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Frontrunning: April 21

Tyler Durden's picture




 
  • The Fed Still Wants Easy Money (BBG) - you don't say
  • ECB Is Studying Curbs on Greek Bank Support (BBG)
  • Banks Paid to Borrow as Three-Month Euribor Drops Below Zero (BBG)
  • Baoding Tianwei is first state-owned Chinese enterprise to default (Reuters)
  • Major Chinese Developer Says It Can’t Pay Dollar Debts (BBG)
  • Wall Street Has No Idea How Much Money Venezuela Has (BBG)
  • Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Find Different Paths to Profits (WSJ)
  • Does the Collapse of a Chinese Developer Signal the Start of More Defaults? (BBG)
  • Retail Traders Wield Social Media for Investing Fame (WSJ)
  • Greece Makes It Expensive to Hedge European Stocks (BBG)
  • Bird Flu Hits Iowa Chickens in Escalation of Virus Outbreakv (WSJ)
  • Iran sees Yemen ceasefire in coming hours: Tasnim news agency (Reuters)
  • Teva Said to Plan Public Mylan Approach as Soon as Today (BBG)
  • With a prince's backing, James Murdoch may soon ascend at Fox (Reuters)
  • Blue Bell Creameries Recalls All Products (WSJ)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* KPMG LLP is poised to promote Lynne Doughtie, head of the accounting firm's fast-growing advisory business, to the role of chairman and chief executive, the latest move reflecting women's advancement to leadership roles in the accounting industry.(http://on.wsj.com/1aMPZ2i)

* An Iowa farm's flock of about 5.3 million chickens has been hit with avian influenza, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday, marking a sharp escalation of the virus outbreak that has rattled the poultry industry since it began late last year. (http://on.wsj.com/1aMSaTB)

* Blue Bell Creameries issued a voluntary recall Monday night for all of its products on the market after two samples of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream tested positive for listeria, a potentially deadly bacteria. (http://on.wsj.com/1aMSmlE)

* The European Union plans to file formal antitrust charges against the bloc's largest gas supplier, Russia's OAO Gazprom , said people familiar with the matter, a move set to escalate the standoff between Europe and Moscow.(http://on.wsj.com/1aMSq4S)

* Giant money manager BlackRock Inc agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $12 million to settle claims that it failed to tell clients about a conflict between a fund manager's private holdings and portfolios he supervised for BlackRock clients. (http://on.wsj.com/1aMSAJz)

 

FT

The European Union will on Wednesday accuse Russia's Gazprom of illegal abuse of its dominant position in Europe's gas market, unveiling antitrust charges that threaten to inflame already difficult relations with Moscow.

The Bank of England has written to the U.S. Treasury asking why Berkshire's reinsurance operation - among the world's most powerful - was left off a provisional list of "too big to fail" institutions drawn up by the Financial Stability Board.

Up to 1 million Syrians and sub-Saharan migrants are waiting in Libya to cross to Europe, an Italian official said on Monday as European ministers pledged to increase the funding and range of the EU's task force in the Mediterranean.

The U.S. Department of Justice wants five banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Barclays Plc, to reach a joint "mega settlement" to allegations they manipulated foreign exchange markets. The settlement would see some institutions pay about $1 billion each.

The UK ordered Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman to sell his North Sea gas fields, giving him just three months to comply or lose operating rights.

 

NYT

* Russia's Gazprom is expected to be accused of abusing its dominance in natural gas markets, and countries like Lithuania and the United States have been pushing for a crackdown. (http://nyti.ms/1yMOqwS)

* Private equity investors led by TPG agreed to buy Cirque du Soleil for 1.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.22 billion), a purchase that will pave the way for the company to expand into China. (http://nyti.ms/1yKO4Xv)

* The criminal case against Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs Inc programmer who was accused of stealing the investment bank's high-frequency trading code, will proceed to a jury after his last-ditch, midtrial effort to toss out the case came up short. (http://nyti.ms/1HqasqF)

* Drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said on Monday that it had agreed to pay $512 million to settle claims that a subsidiary, Cephalon, paid generic manufacturers to keep their own cheaper versions of a drug off the market, a practice that the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 could be illegal in some cases. (http://nyti.ms/1IA4xxG)

* The Agriculture Department announced on Monday that an outbreak of avian flu had been confirmed in what could potentially be millions of chickens at an Iowa egg producer, the largest outbreak yet in an epidemic that has also hit turkey farmers in Minnesota. (http://nyti.ms/1DagdDZ)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** The Conservative government will announce tax cuts for small business in Tuesday's federal budget as part of an effort to shore up a key constituency ahead of the fall election. With an election scheduled for October, Ottawa is moving ahead with a tax-cut-heavy plan aimed at winning over key segments of the population, including small-business owners, seniors and families raising children. (http://bit.ly/1DbotDv)

** Defence lawyers for Sino-Forest Corp and some of the collapsed forestry firm's former directors and senior executives have billed C$41 million ($34 million) in legal costs over the past four years, an amount that lawyers for burned shareholders call "staggering" and "astonishing." The legal bills in the high-profile case came up in a Toronto courtroom on Monday. (http://bit.ly/1GdSJkA)

** Jamie Brown has made the journey from the den of a dragon back to Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Brown is rejoining Canaccord Genuity as vice-chairman and managing director of investment banking. Before January, he was managing partner and a key leader at Difference Capital Financial Inc. (http://bit.ly/1JpF5Lx)

NATIONAL POST

** Crescent Point Energy Corp is overhauling its approach to executive compensation as a result of a less-than-desirable outcome of a "say on pay" vote, as the movement increasingly changes the way companies in the oilpatch reward their top managers. At the same time, the company revealed that it has already cut its CEO's 2014 pay package by 30 percent. (http://bit.ly/1HqC3YL)

** Rogers Communications Inc missed analysts' estimates for first-quarter profit as Canada's biggest wireless carrier spent nearly one-third more year-over-year to retain and migrate subscribers to its higher-margin "Share Everything" monthly plan. (http://bit.ly/1J5KoTy)

** The Conservative government is looking closely at dramatically extending compassionate leave for caregivers, from six weeks to six months, and the measure could come as early as Tuesday's federal budget, sources say. Caregivers who look after a sick family member are currently eligible for six weeks of Employment Insurance. (http://bit.ly/1OBvgvH)

 

Hong Kong

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

- A senior University of Hong Kong don apologised for his "clumsy and inappropriate" comment that those opposed to a new programme requiring undergraduates to spend time on the mainland need not enrol. Pro-vice-chancellor Ian Holliday also made an about-turn as he stressed that the scheme would not be mandatory and no timetable for its roll-out had been set. (bit.ly/1DvUMfN)

- A fully-loaded Cathay Pacific flight from London's Heathrow airport to Hong Kong was aborted just minutes before it was due to take off after a pilot was found to have kept knives in his hand luggage, a passenger on the plane revealed. (bit.ly/1zEtPWs)

THE STANDARD

- A controversial proposal to turn a 99-year-old home on The Peak into a boutique hotel is likely to be dropped. Developer Crown Empire said it could not accept the 11 criteria which the Town Planning Board set, as this would render its work ineffective. The 27, Lugard Road heritage site, which contains a two-story colonial home, was bought for HK$384 million in 2012. (bit.ly/1HpMGeh)

- Beijing expects there to be universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive election, which is also what most Hong Kong people want, Vice President Li Yuanchao said. (bit.ly/1yKE8ND)

- Some of the city's movers and shakers including tycoons and business heavyweights have joined a major effort to stop the government from razing Hong Kong's only international golf course to make way for property development. They sent a joint petition to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urging him not to redevelop the historic Fan Ling golf course. (bit.ly/1zEw8ZA)

HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL

- Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd to set up a joint venture company to build thin-film photovoltaic power stations on the islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Saipan.

 

Britain

The Times

* Lloyds bosses caught on the hop by 4 bln pounds share offer

Lloyds Banking Group was left scrambling at the weekend to respond to Conservative plans to offer the public the chance to buy up to 4 billion pounds ($5.96 billion) of the taxpayer-backed lender's shares should the Tories win the election. (http://thetim.es/1yMrcqW)

* EU competition regulator set to accuse Gazprom

Russia's state-owned energy giant is set to be accused of abusing its dominant position as a gas supplier. The European Union's competition regulator is expected to act tomorrow, days after filing anti-trust charges against Google Inc. (http://thetim.es/1IztJo6)

The Guardian

* Athens demands cash reserves from public sector funds

The Greek government has issued a decree forcing public sector bodies to transfer idle cash reserves to the central bank in a sign of how severe the country's cash crunch has become. The order came as the country's Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, issued a stark warning to eurozone neighbours that they were playing with fire as Athens edges closer to a debt default. (http://bit.ly/1K0uW9b)

* HSBC could move headquarters away from UK, hints bank's chairman

HSBC Holdings Plc's bosses apologised on Monday to shareholders for activities in the bank's Swiss operations and signalled that the London-based business may consider whether it should remain headquartered in the United Kingdom. (http://bit.ly/1P7Du0G)

The Telegraph

* Vast majority of City would vote for UK to stay in EU

The vast majority of finance workers would vote for the United Kingdom to remain part of the European Union even though more than 40 percent believe that Brussels is actively hostile toward their industry, according to a survey that lays bare the City of London's ambiguous relationship with Europe. (http://bit.ly/1aM8C6q)

* Ed Davey orders Russians to sell North Sea petroleum licences

The British government has ordered a group of Russian billionaire investors led by Mikhail Fridman to sell North Sea petroleum licences amid concerns over the UK's energy security. LetterOne - an investment vehicle controlled by Fridman - acquired the licences earlier this year as part of a 5 billion euros ($5.37 billion) deal to buy RWE Dea. (http://bit.ly/1yKtuGL)

Sky News

* Spotify to sell stakes to global fund giants

An array of prominent global investors including London-based hedge fund Lansdowne Partners are in advanced talks to acquire multimillion pound stakes in digital music service Spotify. (http://bit.ly/1DteAQM)

* UK credit rating at risk, Henderson CEO warns

Voters face a stark choice at the General Election, with a Labour victory jeopardising the UK's top-notch credit rating and a potential poll on EU membership causing global companies to slash investment in Britain, one of the City's leading figures has warned. (http://bit.ly/1O8EFQp)

The Independent

* The biggest U.S.-EU free trade agreement in history is advancing behind closed doors

Secret negotiations between the United States and European Union for the biggest bilateral trade agreement ever negotiated resume on April 20 in New York. The talks are attracting increasing criticism as activists guess at the proposals while politicians keep the details behind closed doors. (http://ind.pn/1GeeKm3)

* Tesco staff pensions under threat as bosses post warning

Tesco Plc has written to its 300,000 staff outlining plans for the future of the supermarket's pension scheme as it looks for ways to plug the estimated 5 billion pounds black hole and official consultation starts. (http://ind.pn/1yKu0V9)

 

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Tue, 04/21/2015 - 07:52 | 6013942 DavidC
DavidC's picture

"The Fed Still Wants Easy Money".

Really?! I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

DavidC

Tue, 04/21/2015 - 08:12 | 6013967 Keltner Channel Surf
Keltner Channel Surf's picture

David, I too was stunned, falling out of my chair, but was able to escape injury, cushioned by 7 yrs of liquidity.

Tue, 04/21/2015 - 08:38 | 6014016 RushRoolz
RushRoolz's picture

Or put another way.... "Drug addict addicted to drugs."

 

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