February, 2010
Charlie Gasparino: crazy like a Fox (Business Anchor)
It’s official. CNBC’s on-air editor, Charles “Who you callin’ a poison gasbag?” Gasparino, is defecting to Fox Business.
Here’s the statement:
FOX Business Network (FBN) has signed a multi-year deal with CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino,
Sino-Russian finance
A date for Asian diaries:
Event: Russia – Capital Raising and Investment Summit – Hong Kong
When: April 12 – 14
Where: The Four Seasons, HK
Keynote Speaker: Ronald Joseph Arculli, chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.
CDS report: Indices move wider as sentiment dips
Markit’s Gavan Nolan wrote this CDS report
Credit was playing catch up with equities today after the latter market rallied in response to strong US economic data, solid earnings and a lull in the sovereign situation.
Now the Australians are worried about US CRE
We admit it: we’re somewhat obsessed with commercial real estate here on FT Alphaville – but not without good reason.
So we were reassured to note that the topic of US commercial real estate is also preoccupying Guy Debelle,
Ecky thump finance
Structured finance is so flat cap these days…
The Co-operative Bank is delighted to have today successfully launched and priced Silk Road Finance Number One, a GBP 2.5bn prime residential mortgage-backed securities transaction.
Introducing Ta’Hawwut. Maybe.
Practitioners of Islamic finance will soon be able to refer to the first-ever standard template for an OTC, Sharia-compliant derivative, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Simon Eedle, MD for Islamic Banking at Credit Agricole CIB,
Bangladesh: Asia’s hottest frontier?
Emerging market investors are weighing increasing their exposure to a tiny market: Bangladesh.
The country’s benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index has scaled new highs almost every week this year,
The Maiden (Lanes) beauty contest
Compare and contrast.
From the FT — one maiden (I):
The US Federal Reserve is sitting on significant paper losses on the real estate assets it acquired in the Bear Stearns rescue, with much of the red ink coming from debt used to back some of the most highprofile buy-out deals of the bubble years.
Table du jour – Heating up…
RBC’s constructed a `heat map’ of sovereign risk for OECD economies. The redder the riskier:
Related link:
Handy sovereign risk table – FT Alphaville
Lunch Wrap
Service advisory: Some readers may be having trouble accessing FT Alphaville on Tuesday due to an FT.com registration issue. We apologise for the inconvenience and would like to stress that we are working on the problem.
The declining euro, pictorial edition
Presenting the euro’s declining value in graphic form:
And against gold, where a new record high of €816.33 per troy ounce was struck on Tuesday:
And via the build up in volume in the Market Vectors double short euro ETN:
Markets Live transcript 16 Feb 2010
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:04 on 16 Feb 2010. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Tracy Alloway, FT NHGood morning NHand welcome to Markets Live
That Heritage/Genel deal (updated)
When Heritage Oil terminated its $6bn plan to merge with Turkish company Genel Enerji in November we were treated to the following explanation:
Following entry into the LOI [Letter of Intent] with Eni,
Big oil’s bonus backlash
Earlier this month, Hans Wijers, the newish chairman of the Remuneration Committee at Royal Dutch Shell, said the oil company had learnt its lesson on pay.
Recall, the oil company that suffered a humiliating defeat on pay last year,
The sovereign debt factor doesn’t translate into Japanese
The Greek factor continues to play havoc with the euro, turning “sovereign debt” into two of the dirtiest words around and making itself felt far beyond the shores of the Mediterranean.
Even Australia’s central bank had its eyes on Greece when it shocked markets earlier this month with its decision to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent.
Mervyn’s letters to the Treasurorians (updated with letter)
As expected, Bank of England governor Mervyn King has been forced once again to write a letter to the Treasury explaining why inflation has risen past the critical 3 per cent mark.
As Reuters reported,
Further reading
Elswhere on Tuesday,
- The making of a Euromess.
- Greece? Blame the Olympics.
- The fear of four.
- Credit-crisis hedgies close-up shop.
- Ask an Austrian.
- A post-Fed mortgage rate round-up.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Gideon Rachman: Why Mexico is the missing Bric
Countries once classified as mere “emerging markets” are now being re-classified as “rising powers”.
In praise of market discipline
Wolfgang Münchau, a genuine insider when it comes to the great European experiment, counsels us not to worry too much about moral hazard as the surreal discussions over the non-bailout rescue of Greece continue.
EU leaders: only 8 years behind the curve on currency swaps
As noted previously on FT Alphaville, Greece’s newly-controversial currency-swap is by no means a new story: Risk magazine covered the deal as far back as 2003.
That European Union authorities have only now requested information about the deal presumably tells us more about the inner workings of Brussels than it does about Greek finances.
The new safe havens (no, not gold)
There’s a hint here of tinned foods, a ready stash of aspirin, emergency comms and a necessary supply of smokes in the following list from RBS.
Below is RBS’ list of 10 “supracorporates”; the bank believes these entities will be highly resistant to the appalling newsflow on the sovereign front: