Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Libya's Ghanem Expects OPEC Quota Rollover, Expects $100 Crude Oil 'Soon'. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep its production quotas unchanged as oil gets ready to hit $100 a barrel, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said. OPEC, which is scheduled to gather Dec. 11 in Quito, Ecuador, will probably agree to a quota rollover and will focus on discussing compliance during this meeting, Ghanem said today at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
- Copper Gains to Record in London on Concern Fed May Extend Asset Purchases. Copper climbed to a record in London and advanced to a 31-month high in New York on concern that the Federal Reserve may extend asset purchases to support the economy, driving the dollar lower and boosting the appeal of commodities as alternative investments. The metal for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 0.6 percent to $9,066 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, surpassing the previous peak of $9,044 on Dec. 7. It traded at $9,037.25 at 11:30 a.m. Singapore time, up 23 percent this year.
- Obama Proposes Easing Export Controls on 37 Allies. The Obama administration proposed easing controls on the export of technology items that may be used for military purposes to 37 allies, including Canada, Japan, Germany and France. The U.S. requires exporters to obtain a license to sell civilian technology, such as aircraft parts and encryption software, that also can be used for military purposes. The restrictions vary based on U.S. relations with the government, and those rules are administered by the Commerce Department and State Department.
- India's Inflation Holds Above 'Tolerance Level,' Subbarao Says. India’s inflation remains above “tolerance level,” central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said ahead of the monetary policy announcement next week. “Inflation is coming down but is still above the RBI’s tolerance level,” Subbarao told reporters in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata yesterday. India’s benchmark wholesale-price inflation cooled to a nine-month low of 8.58 percent in October. The Reserve Bank of India aims to slow inflation to between 4 percent and 4.5 percent.
- Apple(AAPL) Displaces Samsung on Home Turf With iPhone. For more than a decade, Kim Jung Yeon only bought phones from Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., passing on best sellers made by non-Korean companies such as Motorola Inc.’s Razr. Her loyalty ended with Apple Inc.’s iPhone. “The iPhone has a cool design and I love the feel and grip of the phone,” said the 37-year-old Web designer in Seoul, who bought the device last year, and enjoys using applications about food recipes. “I don’t see any reason why I should return to LG or Samsung phones again if I buy another smartphone.”
- LBO Defaults to Climb as Debt Costs Top Growth, Mudrick Says. Defaults on speculative-grade debt will climb in the next five years as companies bought by private-equity firms before markets seized up in 2008 struggle to boost earnings, said hedge-fund manager Jason Mudrick. Borrowers may renege on $150 billion to $250 billion of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds due by 2015, or between 15 percent and 25 percent of the amount maturing, said Mudrick, president of Mudrick Capital Management LP, at a briefing in New York. The former money manager at Contrarian Capital Management LLC, who started his fund in July 2009 and oversees $150 million, is predicting the rise in defaults even as Moody’s Investors Service said the 12-month rate in the U.S. fell to 3.5 percent in November from 14.7 percent last year.
- New York Teachers' Union Fights City Over Release of Performance Reports. The United Federation of Teachers went to court to stop the New York City Department of Education from publicly disclosing the names and performance reports of teachers in the biggest U.S. public school system.
- Mullen Says 'Too Much at Stake' for China 'Myopia' on North Korea. China’s reluctance to try and persuade North Korea to abandon its aggressive stance in Asia imperils regional stability, said U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. China is “unwilling” to use its influence as the North’s biggest ally to curtail Kim Jong Il’s regime, Mullen told reporters today in Tokyo, reiterating earlier remarks. North Korea “has been unable” to “recognize the risks and the costs of miscalculation,” Mullen said. “China must lead and guide North Korea to a better future. There is too much at stake for this sort of myopia.” “What once was unusual is becoming all too routine,” he said. “I speak mainly here of North Korean aggression that threatens all of us, but it applies as well to a wide range of economic, social and political changes throughout the region. As threats evolve, so too must we.”
- House Democrats Seek Boost In Regulator Funding. A budget bill unveiled by U.S. House Democrats on Wednesday contains big funding boosts for federal securities and futures regulators working to erect a vast regime for the over-the-counter derivatives market.
- Traders Ready for Silver to Tarnish. There is a tinge of worry about silver in the options market. Bearish put options have been unusually active lately in the iShares Silver Trust, a popular exchange-traded fund tracking the metal that broke a new 52-week high on Tuesday. Puts convey the right to sell shares at a fixed price on or before an agreed-upon date. Nearly the same number of puts as bullish call options to buy the fund changed hands Wednesday, according to Trade Alert, following similar action in the previous session.
- Investor Survey Says: Bet Oppositely. When the American Association of Individual Investors' weekly gauge of sentiment hits the tape early Thursday, much of Wall Street will be ready to pore over the numbers.
- North Korea Claims Waters Around Shelled Island. North Korea state media on Thursday issued a statement that claimed possession of all waters around South Korea-controlled Yeonpyeong Island, clarifying for the first time that its Nov. 23 attack of the island was motivated by a different view of the inter-Korean maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea than is widely held.
Business Insider:
- Julian Assange May Have The Files For Every Single Prisoner In Guantanamo. Evidently, what's worrisome to government officials is evidence that GITMO prisoners have been released, despite clear evidence of their posing an ongoing threat.
- Treasury to Sell $10 Billion in AIG(AIG) Shares, Company to Recapitalize.
- Glenn Beck: Hey George Soros, Here's How I'd Create a Dictatorship! (video)
- Department of Justice "Crackdown" on Wall Street is Just a P.R. Stunt Targeting Small-Time Crooks.
- Watch Latest Farcical Senate Hearing on Flash Crash. (video)
- 31 Consecutive Outflows From Domestic Equity Funds. (graphs)
CNN Money:
- MasterCard(MA), Visa(V) Targeted in Apparent Cyberattack. The corporate websites of Visa and MasterCard were inaccessible at times Wednesday due to an apparent cyberattack by purported Wikileaks backers. Messages posted on Twitter indicated the attacks maybe be in response to recent moves by Visa and Mastercard against WikiLeaks, the website that recently released thousands of secret U.S. State Department documents.
- Tax Deal Gains Steam Toward Passage. A wave of new Democratic support Wednesday signaled that President Barack Obama’s deal to renew the Bush tax cuts would make it through Congress, as long as most Republicans lined up behind it as expected. With Democrats in both chambers still angry about parts of the package, the administration scrambled to allay concerns and build momentum for the unusual deal with congressional Republicans reached this week. By the end of the day, the measure looked increasingly likely to pass, as Democrats stepped forward one by one to back it.
Reuters:
- Fortress(FIG) CEO Sees Raising $5 Billion of Capital in '10. Hedge fund and private equity firm Fortress Investment Group said that he expects the firm to have raised $5 billion in new capital this year as it works to build relationships with investors globally. The firm's Chief Executive Dan Mudd said at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference in New York, that the company "should be over" $5 billion in new capital raising through the full year of 2010.
- BlackRock's(BLK) Fink Sees "Very Strong" Q4 Profit. BlackRock Inc, the world's largest money manager, will report "very strong" earnings and profit margins for the fourth quarter, Chief Executive Laurence Fink said on Wednesday.
- Fed Said to Unveil Debit-Card Fee Limits Next Week. The Federal Reserve is expected to unveil a proposed rule next week that would limit the transaction fees that banks can charge retailers when a customer uses a debit card, according to two industry sources familiar with the matter.
- Merkel Seeks Calm After Juncker E-Bond Blast. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has called for calm in the European Union after an angry attack by Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, who accused Berlin of being “un-European” and “a bit simple” in making some areas “taboo” in EU negotiations. Amid signs of increasing tension between eurozone leaders over how to cope with the sovereign debt crisis that has undermined their common currency, Ms Merkel urged her fellow EU leaders to concentrate on reaching a good decision for the future of the euro at their summit in Brussels next week. At the same time she repeated her rejection of Mr Juncker’s proposal for jointly guaranteed eurobonds to help finance the most debt-laden members of the currency union. “The discussion does not help us,” she said after meeting Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister.
The Guardian:
- Allied Irish Banks to Pay €40m bonuses despite bailout. Stricken Allied Irish Banks says court case forces it to give out bonuses while Ireland's taxpayers suffer. Stricken Allied Irish Banks is preparing to hand out €40m (£34m) of bonuses next week – despite being on the brink of receiving another emergency bailout from the Irish government. As many as 2,400 bankers in its Dublin capital markets division are to receive the payments on 17 December under agreements struck with the bank in 2008. The bank, 19% owned by Ireland's taxpayers but expected to reach 95% state-ownership, had originally been blocked from making the payments under one of the government's bailout programmes.
- New homes in major Chinese cities are "overpriced" by an average of 30%, citing the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' annual housing report released yesterday. The report said prices of new properties in Fuzhou in the southeastern seaboard province of Fujian were most inflated with a "price-bubble index" of .703. Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Nanning in the Guangxi region were second and third.
- China's three commodities exchanges in Shanghai, Dalian and Zhengzhou are considering increasing contract sizes to curb speculation, citing managers at futures brokerages. Large contract sizes require more funds to trade.
- Former Chinese central bank deputy governor Wu Xiaoling said banks' reserve ratio should be raised more frequently while there are large foreign exchange inflows. There is still room to further raise reserve ratios, Wu said.
Citigroup:
- Reiterated Buy on (GLW), target $22.50.
- Reiterated Sell on (GNW), target $13.
- Rated (VPRT) Outperform, target $55.
- Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.75% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 106.50 unch.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 106.0 +1.75 basis points.
- S&P 500 futures +.42%
- NASDAQ 100 futures +.32%.
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (CIEN)/-.16
- (GRB)/.08
- (SFD)/.56
- (JW/A)/.95
- (BF/B)/1.00
- (NSM)/.32
- (PLL)/.50
- (GMCR)/.20
- (BGP)/-.51
- (ESL)/1.20
8:30 am EST
- Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 425K versus 436K the prior week.
- Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 4237K versus 4270K prior.
- Wholesale Inventories for October are estimated to rise +.8% versus a +1.5% gain in September.
- None of note
- The weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, Goldman Sachs Automotive Conference, Lazard Cloud Computing Summit, Barclays Tech Conference, (BFB) analyst conference, (AKAM) investor summit, (DPZ) analyst meeting, (DLR) investor day, (NUAN) analyst day, (PFG) investor day and the (UTX) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.
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