February 23rd, 2012
Passive aggressive putback tiff du jour
Bank of America stops pricing and piping over new mortgages to Fannie. BofA will take its high-quality housing collateral elsewhere in this town, obviously. (?)
From the latest 10-K anyway:
Beginning in February 2012,
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- Mario Draghi does not know baseball. (Plus other #DraghiQuotes)
- This looks like a very very selective history of financial innovation…
- Reuters blogger snobs on Nigerian finance minister
- ”…the primary economic threat from high oil prices may well be the reaction from central bankers”
Rally Monkey, in the study, with a bearish engulfing candlestick
“Do not ignore this chart,” shouts Murray Gunn, Head of Divination and Rune Casting at HSBC, in his daily Short Cycle report. So here we are, pointedly not ignoring it.
In case any of you are not fluent in the art science of scratch augury,
Help Tim Cook
*COOK IN ‘ACTIVE DISCUSSIONS’ ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH APPLE CASH
Caption cash competition!
Post yer thoughts on what to do below. Proposals to buy peripheral eurozone countries, or even any national GDP-to-Apple-cash comparisons,
The Alex indicator
FT Alphaville had despaired of any indicator stepping up to the mark set by the usual “throwing darts blind©” technique.
But, courtesy of the Saïd Business School (via the FT’s Duncan Robinson),
Inside the RWA mines
We’re shocked (shocked!) that Commerzbank has rolled out a €1bn capital increase now that European bank equity isn’t a total disaster area. Having not done it when it was.
By executing this transaction Commerzbank intends to take advantage of a favourable market opportunity to further improve its capital structure…
A NOK jolt
Fat finger? Flash crash? HFT? Something strange has transpired in the NOK/USD cross rate.
You can read more about Thursday’s Nokkie drama on E24 (H/T @finansakrobat). They say it was a record jump.
US jobs and seasonality: the DeLorean edition
FT Alphaville has written a fair amount about seasonal distortions in economic data but thought this latest piece of research from Nomura was worth highlighting (mostly because it involves time-travel).
Markets Live transcript 23 Feb 2012
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:09 on 23 Feb 2012. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy Bryce Elder/FT neil collins
PMMorning
PMWelcome to ML on time
Policing by powerpoint
It’s difficult to know what to say about the Serious Fraud Office in the wake of its acknowledgement that its officers simply didn’t understand documents that patently cleared the property investor Vincent Tchenguiz of wrong-doing in the collapse of Iceland’s Kaupthing.
Entwining bailouts and eurozone central banks
Exhibit one, the Greek default.
The European Central Bank will not take losses on Greece. It will not even have to do anything tricky with ‘purchase prices’ etc under the latest bailout deal. The ECB simply hands over profits on the bonds that it makes over time (accrued coupons,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- US corporate tax cut proposed. But WHY?!
- How not having a lab affects the economic debate.
- Anglo Irish wasn’t like Greece at all.
- US housing market diagram and pain.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Wynn raises the stakes in Las Vegas
The Wynn-Okada tussle is an enthralling battle of wills between two hardened Vegas gamblers.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- RBS posts £2bn loss, pays £390m in bonuses – statement.
- Credit Agricole reports €3bn net loss, says does not foresee Greece leaving Eurozone – statement.