Posts from Thursday Mar 14 2013

Excerpts from the Senate’s Whale report

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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| Mar 14 23:37 | Comment |

Tomorrow will be a difficult day for the witnesses called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

We haven’t made our way through all 300+ pages of the report, but we’ve searched around and come across some excerpt-worthy items. And we’ll have plenty more coverage tomorrow, when we host a special edition of US Markets Live starting at 9:25am EST. 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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| Mar 14 21:46 | Comment |

Close but no cigar for the S&P 500. The index remains three points below its all-time closing high of 1565, having gained 0.5 per cent on Thursday amid another round of improved jobless claims data, and energy stocks rallying on natural gas prices (Wall Street Journal).

Average weekly new jobless claims have now fallen to their lowest level in to five years (Financial Times, Reuters). Read more

Senate to Jamie: J’accuse!

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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| Mar 14 21:27 | Comment |

Compare:

This same strategy, [Andrew Feldstein of BlueMountain Capital] argues, was used by Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, when he volunteered details of failings in risk management that lost the bank more than $6bn last year betting on credit derivatives. Read more

The annual CCAR results clown show

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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| Mar 14 20:31 | Comment |

To summarise:

1) Fed objected to their capital plans: Ally Financial and BB&T. Read more

Bank of England glasnost?

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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| Mar 14 17:45 | Comment |

Remember the Bank of England audits? Launched in May last year. Covered banking rescues, the really super top-secret hush-hush banking rescues, and fan-charting.

The bank’s official response to them is out. Read more

When stress and spreads part company

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Mar 14 17:33 | Comment |

William Porter at Credit Suisse has been mulling the market’s muted reaction to the Italian elections. Increased stress is no longer finding its way into widening spreads, thanks to the Draghi “put”.

This credit strategist is concerned. A dampened signaling mechanism increases the risk of something going badly wrong — a market crash, even. Read more

Unlike the rest of the world’s central bankers, athletics aren’t Kuroda’s forte

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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| Mar 14 16:34 | Comment |

He struggled as a young bureaucrat on a climb with officials and journalists up a 1,500-meter (4,900-foot) mountain in Nagano Prefecture, to the west of Tokyo, according to Utsumi, now president of Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd. Kuroda “got exhausted and said he’d never do it again,” he said. “He’s not the sporty type.”

Metaphors aside we can ignore that but the rest of Bloomberg’s profile of the man set to take over at the Bank of Japan is worth a read. After all Kuroda has to convince the Japanese that Abenomics is for real now that much of the easy lifting has already been done. Read more

Markets Live: Thursday, 14th March, 2013

Paul Murphy is the founding editor of FT Alphaville.

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| Mar 14 11:01 | Comment |
This is a Markets Live transcript. Read more

Live markets commentary from FT.com 

Insolvency Service in the red, but it’s a good thing! Sort of. Maybe. Or no. Actually no.

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.

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| Mar 14 10:51 | Comment |

Adding to the list after doctors who smoke, psychologists with serious family problems, and engineers who can’t figure out how to work the lights: an organisation that handles insolvencies in the UK that wouldn’t be able to stay afloat were it not for £89m of “rescue cash” between 2008 and 2012.

Go on, have a giggle before we get to the serious part… Read more

The (early) Lunch Wrap

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.

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| Mar 14 09:51 | Comment |

Meanwhile at Harvard Business School || An argument about excess reserves || Xi Jinping, China’s new president || Also, there’s a new pope || Tim Cook has to testify in ebook case || Blackberry gets order for 1m Z10s || Obama has words for China on cyber espionage || CFTC probes gold pricing || JPM-MF Global accord approved 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.

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| Mar 14 08:23 | Comment |

From Google Reader* on Thursday,

- Mathbabe goes finance myth-busting.

- Cyprus and the politics of contagion fear.

- The JPMorgan rap sheet, continued. 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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| Mar 14 05:48 | Comment |

Asian stocks mixed || Qatar in talks on £10bn UK infrastructure || CFTC investigating gold pricing || New UK regulator warns on bonus cap costs || Xi Jinping becomes China’s president || Diet lower house approves BoJ nominees || Australian job numbers beat expectations Read more