Posts from Monday Nov 5 2012

Einhorn vs the Daily Mail

| Nov 05 2012 23:35 | Comment |

Hours (well minutes) of fun courtesy of the EU.

It’s the new disclosure regime for short selling, which involves the FSA publishing a list of the most shorted stocks in the UK. Read more

The Closer

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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| Nov 05 2012 22:26 | Comment |

ROUND-UP

US stocks edged up. The S&P 500 closed up 0.2 per cent at 1,417.26. Trading volumes were light – 13 per cent below the three-month moving average (Bloomberg). Read more

The Fed’s dissenters

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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| Nov 05 2012 20:30 | Comment |

Nomura economist David Resler, in a valedictory research note, passed along the following chart as part of his thoughtful meditation on the Fed:

 Read more

A Dana Gas default

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

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| Nov 05 2012 18:34 | Comment |

From Bloomberg earlier on Monday:

*DANA ASKS HOLDERS TO CONFIRM WISH FOR SUKUK TRUST DISSOLUTION

*DANA GAS SAYS ‘DISSOLUTION EVENT HAS OCCURRED’ ON SUKUK

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Co. asks certificate holders to confirm whether they wish for the trust to be dissolved, according to statement carried by the regulatory news service.

That notice, says Exotix’s Gus Chehayeb, officially confirms that a technical default has occurred on Dana’s $920m Islamic bond, and that there was no official standstill agreement in place.

The default could also be a first for UAE public bonds. Read more

“Has experience, can’t travel”

| Nov 05 2012 17:29 | Comment |

Dhanlaxmi Bank takes advantage of executive wage stickiness to clean house and then announces:

“To cut costs and save on travelling expenses, the bank management has been keen on appointing directors from Kerala,” said a senior official. Read more

AAA ratings, alternative universes, and hindsight

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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| Nov 05 2012 17:05 | Comment |

Yes, it’s very bad for S&P. Australia’s federal court found that the ratings agency had misled local councils through assigning AAA credit ratings to CPDOs which it had failed to check properly.

But since this could well be a landmark case for credit ratings as causes of financial harm… Read more

Turkey’s pending upgrade to currency war footing

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

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| Nov 05 2012 16:44 | Comment |

So, Fitch has become the first of the ratings agencies to upgrade Turkey to investment grade, giving it its first such rating since 1994. It’s been a while coming and the Turkish lira jumped at the news — up 0.9 per cent at pixel time against the dollar to a three month high:

So far, so rosy… if unsurprising. But there may be an interesting by-product of this overdue upgrade. Namely, it might force the Turkish central bank into a smidgen of FX fiddling. That is, if the upgrade actually matters and inflows really step up. Read more

Taking the ‘co-’ out of Morgan Stanley’s Kelleher…

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Nov 05 2012 13:53 | Comment |

Just out from MOST:

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) today announced that Paul J. Taubman, currently co-President of Institutional Securities, has informed Morgan Stanley of his decision to retire at year-end. Mr. Taubman will retire after a 30-year career at Morgan Stanley. Colm Kelleher, currently co-President of Institutional Securities with Mr. Taubman, will become President of Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities division effective January 2013. Mr. Kelleher will continue to report to Chairman and CEO James Gorman.

 Read more

Is the ECB sticking to its collateral rules?

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

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| Nov 05 2012 13:03 | Comment |

The ECB may have granted loans to the Spanish bank sector on too low an interest rate given the quality of the collateral posted, according to an investigation by Die Welt. It potentially raises rather worrying questions about the bank’s risk control systems and whether it is even following its own strict lending rules. Read more

Markets Live: Monday, 5th November, 2012

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Nov 05 2012 11:01 | Comment |
This is a Markets Live transcript. Read more

Live markets commentary from FT.com 

Who will AV endorse?

| Nov 05 2012 10:58 | Comment |

It’s a pressing question, obv.

Bryce and Murphy return to Markets Live duty on Monday, just in time for the US election. Read more

The (early) Lunch Wrap

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

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| Nov 05 2012 10:42 | Comment |

US candidates in final dash || Standard and Poor’s guilty of misleading investors || UBS’s new IBD set up || Post-Sandy building boost for US economy || Apple’s two per cent foreign tax rate || Berkshire’s near-record cash mountain || Markets update  Read more

Buiter tackles Target2 (again)

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Nov 05 2012 10:15 | Comment |

Ok, this is pretty excruciating, but it’s an important (albeit emotional) debate…

Is the Eurosystem’s Target2 payment system toxic for the people of Germany? Should they be worrying like hell about this (click to expand):

 Read more

HSBC: provisionally scary

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

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| Nov 05 2012 08:54 | Comment |

HSBC’s third quarter numbers are out. We got a relatively unexciting underlying profit figure of $5bn but a whack of extra provisions totalling $1.15bn, including $800m more to cover the bank’s money laundering troubles in the US on top of the $700m already put aside.

From HSBC (our emphasis): Read more

Further reading

Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company. She's now the Head of New Projects for FT.com.

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| Nov 05 2012 08:21 | Comment |

Elsewhere on Monday,

- Starting with Election Poll 101, by Paul Krugman.

- Then moving on to philosophy of voting.

- And what all of it can do to you. Read more

The 6am Cut London

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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| Nov 05 2012 05:31 | Comment |

China services PMI shows moderate pace || Panasonic falls – again || ECB Spanish bank collateral questioned || Greece faces crunch austerity votes || G20: fiscal cliff is main economic danger || BofA optimistic on shareholder payouts || S&P found guilty in Australia ratings case Read more