Darling to issue £200bn of bonds The UK is set to issue more than £200bn worth of government bonds this financial year – well above market expectations – as chancellor Alistair Darling prepares to concede in Wednesday's Budget that public finances have plunged into the red. With public borrowing set to soar to £170bn-£180bn, gilt issuance this year will be well over £50bn higher than the Debt Management Office estimated last month – a record for peacetime borrowing. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54968/darling-to-issue-200
| Geithner sparks banks rally Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, on Tuesday sparked a rally in financial stocks after he said the "vast majority" of US banks are well-capitalised and assured investors that the government would not wipe out their holdings. But Geithner told a congressional oversight panel that efforts to rescue the banking system had shown only "mixed" signs of success, and said the Fed had to conclude its stress tests before deciding which banks needed more capital. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54967/geithner-sparks-bank
| US earnings blunt recovery hopes A raft of US companies reported earnings on Tuesday with results that showed how difficult the 2009 first quarter has been for sectors ranging from financials to industrials. In banking, while changes in accounting rules helped boost earnings at large US banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America, regional banks profits continued to suffer, while in the industrial sector, companies such as Caterpillar, the construction equipment giant, were hit particularly hard as the downturn spread to other parts of the economy. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54966/us-earnings-blunt-re
| US Bancorp bucks regional gloom US regional banks on Tuesday provided investors with a mixed picture of the state of the financial sector as stronger-than-expected earnings from US Bancorp helped counter the gloom resulting from big losses at Zions Bancorp. Minnesota-based US Bancorp reported net income of $529m, a 60% increase from the previous quarter. But Alabama-based Regions Financial, eked out a profit of 4 cents per share on earnings of $77m, while Utah-based Zions announced a surprise loss of $832m late Monday, reflecting its exposure to commercial real estate. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54965/us-bancorp-bucks-reg
| RBS Asian assets sale under cloud Regulatory uncertainties surrounding the sale of Royal Bank of Scotland's Asian assets could limit the price that bidders are prepared to offer and possibly delay any divestment. The stricken UK bank last month started a process to offload its retail and commercial operations in eight Asian countries. The move has attracted interest from groups including HSBC, Standard Chartered and ANZ, the Australian bank, as well as smaller domestic players. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54964/rbs-asian-assets-sal
| Pandit pledges to stay on at Citi Vikram Pandit vowed to stay on as Citigroup's chief executive and repay $45bn in government aid, as angry investors attacked the troubled bank's current and previous management and directors at a heated annual shareholder meeting in New York. Pandit said that investors and employees had "paid a dear and heavy price" as Citi accumulated huge losses and saw its shares plunge, but he promised "a bold new beginning" under his leadership. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54963/pandit-pledges-to-st
| Chrysler creditors reject debt demand Chrysler's creditors, led by JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, on Tuesday rebuffed a US government request to forgive the bulk of their debt holdings, a move that will prolong the stand-off over the carmaker's future. After days of talks with banks, creditors, who hold $6.9bn in Chrysler's debt, proposed reducing their debt to about $4.5bn and taking a stake of about $1bn in preferred equity in Chrysler following its planned alliance with the Italian carmarker Fiat. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54962/chrysler-creditors-r
| LVMH eyes sale of Moët to Diageo LVMH has indicated it may be willing to sell some or all of its two-thirds stake in Moët Hennessy, its wine and spirits business, to partner Diageo. LVMH, part of the French luxury empire controlled by Bernard Arnault, approached Diageo this year to gauge its potential interest in buying the rest of Moët Hennessy. The companies held informal discussions, but LVMH has not yet decided whether to part with the asset. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54960/lvmh-eyes-sale-of-mo
| Och Ziff benefits from bank woes Managers of some of the world's top hedge funds say they are benefiting from sharply reduced competition from the once-mighty proprietary trading desks of the same investment banks they used for financing - which earlier in the decade were taking similar trading positions as their hedge fund clients. Daniel Och, founder of publicly traded Och-Ziff Capital Management, told the FT that Och Ziff is now seeing less competition for investments, making it easier to capitalise on opportunities. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54961/och-ziff-benefits-fr
| NY City probes Quadrangle New York City's pension funds are probing whether private equity fund Quadrangle "intentionally misled" it about placement agents used to win pension fund business, reports Reuters. Quadrangle was formerly led by Steven Rattner, now the US auto bailout chief. The investigation adds to an ongoing probe by New York state and the SEC, which have charged that the former state comptroller's top fund-raiser, Henry Morris, reaped kickbacks for helping firms get hired to invest in New York state's $122bn pension fund. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54959/ny-city-probes-quadr
| Chi-X to offer Europe a dark alternative Chi-X, Europe's largest alternative trading platform, will on Wednesday unveil plans for a "dark pool" equities trading facility, in a sign of growing demand from traders for capacity to carry out large orders. Chi-X already offers participants so-called "hidden order types" on its current trading system. Its new dark pool facility, known as "Chi-Delta", will significantly expand on that when it is launched in the second quarter. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54958/chi-x-to-offer-europ
| LSE picks Baikal partners The London Stock Exchange on Tuesday took a step towards rolling out a pan-European share trading business by choosing Fidessa, a trading technology and data company, and BNP Paribas, as technology partners for Baikal, its planned block-trading platform. Baikal aims partly to allow the buyside to carry out large sized orders without having to send them through a broker first. BNP Paribas will provide clearing and settlement services to Baikal for the buyside order flow it handles. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54957/lse-picks-baikal-par
| Myners hits at 'landlord' shareholders Lord Myners, the minister responsible for London's financial centre, has attacked shareholders for acting like "absentee landlords" and urged them to get more involved with companies they own. Lord Myners pressed investment groups to engage "along deeper lines" and heed their responsibilities to probe issues such as pay and how it influences corporate behaviour. The City minister also revealed that the UK government had extended Sir David Walker's review of banks' governance following the financial crisis to cover other financial institutions – hedge funds, asset managers and insurers. See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54956/myners-hits-at-landl
| Overnight markets: Modest rebound Asian stocks mostly rose on Wednesday, led by technology companies after Elpida Memory said it plans to raise memory-chip prices, although telecoms shares declined. Futures on the S&P 500 index lost 0.4% after the gauge climbed 2.1% in New York on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the vast majority of US banks were relatively well-capitalised. Asian markets (Wed)
03:00 BST
Nikkei down 1.70 (-0.02%) at 8,709.63
Topix down 1.72 (-0.21%) at 829.00
Hang Seng down 5.11 (-0.03%) at 15,280.78 US markets (Tues)
S&P500 up 17.69 (2.13%) at 850.08
DJIA up 127.83 (1.63%) at 7,969.56
Nasdaq up 35.64 (2.22%) at 1,643.85 European markets (Tues)
FTSE100 down 3.40 (-0.09%) at 3,987.46
Eurofirst 300 up 1.40 (0.18%) at 787.52 Currencies
04:10 BST
€/$ 1.2929 ( 1.2933)
$/¥ 98.31 (98.20)
£/$ 1.4643 (1.4536) Commodities
04:05 BST
Brent Crude (ICE) up $0.18 at $50.00
Light Crude (Nymex) up $0.27 at $48.82
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up $2.20 at $884.90
Copper (Comex) up $0.85 at $209.55 10-year government bond yields (%)
03:50 BST
US 2.88 (2.82)
UK 3.30 ( 3.22)
Germany 3.16 ( 3.27)
Japan 1.46 (1.47) Sources: FT, Bloomberg See this article online.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/04/22/54955/overnight-markets-mo
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