Traders will consider PPI

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Traders will consider PPI, Dell

NEW YORK - A key inflation measure - the Producer Price Index - is due out before the opening bell Friday, and investors may take their cue from it. Expectations suggest tame wholesale inflation, and a benign PPI report could ease traders' minds about the Federal Reserve meeting Tuesday. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by as much as half a point. Tech stocks stormed back Thursday as investors decided that many top issues were bargains after the Nasdaq composite's recent slump. Techs may get another boost Friday on the heels of an upside earnings surprise by Dell Computer after the bell. On Thursday, stocks rebounded sharply, enlivened by a retail sales report that eased pressure for higher interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 178.19 to 10,545.97. The Nasdaq gained 114.85 to 3499.58.

GIO shareholders win right to launch class action suit

An Australian judge has given shareholders of GIO, the reinsurer taken over last year by AMP, the right to sue for alleged poor advice in what would be the country's largest class action.

The move is yet another setback for AMP, the big Australian financial services group, as it attempts to put the GIO debacle behind it. Its disastrous takeover of the troubled reinsurer has already cost its chairman and chief executive their jobs and pushed the blue-chip company into a A$424m (US$252m) net loss last year.

Some 33,000 former shareholders in GIO are attempting to sue the reinsurer - now a wholly owned subsidiary of AMP - as well as nine former GIO directors and their financial advisers for alleged poor advice on whether to accept AMP's hostile bid.

They are seeking damages of some A$600m.

Justice Michael Moore of Australia's Federal Court ruled on Friday that the shareholders - who think they were wrongly advised not to accept AMP's first offer - be allowed to proceed with a class action. It was not clear last night whether GIO/AMP would appeal against the decision.

The case, one of the first of its kind in Australia, goes back to mid-1998 when AMP launched a A$3.01bn bid for GIO, worth A$4.75 a share. At the time it was the country's largest ever corporate offer and, unusually, it was hostile.

Directors in GIO advised shareholders to decline the offer.

But after a protracted and bitter battle, AMP won, securing acceptances for 57.5 per cent of GIO which remained an independently listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Not long after, however, serious problems emerged in GIO's reinsurance business, forcing it into a series of profits warnings.

Eventually, AMP - which had to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the business to offset its losses - decided to launch a second offer and take full control of the struggling subsidiary.

This it did last year, offering the remaining shareholders the lower price of A$2.75 a share. It is these shareholders who are now suing GIO/AMP.

If the case proceeds, it will be testing, among other things, the misleading and deceptive conduct section of Australia's Trade Practices Act.

Japan to review China ODA

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Wednesday told his visiting Chinese counterpart Tang Jiaxuan that the government will review its policy on official development assistance to China, citing Tokyo's concern about a steep increase in China's military spending, government sources said.

During the three-hour meeting in Tokyo, Kono said the government will consider reviewing yen loans that will be extended to China in fiscal 2001 and later because ``there is serious concern in Japan'' about China's growing military spending, the sources said.

Kono also called for more transparency involving China's military expenditures.

In reply, Tang said Beijing would try to provide more information about the way Japan's ODA is spent in his country, the sources said.

There have been growing calls among ruling Liberal Democratic Party members for the government to reconsider economic aid to China, partly because of Japan's shaky financial situation.

While the government has frequently expressed concern about higher Chinese military spending, this was the first time it has even mentioned the possibility of reviewing ODA policies in connection with China's rising military expenditures, the sources said.

Also during the meeting, the two ministers agreed to work together to realize a planned visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in mid-October, the sources said.

In reference to the inauguration of Taiwan's President-elect Chen Shui-bian on May 20, Tang stressed Beijing's ``one-China'' policy.

Kono called for early resumption of cross-strait talks, referring to Beijing's view that it reserves the right to military options on the Taiwan issue.

Tang said Beijing wants to solve the Taiwan issue peacefully but that may depend on whether President-elect Chen adopts a ``one-China'' policy.

Tang also said Beijing will have no choice but to take decisive measures if Taiwan makes any moves toward independence.

Kono said Japan will maintain its position as mentioned in the 1972 Japan-China joint communique.

In the joint communique, China reiterated that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.

Kono said he hopes the Taiwan issue will be solved peacefully.

Regarding the Group of Eight summit to be hosted in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, in July, Tang said he expects summit member nations to take into consideration the positions of the world's developing countries.

UK Bank official rejects devaluation

Mervyn King, the Bank of England's deputy governor, on Sunday, strongly defended the Bank's interest rate decisions and backed Tony Blair in rejecting artificial devaluation of the pound.

Speaking on GMTV's Sunday Morning, Mr King reiterated his opposition to relaxing monetary policy to extend special help to suffering manufacturing and agricultural exporters.

He denied that the Bank and the government were trying to talk the pound down. "I don't think there is anything we can do, by talking or anything else, to bring sterling down relative to the euro," Mr King said. "The problem lies in the euro area."

Mr Blair will tell the Confederation of British Industry on Tuesday that there will be no change in the government's economic strategy, despite the difficulties experienced by manufacturers and exporters as a result of the strength of sterling.

Mr King said the prime minister was right to resist calls to relax the Bank's inflation target or to drive sterling lower. "If we were to give up setting interest rates to meet the inflation target and allow inflation to rise, it would immediately lead to an increase in the costs to manufacturers," Mr King said. "Their temporary relief from the high pound would soon be eroded."

The interventions from Mr King and Mr Blair follow a chorus of complaint from industrialists and unions, who have warned that the strength of the pound risks inflicting permanent damage on the manufacturing sector.

A survey released on Tuesday by the CBI shows confidence falling among small and medium-sized manufacturers, following a drop in export demand. Sterling recently hit a 14-year high against the D-Mark, and was blamed by BMW for its decision to sell the ailing Rover car group.

The Bank's monetary policy committee faces difficult decisions on interest rates, following the fall in sterling last week to a level below that embodied in the MPC's recent inflation forecast. Expectations of interest rate rises in the financial markets have backed up sharply as the pound has fallen.

This week, the minutes of the MPC meeting that left interest rates on hold two weeks ago will be released. Many economists expect to see another split on the committee similar to that in April when Mr King, together with the Bank's chief economist John Vickers and the outside member Willem Buiter, voted for a quarter-point rise in rates.

Last week, Mr King warned that the MPC should not become "fixated" on short-term fluctuations in the pound's value.

JBC NEWS AND EVENTS

Updated 05/15/2000

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