Ireland Long-Term Sovereign Rating Lowered by Standard & Poor's. Ireland’s debt rating was lowered two steps by Standard & Poor’s, with a negative outlook, as the nation’s bailout of its banking system is set to escalate the government’s borrowing needs. “The Irish government looks set to borrow over and above our previous projections to fund further bank capital injections into Ireland’s troubled banking system,” S&P said in a statement. Putting the rating on “CreditWatch with negative implications” reflects risk of a further downgrade if talks on a European Union-led rescue fail to stanch capital flight, it said.
Portuguese Strike as Debt Contagion Spreads to Lisbon Streets: Euro Credit. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates is bracing for the country’s biggest strike in 22 years as fallout from Europe’s debt crisis spreads from bond markets to the streets. Workers are walking off the job today to protest government austerity measures as concern about Socrates’s ability to tame the euro-region’s fourth-biggest budget deficit pushed the cost of insuring Portugal’s debt against default to a record high. Credit default swaps climbed 23 basis points yesterday to 482.2, while the yield premium demanded to hold the country’s 10-year bonds over German bunds rose 28 basis points to 435. The backlash against wage cuts and tax increases to trim euro-region deficits is fueling political turmoil and undermining investor confidence.
Default Swaps Soar on 'Sacrosanct' Senior Europe Bank Debt: Credit Markets. The cost of protecting against defaults on senior notes of European banks is soaring on speculation bondholders will be forced to take losses as governments try to share the burden of taxpayer-funded bailouts. The Markit iTraxx Financial Index of credit-default swaps on senior debt increased 12 basis points, or 0.12 percentage point, to 152.9 basis points, the most since May. Contracts on Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo SA are at a record, and Spain’s Banco Santander SA are at the highest level in five months. Europe’s debt crisis has spread to Ireland from Greece, and bond investors bet that Portugal and Spain may be next in line for a bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. “Senior bondholders will most likely find themselves as potential burden-sharers, which is in stark contrast with the rules of engagement of the market,” said Roberto Henriques, a fixed-income analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London. “Even at the worst point of the current crisis, it was generally a given that senior debt was sacrosanct.” Subordinated bonds have largely borne the brunt of losses because they stop paying before senior bonds in case of a default or debt restructuring. Should banks be unable to pay senior bondholders, they may find it more difficult and expensive to raise money. Elsewhere in credit markets, the extra yield investors demand to own company bonds instead of similar maturity government debt rose 3 basis points to 169 basis points, the highest since Oct. 20, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Broad Market Corporate Index. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, increased 4.25 basis points to a mid-price of 95.25 basis pointsas of 5:49 p.m. in New York, the highest since Oct. 22, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd. In London, the Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings gained 2 basis points to 104.9. The Markit iTraxx Asia index of 50 investment-grade borrowers outside Japan rose 5 basis points to 114 as of 8:05 a.m. in Singapore, according to Credit Agricole CIB prices. Credit-default swaps on the senior debt of Ireland’s biggest lenders approached records highs. Contracts on Allied Irish Banks Plc climbed 103 to 954.5 while Bank of Ireland Plc jumped 89.9 to 735.7, according to CMA. The cost of insuring Ireland’s government debt climbed 47.5 to 574.85, while Portugal surged 28.6 to a record 486 and Spain was up 19 to an all-time high of 301.3, CMA prices show. That helped drive the Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of contracts on 15 governments to a record-high 182 basis points, shrinking the difference with the Markit iTraxx Financial Index to 29 basis points. The 750-billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility, created in May to support the region’s most indebted governments, won’t be big enough to rescue Spain, Citigroup’s Buiter said. A rise in Spanish bank risk could be the “tipping point” for the financial credit swaps gauge, according to JPMorgan. Credit-default swaps on Lisbon-based Banco Espirito Santo have climbed almost 300 basis points this month to 699, according to CMA. Contracts on Banco Santander are up about 80 to 232.
North Korean Attack Aimed at Restarting Nuclear Talks With U.S. North Korea’s attack on a South Korean island, along with its disclosure of nuclear advances, is part of a strategy to draw the U.S. back to the negotiating table, analysts in the U.S. and Asia say. It isn’t likely to succeed, and the result could be increased tension between the U.S. and China, North Korea’s closest ally, said the analysts, including Bruce Klingner, a former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea branch. “If anything, it’s likely to have the reverse effect, in that Washington and Seoul are likely to be more determined to resist” North Korean tactics, said Klingner, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington research group.
China and Russia will drop the U.S. dollar for bilateral trade and use their own currencies for settlement, citing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Trading Inquiry Widens to Big Firms. Federal authorities, intensifying an insider-trading investigation, are demanding trading and other information from some of the nation's most powerful investment firms. Hedge-fund giants SAC Capital Advisors and Citadel LLC, big mutual-fund company Janus Capital Group Inc. and Wellington Management Co., one of the nation's biggest institutional-investment firms, have received subpoenas from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office seeking trading, communications and other data as part of a broad criminal investigation, according to people familiar with the matter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also recently questioned an account manager at Primary Global Research LLC, a California company that provides "expert-network" services to hedge funds and mutual funds, people familiar with the matter say. Such expert-network firms set up meetings and arrange calls between traders seeking an investing edge and current and former managers from hundreds of companies. The FBI is seeking information about a Primary Global consultant and his hedge-fund clients, these people say.
Fears of Domino Effect Pervade Europe. Loss of Confidence Extends From Ireland to Spain, Portugal; Bond Spreads Widen as Euro Tumbles. "People that are betting on contagion are probably making the right bet here," said David Gilmore, a strategist at Foreign Exchange Analytics. "There's not really anything to stop the markets from pushing the next domino over."
North Sparks Korea Crisis. Seoul, U.S. Ponder Response to Pyongyang's Deadly Artillery Barrage on Island.
Some Former RIM(RIMM) Enterprise Sales Staff Now Call Apple(AAPL) Home.Apple Inc. (AAPL) is not only poaching corporate customers from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), it's poaching members of RIM's enterprise sales team. In the past 18 months, at least five members of RIM's enterprise-sales team have left the company to join Apple. This includes Geoff Perfect, who served as Head of Strategic Sales at RIM for nearly five years before leaving in April 2009 and joining Apple a month later as Head of Enterprise iPhone Sales, according to LinkedIn, the online networking service for professionals.
Dynegy(DYN) Buyout Rejected by Holders. Power producer Dynegy Inc. said it will restart efforts to sell itself following major shareholders' apparent rejection Tuesday of a buyout offer from private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP worth $605 million. The defeat came at the hands of activist investor Carl Icahn and hedge fund Seneca Capital LP, which recently bought a combined 22% stake in the Houston energy company and urged others to reject Blackstone's offer.
Axa, UBS Marketing a Synthetic Collaterialized Debt Obligation. In a sign that part of the securitization market may be thawing out, UBS is marketing a collateralized debt obligation backed by credit derivatives that are mostly tied to investment-grade corporate bonds.
Pentagon Warns House, Senate Defense Panels of More WikiLeaks Documents. The Pentagon warned Senate and House defense lawmakers that the website WikiLeaks could disclose a “tranche” of classified U.S. State Department cables as early as Nov. 26. The documents “touch on an enormous range of very sensitive foreign policy issues,” Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Elizabeth King said in an e-mail today to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. “We anticipate that the release could negatively impact U.S. foreign relations,” King wrote, telling committee staff, “we will brief you once we have a better understanding of what documents the WikiLeaks publication contains.” King said The New York Times, the U.K.’s The Guardian and Der Spiegel of Germany “are each currently working with WikiLeaks to coordinate the release of these State Department documents.”
Kucinich Calls QE2 Hearing. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a consistant critic of the Federal Reserve, has scheduled a hearing next week to investigate the central bank’s latest round of debt buying, giving the Ohio Democrat an official forum to assail a policy backed by President Barack Obama.
ECB's Nowotny Says Makes Sense That Bondholders Also Contribute. European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said that it would make sense for bondholders to contribute in case a state needs a bailout. While care must be taken not to “emotionally irritate” financial markets, “I believe that in principle everyone should contribute in some way in cases of very large disruptions,” Nowotny said in an interview broadcast live on Austrian state television ORF. This “only can happen in extreme cases and at the same time a safety net must be set up so the country can continue to function,” he said.
CNBC:
Seoul Threatens Retaliation in Event of Further Attacks. South Korea warned North Korea of "enormous retaliation" if it took more aggressive steps after Pyongyang fired scores of artillery shells a South Korean island in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbour since the Korean War ended in 1953. And a senior finance official told an emergency meeting that South Korea's economy, Asia's fourth largest, could withstand any shock linked to the attack. Measures would be taken if needed, Vice-Finance Minister Yim jong-yong said.
Marketwatch.com:
Big China Banks Face Tougher Capital Rules: Report. China's seven largest banks will be subject to stricter capital requirements in the coming years, the state-run Shanghai Securities News reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
U.S. Online Holiday Sales Growth Seen Up Again - comScore. U.S. online spending this holiday is now expected to rise by 11 percent over last year, comScore said on Tuesday, marking the second time the analytics firm has raised its closely watched view.
Guess(GES) Beats in Quarter, Sees Full-Year Above View. Apparel company Guess Inc reported a quarterly profit on Tuesday that far exceeded Wall Street expectations helped by robust expansion overseas, sending its shares up 8 percent.
Financial Times:
OPEC Warns on OTC Trading.The oil market risks “chaos” and global supplies could be disrupted unless tighter regulation is imposed on the trade in oil-based financial instruments, according to Opec’s secretary-general. In an interview with the Financial Times, Abdalla El-Badri said that rapid swings in oil prices had been exacerbated by the private, bilateral over-the-counter derivatives market which, he said, often exerted greater power than the physical realities of supply and demand.
US Group Gives China Details of Nuclear Technology. Westinghouse Electric has handed over more than 75,000 documents to its Chinese customers as the initial part of a technology transfer agreement that it hopes will secure the company’s place in the world’s fastest-growing nuclear market. The documents relate to the construction of the four third-generation AP1000 reactors that Westinghouse, a US nuclear company controlled by Toshibaof Japan, is building in China.
Der Spiegel:
Chancellor Merkel Faces Tough Sell on Irish Bailout. For the second time in just a few months, Angela Merkel will have to explain to voters why Germany must bail out a fellow euro-zone member state. Skepticism is growing -- amongst voters, in the media and within her party. Many want to see Dublin raise its low corporate tax.
China Business News:
China's price control measures can't curb consumer price increases in the long term because inflation is being caused by excess money supply, citing Liu Yuhui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Inflationary pressure may continue for a long time, Liu said.
Evening Recommendations Citigroup:
Reiterated Buy on (AMZN), target $190.
Rated (TOWR) Buy, target $21.
Night Trading
Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.50% on average.
Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 114.0 +10.5 basis points.
Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 110.25 +10.75 basis points.
Durable Goods Orders for October are estimated to rise +.1% versus a +3.3% gain in September.
Durables Ex Transports for October are estimated to rise +.6% versus a -.8% decline in September.
Personal Income for October is estimated to rise +.4% versus a -.1% decline in September.
Personal Spending for October is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +.2% gain in September.
PCE Core for October is estimated unch. versus unch. in September.
Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 435K versus 439K the prior week.
Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 4275K versus 4295K prior.
9:55 am EST
Final Univ. of Mich. Consumer Confidence for November is estimated to rise to 69.5 versus a prior estimate of 69.3.
10:00 am EST
The House Price Index for September is estimated unch. versus a +.4% gain in August.
New Home Sales for October are estimated to rise to 312K versus 307K in September.
10:30 am EST
Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory decline of -2,000,000 barrels versus a -7,286,000 barrel decline the prior week. Gasoline supplies are expected to fall by -1,250,000 barrels versus a -2,657,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to fall by -1,500,000 barrels versus a -1,110,000 barrel fall the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to rise by +.4% versus a +1.6% gain the prior week.
Upcoming Splits
(MGA) 2-for-1
Other Potential Market Movers
The weekly MBA mortgage applications report and $29 Billion 7-Year Treasury Notes Auction could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by financial and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.
North American Investment Grade CDS Index 93.72 bps +1.97%
European Financial Sector CDS Index 144.37 bps +21.36%
Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 174.0 bps +3.37%
Emerging Market CDS Index 228.47 bps +3.78%
2-Year Swap Spread 19.0 +1 bp
TED Spread 16.0 unch.
Economic Gauges:
3-Month T-Bill Yield .12% unch.
Yield Curve 231.0 -2 bps
China Import Iron Ore Spot $164.90/Metric Tonne +.30%
Citi US Economic Surprise Index +30.40 +.7 point
10-Year TIPS Spread 2.10% -3 basis points
Overseas Futures:
Nikkei Futures: Indicating -250 open in Japan
DAX Futures: Indicating +27 open in Germany
Portfolio:
Lower: On losses in my Medical, Biotech and Technology long positions
Disclosed Trades: Added (IWM)/(QQQQ) hedges, added to my (EEM) short
Market Exposure: Moved to 75% Net Long
BOTTOM LINE: Today's overall market action is very bearish as the S&P 500 trades meaningfully lower on China inflation concerns, rising Korean Peninsula tensions and increasing euro sovereign debt angst. On the positive side, Retail, REIT, Telecom and Defense shares are holding up relatively well, falling less than 1.0%. Small-cap shares are outperforming again. The 10-year yield is falling -5 bps to 2.75%. The S&P GSCI Ag Spot Index is rising +.79%. Weekly retail sales rose +2.6% this week versus a +2.7% gain the prior week. On the negative side, Homebuilding, Coal, Gaming, Oil Tanker, Paper, Oil Service and Steel shares are under significant pressure, falling more than 2.5%. Copper is falling -1.4% and Gold is gaining +.68%. The Greece sovereign cds is gaining +2.86% to 1,047.47 bps, the Russia sovereign cds is rising +6.66% to 153.56 bps, the Hungary sovereign cds is gaining +4.24% to 320.48 bps, the Portugal sovereign cds is surging +6.14% to 481.11 bps, the Spain sovereign cds is climbing +6.45% to 300.42 bps, the UK sovereign cds is rising +4.97% to 65.65 bps and the Ireland sovereign cds is gaining +9.23% to 571.35 bps. The huge jump in the euro financial sector cds index remains very troubling. This index is now breaking out of the range it has been in since early July. Given the jump in eurozone debt angst, recent equity gains, China inflation fears, insider trading scandals, Korean peninsula tensions and financial sector Basel III concerns, the broad market is still holding up better than I would have expected, which is a big positive. Market leaders remain relatively firm. However, these concerns appear to be beginning to take their toll and further weakness could materialize tomorrow before the Thanksgiving holiday. I expect US stocks to trade mixed-to-higher into the close from current levels on bargain-hunting, seasonal strength and short-covering.
North Korea Attack on South Kills Two, Setting Homes Ablaze. North Korea lobbed artillery shells at a South Korean island near the disputed border between the two countries, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze in the worst attack on its neighbor in at least eight months. South Korea returned fire with 80 shells and scrambled fighter jets as President Lee Myung Bak vowed to respond “sternly.” Local television channel YTN showed smoke billowing from Yeonpyeong island off South Korea’s northwest coast and said residents took cover in bomb shelters.
Euro in 'Exceptionally Serious' Situation Amid Irish Bailout, Merkel Says. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the euro is in an “exceptionally serious” situation after Ireland became the second European country to need a rescue after Greece. “I don’t want to paint a dramatic picture, but I just want to say that a year ago we couldn’t imagine the debate we had in the spring and the measures we had to take” over Greece, Merkel said in a speech to Germany’s BDA employers’ group in Berlin today. “We are facing an exceptionally serious situation as far as the euro’s situation is concerned.”
Ireland Said to Need 85 Billion Euros for Rescue. European Union officials estimate that a rescue package for Ireland may amount to about 85 billion euros ($114 billion), according to two officials familiar with the talks. The European Commission cited the figure as a preliminary estimate on a conference call of euro-region finance ministers on Nov. 21, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private. Of the total, 35 billion euros would be earmarked for banks and 50 billion euros to help finance the Irish government. Contagion is spreading through the euro region as Ireland hammers out an aid package with the EU and the International Monetary Fund to rescue its banking system. Spanish bonds tumbled, pushing the extra yield that investors demand to hold its 10-year debt over German bunds to a euro-era record of 236 basis points. Irish bonds also dropped today. “The markets currently have virtually zero confidence that the bailout in Ireland will solve the European crisis,” Charles Diebel and David Page, fixed-income strategists at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets in London, wrote in a note today. “With markets effectively in a position to dictate policy, the risk is that the credibility crisis shifts to more sizeable EU countries and thereby poses a greater risk to the system as a whole.”
Corporate Bond Risk Rises in Europe, Credit-Default Swaps Show. Contracts on the Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of 50 companies with mostly high-yield credit ratings climbed 18 basis points to 480, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. at 3 p.m. in London. The Markit iTraxx Europe Index of 125 companies with investment-grade ratings rose 4 basis points to 107 basis points, JPMorgan prices show. The Markit iTraxx Financial Index linked to the senior debt of 25 banks and insurers increased 12.5 basis points to 152 and the subordinated index rose 23 to 260.5.
Payrolls Grow as Employers Gain Confidence in Recovery. Payrolls increased in 41 U.S. states in October, led by Texas and New York, indicating the labor market is stabilizing across the world’s largest economy. Employers in Texas added 47,900 jobs last month, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington.
Japan Consumer Lending Falls by Record. Japan’s consumer loans fell by a record in September because of tougher regulations that took effect in June, the Nikkei newspaper reported. The revision of the money-lending business law cut rates and limited loans to one-third of a borrower’s annual income, according to the Nikkei. Consumer loans at Japan’s 62 moneylenders declined by 47 percent to 263 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in September from a year earlier, according to the website of the Japan Financial Services Association, which didn’t provide a reason for the decrease.
Obama's Administration Buys One in Four Hybrids as Consumer Market Slumps. President Barack Obama’s administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes. The U.S. General Services Administration, which runs the government fleet, bought at least 14,584 hybrid vehicles in the past two fiscal years, or about 10 percent of 145,473 vehicles the agency purchased in that period, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Christie's Job-Approval Rating Survives New Jersey Budget Cuts, Poll Shows. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie still wins approval from almost half of the state’s voters even as he cuts budgets, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll. Christie’s job performance was supported by 49 percent of registered voters surveyed by the university’s PublicMind Poll, compared with 39 percent who disapprove, the school said today.
Gilead(GILD) Pill Helps Prevent HIV in 'Breakthrough' Study. A daily pill helped protect gay and bisexual men from HIV for the first time in a landmark study.Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Truvada, sold to subdue the AIDS- causing virus in those already infected, cut the risk of contracting HIV by 44 percent, according to findings published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug reduced new infections as much as 73 percent in those who used it most.
10 Held in 3 Countries in Belgian Terror Probe. Ten suspects were detained in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany following an investigation of a possible terror attack in Belgium by an international group of jihad fighters, prosecutors said. The detainees have Belgian, Dutch, Moroccan and Russian nationalities and will appear before an investigating judge later today, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The suspected terror group was predominantly based in the Belgian city of Antwerp, the prosecutors said.
Wall Street Journal:
Massey(MEE) Energy Moves Close to Sale. Massey Energy Co.'s board on Monday took another step toward a potential sale of the company, setting up a committee to explore offers.
CNBC:
US Growth Revised Up More Than Expected to 2.5%. The U.S. economy grew faster than previously estimated in the third quarter, government data showed on Tuesday, but still not enough to address stubbornly high unemployment. Gross domestic product growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 2.5 percent from 2.0 percent as exports, and consumer and government spending were stronger than initially thought, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate.
High-Frequency, Prop Traders on Bharara's Radar. Computer-driven trading shops and independent proprietary trading firms may be the next to feel the heat from watchdogs aiming to clean up Wall Street, source tell The Post. Federal agents, who have ratcheted up the heat on insider-trading rings linked to hedge funds and investment firms, are also are targeting firms that purport to offer individual investors specialty trading techniques employed by Wall Street powerhouses like Goldman Sachs, these sources said. These firms, which claim to offer market access that typical investors aren't privy to, are being eyed because they may be helping bad actors conduct flash trades that could be tied to insider-trading activity, sources said.
Retrained for Green Jobs, But Still Waiting on Work. After losing his way in the old economy, Laurance Anton tried to assure his place in the new one by signing up for green jobs training earlier this year at his local community college. Anton has been out of work since 2008, when his job as a surveyor vanished with Florida's once-sizzling housing market. After a futile search, at age 56 he reluctantly returned to school to learn the kind of job skills the Obama administration is wagering will soon fuel an employment boom: solar installation, sustainable landscape design, recycling and green demolition. Anton said the classes, funded with a $2.9 million federal grant to Ocala's workforce development organization, have taught him a lot. He's learned how to apply Ohm's law, how to solder tiny components on circuit boards and how to disassemble rather than demolish a building. The only problem is that his new skills have not resulted in a single job offer. Officials who run Ocala's green jobs training program say the same is true for three-quarters of their first 100 graduates.
Politico:
Business: Barack Obama's Outreach Not Enough. After two years of building frustration, the executives say they won’t be won over by another round of private lunches and photo opportunities at the White House. If President Barack Obama has any hope for a truce with corporate America in time for his 2012 reelection campaign, he needs to drop the name-calling, try to see their point of view better and step up with some specific proposals.
USA Today:
Body Scanner Makers Doubled Lobbying Cash Over 5 Years. The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show. L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million trying to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show.
Reuters:
FBI Raids Send Warning to Hedge Funds. FBI raids on hedge funds were a sign that prosecutors feared evidence in a widening insider trading probe could be destroyed, but the dramatic daytime searches may also have been intended to shake up the secretive hedge fund world, legal experts said. Investigators most likely swooped down on the funds Monday in Connecticut and Massachusetts because they had a major concern that subpoenas for information would not be properly obeyed, lawyers and investigators said. The raids served another purpose: warning the broader financial industry that a serious prosecution effort was underway.
European Union and International Monetary Fund officials will tell the Greek government to step up the pace of deficit cuts and structural reforms as government efforts slow. EU and IMF officials will spell out changes which must be made by each ministry so that a fourth payment of loans under the 110 billion-euro package is made in February.
Xinhua:
China and North Korea signed a cooperation agreement on trade and economy in Pyongyang today.
