Blast at Apple’s China supply factory halts production May 24, 2011 Production of Apple technology products at a Chinese factory have been suspended after an explosion last Friday left three workers dead and 15 injured. The blast was in the polishing department of Foxconn Technology’s Chengdu plant in southwest China, where Apple’s iPad 2 tablets are finished, according to local media reports. Foxconn has not confirmed [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 23, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UK BUILDERS SEE VALUE OF ORDERS COLLAPSE The value of work awarded to UK construction companies crashed during the past year, raising concerns that the impact of government spending cuts will be far worse than previously feared. The total value of new work awarded to the UK’s 50 leading construction companies fell by [...]
Euro woes and commodity falls leave FTSE low May 23, 2011 Fears of debt default in Greece, election upset in Spain and weakness in Italy’s economy caused the FTSE to tank to a two-month low today. Commodity stocks led the fallers as the FTSE 100 index plunged more than 100 points to close down 1.9 per cent at 5,835.89. Investors abandoned risky assets after rating agency [...]
FTSE hit by China growth fears and eurozone crisis May 23, 2011 Commodity stocks took a hammering in early trading today as miners and energy related groups suffered from uncertainty in the global economy. The eurozone debt crisis continued to cast a shadow after Italy’s credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s from stable to negative. Chinese manufacturing data from HSBC showing a ten-month low also [...]
Chinese expansion healthy for City of London May 22, 2011 UNLESS witnessed first-hand, it is difficult to grasp the sheer scale of economic growth in China or the level of international investment that has continued unabated despite the recent financial crisis. As a member of the Shanghai International Advisory Council – whose annual meeting I attended last week – I have been left in no [...]
LINKEDIN SURGES 109% ON DAY ONE May 19, 2011 Flotation of social network sparks fear of new dot.com bubble SHARES in LinkedIn exploded during their first day of trading, racing more than 170 per cent above their float price of $45 before closing 109.4 per cent higher at $94.25. The stock hit a peak of $122.70, bringing back memories of the dot.com boom of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 19, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MOVE TO QUASH HERMÈS’ POISON PILL Minority shareholders in Hermès have sought to quash the luxury goods group’s poison pill defences devised by its controlling family, potentially bolstering LVMH’s protracted takeover push for its smaller rival. CHINESE SET A NEW STANDARD IN BUYING GOLD China overtook India to become the largest market for [...]
African MBAs – beating Bono at his own game May 18, 2011 GOVERNMENTS, NGOs, rock-stars and politicians of all stripes have tried to help African development. Now a wave of business schools is trying to do its bit. Henley, Edinburgh, Duke, Spain’s IESE and even Shanghai-based CEIBS have all gone into the continent with varying amounts of fanfare. In theory, they should be able to do a [...]
Diamond miner bets on Mellier to sparkle at top May 16, 2011 FRENCH-BORN Mellier moves to the number two diamond producer fresh from Alstom Transport, having been president of the French engineering group since 2003. He started his career at Ford in 1980 as a sales and planning analyst, and went on to spend 19 years there including stints in Portugal, New Zealand and Mexico. Mellier ended [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD May 15, 2011 THE big money is calling a halt to the surge in stock prices. Declines in oil and metals prices are being seen by an increasing number of fund managers and strategists as a signal to get out of riskier areas of the equity market. And that means avoiding things like Chinese IPOs and sticking to [...]