US stocks barely budged; the S&P 500 was up 0.07 points to close at 1,633.77 (Reuters).
Bloomberg has been caught in another leak of client data. More than ten thousand confidential trader messages were left online for several years, accessible through a Google search, until taken down on Monday. Bloomberg said it was considering “all potential legal” actions after the apparently accidental leak. It emerged last week that Goldman complained to that the organisation’s journalists were able to track its employees’ activities on data terminals (Financial Times).
US retail sales rose 0.1 per cent in April, defying expectations of a 0.3 per cent drop (Financial Times).
Petrobras made plans to sell a bumper $11bn of bonds, the biggest single issue of Latin American corporate debt on record. The size of the six-tranche deal from Brazil’s state oil producer could increase further, following an option to sell more to Asian investors (Wall Street Journal). Demand topped $50bn (Reuters).
The Bank of Israel joined a recent rush by central banks around the world to cut rates. The surprise 25bps move was aimed at the strength of the shekel and the effect on the economy of natural gas exports, the Israeli central bank said (Wall Street Journal).
Verizon Wireless will pay a $7bn dividend to its parents Verizon and Vodafone in June. The distribution will be shared out according to the two companies’ respective 55 per cent and 45 per cent stakes in the joint venture (Verizon Wireless release).
Tata Steel announced a $1.6bn writedown in its European operations, the biggest taken by a company with Indian operations since Vodafone took a charge on its local unit in 2010 (Financial Times).
The UK government will publish a draft bill for a vote to leave the European Union. The publication of the legislation follows pressure from Conservative MPs for Prime Minister David Cameron to commit to a referendum in law ahead of its projected 2017 date. The Liberal Democrat, partners in the government, are likely to resist the bill alongside the Labour opposition, making it unlikely to succeed (Financial Times, BBC News).
British civil servants have discussed the implications of Bitcoin for security and taxation. The meeting of about 50 officials, including representatives from an intelligence service tasked with cyber security, sought to determine how criminals might use the cryptocurrency, and whether a regulated Bitcoin exchange should be set up (Financial Times).
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- High-yield bonds: it’s where the risk-return is uneconomic, not bubble-spotting.
- Porsche, Volkswagen, and hedge-fund fallibility.
- The Fed and participation-rate worries, encore.
- This should be a golden age of market-index reform, but isn’t.
- It is, however, a golden age of patent wars.
- “Neville Chamberlain was an early proponent of ‘Abenomics’”.
- Cantab’s 0.5 and 10 model.
- Be wary when you discuss that hot bank debt trade over the phone…
- Further Thailand reading.