$1.4trn in US cuts agreed July 14, 2011 STOCKS spiked briefly in New York last night after the White House briefed that Republicans and Democrats have agreed on $1.5 trillion (£930bn) in deficit cuts, with further progress to come. Talks have spilled into this week from last weekend, with heated exchanges allegedly causing US President Barack Obama to storm out of one meeting. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LAFARGE IN TALKS TO SELL PLASTERBOARD ARM Lafarge is closing in on the sale of its plasterboard business as the French cement maker pushes ahead with its debt reduction programme and attempts to recover its investment grade credit rating. The world’s second-largest cement company by revenue said on Thursday it had entered exclusive [...]
UBS wins review of Madoff suits July 14, 2011 UBS won review by a Manhattan federal judge of $2.6bn of lawsuits brought by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm, at least the fourth time a bank has obtained access to that court. US district judge Colleen McMahon agreed to accept the two UBS lawsuits, which accused the Swiss bank and various “feeder funds” that [...]
NY court revives Ambac case July 14, 2011 A New York state appeals court yesterday revived Ambac Financial Group’s $1bn lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co over an investment vehicle that suffered heavy losses from toxic subprime debt. The court said Ambac “has sufficiently alleged gross negligence” by JPMorgan, whose chief executive Jamie Dimon was said to have concluded as early as October [...]
Italy forced to pay record rates for cash July 14, 2011 ITALY had to swallow record interest rates at an auction of 15-year bonds yesterday as the IMF warned that Eurozone policymakers must come up with a quick and clear solution to avoid dragging Ireland down with Greece. The sale came just ahead of a budget vote for Rome, which saw 135 senators oppose a majority [...]
Google smashes forecasts with 32pc rise in revenue July 14, 2011 SHARES in search giant Google surged in after-hours trading yesterday as it posted forecast-beating revenue and profit growth over the past three months. Revenues rose 32 per cent in the quarter to June to pass $9bn (£5.6bn) for the first time, while pre-tax profit jumped 36 per cent to $3.1bn, from $2.4bn in the same [...]
ConocoPhillips splits into two July 14, 2011 US oil giant ConocoPhillips hived off its refining business from its exploration and production arm yesterday in a bid to unlock shareholder value. The split will leave it to run what will be the biggest oil producer in the US by oil and gas reserves, while a separate management team will run what will be [...]
Bidders circle HSBC assets July 14, 2011 CAPITAL One and Wells Fargo are among the bidders for HSBC Holdings’ US credit card portfolio, sources said yesterday. A separate sale of HSBC’s New York state branches has attracted bids from US regional banks First Niagara, KeyCorp, and M&T Bank. The asset sales are part of HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver’s plan to refocus [...]
Jobs crunch at Swiss banks July 14, 2011 SWITZERLAND’S flagship lenders are gearing up for large-scale job cuts to clamp down on costs, with some estimates for redundancies running into the thousands. UBS and Credit Suisse have both suffered from currency fluctuations and a drop in revenues that has hit many investment banks due to low trading volumes. And both banks hired heavily [...]
Jury still out on Murdoch as Sky chair July 14, 2011 DIRECTORS at BSkyB are likely to study James Murdoch’s performance at the culture select committee carefully next Tuesday before deciding whether to make any moves to unseat him as current chairman of the satellite broadcaster. Legally speaking, James Murdoch appears fairly secure in his position as he would expect to command the support of the controlling [...]
