Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're saying, what they're saying, from Michael Beh
Tuesday, September 29, 0730 GMT
Top stories
The Times: Italian and Spanish footwear manufacturers are preparing to fight for continued European protection against Chinese imports.
http://tinyurl.com/ybpmkzv
Wall Street Journal: Three big drug makers announced deals that give them rights to new flu vaccines, one of the industry's brightest, but riskiest, segments.
http://tinyurl.com/ycmznxk
The Times: The UK cash-for-clunkers scheme was extended to another 100,000 new cars with a £100 million ($159 million) injection partly funded by the taxpayer.
http://tinyurl.com/ydcowug
Comment
David Wighton in The Times: When will it be the right time for the car industry to go cold turkey?
http://tinyurl.com/ycvcd2p
Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times: While more corporate mergers may be a good sign for the economy, is it such a good thing for companies?
http://tinyurl.com/yaqm5ze
Amity Shlaes on Bloomberg: Perhaps American couples in the 1990s did not buy too much house, maybe their parents bought too little house and didn't know it.
http://tinyurl.com/yaqjh3k
Upside
Wall Street Journal: US authorities are exploring new regulations to enhance investor-oriented oversight for the securities-lending market.
http://tinyurl.com/yee9t5o
The Independent: Virgin Media, the television, broadband and telephone provider, plans a secondary market listing in the UK to raise investor numbers.
http://tinyurl.com/y9fuayu
Financial Times: New rules for UK public companies will make them eligible for a less rigorous class of listing while remaining on the London Stock Exchange.
http://tinyurl.com/yep2y7e
Downside
The Times: Jessops, the photographic and camera retailer, underwent a debt-for-equity swap that will leave investors with less than 5p in the pound.
http://tinyurl.com/yckf7ho
The Daily Telegraph: The pound fell as Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, visited Sweden where there is a negative interest rate policy.
http://tinyurl.com/ycy49ra
The Times: Wolseley, the world's largest supplier of plumbing and heating equipment, reported a £766 million ($1.2 billion) pre-tax loss.
http://tinyurl.com/yelr7us
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Johnny Cameron, who contributed to the fall of the Royal Bank of Scotland, quit from Odgers Berndtson after the headhunting firm lost a UK Financial Investments deal.
http://tinyurl.com/y8p43qt
Wall Street Journal: Xerox, the office equipment maker, bought Affiliated Computer Services, the technology outsourcer, for $5.6 billion (£3.5 billion).
http://tinyurl.com/y8hyw9s
The Times: Barclays, the high street bank, is in talks to buy the banking division of Standard Life, the insurer.
http://tinyurl.com/y8nlqyg
Around Asia
The Times: Wang Chuanfu, the founder of Chinese battery and electric car maker BYD, became China's richest person with help from investor Warren Buffet.
http://tinyurl.com/y8fpfbl
Financial Times: CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil company, is in talks with Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the world's richest oil blocks.
http://tinyurl.com/yee5z84
The Times: GlaxoSmithKline, the health and drug company, will sell Lucozade, the glucose drink, in Chinese supermarkets.
http://tinyurl.com/yaxv5xh
Look ahead
New York Times: The dollar will face growing competition from China's currency, the renminbi, in the next 10 to 20 years, the World Bank predicts.
http://tinyurl.com/ydwfudo
Wall Street Journal: London bankers are confident this year's bonuses are safe and that government efforts to clamp down on pay will not take effect until 2010.
http://tinyurl.com/yclvj57
Reuters: The International Monetary Fund will raise its forecast for 2010 global growth to 3 per cent from 2.5 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/yc984p5
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,165.70 up 1.6% (Monday close)
Dow 9,789.36 up 1.3% (close)
S&P 500 1,062.98 up 1.8% (close)
Nasdaq 2,130.74 up 1.9% (close)
Nikkei 10,104.68 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 21,020.01 up 2.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.5914/1.0887 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4618 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $65.59 up 5 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $66.87 up 3 cents (latest)
Gold $991.90 down $2.20 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks rallied as a spurt of corporate takeovers in the technology and health-care sectors fueled optimism about share values. Office equipment maker Xerox fell 14.5 per cent after it announced a deal for technology services outsourcer Affiliated Computer, which rose 14 per cent. Drug maker Abbott rose 2.6 per cent after it said it would buy Solvay's drug unit. Diversified health-care company Johnson & Johnson's rose 1.1 per cent after buying a stake in biotech firm Crucell, which fell 6.6 per cent. Apple rose 2.1 per on deals with China Unicom and Orange to sell Apple's iPhone. Network equipment maker Cisco Systems rose 4.4 per cent on an analyst's upgrade. Dow Chemical rose 4.9 per cent after regulators cleared Dow's sale of Morton Salt to Germany's K+S.
http://tinyurl.com/yddr9wy
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade, led by oil and technology companies. BHP Billiton, Australia's biggest oil producer, rose 2.1 per cent, rival Woodside Petroleum rose 0.8 per cent and in Hong Kong, PetroChina, China's largest oil producer, rose 2.7 per cent on higher oil prices. Nomura Holdings, Japan's largest brokerage, rose 3.2 per cent after losing 22 per cent in the past three days. In Taipei, Taiwan Semiconductor, the world's largest custom chip maker, rose 4.3 per cent and AU Optronics, the world's third-largest liquid-crystal display maker, rose 2.9 per cent on reports Taiwan may allowing Chinese investors to buy stakes in the flat panel and chip industries. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1 per cent to 117.17 in morning trade.
http://tinyurl.com/yefebmj
Michael Beh
michaelwbeh@gmail.com
London
Legal & General (L&G) rose 5 per cent yesterday amid suggestions the insurer was preparing a defence document against a potential approach from Resolution. The FTSE 100 advanced 83.50 points to 5,165.70, regaining ground lost earlier in the session, after an upbeat start to trading on Wall Street. Wolseley was the top performer, climbing 11 per cent, after first-half results from the heating and plumbing supplies group that were better than expected. Home Retail Group was the biggest faller, sliding 3 per cent, after Credit Suisse downgraded its rating on the Homebase and Argos owner to "underperform", from "neutral". The broker argued that Argos may struggle to compete with Tesco Direct, many of whose products were
cheaper.
Peter Stiff
Peter.Stiff@the-times.co.uk
