August, 2009
US tax battle weighs on UBS
UBS, the Swiss bank embroiled in a US tax evasion probe, posted its third straight quarterly loss after being hit by restructuring costs and an accounting charge related to its own debt. UBS said its net loss widened to SFr1.4bn ($1.31bn) for the second quarter,
StanChart unveils £1bn fundraising
Standard Chartered on Tuesday said it planned to raise another £1bn from investors through a share placing, primarily to fund growth in Asia. The surprise capital raising, which comes on the heels of a rights issue that raised £1.8bn last December,
Northern Rock sale to be delayed
Alistair Darling, UK chancellor, is expected to delay the sale of the healthy parts of Northern Rock until after the general election, it emerged on Tuesday, as the nationalised bank announced half-year losses of almost £725m.
UniCredit boosts sector hopes
UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank and a top lender to recession-hit east European economies, provided further evidence on Tuesday that the banking crisis might be easing with better-than-expected Q2 net profit of €490m ($706m).
UK intensifies Icelandic banking probe
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office is gathering extensive intelligence on the Icelandic banks in the aftermath of last autumn’s crash that left thousands of UK institutions nursing millions of pounds of losses,
US probes Colonial BancGroup
Colonial BancGroup, a troubled Alabama-based bank with $26bn in assets, said it had received a search warrant from Treasury regulators that oversee the US bank rescue programme. Federal agents searched Colonial’s mortgage warehouse lending offices in Florida,
US threat to banks based in havens
International financial services groups should be excluded from the US market if they are based in countries that are havens from regulation, according to Barney Frank, chairman of the House financial services committee.
China’s growth figures fail to add up
China’s latest set of first-half numbers for GDP growth provided by provincial-level authorities are far higher than the central government’s national figure, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of Chinese statistics.
Tullett Prebon predicts return of OTC appetite
Investor appetite for more complex OTC derivatives could rebound next year, according to Tullett Prebon, as the inter-dealer broker on Tuesday reported better than expected pre-tax earnings. The financial crisis sparked a retreat from riskier assets,
UBS close to hiring McCann
UBS is close to hiring former Merrill Lynch executive Bob McCann to head its US wealth management business as the Swiss bank tries to draw a line under the damaging tax evasion dispute with the US. The impact of the US probe was highlighted on Tuesday when UBS reported withdrawals of a further SFr16.5bn ($15.5bn) from its domestic and international private banking units,
Last top Merrill exec leaves BofA
Dan Sontag is leaving his post as head of Merrill Lynch’s 15,000 financial advisers following Sallie Krawcheck’s arrival as his new boss. The move marks the exit of one of the last Merrill veterans from Bank of America’s senior management.
Nasser to chair BHP
Jacques Nasser, the former chief executive of Ford, is to become chairman of BHP Billiton, taking over from Don Argus who has chaired the group for 10 years and will step down early next year. Nasser, who has been a non-executive director of BHP since 2006,
Overnight markets: Mostly up
Most Asian stocks rose on Wednesday, led by finance shares as Axa Asia Pacific Holdings returned to profitability. Futures on the S&P500 Index were little changed after the gauge added 0.3% on Tuesday as figures for existing home sales showed a much better-than-expected 3.6% gain last month from June.
CDS report: European carmakers outperform after BMW results
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
Investment grade indices widened for the third consecutive day as investors continued to take profits from the recent rally. The Markit iTraxx Europe index closed just under 91bp,
Saying Boo! to the Flu, and the Plague
One man’s deadly pandemic appears to be another man’s revenue boost, given all the excitement surrounding makers of anti-virals and vaccines for swine flu.
But other, more pedestrian businesses are also cashing in on the H1N1outbreak. Take Clorox,
SEC accuses GE of accounting fraud
The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday accused GE of “[misleading] investors by reporting materially false and misleading results in its financial statements.”
Or, as Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement put it:
Goldman’s Smallville bonus mandate
The New York Post reports that Goldman Sachs is trying to temper public sentiment towards it by asking employees not to make large ostentatious purchases with bonus payments:
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has warned his employees to avoid making big-ticket,
A- BBB BAA
Airport operator BAA managed to post an interim pre-tax loss of £545.7m last week.
That widened loss, in fact, is despite the debt-ridden airport operator growing its Regulatory Asset Base by 3.1 per cent in the period.
The Legal & General defaults begin
Compare and contrast the following statements:
Shareholders have exposure to 10% of total assets under management, or £28bn. The portfolio is of high quality. In the first period of 2009 there have been no defaults on our bond portfolio.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Tuesday morning,
- Where next for stocks, commods and the dollar?
- Northern Rock’s capital cracks.
- Money supply and the QE tealeaves.
- The debt-inflation myth, debunked.
Markets live transcript 4 Aug 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:56 on 4 Aug 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Bryce Elder (BE) PM:hi there PM:Welcome to Markets Live
Nasser’s re-reinvention, BHP style
In the annals of CEO reinvention, Jacques Nasser is right up there. After 33 years in the auto industry at Ford – the last few of them as chief executive - and a stint from 2001 until recently as a senior partner at One Equity,
Money supply and the QE tea leaves
Tuesday’s UK monetary update and will-they-or-won’t-they extend Quantitative Easing datapoint is brought to you by one of the most obscure Bank of England financial measures – money supply excluding intermediate other financial corporations.
The debt-inflation myth, debunked by UBS
Here’s an interesting counterpoint to the theory that governments are attempting to inflate their way out of their financial crisis-related debt dilemmas.
It comes courtesy of UBS economist Paul Donovan,
Sweet returns – the prospects for sugar
Sugar is ascending.
Reasons are varied and include the effects of a weaker dollar, stronger oil prices and increasing demand for ethanol.
But the key bullish factor has been a much larger than expected seasonal production deficit due to growing crop shortfalls from the world’s two top producers Brazil and India – and that’s down to the weather.
Northern Rock’s capital cracks
So much for the revived Rock.
From the bank’s just-released interim results:
In February 2009, the Company announced that it intended, as part of its revised strategy, to lend up to £14 billion over the next two years,
Stocks, commodities and the dollar: Where to next?
While global stock markets surged on Monday, the dollar and the yen, seen in the past seven months as havens for investors fleeing equities turmoil, tumbled. As the FT reports, the US currency on Monday fell to its lowest level since October against a basket of currencies.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- The time to blame Goldman is over.
- The bubble that is waiting to burst.
- Has the market pulled ahead of the recovery?
- More ratings agency-based damage creeps closer.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Gideon Rachman: Europe prepares for a Baltic blast
The gloomy atmosphere reflected the dark mood in a small, embattled country of 2.2m people.