Crisis across the Eurozone is just getting started October 4, 2011 LOOKING at the chaos in the markets and the Eurozone yesterday, it would be tempting to claim that the sovereign debt crisis is nearing its endgame. But that would be the wrong call to make. The crisis is intensifying, obviously, but political incompetence in the European Union, as well as its faulty political institutions, means [...]
S&P 500 index dives into bear market territory October 4, 2011 STOCK markets officially dipped into “bear market” territory yesterday, after US stocks tumbled during morning trading. The S&P 500 traded as low 1,074.77 at the start of yesterday’s session, more than 23 per cent down on its 52-week high of 14,330. It later recovered to close at 1,123.95. A “bear market” is usually defined as [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 4, 2011 THE TIMES TASTE FOR SCOTS ALES LIFTS WELLS AND YOUNG’S INTO TOP THREE Two of Scotland’s best-loved ales will be marketed to English beer drinkers — and further afield — after the Bedford brewer Wells and Young’s swallowed the McEwan’s and Younger’s brands yesterday in an estimated £20m deal. The purchase from Heineken UK propels [...]
Morgan Stanley mulls bond issue amid turbulence October 4, 2011 MORGAN Stanley is considering raising $5bn (£3.25bn) from a Japanese bond sale as concern grows over its exposure to the Eurozone. Yesterday it filed a shelf registration at Japan’s finance ministry, which would allow it to sell bonds to investors. Sources indicated Morgan Stanley could launch a uridashi bond but an issue would not take [...]
France and Belgium in joint effort to prevent the collapse of Dexia October 4, 2011 BELGIAN lender Dexia lost a fifth of its market cap yesterday as France and Belgium said that they would take “all necessary measures” to stop the bank from collapsing. It is not clear what that means for shareholders, but Luxembourg finance minister Luc Frieden yesterday insisted that the bank’s subsidiary in that country is sound [...]
Banks must show realism over crisis October 4, 2011 DEXIA now looks certain to be the first big casualty of this year’s bank funding freeze. Already part-owned by three governments due to a prior bailout in 2008, the bank now faces the prospect of being further nationalised, broken up and restructured. But for all the talk of solving the “too big to fail” problem [...]
Share price is undervalued, says Diamond October 4, 2011 THEY could not have timed it any better – or should that be any worse? Some of the biggest names in banking came together in London yesterday as industry shares fell over fears politicians are failing to tackle the Eurozone crisis. Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference [...]
Regulator admits bank stress tests failed on sovereign debt October 4, 2011 EUROPE’S bank regulator yesterday admitted its much-lauded “stress tests” of the region’s banks this year had failed to stop another crisis, as Franco-Belgian lender Dexia came close to collapse less than 12 weeks after getting a clean bill of health from the European Banking Authority. City critics blasted the test results published in July, which [...]
Bernanke: China affecting global recovery by weighing down yuan October 4, 2011 FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke accused China’s currency interventions of harming the global recovery last night, just hours after Chinese authorities hit out at the US for stoking the currency war. An angry China warned Washington that passage of a bill aimed at forcing Beijing to let its currency rise could lead to a trade [...]
Apple shares fall after new iPhone launch October 4, 2011 APPLE yesterday unveiled an update to its world-beating smartphone but disappointed fans by failing to launch the anticipated iPhone 5. The markets sighed in unison with the fan-boys, with Apple stock falling as much as five per cent yesterday, before recovering most of the lost ground. Tim Cook made his inaugural product launch as full-time [...]
