Tuesday newspaper round-up: Osborne, US vote, HSBC, Italy

2nd Aug 2011 06:03

George Osborne and Vince Cable last night issued a double warning to Britain's banks to start lending to business - as they prepare to announce astonishing profits of more than £8bn.The Chancellor said the banks had an 'economic obligation' to lend to cash-strapped businesses and warned them that the Government 'will not tolerate banks piling the pressure' on small firms, according to the Daily Mail.The US House of Representatives last night passed an historic deal on debt and spending cuts, lifting the threat of financial crisis but leaving America humbled in the eyes of the world economy. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, shot through the head seven months ago, was on hand to help pass the deal to cut at least $2.1trn (£1.2trn) in federal spending over ten years, the Times reports.The US faces the loss of its top credit rating even as its politicians moved closer to striking a deal over its debt, the boss of HSBC, Europe's biggest bank warned yesterday. Chief executive Stuart Gulliver said progress on talks was "very welcome" but added: "It's quite possible we will see a downgrade although it is uncertain what impact that will have on the financial markets," the Daily Express reports.Fears of a double-dip downturn on both sides of the Atlantic have set off fresh mayhem in Southern European bond markets, dashing hopes that Europe's summit deal in late July would contain the escalating crisis. Italy's 10-year yields spiked through 6pc in wild trading and hit a record post-EMU spread over German Bunds, snuffing out a brief relief rally following Washington's debt deal, the Telegraph reports.Chinese tourists have been on a spending spree in British shops, helping to boost the profits of department stores and luxury goods retailers, fresh figures have shown. Spend by Chinese tourists in the UK jumped by 82% in the year to the end of March 2011, with the average Chinese shopper spending £605 per trip, according to Global Blue, a company that allows shoppers to claim back VAT from stores, the Telegraph reports.The value of Twitter has jumped to $8bn, more than double the level accorded to the company as recently as late last year, according to the terms of a fresh $800m investment in the US internet messaging service that has just been completed, says the Financial Times.Guardian Media Group yesterday warned that it would continue to face "challenging" trading conditions as the group's operating losses widened further. GMG's newspaper business suffered badly, with operating losses, before one-offs, at Guardian News & Media, the publisher of The Guardian and The Observer, coming in at £38.3m for the year to the end of March against £37.8m the previous year, according to the Independent An oil pipeline off the north-east coast of the UK, responsible for delivering around 40% of oil produced in UK waters into the country, has been shut down for five days so that an unexploded mine from the second world war can be removed. The German-built sea-mine will be transported four kilometres (2.5 miles) away and detonated safely underwater, the operator of the Forties pipeline, BP, said, according to the Guardian.---RG