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Latest Business News from Times Online
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The latest business news from The Times and Sunday Times
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US jobless near five-year high
Wall Street traders were today braced for a second day of heavy falls on the
US stock markets after the US unemployment rate leapt towards a five-year
high.
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Housing market will not recover until 2011
The UK housing market is unlikely to recover before 2011, according to a
leading estate agent, as it emerged today that 1.3 million homeowners face
negative equity if prices continue to fall.
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Iran says oil price is right at $100 a barrel$
Pressure for a cut in oil output at next week's Opec meeting in Vienna stepped
up today when Iran’s Opec governor said an oil price of $100 per barrel was
$“appropriate” in current conditions.
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Nokia issues warning as price war hots up
Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, gave warning today that it
would lose market share in the current quarter as it refused to join in a
price war waged by its rivals.
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How have some parts of the US escaped the property bust?
For the group of golfers drinking bourbon and looking out over Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, the American credit crisis seems to be a phenomenon that happens to other people. The secure golf community of the Carnegie Abbey Club sits in the heart of the country's faded wealth. The club is hoping that the surrounding wealth is not so faded that it will not be able to sell its new penthouse for $14.5 million (£8.2 million).
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Stamp duty relief will bring little help to the South East
Click
here to see who will be the winners and losers with the stamp duty holiday
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TNK-BP becomes independent oil major as warring sides reach deal
TNK-BP is to be transformed into an independent oil major with international
operations and bigger downstream interests under a deal between BP and its
Russian partners.
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Car sales crash as economy hits skids
Car sales fell to their lowest level for more than 40 years last month in the
most dramatic sign yet that the country is heading into a recession.
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Go-Ahead profits climb 20% on rail boom
Go-Ahead, the rail and bus operator, has seen pre-tax profits climb by a fifth
as credit crunch-hit commuters opt increasingly for public transport.
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Wetherspoon pubs bear the brunt of rising costs
JD Wetherspoon, the UK pub group, today announced full-year pre-tax profit
fell by nearly 13 per cent after food and labour costs increased and the
smoking ban discouraged some drinkers from going out.
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Form a queue for Damien Hirst's sale of the century
There should be a man with a sandwich board standing outside Sotheby's today. The Bond Street auction house seems to be starting a grand closing-down sale. Everything must go from the vast Damien Hirst emporium. Form an orderly queue - it's your last chance to invest.
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Samsung mulls $3bn bid for SanDisk$
Samsung, the South Korean electronics titan, is mulling a takeover of
America’s SanDisk that could spark an international bidding war for the
Silicon Valley chip maker and would dramatically shake-up the $15 billion
global memory market.$
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Sony recalls 440,000 laptops over burn risk
Sony has been forced to undertake a massive global recall of 440,000 Vaio
laptops because the computers can overheat and have caused a series of
burning incidents around the world.
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Telefónica will spend €800m to lift stake in China Netcom
Telefónica, the Spanish parent company of O2, will spend about €802 million
(£650 million) to boost its share of China Netcom in a move that will give
it a leading stake in the imminent merger of China Netcom and China Unicom
and improve its foothold in the fast-growing Chinese telecoms industry.
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Phillip Bennett starts 16-year jail sentence for Refco fraud
Phillip Bennett, the British former chief executive of Refco, reported to a
New Jersey prison yesterday to begin a 16-year sentence for fraud after
pleading guilty to criminal charges over a scheme to hide the commodity
broker’s financial problems.
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Behind all the smiles at TNK-BP, another oil row looms
The storm has passed, the dark clouds have lifted. BP's bosses join hands with
the oligarchs and dance through sun-dappled Siberian meadows. Listening to
BP today, you might be forgiven for wondering whether the past six months of
turmoil at TNK-BP - allegations of industrial espionage, bureaucratic
harassment, visa denials - ever happened.
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Only the deluded truly believe that the worst is over
Optimism in the current economic climate is a dangerous emotion, although it
helps if the gas bill hasn't landed for a week or two. Yet there are signs
that August or September could be the worst of the advertising downturn -
although that does not mean that the pressure on media companies will be
brief. It is a reminder that all cycles, good and bad, do eventually come to
an end. But when?
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Investors should raise a glass to Whitbread’s budget hotels
A day after Punch Taverns’ surprise dividend cut destroyed investor sentiment
on a swath of the leisure sector, Whitbread’s second-quarter trading update
did its level best to restore it.
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US car sales skid as slump persists
Ford Motor saw US sales fall 26.5 per cent in August, emphasising that
America’s slump in car sales may not have bottomed out.
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New car sales fall to lowest level since 1966
The British car industry has recorded its worst August since 1966 after sales
of new cars slumped by 18.6 per cent over the year.
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