Welcome to today’s round-up of business news from The Times: what we’re saying, what they’re saying
Top stories
The Times: The Government is examining the feasibility of selling Northern Rock , the nationalised lender, back to the City in the autumn.
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Daily Telegraph: Britain has been unable to block plans for EU laws that will override national regulators in areas of banking, insurance and securities.
New York Times: The US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Chrysler’s bankruptcy, clearing the way for the sale of the carmaker’s key assets to Fiat.
Comment
Ian King in The Times: There remain immense gains to be reaped from improving productivity in the public sector; the question is whether that can be achieved.
Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph: Bank branch closures will be a nasty surprise for staff but a bigger surprise is that there haven’t been more .
Jeremy Warner in The Independent: The demise of Setanta, the only real rival to Sky in Premier League football, is not as good news for Sky as it might seem.
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Upside
The Times: British Airways pays its cabin crew and pilots up to twice as much as rival airlines, prompting the carrier to demand significant cuts from its staff.
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Daily Telegraph: Administrators told 85,000 investors in Keydata Investment Services’ capital-protected products that their money should be safe .
The Times: Ten bailed-out US banks will repay a combined $68 billion (£41 billion) of government aid in a sign that stability is returning to the sector.
Downside
The Times: Public sector efficiency and value for money fell during Labour’s first 10 years in power, even as government spending soared.
The Independent: Publicis, which owns ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, predicts global advertising industry revenues will fall as much as 8 per cent this year.
The Times: Lloyds will close all its 164 Cheltenham & Gloucester branches and shut other parts of the bank’s mortgage business, with the loss of 1,660 jobs.
Mergers and shakers
The Times: Setanta’s founders, Leonard Ryan and Michael O’Rourke, are scrambling for extra time to organise a £100 million ($160 million) rescue of the sports broadcaster.
New York Times: Edward E. Whitacre Jr, who turned AT&T around to become the US’s largest telecoms company, will lead auto giant General Motors out of bankruptcy .
The Times: Two leading City fund managers blame consultants for allowing performance-linked pay in financial services to spiral out of control.
Around Asia
The Times: Japanese authorities plan to launch an anti-trust investigation into Rio Tinto’s proposed iron ore joint venture with rival miner BHP Billiton.
Bloomberg: Japan’s wholesale prices fell at the fastest pace in more than 22 years in May, adding to signs that deflation may take root there.
Financial Times: Genting, the Malaysian gaming group, paid $100 million (£61 million) for a 3.2 per cent stake in MGM Mirage, the US gaming group.
Look ahead
The Times: A majority stake in Thomas Cook, the travel group in the FTSE 100, is expected to come up for grabs after the collapse of Arcandor, the huge German retailer.
Financial Times: Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, said “the global storm” was receding ahead of this week’s G8 meeting.
Bloomberg: The Wall Street firms that trade directly with the Federal Reserve say speculators betting that interest rates may head higher this year are wrong .
MARKETS
FTSE 100 4,404.79 steady (Tuesday close)
Dow 8,763.06 steady (close)
S&P 500 942.43 up 0.4% (close)
Nasdaq 1,860.13 up 1% (close)
Nikkei 9,885.13 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 18,262.33 up 1.1% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.6318/1.1595 euros (latest)
Euro $1.4073 (latest)
Commodities
Brent crude $70.17 up 55 cents (latest)
West Texas crude $70.76 up 75 cents (latest)
Gold $959.00 up $4.30 (latest)
New York
Reuters: US stocks remained steady with low trading volume as news that 10 big banks will repay TARP funds failed to stir investor enthusiasm. The Nasdaq rose after an improved outlook from Texas Instruments lifted technology stocks. Texas Instruments rose 6.3 per cent. Plane maker Boeing fell 0.9 per cent and rival United Technologies fell 1.7 per cent as conglomerate General Electric, which makes engines for planes, said it expected orders this year to fall by 50 per cent. General Electric rose 0.1 per cent.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks rose in morning trade as oil climbed above $70 a barrel and metal prices advanced. Fortescue Metals, Australia’s third-largest iron ore producer, rose 9 per cent, Mitsubishi, a Japanese commodity trading company, rose 4.6 per cent and BHP Billiton, the world’s largest miner, rose 3.1 per cent. Westpac, Australia’s largest bank, rose 1.6 per cent and rival Commonwealth Bank rose 1.5 per cent on good consumer confidence results. Among Japan’s shipping lines, Nippon Yusen KK, the largest, rose 3.4 per cent, Mitsui OSK, the second-biggest, rose 1 per cent and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, the third-biggest, rose 5.5 per cent on analysts’ recommendations. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.4 per cent to 103.59 in morning trade.
Michael Beh
London
GKN, one of the stock market’s oldest listed companies, gained 8 per cent after Merrill Lynch said it could see off its debt worries with a rights issue of up to £550 million.
The FTSE 100 ended down 0.43 at 4404.79 as earlier gains were wiped out by a weak open on Wall Street.
Tullow Oil rose 38p to 998p helped by continuing talk that a Chinese bid for Kosmos Energy, Tullow’s partner in the Jubilee oil field off Ghana, could end in a bid for Tullow as well. Deutsche Bank lifted its Tullow price target from £10.10 to £11.65 based on the recovering oil price. Heritage Oil rose 18p to 603p after returning from suspension with an outline deal to merge with Turkey’s Genel Enerji.
A well-timed investor presentation from Balfour Beatty helped it stave off relegation from the FTSE 100, which will be based on yesterday’s closing prices. It rose 4 per cent as it talked up its prospects. That put its market value just ahead of Amlin, which along with Drax, and Whitbread, are set be ejected. They will be replaced by 3i, down 3p at 257p, Wolseley, up 20p at £11.03, and London Stock Exchange, up 7.5p at 778.5p.
Robert Lindsay
AGENDA
Inditex Q1
Aminex Plc AGM
Antofagasta Plc AGM
Datacash Group Plc AGM
Futura Medical Plc AGM
Halfords Group Plc prelims
Ideal Shopping Direct Plc AGM
Liontrust Asset Management prelims
London & Associated Properties AGM
Mecom Group Plc AGM
Rensburg Sheppards Plc prelims
PZ Cussons trading
Soco International Plc AGM
Songbird Estates Plc AGM
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