World business briefs

Global businessFigures from around the world suggested that manufacturing output has dropped back to the level it was at two years ago, when many countries began to pull out of recession. In America, an index of new orders for goods registered a contraction for the first time since June 2009.

There were some big job cut announcements last week. HSBC said it would eliminate another 25,000 jobs on top of the 5,000 it confirmed were already going, mostly in America and Europe, though it expects to recruit up to 15,000 employees in emerging markets such as Brazil and Hong Kong. Barclays decided to reduce its workforce by a further 1,600. And Merck said it would slash another 13,000 jobs, as it reported that quarterly profit had almost tripled.

Porsche and BMW reported healthy rises in first-half profits, which they attributed in large part to demand in China for German premium cars.

Toyota put some of the blame for a poor set of quarterly earnings on costs associated with the surging yen. The carmaker produces about half the vehicles it sells worldwide in Japan, a higher proportion than its domestic rivals. Still, Toyota raised its profit outlook for the year by 40 percent, as it is recovering more quickly than it expected from March's earthquake and tsunami.

The share prices of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rose as it emerged that the giant Japanese engineering conglomerates are in merger negotiations. Both companies have significant operations in nuclear power technology and infrastructure, which have seen business dry up since Japan's tsunami led to meltdowns at the Fukushima reactors.

Northumbrian Water Group agreed to a takeover worth $7.6 billion from a consortium led by Li Ka-shing, as Hong Kong's richest man continues his spree of acquisitions of British utilities.

In an important ruling in favor of the biotech industry, a federal appeals court overturned a judge's decision last year that genes could not be patented. The case was brought by Myriad Genetics, which wants to patent two genes that help forecast the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Research in Motion unveiled its next generation of BlackBerry smartphones, including a new touch-screen phone. The devices, which work on its 7 Operating System, may help boost BlackBerry's market share in America, which fell to 12 percent in the second quarter from 33 percent a year ago, according to Canalys, a consulting firm.

It emerged that Foxconn is planning to increase the number of robots it uses on its production lines in China from today's 10,000 to 1 million by 2013. Foxconn currently employs 1 million people in China to assemble a whole host of consumer devices, including Apple's iPhone, but workers' wages are climbing rapidly.

Political economyThe central banks of Japan and Switzerland intervened separately in the currency markets to halt the continuing appreciation of the yen and the Swiss franc, which threatens exports and could undermine growth in both countries. In the wake of the debt crises in America and the eurozone, both currencies have increasingly come to be seen as havens by investors.

With Spain said to be increasingly at risk of needing a financial bailout, the Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, announced that a general election would be held on Nov. 20, four months ahead of schedule. Polls suggest that the opposition conservative People's Party will win.