Rand edges down, market eyes PMI

(Reuters) - South Africa's rand weakened slightly against the dollar on Monday with Investec's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) the main trading event of the day.

The rand traded at 7.27 versus the dollar at 0635 GMT, about 0.3 percent softer than its last New York close of 7.25 on Friday.


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U.S. auto stability rule set, safety groups concerned

(Reuters) - WASHINGTON, April 1 - The U.S. government is expected as early as this week to require that stability control systems be standard in new cars to help prevent rollover and other crashes, but safety groups worry the measure will not be tough enough.

Safety interests and other industry sources expect the Transportation Department rule to require a remedy that does not even meet steps domestic and overseas automakers have already adopted, especially for a large part of the fleet with the highest rollover risk. These models include sport utility vehicles.


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JGB futures nudge up on Nikkei slide

(Reuters) - The tankan outlook index for June also showed big manufacturers are slightly less positive about conditions over the next three months.

The Bank of Japan lifted interest rates in February but is not expected to tighten monetary policy again for the next few months, with core inflation having turned negative and elections in parliament's upper house coming in July.


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Dollar steady vs yen, tankan offers few BOJ clues

(Reuters) - The dollar held steady against the yen on Monday as data showing a slight dip in business confidence did little to alter market expectations about when the Bank of Japan may raise interest rates next.

The tankan survey's headline diffusion index (DI) for big manufacturers' sentiment was plus 23, slightly lower than the reading of plus 25 in the December survey and falling short of the market's median forecast of plus 24.


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Norway's TGS to buy U.S. peer for $72.5 mln

(Reuters) - PDS is a high-tech seismic imaging specialist with 21 employees and offices in Houston and Dallas. In 2006 PDS earned un-audited revenues of $17.5 million and pre-tax profit was $11.7 million.




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Veolia remains interested in bits of Suez -chairman

(Reuters) - "However, that is not indispensable for us because our strategic plan will see us double in size in the next 10 years, without any major acquisitions," he added.




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UPDATE 1-HSBC to nearly double China outlets this year

(Reuters) - SHANGHAI, April 2 - Europe's top bank HSBC Holdings Plc. said on Monday it planned to nearly double the number of outlets in China this year as it develops its yuan retail banking business after its local incorporation.

London-based HSBC intends to open about 30 new outlets in the country this year, China Chief Executive Richard Yorke told reporters after he announced the launch of HSBC Bank Co. Ltd, its wholly owned locally incorporated unit of HSBC.


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South Korea and U.S. agree last-minute trade deal

(Reuters) - "Yes, it has been reached," a press official at the South Korean presidential Blue House told Reuters.

The deal came after nine months of negotiations between the United States and Asia's third-largest economy, but just minutes before time ran out for the White House to use legislation allowing it to present a deal to Congress that can be rejected or accepted, but not changed.


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Gold extends gains on Iran, hovers below $670

(Reuters) - In the physical sector there was some profit-taking from Indonesia, which is Southeast Asia's largest consumer, but light buying also emerged from Thailand and India.

Spot gold edged up to $664.30/664.80 an ounce from $663.70/664.70 late in New York on Friday, when it hit an intraday high above $667 an ounce due to the Middle East tensions and a drop in the dollar.


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Tankan sentiment dips slightly, BOJ seen on hold

(Reuters) - The closely watched March tankan survey did little to change the widespread view that the central bank will be slow in raising interest rates, with many traders expecting the next rate hike to come sometime after upper house elections in July.

The dollar edged a tad higher against the yen right after the tankan release but held mostly steady just below 118 yen. Investors in the Japanese government bond and stock markets largely shrugged off the survey.


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China Netcom says 2006 net down 6.7 pct, pips f'cast

(Reuters) - China Netcom posted a profit of 12.96 billion yuan for the year ended Dec. 31, compared to 13.89 billion yuan a year earlier.

The result beat an average forecast of 11.3 billion yuan, according to the average forecast of 17 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.


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UPDATE 1-Google interested in DoubleClick purchase - WSJ

(Reuters) - Microsoft has appeared less likely to win the bidding as the potential price for the company surpassed $2 billion, people familiar with the situation said in the Journal.

Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL online unit also have talked to DoubleClick -- which is majority-owned by San Francisco private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman -- though it is unclear whether AOL is still in the race, these people said in the Journal.


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TREASURIES-Ten-year yield hangs near 1-month high before ISM

(Reuters) - Overall, yields have been on the rise in past weeks as figures showing a pickup in inflation amid some unexpected firmness in the U.S. economy has prompted the market to trim expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates in the near future.

Figures on Friday showed a rise in personal income and consumer spending, as well as construction spending and manufacturing, keeping upward pressure on Treasury yields.


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UPDATE 2-Malaysia says still talking to GM on Proton

(Reuters) - "It's at the level of the officials. It's nearing conclusion. They have to present the full report to me," he told reporters when asked about the status of talks with General Motors. German carmaker Volkswagen AG had been seen as the frontrunner to partner Proton until last Friday, when a Singapore newspaper said those talks had broken down. The week before, the prime minister had said Malaysia was talking only to Volkswagen.

Abdullah declined on Monday to give any details on the status of talks with either Volkswagen or General Motors. The U.S. giant had been thought to be out of the running until last week.


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KKR to bid $25.6 billion for First Data: source

(Reuters) - A deal could be announced as early as Monday, the source said.

KKR declined to comment. A First Data spokeswoman did not return a call or email seeking comment.


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Veda Advantage board agrees to buyout offer

(Reuters) - Veda's biggest shareholder Allco Equity Partners Ltd. , which has a 17.3 percent stake, has agreed to support the deal subject to a significant change in market conditions and in the absence of a superior offer.

Still, concerns may loom over the eventual success of the transaction with several institutional shareholders protesting a raft of recent private equity buyouts.


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UPDATE 1-Toshiba buys U.S. turbine repair firm for $11 mln

(Reuters) - Toshiba International Corp., a unit of Japan's No. 2 electronics conglomerate, bought 61.16 percent of the Wisconsin-based company from the city of West Allis, Wisconsin, and other investors including Heartland Energy Services Inc., Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida said.

Regenco, which had sales of about $27 million last year, was formed in 1999 out of Siemens AG's U.S. steam turbine repair unit, and provides maintenance support to General Electric and Westinghouse power plants.


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Japan March minivehicle sales data due on Tuesday

(Reuters) - The Japan Automobile Dealers Association will announce non-mini auto sales for the same periods later on Monday as planned.




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KKR to offer $34 per share cash for First Data-source

(Reuters) - KKR declined to comment. First Data could not be reached for comment.




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UPDATE 2-BOJ tankan shows cautious Japan business sentiment

(Reuters) - TOKYO, April 2 - Japanese corporate sentiment worsened for the first time in a year amid growing concerns about the outlook for the U.S. and global economies and uncertainty over future oil price and yen movements, a Bank of Japan survey showed on Monday.

The closely watched March tankan survey did little to change the widespread view that the central bank will be slow in raising interest rates, with many traders expecting the next rate hike to come sometime after upper house elections in July.


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FACTBOX-Projects backed by Russia's investment fund

(Reuters) - It took about 50 applications from investors in 2006 and has so far approved 12 projects worth a combined $50 billion.

Below is the list of approved projects.


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Toshiba buys U.S. turbine repair firm for $11 mln

(Reuters) - Toshiba unit Toshiba International Corp. bought 61.16 percent of the Wisconsin-based company from the city of West Allis, Wisconsin, and other investors including Heartland Energy Services Inc., Toshiba spokeswoman Mochida said.

Regenco, which had sales of about $27 million last year, was formed in 1999 as the descendant of Siemens AG's U.S. turbine repair unit, and provides power plant maintenance to General Electric and Westinghouse. Toshiba late last year took a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse, the U.S. power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels, for $4.16 billion, eyeing growing demand for nuclear power abroad.


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BOJ tankan shows cautious Japan business sentiment

(Reuters) - The yen was weaker against the dollar after the data, moving out to around 118.00 yen from around 117.75 just before the tankan's release, while the Nikkei share average opened up 0.34 percent at 17,346.25.

The headline sentiment index for big manufacturers was plus 23, meaning those firms who think business conditions are favorable outnumbered those who think they are negative by 23 percentage points.


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RPT-UPDATE 2-AT&T, America Movil seek Telecom Italia deal

(Reuters) - AT&T said the company and American Movil, owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, plan to buy stakes in a holding company that owns around 18 percent of Telecom Italia, Europe's No. 5 telecoms group. The companies hope to buy a third each in the holding company, known as Olimpia, Telecom Italia's top shareholder.

The moves come amid speculation over the future of the former state monopoly, which locked horns with the centre-left government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi last year over its restructuring plans.


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Euroyen futures tick up after softer tankan

(Reuters) - The big manufacturers diffusion index was plus 23 in March, slighly weaker than a forecast of plus 24.




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FEATURE-Drug war turns Mexico border city into ghost town

(Reuters) - Once an easygoing Mexican border town thronging with U.S. tourists, Nuevo Laredo is becoming a ghost town because of a brutal, three-year-old turf war between rival drug cartels that has driven residents and businesses across the Rio Grande to the safety and prosperity of its Texan sister city, Laredo.

"Business is no good, nobody comes any more," said Cepeda in broken English as he waited in vain for passengers on Nuevo Laredo's main avenue, a few steps from the U.S.-Mexico border footbridge.


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FEATURE-Asia's economic sleuths hunt for clues in odd places

(Reuters) - Faced with irregular, sometimes dodgy economic data, analysts turn to cement sales, fast food, newspaper sizes or just about anything that helps them understand the fast-growing and often volatile region.

While those who track economies such as France and Britain receive a regular diet of numbers which officials have gone through with fine-toothed combs, analysts in Asia find statistics are patchy or even open to manipulation.


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UPDATE 2-Hershey's major shareholder pledges to keep power

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, April 1 - Hershey Co.'s controlling shareholder on Sunday said it has no interest in giving up its voting power, damping speculation the largest U.S. chocolate maker might combine with Britain's Cadbury Schweppes Plc .

LeRoy Zimmerman, chairman of Hershey Trust Co., said the trust has "absolute confidence" in Hershey management, including Chief Executive Richard Lenny, and its plans to cut costs and regain market share from rivals including Mars Inc.


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UPDATE 1-Pirelli says AT&T, America Movil offer for Olimpia

(Reuters) - In statements issued on Sunday, the American firms and Italian company Pirelli -- which holds 80 percent of Olimpia -- said there would be exclusive negotiations until April 30.

Olimpia controls Telecom Italia, Europe's fifth largest telecoms company, with an 18 percent stake. The other partner in Olimpia is Sintonia, owned by the Benetton family.


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UPDATE 1-Hershey's top shareholder pledges to keep control

(Reuters) - LeRoy Zimmerman, chairman of Hershey Trust Co., said the trust has "absolute confidence" in the largest U.S. chocolate maker's management, including Chief Executive Richard Lenny, and its plan to cut costs and regain market share lost to archrival Mars Inc.

"The Trust has always maintained that it has absolutely no interest in losing control," Zimmerman, a former Pennsylvania attorney general, said in an interview. "We have 78 percent voting control, and we have no interest in losing that."


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Pirelli says AT&T, America Movil offer for Olimpia

(Reuters) - Olimpia controls Telecom Italia with an 18 percent stake. The other shareholder in Olimpia is Sintonia, owned by the Benetton family.

The offers value Telecom Italia shares held by Olimpia at 2.82 euros each less Olimpia's debt when the deal closes.


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Merv Griffin company's CEO retires

(Reuters) - Cohen was named president and chief executive in August 1997, after having been the Beverly Hills, California-based company's chief financial officer since 1988.

Griffin Group did not in its statement name a new chief executive. The company is chaired by Merv Griffin. It did not immediately return a call seeking further comment.


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Hershey open to combination, Cadbury eyed: report

(Reuters) - He added that "it's important that the Hershey Trust stay focused on keeping the company competitive and profitable." The trust has not had contact with Cadbury, Zimmerman said.

Hershey did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The company's shares closed Friday at $54.66 on the New York Stock Exchange.


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UPDATE 1-Colombia consumer prices rise 1.21 pct in March

(Reuters) - A poll of 32 analysts conducted by Reuters on Tuesday predicted the March 2007 rate would be 0.78 percent.

In 2006, inflation totaled 4.48 percent but it has speeded up since then to 5.78 percent in the 12 months through March, the government's statement said.


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First Marblehead may decline on defaults-Barron's

(Reuters) - Private loans comprised one-fifth of last year's $85 billion of new student loans, Barron's said.

First Marblehead shares have been particularly volatile, in part because of a large number of "short" sellers betting on a decline, and a 2005 gift-giving scandal involving a former company chief executive.


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Abbott Labs may be set for further gains: Barron's

(Reuters) - Also in 2008, the company may release in the United States cholesterol drugs Simcor and ABT-335, and may release the Xience V drug-coated stent, a mesh tube that injects a drug into open arteries that prevents scarring.

At Friday's close of $55.80, Abbott shares trade at 19.9 times the average analyst forecast for 2007 profit, according to Reuters Estimates.


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Peru inflation rises 0.35 percent in March

(Reuters) - In March 2006, the consumer price index rose 0.46 percent and 0.26 percent in February of this year.

Consumer prices have risen 0.62 percent in the first three months of 2007, the government said in its gazette El Peruano, without providing details on the increases by sector.


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Auto stability rule set, safety groups concerned

(Reuters) - Safety interests and other industry sources expect the Transportation Department rule to require a remedy that does not even meet steps domestic and overseas automakers have already adopted, especially for a large part of the fleet with the highest rollover risk. These models include sport utility vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates it will cost nearly $1 billion for automakers to put minimum electronic stability control systems on all new vehicles.


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Data may propel stocks higher

(Reuters) - A pair of reports from a private group will gauge the manufacturing and services sectors of the economy, while monthly payroll data comes out at the end of the week when the stock market will be closed in observance of the Good Friday holiday.

The bond market, however, will remain open for an abbreviated trading session. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has recommended an early close at 10:30 a.m. EDT , on Friday, April 6, for trade in U.S. dollar-denominated fixed-income securities.


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Iberia tells govt TPG only wants a stake -source

(Reuters) - No-one at Iberia was available to comment on Sunday.

Iberia said in a statement on Friday that U.S.-based Texas Pacific group was interested in all the airline's share capital, and had asked to look at the airline's books regarding a possible 3.60 euros cash per share offer for all the shares.


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Africa horticulture traders launch regional group

(Reuters) - Flowers, fruit and vegetable growers from 12 African countries launched an organisation on Friday to give their continent more weight in trade talks with the European Union (EU) that must end this year.

The EU wants to finalise new economic deals by January 1, 2008, to replace the Cotonou Agreement that gave goods from parts of Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific preferential access to Europe.


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Angola oil boom raises political fears

(Reuters) - Angola's emergence as a major world oil producer is raising concerns the government will use its new clout to resist calls for political and economic reform.

The oil-rich African nation has not held a national election since 1992 and its government has delayed a return to the polls twice already, citing the poor condition of roads and other infrastructure damaged during a 27-year civil war.


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