Archive for January, 2016

Good to Be Retired

Sunday, January 31st, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Cost-cutting actions outlined in Jan. 29 memo to employees CEO Stuart Gulliver is seeking $5 billion in savings by 2017 HSBC Holdings Plc will impose a hiring and pay freeze this year as part of its drive to cut as much as $5 billion in costs by the end of 2017, ...

Transparency Drive Run Amok

Sunday, January 31st, 2016

Via the FT: Seismic’ shock awaits bond liquidity by: Madison Marriage and Attracta Mooney Fund managers have made a last-ditch attempt to convince European regulators to water down proposed trading rules designed to prevent a repeat of the market turmoil encountered during the financial crisis. The rules, which will increase transparency in fixed income ...

Nigeria Feels Oil Pain

Sunday, January 31st, 2016

Via FT:   by: Shawn Donnan in Washington and Maggie Fick in Lagos Nigeria has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans to fill a growing gap in its budget in the latest sign of the economic damage being wrought on oil-rich nations by tumbling crude prices. The ...

Negative on Negative Rates

Sunday, January 31st, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Japan has a new plan to get its banks to lend more: Tax them for being too conservative with their cash. Perhaps that sounds good in theory. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda certainly seemed to think he’d give a jolt to the nation’s lackluster markets this week by announcing ...

Hedge Funds Versus Nascent (Communist) Superpower

Sunday, January 31st, 2016

Via the WSJ: By Juliet Chung and Carolyn Cui Jan. 31, 2016 5:30 a.m. ET 9 COMMENTS Some of the biggest names in the hedge-fund industry are piling up bets against China’s currency, setting up a showdown between Wall Street and the leaders of the world’s second-largest economy. Kyle Bass’s Hayman Capital Management has sold off ...

Brazil Drowning in Sea of Debt

Saturday, January 30th, 2016

Via the WSJ: By Paulo Trevisani Updated Jan. 29, 2016 2:03 p.m. ET BRASÍLIA—Brazil is losing the battle to tame its ballooning debt as the government struggles to revive a moribund economy amid political gridlock, a central-bank report showed Friday. Latin America’s largest economy ended last year with a budget deficit equal to ...

Euro Area Yields Likely to Move Lower

Saturday, January 30th, 2016

Via Bloomberg: Two-year yields across euro area dropped to records this week Government debt has outperformed as stocks tumbled in January This month’s rally in German government bonds pushed the yield on Europe’s benchmark 10-year securities down by the most since May 2012, two months before European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged ...

Weekend Preview

Friday, January 29th, 2016

Via Robert Sinche at Amherst Pierpont Securities: AUSTRALIA: The AiG Performance of Manufacturing index for January will follow a 51.9 reading in December, capping a 6-month trend of readings >50. CHINA: The Bberg consensus expects the Official China Manufacturing PMI to slip to 49.6 in January from 49.7, which would match the ...

ATT Deal

Friday, January 29th, 2016

I have been playing retired guy today and have not been at my work station for much of the day. There is a multi tranche ATT deal which will raise $6 billion. Here are the current details at the launch: BFW 01/29 18:26 *LAUNCH: AT&T $6B DEBT OFFERING IN FOUR PARTS LAUNCH: ...

More FX

Friday, January 29th, 2016

Via Kit Juckes at SocGen: Friday evening in South Korea and the talk of currency wars is pretty loud in the bars round here. The BOJ has cut rates on balances held at the central bank to -0.1%, creating a three-tiered rate system that's left economists scratching their heads. The yen ...