June, 2011
Another Danish bank falls into a fjord of failure
Finansiel Stabilitet har indgået overdragelsesaftale med Fjordbank Mors A/S
Som det fremgår af Selskabsmeddelelse nr. 12 af d.d. fra Fjordbank Mors A/S, har banken indgået aftale om, at bankens aktiver og en del af passiverne overføres til en ny bank under Finansiel Stabilitet A/S.
FT Alphaville is hiring
We are looking for a natural writer, with an interest in and aptitude for all things financial — and, crucially — with the ability to be pleasant and have a sense of humour at unspeakably early hours of the morning.
The second biggest equity market in the world
It’s the UK, which has just over taken Japan according to Citigroup.
A stark contrast to the London Stock Exchange which is the world’s 10th biggest exchange company by market value.
A currency trader’s take on Bitcoin
A major exchange for Bitcoin — Mt.Gox — was hacked last week.
The cyber-attack sent the virtual currency’s exchange rate temporarily reeling from about $17.50 to pennies. More importantly it sparked some fresh concern about Bitcoin’s reliability and security.
What’s wrong with markets in seven easy slides
Hot on the heels of the BIS’s annual report — criticising how prolonged low interest rates can create ‘distortions’ and threaten ‘price stability’ — comes this presentation from Citigroup’s credit team.
Markets Live transcript 27 Jun 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:36 on 27 Jun 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT bryce.elder NHHola NHand welcome to ML NHfrom a very very hot
FSA says ‘no’ on Bank of Ireland
A swift response from the UK’s Financial Services Authority for once.
Holders of Bristol & West permanent interest-bearing shares (Pibs), a type of subordinated debt, last week asked the FSA to look into Bank of Ireland’s debt restructuring.
Webvan 2.0 delivers more downgrades [updated]
What goes up…
… Must come down.
And Webvan 2.0 has come back to earth with a resounding thump on Monday morning.
Shares in the internet grocer are back below the float price (180 pence) after half-year results raised more questions about its business model,
What to do with the PPI pay-out
Did you know? 0.4 per cent of British consumer spending could be coming from the banks this year.
To figure out why, all you have to do is look at the recently announced pay-outs on the Payment Protection Insurance sold by UK banks.
Greek covered bonds to the rescue?
A counter-intuitive headline, to be sure, given that Greece has just one publicly outstanding covered bond left (but over €12bn of ‘retained’ covered bonds used as fodder for central bank liquidity).
The BIS still doesn’t like low interest rates
Those low interest rate u-Zirpers at the BIS are back.
The Bank for International Settlements, often known as the central banker’s bank, seems to share little in common with its low interest rate-advocating cousins in places like the UK and the US.
Lloyds – the 90 per cent LTV bank
Sir Victor also insists that enough due diligence was done on the deal, in two tranches and that the risks in HBOS’s property portfolio were understood. The problem was the speed with which the economy collapsed,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Why it’s hard to predict bubbles.
- Protect the bondholders?
- An underground vault that’s full of money nobody wants.
- Oil, the IEA and manipulation.
- Sino-Forest,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Wolfgang Münchau: Maybe Greek MPs would be right to say no
The Greek parliament is today scheduled to start the most important parliamentary debate in the country’s recent history,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- Akzo Nobel warns on profits — statement.
- Ocado reports half year pre-tax profits of £200,000 — statement.
- HMV sells Canada business for £2m – statement.
FTfm on AV
Some highlights from Monday’s FTfm.
Profits rise by inflows remain in the doldrums
Despite the recovery in global assets under management, which have risen to their pre-crisis peak, there has been little new money going into funds,
The Weekender
This week on FT Alphaville,
- George Clooney roiled the Bitcoin market.
- China finally starting buying fewer US Treasuries.
- Italy was poised to wreck the eurozone.
- Global-Sifis landed.
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- Why do the busts keep getting bigger?
- Translating John Paulson: Why I sold Sino-Forest.
- Yuan schizophrenia.
- Think before wiping that Whiteboard.
- History’s greatest heretics.
Shedding some light on the Sino-Forest
We bet Paulson & CO. wishes it had this research before it bought shares in Sino-Forest.
On Wednesday, Tom Szabo and David Zurbuchen from Augment Partners, a research firm that normally focusses on metals and mining stocks,
Dear Sino-Forest investors: Sorry. Love, John Paulson
Here are extensive extracts from the memorandum sent by John Paulson, Michael Waldorf, and James Wong of Paulson & Co. Inc. to investors on Thursday:
It begins:
On June 20, 2011, Paulson & Co.
Risk. Off.
Just a little while ago, a new 2011 low for the yield on 10-year US Treasuries…
… and at pixel time the S&P 500 was off 0.87 per cent, Brent crude was down 2.27 per cent after touching its own four-month low,
JPMorgan on the IEA’s stimulus
Most of the commentary we’ve seen about the IEA’s announcement has understandably focused on the political ramifications (a shot across the bow at Opec) and, more frequently, its effect on oil price forecasts.
The BoE outs Europe’s synthetic ETF exposure
There was a sprinkling of ETF talk in the Bank of England’s latest Financial Stability Report out on Friday — much of it warning about synthetic products, echoing concerns flagged by other regulators this year and by the Bank itself in 2010.
Cholesterol, eggs, oil and other inflation-fighting ingredients
Here’s a thought after the International Energy Association’s oil price-crushing decision.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the IEA has been working on the plan for months. Suddenly all those recent speeches by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on ‘imported’ inflation through high oil prices,
US Markets Live transcript 24 Jun 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 15:17 on 24 Jun 2011. Participants in this chat were: Cardiff Garcia John McDermott Izabella Kaminska CGHello! CGWho’s here? It’s 10:01 — earliest start ever
Reminder: US Markets Live starts in 15 minutes
We’ll be at the usual place – kicking off at 10am New York, 3pm London.
We’ll be talking about the impact of the IEA announcement, the slew of US macro forecasts for the second half of the year, the latest in the Sino-Forest saga,
Behold, the high-yield exodus
Uh oh. This is worrying.
From Standard Chartered’s latest credit research report on Friday:
Investors continue to desert HY bond funds in droves as outflows accelerate.
Meanwhile, the WSJ reports:
Foreign banks are arbitraging the Fed, RBC says
Up until April this year, US banks had a nice little earner.
As Freakonomics explained, big banks were able to borrow cash from the Fed funds or repo market for say, 15 basis points, posting US Treasuries as collateral,
Mamma mia!
Italian banks are down on Friday after Moody’s put them on negative outlook.
Trading in Intesa and Unicredit has been suspended:
Not a good day for UBI Banca’s capital raising then.