December, 2009
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- Decoding fund brochures.
- Why Roubini is entirely wrong about the gold bubble.
- The merits of fast and slow knowledge for investors
- All aboard the Norway debt/GDP trade.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Britain’s dismal choices – how to share the losses
The UK is poorer than it thought it was. This is the most important fact about the crisis,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Greece sells €2bn of 2015 debt to banks, bankers say – report.
- Lend Lease corporation to acquire ING retail assets for A$1.4bn – statement.
- Corporate news:
Where’s all the 6:00am Cut stuff gone?
Don’t fret.
As part of our continuous effort to improve FT Alphaville we are moving our email briefing content to a special area on the site. You can find it here – or just follow the “Briefings” link to the right on this page,
[Galleon] Raj Rajaratnam, Danielle Chiesi indicted
Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon hedge fund, and Danielle Chiesi – a portfolio manager at New Castle Funds LLC — have been indicted on charges related to the US government’s sweeping investigation into an alleged $20m insider trading ring.
MBIA accuses Credit Suisse of ‘pervasive and material misrepresentations’
The battle between the bond insurers and the investment banks — as regards who knew what about mortgage-backed securities — intensified on Monday.
MBIA, once the mightiest of the monolines, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan court against Credit Suisse that accuses the bank of making “fraudulent misrepresentation”
CDS report: Pulling the TARP back
Markit’s Otis Casey wrote this CDS report
Market focus shifted a bit to events in the US today. Wholesale prices in November were up 1.8% which was well above estimates, sparking renewed inflation
FT & friends 1, InBev/FSA 0
This is a hugely important ruling for financial journalism across Europe, even if it has taken eight years to arrive.
From The European Court of Human Rights, In the case of Financial Times Ltd and Others v.
Is Cushing souring up the oil market?
Last week both Nymex and ICE began trading brand new oil futures linked to the Argus’ new Sour Crude Index — the ASCI.
The exchanges developed the futures in response to Saudi Aramco abandoning the Platts WTI benchmark in favour of the Argus sour benchmark back in October.
Austrian CDStrudel
One of the ironies of Greece and now Austria, simultaneously becoming the new sovereign sickmen of Europe, is that this year the two were some of the biggest issuers of government debt.
Per this (dated) note from Deutsche Bank:
The world’s riskiest sovereign borrower 2009
With the bells ready to toll for 2009 there are just days left before the general public is pummeled senseless by a slew of pointless annual and pan-noughties awards.
So, in a vain attempt at getting ahead of the pack,
BA’s 12 days of Christmas
Furious Backlash against 12-day BA strikes
Passengers reacted furiously today as the 12-day strike by British Airways cabin crew threatened to ruin their Christmas holidays.
Among those scrambling to make other travel arrangements as prices soared were a honeymoon couple and pilgrims heading to Lourdes.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Tuesday morning,
- An FT Alphaville Xmas auction: One Vampire Squid.
- Moody’s sees sovereign states a-suffering.
- Greece, to loud applause . . .
- Exxon hoping to Standardise the shale gas market?
- The economics of airline strikes.
Is Exxon hoping to Standardise the shale gas market?
Anyone who has read Daniel Yergin’s historical review of the oil industry, The Prize, will know the important role Standard Oil — the company ExxonMobil is derived from — played in organising the oil market from 1870 onwards.
The economics of airline strikes
British Airways’ cabin crew are opting to strike (again).
This time around, however, they plan to do so over the Christmas period — one of the airline’s busiest times — for the very seasonal period of 12 days.
Markets live transcript 15 Dec 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:10 on 15 Dec 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Bryce Elder NHHey there NHand welcome to Markets Live
To loud applause…
. . . he announced a 90 per cent tax on bonuses for senior bankers in the private sector and a ban on bonuses for executives at public sector corporations.
Obviously we are not talking about Alistair Darling,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- RBS, the APS and unstoppable force.
- Why did Abu Dhabi run to the rescue of Dubai?
- And what’s it all about, Costas?
- Citi’s expensive Tarp exit.
- An exciting arbitrage opportunity.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Philip Purcell: Three steps to a safer financial system
Americans have grudgingly supported the use of their taxes to save the financial system and economy,
AV after dark
From FT Alphaville late on Monday,
- S&P downgrades Mexico
- Rajaratnam: ‘I am no Madoff’.
- CDS report: Greece and Dubai continue to drive markets.
Over in the Long Room,
- Nail biting stuff on the S.A.U.R.T.C.K.T.T.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Deutsche Bank says needs moderate capital market refinancing in 2010, overall loan loss provisions expected to decline in 2010 – Reuters
- “We have heard nothing that surprises us”:
[Galleon] Rajaratnam: ‘I am no Madoff’
From Big Raja’s latest bail modification letter, posted by his lawyers on Monday morning (emphasis FT Alphaville):
Mr. Rajaratnam has carefully worked with Galleon to wind down its business, to take care of the Galleon employees negatively affected by the Government’s sudden arrest of Mr Rajaratnam and its related press conferences,
CDS report: Greece and Dubai Continue to Drive Markets
Otis Casey of Markit wrote this CDS report
Early trading saw the Markit iTraxx indices and stock markets higher as investors were heartened to see the last minute Abu Dhabi bailout of Dubai. The Markit iTraxx Europe index tightened by more than 2 bp to 79.49 bp. The Markit iTraxx HiVol was 2 bp tighter at 118.33 bp while the Markit iTraxx Crossover finished at 476.30 bp,
The perils of flying commercial
Shucks. Alive to the public’s sensitivities, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman, John Mack of Morgan Stanley and Dick Parsons of Citigroup all choose to take scheduled commercial air services to get to their much-anticipated meeting in Washington with President Obama on Monday.
S&P and Fitch to Dubai: ‘not so fast…’
Ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch have issued responses to Dubai’s surprise repayment of the now infamous $4.1bn Nakheel sukuk.
And just in case the emirate was labouring under any misconceptions,
Mega merger Monday: Exxon in $41bn union with XTO Energy
And just when everyone thought M&A had crawled into a cave for the winter:
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and XTO Energy Inc. announced today an all-stock transaction valued at $41 billion. The agreement,