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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Frontrunning: April 30

Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.

Submitted by Tyler Durden.

  • Only the cattle cars are missing: Greece opens detention camp for immigrants as election looms (Reuters)
  • China really wants that Iran oil – China mulls guarantees for ships carrying Iran oil (Reuters)
  • U.S. eyes testy China talks, Chen backer expects Chinese decision (Reuters, FT)
  • Europe Battles Toward New Rules on Bank Capital (WSJ)
  • Possible arsenic poisoning probed in death of coroner’s official (LA Times)
  • Europe’s Anti-Austerity Calls Mount as Elections Near (Bloomberg)
  • Law firm Dewey dumps executive; talks with rival end (Reuters)
  • Greek bank appeals for fresh equity (FT)
  • Banks seek to put pressure on small rivals (FT)
  • Obama falls short of meteoric expectations abroad (Reuters)
  • King Faces 10 Days of Angst on BOE Stimulus (Bloomberg)
  • Angela Merkel plans Euro 2012 boycott if Yulia Tymoshenko kept in jail (Guardian)

Overnight media summary via Reuters:

WSJ

* Japan‘s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is visiting Washington with a pledge to expand Tokyo’s role in regional security, a significant shift for a country governed by a pacifist constitution since 1946. r.reuters.com/dys87s

 * Stock-trading hedge funds looking to extend their first-quarter rebound ran into a familiar adversary this month: a nervous market. r.reuters.com/fys87s

 * Slowing earnings growth and fresh worries that the Federal Reserve might be less willing to pump new cash into the financial markets are taming the bulls. r.reuters.com/gys87s

 * A pipeline of women in senior executive positions indicates that the ranks of female CEOs in the U.S. will grow in coming years. The Journal highlights 10 women who recruiters are keeping an eye on. r.reuters.com/hys87s

* Foreign companies are learning that they can no longer count on China for earnings growth. As companies report first-quarter results, big-equipment makers like Caterpillar Inc and ABB Ltd see slowing demand, while consumer-focused Apple Inc and Starbucks Corp surge ahead. r.reuters.com/jys87s

* Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former chairman was stripped of his remaining leadership roles, as Greenberg Traurig called off discussions of a possible deal with the struggling law firm. r.reuters.com/kys87s

* Hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone agreed to step aside eventually as the public face of his LightSquared Inc venture, a concession that may keep the wireless-telecommunications company from defaulting on its debt. r.reuters.com/mys87s

* It was just one airplane, but the Boeing Co jetliner that rolled out of an enormous factory here had a lot riding on it.

The 787 Dreamliner that left the assembly building Friday was the first plane completed at a plant that has shifted the dynamics of U.S. aircraft manufacturing and is pivotal to the company’s most ambitious production increase since Boeing started delivering jetliners in 1958. r.reuters.com/nys87s

* A Google Inc engineer told others at the company about his plan to scoop up personal information from wireless-network users as specially equipped cars drove by their homes, but the practice continued for two years after the internal disclosures, a Federal Communications Commission investigation found. r.reuters.com/pys87s

 

FT

BANK OF GREECE APPEALS FOR FRESH EQUITY

The head of Greece’s biggest bank has made a spirited appeal for fresh equity from private shareholders as the most stressed nation of the euro zone prepares for a potentially disruptive general election next weekend and the imposition of tough new capital requirements by regulators. link.reuters.com/ces87s

NOKIA IN TALKS TO SELL VERTU TO PERMIRA

Nokia is in advanced talks to sell the world’s most expensive mobile phone brand to Permira, the private equity group, as the Finnish company looks to dispose of non-core assets to help turnaround its devices division. link.reuters.com/des87s

BANKS SEEK TO PUT PRESSURE ON SMALL RIVALS

The biggest global investment banks are examining ways to block rivals from using powers given them under the Jobs Act, potentially obstructing the goals of what is a rare U.S. bipartisan agreement aimed at promoting small businesses. link.reuters.com/fes87s

CREDIT SUISSE FUND PLANS LONDON FLOAT

A specialist catastrophe insurance team at Credit Suisse CSGN.VX> is planning a flotation on London’s main market of a closed-ended version of a fund they run in an attempt to raise up to 200 million pounds in long-term capital. link.reuters.com/ges87s

SPAIN IN TALKS OVER ‘BAD BANK’ SCHEME

Spain’s government and its banks are discussing a new scheme to segregate problematic property loans into one or more asset management companies to relieve the burden on struggling lenders, according to officials and bankers. link.reuters.com/hes87s

TERRA FIRMA IN TALKS TO BUY FOUR SEASONS

Terra Firma, the private equity group chaired by Guy Hands, is in advanced talks to acquire Four Seasons Health Care in a deal which would value the group’s debt and equity at 825 million pound. link.reuters.com/jes87s

FOOD INFLATION FEARED AS SOYA PRICES SOAR

The price of soyabeans is heading towards the record high set during the 2007-08 food crisis, which is set to reignite fears of runaway global food inflation. link.reuters.com/kes87s

WORLDSPREADS MAY HAVE MISUSED FUNDS

Worldspreads had moved 80 percent of its clients’ funds out of segregated accounts at the time of defunct spread betting operator’s failure, and may have routinely misused client money for as long as five years, according to its chairman. link.reuters.com/mes87s

ALLIANCE BOOTS CHIEF ATTACKS UK TAX REGIME

Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots , has launched a stinging attack on the climate for big business in the UK, warning that a relentless focus on tax could drive away global corporations. link.reuters.com/nes87s

CENTRICA CONSIDERED QATAR GAS SUPPLY DEAL

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, was prepared to give Qatar a stake in its business and a board seat in return for a 20-year gas supply deal worth up to 30 billion pounds ($48.71 billion), documents seen by the Financial Times reveal. link.reuters.com/pes87s

BIG TOBACCO BACKS AUSTRALIA LAW OPPOSERS

Two of the world’s biggest tobacco companies are providing legal support to member countries at the World Trade Organisation that are threatening to take Australia to international court over the world’s toughest anti smoking laws. link.reuters.com/qes87s

 

NYT

* The phone-hacking scandal in Britain is taking a toll on Rupert Murdoch’s broader holdings, prompting worry at News Corporation that years of business dealings could draw new attention.

* Dewey & LeBoeuf, the corporate law firm fighting for survival, ousted Steven H. Davis, its former chairman, from the firm’s management on Sunday, according to an internal memo.

* A scandal involving Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary is giving critics of the company new reasons to push to block its expansion into big American cities.

* The Pebble, a watch that is being developed to work with the iPhone, has raised more than $7 million in financing on Kickstarter, a case that has signified the site’s coming of age.

* The China Film Group functions as the Chinese government’s guardian of its film market, but now the group is also supervising a trade route suddenly under scrutiny from regulators in Washington.

* Apple serves as a window on how technology giants have taken advantage of tax codes written for an industrial age and ill suited to today’s digital economy.

* The merger last week of WRKS and WBLS reflected a trend of consolidations and format changes for black and other minority radio stations after a ratings measurement change five years ago.

* PepsiCo plans to announce an exclusive deal to supply all nonalcoholic beverages in IHOP and Applebee’s restaurants, according to a note distributed Sunday to subscribers of a trade publication.

 

Canada

GLOBE AND MAIL

Days after a head-on collision killed seven people along a notoriously dangerous stretch of highway, the reaction from residents of Fort McMurray is a mix of intense grief and anger. r.reuters.com/het87s

Thomas Gisby kept such a low profile that his name never made the news – until he was killed in Mexico, causing police to warn that a gang war that has already featured two dramatic attacks in British Columbia could explode in public again. r.reuters.com/jet87s

 

Reports in the business section:

– The world’s recovery from the worst downturn since the Depression remains a work in progress. A number of events late this week could refuel the guarded optimism of the past two months, or reverse it and spark fears that the rebound has hit another soft patch.

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department publishes April employment data. The U.S. jobless rate continued to inch downward in March – to 8.2 percent – but the 120,000 jobs created were the fewest in five months and a huge disappointment to Wall Street analysts. r.reuters.com/ket87s

– Ottawa is moving to make telemarketers pay for the cost of enforcing the national Do Not Call list.

The federal government plans to consult with the industry in the coming months and put in place a permanent funding mechanism effective April 1 next year. The plan was laid out in the voluminous budget implementation bill, tabled last week in the House of Commons. r.reuters.com/met87s

NATIONAL POST

– Riadh Ben Aissa, a former SNC-Lavalin Group Inc executive pushed out of the company in February amid allegations of improper payments, is now being held in a Bern, Switzerland, jail cell on suspicion of fraud. r.reuters.com/net87s

– A high-ranking gangster from British Columbia was gunned down in Mexico late Friday night.

Lower Mainland resident Thomas Gisby, said by RCMP to be about 50 years old, was shot to death inside a Starbucks in the tourist town of Nuevo Vallarta. r.reuters.com/qet87s

European Economic Update:

  • Spain GDP for Q1 -0.3% q/q -0.4% y/y – higher than expected. Consensus -0.4% q/q -0.6% y/y. Previous -0.3% q/q 0.3% y/y.
  • Italy CPI EU harmonized for April 0.9% m/m 3.8% y/y – higher than expected. Consensus 0.8% m/m 3.6% y/y. Previous 2.5% m/m 3.8% y/y.
  • Spain Current Account for February -5.9B. Previous -5.7B..
  • Germany Retail Sales for March 0.8% m/m 2.3% y/y – lower than expected. Consensus 1.0% m/m 0.5% y/y. Previous -1.1% m/m 1.7% y/y. Revised -0.9% m/m 2.1% y/y.
  • Eurozone M3 s.a. 3 month moving average. 2.8% – higher than expected. Consensus 2.7%. Previous 2.3%.
  • Eurozone M3 annual growth rate 3.2% – higher than expected. Consensus 2.8%. Previous 2.8%.
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