January, 2009
Apple chief to take medical leave
Steve Jobs on Wednesday announced he was taking a six-month medical leave of absence as chief executive of Apple, prompting concern not only about the prognosis for his health but also for his company.
Overnight markets: Rout
Asian markets fell on Thursday, dragging the regional benchmark index to the lowest in five weeks, after US and European equity markets were left reeling on Wednesday as a barrage of negative corporate and economic news battered already fragile investor sentiment.
What’s that about an AAPL a day?
Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence, with immediate effect. Here’s the statement, via Dealbreaker and the WSJ Digits blog:
PRESS RELEASE: Apple Media Advisory
Dow Jones News Service via Dow Jones
Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:
Farewell HBOS
It’s been fun.
HBOS plc
14January 2009
Suspension of listing and trading
Following applications by HBOS to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange respectively, HBOS announces that the listing on the Official List of the securities detailed below and the trading of such securities on the London Stock Exchange are suspended,
HSBC does not comment on analyst reports
… but its PR company does.
Morgan Stanley published this morning a broker’s note saying it believes HSBC needs a significant capital raising. While HSBC does not comment on individual broker notes, we have attached by way of perspective:
CDS update: Deutsche, Citi rattle financials
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
Credit markets on both sides of Atlantic lost ground today in tandem with their equity counterparts, continuing a trend seen since the beginning of the week.
12 private jets, a helicopter and $30m worth of art
… represent just some of the assets Lehman Brothers’ restructuring advisers are attempting to sell, according to page 21 of this presentation. (H/T Footnoted)
Alvarez & Marsal, who are acting for Lehman,
Deal-making returns
No, not the M&A type. This type:
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today welcomed the proposals announced by the government to give it new statutory powers, including the power to grant immunity,
Ireland’s Doctor Doom
Meet University College Dublin economist Morgan Kelly. He’s predicting Irish house prices will fall a solid 80 per cent in coming years.
From the Irish Times:
In a presentation that drew several collective intakes of breath,
Equities plunge, redux
Here we go again. Generalised bank panic (Citigroup, Deutsche), some fresh sovereign stress (Ireland, Greece) and then a set of DREADFUL retail sales figures in the US have combined to rupture New Year confidence.
Recession at Tiffany’s
Sharp on the heels of Wednesday’s disastrous US December retail numbers (plunging twice as much as expected) come sales figures from jewellery-maker Tiffany. Prognosis? Ouch ouch ouch.
Apparently demand for diamonds isn’t holding up well at all.
Sovereign stress (UK edition)
We have wondered from the time to time what sovereign CDS on rich nations are actually for. After all, such extreme economic collapse leading to a real event of default would probably mean that the writer of protection would be unable to fulfil their obligations.
S&P downgrades Greece
The rating agency has just cut Greece’s sovereign rating (Hellenic Republic) by one notch: from A to A-:
Following a relatively modest improvement in the general government deficit since 2004, Greek public finances are,
Of Citigroup and sandwiches
Citigroup may be having a rough time of it — $50bn in credit-related writedowns, a looming break-up and continued pressure on its capital — but hey, at least they still have enough money to give their employees a free lunch.
Not a good start to the presidency
That would be the Czech Republic’s presidency of the European Union, by the way, which the Eastern European country took on January 1st.
So why so bad? Well, on Wednesday the country’s statistics office reported industrial production fell by 17.4 per cent -the most since 2000 and roughly twice as much as predicted by analysts.
R.I.P., investment banking superprofits
R.I.P. IB super-profits
2002-2007
Gone away
They needed more
Then you could pay
So says JP Morgan (well, minus the epitaph) in a prescient 72-page tome on European investment banks out today.
In it,
Cracktastic
At FT Alphaville we’ve been noting the recent strength in energy cracks for a while – that is, the difference between product and crude prices, which reflect the refining margin and when it pays to produce gasoline.
CDS Report: Sovereigns suffer
CDS action in the likes of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic was the main topic of conversation in credit markets talking on Wednesday morning.Ireland was forced to deny reports that the country could seek help from the IMF.
Fannie, Freddie, now FHLBs?
Some other banks are encountering difficulties today — namely the Federal Home Loan Banks, one of the biggest providers of funding for US mortgages.
From Bloomberg:
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle said it will suspend dividends and “excess”
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville this Wednesday morning,
- On Deutsche’s prop loss.
- Why HSBC needs $20-30bn of capital.
- I, Ireland.
- A message from Vikram Pandit.
- The Pope is Catholic, says PwC.
- Analysts say sell DB.
Analysts: Sell DB
With core Tier-1 now depleted to just 5.6 per cent (and with further share price declines, likely to drop further) the universal message from the sector analysts is that more capital raising is inevitable.
Markets live transcript 14 Jan 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:07 on 14 Jan 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:RIGHT PM:Welcome to ML, etc
Deutsche’s prop loss
Rumours of a huge “rogue” trading position at Deutsche have been circulating for the past couple of weeks now.
And today, this (emphasis ours):
14.01.2009
Release of an Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG,
I, Ireland
What happens when a triple-A rated sovereign government’s credit rating is cut? Quite a lot of unpleasant things really.
Sovereign rating transitions – at the top end of the scale – are always extremely messy affairs.
Is the East heading into the red?
Following on from the sharp contraction in Chinese exports and imports reported on Tuesday, some other worrisome indicators are emerging from the region.
As RBC Capital Markets highlights in its morning note,
Registration problems
Apologies to those of our readers who are having difficulty logging in to FT.com and FT Alphaville. We have a problem with our registration system.
Support teams are on the case.
Murphy/Alphaville
UPDATE: Issue resolved at 9.50.
‘Pope Catholic’ – PwC
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS SAYS ITS OPINIONS ON SATYAM STATEMENTS MAY BE RENDERED INACCURATE
What, these?
Auditors’ Report to the Members of Satyam Computer Services Limited..we report that:
(a) We have obtained all the information and explanations,
Why we think HSBC needs $20-30bn of capital and to halve its dividend
That’s not the view of FT Alphaville but the banking team at Morgan Stanley who have published a detailed report on HSBC on Wednesday. And it really does not pull any punches.
Having lifted the lid on HSBC’s balance sheet,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday:
- China actually overtook Germany as the world’s third largest economy in 2007
- “UK real estate companies may need to be rescued by shareholders this year to stay afloat.”