July, 2009
Subprime Italy?
Italy is facing a two-pronged crisis.
First there’s the fiscal crisis, heightened by waning appetite for Italian bond issues in the face of expected government issuance of up to €260bn this year. Then there’s the current incubation of future bad debt,
Morgan Stanley reports Q2 loss of $159m, EPS -$1.37
Oh poor Morgan Stanley. It loos like it took a big hit on own credit (again) as well as the repurchasing of its Tarp capital.
From the release:
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today reported a loss from continuing operations applicable to Morgan Stanley for the second quarter ended June 30,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Wednesday morning,
- A ratings CMBS flip-flop.
- CMBS, the timeline.
- Money, money, money; ex IOFC.
- Nothing bullish in crude.
- Goodness, the FSA are harsh.
- Curse of the underwriters.
Nothing bullish in crude
Stephen Schork of the Schork report makes an excellent point regarding recent large US inventory crude draws.
As he explains, with reference to contango:
In other words, the market is paying you to build supplies by virtue of the discount on nearby material.
Markets live transcript 22 Jul 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:00 on 22 Jul 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Bryce Elder (BE) PM:Okay PM:It’s 11.05
Goodness, the FSA really are handing it out…
During an investigation into various HSBC subsidiaries, Britain’s financial regulator found that unencrypted customer data had been sent to third parties.
Oh, and:
Confidential information about customers was also left on open shelves or in unlocked cabinets and could have been lost or stolen. In addition,
Money money money, ex-IOFC
Economics wonkiness ahead, but the Bank of England has been trying to modify the way it measures broad money in the UK since September 2007.
Excluding the deposits of ‘intermediate other financial corporations’,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- The hedge fund fee squeeze.
- Why is bullishness creeping back into oil?
- Florida lottery offers gold bars and coins as prizes.
- Was Enron right?
- $1,000bn visualised.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Paul De Grauwe: Economics is in crisis: it is time for a profound revamp
The professor of economics at the University of Leuven writes: There can be little doubt.
Apple crushes consensus, Yahoo middling
Yahoo, via Reuters:
* Q2 earnings per share $0.10
* Q2 revenue fell 13 percent to $1.57 billion
* Sees Q3 2009 revenue $1.45 billion to $1.55 billion
* Says marketing services
Auction rate securities: market dead, litigation alive and well
Did anyone who bought or sold auction rate securities understand what they were getting into? The slew of recent litigation on Wall Street over these instruments would tend to suggest otherwise.
First,
Trouble at Parex?
(H/T to Edward Hugh /A fistful of euros)
It seems the following little press release from Latvia’s Parex Banka went mostly unnoticed by the Western press last Friday. Parex, with assets of 3.1bn lats ($5.6bn),
North Dakota, engine of US growth?
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (the Philly Fed) has released its “monthly coincident indices” for June, showing the economic conditions in each of the 50 US states.
47 states showed declining activity over a three-month period,
CDS report: iTraxx backtracks
European CDS indices have finally returned to pre-Lehman levels, as the continent’s equity rally, which is enjoying its seventh consecutive session, helped squeeze spreads tighter.
The Markit iTraxx Europe index,
Guest post: Mohamed El-Erian on Bernanke’s bold prose
From Pimco’s chief executive…
While it may not rank quite as high as his appearance on the US news show ’60 Minutes’ a few months ago, Chairman Bernanke’s Op Ed in today’s Wall Street Journal is nevertheless notable and important.
Bienvenido multi-cedula
(Cue the return of structured finance marriachi music).
Spain’s multi-cedulas are back — even as their problems may only just be beginning. From The Cover:
A new Eur1.45bn five year issue for AyT Cedulas Cajas is expected to be priced at 160p over mid-swaps this (Tuesday) afternoon,
If a central banker screams in a forest….
Ben Bernanke has penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on how exactly he proposes the US central bank will withdraw from quantitative easing in time to stave off an undesirable amount of inflation.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Tuesday morning,
- Bloomberg.comedy
- CIT saved, but CP still in trouble.
- European own credit, a banking preview.
- A CNBC comic.
- Latvia bites the hand that feeds…
Stressed-out VaR
One of the centrepieces of Lord Turner’s review of banking regulation is the potential use of so-called stressed VaR — an attempt to rectify the failings of the ‘normal’ Value at Risk model, one of the pillars of upcoming banking regulations on market risk.
Markets live transcript 21 Jul 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:56 on 21 Jul 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Bryce Elder (BE) PM:Welcome to Markets Live PM:late today for a change
Mighty Pompey power on as Scummers flounder
More footie M&A. UAE shrewdie Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim said on Tuesday that he had clinched a takeover of Portsmouth FC. A full announcement was due later in the day.
Unsurprisingly, Dr Al-Fahim – just 31 and already a billionaire,
Don’t bite the hand that feeds, Latvia
As talks between Latvia and the IMF over the fund’s second instalment of aid to the country slog through to their second extended day, Danske Bank offers the following piece of advice to Latvian Economics Minister Artis Kampars who let loose on Latvian TV this week with the following outburst:
CNBC comic
Hadn’t noticed this clown-on-the-box before.
I am not making this up. I am not manufacturing outrage here…Couple of points: I decided to be a journalist aged 10. Never wavered. At high school I wrote a mean review of the chorus and it caused a small riot in the newspaper office,