February, 2009
A gold watch
We’ve got this new widget that allows us to embed charts that update dynamically. And what better excuse to try it out than the prospect on Friday that the price of gold might tick back up through $1000?
Gold did in fact hit $1,002 in March last year,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville on Friday morning,
- Time for a tin hat?
- To the slaughterhouse…
- Swiss struggles.
- Lowlife grave diggers at the ‘Big Fix’.
- Don’t panic Australia!
- Tin hat time on Markets Live.
Swiss struggles
The Swiss franc, along with Swiss banks, is taking a beating this morning.
In fact, RBC Capital Markets contend the currency is rapidly losing its safe haven status and decoupling from the US dollar.
Markets live transcript 20 Feb 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:15 on 20 Feb 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Welcome! PM:This is Markets Live – FT Alphaville’s daily market commentary
Lowlife grave diggers at the ‘Big Fix’
Extreme times make for unusual situations. Such was the spectacle of seeing one of the biggest, but most low-profile, buyout kings pop up at a panel discussion held Thursday at Manhattan’s Pershing Square restaurant.
To the slaughterhouse…
Cattles, of course. The share price halved on Friday – to 6p – although this British sub-prime lender once traded above 400p in its heyday.
That latest news is that publication of its year-end figures has been delayed while the board work out whether Cattles’ provisioning for bad debts has been adequate – but in any case it has warned now that the figures,
Time for the tin hat?
FTSE 100 down 90 points.
UK’s public debt surges towards £1,200bn
Dow Jones Industrial registers new bear market low overnight.
The S&P 500 Financials Index falls 5.2 percent to its lowest level since January 1995.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday:
- 19/02/09 Editor’s note of the year: From the editor of World Finance, which just gave Allen Stanford its Man of the Year award: “It was a calculated editorial risk” (HT Felix Salmon)
- “There is something sad about watching former Fed Chairman Greenspan lose most of the intellectual underpinnings of his life”
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from the FT on Friday:
Katinka Barysch: The European Union must help its new states
The deputy director of the Centre for European Reform writes how the paradigm that has guided economic policy in the new EU countries since the 1990s suddenly looks seriously flawed.
Snap news
The latest on Friday,
- Anglo American suspends dividend, cuts 19,000 jobs – statement.
- Cattles delays preliminary 2008 results – statement.
- Lafarge unveils $5.7 bln plan to bolster finances – statement.
US bank shares near 17-year lows
US bank shares hit a near 17-year low on Thursday on fears the government will have to nationalise troubled institutions such as Citigroup and Bank of America. BofA shares slid 14% to $3.93, their lowest since 1984.
US, Europe mull joint CDS regulation
US, UK, and European regulators are in talks to jointly regulate the $28,000bn credit-default swap market, the Federal Reserve said Thursday, reports Bloomberg. Regulators including the Fed, UK’s FSA,
US seeks more names from UBS
The US Justice Department sued UBS to obtain access to 52,000 UBS accounts belonging to US clients – some 30,000 more than previously known – a day after reaching a landmark settlement for the Swiss bank to turn over 250 accounts in a tax-evasion probe,
BofA’s Lewis subpoenaed over Merrill
Bank of America chairman and chief executive Ken Lewis was issued a subpoena by New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo, who is investigating whether the bank withheld information from investors, reports the WSJ.
FBI locates Stanford in Virginia
FBI agents located Sir Allen Stanford, whose whereabouts had been unknown since being charged this week by the SEC over an alleged $8bn fraud, in Virginia on Thursday and served the Texan billionaire with court orders relating to the SEC civil filing against his investment firm,
US politicians in Stanford’s net
Many US politicians who received campaign donations from Allen Stanford and his associates were scrambling to distance themselves from the Texas billionaire on Thursday as federal authorities investigated an alleged $8bn investment fraud linked to his Antigua-based investment bank.
Australian investors join Rio revolt
Australian investors in Rio Tinto have joined their UK counterparts in opposing a deal with Chinalco that could see the Chinese state-owned group double its stake in the Anglo-Australian miner to 18%, reports the FT.
Rio directors test waters
Rio Tinto’s independent directors are understood to have begun sounding out the miner’s top 20 UK shareholders to gauge their support for a multi-billion-pound rights issue, reports The Times. The directors are believed to be considering a climbdown over Rio’s controversial plan to raise $19.5bn from Chinese state-owned Chinalco after hostility from institutional investors.
BoJ to buy Y1,000bn of bonds
The Bank of Japan on Thursday stepped up measures to ease the country’s growing credit squeeze, with plans to buy up to Y1,000bn ($10.6bn) in corporate bonds and extend its emergency purchases of other assets from financial institutions.
LSE eyes joint LCH.Clearnet bid
The London Stock Exchange has confirmed it is part of a consortium involving Icap, the inter-dealer broker, and about 10 investment banks that may make a cash offer for LCH.Clearnet, Europe’s largest independent clearing house.
BNP Paribas posts Q4 loss
BNP Paribas, the French bank embroiled in plans to carve up struggling rival Fortis, on Thursday posted an expected Q4 loss and said market conditions would remain tough in 2009, reports Reuters. France’s biggest bank by market cap on Thursday reported a net loss of €1.37bn ($1.73bn),
Axa eyes share issue after loss
Axa, Europe’s second-largest insurance group, reported its first interim loss for seven years on Thursday, slashed its 2008 dividend and prepared for a possible increase in capital. The French insurer is to ask shareholders to approve the issue of up to €2bn ($2.5bn) in preference shares,
BAE poised for Saudi Typhoon deal
BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence contractor, on Thursday said it expected to agree a multi-billion pound deal to provide support and weapons systems for the 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to be bought by Saudi Arabia this year.
Continental to aid ailing Schaeffler
Continental, Germany’s second-largest car parts supplier, vowed Thursday to slash costs and pledged to help Schaeffler, its heavily indebted majority shareholder, after posting a record loss for the past year.
Sibir shares suspended after disclosure
Shares in Sibir Energy, the UK-listed oil company with assets in Russia, were suspended Thursday after the company revealed that it had lent $325m to one of its shareholders. In a statement, Sibir admitted that Chalva Tchigirinski,
Overnight markets: Slump
Asian stocks fell Friday, after the Dow in New York dropped 1.2% to the lowest close since October 2002, while the S&P500 slipped to the lowest level since January 1995 and futures on the index fell 0.9%. In Asia,
[The Stanford Series] But which passport will he surrender?
From Reuters:
Billionaire banker Allen Stanford was preparing to surrender his passport after the FBI served him with court papers accusing him of massive fraud, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Broken…
the November low on the Dow, which was 7552.29.
DJIA ends on Thursday at 7,465.95 -89.68 (-1.19%).
So, a new bear market low.
Elsewhere,
S&P 500 778.94 - 9.48 (-1.20%)
Nasdaq 1,442.82 - 25.15 (-1.71%)
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