Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• 'Speculative' Sovereign CDS Trades May Face EU Ban. Traders could be banned from selling some sovereign credit-default swaps in the wake of the Greek debt crisis, European Commission President Jose Barroso said. The commission will examine “the relevance of banning purely speculative naked sales on CDS of sovereign debt,” Barroso said in a speech at the European Parliament today. “If it is true that the current problems in Greece were not caused by speculation on the financial markets, it is also true that this speculation was an aggravating factor,” said Barroso. Barroso is adding his voice to calls from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker for regulation of credit-default swaps to shore up the euro area and prevent a rerun of the Greek financial crisis. “Naked CDS serve no useful purpose and are dangerous,” Richard Portes, professor of economics at London Business School, said in a telephone interview today. “They do not help significantly price discovery or liquidity. They’re not analogous to short selling equities because they will affect the cost of funding.”
• AIG, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Shares Surge in U.S. American International Group Inc. surged, leading gains by financial companies bailed out by the U.S. government, on speculation the insurer will sell more assets after raising $51 billion through deals. AIG jumped 16 percent to $33.70 at 1:52 p.m. in New York.
• Nickel's "momentum roll over" after prices fell from a 20-month high last week signals further declines, according to technical analysis by Barclays Capital.
  
• Cisco(CSCO) Unveils $90,000 Network Router to Lure Carriers. Cisco Systems Inc., seeking to boost sales to phone carriers, will start selling an Internet router that lets Web users download video, songs and other data faster. The router starts at $90,000, the San Jose, California- based company said in a statement today. Cisco, the world’s biggest network-equipment maker, has invested $1.6 billion in the product line, which AT&T Inc. has already tested. Cisco, which posted its first sales increase in a year last month, is benefiting as consumers watch more videos on YouTube, Hulu.com and other sites. Chief Executive Officer John Chambers called video “the killer app” because it needs more bandwidth than voice and data, spurring demand for the company’s products. “You’ll see us focused on video,” Chambers said today on a Web cast. “This talks about the next generation of the Internet changing our lives.” The router lets carriers offer Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second, said Pankaj Patel, a Cisco senior vice president. That’s about 100 times faster than most home connections today. Cisco said the product allows all the people in China to have a video call simultaneously.
• Sugar Declines to Six-Month Low in London as Buyers Hold Back. Sugar futures fell to the lowest price in six months in London on signs buyers are holding back as prices retreat from two-decade highs and on an increased outlook for production in India. Pakistan today delayed a plan to buy as much as 650,000 metric tons of sugar from Dubai. Output in India, the world’s second-largest producer and biggest consumer, will be higher than forecast as cane yields improve, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said today. White, or refined, sugar for May delivery fell $34.50, or 5.9 percent, to $555.30 a ton on NYSE Liffe, the lowest closing price since Sept. 9 and biggest one-day drop since Oct. 6, 2008.
• Vermont, Alaska, New York Lead States in Funding Tied to Census. The District of Columbia followed by Vermont, Alaska, New York and Massachusetts were the top per- capita winners of federal funds tied to census data in fiscal year 2008, a report shows.The “Counting for Dollars” study by the Washington-based Brookings Institution was released today as U.S. households have begun to receive the 2010 census questionnaires that will help determine more than $400 billion in annual federal funding for the next decade. The bottom five states, starting with the lowest, were Nevada, Virginia, Colorado, Florida and Utah, according to the report, which also ranks metropolitan areas and counties. The study shows that more than four-fifths of the money tied to census data goes to state governments, many of which are struggling with budget shortfalls.
• S&P 500 May Extend Gain, Sentiment Shows: Technical Analysis. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index may surpass this year's January high because market momentum picked up without turning investors overly bullish, according to Robert W. Baird & Co.'s chief investment strategist Bruce Bittles. “The fact that the broad market has retaken the leadership role should allow stocks to eventually overcome the January highs,” Bittles said in a note dated yesterday. “Investor psychology overall remains skeptical, supporting the prospects for additional gains.” The S&P 500 is 1 percent from its 15-month high of 1,150.23 reached on Jan. 19 after better-than-estimated earnings, takeovers and rising consumer spending boosted equities in the past month. On March 5, total volume for rising stocks on the New York Stock Exchange increased to 968.2 million, 13 times that for falling stocks, the highest ratio since Nov. 9. The American Association of Individual Investors’ latest weekly survey of stock-market sentiment showed bulls outnumbered bears by 1.37 times, far from a reading of 2 that would trigger a sell signal, according to Bittles. The Investors Intelligence analysis of investment newsletters for the week ended March 2 showed 42 percent of the writers were bullish, 1.85 times the percent who were bearish.
• Greek Estimated Tax-Revenue Gains May Fall Short, EU Draft Says. Greek tax increases designed to curb the European Union’s biggest budget deficit may fail to generate as much additional revenue as the government in Athens estimates, a draft EU report said. That would hinder Prime Minister George Papandreou’s efforts to cut the deficit to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product this year from 12.7 percent in 2009.
• Royal Bank May Consider U.S. Banks With $10 Billion in Assets. Royal Bank of Canada is interested in U.S. banks with $10 billion in assets or more to add to its consumer lending business, said James Westlake, an executive who oversees the international unit. Westlake wouldn’t say what banks he’d be interested in buying. Lenders in RBC Bank’s operating region that fall within the range for assets include United Community Banks Inc.(UCBI), a company based in Blairsville, Georgia, with a market value of $401 million. South Financial Group Inc.(TSFG), is a Greenville, South Carolina-based lender valued at $159 million. “You have companies that are still coming out of a near death experience, so I really think Royal Bank has the pick of the litter,” said Chris Marinac, an analyst at FIG Partners LLC in Atlanta. “This should be a buyer’s market.”
• Comerica(CMA) Raises $800 Million in Stock Sale to Repay TARP Funds.
  

Wall Street Journal:

• Greece Plans March Bond Issue. The Greek government will seek to raise a further €10 billion ($13.63 billion) through one or two bond issues in March, and between $5 billion and $10 billion through a separate offering targeted at investors in the U.S. and Asia, officials familiar with the matter said Tuesday. The government last week sold €5 billion in 10-year bonds, surviving a key test of investor confidence in its beefed-up plan to cut its huge budget deficit.
• Barclays(BCS) on the Hunt for a U.S. Retail Bank. After buying up Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s North American operations at the peak of the financial crisis, British bank Barclays PLC is on the prowl for another major acquisition in the U.S., according to people close to the matter. Barclays is hunting for a retail bank that would give it more deposits and extend the presence of Barclays Capital in the U.S., these people said. The bank, in response to potential changes in banking regulation, has designated an internal team to assess possible targets, these people said. Among the large regional lenders that analysts have said could be targets for large U.S. or overseas banks are SunTrust Banks Inc.(STI), an Atlanta-based lender with $120 billion of deposits and 1,700 branches across the southeastern U.S.; Fifth Third Bancorp(FITB) of Cincinnati, which has about 1,400 branches and $82 billion in deposits; and Comerica Inc.(CMA), a Dallas-based bank that has more than 400 branches and about $39 billion in deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
• The Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies.
  

MarketWatch:

• China's Forex Chief Not Keen on Gold as Investment. China's appetite for gold as a way to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves is limited because of the metal's poor returns over the past 30 years, the nation's foreign-exchange regulator was cited as saying in a report Tuesday.

Fox Business:

• U.S. Government May Soon Ease Out of Citi Stake. Previously, federal officials, including Herbert Allison, who heads the Troubled Asset Relief Program, have said that they plan to unload the government’s 27% stake in Citi over the next year. But FBN has learned that in private meetings with Wall Street investment bankers, the federal government is discussing the possibility of doing it sometime over the next three months.

CNBC:

• Sovereign Default in Euro Zone Is Possible: Fitch.
• US Stocks Could Rise Further; Double-Dip Less Likly Cohen. Stock prices still have room to rise further, and recent economic reports show there is less chance of a double-dip recession in the US, well-known market guru Abby Joseph Cohen told CNBC Tuesday.

The Business Insider:

• The Dollar Is Hedge Funds' Favorite Currency Right Now. The majority of hedge fund managers surveyed say their favorite currency right now is the dollar. The TrimTabs/Barclay Hedge survey in February asked 61 traders and fund managers (they have an average of $113 million in assets under management) what their favorite currencies were. The dollar won the majority, with 57% voting it as their favorite, the Brazilian real and the Australian dollar are "distant seconds," and Sterling was the least favorite, with only 3% of respondents.
• The Carried Interest Tax Rate Isn't A Subsidy, Tax Break or Loophole! Next time someone tells you that they want to tax carried interest at a higher rate because of "the principles of tax law," ask them why investing by hedge fund managers should be taxed more than other investment activities. That's really what a higher rate for carried interest would mean.
• Uh Oh: Small Biz Optimism Falls Again In February.
  

Futuresmag.com:

• Gensler Talks On OTC Reform. CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler gave the following address at Markit's Outlook for OTC Derivatives Markets Conference on March 9. Good afternoon. It’s good to be with you today to discuss much-needed regulatory reform of the over-the-counter derivatives markets. In particular, I will focus on credit default swaps (CDS), products that directly contributed to the financial crisis.

LA Times:

• State Sets Preliminary Yields on Big Muni Bond Deal. California, which is launching a $2-billion sale of municipal bonds Tuesday, expects to pay tax-free yields in the range of 2.6% to 4.2% on bonds maturing between five and nine years, and 4.6% to 5.7% on longer-term issues. The shorter-term yields would be below what the state paid on tax-free general obligation bonds at a $1.3-billion sale in early October. But the longer-term yields would be above what buyers got in that sale, reflecting upward pressure on longer-term interest rates in general since early fall.

Rasmussen:

• Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends).
• 57% Predict Health Care Plan Will Hurt the Economy. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters say the health care reform plan now working its way through Congress will hurt the U.S. economy. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% think the plan will help the economy.

Politico:

• Nancy Pelosi's Grip on House Slips. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not accustomed to the word she’s been hearing far more frequently in recent days: “no.” Over the past two weeks, Pelosi has faced a series of subtle but significant challenges to her authority — revolts from Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Blue Dog Coalition and politically vulnerable first- and second-term members. The dynamic stems from an “every man for himself” attitude developing in the Democratic Caucus rather than a loss of respect for Pelosi, according to a senior Democratic aide. But it’s making Pelosi’s life — and efforts to maintain Democratic unity — harder.
• Hoyer Rebuffs Gibbs on March 18 Deadline. Don't confuse the House timeline with the White House timeline, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned reporters Tuesday. "None of us has mentioned the 18th, other than Mr. Gibbs," Hoyer said in response to a question about whether Congress can pass a health care package by March 18, the date laid out last week by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. "We are trying to do this as soon as possible. That continues to be our objective." In the meantime, Hoyer said an internal fight over abortion restrictions "has to be resolved."
• GOP Sharpens Midterm Attack Line. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said Monday that if some type of health care legislation is able to limp its way out of Congress, GOP candidates across the country are poised to make it the premiere issue of the fall campaign.While Cornyn said his personal preference would be to stop a bill entirely, his campaign committee is already preparing its attack line for a scenario that assumes Democrats squeeze a bill through the controversial reconciliation process in the next month.

Real Clear Politics:

• It's Time for Moderate Democrats to Stand Up to Obama.

Reuters:

• US Ignoring Shale Gas Potential - Conoco CEO. The U.S. has vast supplies of natural gas locked tight in shale that could offer a long-term energy solution, but the government is ignoring the resource's potential, Jim Mulva, the chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips (COP), said on Tuesday. Shale formations across North America are said to hold enough gas to meet domestic demand for a hundred years. Historically, those resources have been out of reach, but technology like horizontal drilling now allows energy companies to tap natural gas trapped in rock. U.S. policies and proposals are an impediment and are overly favorable to development of renewable sources of energy, Mulva said.