London Market Report

31 December 2012 Last updated at 08:23 ETContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story (Close): London’s leading shares fell in Monday trading, amid fears that budget talks would not stop the US sliding over the “fiscal cliff”.In a truncated New Year’s Eve session, the benchmark FTSE 100 index dropped by 0.47%, or 27.56 points, to 5,897.81.However, the index still ended the year nearly...

Read More..

The Cliff Is Not a Credit-Rating Crisis

(Updates Dow Jones industrial average’s closing figure)To quote the 1980s Soviet-dissing comedian Yakov Smirnoff: “What a Country!” That punch line seems terribly appropriate when you consider that America is uniquely positioned to explore true fiscal profligacy.In August 2011, you’ll recall, amid the debt-ceiling debacle, Standard & Poor’s (MHP) did the unthinkable and downgraded the...

Read More..

Deal reached to avert U.S. port strike for now

(Reuters) – The union representing nearly 15,000 dockworkers at U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coast seaports stretching from Boston to Corpus Christi, Texas, reached a tentative contract deal with shipping companies on Friday, averting a strike that threatened to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy.The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance clinched a deal in federally-mediated...

Read More..

SeaWorld Hopes For an IPO Splash

Shamu may have new masters. The private equity firm Blackstone today filed to take SeaWorld public at an undisclosed date. Blackstone (BX)  bought the amusement parks in late 2009 for $ 2.7 billion from Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD). At the time, the amusement parks weren’t profitable—they lost $ 58 million in December 2009 alone—but they’ve made money since: In 2011 net income was $ 19 million,...

Read More..

Home prices rose in ninth straight month: S&P

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Single-family home prices rose in October for nine months in a row, reinforcing the view the domestic real estate market is improving and should bolster the economy in 2013, a closely watched survey showed on Wednesday.The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.7 percent in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, stronger than the 0.5 percent rise...

Read More..

Taking on Guns and the NRA, One Tweet at a Time

(Updates the number of video views, petition signatures, and twitter impressions)On Dec. 21, a group of A-list Hollywood celebrities, including Jon Hamm, Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Foxx, and Beyoncé, posted an 80-second, black-and-white video clip on YouTube calling for lawmakers to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with gun violence. The clip, uploaded the same day the National Rifle Association...

Read More..

Monti urges debate on Italy election as rivals open fire

ROME (Reuters) – Outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti posted his reform agenda online on Monday, urging Italians to join a debate on their country’s future as potentially bitter election campaign gets underway two months before Italy goes to polls.Following weeks of hesitation, Monti declared his availability on Sunday to lead a reform-minded centrist alliance to seek a second term to complete the...

Read More..

Retailers facing ‘critical’ time

23 December 2012 Last updated at 19:14 ETNearly 140 retailers are in a “critical condition” despite Christmas being their peak trading time, business recovery firm Begbies Traynor has said.Its UK business solvency survey found 13,700 more firms were in distress, a 35% rise in the quarter to December.It said many could struggle to meet their quarterly rent payment, due on Christmas Day.Begbies Traynor...

Read More..

Obama starts Hawaiian vacation, leaving Washington on ice

KAILUA, Hawaii (Reuters) – Taking what promised to be a very brief Christmas break from the ongoing struggle to avoid the “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending cuts, President Barack Obama relaxed with his family on Saturday at a beach retreat in Hawaii.Congress was to return to Washington next Thursday and Obama has pledged to work with lawmakers to strike a deal to avoid the economic shock from...

Read More..

Scenarios: Seven ways the US ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis could end

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – So what now?The U.S. House of Representatives‘ rejection of a bill to raise taxes on just 0.18 percent of Americans – those making more than $ 1 million a year – has raised questions about the Republican-led chamber’s ability to approve any plan to avert the looming “fiscal cliff.”Unless President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress can forge a deal during the Christmas and New...

Read More..

U.S. “fiscal cliff” talks turn sour, Obama threatens veto

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Talks to avoid a U.S. fiscal crisis stalled on Wednesday as President Barack Obama accused opponents of holding a personal grudge against him while the top Republican negotiator called the president “irrational.”As a year-end deadline nears, Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner are locked in intense bargaining over a possible deal to avoid the so-called fiscal...

Read More..

Cliff talks hit a lull with Boehner’s ‘Plan B’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just two weeks from an economy-threatening deadline, fiscal cliff talks hit a lull Tuesday as House Speaker John Boehner announced that Republicans would also march ahead with their own tax plan on a separate track from the one he’s been pursuing with President Barack Obama.The White House and leading congressional Democrats immediately rejected Boehner‘s “Plan B,” which would extend...

Read More..

Comet collapse to cost UK £49m

17 December 2012 Last updated at 15:35 ETThe collapse of electrical chain Comet will cost the government £49.4m in redundancy payments and tax revenues, administrators Deloitte have revealed.The redundancy money owed to thousands of former Comet workers totals £23.2m, and will be paid by the government’s Redundancy Payments Service (RPS).Meanwhile, £26.2m is owed in taxes to HM Revenue & Customs...

Read More..

Samsung and Apple Duel in Enterprise Tech

Last summer, health-care startup Preventice asked Samsung Electronics if it would create a custom version of its popular Galaxy S II phone. Preventice was putting the finishing touches on a product that used a smartphone to transmit data from a patient’s heart monitor to a doctor, and it needed Samsung to disable downloads, which might interfere with a cellular connection. In less than six weeks Samsung...

Read More..

Japan votes in election seen returning LDP to power

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan voted on Sunday in an election expected to return the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power after a three-year hiatus, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe.Polls opened at 0700 a.m. (1700 ET) and will close at 8 p.m. (0600 ET), when major TV broadcasters will issue exit polls forecasting...

Read More..

Rebekah Brooks gets £10.8m payoff

12 December 2012 Last updated at 13:48 ETRebekah Brooks, the former head of News International, was paid £10.8m after she resigned, it has emerged.The figure, compensation for loss of office, appeared in the company’s accounts, released on Wednesday.Mrs Brooks resigned in July 2011 shortly after the News of the World closed because of phone hacking allegations.The accounts for the year to July 2012...

Read More..

‘Fiscal cliff’ woes could extend into 2014-BofA

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – If the United States goes off the “fiscal cliff” and stays there for too long, the economy could suffer into 2014, Bank of America Corp’s head of commercial banking says.Concern about the so-called fiscal cliff is already causing mid-sized businesses to pause activity and to issue special dividends ahead of possible tax increases, Laura Whitley said in an interview...

Read More..

Negotiators see glimmers of progress on farm bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With a week left to act, agricultural leaders in Congress are still deadlocked on two major issues for a new U.S. farm bill, cuts in crop subsidies and reductions in food stamps, said two of the four key negotiators on Thursday.But the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees suggested that recent talks had yielded at least some progress.Without reauthorization,...

Read More..

UK warned on debt ‘credibility’

5 December 2012 Last updated at 14:28 ETThe UK’s failure to meet a key public debt target “weakens the credibility” of its top AAA credit rating, the Fitch ratings agency has said.Debt will now not fall as a proportion of the country’s output until 2016-17, a year later than Chancellor George Osborne had targeted.Fitch said that the Autumn Statement confirmed the scale of the challenge facing the...

Read More..

EU fails to agree bank supervisor

4 December 2012 Last updated at 15:25 ETEU finance ministers have failed to reach agreement on setting up a single supervisor for eurozone banks after a meeting in Brussels.Establishing a single supervisor under the European Central Bank (ECB) is seen as the first step in setting up a Europe-wide banking union.But German and French ministers in particular clashed over the plans.German Finance Minister...

Read More..