Friday, March 30, 2012

Today's Headlines

Posted by Gary .....at 3:15 PM

Bloomberg:
  • Rajoy to Unveil Deepest Spanish Budget Cuts in 30 Years. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil the most austere budget since before Spain’s return to democracy in 1978, risking a deeper recession in a bid to avoid succumbing to Europe’s debt crisis. “There’s interest in seeing how they are going to manage this particular trick of cutting the budget so aggressively,” said Harvinder Sian, an interest-rate strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, during a telephone interview. “The recession will be dramatic.”
  • Italy Losing Luster as Strikes Tarnish Debt Rally. The Italian bond surge delivering better returns than oil, silver or the dollar this year will fade as the nation seeks to borrow 100 billion euros ($136.7 billion) in the second quarter against a backdrop of strikes. Italian securities due in a year or more have outperformed commodities, currencies and other sovereign debt in 2012, when adjusted for volatility, as budget cuts by Prime Minister Mario Monti and European Central Bank lending spurred demand for the nation’s assets.
  • Euro Spat Erupts as Fekter Upstages Juncker at Crisis Talks. A euro-area finance ministers’ meeting to bolster Europe’s crisis-fighting efforts was thrown into confusion as a spat between Luxembourg and Austria erupted over who got to brief journalists first on the outcome. Jean-Claude Juncker, 57, who chairs the meetings, abruptly cancelled a press conference in Copenhagen today after Austria’s Maria Fekter stole the Luxembourg prime minister’s thunder and signalled to reporters that the group had limited new bailout lending to 500 billion euros ($667 billion). “There was no point in having a press conference, because the Austrian finance minister announced it,” Juncker told reporters as he hustled into an elevator after the meeting. “I’m against babbling, so I wanted to make a point today,” he said in an interview later in the day. Fekter, 56, apologized.
  • Corporate Bond Risk Falls in Europe, Credit-Default Swaps Show. The cost of insuring against default on European corporate debt fell, according to traders of credit-default swaps. Contracts on the Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of 50 companies with mostly high-yield credit ratings dropped 15 basis points to 604, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. at 8 a.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings was down 2.5 at 124 basis points. The Markit iTraxx Financial Index linked to senior debt of 25 banks and insurers declined four basis points to 214 and the subordinated gauge was six lower at 348.
  • Sino-Forest to File for Bankruptcy Protection. Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE), the Chinese timber grower accused of fraud by short seller Carson Block, said it plans either a sale of the company or a restructuring under which noteholders would acquire substantially all of its assets.
  • Global Payments(GPN) Trades Halted as Industry Probes Data Breach. Global Payments Inc., the electronic-transaction processor, had trading halted as the credit-card industry investigated a data breach that affected firms including MasterCard (MA) Inc. Global Payments fell 9.1 percent to $47.50 when trading was halted in New York, after earlier plunging more than 13 percent. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Atlanta-based firm was hit by a security breach that may have put 50,000 cardholders at risk. MasterCard fell 0.6 percent to $425.47 at 1:19 p.m. Visa Inc. (V) fell 0.5 percent to $118.45.
  • Obama Campus Fervor Losing to Apathy as Students Sour on 2012. Now a senior, Cassidy, 21, said she’s not working on a campaign this time around. She’s too busy looking for a job at a nonprofit advocacy group. She and her friends aren’t discussing the election as much as in 2008, she said. “There is not much talk of Obama at all,” Cassidy said of the mood on campus, which extends beyond the president. “I don’t think anyone’s satisfied.”
  • Consumers in U.S. Boost Spending. Purchases climbed 0.8 percent in February, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington, exceeding the 0.6 percent median gain forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final index of consumer sentiment rose to 76.2, the highest since February 2011, from 75.3 last month.
  • Business Activity in U.S. Falls Slightly in February. Business activity in the U.S. held near a 10-month high in March, showing the economy is weathering rising fuel costs. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its barometer fell to 62.2 from 64 in February. Readings greater than 50 signal growth. Economists forecast the gauge would fall to 63, according to the median of 58 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
  • Scana Receives NRC Approval to Build South Carolina Reactors. Scana Corp. (SCG) won U.S. approval to build nuclear reactors, the second construction permit issued by regulators in more than 30 years for units that may be among the nation’s last erected this decade. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today voted 4-1 to approve the Cayce, South Carolina, company’s plan to construct and operate two units at its Virgil C. Summer plant, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) northwest of Columbia. Chairman Gregory Jaczko dissented, citing pending safety rules in response to Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster in Japan.
  • Copper Traders Turn Most Bearish in Two Months on China: Commodities. Copper traders are the most bearish in two months after stockpiles tracked by the biggest metals bourse rose for the first time in five weeks and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its recommendation on commodities to neutral. Eleven of 25 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect copper to drop next week, the highest proportion since Jan. 6. Seven were neutral. Inventories reported by the London Metal Exchange rose 1.4 percent on March 27, the first gain since Feb. 22. They retreated the following two days and rose again today. Reserves in Shanghai’s bonded warehouses tripled since November and any strengthening in demand next quarter may be “tepid,” Barclays Capital said in a report March 28.
  • Corn, Wheat, Soybeans Surge, Renewing Food-Inflation Concerns. Corn prices surged the most in 21 months, and wheat and soybean jumped after forecasts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture signaled tighter crop supplies, renewing concerns that food inflation will quicken. Corn inventories on March 1 in the U.S. fell more than analysts forecast to the lowest for this time of year since 2004, the USDA said today in a report. Wheat reserves dropped to a three-year low, and planting intentions trailed estimates. Farmers will sow 73.902 million acres with soybeans this year, down 1.4 percent from 2011, the agency said after surveying farmers.
  • French Police Arrest 19 Islamic Radicals, Sarkozy Says. Just over a week after killing a self-declared jihadist who murdered seven people in the Toulouse area, French police arrested 19 people involved in radical Islamist networks across the country. “These arrests are linked to the world of a certain sort of radical Islam,” President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an interview today with Europe1 radio. Kalashnikov automatic weapons were found in the homes of some of those arrested, he said, adding that there may be additional raids across the country.
Wall Street Journal:
CNBC.com:
Business Insider:
 Zero Hedge:
NY Post:
  • Next Stop, Grand Central for Goldman(GS) Tell-All. It is going to pay off big time for former Goldman Sachs exec Greg Smith to write about his stint in the belly of the Wall Street beast. Smith scored a mind-boggling $1.5 million advance to chronicle his life and times at the investment bank.
New York Times:
  • Large Hedge Funds Fared Well in 2011. Hedge funds have endured a rough year. Tumultuous markets. Tighter regulations. An insider trading crackdown. But despite the lackluster environment, the top managers still took home $14.4 billion in 2011.
  • A Bill to Loosen Hedge Fund Marketing. Investors may soon get a keyhole view into the cloistered world of hedge funds and private equity firms, thanks to a little-known provision in a new bill that would relax rules on how investment firms can market themselves to the public. The bill, called the Jump-start Our Business Start-ups Act, or JOBS Act, would reverse parts of a nearly 80-year-old regulation preventing these funds from discussing even the most basic items, like performance or investment strategy, with outsiders. The rule, part of the Securities Act of 1933, gave an already secretive industry the regulatory cover to remain silent. “It’s a dramatic change from where the industry is,” said Tripp Kyle, a partner at the public relations firm Brunswick Group, which works with some of the largest investment firms in the world. “I think it presents a real opportunity for firms to evolve their mind-set from what they can’t do to what they can and perhaps should be doing.”

Gallup:

Reuters:

  • BP(BP): U.S. Hiding Evidence on Size of Gulf Oil Spill. BP Plc has accused the U.S. government of withholding evidence that may show the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was smaller than federal officials claimed, a key issue in determining the oil company's liability. A reduction in the size of the spill would lower the maximum civil fine BP could be forced to pay under the U.S. Clean Water Act, a sum now estimated as high as $17.6 billion.

Telegraph:

Ansa:

  • Fiat SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the month of March was "horrible" and that car sales in Italy fell by around 40%.

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