Bloomberg:
- Venizelos: Greek Debt Swap Best, Only Offer. Greece expects bondholders to accept a one-time offer to write off about 100 billion euros ($140 billion) of Greek debt and is ready to force them to participate if necessary, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said. “This is the best offer,” Venizelos said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Nicole Itano in Athens today. “This is the best offer because this is the only one, the only existing offer.” European leaders are facing the first test of their attempt to turn the page on the two-year debt crisis as Greece’s private creditors decide whether to sign off on the biggest sovereign- debt restructuring in history. The success of the 106 billion- euro swap, confirmed on the eve of last week’s European summit, depends on how many investors agree to the writedown by the March 8 deadline. “This is the critical week,” Venizelos said.
- European Services Output Declines More Than Initially Estimated: Economy. Euro-area services output shrank more than estimated in February, led by Italy and Spain, as the region’s economy struggled to rebound from a contraction in the fourth quarter. An index based on a survey of purchasing managers in the services industry dropped to 48.8 from 50.4 in January, London- based Markit Economics said on its website today. That’s below an initial figure of 49.4 published on Feb. 22. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight in London, said today’s report suggests that the euro- area economy will shrink in the first quarter, sending the region into recession after a 0.3 percent contraction in the fourth quarter.
- Coelho Won't Follow Spain in Seeking More Room for Portuguese Deficit Goal. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said he won’t follow Spain’s example and seek to ease Portugal’s deficit targets to withstand a deepening recession. Portugal will “absolutely not” alter the deficit goals it pledged in return for a European Union-led aid package last year, Passos Coelho said in an interview in Lisbon today. “Spain is in a different situation. They have more space to maneuver to get to the target in 2013. We are in an adjustment program, so we cannot fail the targets.”
- Copper Futures Fall Most in Two Weeks on Signs That China Demand May Ease. Copper fell the most in two weeks in New York on concern that demand will slow after China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal, cut its economic-growth target. Copper futures for May delivery slid 1.4 percent to $3.848 a pound by 10:55 a.m. on the Comex in New York. A close at that price would be mark the biggest loss since Feb. 17. Stockpiles monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange have climbed to the highest since at least January 2003, weekly data showed. Deliveries of passenger autos in China, including sport- utility vehicles and light-goods vans, fell 3 percent in the first two months of 2012 from a year earlier, based on the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would be the biggest drop since 2005, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. A luxury automobile may use as much as 28 kilograms (62 pounds) of the metal, according to the Copper Development Association.
- Electric-Car Loans Dry Up Ahead of Election on Solyndra. While Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the vehicle program is evaluating applications, it hasn’t awarded new money since the bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, which won a $535 million loan guarantee through another department program. “In an election year, there will be more caution and delay as a result,” said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University. Solyndra’s bankruptcy filing put a damper on all Energy Department loans, Zelizer said in an e-mail. “Inevitably it will slow down the program the closer we get to the election,” he said. The $25 billion vehicle-loan program, created in 2008, last made an award in March 2011. Republicans subpoenaed documents about the Solyndra loan from President Barack Obama’s administration, questioning whether campaign fundraiser George Kaiser, whose family foundation was the company’s biggest investor, pressed for the loan guarantee.
- Iraq Crude Output at Highest Since 1979, Oil Minister Says. Iraq is pumping more than 3 million barrels a day of crude, its highest average output since Saddam Hussein seized power in the country 33 years ago, the oil minister said. BP Plc and Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) have made separate bids to develop the Kirkuk oil field in northern Iraq, Abdul Kareem al- Luaibi said today at a news conference in Baghdad. The oil ministry is studying offers to boost dwindling production at the field, one of the country’s oldest, he said. Iraq is the third-largest producer in OPEC, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran, and its output is rising after years of conflict, sanctions and sabotage. The nation holds the world’s fifth-largest crude deposits that also include Canadian oil sands, according to data from BP Plc (BP/), and the government seeks investment to help boost exports and rebuild the economy. “Crude oil production exceeds 3 million barrels a day and is at the highest since 1979,” Luaibi said, reiterating Iraq’s target of producing 3.4 million barrels by the end of the year.
- Orders to U.S. Factories Fall for First Time in Three Months. Orders to U.S. factories decreased in January for the first time in three months, a sign manufacturing is cooling at the beginning of the year. Bookings (TMNOCHNG) fell 1 percent after a revised 1.4 percent gain in December that was larger than previously estimated, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median of 61 economists’ projections in a Bloomberg News survey called for a 1.5 percent decline.
- U.S. Service Industries Unexpectedly Expand to a One-Year High: Economy. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index climbed to 57.3 from 56.8 in January, the Tempe, Arizona- based group’s data showed today. Readings above 50 signal expansion, and the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was 56.
- Chinese Stocks Traded in U.S. Drop Most in Two Weeks as Growth Target Cut. Chinese equities traded in the U.S. fell the most in two weeks after the government pared the nation’s economic growth target for the first time since 2005. China Life Insurance Co. (LFC), the nation’s largest life insurer, fell the most in almost three months, leading a 2 percent slide in the Bloomberg China-US 55 index of the most- traded Chinese stocks in the U.S. Commodity producers Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. (YZC) and Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. also tumbled as metal prices sank and coal stagnated.
- Brazil Has Little Room For Maneuver On Rates - Economist. Brazil's central bank has little room for maneuver when it comes to reductions in the nation's sky high interest rates, with deep cuts likely to be put off for at least another year, according to the president of the Sao Paulo Economists Association.
CNBC.com:
- Is China's Role as Global Growth Engine Finally Over? Investors are worried that China’s decade-long run as the world's growth engine may be over— along with unprecedented demand for commodities and ultra-cheap labor and parts for manufacturers.
- For Bailout Nations, New EU Treaty Is High Price To Pay. If you were a voter in a financially troubled democracy, imagine putting up with this:
- Oil Is The New Greece: HSBC Chief Economist. Rising oil prices have displaced Greece as a source of investor anxiety, a new HSBC report says, warning that if the trend of rising oil prices persists, a fragile economic recovery in the developed world could quickly be derailed, and inflation could return to emerging markets.
- Jim O'Neill: This Is My Biggest Concern Going Into March.
- Spain Is Turning Into An Economic Tragedy.
- How to Set Up an iPhone Passcode and Protect Your Data.
- China Bulls Should Remember This Old Bit Of Hindi Wisdom.
- European Credit Signals LTRO Ineffectiveness. (graph)
- De-Investifying China. (graph)
- Dallas Fed's Fisher "Perplexed" By Wall Street "Fetish" With QE3 and Disgusted With The Addiction to "Monetary Morphine".
Forbes:
- Yahoo(YHOO) Layoffs Could Reach Thousands, Happen This Month, Report Says. Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Scott Thompson is planning a massive restructuring that will result in layoffs possibly totaling in the thousands as early as the end this month, according to a Monday report.
- BofAML: Hedge Funds Trail S&P 500 In February. Hedge fund performance still trailed that of the S&P 500 in February, according to the latest Hedge Fund Monitor from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. BofAML’s investable hedge fund composite index was up about 1.19% in February, while the S&P 500 was up 2.87%. According to analyst Mary Ann Bartels, event driven and convertible arbitrage strategies were the best performers for the month, up 2.36% and 1.48%, respectively. The worst performing strategy for the month was equity market neutral, which lost 0.83%.
- Hedge Fund Redemptions, Assets Up In February. Investors pulled $15.2 billion from hedge funds in January 2012, as overall industry assets climbed to $1.70 trillion from $1.68 trillion at end-2011. “January marked the biggest monthly outflow since July 2009, when hedge funds redeemed $17.7 billion,” said Leon Mirochnik, an analyst at TrimTabs. “The hedge fund industry has experienced net outflows in four out of the last five months.”
- Italian, Spanish Bond Yields, CDS Rise After PMI Data. Italian and Spanish government bond yields rose on Monday after PMI surveys of the service sector activity in the two countries came in below expectations. "The Spanish (PMI) was shocking, it came in way below, the Italian one was quite weak and the French one was quite weak as well. That's not helping and given the performance of the periphery last week it's probably not that surprising it gives back a little bit," one trader said. Italian two-year yields were up 8 basis points at 1.9 percent, while Spanish 2-year yields were up 7 bps at 2.39 percent. The Italian/German 10-year yield spread widened by 8 bps to 319 bps, while the equivalent Spanish spread expanded by 6 bps to 317 bps. The cost of insuring debt issued by Italy and Spain against default also rose, according to data provider Markit. Spanish 5-year credit default swaps rose 13 basis points to 388 bps, while Italian CDS were up 12 bps at 370 bps.
Telegraph:
- Spain's Sovereign Thunderclap and the End of Merkel's Europe. The Spanish rebellion has begun, sooner and more dramatically than I expected.
- Lending Rates Hit All Time Highs. Banks are squeezing households by record amounts with high interest rates on overdrafts, mortgages and credit cards, despite the Bank of England base rate being at an all-time low.
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