Home builder fears drag on Wall Street October 26, 2009 US stocks fell for a second straight session last night as investors ditched home builders and financials on fears that a federal home buyer tax credit might be phased out, while commodity shares succumbed to pressure from the higher US dollar. Trading was choppy. Stocks initially started on firmer footing, with indexes up more than [...]
LSE CHIEF XAVIER ROLET PONDERS AN OVERHAUL OF INTERIOR DESIGN October 26, 2009 XAVIER Rolet, the dynamic new top dog over at the London Stock Exchange, just can’t seem to ease up in his quest to stamp his mark on the exchange. In the past few months, Rolet has been very busy – commencing talks to buy up rival Turquoise, axing the LSE’s long-standing M&A and PR advisers, [...]
RETAIL BANKS FACING EXODUS October 26, 2009 BRITISH high street lenders are facing an exodus of top talent to international investment banks if shadow chancellor George Osborne’s proposals to ban cash bonuses for retail bankers come to fruition, City headhunters warned last night. The proposals outraged the City, which decried the willingness of the Tories to put the UK at a disadvantage [...]
BAreadies itself for strikes this Christmas October 26, 2009 FEARS of a bleak?Christmas for British Airways (BA) were growing last night, after the Unite union said it would ballot its 14,000 cabin crew on strike action. Unions and BA management have been at loggerheads over cost-cutting at the airline, which is struggling to weather the financial storm. Nine months of talks fell apart yesterday [...]
Osborne gets it wrong on cash bonuses October 26, 2009 AS bizarre policies go, the Tories’ latest thinking on bank bonuses takes some beating. For this year only, Britain’s commercial banks will not be allowed to pay more than a trivial bonus in cash – but they will be able to pay as many millions as they want in shares. The rule will only apply [...]
McDonald’s in Iceland exit October 26, 2009 FAST FOOD chain McDonald’s is closing all of its Icelandic operations in the wake of the country’s financial crisis, it said yesterday. The world’s largest fast-food business said it is pulling the lid on its three Icelandic restaurants because the economy and other challenges have made doing business there financially impossible. The closures of the [...]
Picower had heart attack October 26, 2009 JEFFRY PICOWER, the millionaire philanthropist who was a prominent Bernard Madoff investor, accidentally drowned in his pool after suffering a heart attack, police investigating his death said last night. Picower, 67, was pulled unconscious from the pool of his multimillion-dollar oceanside home in Palm Beach on Sunday and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Picower [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 26, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES TOSHIBA TARGETS METALS DEAL IN KAZAKHSTANJapanese companies, urged on by their government, are racing to secure supplies of rare metals and rare earth elements that are vital to many technology products.By the end of the year Toshiba aims to agree a deal with Kazatomprom, the national uranium company of Kazakhstan, to extract rare [...]
McGraw-Hill sees earnings drop October 26, 2009 McGraw-Hill reported a 14 per cent decline in third-quarter earnings and lowered its revenue outlook for the year yesterday, even as its Standard & Poor’s ratings unit reported its first quarterly increase in revenue in almost two years. A drop-off in print and television advertising hurt the company’s media business, while its education arm suffered [...]
Ex-Bear hedgie wins court round October 26, 2009 Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin, 48, won a round during his trial in New York on fraud charges yesterday when a judge ruled the jury cannot see a personal email in which he wrote about his fears of a “blow up risk” for investors. Emails written by Tannin and his former boss [...]
