Waiting for Bernanke: Analyst expectations July 17, 2013 Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist, ETX Capital: Fed chairman Bernanke’s testimony to US Congress turning out to be the key-risk event over the next two session, prompting both the bulls and bears to avoid building too much risk exposure. Stocks on Wall Street fell on Tuesday and Asian markets were mixed in overnight trade giving European [...]
Rebuffing takeover bid costs Severn Trent £19m July 17, 2013 FTSE 100-listed water company Severn Trent today announced that it has incurred £19m in advisory and legal costs after rejecting a takeover bid from a consortium of investors. LongRiver partners – comprising the Kuwait Investment Office, Borealis and the Universities Superannuation Scheme – abandoned its approach last month after the utility firm rebuffed multiple offers [...]
Barclays fined £300m for rigging US energy market July 17, 2013 THE US Regulator today upheld a $453m (£300m) fine on Barclays and four of its traders for manipulating the energy markets. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that the bank deliberately lost money in the power markets between 2006 and 2008 for financial benefit and that the traders knew this was illegal. Barclays must [...]
La Casa Negra Shoreditch restaurant review: achingly hip Mexican food with added attitude July 17, 2013 Street food. That’s a thing. Street food! Isn’t it great? It reminds me of that time I was travelling in Guatemala, and some indigenous people were just, you know, making food in the street, and it was all, like, totally authentic. Except that never happened. I’ve forced down slimy noodles in Tokyo; binned inedible grey [...]
Gilts hit by new rigging scandal July 16, 2013 A NEW rigging scandal reared its head in the City yesterday, after it was revealed that an alleged attempt by traders to fix pricing in government bond markets has been under investigation since 2011. The Bank of England’s director of markets Paul Fisher told a panel of MPs that the central bank had passed details [...]
Goldman Sachs back on top as profits double July 16, 2013 EARNINGS more than doubled at Goldman Sachs in the last year, the investment bank revealed yesterday, as the growing economy sent more business its way. It made $1.86bn (£1.23bn) in the second quarter, up from $927m in the same period of 2012. Net revenues jumped 30 per cent to $8.61bn, far outstripping the 14 per [...]
Banks must make plans to fail without bailout cash July 16, 2013 THE WORLD’S biggest banks face could face serious structural changes as regulators were last night given powers to rearrange their legal and business setups if it would make winding down a troubled institution easier. Sweeping resolution powers allow the regulators to review banks’ resolution plans every year to make sure they can quickly be either [...]
Time to stop under-reacting to scandals in the public sector July 16, 2013 GOOD intentions are never enough – and in most cases, they don’t even matter. That is one of the central lessons of economics: with the right institutions, including proper property rights, the rule of law and no artificial distortions imposed by politicians, self-interested behaviour in a market economy tends to bring about the common good. [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 17 July 2013 July 16, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Dell ultimatum as buyout vote looms Michael Dell faces a last-minute ultimatum from some of his company’s biggest shareholders to raise his $24.4bn buyout offer or risk losing his attempt to regain control of PC maker Dell, say people close to the affair. Several large outside shareholders have told Michael Dell and private [...]
Barclays hit by $453m energy trading fines July 16, 2013 THE US authorities last night confirmed Barclays and four of its traders will have to pay fines totalling $453m (£299m) for allegedly manipulating the Californian energy markets. The bank, which has been fighting the claims, has been given 30 days to pay up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The regulator said the bank and [...]
