The trend that was so many momentum-chasing bulls friend for so long has ended. The steady downward drift in jobless claims – all noise, debt-ceiling, winter storm, and software glitches aside – has ended. Initial claims rose 19k this week, missed expectations by the most in 6 weeks, and jumped to the same levels seen 6 months ago. The Labor Department says “nothing unusual” about this week’s data but noted one state ‘estimated’ claims last week. Total benefit rolls dropped by 16k this week (back under 3 million) as emergency claimants remains “0”.

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1npFoNi Tyler Durden

Yesterday we reported that Goldman’s attempt to buy an 18% stake in Dong Energy, the world’s biggest operator of offshore wind farms, while largely preapproved by Danish politicians, had met with solid resistance by the broader population, which had started a petition to block the sale, signed by nearly 200,000 as of yesterday. Alas, despite the valiant effort by the population to keep the energy company – with 68% of the population polled as being against the deal – the country’s politicians, certainly with no palms greased by the world’s biggest depositor-insured hedge fund – just let Goldman have the DONG.  As Bloomberg reports, “a majority in Denmark’s parliament will let Goldman Sachs Group Inc. proceed with its purchase of a stake in state-owned utility Dong Energy A/S, according to a senior lawmaker in the ruling Social Democrat Party.”

The socialists were not happy, and as a result left the ruling coalition:

“The coalition, which the Socialist People’s Party quit today amid resistance to the Goldman deal, will be able to count on votes from the opposition Liberal and Conservative Parties to muster a majority in parliament, Benny Engelbrecht, a spokesman and lawmaker for the Social Democrats of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said in an interview. “The votes are there,” he said.

As a reminder, here is what the Dong fiasco is all about:

Parliament’s finance committee is due to vote after a meeting at 1 p.m. in Copenhagen today on the Wall Street bank’s bid to pay 8 billion kroner ($1.5 billion) for an 18 percent stake in Dong. A Megafon poll conducted by TV2 showed 68 percent of Danes are against Goldman holding the stake and thousands of protesters gathered outside the parliament last night to voice their anger over the deal.

 

“The Dong share sale is putting more nails in the government’s coffin,” said Christoffer Green-Pedersen, a political science professor at the University of Aarhus. “They won’t survive the next election unless they find a way to highlight their successes.”

 

Finance Minister Bjarne Corydon, a member of the premier’s Social Democrat party, has fought off growing opposition to the deal from unions, lawmakers and voters while maintaining backing from opposition parties. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a former Social Democrat premier, publicly urged Corydon to scrap the deal, calling Goldman a “shady partner.”

Goldman, of course, was unruffled, and said no terms would change as it was about to swallow 18% of the Danish Dong:

“This case emerged out of nowhere; there are so many things that seem off about this, and this was the time to come out,” said Solveig Weiss, a retired Social Liberal voter who was among the protesters. “I’m very disappointed a red government can push this kind of sale. It’s completely right-wing policies and certainly doesn’t help that they’re selling shares to a somewhat dodgy enterprise.”

 

Goldman says the political and popular backlash won’t prompt the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets to reassess its bid. The bank won’t — “as a matter of principle” — comment on the political situation in Denmark, Sophie Ramsay, a London-based spokeswoman at Goldman Sachs, said earlier this week.

 

“The government already has low support in polls and this case won’t help in any way,” Jens Hoff, a professor of political science at the University of Copenhagen, said by phone. “Core voters are running away because Social Democrats and Socialists consider the whole thing a very bad idea.”

Oh well: another government brought to its knees by Dong and Goldman. Won’t be the first time this has happened…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jNoyHY Tyler Durden

Bloomberg reports Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, is on track for its largest pretax loss since 2008 after setting aside 3.1 billion pounds more ($5.1 billion) for legal and compensation claims. We will delve into this report in detail, but first a little background so we’re all viewing 20/20.

I’ve been spending a lot of time rebuilding the banking system as software over a cryptocurrency framework. Basically, I’m building a more efficient, more “Trustworthy” financial system. Many are doubtful of these endeavors. I say, don’t underestimate the effort. For one, a more efficient, more trustworthy system is sorely needed. Here we are, 7 years after the start of the great financial trainwreck that I’m known for predicting, and I’m still at it doing the same thing to the same industry. This is only possible when there’s a structural problem in the industry. A problem that rapid advancements in technology are ripe to solve.

On Thursday, 11 April 2013 I penned, I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads To The UK Taxpayer And Metastasizes Through US Markets! wherein I clearly illustrated that RBS is materially understating its liabilities AND even went so far as to include links to the SEC and the UK banking regulator so that US/UK taxpayers and investors can notify our erstwhile regulator(s) to the potential of financial shenanigans. The root of the problem is that RBS has materially under-reported its liabilities (in my oh so humble opinion.) Those that stress tested RBS (the same erstwhile professionals that allowed the Irish banks to pass their stress tests 3 months before they started collapsing) apparently overlooked humongous swaths of liabilities. 

The amount of evidence that I produced to back my claims was prodigous…

What happened behind closed doors?

Ulster Bank gave a first floating charge in favor of the Central Bank of Ireland (an arm of the European Central Bank) and the Financial Services Authority of Ireland. U.S. investors would have had to rely on the contents of The Royal Bank of Scotland’s 2008 Annual Accounts which apparently (in my opinion) concealed the existence of the CRO registered charges to the Bank of Ireland.

 >Ulster Bank RBS charge doc 2 Page 1

Now, back to the Bloomberg article…

The provision includes 1.9 billion pounds for lawsuits and fines tied mostly to the sale of $91 billion of mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007, the lender said yesterday. It follows agreements Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS AG (UBSN) struck with U.S. regulators to settle claims they didn’t provide adequate disclosure about mortgage-backed debt sold in the housing bubble that preceded the 2008 financial crisis.

Are they referring to claims similar to the ones I made that RBS  bought Ulster Bank full of unrecognized mortgage crap, levered up off it and hid the debt? I strongly suggest my readers brush up on how The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads to the UK.

More than five years after giving RBS the biggest bank bailout in history, the government still hasn’t been able to cut its 80 percent stake.

… “When the crisis broke, the bank was involved in a number of different businesses in multiple countries that have subsequently faced heavy scrutiny by customers and regulators,” McEwan, 56, said in yesterday’s statement. “The scale of the bad decisions during that period means that some problems are still just emerging.”

… The charges led the bank to cut its forecast for its core Tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of financial strength. RBS expects the ratio will be about 11 percent at the end of 2013, or as much as 8.5 percent under the latest rules set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. That’s down from the company’s estimate of 11.6 percent and 9.1 percent in November.

“Fronting up to our past mistakes is very expensive, but RBS is a much stronger bank that can deal with these costs on its own while running a good capital position,” McEwan said on the call. “Dealing with these litigation and conduct issues is essential if we are to move the bank forward.”

Well, I still haven’t noticed them come clean on the Ulster Bank charge issue. If they really are going to “Front[ing] up… past mistakes” then they really need to address this, no? If the Ulster Bank charges are included in the Basel capitalization guidelines, then RBS needs a bailout, and needs one Now! It doesn’t end their though. On Monday, 20 May 2013 I queried Who is RBS? Royal BS… or the Royal Bank of Scotland, to wit:

“An independent Scotland would have an exceptionally large banking sector compared to the size of its economy – with banking assets of more than 1250 percent of Scottish [gross domestic product] – making it more vulnerable to financial shocks and the volatility of the sector,” the Treasury report said on Monday.

The report pointed out Scotland’s banking exposure would dwarf that of Iceland and Cyprus, two countries that faced severe banking collapses in recent years. Iceland’s banks, for example, had assets equivalent to 880 per cent of GDP, while Cyprus, which faced a banking crisis in March, had total banking assets of around 700 per cent of GDP.

The report as cited by the article then goes on to make more direct comparisons to Cyprus, not unlike I did two months ago, but with Ireland (see As Forewarned, The Irish Savers Have Just Been “Cyprus’d”, And There’s MUCH MORE “Cyprusing” To Come). 

“At the end of September 2012, the two largest banks – the Cyprus Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus – had assets in the region of 210 per cent and 175 per cent of Cyprus’s GDP respectively.”

“It is worth noting that, if Scotland became independent, its banking sector would be similarly concentrated (with two large players, Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of smaller firms), and that an independent Scotland’s domestic banking sector would be likely to be significantly larger than that of Cyprus (assuming no change to firms’ domicile arrangements).”

I penned, I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads To The UK Taxpayer And Metastasizes Through US Markets! wherein I clearly illustrated that RBS is materially understating its liabilities AND even went so far as to include links to the SEC and the UK banking regulator so that US/UK taxpayers and investors can notify our erstwhile regulator(s) to the potential of financial shenanigans. The root of the problem is that RBS has materially under-reported its liabilities (in my oh so humble opinion.) Those that stress tested RBS (the same erstwhile professionals that allowed the Irish banks to pass their stress tests 3 months before they started collapsing) apparently overlooked humongous swaths of liabilities. The charge documents referred to in the aforelinked article are definitively not apparent in the recent bank stress testing’ conducted by the European Banking Authority, at least not in the summary results that the EBA have made available. For those who are still skeptical, I beg thee reference the RBS Stress Test download.

To think, there are actually many who query as to why I seek to make a more efficient financial system…

With the latest advances in technology, I can literally replace large swaths of bank functions with software. Software that doesn’t lie, cheat, steal, or screw you for a bonus! Zero Trust software…

page-0page-1page-2;”>page-3page-4page-5

If the RBS/Ulster Bank mortgage-backed secutities would have been traded through UltraCoin, rehyppthecation, double-spending, over-leverage, and thrice pledged assets would have been a thing of the past. These contracts are overollateralized (200%) and use no leverage, yet still hold the promise of significant return, not to mention a mere fraction of the cost of the big bank stuff. Will the dawn of this technology herald the end of fractional reserve banking as we know it?

Let it be known, Wall Street banks’ profit margin IS my business model!!!

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/MkNxnQ Reggie Middleton

We are sure it’s just a storm in a teacup; just a brief interlude before the IMF’s ever-changing forecast for global trade growth picks right back up again and demand to ship dry goods surges back to the inventory stuffed levels of Q4. But, for now, the Baltic Dry Index (admired when it’s rising, ignored when it drops) has collapsed by over 50% from its December highs and is back to August lows.

 

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/MkNwAm Tyler Durden

Moments ago UPS did what almost every other company so far in this, and prior, earnings seasons has done: posted unimpressive earnings (EPS of $1.25 meeting expectations), while missing revenues, with Q4 sales of $15.0 billion below expectations of $15.2 billion. We already know the explanation – as the company preannounced, the “only reason” its business slowed down in Q4 was due to a… surge in business surrounding the holidays for which the management was unprepared, because apparently the UPS C-suite was unaware how to read a calendar. And, most expectedly, to offset all the bad news, UPS announced it would continue doing what all companies facing a slowing economy do: not invest in Capex while buying back another $2.7 billion in shares in 2014.

But the point of this post is not to spread UPS earnings, but to highlight the biggest cyclical failure of the Bernanke era – one we first highlighted two years ago – when we observed that in the new normal, companies invest not in CapEx but in dividends and buybacks, seeking to appease short-term activist investors while leaving the long-term future of the company flailing in the wind. So here it is, from the earnings release:

For the year ended Dec. 31, UPS generated $5.3 billion in free cash flow, producing a net income-to-cash conversion ratio of more than 120%. The company paid dividends of $2.3 billion, an increase of nearly 9% per share over the prior year, and repurchased more than 43 million shares for approximately $3.8 billion.

This free cash flow is the result of $7.3 billion in cash from operations, from which $2.1 billion in CapEx was reduced.

In short here is how UPS allocated all of its created capital in 2013:

• $3.8 billion in Buybacks
• $2.3 billion in dividends
• $2.1 billion in CapEx

Here is the advice for the central planners: until the bullets above read CapEx 100% of capital allocation with buybacks and dividends get 0%, the economy will not improve, period.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/MkNwjE Tyler Durden

Moments ago UPS did what almost every other company so far in this, and prior, earnings seasons has done: posted unimpressive earnings (EPS of $1.25 meeting expectations), while missing revenues, with Q4 sales of $15.0 billion below expectations of $15.2 billion. We already know the explanation – as the company preannounced, the “only reason” its business slowed down in Q4 was due to a… surge in business surrounding the holidays for which the management was unprepared, because apparently the UPS C-suite was unaware how to read a calendar. And, most expectedly, to offset all the bad news, UPS announced it would continue doing what all companies facing a slowing economy do: not invest in Capex while buying back another $2.7 billion in shares in 2014.

But the point of this post is not to spread UPS earnings, but to highlight the biggest cyclical failure of the Bernanke era – one we first highlighted two years ago – when we observed that in the new normal, companies invest not in CapEx but in dividends and buybacks, seeking to appease short-term activist investors while leaving the long-term future of the company flailing in the wind. So here it is, from the earnings release:

For the year ended Dec. 31, UPS generated $5.3 billion in free cash flow, producing a net income-to-cash conversion ratio of more than 120%. The company paid dividends of $2.3 billion, an increase of nearly 9% per share over the prior year, and repurchased more than 43 million shares for approximately $3.8 billion.

This free cash flow is the result of $7.3 billion in cash from operations, from which $2.1 billion in CapEx was reduced.

In short here is how UPS allocated all of its created capital in 2013:

• $3.8 billion in Buybacks
• $2.3 billion in dividends
• $2.1 billion in CapEx

Here is the advice for the central planners: until the bullets above read CapEx 100% of capital allocation with buybacks and dividends get 0%, the economy will not improve, period.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/MkNwjE Tyler Durden

• Only time will define Bernanke’s crisis-era legacy at Fed (Reuters)
• Record Cash Leaves Emerging Market ETFs (BBG)
• Investors Look Toward Safer Options as Ground Shifts (WSJ)
• Fed Policy Makers Rally Behind Tapering QE as Yellen Era Begins (BBG)
• Rating agencies criticise China’s bailout of failed $500m trust (FT)
• Russia to await new Ukraine government before fully implementing rescue (Reuters)
• U.S. readies financial sanctions against Ukraine: congressional aides (Reuters)
• Companies resist president’s call for minimum wage rise (FT)
• Secret Swiss Funds at Risk as Italy’s Saccomanni Visits Bern (BBG)
• Top Democrat puts Obama trade deals in doubt (FT)
• Erdogan to Give Rate Increase Time Before Trying Other Plans (BBG)
• Bernanke Memorable Moments From AIG Anger to Dimon Encounter (BBG)
• Capital controls not on agenda in Turkey: senior government official (Reuters) – translation – the opposite
• Wall Street Attracts Chop Shops 20 Years After ‘Wolf’ (BBG)
• Deutsche Bank suspends currency trader (DB)
• Deadly ice storm turns Atlanta into parking lot (Reuters)

 

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ

* Just one month into 2014, investors from Illinois to Istanbul are finding the tide going out fast for stocks and other riskier investments.

* U.S. stocks have started the year with a thud. What’s interesting, though, isn’t that stocks are down but that the declines are coming so grudgingly.

* Google’s experiment making Motorola phones has ended after just 22 months, with the company unloading the handset business to China’s Lenovo Group for $2.91 billion but keeping a valuable trove of patents.

* The hackers who stole 40 million credit and debit card numbers from Target Corp appear to have breached the discounter’s systems by using electronic credentials stolen from a vendor.

* Amazon.com plans to offer brick-and-mortar retailers a checkout system that uses Kindle tablets as soon as this summer.

* Blackstone Group’s chairman has made clear to senior executives that 43-year-old real-estate specialist Jonathan Gray is the front-runner should the current president depart within the next few years.

* How do the details of a family tragedy land on a piece of junk mail? Most likely from a customer service representative who feeds data to information brokers electronically compiling and selling information.

* Federal regulators are set to take a step Thursday toward retiring the existing landline telephone system in favor of a new, digital-based network.

* Bill Gross, the biggest and one of the most influential fixed-income managers in the world, is ceding some of his power to six new deputies at Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco) as part of the biggest change in its leadership in more than five years. The move follows last week’s announcement that Pimco’s high-profile chief executive and co-chief investment officer, Mohamed El-Erian, would leave in mid-March.

* Starbucks Corp said Chief Executive Howard Schultz will expand his role in product innovation and digital retailing as part of a shuffling of senior executives aimed largely at adjusting to technology-driven shifts in its industry.

* Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will provide testimony after he leaves office in a lawsuit filed against the federal government over the 2008 bailout of American International Group Inc, according to a person involved in the case.

 

FT

The International Energy Agency has warned that escalated gas and electricity prices in Europe would slash its global market share of energy-related exports to two-thirds for at least the next 20 years.

The British Prime Minister may not receive the support of French President Francois Hollande on any renegotiation talks of the EU founding treaty before a referendum on UK’s membership in the European Union.

The helicopter unit of Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, has won two contracts from Britain’s Ministry of Defence worth a total of 760 million pounds ($1.26 billion) in a move that will protect around 1,000 jobs south of England.

The biggest UK businesses paid more in national insurance than corporation taxes, which fell one-fourth to 6 billion pounds last year.

Deutsche Bank cut pay in its corporate banking and securities division to 5.3 billion euros last year, down 14.4 percent from 2012, the bank’s two chief executives said on Wednesday.

 

NYT

* Though not a total financial loss, the announced sale of the Motorola Mobility unit for $2.91 billion to Lenovo Group Ltd , less than two years after Google paid $12.5 billion for it, is a sign of fits and starts at the company in the mobile age.

* Banks have begun selling bonds backed by foreclosed homes turned into rentals in the United States, bringing calls for Congress to look into the deals.

* In a unanimous decision, the Federal Reserve said it would pull back on its stimulus program by another $10 billion, pointing to an improving economy that had “picked up in recent quarters.”

* The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in spending on farm subsidies and nutrition programs, setting the stage for final passage of a new five-year farm bill that has been stalled for more than two years.

* China’s role as the largest buyer of a long list of commodities means that emerging markets are heavily exposed to any economic slowdown, but the most vulnerable producers may be the mines and farms in China itself.

* In the fourth quarter of 2013, 53 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue came from pitches delivered to iPads, smartphones and other mobile devices, with many of those ads highly targeted by gender, age and other demographics.

* The Washington Post has significantly increased its budget and plans to make dozens of newsroom hires under its new owner, the Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, the paper’s executive editor, Marty Baron, said in an interview on Wednesday.

* Law enforcement officials testified on Wednesday that virtual currencies like Bitcoin have opened up new avenues for crime that government has not been able to keep up with.

* The European Union on Wednesday revealed a long-awaited proposal to reduce the systemic risk posed by big banks, a measure that would bring the bloc’s regulations more closely into line with those of the United States. But it is unlikely to become law anytime soon.

* Faced with growing criticism and lawsuits, an oil industry task force representing hundreds of companies in North Dakota pledged on Wednesday to make an all-out effort to capture almost all the natural gas that is being flared in the Bakken shale oil field by the end of the decade.

* Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Department was committed to finding the hackers behind the holiday season theft of credit card data from millions of Target customers. The same day, Target said that hackers were able to get into the company’s system using a vendor’s credentials.

* After doubling over the last year, Boeing’s stock dropped 5.3 percent on Wednesday when the plane maker projected flattening profits in 2014.

* Making good on a State of the Union address promise, President Obama on Wednesday ordered the creation of new employer-sponsored savings accounts intended to help more people get started saving for retirement.

* Axa Equitable is taking an ax to its name, trimming it to Axa so it will conform in the United States with the France-based company’s brand elsewhere. The new name is on display in a campaign that Axa is ready to introduce to American consumers.

* Billionaire investor Steven Cohen kept one of his closest associates at SAC Capital Advisors in the dark about the hedge fund’s rapid selling of a substantial stock position in two drug companies – Elan and Wyeth, just days before the companies reported disappointing results of a clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s drug.

* Citigroup said internally on Wednesday that it was making an effort to improve the lives of the analysts and associates in its investment bank, the two lowest employee levels in that division. Those junior bankers are now encouraged to stay out of the office from 10 pm on Friday through 10 am on Sunday. Citigroup also said on Wednesday that junior bankers were expected to take all of their annual vacation days.

* The Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco has acquired a controlling stake in the Chilean bank CorpBanca, a move that follows its growing ambitions to expand in Latin America.

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

* Several prisoners shattered the teeth and broke the leg of Rob Ford’s estranged brother-in-law in a jailhouse beating that was intended to keep him quiet about the Toronto mayor’s abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs, it has been alleged in a lawsuit. (http://ift.tt/1a3xGot)

* On Wednesday night, 19-year-old Justin Bieber turned himself in at a Toronto police station and was charged with assault in connection with an attack on a local limousine driver. (http://ift.tt/1d9ZfHK)

Reports in the business section:

* Hunter Harrison’s first full year in charge of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd brought a record annual profit, and the aggressive CEO has set a goal of boosting earnings by 30 percent in 2014. (http://ift.tt/1a3xGov)

* The Federal Reserve opted to stick with its plan to slowly wind down its stimulus program, a move that added anxiety to investors already rattled by turmoil in emerging markets. (http://ift.tt/1d9ZfHO)

NATIONAL POST

* Meredith Borowiec, a resident of Calgary who left three of her children in a dumpster, killing two, was sentenced to 18 months in jail on Wednesday. The mother of four left her first born in a dumpster next to her Calgary home. A second baby born a year later was similarly discarded. Neither body was ever found. Her third child was born in October, 2010. Borowiec, again, hid the child in the trash. But this time, the infant was rescued after its cries were overheard. (http://ift.tt/1a3xGVI)

FINANCIAL POST

* Sears Canada is laying off 624 employees, the second time in as many weeks the struggling retailer has announced cost-saving cuts to its workforce. (http://ift.tt/1d9Zi6y)

* After burning through his last set of aggressive objectives about two years ahead of schedule, Hunter Harrison said Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd needs a new five-year plan. The pace of change implemented at the railway is a victory over Harrison’s detractors, who said his plans for CP were unrealistic, and a vindication for Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management waged a messy battle to see Harrison instated as CEO nearly two years ago. (http://ift.tt/1a3xGox)

 

Britain

The Telegraph

RBS FACES 1,000 COMPLAINTS ABOUT ITS ‘MORALLY WRONG’ RESTRUCTURING DIVISION

Lawrence Tomlinson told the Treasury Select Committee that his “dossier” of complaints against RBS’s restructuring division has vastly expanded since he published his report last year. More than 1,000 companies have come forward with allegations of “morally wrong” treatment at the hands of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s restructuring division, MPs have been told.

BANK OF ENGLAND BLOCKS SANTANDER’S CHOICE FOR RISK ROLE

The Bank of England has blocked Santander UK’s plans to hand its incoming deputy chief executive responsibility for risk management. The British arm of the Spanish lender has been forced to rethink its appointment of Nathan Bostock, currently finance director of Royal Bank of Scotland, to the joint role of deputy chief executive and chief risk officer.

The Guardian

VINCE CABLE CONFRONTS LLOYDS OVER STAFF CUTS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING

Vince Cable is demanding an urgent meeting with the boss of Lloyds Banking Group after the bailed-out bank made deep cuts to the number of its small business experts. The business secretary wrote to António Horta-Osório on Wednesday night after Lloyds said half the relationship managers handling small business queries that their roles were being made redundant as part of a long-running strategic review.

UK HOUSE PRICES START YEAR WITH A BANG, FUELLED BY FIRST-TIME BUYERS

The return of first time buyers to Britain’s housing market helped push prices almost 9 percent higher in the year to January, according to the country’s biggest building society Nationwide, adding more than 14,000 pounds to the price of a typical home.

The Times

JUSTIN KING STANDS DOWN AFTER DECADE OF SUCCESS AS SAINSBURY’S CHIEF

Justin King put an end to months of speculation over his future at J Sainsbury and announced his departure, marking the end of a decade that has transformed the fortunes of Britain’s second-biggest grocer.

ANGLO AMERICAN STRENGTHENED BY IRON ORE BOUNCE

A surprise bounce in iron ore production at Anglo American has raised hopes for a turnaround under its new chief executive. The FTSE 100 miner was also buoyed by copper production hitting a quarterly record, which helped to send shares up 77 pence, or 5.7 per cent, to 14.20½ pounds.

Sky News

REGULATOR THREATENS RBS CHIEF’S ROLE AT RIVAL

The appointment of Royal Bank of Scotland’s finance director to a dual role at rival Santander UK was in jeopardy on Wednesday after banking regulators raised concerns about the move. Sky News can reveal that the Prudential Regulation Authority has expressed serious doubts about Nathan Bostock’s appointment to the Spanish-owned bank as deputy chief executive and chief risk officer.

CARNEY WARNS OF RISKS OF SCOTS INDEPENDENCE

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned of “clear risks” associated with the economics of Scottish independence, adding that the country would have to surrender some of its sovereignty if it were to retain the pound.

 

Fly On The Wall 7:00 AM Market Snapshot

ECONOMIC REPORTS

Domestic economic reports scheduled for today include:
Jobless claims for the week of Jan. 25 will be reported at 8:30–consensus 327K
Q4 GDP will be reported at 8:30–consensus 3.0% growth for the quarter
Pending home sales index for December will be reported at 10:00—consensus down 0.5%

ANALYST RESEARCH

Upgrades

Amdocs (DOX) upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer
Autodesk (ADSK) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan
Canadian Pacific (CP) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen
Cathay General (CATY) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital
Citrix (CTXS) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Drexel Hamilton
Enduro Royalty Trust (NDRO) upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital
Enersis (ENI) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill
JetBlue (JBLU) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank
Modine Manufacturing (MOD) upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan
PTC Inc. (PTC) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan
Sequans (SQNS) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at RW Baird
ServiceNow (NOW) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at RW Baird
Spectra Energy (SE) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital
StanCorp Financial (SFG) upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill
Union Pacific (UNP) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Atlantic Equities
WellPoint (WLP) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
WesBanco (WSBC) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim

Downgrades

Blackbaud (BLKB) downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan
Citrix (CTXS) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham
Citrix (CTXS) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup
Citrix (CTXS) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird
Citrix (CTXS) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Pacific Crest
Citrix (CTXS) downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at JMP Securities
Denbury Resources (DNR) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman
EMC (EMC) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Mizuho
El Paso Pipeline (EPB) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman
McCormick (MKC) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank
NeuStar (NSR) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird
New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) downgraded to Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette
Praxair (PX) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan
SS&C Technologies (SSNC) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan
Synopsys (SNPS) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan
Tractor Supply (TSCO) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank
Tractor Supply (TSCO) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James
Triumph Group (TGI) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Sterne Agee
W. R. Berkley (WRB) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Deutsche Bank

Initiations

Energy XXI (EXXI) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman
Kosmos (KOS) initiated with a Buy at Goldman
Spansion (CODE) initiated with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley
W&T Offshore (WTI) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman
inContact (SAAS) initiated with a Perform at Oppenheimer

HOT STOCKS

Lenovo Group (LNVGY) to acquire Motorola Mobility from Google (GOOG) for $2.91B
Potash (POT) CEO said Q4 was “difficult,” challenging fertilizer market conditions impacted Q4 performance
Starbucks (SBUX) CFO Troy Alstead promoted to COO
Oramed (ORMP) said Phase 2a ORMD-0801 study met all primary, secondary endpoints
Dassault to acquire Accelrys (ACCL) for $12.50 per share in merger valued at $750M
Time Warner Cable (TWC) increased quarterly dividend by 15% to 75c

EARNINGS

Companies that beat consensus earnings expectations last night and today include:
Helmerich & Payne (HP), Ball Corp. (BLL), Enterprise Products (EPD), MEDNAX (MD), Time Warner Cable (TWC), Thermo Fisher (TMO), Arkansas Best (ABFS), Cabot (CBT), QLogic (QLGC), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Facebook (FB), Allegiant Travel (ALGT), Hanesbrands (HBI), QIAGEN (QGEN), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Spectrum Brands (SPB), Symantec (SYMC), Qualcomm (QCOM)

Companies that missed consensus earnings expectations include:
WESCO (WCC), Whirlpool (WHR), Potash (POT), Murphy Oil (MUR), Callaway Golf (ELY), Vertex (VRTX)

Companies that matched consensus earnings expectations include:
Destination Maternity (DEST), Kirby (KEX), Quantum (QTM), Fortune Brands (FBHS), ServiceNow (NOW)

NEWSPAPERS/WEBSITES

DOJ says BP (BP) should remain barred from U.S. contracts, Telegraph reports
Microsoft (MSFT) could announce new CEO by end of the week, Re/code reports
For Google (GOOG), keeping patents key to Motorola (LNVGY), Samsung  (SSNLF) deals, Bloomberg reports
EU court adviser: MasterCard (MA) should lose card fees appeal, Bloomberg reports
Deutsche Bank (DB) said to suspend NY EM forex desk head, Reuters reports
UBS (UBS) hired by Bright House as adviser amid TWC (TWC) deal speculation, WSJ reports
Oracle (ORCL) CEO says database not breached, Reuters reports
Amazon (AMZN) planning to offer retailers a Kindle checkout system, WSJ reports
Shell (RDS.A) to suspend drilling in U.S. Arctic, WSJ reports
Stolen vendor credentials led to Target (TGT) hacking, WSJ reports

SYNDICATE

Celladon (CLDN) 5.5M share IPO priced at $8.00
Dicerna (DRNA) 6M share IPO priced at $15.00
Geron (GERN) files to sell common stock
Media General (MEG) files to sell 58.54M shares of voting stock for holders
Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) files to sell $115M of common stock
Southcross Energy Partners (SXE) files to sell 8M common units
TESARO (TSRO) 3.2M share Secondary priced at $31.50

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/Mz19g3 Tyler Durden

Yesterday’s epic failure of central bank intervention when both Turkey and South Africa hiked rates only to see their currency initially bounce then collapse, is long forgotten, and early today, the USDTRY once again traded to the rather unstable level of 2.30 and threatened with yet another rout, before verbal intervention out of Russia managed to soothe nerves on edge around the EM world. What followed out of Turkey, however, was an epic verbal diarrhea from both the government and the central bank, which firmly proves the nation on the Bosphorus truly has no idea what it is doing. Here is the evidence.

First, here is the Finance Minister desperate to repreise Rahm Emanuel.

• SIMSEK SAYS TURKEY ‘WON’T WASTE THIS CRISIS’
• WE’LL TURN THIS CRISIS INTO AN OPPORTUNITY,’ SIMSEK SAYS

Next, some deep thoughts on capital flows

• SIMSEK: TURKEY SAW INFLOWS, NOT OUTFLOWS IN LATEST PERIOD
• SIMSEK: I BELIEVE WE WON’T SEE OUTFLOWS THIS YEAR
• SIMSEK: BUT WE ALSO HAVE TO ATTRACT CAPITAL

Next – a spirited defense of government policies

• SIMSEK SAYS ERDOGAN IS MISUNDERSTOOD ON INTEREST RATES LOBBY
• SIMSEK SAYS TURKEY’S INTEREST LOBBY TALK NOT ANTI-INVESTOR
• SIMSEK SAYS TURKEY GOVT PLANNING MEASURES ON CORRUPTION

A glimpse of Plan B thru Z, promising there will be no capital controls. Translation: by the time all is said and done, there will be capital controls.

• TURKEY WON’T RESTRICT CAPITAL MOVEMENTS, FINANCE MINISTER SAYS
• TOO EARLY TO TALK ABOUT USE OF FISCAL POLICY FOR SHOCKS: SIMSEK
• TURKEY HAS ROOM ON FISCAL POLICY TO DEAL WITH SHOCKS: SIMSEK
• IMPORTANT WHETHER TURKEY RATE INCREASE TO LAST OR NOT: SIMSEK

Finally, here is the central bank itself confirming nobody in Turkey has any idea what is going on

• TURKEY BANK: TIGHT POLICY SHOULD DETER INFLATION EST WORSENING
• TURKEY CENBANK SAYS INFLATION SEEN REACHING 5% TARGET MID-2015
• TURKEY BANK SAYS CURRENT STANCE ENOUGH TO ANCHOR INFLATION ESTS
• TURKEY BANK SAYS WON’T TOLERATE PRICE STABILITY DETERIORATION
• TURKEY CENBANK: FX MOVES RAISED ABOVE-TARGET INFLATION RISK
• TURKEY FLOATING RATE REGIME NOT BEING DEBATED, SIMSEK SAYS

Source: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/LdrJth Tyler Durden