July, 2009
AIG rekindles talks with MetLife over Alico
AIG has rekindled talks with MetLife, its US rival, over the sale of American Life Insurance Company, one of the jewels in its crown, in a move that could help the stricken insurer raise more than $15bn to repay the $80bn it currently owes US taxpayers.
M&S chief defiant amid investor revolt
Marks and Spencer suffered an investor revolt at its annual meeting on Wednesday with a strong shareholder vote in favour of a resolution calling on Sir Stuart Rose to stand down early as chairman. The protest vote underlined the extent of shareholder dissatisfaction with Sir Stuart holding the roles of both chairman and chief executive,
Sky Capital staff face $140m fraud charges
Six former executives and brokers of Sky Capital, a New York brokerage, have been charged with a $140m transatlantic “boiler-room” fraud that law enforcers say reeled in UK and US investors, the FT said.
Meriwether’s JWM Partners winds down flagship fund
JWM Partners, the hedge fund set up by John Meriwether after the collapse of his previous outing, Long Term Capital Management, is winding down its operations. The FT, citing people close to the group,
Anglo American shareholders dash Xstrata hopes for merger of equals
Xstrata’s proposed £40 billion merger with Anglo American has effectively collapsed after Anglo’s shareholders rejected the approach, according to the Times. The newspaper said “investors representing nearly 50 per cent of Anglo’s stock are understood to have rejected the Xstrata proposal,
US Treasury pushes ahead with toxic asset plan
The US Treasury on Wednesday pushed ahead with scaled back plans for public- private partnerships to buy toxic assets, naming nine fund managers and allocating $30bn of public funds, but without securing any further backing from the Federal Reserve,
Rio employee held on suspicion of spying
Chinese officials have detained Stern Hu, Rio Tinto’s head of marketing and sales in China and an Australian citizen, on suspicion of espionage and stealing state secrets, a move that could stoke tension between the two countries,
Nationwide offers 125% mortgage
Negative equity mortgages are being offered to customers of Nationwide that will allow homeowners once again to borrow more than the value of their intended house purchase, the FT reported. Nationwide has begun offering its customers suffering from negative equity a mortgage that provides up to 125 per cent of a property’s value,
Overnight markets: Still down in Asia
Japanese equity markets tumbled for a seventh consecutive session as increasingly uneasy traders fretted that what had looked earlier this year like the green shoots of economic recovery were, in fact,
CDS report: Investor nerves hurt credit markets
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
The nervy start to July continued today ahead of earnings season. Markit credit indices widened, underperforming lacklustre stock markets. The Markit iTraxx Europe index was trading around 124bp,
Watanabe on the Esperanto Currency and the “dollar sheen”
Reuters “Summit Notebook” – a blog of anecdotes and reporting from summits around the world – featured some interesting comments from Hiroshi Watanabe, president of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation,
Another day, another (alleged) fraud
From Reuters:
NEW YORK , July 8 (Reuters) – Six employees of a retail brokerage surrendered to the FBI in New York on Wednesday as they face charges for a purported $140 million fraud, an official at the FBI said.
How to spot hedge fund blow ups
All About Alpha recently spotted a Hedge Fund Implosion Predictor buried away in the last Financial Stability Review from the ECB. Might come in handy for Hectors Sants and colleagues in E14, now that Alistair Darling wants to give the FSA special powers to deal with big hedge fund problems.
Tabulating financial reform, Darling
Chancellor Alistair Darling’s proposals for financial reform is now available online. A summary:
Related links:
Darling outlines tougher bank regulation – FT
Talking Talf
The latest data on the Talf — the US governments plan to kick-start credit by encouraging investors to borrow money from the Fed to invest in bonds backed by car loans, credit cards, etc. — is rather lacklustre.
Lex: China loan growth
China is awash with more credit than it knows what to do with, but banks may be storing up trouble.
China’s banking regulator, however, is increasingly fretful, noting on Tuesday that rampant credit growth “poses risks”
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Wednesday morning,
- A guest-post by Mohamed El-Erian.
- The Cold War in high frequency trading.
- Through the keyhole…
- The Vix vs the Vix challenger.
- Falling UK house prices,
Markets live transcript 8 Jul 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:14 on 8 Jul 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Okay PM:It’s 11.03
Ashes delays start of Markets Live
A later than usual start for FT Alphaville’s daily markets chat on Wednesday, so that the team – well Neil, actually – can watch the first few overs of the 2009 Ashes battle live from the Swalec stadium in Cardiff.
Through the keyhole with FT Alphaville
Yep, we have come over all Lloyd Grossman.
The game is to guess whose pad this might be:
A premiership footballer perhaps? A soap star? An ageing light entertainer? Or what about the boss of a struggling sportswear retailer?
That’s right,
Vix vs Vix challenger
Remember the much-maligned fear barometer created by Credit Suisse?
It was meant to be a measure of investor nervousness — but moved practically inversely to the Vix.
While the Vix was not designed to measure investor ‘fear’,
The Cold War in high frequency trading
This April 2009 quote from Rick Bookstaber, with its overtones of Cold War mutually-assured destruction, seems eerily prophetic given recent events involving the alleged theft of Goldman Sachs’ proprietary high-frequency trading code by a programmer of Russian origin:
Guest post: Mohamed El-Erian – “The crisis is morphing again”
Pimco’s chief executive comments on the suggestion from US presidential adviser Laura Tyson that America should consider drafting a second stimulus package, since the $787bn plan agreed in February is proving “a bit too small.”
UK house prices fall
That’s right, 0.5 per cent in June, according to the latest Halifax House Price index.
However, analysts had forecasts a fall of 0.7 per cent and Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist, reckons this decline is further evidence of ‘bottoming out’.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- Introducing the crime of bankslaughter.
- The state of Sweden’s economy.
- What if the Fed were a bank?
- “Why did so many investors have to be hurt by the financial crisis of 2008?”
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: What India must do if it is to be an affluent country
What will the world economy — indeed, the world — look like after the financial crisis is over? Will this prove to be a mere blip or something more fundamental? Much of the answer will be provided by the performance of the two Asian giants,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- John Meriwether shuts JWM hedge fund after losses — Bloomberg.
- 3i realisation proceeds down to £163m in Q2, appoints non-exec directors — statement, statement,
Hu quits G8 trip to tackle Xinjiang crisis
Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, on Wednesday cut short his visit to Italy, where he was planning to attend the annual Group of Eight summit of world leaders, three days after the worst ethnic unrest in China since the Cultural Revolution erupted in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang autonomous region.
Darling to crack down on riskiest banks
Alistair Darling will outline a tough regulatory regime for the financial services industry on Wednesday that would impose heavier capital and liquidity standards on banks that pose the greatest risk to the financial system.
Four Rio Tinto staff detained in China
Four employees of Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining group, have been detained in China without explanation, raising tensions as the company is locked in tough negotiations over iron ore prices, the FT said.