November, 2011
The Buffett rule
How do you buy $10b.7n worth of stock in a big blue chip like IBM without alerting the market?
The WSJ’s Deal Journal has one answer. You cut a deal with the SEC:
Check out the footnote to Buffett’s latest disclosures of his investment holdings released by the SEC:
Dios mío!
As soon as one fire is put out partly extinguished…
Related link:
“November 2011… the month bond yields entered – Markit
Introducing the Keep America Safe Job-Creating Congress ETF
CBS’ flagship 60 minutes programme carried a feature Sunday night that looked at whether Congressmen have been trading stocks based on insider information. It’s a theme that’s been well covered in the blogosphere but last night it reached prime-time.
Peripheral exposures: mind the cash
Deutsche Bank’s credit strategists presented a useful analysis piece on Friday whereby they asked what the impact would be if one of the peripheral countries experienced a “credit event” on credit default swaps that reference them,
Eurozone, why did we bother
When you look at Eurozone bond spreads on a historical basis… you have to wonder:
Courtesy of Pictet.
Related links:
Yes, we have no ECB bond-targeting – FT Alphaville
Markets Live transcript 14 Nov 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:28 on 14 Nov 2011. Participants in this chat were: Bryce Elder/FT Neil Hume, FT BEGood morning BEAnd welcome to Markets Live
Another day, another Italian bond auction
Breaking on Monday morning…
RTRS-ITALY HAD TARGETED AMOUNT OF BETWEEN 1.5 BLN AND 3 BLN EUROS AT 5-YR BTP AUCTION
RTRS-ITALY 5-YR BTP AUCTION GROSS YIELD SETS NEW EURO LIFETIME HIGH, UP FROM 5.3 PCT AT MID-OCT.
Bolton keeps the faith
There is something positive Monday’s half year results from Anthony Bolton’s China Special Situations Fund.
He’s no longer worried about Kim Jong-il nuking South Korea.
In the last report I mentioned that I was concerned about the situation between North and South Korea.
[Something for the weekday] Dear Mr Budenberg
Due to unforeseen technical errors — actually it was the over zealous FT spam filter — Neil’s column did not appear at its usual time on Friday. But it’s too good to waste so we are publishing now.
Dear Viceroy Rehn, here are our answers…
Spotted on Il Sole 24 Ore over the weekend — the official Italian government reply to Olli Rehn’s little inquiry about reform:
(Click image for full document)
Following the recent passage of some reforms,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- EC = “eek”. There’s no avoiding it.
- EFSF buys own bonds (but is denying the original report).
- Hipster vs the upper class American, or OWS meets Tea Party.
- Preparations for Greek exit are go.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Edward Luce: Mr President, it’s time to panic
A few weeks ago, James Carville, the legendary manager of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, had a choice word of advice for Barack Obama:
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- BHP Billtion to plough $4bn into US shale gas — statement.
- Sage rejects claims for damages by Archer Capital — statement.
- ITV reduces capex forecast;
FTfm on AV
Some highlights from Monday’s FTfm.
Swaps tactic threatens Ucits brand
Concerns are growing that the runaway global success of the Ucits fund brand could be jeopardised by the use of increasingly contentious fund structures.
The Weekender
This week on FT Alphaville,
- We had trouble getting excited about a technocratic takeover (of Italy).
- CDS won their showdown with Italian bonds.
- We witnessed a Drachma-tic moment in Greek oil trading.
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- Man down, FT Alphaville blogger edition (feel better, dude).
- Italy bans naked short selling.
- Chistopher Hitchens recommends that an eight-year-old read David Hume, Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
Is(da) derivatives industry misunderstood?
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has been rather busy lately. In case you haven’t noticed, they’ve been on the public relations offensive, taking notes and calling out what they see as bad reporting,
Belgium joins the spread-betting party
The lashing of non-Germanic eurozone sovereign bonds continues – but at a slower rate in Belgium’s case.
Just shy of its euro-era high of 273bp over comparable 10-year Bunds on Thursday, the country’s 10-year government bonds were trading at 268bp over at pixel time:
Pan-labyrinth
Market schizophrenia alert. The Monti put that might have triggered the Italian bond rally today seems to have inspired a rally in global stocks. Who knows how long this will last. And maybe that’s the point — it’s a game of gambling on possible outcomes rather than fundamental investing at this stage.
A drachma-tic moment in Greek oil trading
European geopolitical FAIL:
LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Greece is relying on Iran for most of its oil as traders pull the plug on supplies and banks refuse to provide financing for fear that Athens will default on its debt…
US Markets Live transcript 11 Nov 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 16:10 on 11 Nov 2011. Participants in this chat were: John McDermott, FT Cardiff Garcia Joseph Cotterill, FT Izabella Kaminska JMLet’s try this again
US Markets Live: 10am New York time, 3pm London time
The date is 11.11.11.
We don’t know what that means either.
But we do know we’ll be chatting all things markets in a few minutes time — join us here for this week’s US Markets Live.
We’ll be looking at Italy’s impact on this hard land,
And the next dominoes to fall are..
The pain in Spain…
Chew over this morsel of bad news, from ING: (Emphasis ours)
The economic recovery in Spain has ground to a complete halt. According to first estimates by INE, Spanish real GDP was unchanged in the third quarter (0.8% YoY),
Markets Live transcript 11 Nov 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:03 on 11 Nov 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Bryce Elder/FT
NHCiao rabble
NHwelcome to Markets Live
Bursting the MENA credit bubble
And now for something completely different..
Middle Eastern credit spreads could soon blow up amid an outbreak of political strife with potentially global consequences.
Another portion of grief to your plate then.
Ciao, il Cavaliere
Something to hang on the toilet wall, Silvio?
Related link:
Il cavaliere’s career told through Economist covers – Economist
The trouble with seigniorage
Gavin Davies asks a good question on his FT blog: Does the ECB really have a silver bullet?
An increasing number of market participants want to believe it does, and some have even convinced themselves that the ECB will pull the trigger on unsterilised bond buying,