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Frontrunning: April 24

Tyler Durden's picture




 
  • Obama’s Drone-Strike Rules to Be Reviewed (WSJ)
  • Hostage locations difficult to track - and may be getting harder (Reuters)
  • Varoufakis Said to Take Hammering From Riled EU Ministers (BBG)
  • EU Frustration Mounts as Greeks Try to Bypass Aid Process (BBG)
  • Kleiner Perkins seeks almost $1 million in costs in Pao case (Reuters)
  • Google Misses, Caps Costs as Growth Slows (WSJ)... stock surges 
  • Oil prices trade near 2015 highs on Yemen worries (Reuters)
  • Pentagon Announces New Strategy for Cyberwarfare (NYT)
  • Bloomberg Oil at $65 Seen Freeing 500,000 Barrels From Shale Fracklog (BBG)
  • ‘Flash Crash’ Trader Navinder Sarao: It Was Wits, Not Bits (WSJ)
  • HSBC Reviews Moving Headquarters From London on Regulation (BBG)
  • Migrant influx strains Greece as economy suffers (Reuters)
  • Putin’s Miracle Dissolves as Russian Middle Class Faces Crunch (BBG)
  • Low-key launch as Apple Watch finally goes on sale (Reuters)
  • Germany Recognizes Armenian Killings in 1915 as Genocide (BBG)
  • Xerox revenue dips as printer sales fall (BBG)
  • Minnesota declares state of emergency over bird flu in poultry (Reuters)
  • U.S. Bird Flu Scourge Means Months of Dead Turkey Cleanup (BBG)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Comcast Corp's soon-to-be abandoned plan to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc ran up against the challenge of overcoming scrutiny by two federal agencies, including a Justice Department review that was more skeptical. (http://on.wsj.com/1GdqekE)

* Tough new environmental rules and cheap energy prices are heightening the battle between coal miners and natural-gas pumpers over which fuel will dominate the U.S. power market.(http://on.wsj.com/1GdqPCH)

* Cablevision Systems Corp is pitching new packages aimed at cord-cutters that combine broadband service with a free digital antenna to pick up local television signals.(http://on.wsj.com/1Gdr0xO)

* The European Union could create a powerful new regulator to oversee a swath of mainly U.S.-based Internet companies, according to an internal document that lays bare the deep concerns in top EU policy circles around the economic threat posed by companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc .(http://on.wsj.com/1GdrEM3)

* New concerns have been raised in the wake of revelations that restrictions President Barack Obama imposed two years ago on the drone program failed to prevent the deaths of hostages.(http://on.wsj.com/1Gdsx7a)

 

FT

Business leaders have become frustrated at the tactics and tone of the Conservative election campaign. Twenty FTSE 100 and other business leaders told the FT that they are anxious that despite presiding over an economic recovery, David Cameron has not opened a lead over Labour.

David Cameron and Angela Merkel led pledges to send more ships to deal with a Mediterranean refugee crisis in a move that marked a sharp policy about-turn for both the UK and Germany.

International sales at US blue-chips are being hit by the strong dollar and the emerging markets slowdown, despite the companies enjoying a recovery at home.

Deutsche Bank paid a record $2.5 billion to authorities in the U.S. and UK to settle allegations that it manipulated the Libor benchmark rate. The bank was also ordered to dismiss seven employees, while a London subsidiary, DB Group Services, is pleading guilty to U.S. criminal wire fraud charges.

Comcast has pulled its $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable after failing to convince regulators that a deal that would have transformed the US media and internet landscape was in the public interest.

The Nasdaq Composite closed in record territory on Thursday, completing a 15-year recovery from one of the most spectacular equity market busts experienced by investors.

 

NYT

* Facing intense regulatory scrutiny, Comcast Corp is planning to abandon its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, ending a bid that would have united the country's two largest cable operators and reshaped the rapidly evolving video and broadband markets. (http://nyti.ms/1GbLdEu)

* The Pentagon on Thursday took a major step designed to instill a measure of fear in potential cyberadversaries, releasing a new strategy that for the first time explicitly discusses the circumstances under which cyberweapons could be used against an attacker, and naming the countries it says present the greatest threat: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. (http://nyti.ms/1aWSIGA)

* Chinese antitrust regulators on Thursday fined Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz 350 million yuan ($56.49 million), accusing the company of fixing prices on luxury cars and some spare parts. The penalty is just the latest for a foreign carmaker in China, the world's largest auto market. (http://nyti.ms/1JA8eUq)

* Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is offering a new deal to the former associate who unsuccessfully sued the firm, accusing it of gender discrimination: Promise not to pursue this case any further or pay us $1 million. (http://nyti.ms/1DiqegU)

* The family office for the Google Inc chairman Eric E. Schmidt has purchased a large stake in the $36 billion hedge fund, D. E. Shaw. (http://nyti.ms/1yVifeH)

* Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $2.5 billion in penalties, a record settlement for the interest rate cases, which have already stung the likes of Barclays Plc and UBS Group AG. Deutsche Bank also agreed to accept a criminal guilty plea for the British subsidiary at the center of the case (http://nyti.ms/1HyqSNH)v

 

Hong Kong

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

- A financial tech start-up based in Hong Kong will soon launch a hedge fund in the US managed by artificial intelligence. Ben Goertzel, co-founder and chief scientist of the venture, called Aidyia, said there will be millions of US dollars in the fund when it starts trading in US equities in June. (bit.ly/1d6FCbv)

- Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, the former executive councillor and chairman of the now-defunct Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange, was sentenced to six weeks in jail - after being slammed by a magistrate for his "lack of priority" in paying a former employee. He had earlier pleaded guilty to failing to pay wages to a member of his staff. However, Cheung was allowed to remain free on bail pending an appeal against the sentence.(bit.ly/1PreSAb)

- The student body that took a leading role in the Occupy Central movement last year is facing a crisis as a third member university disaffiliates from it. The future of the Federation of Students was a "worry", secretary general Nathan Law said ahead of the results of Baptist University's student vote, which decided late on Thursday to pull the students' union out of the body. (bit.ly/1d6Hj8O)

THE STANDARD

- Hong Kong's booming stock market might have attracted mainland money, some of which might have flowed in through illegal channels, said JPMorgan Asset Management market strategist Grace Tam Wai-man. Much of the funds came from overseas like the United States or Europe and this trend will continue, Tam said. (bit.ly/1bmRXHh)

- HTC chairwoman Cher Wang Hsiueh-hong has resigned as non-executive director of Television Broadcasts and will be succeeded by Gravity Corp executive Thomas Hui To. Taiwanese tycoon Cher Wang is among the investors of Young Lion, which bought a 26 percent stake in TVB in 2011. (bit.ly/1PrhIoW)

- The Hospital Authority will raise its retirement age to 65 from 60 for new recruits from June 1. The move mirrors plans for civil servants. But unlike the government, the authority has not raised the retirement age for existing staff. The authority has about 70,000 staff, and is the second biggest employer after the Hong Kong government. (bit.ly/1I1yxok)

HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL

- Turnover of warrants linked to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing surpassed the turnover of the actual company shares for two consecutive days, the first time since 2007. The warrant turnover amounted to HK$8.4 billion ($1.08 billion) on Thursday, much higher than HK$6.8 billion turnover of the company shares.

 

Britain

The Times

* Deutsche hit with record Libor fine

Deutsche Bank has been ordered to dismiss six managers in London after pleading guilty to fraud and being fined a record $2.5 billion for rigging benchmark interest rates while lying to regulators. (http://thetim.es/1FiaZdT)

* Sainsbury's bids goodnight to 800 jobs

In the latest indication of the financial toll being exacted on food retailers by a grocery price war, J Sainsbury Plc is making cutbacks that include the abolition of the roles of "deputy manager" and certain departmental heads in its supermarkets. (http://thetim.es/1bz3cx4)

The Guardian

* Barclay brothers sell stake in three luxury London hotels

The Barclay brothers have abandoned their four-year battle to seize control of three of London's most prestigious five-star hotels, including Claridges, selling out to a business controlled by Qatari sovereign funds. (http://bit.ly/1OiRwQh)

* Alexis Tsipras seeks interim deal for Greece in talks with Angela Merkel

Greece's increasingly desperate financial state was highlighted on Thursday when the country's prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, urged the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to use her influence to speed up deadlocked negotiations over a new aid package. (http://bit.ly/1JijjwK)

The Telegraph

* U.S. alarmed by Greek energy alliance with Russia

The U.S. is scrambling to head off a Greek pipeline deal with Russia, fearing a disastrous change in the strategic balance of the Eastern Mediterranean as Greece's radical-Left government drifts into the Kremlin's orbit. (http://bit.ly/1DFB4Ow)

* McFarlane vows change at Barclays as he is urged to 'bring chainsaw'

Barclays Plc new chairman has vowed to speed up the bank's restructuring on his first day in the job, raising the prospect of bold moves to placate shareholders. John McFarlane, who officially replaced Sir David Walker as the bank's chairman at Thursday's annual meeting, promised investors a "dynamic reallocation" of resources that would allow the bank to pursue "a number of growth options".(http://bit.ly/1FidQ6T)

Sky News

* AstraZeneca braced for investor pay protest

AstraZeneca Plc is braced for dissent from leading investors over executive pay almost a year after it saw off a 69 billion pounds takeover bid from Pfizer. The FTSE-100 drugs giant will be the subject of a modest shareholder revolt at its annual meeting on Friday. (http://bit.ly/1OM5vZK)

* Ideal Shopping Direct owner crafts 200 mln pounds sale

One of the UK's biggest home shopping groups has been put up for sale for more than 200 million pounds ($301.02 million) , four years after being taken private for less than half that sum. (http://bit.ly/1aVzmld)

 

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Fri, 04/24/2015 - 07:58 | 6025381 Usurious
Usurious's picture

 

''The civil complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that, from September 2007 through December 2011, Quicken knowingly submitted, or caused the submission of, claims for hundreds of improperly underwritten FHA-insured loans.''

 

http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2015/04/23/quicken-fh...

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 08:06 | 6025402 q99x2
q99x2's picture

A few more years and their enemies around the world will have weaponized drones of their own. YeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaa How you like them then.

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 08:40 | 6025498 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

Slightly hazy, with a chance of steel rain and hellfire.

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 08:58 | 6025557 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture
Job cuts at the Big Three oilfield services firms get deeper

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2015/04/24/job-cuts-at-...

 

 

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 09:19 | 6025623 g'kar
g'kar's picture

Drone rules to be reviewed. The use of tactical nukes on drones will be authorized to cut down on witnesses.

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 11:54 | 6026332 847328_3527
847328_3527's picture
What a send-off: China's funeral strippers told to cover up

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/asia/china-funeral-strippers/index.html

Fri, 04/24/2015 - 12:35 | 6026510 malek
malek's picture

 Drone-Strike Rules to Be Reviewed - by a secret court?  

(not reading WSJ crap)

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