EU set to break up Rock

At a meeting scheduled to be held next week, the European Commission is expected to grant their approval to a radical restructuring plan for the Northern Rock. The EU green light will mean that the proposed break-up and sale of the nationalised bank can go ahead. Under the plan, the troubled building society will ostensibly split itself in two, with one half trading as retail banks granting loans and holding deposits. The other half of the bank will remain state controlled, and will hold and hopefully eventually realise the toxic mortgage holdings held in the government‘s Granite securitisation programme.
Founder of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, has launched an attack on Rupert Murdoch’s British Sky Broadcasting dominance of the UK’s pay-to-view television market. Sir Richard likens BSkyB to British Airway’s dominance of the highly lucrative London’s Heathrow airport and the US routes during the1990’s., when the airline held exclusive rights to flying between. Sir Richard announced his hope that, as came to pass in the 1990s, regulatory changes will encourage lower prices and greater choice for consumers.
The pound climbed to a one-month high against the dollar and the euro after the minutes of the Bank of England’s October monetary policy meeting were released, showing the Bank taking a more positive direction than analysts predicted.
· Pound/US dollar 1.6645
· Pound/Euro 1.1073
· Pound/Japanese Yen 152.6189
· Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6743

Debenhams announced on Wednesday that they have reduced their debt package by £100 million, whilst retaining a further £100 million from the £323 million that the company raised in June to financer acquisitions. The company’s current debt package stands at £590.3 million, down £403.7million from the same period in 2008. The department store chain reported pre-tax profits of £120.8m for the year ending August 2009, up 14 percent from 2008, on turnover up £800 million to £1.92 billion. In a celebratory mood, the company announced that it had acquired t the Principles brand, from the administrators of Mosaic who previously owned the brand. A spokesman for Debenhams stated that the company were on the look out for further opportunities as they arise.

According to a recent study, corporate dividends may be on the way back. Dismal performances by UK corporate dividends in 2008 and 2009 are gradually being reversed, and average dividend pay-outs of around 8 percent appear to be on the cards for 2010.Analysis having suggested that stocks in the FTSE All-Share index were on target to reverse much of 11 per cent decline, driven by an improving economy, margin improvements.
Despite the optimism, this week the FTSE 100 continued to drop, down a further 50.49 points to close on 5207.36. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 25 also lost headway, dropping a further 102 points to close the day on 9,318.91
The number of first time claimers in the US job market rose for the first time last week, as the labour market signals that its recovery continues to lag behind the overall economy. According to the US Department of Labour, new jobless claims rose by 11,000 to 531,000, a level worse than economists had anticipated, continuing unemployment claims declined by 98,000 to 5.92m in the week ending October 2. Currently many members of the American job pool have remained unemployed long enough to see their jobless benefits expire and anxiously wait for the release of fresh government legislation that could extend payments.
Reacting to positive reports from the major US banks, the Dow Jones recovered some of its previous reverses, up 92.12 points to 10081.31. The NASDAQ Composite index also was on the rise, up a moderate 14.56 points to close on 2,165.29. Analysts expect further gains as earnings season continues to broadly exceed expectations.
On Thursday, the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker, Nokia, launched their expected legal challenge on Apple, quoting alleged intellectual property abuse by on of their principal competitors. . The move opens a new front in the continuing battle between these two bitter rivals in what is becoming an increasingly cutthroat industry. A lawsuit filed in a US federal court in Delaware by Nokia accused Apple of infringing 10 patents in all the 30 million iPhones that the company has sold since entering the mobile market in 2007. Nokia’s action looks like setting the stage for a long running and bitter court battle between the industry leader and its fastest-growing challenger with the prize being exclusive rights to possibly the hottest product in current consumer technology

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