Tuesday Papers: Investors cautious ahead of US earnings - other news

Financial Times

* The FTSE 100 in London closed up 0.7 per cent on Monday, helped by a 9 per cent jump in BP shares; the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.4 per cent; the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.4 per cent, while the FTSE Asia-Pacific index was down 0.1 per cent.

* Bank lending to small and medium-sized businesses is showing little sign of improving, according to surveys; the Institute of Directors finds one in three of its members applying for loans in the first six months of the year was turned down by a bank; meanwhile, figures from the BBA showed that lending to small businesses in May was flat on the previous month.

* Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator had issued subpoenas to determine whether big Wall Street banks were liable for losses suffered by the two finance companies when the housing market collapsed.

* The American Securitisation Forum is drawing proposals to narrow the pool of investors allowed in the US to buy complex asset-backed securities in private markets in an attempt to fend off a push by regulators to ban such deals outright.

* The number of lawsuits against solicitors has increased by 163 per cent in one year as a result of the recession and the falling property market, according to data obtained from the High Court by law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

* Greece dropped plans to refinance 12-month government debt on Monday because of fears investors would demand exceptionally high yields and damage confidence in the country’s debt markets and economy.

* The ECB purchased just €1bn of eurozone bonds last week, compared with €4bn in each of the previous three weeks, according to data published on Monday.

* BP is forecast to pay about $10bn less tax over the next four years as it meets the costs of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

* China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or Safe, bought several hundred million euros of Spanish bonds last week.

* Chinese property prices eased lower in June for the first time in nearly 18 months; the average price of houses in 70 main cities in June fell by 0.1 per cent from May.

* India output growth falls sharply; industrial production rose 11.5 per cent year-on-year in May, down from 16.5 per cent year-on-year in April.