Posts from Friday Apr 13 2012

The Weekender

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Apr 13 2012 21:23 | Comment |

This week on FT Alphaville,

- David Murphy of Deus Ex Macchiato penned special guest posts for us all week on the seriously hot topic of credit valuation adjustments. So go read ‘em. Thanks David! Read more

Stardate April 13, CIO sector, JP Morgan reporting VaR

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Apr 13 2012 17:13 | Comment |

Big hat tip to @tracyalloway for flagging up the following factoid from JP Morgan’s earnings today.

Can you believe that VaR (value-at-risk) at JPMorgan’s investment bank was less than VaR at its much talked-about chief investment office (CIO) in the first quarter: Read more

US Markets Live transcript 13 Apr 2012

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Apr 13 2012 15:02 | Comment |
This is a Markets Live transcript. Read more

Live markets commentary from FT.com 

Reminder: US Markets Live at 10am New York time, 3pm London

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Apr 13 2012 14:55 | Comment |

We’re back to our normal hours this week, and this morning we’ll be discussing bank earnings, Google, China GDP, and CPI. Or we’ll scrap all that and just talk about whatever crosses the tape. See you at the usual place. Read more

JPM earnings

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Apr 13 2012 12:46 | Comment |

Not a bad start to bank earnings season. We’ll have a proper breakdown during US Markets Live later on Friday, but for now here’s the announcement.

Revenues and net income each came in higher than analysts expected, though net income was slightly lower than in the same quarter last year. Read more

Pass the margin on the left hand side

| Apr 13 2012 11:19 | Comment |

If you read some of the regulations written recently, you may be forgiven for thinking that central clearing is the solution to all the risks in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. Some rules mandate clearing for certain market participants and trades, while others impose higher capital requirements for staying outside of the system. There is, of course, an implicit assumption in all of this that central clearing is an unequivocally good thing.

If only it were that easy. In fact, there are lots of issues with OTC derivatives clearing. Today, we’ll just look at one aspect: that of margin. Read more

Markets Live transcript 13 Apr 2012

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Apr 13 2012 11:00 | Comment |
This is a Markets Live transcript. Read more

Live markets commentary from FT.com 

The (early) Lunch Wrap

| Apr 13 2012 10:40 | Comment |

Good morning, New York…

FT ALPHAVILLE Read more

The Glenstrata glitch

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Apr 13 2012 08:46 | Comment |

Can it really be true that advisers to Glencore and Xstrata  did not envisage a referral to the competition authorities in Brussels when planning their $90bn $80bn merger?

Seems so… Read more

China in GDP shock

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 13 2012 08:15 | Comment |

The China GDP figures change little in terms of the choose-your-own-adventure thing happening with China. Yes, the 8.1 per cent growth for Q1 was lower than consensus forecasts of 8.3 or 8.4 per cent. But no, it’s not causing the bears to rejoice.

Witness this from Nomura strategist Zhiwei Zhang, who’d forecast a well-below-consensus 7.8 per cent: Read more

Further reading

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Apr 13 2012 08:09 | Comment |

Elsewhere on Friday,

- Regional tensions are rising in Spain. Read more

The 6am Cut London

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 13 2012 05:38 | Comment |

Asian equities rose on Friday morning after strong Thursday closes in Europe and the US. The relief at North Korea’s rocket test failure helped South Korea’s Kospi rise 1.2%. (Financial Times)  In an unusual admission, North Korea officially confirmed the failure. (Reuters)

However gains were pared and commodities fell as China’s Q1 GDP growth came in at 8.1%, the slowest rate since 2009. (Bloomberg) Expectations among forecasters averaged on an 8.3% figure. (Wall Street Journal) Read more

Overnight markets: Up

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 13 2012 05:13 | Comment |

Asian equities advanced following on from strong sessions for US and European markets overnight. South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.2 per cent by mid-morning in Seoul, the most in six weeks, while the Korean won was the region’s best performing currency, rising 0.7 per cent against the US dollar, says the FT.

Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +128.32 (+1.35%) at 9,653
Topix up +5.81 (+0.72%) at 815.69
Hang Seng up +326.90 (+1.61%) at 20,654 Read more