Frontrunning: May 26

• Obama to nominate Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court
• Lenders [BofA, Merrill] rewarded with "Bookrunner" hirings by firms in need [REITs] (FT)
• "Purchase accounting" lets FDIC/taxpayers eat JPM's loss, gives it full, one-time benefit for all gains (Bloomberg)
• North Korea is obviously very concerned about stern Obama condemnation, fires second set of missiles (Bloomberg and FT)
• The case of the vanishing analysts (WSJ)
• California's day of reckoning is a warning for Europe (TimesOnline)
• Rio Tinto cuts Nippon Steel iron ore prices by more than a third (AP and FT)
• Good stocks the market left behind (Bloomberg)
• Make or break week for GM as deadline nears (AP)
• California tax revolt 2.0 (Fundmastery)
• South Africa falls into first recession as economy contracts more than 6% (Bloomberg)
• The brave new world of restricted credit (Forbes)