Tuesday Papers: HSBC leads banks rebound - other news

Financial Times

* HSBC’s 121% pre-tax profit rise, to $11.1bn for the first six months of this year sets the tone for a stream of UK bank results this week that are expected to be positive; BNP Paribas posted a 39% increase in first-half net profit to €4.4bn.

* Wheat prices rise at fastest rate since 1973 as drought hits Russia.

* The BBC and its partners in Project Canvas, the next-generation television consortium, have been accused by Virgin Media of being “intent on controlling every aspect of how people watch TV” in a competition complaint to the media watchdog.

* Britain’s first national security adviser is to step down next year, triggering a reshuffle that will throw a spotlight on a position of growing clout in Whitehall.

* Manufacturing output continued to grow strongly in July, according to the purchasing managers’ index, even though sentiment dipped marginally from June.

* The US raised the stakes over the United Arab Emirates’ decision to suspend BlackBerry services, when it labelled the move a “dangerous precedent” for democracy and freedom of speech.

* Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned there was a “considerable way to go” before the US economy made a full recovery, as he addressed the threat to growth posed by the state budget crisis.

* BP engineers were conducting final tests before pumping heavy mud into the top of the Macondo well in order to seal it permanently.

* China’s strategy on the renminbi forces traders to think again.

The Daily Telegraph

* July car sales have plummeted in Italy, compounding the country’s woes as political crisis threatens months of wrangling and fresh concerns about the safety of Italian debt.