Morgan Stanley

Stiffer capital rules, a slump in client transactions and a shift toward electronic trading have crimped margins in key fixed-income markets, pushing banks to pull back and eliminate staff... and amid a 42% collapse in fixed-income revenue in Q3, Morgan Stanley is taking action:

*MORGAN STANLEY SAID TO PLAN FIXED-INCOME JOB CUTS OF UP TO 25%

The cuts are said to be worldwide and will happen with two weeks (just in time to watch the carnage unleashed by The Fed).

Here is a sight that will never be seen in the US: the CEO of the country's largest investment bank arrested and perp walked after accusation we was part of the nation's largest corruption scandal.

The financial news continues to confound and confuse investors. The Fed is telling one story. The world economy is telling another.

As was extensively reported over the weekend, the Pfizer-Allergan tax-inverting, reverse-merger (in which the far smaller Allergan would end up "buying" Pfizer, courtesy of fungible debt which doesn't care where it ends up as long as there are cash flows) would be announced this morning, and sure enough, moments ago the long-awaited press release finally hit.

Importantly, while the "bias" of the market is to the upside, primarily due to the psychological momentum that "stocks are the only game in town," the mounting risks are clearly evident. From economic to earnings-related weakness, the "bullish underpinnings" are slowly being chipped away.

“Some Chinese firms have entered the Ponzi stage because return on investment has come down very fast. As a result, leverage will be rising and zombie companies increasing.”

That Hillary Clinton is owned by Wall Street is such an indisputable fact at this point, there’s no point in her even trying to squirm her way out of it. As such, it appears she took on a different tact at last night’s Democratic debate, straight out of the George W. Bush playbook. When asked about her Wall Street donors (her top career contributors are essentially all TBTF banks), she shamelessly replied: "We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country."

Washington’s capacity to foster crony capitalist larceny and corruption never ceases to amaze. But as we recently noted, Wall Street’s shameless thievery from US taxpayers is about to get a whole new definition.

• Stock futures little changed as Yellen comments awaited (Reuters)
• Draghi stimulus hint underpins stocks, knocks euro (Reuters)
• Black Friday's Losing Its Mojo and Retailers Might Be Relieved (BBG)
• Macy’s Fights Downward Spiral With Bet on Off-Price Backstage Stores (WSJ)
• Greece Comes to a Standstill as Unions Turn Against Tsipras (BBG)
• Euro zone production falls more than expected in September (Reuters)
• Valeant played a key role in building, operating Philidor RX (Reuters)

The last 3 days have seen the biggest surge in US energy credit risk since December 2014, blasting back above 1000bps. This should not be a total surprise since underlying oil prices continue to languish in "not cash-flow positive" territory for many shale producers, but, as Bloomberg reports, the industry is bracing for a wave of failures as investors that were stung by bets on an improving market earlier this year try to stay away from the sector. "It’s been eerily silent," in energy credit markets, warns one bond manager, "no one is putting up new capital here."

The ongoing failure of China to achieve any stabilization in its economy, after already cutting interest rates six times in the past year, and the prospect of a U.S. interest rate hike in December, had made markets increasingly jittery and worried which is not only why the S&P 500 Index had its biggest drop in a month, but thanks to the soaring dollar emerging market stocks are falling for a fourth day - led by China - bringing their decline in that period to almost 4 percent, and the global stock index down for a 5th consecutive day.

To compare someone like Bernie Sanders to bloodthirsty monsters like Stalin and Pol Pot is too ludicrous for words. I've heard of slippery slopes before, but good lord, this guy must be totally off his rocker

• Bank of America 150K
• BNP Paribas 150K
• Morgan Stanley 165K
• Deutsche Bank 175K
• JPMorgan 175K
• HSBC 175K
• UBS 180K
• Goldman Sachs 190K

• BOE Stays Cautious on Rate-Hike Timing as Inflation Outlook Cut (BBG)
• China Enters Bull Market (WSJ)
• Britain says Islamic State likely brought down Russian plane (Reuters)
• Dollar jumps as markets fix on December rate expectations (Reuters)
• Activist Investor Bill Ackman Plays Defense (WSJ)
• BOJ Survey Data Reveals Signs of Growing Inequality in Japan (BBG)
• UAW Warns of General Motors Strike If Workers Fail to Approve Contract (WSJ)

Is having the CEOs of two of the largest, most powerful banks sit on the board of their own regulator literally worse than putting a fox in charge of the hen house? Here's why the name "Morgan" get's you a regulator board seat and what regular people can do about it.