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade after US President-elect Barack Obama pledged a massive public works program and India lowered interest rates. Komatsu, the world's No. 2 maker of construction machinery, rose 7 per cent and James Hardie, the biggest seller of home cladding in the US, rose 2.7 per cent. Santos, Australia's third-biggest oil and gas producer, rose 8.6 per cent on takeover speculation. In Japan, Mizuho Financial rose 1.8 per cent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group rose 1.7 per cent. Among Australian banks, Commonwealth rose 7.4 per cent and National Australia Bank rose 5.7 per cent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 2.6 per cent to 81.61 in morning trade. Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia were closed for public holidays.
http://tinyurl.com/63x2eu

Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com 

AGENDA

INTERIMS

Clapham House Group
Northgate
Ten Alps

FINALS
Idox

TRADING STATEMENTS
Whitbread
AGMs
Sinclair Pharma (10am)

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