Welcome to today's round-up of business news from The Times: what we're
saying, what they're saying, what you should be thinking
Top stories
The Times: Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Shell, says that
a proposed EU scheme to force companies to pay
for carbon emissions permits threatens to destroy the oil industry.
Financial Times: The heads of Britain's biggest banks will on Tuesday
tell Gordon Brown he must take action to
unblock the money markets to ease the economic effect of the credit
crisis.
The Guardian: House prices are falling
at their fastest rate since records began 30 years ago as the mortgage
lending freeze continues to undermine the housing market.
Comment
Gerard Baker in The Times: For policymakers in the current
circumstances to be taking a punt on the future
direction of global currencies would seem to be an act of folly.
The Wall Street Journal: Because the weak-dollar policy has not ended
the credit turmoil, maybe the Fed should try Plan B. It could signal the end
to its easing to stop flight from the dollar.
Lex in Financial Times: There is still plenty of room for broader
pessimism about consumer credit. The surprise is that the banks are not
finding it harder to tap investors.
Upside
The Times: Heathrow's profits rose
by more than 10 per cent last year, despite the UK's largest international
airport coming under repeated criticism for its poor service and standards.
Reuters: US retail sales were
up 0.2 per cent in March - slightly stronger than expected - but only
because they paid more for necessities like gasoline and food.
BBC: Michael Dell has said his firm can regain
its spot as the world's No 1 PC maker by switching its focus to
consumers and the developing world.
Downside
The Daily Telegraph: Wall Street faces an equities
bloodbath in coming months as the credit crunch spreads and earnings
crumble, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo say.
The Wall Street Journal: Russian
oil production, a vital source of new crude for world energy markets,
has begun to stagnate and even slump, adding to price pressures.
The Wall Street Journal: Samuel Israel, a former executive of the hedge
fund Bayou, was jailed for 20 years and ordered to pay $300 million (£152
million) in restitution for defrauding
investors.
Mergers and shakers
The Wall Street Journal: Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines to
merge in a deal that would create the
world's largest airline by traffic.
The Times: JC Flowers' £3.5 billion takeover tilt at Friends Provident
appears to be on the brink of collapse
after the American buyout firm refused to sweeten the terms of its offer.
Reuters: Chrysler, the US carmaker, and Nissan of Japan unveiled
a production alliance covering small cars and full-size pickup trucks.
Around Asia
Bloomberg: China's economy probably grew at the slowest
pace in more than a year while inflation stayed close to an 11-year high
in the first quarter.
The Nikkei: High raw materials and energy prices will likely lead to
double-digit declines in group pretax profit at Nippon Steel and JFE
Holdings this financial year.
South China Morning Post: Hot money flows into the mainland tripled to
US$80 billion (£40.6 billion) in the first quarter, potentially playing
havoc with China's property and capital markets.
Look ahead
The Daily Telegraph: British Airways's joint broker UBS has forecast
a plunge in profits from £875 million in the year to March 2008 to just
£242 million the following year.
Bloomberg: Petroleo Brasileiro's offshore Carioca prospect may
hold 33 billion barrels of oil, making it the third-largest oil field
ever discovered.
The Daily Telegraph: Liberty Global, the international cable business
chaired by the US media tycoon John Malone, is
considering bidding for Virgin Media's television channels.
MARKETS
FTSE 100 5,831.60 down 1.1% (Monday close)
Dow 12,302.06 down 0.2% (close)
S&P 500 1,328.32 down 0.3% (close)
Nasdaq 2,275.82 down 0.6% (close)
Nikkei 13,043.00 up 1% (latest)
Hang Seng 23,730.94 down 0.3% (latest)
Currencies
Sterling $1.9738/1.2475 euros (latest)
Euro $1.5822 (latest)
Commodities
West Texas crude $112.40 up 64 cents (latest)
Gold $930.30 up $1.60 (latest)
New York
Reuters: Stocks edged lower on
Wall Street after an unexpected quarterly loss from Wachovia, the No
4 US bank, dragged down the financial sector. Goldman Sachs added to
negative sentiment after it said the quarterly earnings season, which is
just starting, looks "awful". But energy companies kept index losses in
check as the price of oil rose to a record settlement just short of $112 a
barrel.
Asia
Bloomberg: Asian stocks
advanced, led by commodity producers, after crude oil prices rose to a
record and Deutsche Bank recommended that investors buy shares in Japanese
trading houses. Santos, Australia's third-largest oil and gas
explorer, gained the most in three weeks, while Mitsubishi Corp,
which generates more than half its profit from commodities dealing, rose to
the highest in five months. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was up 0.6 per cent
in intraday trading.
Paul Larter
paul.larter@thetimes.co.uk
London
Morgan Stanley sent British Airways down 8p to a three and a half
year low of 215.5p after slashing its price target from 245p to 120p and
warning that threatened pilot strikes and turmoil at Terminal 5 would drive
further passenger defections at a time when business class demand was about
to be decimated by tens of thousands of City job cuts.
The FTSE 100 fell 63.9 to 5831.6, dragged down by virtually every sector but
with mining and banking stocks faring worst. The interbank lending rate
crept up again. Even though Bradford & Bingley, down 1.5p at
165.5p, denied weekend reports that it was planning a rights issue it also
said it was “monitoring closely the balance sheet strength of the business
and its funding plans.” Deutsche Bank cut its B&B target price to 150p,
saying it would have to write down more off its riskier assets.
Alliance & Leicester lost 8.75p to 480.25p and Lloyds TSB
fell 12p to 421p. Only HBOS bucked the trend up 6p at 513p as short
sellers closed out.
Great Portland Estates closed up 3.75p at 475.75p on talk in the
Israeli press that Israeli-based AIM—listed Delek Global Real Estate,
down 0.25p at 91p, was eyeing the purchase of 25 per cent from existing
shareholders. Sage, the accountancy software firm, lost 6.1p to
192.4p after a statement that trading to the end of March this year would be
in line with forecasts failed to allay concerns over a slump in demand from
US. Friends Provident lost 14.1p to 116.5p after JC Flowers
said it would walk away from a bid this Friday if it did not get access to
its books.
Robert Lindsay
robert.lindsay@thetimes.co.uk
AGENDA
Interims
Charteris
Finals
Entelos
JJB Sports
Manganese Bronze (17-mths)
AGMs
Maple Energy
NeutraHealth
Xpertise Group
EGMs
None scheduled
Trading statements
WS Atkins
Experian Group (H2)
SABMiller (Q4)
New business figures
Legal & General (Q1)
Other
Rio Tinto Q1 operations review
Economics
UK labour market data (0930 BST)
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