The government charged three former Credit Suisse traders on Wednesday with inflating the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, a rare criminal prosecution of Wall Street executives for their conduct during the financial crisis.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Credit Suisse Bond Traders Charged With Fraud
The government charged three former Credit Suisse traders on Wednesday with inflating the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, a rare criminal prosecution of Wall Street executives for their conduct during the financial crisis.
EU must learn to cope with new German leadership
It wasn’t the most subtle idea ever developed by German diplomats. The suggestion that a special euro zone commissioner might take control of Greece’s budget was met in Athens with predictable outrage. Athens has failed to implement its bailout programme, and hasn’t done anything to combat the scourge of tax fraud. Europeans everywhere are tiring of pouring into Greece the money its own citizens are sending abroad. But the Kommissar proposal’s insensitivity is a reminder that the new lone German leadership of the euro zone will need some adjusting.
Portugal Says Bonds Don’t Reflect Progress
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Portuguese government bond yields aren’t reflecting the progress that the country has made controlling its budget deficit, with its adjustment program “well on track,” Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said.
Euro gains, yen loses footing
(Reuters) - The euro rose against the dollar on Wednesday on the latest hopes that a Greek debt deal was near, while the greenback bounced from a three-month low versus the yen as investors remained keenly aware of potential central bank intervention.
Japan threatens intervention, and the Japanese, like Spock's Vulcans, never bluff.
TOKYO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Thursday he is prepared to take firm measures on currencies when needed, hinting at the chance of solo intervention in forex markets as the yen edges higher versus the dollar.
Chinese Copper Inventories Double The Estimate
In a piece of news that can not be taken well by students of Dr. Copper, the FT reveals for the first time that China's estimated copper inventories, based on numbers from the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association, were 1.9 million tonnes at the end of 2010 which is almost double the lower end of the consensus estimate of 1.0-1.5 MM tonnes (and, as the FT points out, "more than the US consumes in a year).
Premiums For China Copper Up
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Copper premiums in Shanghai, the main hub in China for importing the metal, have dipped below $100 a metric ton for the first time since August as stockpiles at local bonded warehouses surge.
$3M historic gold collection stolen
YREKA — Thieves broke into a Siskiyou County Courthouse display case and made off with about $3 million worth of historic gold nuggets on display early today, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department said.
Judge Rules MF Global Customers Not Entitled To Priority
A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday rejected a bid by commodities customers of MF Global Inc. for special priority status over other creditors in the Chapter 11 case of its parent company, MF Global Holdings Ltd.
Portugese bonds well received
LONDON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Portuguese government bonds led a rally in debt issued by the euro zone's lower-rated states on Wednesday, capitalising on good results at a Treasury bill auction and hopes that a Greek debt swap deal will be concluded this week.
Intesa sold bonds because they could
MILAN—Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo SpA sold an unsecured bond this week "to show that we could," the chairman of country's largest bank said in an interview Wednesday. "The wholesale market's take-up of the bonds demonstrates that we are seen as structurally sound over the medium-long period, which is even more important in a moment like this when many banks are relying on the European Central Bank," Andrea Beltratti, chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo's management board, said in an interview.
Fed Outguns ECB
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has pumped less stimulus into the economy he oversees than his Federal Reserve counterpart Ben S. Bernanke, bolstering the euro at levels that won't revive growth by boosting exports.
Italy's scrap gold business booming
(Reuters) - OroCash, Italy's biggest buyer of used gold jewelry, expects business to flourish this year with the opening of 150 new collection points in Italy and abroad as high gold prices and unfolding economic crisis prompt people to sell family assets.
Oil products rally on refinery closures
Rare is the industry that rallies on news of a bankruptcy. Oil refining is one of them. Gasoline prices have been on a tear despite U.S. demand for the fuel hitting its lowest level in a decade. Speculators have increased their net long position in gasoline futures on Nymex to the highest level since May 2010. Shares in refiner Valero Energy have rallied 14% so far in 2012.
This EU Bond Rally Has Legs
Credit where credit's due: January was a bumper month for European corporate-bond markets, with euro investment-grade bonds returning 2.9%, according to Barclays Capital. And even now, corporate bonds still look unloved. Although a yield of 4.2% for five-to-seven-year bonds looks skinny, it is way above yields on German bunds and prices in a lot of risk. Investors should consider buying.
Futures exchanges wide open!
LONDON (Reuters) - The failed merger of Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext has highlighted their grip on Europe's futures and options trade, raising the prospect of reform to open the market to new entrants.
Manufacturing Data Drives Bonds Lower
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Treasury bonds lost ground on Wednesday for the first time in six sessions as a batch of encouraging global manufacturing releases sapped demand for safe assets. Data from China, Europe and the U.S. showed improvement in the manufacturing sector, which helped allay some worries about the health of the global economy. For now, the bright spot in manufacturing overshadowed a report showing a slowdown in U.S. private-sector jobs growth that came ahead of Friday's nonfarm payrolls report.
MF Global's Missing Money Located
Investigators have determined what happened to nearly all of the customer money that disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy last Oct. 31, but have not publicly disclosed their progress, fearing that doing so might cripple efforts to recover the cash and pursue potential wrongdoing, people briefed on the investigation said. While authorities have traced hundreds of millions of dollars to banks, MF Global’s trading partners and even the firm’s securities customers, investigators remain uncertain about whether they can retrieve the money.
MF Global's Chief Risk Officer Saw Euro Bets as 'Acceptable'
MF Global’s chief risk officer is set to tell Congress on Thursday that he did not sound the alarms about the firm’s risky wagers on European sovereign debt until July, about three months before the firm collapsed into bankruptcy.
Do Technical Indicators for Gold and Silver Spell Trouble?
Precious metals are advancing Wednesday, aided by a weaker dollar and improving global economic data that analysts believe could drive demand higher for gold and silver across world markets.
The SPDR Gold ETF (GLD) was up 0.40% while the iShares Silver ETF (SLV) climbed 2.04% most recently. Miners were also on the march: The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) was up 0.94% and the Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) was ahead by 1.92%. In futures, April gold on the Comex was trading higher by $7.90 at $1,748.30 an ounce while the March silver contract was up 57 cents to $33.83 an ounce. Silver’s industrial ties are giving it a boost as gold continues to face technical hurdles. Technicians are generally calling for a period of consolidation by the yellow metal, concerned that it’s strong start to a new year could over-extend its valuation and result in a sharper pullback.
Former Credit Suisse Trader To Plead Guilty
Former Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) employee David Higgs said he will plead guilty to a conspiracy charge related to the intentional mismarking of prices tied to securities including collateralized debt obligations. Another former bank employee, Salmaan Siddiqui, will plead guilty later today, a person familiar with the case said.
January 2012 Asset Performance Review
Gold was again one of the top performing assets and currencies in January. Its 11% gain in January surpassed the 10%gains seen in all of 2010.
Look for a swift resolution to the Greek crisis
LONDON (MarketWatch) — What’s the most unexpected thing that could happen in the markets right now? A sudden return to a budget surplus in the United States? A 5% annual growth rate in Japan? A halving of the Swiss franc as everyone decided there was so little risk in the world it was hardly worth holding the over-valued currency of a small mountainous nation that specializes in an industry — banking — that looks in steep structural decline? Admittedly all of those would be quite a shock. But the biggest surprise would surely be a swift resolution of the Greek crisis.
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