July, 2009
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- UK retail sales values rose 1.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis from June 2008 – British Retail Consortium.
- Arden Partners half-year profit falls to £0.1m from £1.6m — statement.
Goldman execs sold $700m of stock in Lehman aftermath
Executives at Goldman Sachs sold almost $700m worth of stock following the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, the FT reported, citing SEC filings. Most of the sales occurred during the period in which the investment bank enjoyed the support of $10bn from the troubled asset relief programme.
RBS chief to face tougher pay targets
Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, will be given tougher performance targets to meet next year to collect his maximum bonus following a public outcry over his pay award of up to £9.6m for this year.
RHJ vows to put Opel in profit by 2011
RHJ International is promising to make Opel profitable by 2011 and keep its two Vauxhall plants in the UK open as part of its bid for the European business of General Motors, the FT said. The Brussels-listed industrial holding,
French workers threaten to blow up plant
Workers at a failed French car parts supplier are threatening to blow up their factory unless the company’s two biggest clients – Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen – stump up extra compensation, the FT reported.
UK house sales rise as market improves
Inquiries by would-be homebuyers at estate agents are translating more frequently into purchases, according to figures published on Tuesday. Newly agreed sales are rising more widely across the market than at any point since data were first collected in 1999,
US in talks to rescue CIT
The crisis at CIT, one of the largest US middle-market lenders, worsened on Monday with the company talking to regulators about ways to stave off failure while its credit ratings were cut deeper into junk territory A failure at CIT could result in losses for Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo,
Facebook common stock deal puts value at $6.5bn
Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian internet group that has invested $200m in Facebook, will purchase up to $100m in common stock from existing shareholders in the social network, the FT reported, citing a person close to the deal.
Microsoft in free software assault on Google
Microsoft on Monday escalated its battle with arch rival Google, reacting to an assault on one of its core businesses with the announcement of a free online version of its widely used Office software, to be launched next year,
Overnight markets: Up, at last
Asian equity markets rallied on Tuesday, snapping a nine-session losing streak and lifting the MSCI Asia Pacific Index from an eight-week low. Traders were spurred by positive economic news from Singapore,
[The Stanford Series] “Fraud victims” want $24bn from the government of Antigua and Barbuda
They are not going to get it.
On Monday, a group of plaintiffs identifying themselves as victims of the Sir Allen Stanford’s alleged $7bn Ponzi scheme filed a class-action lawsuit against the Government of Antigua and Barbuda that claimed (among other things):
Meredith on Goldman – (re-)re-redacted (updated)
Finally… (H/T GP)
Earlier on Monday the media were fed an expurgated version of Meredith Whitney’s “buy” recommendation on Goldman Sachs — issued ahead of the investment bank’s Q2s on Tuesday. All we got was news that MWAG saw the stock as attractive in a bear market,
United Colours of Emerald Energy
Independent investment firms are taking a greater share of advisory fees than ever as companies turn to old-fashioned skills in an uncertain market. Boutique banks, which provide advice on mergers and acquisitions and restructurings,
Dear Paul, the greatest monetary crisis of all times is coming
Gold-bug academic extraordinaire Antal Fekete is worried about the world economy. He’s so worried in fact he’s posted an open letter to former Federal reserve chairman Paul Volcker on his website calling for imminent intervention:
One small, faltering step for China…
And these people want to dethrone the dollar?
At a seminar for 150 clients today Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) announced that the bank has completed the first cross-border trade settlement transactions in RMB,
Who saw it coming and the primacy of accounting
Massive hat tip to Chris Cook for pointing out this fascinating paper.
In it, Dirk J Bezemer of Gronington University attempts to show that certain contrarian economic models — and economists — anticipated the credit crisis and the ensuing recession.
Correction to trading statement
Strong stuff that Magners Irish cider:
Dublin, London, 13 July 2009: C&C Group plc (‘C&C’ or the ‘Group’), today issued the following correction to the trading update for the four months ended 30 June,
MWAG ♥ GS
Trouble is, we don’t know why.
And nor does Bloomberg, judging from the below story. Mind you the preview for tomorrow’s results from the giant vampire squid Goldman is still rather useful:
July 13 (Bloomberg) — Meredith Whitney,
Not your average crisis in corporate credit
From Goldman Sachs.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Monday morning,
- Morgan Stanley’s teenage scribbler.
- The UKFI gravy train? No.
- An amicable resolution?
- Beware the out of office indicator.
- What’s really moving energy markets.
Markets live transcript 13 Jul 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:07 on 13 Jul 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Welcome PM:It’s Monday.
What’s really moving the energy markets
Supply? Bleh.
Demand? Bleh.
Geopolitical risk? Bleh.
Speculators? Sort of.
Fear of over-regulation? Yup!
That, at least, is the observation of Jeff Korzenik at (in)efficient frontiers this week,
Beware the out-of-office indicator
Wise words of warning from Dennis Gartman of the Gartman Letter on Monday regarding the potential for summer-trading complacency.
He n0tes that while it is true the summer months are ‘quieter’, inferring a time of rest for many a financial professional,
An amicable Resolution?
No cash, a small premium, and no management change. Having read the weekend press, Resolution’s tilt at Friends Provident looked to be a non-starter.
All the more so because the deal just looked like a way to enable Clive Cowdery and his management team,
The UKFI gravy train? No
And so to the UKFI remuneration report, cos that’s the first thing journalists do when they pickup an annual report…
Hmm. Not much to gawp at there.
Bonus hunters might point out that such performance-related pay will be awarded in arrears – so these figures will not feature in the table above.
Bank of Kingman annual report
Just out – the UK Financial Investments annual report, and accompanying guff.
Some quick links:
UKFI Strategy: Market Investments and Annual Report and Accounts
UKFI Strategy: Market Investments Share Price Performance Chart
UKFI Strategy:
Matthew Robson, the teenage scribbler
We’re not quite sure what the novelty is here (FT Alphaville has been employing teenagers for some time), but Morgan Stanley have used the talents of an intern – one Matthew Robson, 15 and seven months – to tell them how tomorrow’s adult generation are consuming media.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- The man who crashed the world.
- “High frequency trading is merely a form of parastic market making.”
- Securities held outright by the Fed on the rise.
- Loneliness or cheap wine?
- Presenting the new world currency coin.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: Two cheers for US health reform
The Senate is struggling with the same issues: how to contain the cost of expanded insurance coverage,