September, 2009
The ECB as ‘liquidity monster’
An elegant note out from UBS analysts John Paul Crutchley and Alastair Ryan on Friday — discussing the perils of the European Central Bank’s liquidity ops.
Here’s the crux of the problem, according to UBS:
The perils of a flat WTI curve and a cold winter
Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix makes a good point on Friday regarding the recent flattening of the contango and fall in crude prices (our emphasis):
Crude oil prices have been dropping like a rock for the last two days but this will do nothing to improve physical demand for it as the product cracks have not improved and the contango not widened either.
[The Stanford Series] Allen Stanford, puppetmaster: By Freddie Flintoff
We missed the Freddie Flintoff-tells-all-about-Allen-Stanford extravaganza in the Daily Mail on Thursday, since we tend not to read that newspaper with any regularity.
But as a service to any cricket-loving FT Alphaville readers,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Friday morning,
- Some peak-ish banks.
- Did he really say that? Part III.
- Monetary policy by media.
- Bank failure revisionism, BBC edition.
- Goldman’s still bullish on oil.
Markets live transcript 25 Sep 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:08 on 25 Sep 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Bryce Elder (BE) NH:good morning NH:and welcome to the final edition of Markets Live
Did he really say that? Part III
The row about what Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer did or did not say at that Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference earlier this week is turning increasingly nasty.
Here’s the latest from Bloomberg:
Cadbury Plc contacted the U.K.
Goldman still bullish on crude (even in the face of weakness)
WTI crude fell through significant support on Thursday, having traded firmly range-bound since the beginning of August.
The weak technicals and bearish fundamentals, however, are not going to dampen Goldman Sachs’s bullish outlook.
Why Lloyds won’t be paying its TV licence this year
Some of you may have caught Bank of England governor Mervyn King’s appearance in the BBC Two documentary ‘The Love of Money,’ on Thursday evening.
If not, and if you are located in the UK, you can catch it here on BBC iPlayer.
Peak banks
Here’s an interesting little table from the banking team at Citigroup.
That’s right, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Santander have exceeded their historical equity market capitalisation peaks, according to Citi.
The Talf that keeps on taking (CMBS)
Last month we wrote that the Federal Reserve appeared to be becoming more selective when choosing legacy CMBS for its Talf programme.
Scratch that.
The Fed accepted all of the 59 bonds that applied for the programme in its latest round of subscriptions.
Monetary policy by media
So who’s in charge here?
Our latest insight into Fed-think come courtesy of Kevin M. Warsh, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since 2006 and a close adviser to Fed governor Ben Bernanke.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- G20: Should you care?
- The evolution of overconfidence.
- Germany declares economic war.
- A Maginot line for gold bugs.
- Julian Robertson’s got that excited/scared feeling.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: Four things you must know about the global puzzle
To my mind, four things stood out from this week’s surfeit of summitry: China’s,
AV after dark
On FT Alphaville late Thursday,
- “When it comes to valuation, making money is a real obstacle“.
- Chinese commods crisis over; OECD to rescue.
- An unfortunate media/F*&C up.
- Holy See names new CEO.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- ING to sell its stake in ING Australia and ING New Zealand to ANZ for $1.6bn — Reuters.
- Credit Suisse selling $1bn Lehman claim — Bloomberg.
- Norwegian bank DnB NOR announces $2.4bn rights issue – Reuters.
Tensions over IMF weigh on G20
European differences with the Obama administration threatened to overshadow Friday’s G20 summit in Pittsburgh, with Britain and France resisting US plans to overhaul the IMF. Under the US proposals, the IMF board would be cut from 24 seats to 20,
G20 to curb banker pay, retool economy
G20 leaders at their Pittsburgh summit are poised to crack down on banker pay and pledge to better co-ordinate economic policies as they endorse a plan to force banks to tie compensation more closely to risk and tighten capital requirements,
Nomura to raise $5.6bn in funds
Nomura on Thursday unveiled plans to raise up to Y511.3bn ($5.6bn) in new funds in an effort to beat an expected rush of equity issuance by financial groups ahead of regulatory changes that could tighten capital requirements.
Stitzer under fire for Kraft remarks
The UK’s Takeover Panel is examining comments by Cadbury’s chief executive to investors on Wednesday that referred to potential takeover valuations. The panel is concerned that Todd Stitzer’s comments have created uncertainty among investors.
ANZ to buy out ING from JV
ANZ, Australia’s fourth-biggest bank, agreed to pay ING Group €1.1bn ($1.6bn) in cash for its stake in their insurance and wealth-management venture, reports Bloomberg. ING will sell its 51% stake in ING Australia and ING New Zealand to ANZ Bank,
Hedge funds hit by loan losses
The US financial sector’s losses on large loans exploded over the past year, exceeding the combined losses since 2001, as hedge funds and other non-bank financial institutions were hardest hit, figures revealed on Thursday.
Pound falls on governor’s comments
Sterling dropped to a fresh five-month low against the euro on Thursday after traders took comments from Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, to mean the central bank was comfortable with a weaker pound.
UK appoints ‘enforcer’ for bank scheme
UK Treasurer Alistair Darling will on Friday appoint a Treasury “enforcer” to oversee the biggest and perhaps riskiest deal the government has signed: the £585bn toxic asset insurance scheme. Stephan Wilcke,
China’s Geely leads Volvo bidding
Chinese auto maker Geely Holding Group has emerged as the leading contender to acquire Swedish automaker Volvo from Ford, reports the WSJ. Ford is currently analysing a recent Geely bid to acquire 100% of Volvo for approximately $2.5bn,
Twitter worth $7.14m per character
Twitter is set to secure a $1bn valuation before it earns its first substantial revenues, after the micro-blogging site raised $100m in new funding. Insight Venture Partners, the New York VC firm, is leading a consortium of new and existing investors in the fast-growing communications network.
Confidence fails to boost M&A activity
Rising confidence among the world’s top chief executives and a rally in equity markets failed to lift deal activity in the first nine months of the year. The global value of deals fell 37% from the same period last year to just $1,620bn,
S&P GSCI eyes new benchmark
Investors are seeking a new ex-US benchmark for commodities that excludes prices from US markets in response to a US regulatory clampdown. S&P GSCI, which is behind the world’s largest commodity index,
Deutsche Bank ‘knew’ of spy plan
A mid-level executive sacked by Deutsche Bank over a spying scandal has alleged that colleagues above and around him knew “from the beginning” about a plan hatched in 2006 to find out more about a dissident shareholder.