Barclays Share News (BARC)

Inflation is set to soar to 4% this week, increasing the chances of an early hike in interest rates and forcing the Bank of England to admit it has again underestimated the extent of rising prices.Economists expect the January inflation figures, unveiled on Tuesday, to show the Vat increase and rocketing food, petrol and commodity prices have driven the consumer prices index (CPI) to at least double the Bank's 2% target. Economists also think the Bank will have to cut its growth forecasts. The jump in inflation will force Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, to write a fifth successive letter to George Osborne, the chancellor, explaining why it is so much higher than the Bank's target, the Sunday Times reports.BHP Billiton is set to reveal earnings of more than $15bn (£9.4bn) this week - putting the resources company on track to generate among the biggest ever profits by a UK company in a single year. The Anglo-Australian miner is expected to reveal the benefits of the commodities boom at its half-year results on Wednesday and confirm that it is likely to make pre-tax profits of more than $30bn at its full-year results in June, the Sunday Telegraph reports.The Government inquiry into the "glass ceiling" faced by women attempting to scale the corporate ladder is to reject calls for quotas to promote female representation on boards. But the review by Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former chief executive of Standard Chartered, will demand that FTSE 100 companies set clear targets and say if there is not significant change in the next two years, more draconian action should be taken. It is believed quotas could follow, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Nasdaq OMX is considering its options ahead of a decision to enter the fray in the rapidly consolidating war of exchange mergers. The $5.1bn (£3.2bn) US bourse is believed to be assessing the implications of both the announced £4.2bn merger of the London Stock Exchange and TMX, parent of the Toronto exchange, as well as the imminent £16.3bn union of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse, the Sunday Telegraph reports.Barclays will this week thumb its nose at the government's Project Merlin pact on City pay by revealing that it has handed an even bigger share of revenues to its investment bankers.Profits at Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm, will fall by about a third, but total pay will stay roughly the same. About 40% of Barclays Capital's revenues ? a higher proportion than last year ? will go on pay and benefits. Barclays, will, however, be able to say that it has reduced bonuses for British bankers in line with the Merlin accord. Overall, pay is staying high because basic salaries are not controlled by last week's peace deal, the Sunday Times reports.Bob Diamond's highly anticipated first full-year results as Barclays' chief executive are expected to show a 9% increase in the bank's profit to nearly £5.8bn. However, Mr Diamond is unlikely to comment on his own £9m bonus, which has revived public anger over bankers' pay. The scale of that payout will instead be confirmed when the annual report is published next month. Excluding the sale of Barclays Global Investors and an accounting convention known as an "own credit charge", the bank made a pre-tax profit of £5.31bn last year. Analyst forecasts for 2010 range from £5.34bn to £6.27bn, with the consensus at £5.78bn, the Sunday Independent reports.An aggressive American hedge fund is trying to force the board of National Express to put the transport group up for sale. Elliott Management, a $17bn (£10.6bn) activist firm and the company's second-biggest shareholder, wants National Express to pursue a tie-up with Stagecoach, its British rival, or SNCF, the French state-backed transport group. However, it is understood that the management of the £1.3bn coach, train and bus operator, led by chief executive Dean Finch, has rejected Elliott's calls and has no immediate plans for a tie-up, the Sunday Times reports. Britain is on the brink of a new mergers and acquisitions boom, with companies awash with cash and chief executives emboldened by the surge in share prices over the last year. Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has drawn up a list of possible takeover targets that includes Burberry, engineers Smiths Group, Tate & Lyle, Premier Oil, financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown, Smith & Nephew and mining group Kenmare Resources, the Observer reports.Stricken US bookseller Borders, which has struggled with a long-term shift towards digital sales in the publishing industry, is poised to declare itself bankrupt after failing to reach a deal with bankers over liabilities of more than $1bn (£625m). Shares in Borders dived 32% on Wall Street on Friday as reports emerged of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as early as or Tuesday. The prospect of insolvency at the chain, which has 674 US stores employing 19,500 people, comes 14 months after Borders' UK arm went bust, with a loss of 1,100 jobs, the Observer reports.