Daily Highlights: 4.19.10

• Asian stocks fall the most in two months on Goldman Sachs probe.
• China’s currency appreciation may help it to overtake Japan.
• China told banks to stop loans for third-home purchases in cities.
• EU and IMF to discuss new austerity steps.
• European shares lower, airline shares fall.
• Home sales, goods orders probably rose, showing US recovery sustainable.
• SEC, after Goldman, to investigate other firms that may have mislead investors.
• New Shanghai index futures spark heavy short selling; HK stocks hit 3-wk low.
• Oil plunges below $82.
• Venezuela gets $20B loan from China, forms oil venture, Chavez says.
• Yen rises as Goldman probe, Greece concern boost safety demand.
• AMD swings to Q1 profit of $257M as revs gained 34% to $1.57B.
• Areva close to finalising €3B fundraising; Mideast and Asian investments expected.
• British Airways loses 20M pounds a day in revenues, analysts say
• Canada's TD Bank Financial Group acquires operations of three failed institutions in Florida.
• Disney said to be near Deal with Weinsteins, Burkle for Miramax.
• First Horizon National Corp.'s Q1 loss narrowed to $12.7M on lower loan-loss provisions.
• Gannett's profit jumps 51% reflecting cost cuts and less precipitous declines in sales.
• GE's Q1 profit drops 31% to $1.95B on discontinued operations. Revs down 4.8% at $36.6B.
• Goldman Sachs denies SEC charges that it has deceived clients by selling them mortgage securities secretly designed by John Paulson.
• Goldman Sachs faces probes in Britain, Germany after US files fraud suit.
• L’Occitane Ltd. may raise as much as $707M in a Hong Kong initial public offering.
• Macarthur Coal says Citic (which holds 22.4% stake) is yet to support Peabody bid.
• Philips Q1 beats expectations, shares at 23-month high.
• Shenandoah Telecom to buy cable operations of JetBroadband Holdings LLC for $148M.
• Toronto-Dominion may make additional Florida buys.
• Toyota said to agree to pay record $16.4M US fine on auto recalls.

Economic Calendar: Data on Leading Indicators to be released today.

Earnings Calendar: ACI, AMLN, ASRV, BJS, BRO, C, CCK, CF, CTBI, HAL, HAS, IBM, LLY, LNCR, PFIN, STBA, STLD, Y.

RECENT RATING ACTIONS

GANNETT CO INC (GCI)
ORACLE CORP (ORCL)
MATTEL INC (MAT)
GENERAL ELECTRIC CO (GE)
APACHE CORP (APA)
ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC (AMD)
TW TELECOM INC (TWTC)
E*TRADE FINANCIAL CORP (ETFC)
INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORP (ISCA)
JB HUNT TRANSPORT SERVICES (JBHT)
YUM! BRANDS INC (YUM)
PLAINS EXPLORATION & (PXP)

Data provided by Egan-Jones Ratings and Anlaytics

Comments

[doublethink]

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, April 19 (Reuters) - Chinese shares tumbled nearly 5 percent on Monday after Beijing took further steps to rein in the surging real estate market, slamming property stocks and dragging down the Hong Kong market.

[Kina]

Chanos of course was exactly right.

[anynonmous]

Eyjafjallajokull updates:

BBC live news updates on the volcano at this

link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8629051.stm

Eurocontrol

http://www.eurocontrol.int/corporate/public/news/20100419_air_traffic_si...

zeitonline

http://twitter.com/zeitonline/vulkan

_____

April 18, 2010 Goldman Sachs set to pay £3.5bn in bonuses

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_...

[Kina]

Bonuses in hand, mouths remain closed.

[doublethink]

Pandora's Box (Congress Version)

Because the government has committed so much money to A.I.G., Representatives Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, and Peter DeFazio, Democrat of Oregon, are asking the S.E.C. to investigate all the Abacus deals issued by Goldman, and especially those insured by A.I.G.

The congressmen want regulators to determine whether fraudulent conduct by the investment firm contributed to billions of dollars in losses. If such conduct is found, the congressmen are urging the S.E.C. to recoup payments made by A.I.G. to Goldman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/business/19investors.html?dbk%27

[Kina]

This is not going to get better for GS until all the worms come out of the woodwork. And I'm betting there are many more than anticipated.