This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
European credit indices recovered their losses from Friday in an uncertain start to the year. The Markit iTraxx Europe index rallied by about 4bp in a quiet start to what promises to be an eventful week.
… but the disclosure regime extended until the end of June.
Here’s the statement from the FSA, which was released after the market closed on Monday. And don’t you just love the way the Citywatchdog has buried the news on the financials ban? It is as if they are embarrassed.
Professors Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard have updated their paper on post war financial crises and their aftermath (Hat tip to John Mauldin of Investors Insight).
The major commodity indices rebalance their respective asset weightings once a year (or occasionally more) — and with that comes a mass dose of buying and selling. The 2009 rebalancing is expected to start sometime this week.
Remember when Deutsche Bank decided not to call one of its LT2 bonds last month? The consequences are still filtering through the system.
This was from Bloomberg on Monday, citing a Moody’s statement putting a €153m CDO issued by Rosetta I SA on review for possible downgrade:
From the University of Reading:
Research by a team of academics at the University of Reading’s ICMA Centre has established clear parallels between the events of King Edward I’s time in the late 13th century and today’s credit crunch.
A bit of momentum has returned to both crude and products. Of particular interest is the strength in naphtha prices — which had suffered the greatest fall in the big commodities sell-off of Q4 2008. The gasoline/naphtha (regrade) spread has narrowed to +30/mt versus a high of +120/mt last year.
European credit derivative markets were mixed this morning in what has been a subdued start to 2009.
With bankers and investors coming back to their desks there is a lot to look ahead to, a heavy week of economic data to digest and a slew of reports expected from the retail sector in particular.
Read last week’s Pandit memo?
If you did, you just might have been curious to know the details of the new “approaches to executive compensation” that the US government has outlined “consistent with their objective as an investor in Citi”.
This morning on FT Alphaville,
- Is the tide turning for treasuries?
- Who’s selling the gold?
- Titans, heroes and mortals of Asia.
- Waterford Wedgwood is shattered.
- Sterling’s plunge a good thing?
- Bye bye $20 trillion.
We’re coming a little late to this, but it’s still worth a note.
From Bloomberg (HT LOLFed).
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) — Japan should write-off its holdings of Treasuries because the U.S. government will struggle to finance increasing debt levels needed to dig the economy out of recession,
Gold is down for the third straight session on dollar strength according to Bloomberg. UBS, meanwhile, is advising clients that gold will likely trade at $800 an ounce in one and three months from now,
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:10 on 5 Jan 2009. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT (NH) Paul Murphy, FT (PM)
NH:
Good morning and welcome to Markets Live - Take Two
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:13 on 5 Jan 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH)
PM:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
PM:
This is Markets Live,
Relaxed, refreshed and bubbling with new investment ideas, Neil Hume and Paul Murphy are back from their short New Year break.
That means Markets Live, FT Alphaville’s regular markets chat, will resume at 11am on Monday.
It’s definitely that time of year, and amid the flood of predictions for 2009 comes a bullish view of Asia’s prospects from Nomura - which, despite its strong push into markets elsewhere, is still very anxious to see a revival of sorts in Asian regional markets.
Ireland’s Waterford Wedgwood, purveyor of Martha Stewart-inspired China and Peter Rabbit crockery, as well as the ubiquitous crystal, is in receivership.
From a statement on the company’s website:
Waterford Wedgwood plc regrets to announce that it has this morning requested that its Stock Units be suspended from trading on the Irish Stock Exchange,
Any Brit who spent the holiday period in continental Euro-zone Europe is no doubt feeling the pinch. Espressos now average €5 a shot in Paris, while a melted cheese sandwich could set you back as much as €10 - and that’s in an average no-frills brasserie.
From a speech delivered overnight in Singapore by the Berkeley economist Brad DeLong:
$80 trillion of global financial assets a year and a half ago.
$60 trillion of global financial assets today
In assessing where all this value has gone — and how it might eventually be returned — DeLong takes his audience through a couple of hundred years of history,
The Cleveland Fed, one of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks of the US, has, perhaps admirably, managed to find what it believes is some good news in the shape of the US yield curveIn the midst of the horrendous economic news of the last month,
Reeling from an annus horribilis amply larded with policy blunders, the US market regulator, the SEC, now facing serious pressure, is perhaps finally beginning to talk sense.
Just before year end, its head,
Anthony Bolton is about as close as the British investment community gets to a well-known “investment sage”. Now semi-retired from Fidelity International, Bolton has a long-term record of Buffet-esque quality - so we should sit up and take note when he says stocks are looking cheap.
Elsewhere on Monday:
- The end of the financial world as we know it
- The end of the contemporary-art world as we see it
- Reliving nightmares: The 10 craziest days on Wall Street in 2008
- Six degrees between tragedy and farce…
- Economists behaving badly
- The death of e-commerce,
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Constraints on Obama’s soft power
Clive Crook on how Mr Obama is a soft-power enthusiast and sees US standing abroad as a priceless asset, which he now wants back for America to command respect so that its friends will be better allies and its enemies will lose support.
Breaking news on Monday morning,
- Corporate results: Liberty, MWB, Restaurant Group,
- Eurostoxx Dax futures up 1%; CAC-40 up 0.7%
Leading British and multinational companies are being probed by the FSA financial watchdog over possible failures to disclose key data to the UK stock market, in a sweeping crackdown that threatens fines and prosecutions for “market abuse”,
President-elect Barack Obama plans to include about $300bn in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery programme, advisers said Sunday, as his team seeks to win over Congressional skeptics worried about his focus on government spending,
Several high-profile banks, including Deutsche Bank and UBS, could be caught up in lawsuits over lending agreements with Italian local governments, reports the Daily Telegraph. According to some estimates,
A new UK lending survey shows banks sharply tightening credit to households and companies, intensifying worries that the government’s £500bn ($725bn) bank-rescue plan is failing to get money flowing into the economy,
Britain’s banks may need another injection of capital from the taxpayer, Gordon Brown acknowledged Sunday, but the prime minister insisted the prospect was not seen as a matter of urgency. Brown and Alistair Darling,
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