February, 2010
FTfmonAV
Some highlights from Monday’s FTfm.
Fund houses move to fill finance gap
Asset managers are trying to plug the finance gap by raising cash for funds to lend to credit-starved companies and to fund infrastructure projects
Bumpy ride ahead for all bonds
Overview of the bonds markets to go with a Fixed Income Investing special report:
Vince Stanzione would like to recall “Pound Could Collapse Within Weeks”
Much hilarity on the Jim Rogers front.
The man organising the Trading Day Seminar in London next month at which Jim Rogers is was due to speak has issued a retraction of the press release issued on Thursday,
Jamie Dimon? You’re free to go.
Jamie Dimon is no longer on Atlanta’s wanted list.
On Tuesday, CBS Atlanta reported the JP Morgan goldenboy had a warrant out for his arrest, related to an illegal dump at a property in the Georgia capital.
Bolton’s comeback – the details
Click for the Fidelity China Special Situations prospectus…
Related links:
Chasing the dragon - FT Alphaville
Bolton’s new China investment trust unveiled – FT
Greek austerity measures and will-they-won’t-they KfW
Greece continued to dominate the headlines on Friday.
Here’s the FT on Greek austerity:
George Papandreou, Greek prime minister, vowed on Friday to put aside the political cost and take what steps were necessary to lift the country out of its debt crisis,
Greece’s austerity plans: not enough?
Those Molotov cocktail-wielding protesters who took to the streets of Athens on Wednesday are not going to like this.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal — citing an unnamed “senior government official”
Hamp-lified, moral hazard outrage du jour
Earlier this week, a US Treasury presentation containing suggested alterations to the department’s Home Affordable Modification Program (Hamp) leaked to the media.
One of the central suggestions of the presentation was that lenders would no longer be able to start foreclosing on a delinquent borrower until they’d been screened and judged ineligible for the Hamp.
Chinese IPOs: still overpriced?
China’s biggest IPO this year, Huatai Securities, made a positive a debut on Friday, apparently defying speculation risk appetite had waned on the mainland.
But is this really a sign that risk appetite has returned,
Lest you forget the black hole that is AIG…
AIG, the insurer that has gobbled up around $180bn in taxpayer cash, on Friday reported its results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2009.
Depending on your perspective, the results were either a significant improvement compared with the same period a year ago or quite irksome indeed,
Compare and contrast – GDP edition
Crack open the champagne! The UK emerged from recession with a magnificent 0.3 per cent rise in GDP.
Meanwhile, India was also digesting its latest GDP figures.
From Reuters on Friday:
India’s economy grew by 6 percent in the quarter through December from a year earlier,
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville Friday morning,
- Shock! Jim Rogers didn’t say sterling will collapse!
- A bad debt surprise at Lloyds.
- Those falling UK house prices.
- To revalue or not to revalue? That is the RMB question.
Markets Live transcript 26 Feb 2010
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:19 on 26 Feb 2010. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Bryce Elder NHGood morning NHand welcome to Markets Live
Renminbi ructions: to revalue or not to revalue?
Recent developments in both China and the US have boosted speculation that the People’s Republic is preparing to let its currency appreciate. And judging by the tone emanating from western politicians and pundits,
Shock! Jim Rogers didn’t say sterling shall collapse!
INVESTOR IMPERSONATION *ALERT*
On Thursday the outspoken bow-tied investor was quoted in a press release for something called the Global Financial Trading Day Seminar. The release, for those who’ve forgotten already,
Sterling’s dead cat GDP bounce
Sterling up to and after the release of Friday’s upward revision to fourth quarter GDP.
As for the GDP release — the UK has not slipped back into recession. Repeat — the UK has not slipped back into recession.
Falling UK house prices – the next big thing?
A surprise drop in UK house prices in February – the first decline in 10 months – has left us asking a familiar question.
Was it just the bad weather or is this the start of a new trend?
From Nationwide,
QE experimentation, speech du jour
Bank of England, Bank of England
How does your QE grow?
By silver debasement and reserve placement,
And uncertainty set out below.*
Monetary Policy Committee member David Miles gave a speech on Thursday about the Bank of England’s asset-purchasing programme;
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- How to kill innovation: keep asking questions.
- CDS demonisation watch – Greece edition.
- How safe are your dollars?
- Rating agencies: worthless in a bull market, damaging in a bear one.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: How unruly economists can agree
If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion, says the FT’s Wolf.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- Lloyds reports annual loss of £6.3bn – statement.
- Telefonica files 2009 results, sets modest growth targets for 2010 – statement.
- UK house prices fall for first time in 10 months in Nationwide survey – BBC.
Craig Pirrong v Gary Gensler: who’s right on OTC derivatives?
We do love a good battle of the intellects here on FT Alphaville, so it was impossible to pass up this opportunity.
On Thursday, the FT featured an op-ed by CFTC chairman Gary Gensler on the topic of derivatives.
CDS report: Bigger Claims and Smaller Floats
Markit’s Otis Casey wrote this CDS report
We have seen this before. First, the US initial jobless claims number came in disappointing again. Instead of declining by 13,000 which was the consensus estimate,
News moves stock prices shock
We’re being facetious, but why not when three academics have taken 285,917 company press releases to see the impact on stock prices?
Abstract:
Having obtained and classified into news categories a comprehensive dataset of corporate press releases issued between April 2006 and August 2009,
The Great British Krona
The reason for the fall to a nine month low?
Some traders are pinning it on Thursday’s poor business investment figures
That release seems to have put paid to hopes that there could be an upward revision to GDP on Friday,
Details on those other Greek debt deals
Goldman’s been getting plenty of heat over the currency swap it arranged for Greece.
But the swap itself is not the only issue here. Securitisation also plays a factor and it seems Titlos — the special purpose vehicle (SPV) created to securitise the swap — is not the only Greek debt-concealing securitisation deal undertaken by the Hellenic Republic.
Get Goldman (and those evil speculators)
First Obama, then Lagarde, and then Spanish media.
And now, Bernanke.
“We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece.