Market malaise leaves investment banks in a bad mood

Sharing the spoils of shrinking fee pool.

This chart, from market intelligence provider Tricumen, shows changes in product market share rankings from 2010 to 2011, with green arrows signifying gains and red arrows a slip down the rankings. The numbers are based on Tricumen's own product definitions and strip out writedowns. Morgan Stanley has more to cheer than most, taking gains or holding steady in all but credit, commodities and proprietary trading. JP Morgan isn't too far behind, retainings its ranking or improving in all but debt capital markets, equity capital markets and cash equities.

Stocks currently in the spotlight

Charting the Market Tuesday

The charts record the net change in share price, the high, low and closing trades, and share volume for companies with noteworthy stock activity last week. In addition, the graphs depict last week's daily price activity in detail. The dotted line on some graphs denotes the stock's 200-day moving average; lack of a moving average means the shares have traded for less than that time period.

Newedge Joins Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange

Newedge Joins Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange As Latest Broking And Clearing Member - Membership Addition To Significantly Boost Exchange Liquidity - High Frequency Trading Review

The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx) announces today a major milestone with the addition of Newedge, one of the world’s largest futures brokerages, to its roster of members. Newedge Financial Hong Kong Limited joins HKMEx as a broking member, giving it access to the Exchange’s innovative products and state-of-the-art electronic platform for trading commodity futures in the Asia Pacific time zone. Newedge Financial UK Limited joins as a clearing member which enables it to clear and settle transactions conducted by other members of the Exchange.

Top investment banks employers

Best 50 investment banks to work for

According to the website vault.com, the top five best investment banks were:

1. JP Morgan (with a score of 8.446)
2. Goldman Sachs (8.439)
3. Morgan Stanley (7.837)
4. Credit Suisse (7.5620)
5. Houlihan Lokey (7.5617)

The website said: “JP Morgan insiders are much more satisfied with their jobs than are their peers at Goldman. In fact, JP Morgan ranks ahead of Goldman and its other bulge bracket competitors in just about every quality of life category, including firm culture, overall satisfaction, manager relations, training, diversity, and business outlook.”

Goldman commodities trader launches fund

Goldman commodities trader plans hedge fund

Taimur Hassan, a managing director who was responsible for oil trading across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, at the US bank has set up Frere Hall Capital Management, according to documents filed at Companies House. The company is named after a building in Karachi, the city in Pakistan were Hassan grew up.

Yuan denominated gold ETF makes debut

World's first yuan-denominated gold ETF makes weak debut | Reuters

It was flat at midday at 35 yuan (US$5.60), with 30,000 units exchanging hands. Each board lot of the ETF is 100 units. The Hang Seng RMB Gold ETF (83168.HK), launched by Hang Seng Bank Ltd (0011.HK), is intended to track the performance of the London gold fixing price in U.S. dollars.

Private MF Global emails taken under investigation

Trustee to Release Internal MF Global Documents

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of MF Global has agreed to turn over thousands of internal e-mails and documents to federal investigators, ending a dispute over the privacy of decisions made in the days before the firm collapsed.

The return of merchant traders to Wall Street - As old as history itself

RPT-INSIGHT: Wall St commodity talent wars: Return of the merchants | Reuters

NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - When it comes to hiring top commodity traders, what goes around comes around. Wall Street, after years of poaching the best and brightest from specialized commodity firms, is losing the war to keep the essential traders who know how to arbitrage copper or store crude. After financial reforms sounded the death knell for the excessive use of bank money to trade markets two years ago, banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had resigned themselves to watching their proprietary trading rainmakers flee to hedge funds with few limits on risk or compensation.

Gold's Slump

Gold Has Longest Slump This Year as Dollar Gains on Europe Woes - Businessweek

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures fell, capping the longest slump this year, as the dollar’s rally eroded demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment. The greenback rose to the highest in almost two weeks against a basket of major currencies, partly on demand for a haven. Moody’s Investors Service cut the debt ratings of six European nations and said it may strip the U.K. and France of their Aaa ratings. Gold dropped for the third straight session, the longest slide since late December.

Current Employment Statistics

Experimental Size Class Employment, Hours and Earnings Series from the Current Employment Statistics Program

The Current Employment Statistics (CES) program is examining the feasibility of publishing monthly CES employment, hours, and earnings estimates by firm size. Currently, BLS publishes the first preliminary CES employment estimates for a given month at selected industry detail. Subsequent estimates for that month are published in more industry detail with the following month’s first estimates. Research suggests that the available sample may make it feasible to publish monthly size-class employment estimates by major industry sector together with the first preliminary estimates. Employment change by firm size would add a valuable dimension of detail to understanding current employment trends.

Bond Purchases Ratcheted Back By ECB

ECB Ratchets Back Bond Purchases - WSJ.com

 FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank has sharply pulled back on the most controversial program of its 13-year history: the purchases of government bonds of euro-zone countries such as Greece, Portugal and Italy.

The future of natural gas futures

Energy Leaders Breakfast Club: The future of natural gas - Mass High Tech Business News

The Energy Leaders Breakfast Club conversation does not reflect the views or positions of the New England Clean Energy Council or Mass High Tech. The Breakfast Club is designed to be a dialog and attempts to include representatives from different parts of the region’s clean energy cluster to get a range of perspectives in order to enhance awareness, communication, and collaboration. The opinions expressed here are those of the individuals involved and not those of the Clean Energy Council or Mass High Tech.

The elephant in the room.

Beware:a less profitable future ahead

While many bankers have been focusing on the depressing headline news triggered by a collapse in confidence in the financial markets – underlying revenues across the industry were down 17% last year and pre-tax profits collapsed by 54% according to my analysis of the big investment banks that have reported their results so far * – there is an elephant in the room that will make matters even worse.

Emissions computer technology delivered to UK

UK takes delivery of expanded CO2 emissions system - ComputerworldUK.com

The Environment Agency has implemented the latest module of its CO2 emissions trading scheme, in order to address industrial works and power stations. Module 2 of the Emissions Trading Scheme Workflow Automation Project (ETSWAP) automates the processes associated with reporting CO2 emissions data for stationary installations covered by the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

Fund managers overweight in equities

Manager Survey Bank of America

A dramatic increase in “market liquidity conditions” has encouraged investors to plunge back into global equities over the past month, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s fund manager survey, with respondents reporting their largest increase in allocation to the asset class since the beginning of 2011.

Corn thieves spur farm security

Corn theft sparks security push | The Daily Republic | Mitchell, South Dakota

The case of a rural Mitchell man charged with stealing corn has caused some farmers to install more security, especially at isolated sites. Electrical boxes used to power augers that move corn out of bins are being locked. Bins are being made harder to access, with bales placed in front of them. Bins in isolated areas are checked more often, and emptied sooner.