Saturday Papers: US stocks edge higher in tepid trading - other news

Financial Times

* The S&P 500 closed up 0.2% to 1,183 on Friday, higher by 0.4% on the week; the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1% at 11,132, gaining 0.5% over the five days, and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.8% higher at 2,479 and rose 0.3% over the week.

* British Sky Broadcasting beat analyst expectations on Friday with pre-tax profit for July-September increasing 24% to £230 million, based on a 15% increase in sales to £1.53 billion.

* Guy Hands did not raise his allegation that Citigroup had fraudulently misled his Terra Firma private equity group during the May 2007 buyout of EMI before suing the bank that financed the ill-starred deal more than two years later, a court heard on Friday.

* Reckitt Benckiser is parting ways with its chief financial officer, Colin Day, after concluding that his non-executive roles left him insufficient time to focus on his day job.

* Tesco has jettisoned some lines of Hovis bread after balking at price rises implemented by manufacturer Premier Foods.

* Two new pan-European bodies - European Banking Authority and the European Systemic Risk Board, which will be created in January - could play a big role in deciding what additional capital cross-border banks must set aside in “good times”, according to a document issued by the European Commission on Friday.

* Nestlé said it had maintained its strong sales momentum of the first half; group sales in the first nine months rose by 4.1% to SFr82.8 billion ($85.8 billion), while sales in the core foods and beverages business climbed by 4.5% to SFr77 billion.

* Ericsson on Friday said the supply crunch knocked up to SKr3 billion ($451 million) off third-quarter sales.

* Gold tumbled to a 2½-week low as investors eyed a possible currency accord at this weekend’s G20 meeting with apprehension; bullion dropped 3.9% over the week to a low of $1,315.09 a troy ounce on Friday.

* Verizon Communications, the second-largest US telecoms group, says its third-quarter profits fell by 25.1% due largely to a pension settlement.

* The yen hit a 15-year high against the dollar this week as figures revealed that Switzerland had been aggressively adding the Japanese currency to its foreign exchange reserves in the third quarter.