ZTE slumps to first loss as firm is blighted by US security fears October 15, 2012 CHINESE telecoms equipment maker ZTE sank to a first quarterly loss yesterday due to project delays in a slowing global economy. ZTE blamed delays in overseas projects, which count for around half of its revenue, for a 2bn yuan (£198m) loss in its third quarter, which compares with a profit of 299.3m yuan for the [...]
What it takes to move the FTSE out of its thin range October 15, 2012 FOR the last five weeks, we’ve seen the FTSE trade in a tight range of a couple of hundred points. It would seem that the days of 100 plus point gains and losses are over. So what would it take to drive a breakout from the 5,700-5,900 range? DIRECTION FROM ACROSS THE POND Third quarter [...]
Copper in need of a health check October 15, 2012 COPPER was yesterday given a short boost. Economic data coming out of China indicated that its inflation rate fell to 1.9 per cent in September, from 2 per cent the month before. However, this news was not enough to dispel worries of a Chinese hard landing, and the metal closed flat at $8,132.4 (£5,060.84) a [...]
Volkswagen reports jump in sales October 12, 2012 German car maker Volkswagen today said global sales increased by 9.7 per cent for the first three quarters of the year. The company announced a 6.6 per cent increase in group sales, 801,000 vehicles, in September. The German firm delivered 2.8m vehicles over the European market, while deliveries in North America for the nine months [...]
Japan’s mobile giant Softbank mulls £7.9bn Sprint Nextel deal October 11, 2012 US MOBILE operator Sprint Nextel said yesterday it was in talks with Softbank, the Japanese telecoms giant, over selling a majority stake to the firm in what would be the biggest ever US investment from a Japanese firm. Sprint, the US’s third-most popular operator with around 56m subscribers, said it was negotiating with Softbank on [...]
UK firms hit three year low for overseas M&A October 9, 2012 BRITAIN is close to losing its crown as the second largest buyer of foreign companies in the world amid plunging overseas volumes for UK firms, figures out yesterday show. Mergers and acquisition deals involving a British firm buying an overseas company fell 35 per cent to 63 in the first three quarters of this year [...]
Rio Tinto gives a wary outlook on China future October 9, 2012 GLOBAL miner Rio Tinto yesterday cut its growth forecast for China and said it was stepping up efforts to cut costs, having already slashed $500m (£312m), faced with an uncertain global outlook. Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest iron ore miner with more than 80 per cent of its earnings in 2012 expected to come from [...]
EU holds fire on Huawei and ZTE October 9, 2012 The European Commission has delayed a trade case against Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese telecom equipment makers also under scrutiny in the US, easing tensions between the European Union and its second-biggest trading partner. A US congressional report said on Monday that the two firms were potential security risks and should be shut out of [...]
IMF growth gloom and poor data in manufacturing send FTSE lower October 9, 2012 UK shares fell for a second session yesterday, dented by a wary view of Europe’s debt troubles and concerns that gloomy global economic data bodes ill for the upcoming corporate earnings season. Data showed manufacturing output shrank more than expected in August and exports fell steeply, pointing to deterioration both in the domestic and the [...]
The unravelling of China’s exceptionalism October 9, 2012 MARKETS across the world were given a boost yesterday when the Chinese central bank pumped tonnes of liquidity into the country’s banking system for the second time in a fortnight. The People’s Bank of China injected 265bn yuan (£26bn) into the money market via reverse purchase agreements, adding to the 2.418 trillion yuan offered since [...]