July, 2009
StanChart names Peace chairman
John Peace, who has been appointed chairman at Standard Chartered, the emerging markets bank, is to receive £650,000 a year plus a further £500,000 in shares that will vest over the next three years.
Overnight Markets: Sliding
Asian stocks fell for a third day as figures showing worsening job markets in the US and Europe fanned doubts about global economic recovery. In New York, futures on the S&P500 lost 0.1% after the gauge slid 2.9 percent on news that the US lost 467,000 jobs in June,
Arnie’s IOUs will pay 3.75 per cent
Bloomberg reports:
July 2 (Bloomberg) — California will pay an interest rate of 3.75 percent on IOUs it will begin using today to pay its bills, a panel decided, as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to fix a $26 billion budget deficit.
CDS report: European indices snap 4-day winning streak
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
European credit indices widened today, ending a four-day winning streak. The Markit iTraxx Europe index closed at 115bp, some 6bp wider than Wednesday.
TCI posts fourth year of consecutive growth…
Almost.
Totemic UK hedge fund manager and activist investor par excellence, The Children’s Investment Fund Management, run by Christopher Hohn, has indeed posted its fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth:
China’s MAD dollar strategy
As in ‘mutually assured destruction’…
John Kemp at Reuters makes the point that the “unstable stability,” whereby China can break the dollar’s reserve currency status at any time – but only at the risk of crystallising huge losses on its stockpile of US debt – has become the foreign exchange version of the Cold War stalemate.
The EU in 140 characters
No, that’s not a reference to the European Union’s diverse collection of fonts and languages. That’s actually the twitter challenge Sweden has set itself after kicking off its six-month European Union presidency 0n Wednesday.
BofA to accept Cali IOUs
News this week that California would begin issuing IOUs helped crystallise the enormity of the fiscal crisis confronting the state.
That the IOUs are now feeding into banks should serve as a reminder of just how intertwined the fortunes of the state and the financial sector really are.
[The Stanford Series] Sir Allen’s request to unfreeze funds for legal fees denied
US District judge David Godbey, who is presiding over the civil case brought by the SEC against Sir Allen Stanford, has denied the Texan businessman’s petition for the court to partially rescind a freeze on his assets.
Swine flu hits Citi
Capitalist pigs.
There we said it.
——————
From DealBreaker:
To: Employees on the 4th floor of 390 Greenwich St.
From: Citi Health Services
Sent: Wed Jul 01 13:18:27 2009
Subject:
Doth the elusive ‘W’ raise its head?
US non-farm payrolls as reported on Thursday (H/T Josh Noble):
Related link:
US non-farm payrolls fall 467,000 in June – FT Alphaville
US non-farm payrolls fall 467,000 in June
US non-farm payrolls fell by 467,000 in June, according to a worse-than-expected report released on Thursday by the US Labor Department.
Economists in a Reuters survey had forecast that 363,000 jobs would be lost in the month.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville this morning,
- Exclusive: Oil rogue trader at PVM.
- PVM rogue update.
- Frank Timis, master entrepreneur…
- Sovereign ratings: is the UK riskier than China?
- Taleb v.
PVM rogue broker update
We have confirmation of the PVM rogue broker story via an e-mailed statement from the company to the wires.
The flashes from Dow Jones read:
*DJ PVM Oil: Victim Of Unauthorized Oil Trading Tuesday
*DJ PVM Oil:
Markets live transcript 2 Jul 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:10 on 2 Jul 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) Izabella Kaminska, FT (IK) PM:Hi there
A rogue in crude at PVM
London-based oil brokerage PVM Oil Associates is understood to have parted company with one of its senior long-standing derivatives brokers after allegedly detecting a large unauthorised Brent ICE position on his book.
Implied sovereign ratings: UK ranks below China
Data from CMA’s latest global sovereign credit risk report (H/T Alea).
The world’s safest sovereigns (implied by current CDS spreads run through CMA’s own proprietary rating model):
And the world’s riskiest:
http://www.franktimis.co.uk/ – “a master entrepreneur”
This is Frank Timis.
And if you thought he was just some two bit share promoter on London’s junior casino market, with a couple of convictions for possession of heroin, you’d be wrong. How do we know this? Because we have been reading Frank’s website.
Taleb vs Tavakoli, a post-it update
The spat between Janet Tavakoli and Nassim Nicholas Taleb refuses to go away.
The Black Swan man has updated his notes to the copy of the GQ profile posted on his website:
Those having a hard time keeping up should read the links below,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Small lessons from a big crisis.
- The man unwinding AIG, one billion at a time.
- “The hard rain has already started to ruin PwC’s parade.”
- On tick size for bonds.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Madoff’s sentence is necessary and rare
There was a moment during Bernard Madoff’s sentencing hearing in Manhattan on Monday when it became obvious that the 71-year-old fraudster was going down for a very,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Intermediate Capital announces rights issue to raise net £351m — statement.
- Carpathian completes €235m debt restructuring — statement.
- Rio Tinto rights issue receives acceptances for 96.97 per cent of rights issue — statement.
Data give signs of global recovery
The global downturn appeared close to a bottom on Wednesday after manufacturing figures from across the world suggested that recession in all big economies was receding. The news comes after nine months of sharp contraction in global manufacturing output and a dramatic plunge in world trade.
Rio’s rights issue sees strong demand
Rio Tinto’s $15.2bn rights offer, the fifth-biggest on record, on Thursday generated strong demand from UK investors who snapped up almost 97% of the 524m new shares offered in London at £14 per share – raising about £7.1bn,
Telefónica eyes T-Mobile UK bid
The prospect of a bidding war for T-Mobile UK loomed on Wednesday night as it emerged that Telefónica of Spain is considering a bid for the UK’s fourth largest mobile phone operator. Telefonica fears competitive threats to O2,
RBS chief to defer part of package
Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, is to defer part of his controversial £9.6m pay package for an extra two years after bowing to pressure from investors. Hester, who is paid a £1.2m base salary,
StanChart, ANZ in talks for RBS assets
Standard Chartered and ANZ have both entered exclusive talks to acquire separate parts of the Asian retail and commercial assets being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland. Both bidders were last week granted preferred bidder status for different RBS assets,
Commerzbank soars on asset plan hopes
Shares in Commerzbank gained 18.6% to €5.26 on Wednesday after the ECB said it had no objections to Germany’s “bad bank” plan. The plan, which is due to be finalised in parliament on Friday, would allow German banks to offload toxic assets from their balance sheets.
SABMiller in black empowerment move
SABMiller, the international brewer, on Wednesday announced one of South Africa’s biggest black empowerment deals, disclosing plans to sell a R6bn ($750m) chunk of its local subsidiary to employees, a charitable foundation and store owners who sell the company’s products.