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17/09/07

Microsoft suffers stunning EU antitrust defeat

BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Microsoft suffered a stunning defeat on Monday when a European Union court backed a European Commission ruling that the U.S. software giant illegally abused its market power to crush competitors. The European Union's second-highest court dismissed the company's appeal on all substantive points of the 2004 antitrust ruling.

Greenspan puts recession odds just above 1-in-3

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the probability of a U.S. recession was now slightly more than a third, after he earlier in the year put the chances at one-third, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Monday. Greenspan said there was a "very large" inventory of unsold, newly built homes putting pressure on builders to sell them quickly, the Journal reported, citing an interview with him.

Qatar close to buying LSE stake for $5.6 billion

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Qatar's state investment fund is close to buying Nasdaq's 31 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange Group for just over $5.6 billion, newspaper reports said on Sunday. U.S. exchange Nasdaq has put its LSE stake on the market to boost its chances of buying Nordic exchange operator OMX .

GM, union talks adjourn amid signs of progress

DETROIT (Reuters) - Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp agreed to a break in contract talks on Monday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session that raised expectations the union and the top U.S. automaker were nearing an agreement. The outcome of the contract talks is seen as crucial to efforts by the three Detroit-based automakers -- GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC -- to recover from combined losses of $15 billion last year and sales difficulties that have driven their slice of the U.S. market below 50 percent.

Credit crunch rocks small miners

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Crisis conditions in the commercial paper market are putting some small Canadian miners in a tight squeeze, making them look harder and pay more for credit to fund project development. Some of these companies -- without the deep pockets or cash flow of majors such as Barrick Gold and uranium producer Cameco -- made big bets on the paper.

Flaherty says government role limited in credit market

MARKHAM, Ontario (Reuters) - The government continues to monitor the credit crunch in a segment of the domestic money market, but expects investors and debt issuers to resolve the trouble themselves, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Sunday. "There are many entities that had investments in the nonbank-backed asset-backed commercial paper, and we hope they're able to sort it out among themselves," Flaherty said after a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in suburban Toronto.

Jumpy customers besiege crisis-hit British bank

LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of nervous customers queued for hours outside branches of British bank Northern Rock on Saturday desperate to withdraw savings after it was forced to seek emergency funds to weather the global credit crunch. Queues snaked round the block at branches of Britain's fifth-biggest mortgage provider for a second day after customers were reported to have withdrawn one billion pounds on Friday.

Investment adviser asks if wealthy are necessary

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At a time when a CEO of a large U.S. company is likely to earn in one day what the average worker does in a year, an investment adviser takes the income-disparity controversy a few steps further in "Are the Rich Necessary?" That question, almost unthinkable in a capitalist society, is one of many that Cambridge Associates LLC co-founder Hunter Lewis poses in his latest book (Axios Press, $20).

Female purchasing power helps balance China's economy

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Waiting for a friend in Shenzhen's plush Kingglory Plaza, Chen Jing, 25, admires her new red Nokia mobile phone. Complete with 3G and MP3 features, the phone cost just over 3,000 yuan ($400) -- Chen's entire monthly wage. But she's more than pleased with her purchase.

Toronto stocks firm a bit ahead of Fed decision

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Stock Exchange's main index ended a choppy day slightly higher on Friday as expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut next week underpinned prices, but oil fell from record highs, pulling down energy shares. The S&P/TSX composite index <.GSPTSE> rose 3.21 points, or 0.02 percent, to close at 13,846.41. On the week, the index was up 1.4 percent.

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