Frontrunning: November 6

  • Christie Sets Himself Up for Run in 2016 (WSJ)
  • De Blasio Elected Next New York City Mayor in Landslide (WSJ)
  • Hilsenrath: Fed Study: Rate Peg Off Mark (WSJ)
  • MF Global Customers Will Recover All They Lost (NYT) – amazing what happens when you look under the rug
  • Virginia, Alabama Voter Choices Show Tea Party Declining (BBG)
  • Explosions kill 1, injure 8 in north China city (Reuters)
  • Toyota boosts full-year guidance as weak yen drives revenues (FT)
  • Starbucks wants to recruit 10,000 vets, spouses to its ranks (Reuters)
  • U.S. Economy Slack Justifies Stimulus, Top Fed Staff Papers Show (BBG)
  • Israel set to become major gas exporter (FT)
  • Apple Adds Suppliers to Boost Smartphone, Tablet Production (WSJ)
  • China’s Slower Growth Puts a Drag on Western Profits (WSJ)
  • Brent Crude Traders Claim Proof BFOE Boys Rigged Market (BBG)
  • Young Avoid New Health Plans (WSJ)
  • Apple reveals government data request figures (Telegraph)
  • Facebook Misadventure Means Scrutiny on NYSE With Twitter (BBG)
  • New York Nerds Sift Citi Bike Data to Solve Availability (BBG)
  • IRS Cracks Down on Breaks Tied to Land of Rich Americans (BBG)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Republican Governor Chris Christie easily won re-election in New Jersey, while Democrat Terry McAuliffe won in Virginia, a decision that sent mixed messages to both parties about their political strengths.

* On the day he coasted to re-election as governor of New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie spent his time talking about issues facing the entire country, setting himself up for a possible 2016 White House bid.

* Elite MBAs are increasingly heading to work in technology over finance as the lingering aftereffects of the financial crisis-along with Wall Street’s long hours and scaled-back pay-send newly minted MBAs elsewhere.

* The Federal Reserve could help drive down unemployment faster if it promised to keep short-term interest rates near zero for longer than currently envisioned by officials or investors, according to a new research paper by a top central-bank staff member.

* Shares of Colombian airline Avianca Holdings are due to begin trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, capping a turnaround 10 years in the making by investor Germán Efromovich.

* J.C. Penney is expected to say this week that its sales turned positive in October – but that won’t quell worries about the retailer’s financial health. Gross margin and cash burn remain concerns.

* EU regulators are poised to levy massive fines against a group of banks tied to their alleged attempts to manipulate benchmark interest rates, according to officials briefed on the discussions.

* Bart Chilton, the animated and outspoken member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who has agitated for tougher Wall Street regulation, is stepping down from his post after he secured agency support for trading restraints. Chilton, a Democrat, announced his departure Tuesday ahead of the agency’s 3-1 vote to propose restraints aimed at curbing speculation in commodities such as oil, gold and sugar.

* Demand Media Inc showed it is moving forward on a planned spin off of its domain services business, disclosing both the name of the new company and the appointment of a senior executive in the domain services unit to be its chief executive.

 

FT

Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc reported third-quarter deliveries of its Model S below analysts’ expectations, pushing shares down more than 12 percent in after-the-bell trade on Tuesday.

JT Wang, chairman and chief executive of Taiwan’s Acer , said he would step down as a continuing decline in global demand for PCs pushed the computer maker into further losses.

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc reported quarterly earnings below analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, hurt by investments in new sports channel and a weaker performance from its movie studio.

Dahabshiil, Africa’s biggest money transfer company, has won an injunction to stop Barclays Plc closing its account until the conclusion of a full trial, expected next year.

Big global oil companies are under pressure from investors to curb their vast capital spending programmes and return more cash to shareholders.

Encana Corp, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, said on Tuesday it would cut capital spending, workforce and dividends as it looks to shift to oil production to bolster its finances.

Deutsche Bank’s co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen was named on Monday as a suspect in a investigation into falsifying evidence, as a decade-long civil suit brought by the media empire Kirch Group continues to cast a shadow over the lender.

 

NYT

* A federal bankruptcy judge cleared the way for brokerage firm MF Global’s roughly 20,000 customers to collect their full $1.6 billion in vanished money, covering the remaining shortfall.

* The government’s $1.2 billion settlement with SAC Capital Advisors set a record for insider trading penalties.

* The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday voted 3 to 1 to limit the size of any trader’s footprint in the commodities market. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the commission, said on Tuesday that the new position limits would “help to protect the markets both in times of clear skies, price discovery functions, certainly, as well as when there’s a storm on the horizon.”

* Ford’s plant in Genk, Belgium, is scheduled to close at the end of the year, but only after a long, bitter struggle that cost the company $750 million.

* Tesla Motors said it narrowed its third-quarter loss compared with the same per
iod a year ago, as it sold more Model S all-electric luxury sedans. But Tesla said its fourth-quarter earnings would be similar to the third quarter as it continues to invest in research and development and build infrastructure.

* CBS News, under fire from critics who dispute details in a “60 Minutes” report on the Benghazi attacks last year that was broadcast on Oct. 27, aggressively defended the report’s accuracy on Tuesday and the account of its main interview subject.

* On a day when consumers in Washington State were voting on whether to require food companies to label products containing genetically engineered ingredients, Cargill announced that it would begin labeling packages of ground beef containing what is colloquially known as pink slime.

* New York state financial regulators have subpoenaed about 20 companies that help New York’s pension trustees decide how to invest the billions of dollars under their control to determine whether any outside advice is clouded by undisclosed financial incentives or other conflicts of interest.

* The private equity firm Brentwood Associates has won the bidding war for the Allen Edmonds Corp, the high-end men’s shoemaker, ending a sale process that included suitors like Men’s Wearhouse.

* Endo Health Solutions, a health care company known for its pain medication, has reached a deal to acquire a Canadian specialty drug company, Paladin Labs, for $1.6 billion in stock and cash.

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

* U.S. giant Verizon Communications Inc appears to be taking a second look at the Canadian market after hiring a consultant to lobby the federal government on its telecommunications policy.

* The premiers of British Columbia and Alberta have reached a framework for an agreement to satisfy British Columbia’s five conditions for supporting oil pipeline development in the province, though they agree work remains to be done to ensure British Columbia gets its “fair share” of revenues from such projects.

Reports in the business section:

* Inventory levels are creeping up in Canada’s most populous city Toronto and a large number of new towers are still projected to come on stream next year.

* Canada’s oil industry is producing more greenhouse gas emissions per barrel than it did five years ago, despite Alberta regulations aimed at curbing them and growing political pressure on the industry from governments in the United States and Europe concerned about climate change.

NATIONAL POST

* Amid growing concerns about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s ability to do his job, councillors are mounting an effort to curb his power at city hall, and to convince him to take a leave.

* After more than two weeks of startling, acrimonious and sometimes emotional debate, the Senate of Canada on Tuesday suspended three of its members – Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau – without pay for the next two years.

FINANCIAL POST

* Waterloo, Ontario-based software company Open Text Corp announced on Tuesday that it was buying cloud technology provider GXS Group Inc in a deal worth $1.17 billion.

* Rogers Communications Inc confirmed on Tuesday that it has cut close to 100 jobs at its media division. The Toronto-based company laid off 94 employees, spokeswoman Andrea Goldstein said, adding that represents less than 2 percent of its workforce of about 5,400.

 

China

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

– Wu Jinglian, senior research fellow for the State Council Developmental Research Centre, said he expects a major reform breakthrough at the upcoming 3rd Party Plenum.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

– For the first three quarters of this year, the net profit of 19 Chinese listed brokerage firms rose 35.44 percent year-on-year to 19.8 billion yuan ($3.25 billion), in part due to an income increase in asset management business.

– Carbon markets in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong are expected to start trading by the end of this year to reduce the overall cost of emission reduction and thereby reduce emissions, said Xie Zhenhua, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, on Tuesday at a conference.

CHINA DAILY

– China’s top climate negotiator has said he expects Chinese pollution to ease in five to 10 years.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

– China’s CPI in October is likely to increase by 3.2 percent year-on-year, according to a survey of 20 economists conducted by China Business News.

PEOPLE’S DAILY

– After 30 years of rapid development, environmental issues, such as air pollution have become not only economic and social problems, but a political issue, said a commentary in the paper that serves as the government’s mouthpiece.

SHANGHAI DAILY

– Sellers of Gannan navel oranges from Jiangsu province falsely labelled their fruit as imported from Australia or the U.S. after domestic sales tanked on reports they contained cancer-causing chemical dyes, according to official statements.

 

Fly On The Wall 7:00 AM Market Snapshot

ANALYST RESEARCH

Upgrades

Cardinal Health (CAH) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sterne Agee
Encana (ECA) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank
Encana (ECA) upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill
Endo Health (ENDP) upgraded to Hold from Sell at Cantor
Endo Health (ENDP) upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at Piper Jaffray
Hancock Holding (HBHC) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust
Host Hotels (HST) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust
Interactive Intelligence (ININ) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Northland
Office Depot (ODP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at B. Riley
Pike Electric (PIKE) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney Capital
Ryanair (RYAAY) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nomura
Southern Copper (SCCO) upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Cowen
T-Mobile (TMUS) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Canaccord

Downgrades

AMR Corp. (AAMRQ) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan
Advisory Board (ABCO) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James
AerCap (AER) downgraded to Underperform from Buy at BofA/Merrill
Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Miller Tabak
ExlService (EXLS) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair
Expeditors (EXPD) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
Halcon Resources (HK) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord
LeapFrog (LF) downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Imperial Capital
Maxim Integrated (MXIM) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at SunTrust
Penn National (PENN) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital
Pioneer Natural (PXD) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee
Red Robin (RRGB) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill
Tornier (TRNX) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital
Unilever (UN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Nomura
VIVUS (VVUS) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill
ZAGG (ZAGG) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan

Initiations

Bruker (BRKR) initiated with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley
Magnum Hunter (MHR) re-initiated with an In-Line at Imperial Capital
Morningstar (MORN) initiated with a Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette
Pattern Energy (PEGI) initiated with an Outperform at BMO Capital
Pattern Energy (PEGI) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital
Rogers Communications (RCI) initiated with an Equal Weight at Barclays
Shaw Communications (SJR) initiated with an Equal Weight at Barclays
TELUS (TU) initiated with an Overweight at Barclays
TG Therapeutics (TGTX) initiated with a Buy at MLV & Co.

HOT STOCKS

Columbia Property Trust (CXP) sold 18 properties for $521.5M
Liberty Global (LBTYA) on track for target of $3.5B of buybacks by mid-2015
SM Energy (SM) to divest Anadarko Basin assets
VMware (VMW), Mirantis announced partnership
M/A-Com (MTSI) to acquire Mindspeed Technologies (MSPD) for $5.05 per share
Amdocs (DOX) to acquire Celcite for $129M cash

EARNINGS

Companies that beat consensus earnings expectations last night and today include:
Humana (HUM), Delek Logistics (DKL), Mindspeed (MSPD), SandRidge Energy (SD), RenaissanceRe (RNR), HCI Group (HCI), Zillow (Z), URS Corporation (URS), ONEOK (OKE), Emerald Oil (EOX), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Life Technologies (LIFE), Seattle Genetics (SGEN), ServiceSource (SREV), Web.com (WWWW), Fossil (FOSL), DaVita (DVA), DealerTrack (TRAK), Tesla (TSLA), Hain Celestial (HAIN), Ternium (TX)

Companies that missed consensus earnings expectations include:
Endeavour (END), Global Geophysical (GGS), Liberty Global (LBTYA), Ormat Technologies (ORA), Energy Transfer Equity (ETE), J2 Global (JCOM), LSB Industries (LXU), Medifast (MED), C.H. Robinson (CHRW), MAKO Surgical (MAKO),  Live Nation (LYV), Amdocs (DOX), OfficeMax (OMX), VIVUS (VVUS), Office Depot (ODP), 21st Century Fox (FOXA)

Companies that matched consensus earnings expectations include:
Papa John’s (PZZA), SciQuest (SQI), Brookfield Residential (BRP), M/A-COM (MTSI), ONEOK Partners (OKS), Frontier Communications (FTR), Cadence (CADX), Limelight Networks (LLNW)

NEWSPAPERS/WEBSITES

  • EU antitrust regulators are poised to levy large fines against six global banks (CRARY, SCGLY, DB, HBC, RBS, JPM) tied to their alleged attempts to manipulate benchmark interest rates, sources say, the Wall Street Journal reports
  • J.C. Penney (JCP) is expected to say this week that its sales turned positive in October, but that won’t quell worries about the retailer’s financial health. The concern is that sales won’t rise fast enough or be profitable enough to head off the need to raise more cash next year, the Wall Street Journal reports
  • Microsoft (MSFT) narrowed its list of external candidates to replace CEO Ballmer to about five people, including Ford Motor (F) CEO Mulally and former Nokia (NOK) CEO Elop, sources say, Reuters reports
  • Starbucks (SBUX) would commit to hiring at least 10,000 veterans and spouses of active military in five years, Reuters reports
  • The U.S. oil industry (XOM, CVX,TSO), riding a domestic energy boom, is preparing to challenge restrictions on crude exports, possibly by arguing that limits designed to keep petroleum in America may violate international trade rules, Bloomberg reports
  • Wells Fargo (WFC) is among firms facing federal scrutiny of mortgage-bond sales under a 1989 law the government is using to extend probes of banks’ roles in the credit crisis, sources say, Bloomberg reports

SYNDICATE

Arc Logistics (ARCX) 6M share IPO priced at $19.00
Barracuda Networks (CUDA) 4.1M share IPO priced at $18.00
Blue Capital (BCRH) 6.25M share IPO priced at $20.00
Boise Cascade (BCC) files to sell 8M shares of common stock for holders
ChannelAdvisor (ECOM) 5M share Secondary priced at $34.00
Diamondback Energy (FANG) files to sell 17.46M shares for holders
InterMune (ITMN) 6.5M share Secondary priced at $13.00
Karyopharm (KPTI) 6.8M share IPO priced at $16.00
Keating Capital (KIPO) announces rights offering of 2.95M shares of common stock
Seacoast Banking (SBCF) commences registered direct offering of $75M of common stock
Wix.com (WIX) 7.7M share IPO priced at $16.50
ZELTIQ Aesthetics (ZLTQ) files to sell 4.5M shares of common stock for holders
Zogenix (ZGNX) 26.67M share Secondary priced at $2.25


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/4OUZaVMssAg/story01.htm Tyler Durden

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