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
Friday, December 12, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Deutsche Bahn, Germany's state-owned railway, wants to buy Britain's share of Eurostar in a move that would leave the high-speed international train service entirely under foreign control.
http://tinyurl.com/5fe5jl
New York Times : Republicans float an alternate plan with concessions by unions and creditors in a last-ditch effort to revive the US auto industry rescue.
http://tinyurl.com/5jjuhl
The Times : The fallout from the collapse of Woolworths widens as Zavvi creditors bring an emergency restructuring team from Ernst & Young into the struggling high street retailer.
http://tinyurl.com/6y76sv
Comment
Ian King in The Times : Bling will be replaced by saving, credit with modesty, premium for "real" value and excess with prudence. The era of conspicuous consumption is over.
http://tinyurl.com/6pdyke
Floyd Norris in New York Times : The Wall Street backlash is under way. If it grows strong enough, it could end with some bankers facing criminal trials.
http://tinyurl.com/5uk58b
Dan Sabbagh in The Times : Twenty five years of cosy broadcasting relationships between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are at an end and the only certainty is that after a flurry of activity nothing will be the same again.
http://tinyurl.com/5lcgeb
Upside
New York Times : Learning a bitter lesson from the stagnant 1990s, many Japanese companies are cutting back less than their competition, investing instead for the day the downturn ends.
http://tinyurl.com/649ryx
Financial Times : Procter & Gamble embarks on its most ambitious expansion program, focusing on emerging markets despite the economic slowdown.
http://tinyurl.com/69fdme
Bloomberg : US sales of Nintendo's Wii video-game console more than doubled to just over two million last month.
http://tinyurl.com/5o4txh
Downside
The Times : New figures show world oil demand will fall this year for the first time in 25 years as a broadening economic recession undermines energy consumption.
http://tinyurl.com/5gh83u
The Times : The Government again delayed a decision on whether to set up a compensation fund for a million Equitable Life policyholders.
http://tinyurl.com/5v9nwb
The Times : Holidaymakers received less than €1 for £1 when they bought foreign currency at Birmingham International and Liverpool airports.
http://tinyurl.com/5sspfa
Mergers and shakers
The Times : The billionaire Barclay brothers shut down their Sark operations after they were rejected by the voters in the first full election in the feudal bastion.
http://tinyurl.com/5uyoqp
New York Times : Legendary Wall Street trader Bernard L. Madoff accused of defrauding clients and losing $50 billion with his firm's money management business.
http://tinyurl.com/6jzc7h
The Times : David Ross, the disgraced Carphone Warehouse co-founder, has resigned from another of his public company directorships, Big Yellow group.
http://tinyurl.com/6msrtv
Around Asia
The Times : Baidu, China's internet search engine leader, cut its fourth-quarter revenue guidance after suspending thousands of merchants selling dubious medical products from its paid service.
http://tinyurl.com/63248o
Daily Telegraph : Chinese inflation fell to a two-year low of 2.4 per cent as gloomy car sales figures also were released.
http://tinyurl.com/5d3k6w
The Times : Serco, which runs London's Docklands light railway, entered India through the acquisition of Info Vision Group, one of the country's largest call centre operators.
http://tinyurl.com/627pzl
Look ahead
New York Times : Bank of America plans to cut up to 35,000 jobs over three years as it digests its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
http://tinyurl.com/6bwhzr
Financial Times : The Asia Development Bank cut Asian growth forecasts for 2009, saying countries must raise their fiscal expenditure in order to prevent a more pronounced slowdown.
http://tinyurl.com/5grclu
Daily Telegraph : The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates to 0.5 per cent and opened the door for emergency stimulus, the first European country to flirt with zero policy rates.
http://tinyurl.com/578c87
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,388.69 up 0.5% (Thursday close)
Dow 8,565.09 down 2.2% (close)
S&P 500 873.59 down 2.8% (close)
Nasdaq 1,507.88 down 3.7% (close)
Nikkei 8,610.18 down 1.3% (latest)
Hang Seng 15,226.16 down 2.5%(latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.505/1.1276 euros (latest)
Euro $1.3346 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $46.55 down 84c (latest)
West Texas crude $47.07 down 91c (latest)
Gold $821.90 down $4.70 (latest)
New York
Reuters : US stocks fell on dimming prospects for an automaker bailout, while bleak comments about the banking sector from JPMorgan's chief executive prompted investors to sell financial shares. Most of the drop came late in the afternoon, but the day was governed by a steady stream of dismal corporate and economic news, including initial claims for unemployment benefits hitting a 26-year high. The pullback was another setback for those Wall Street pundits who argue that stocks hit their bottom late last month. JPMorgan Chase was the Dow's biggest drag, falling more than 10 per cent, a sell-off accelerated after CEO Jamie Dimon said the year-end environment was "terrible".
http://tinyurl.com/6q69lb
Asia
Bloomberg : Asian stocks fell in morning trade, paring the benchmark index's best weekly gain in a decade, after China and South Korea said their economic growth would slow and US jobless claims soared. China Mobile, the nation's largest phone company, fell 2.2 per cent in Hong Kong. KB Financial lost 9.3 per cent after South Korea's central bank forecast the economy would expand at the slowest pace in 11 years in 2009. James Hardie, the biggest seller of home siding in the US, slumped 8.1 per cent. Honda Motor dropped more than 2 per cent, paring losses after Senate negotiators reached a tentative compromise on a $14 billion automaker bailout plan. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1 per cent to 87.22 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/57loqs
Myles McIvor
mjclub@bigpond.com.au
London
Oil and gas groups led the FTSE 100 into positive territory yesterday, offsetting losses for insurers and retailers.
Tullow Oil was at the front of the pack, soaring by more than 20 per cent, after revealing new oil finds in Ghana and Uganda that it said were likely to lead to "material upgrades" in reserve estimates. The news came as Brent crude hit $47 a barrel after the International Energy Agency predicted that global growth in oil demand would resume next year and expectations grew that Opec would cut production soon, boosting BP 4.8 per cent
The FTSE 100 advanced 21.41 points to 4,388.69, with insurers the worst performers. Standard Life lost 19p to 268p after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to "underweight", noting that the combined impact of equity market weakness, wide corporate bond spreads and tumbling interest rates would be perilous for many insurers.
Agenda
INTERIMS
Ensor Holdings
Kesa Electricals
TRADING STATEMENTS
Aggreko
Filtrona
United Business Media
AGMs
Cleardebt
MJ Gleeson Group
Sportingbet
OTHER
Voller Energy Group - shareholders' meeting
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