... Chinas biggest molybdenum producer to launch IPO next ... it will launch A-share listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Apr.17. Articles published on Metals Place ...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Chinas biggest molybdenum producer to launch IPO next month
Forex - Dollar steady in afternoon trade ahead of US GDP, other economic data
... Forex - Dollar steady in afternoon trade ahead ... yen may weaken against the dollar after Japanese officials aired some concerns about the outlook ... for the worlds second-largest economy. Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy board member Miyako Suda earlier ...
European govt bonds track US Treasuries off lows after weak US data
... reversal of strong gains seen recently on equity markets, as risk appetite fell and market players ... Sept euribor future (Liffe) 95.86 dn 0.02 GERMANY June bund future (Eurex) 116.04 dn 0.21 ...
Big Hurt In Emerging Markets
... end of 2007, the value of its stock market went from $60 billion to $1 trillion. ... Africa, 22% to Israel and 19% to Egypt, Morocco and Jordan. It seems that the ...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bhutto ally new prime minister
... YORK (MarketWatch) -- The swearing in of Pakistans new prime minister Tuesday is a step ... 31%. The market capitalization of the Karachi Stock Exchange is about $75 billion, while Pakistans GDP ... indicates the enormous potential of the local stock market, Dzierwa said. Local retail investors dominate Pakistans ...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Markets Get Support
... the capital market in East African region. Stock markets are seen as enhancing the operations of ... some where else where there are instruments. Equity market is more developed than the debt market ... 120 million people after South Africa and Nigeria. ...
Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on March 25
... news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Reuters ...
Real estate loans increased to 50 million dinars
... 25 March 2008 (Telegraph) -- Iraqs rising prosperity is to be symbolically marked ... week with the inauguration of a new stock exchange system in Baghdad. Baghdad, 24 March 2008 ...
Morning business news - March 25
... EAST - While the turmoil on the stock markets have been providing all the drama in ... to key emerging markets such as China, Russia, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico now ...
Norways Aker Yards ASA sells 70% stake in three shipyards to Russian investor
... its business area Merchant Vessels to the Russian state-controlled investor FLC West in a EUR291.9m ... The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and traded under the ticker AKY. One ...
Salaries of employees and retirees will be increased soon
... week with the inauguration of a new stock exchange system in Baghdad. 24 March 2008 (Iraq ... Cairo International Industrial Exhibition, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry from (18 ...
Bond Expert: Tuesday Outlook
... are generally up about 3 percent. The Australian equity market is up 3.7 percent and in Japan ... with minimal losses. A portion of the stock markets elation yesterday and the bond markets ebbing ...
Sasol unveils S Africas biggest empowerment deal
... Sasol unveils S Africas biggest empowerment deal JOHANNESBURG - Fuels and petrochemicals group Sasol will ... to a 1.75 percent rise in the JSE Securities Exchange Top-40 index. Some previous BEE deals have ...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Centre IOL asked to submit report on LPG shortage
Commodity Online NEW DELHI: The Delhi Court today urged the Ministry of Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation to submit a report over the alleged availability of LPG cylinders in black market.
GSHL signs deals for iron ore coalmining leases
Commodity Online NEW DELHI: Global Steel Holdings Ltd (GSHL) has signed a deal for leasing iron ore and coal reserves in Brazil, Columbia and Mozambique
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Congo seeks contract changes in mines review
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congos mines review panel recommended steps on Thursday to overhaul the vast central African countrys minerals sector after years of war and neglect, including renegotiating several major mining contracts.
A few more weeks of market winter?
A patient investor is not going to miss out by sitting in cash until the market bottoms. Still, some hot stocks -- notably metals, agriculture and overseas companies -- can be found if youre daring.
WaMu: Skip customers; save the execs
As mortgage holders face foreclosure and shareholders take a bath, troubled Washington Mutual takes action -- to protect executive bonuses. It could be a trend.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wachovia says housing downturn nowhere near over
(Reuters) - Wachovia Corp (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which offers adjustable-rate mortgages that let borrowers decide how much to pay each month, believes the U.S. housing downturn is far from over, Chief Risk Officer Don Truslow said.
"It feels like we have a ways to go," Truslow said on a Deutsche Bank Securities Inc conference call. Referring to the nine innings of a baseball game, Truslow said he was "unsure" whether the downturn was in the third, fourth or fifth inning, but "we haven't reached the seventh-inning stretch."
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, on February 28 said it expected first-half loan losses to exceed 0.75 percent of loans on an annualized basis in 2008, higher than it had forecast two weeks earlier.
Liberty CEO says he was point man in IAC talks
(Reuters) - Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei said on Wednesday that he was the point man in talks with IAC/InterActiveCorp over disengaging the two companies despite a long-standing relationship between Liberty Chairman John Malone and IAC CEO Barry Diller.
"John Malone considered Barry Diller a friend" after a business partnership of nearly 12 years, Maffei told a Delaware court, where IAC and controlling shareholder Liberty are battling over a proposal to spin off four of IAC's businesses.
"While (Malone) was not entirely happy and increasingly unhappy with the performance at IAC ... because of the friendship, I don't think (he) was willing to tackle some of the issues," Maffei said. "I have been in effect the point person. I don't believe it's a personal matter."
Liberty's board put him in that role despite concerns of a potential conflict between Maffei and Diller. The two had clashed over IAC's purchase of online travel site Expedia several years before.
IAC and Liberty sued each other in January after Diller proposed a spinoff plan that would dilute Liberty's majority voting control over the businesses as separate entities.
The plan followed more than a year of inconclusive talks on a possible swap that would give IAC's HSN shopping network to Liberty in return for Liberty's stake in IAC.
Diller, a former television and film executive, built IAC with Malone's backing over more than a decade. While Liberty owns about 30 percent of IAC shares, it holds 62 percent voting control through a second class of super-voting stock.
Societe Generale Says Another Employee Held by Police
(Bloomberg) -- Societe Generale SA, the French bank stung by a record trading loss of 4.9 billion euros ($7.6 billion), said a second employee has been taken into police custody as part of the investigation into unauthorized trades.
The headquarters of France's second-biggest bank in La Defense, just outside Paris, were searched by police today, who took some documents, Societe Generale spokeswoman Laura Schalk said in an interview.
The latest development deepens a probe that began after the bank said in January that 31-year-old trader Jerome Kerviel amassed 50 billion euros in trades backed by fake hedges and false documents. Unwinding his bets resulted in the biggest trading loss in banking history and forced Societe Generale to replenish depleted capital.
``It's normal for the investigation to widen, and we will see where this brings us, given that many people said Kerviel could not have acted alone,'' said Arnaud Scarpaci, who helps manage about $235 million at Agilis Gestion SA in Paris. ``At an image level, it's not the best for the company.''
Societe Generale failed to follow up on 75 warnings on bets by Kerviel, independent board members concluded in a report last month. While the board has twice turned down Chairman Daniel Bouton's offer to resign, the document highlighted the shortcomings of Societe Generale's management supervision that allowed Kerviel to forge documents and emails undetected for more than two years.
Unidentified Broker
The Societe Generale employee taken into custody today is the second broker to be questioned in the Kerviel case. Moussa Bakir, a 32-year-old broker at Newedge, was questioned and released last month. Kerviel passed trades through Societe Generale's Fimat unit, which merged in January with Credit Agricole SA's futures brokerage to form Newedge.
The police are questioning the second broker, Isabelle Montagne, a spokeswoman for Paris prosecutors, said today in a telephone interview. She declined to name the broker. She said the broker was taken into custody mid-morning and would be held for 24 hours. The detention could be extended to up to 48 hours.
Kerviel, who admitted to exceeding his trading limits and faking documents to show his bets were covered by hedges, has been interrogated six times since he was incarcerated on Feb. 8. He has been charged with hacking into the bank's computers, falsifying documents and breach of trust.
The latest development comes just two days before a hearing at the Paris appeals court to consider his release.
Drake Management May Shut Down Largest Hedge Fund After Losses
(Bloomberg) -- Drake Management LLC, the New York- based firm started by former BlackRock Inc. money managers, may shut its largest hedge fund after a 25 percent decline last year, according to a letter to investors.
Winding down the $3 billion Global Opportunities Fund is one option being considered by Drake ``in an attempt to maintain and maximize value for investors during this period of severe market downturn and contraction of liquidity,'' the letter said.
Drake, which had blocked most redemptions from the fund in December, is reviewing other options, including allowing investors to get their money back over the next 18 months or to move their assets to a new fund. Drake, which managed $13 billion as recently as the end of the year, is considering similar steps for its two other hedge funds.
Hedge funds with more than $5.4 billion have been forced to liquidate or sell assets since Feb. 15 as contagion from the U.S. subprime slump spreads for a seventh month. Others include Peloton Partners LLP's $1.8 billion ABS Fund, Tequesta Capital Advisor's mortgage fund and Focus Capital Investors LLC, which invested in midsize Swiss companies.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Goldman says can't rule out Fed emergency rate cut
(Reuters) - An emergency interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve is possible ahead of its March 18th policy meeting, according to a Goldman Sachs research note on Monday.
Goldman said its view on Fed policy changed on Friday.
The government reported on Friday that a second straight month of job losses and the Fed announced new steps to inject liquidity into the financial system as credit availability remains tight.
Oil Rises to Record $107 as Returns Outpace Financial Markets
(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record $107 a barrel in New York as investors purchased futures because the returns have outpaced those of financial markets.
Oil in New York has surged 77 percent over the past year as the S&P 500 and Dow averages dropped. Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased net-long positions, or bets on higher oil prices, in the week ended March 4, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission report showed.
``We're witnessing an ongoing flow of fund buying, which isn't particularly motivated by the particulars of the petroleum market,'' said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. ``Prices have rallied to such an extent where sellers have backed off. Any time prices go lower the buyers come right back into the market.''
Crude oil for April delivery rose $1.36, or 1.3 percent, to $106.51 a barrel at 10:55 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures surged to $107 a barrel today, the highest since trading began in 1983.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Billionaire dreamlist: helipad and private beach
(Reuters Life!) - Credit crunch? What credit crunch?
More billionaire house hunters than ever are scouring the globe in search of the perfect hideaway.
So how about a Parisian mansion with its own ballroom, a forest-fringed estate in Andalusia complete with helipad or maybe a villa in Anguilla with a "feather-topped beach lapped by deep turquoise waters."
Reveling in the purple prose so beloved by estate agents, the glossy magazine Country Life has picked five of the top properties on the market that even the super-rich dream about.
For $95 million, why not snap up Hillandale, an English country-style estate just 50 miles from Manhattan.
Just four minute's drive from the billionaire's playground of Monaco you could put in a bid for the Domain, a Cote d'Azur mansion with its own stud farm, paddocks and dressage arena.
The credit crunch may have hit big spenders in London's City financial district who once happily invested their huge bonuses in property. But the billionaires are not feeling the chill.
Gold's glitter lures buyers
(Reuters) - Gold's near vertical climb to historic highs approaching the key $1,000 mark shows no sign of abating as bullish forces such as a sinking dollar and record high oil are not seen fading anytime soon.
Fears that expensive oil will stoke inflation combined with worries over potential stock market losses and the U.S. on the brink of possible economic recession will propel gold higher still, analysts say.
"Don't be surprised to see gold trade up to $1,100 (an ounce) or even $1,200 before year-end 2008," said Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors.
"And, with the right confluence of economic and geopolitical developments, we could see gold spike to $1,500 or even $2,000 in the next few years," he said.
Gold hit a record high of $991.90 an ounce on Thursday and was at $986.90/987.40 at 1144 GMT. It has jumped 20 percent this year, 56 percent in the past 12 months, doubled in about 2 years and surged from a low of around $250 in August 1999.
It was previously fixed at a record high of $850 in January 1980 as high inflation linked to strong oil, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the impact of the Iranian revolution prompted investors to heavily buy gold. After adjusting for inflation, the 1980 high was $2,119.30 at 2007 prices.
The market has ridden waves of investor buying, which lifted prices nearly 50 percent in the past six months, ignoring a handful of negative factors, with most players betting on even higher prices this year and next.
Money-Market Rate for Euros Climbs to Seven-Week High
(Bloomberg) -- The cost of borrowing euros for three months rose to the highest level in seven weeks as the coordinated effort by central banks to revive lending falters.
The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, for the loans climbed 3 basis points to 4.43 percent today, the highest since Jan. 17, the European Banking Federation said. It was the biggest gain since Jan. 25.
The increase in money-market rates adds to evidence a concerted plan by central banks to promote lending and limit the fallout from the U.S. housing slump isn't working. Banks' asset writedowns and credit losses exceeded $181 billion since the beginning of 2007, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Total writedowns may top $600 billion, UBS said last week.
``This will continue to be the story for all 2008,'' said Nathalie Fillet, a senior interest-rate strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London. ``It's less a pure liquidity squeeze like at the end of last year than a reflection that the global credit crisis will last a while.''
Borrowing costs fell earlier this year after policy makers from the U.S., U.K., euro region, Switzerland and Canada announced plans on Dec. 12 to counter the credit shortage. The ECB injected a record $500 billion into the banking system on Dec. 18. The Federal Reserve provided $160 billion in short-term loans since mid-December in six auctions through the Term Auction Facility.
OIS Spread
The difference between the rate banks charge for one-month dollar loans in London relative to the overnight indexed swap rate, the so-called Libor OIS spread used by the Fed as the minimum bid level at its auctions, suggested a decline in the availability of funds. The spread increased to 54 basis points today, from 30 basis points in the week ended Feb. 22. It averaged 6 basis points in the first half of 2007 and 41 basis points since then.
Overnight indexed swaps are derivatives in which one party agrees to pay a fixed rate in exchange for receiving the average of a floating central bank rate over the life of the swap. For swaps based in U.S. dollars, the floating rate is the daily effective federal funds rate.
The difference, or spread, between the three-month money- market rate and the European Central Bank's benchmark rate was 43 basis points. It averaged 25 basis points in the first half of 2007.
``The leverage crunch is unlikely to disappear over the next few weeks,'' Stuart Thomson, a money manager who helps oversee $46 billion in bonds at Glasgow, Scotland-based Resolution Investment Management Ltd., said in an e-mailed note today.
Carlyle Fund Gets Default Notice After Margin Calls
(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group's publicly traded mortgage bond fund failed to meet margin calls and said it received a notice of default.
Carlyle Capital Corp. missed four of seven margin calls yesterday totaling more than $37 million, the Guernsey, U.K.- based fund said today in a statement. The fund expects to get at least one more notice of default related to the margin calls.
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market has prompted investors to flee all but the safest forms of debt, leading to the failure of hedge funds including Peloton Partners LLP. The Carlyle fund raised $300 million in July and used loans to buy about $22 billion of AAA rated so-called agency mortgage securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
``The credit crisis is spilling over to the next asset class, agency bonds,'' said Philip Gisdakis, senior credit strategist at UniCredit SpA in Munich. ``There's never just one cockroach. If you see one highly leveraged hedge fund going bust, then there's another on the way.''
Peloton, the London-based hedge-fund firm run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partners, announced plans last week to liquidate its ABS Fund after ``severe'' losses on mortgage-backed debt and demands from banks to repay loans. Thornburg Mortgage Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, plummeted 62 percent in New York trading this week after the home lender received a default notice on a $320 million loan.
Widening Spreads
Carlyle Capital, run by John Stomber, fell 1.7 percent in Amsterdam trading today to $11.80. The fund originally sold shares at $19 each. Emma Thorpe, a London-based spokeswoman for U.S. private-equity firm Carlyle Group, declined to comment.
The agency mortgage-bond market has about $4.5 trillion of securities, according to estimates from UniCredit. The spread between 30-year agency mortgage bonds and 10-year U.S. Treasuries widened to more than 200 basis points yesterday, the highest since 1986, according to Bloomberg data cited by UniCredit today.
At the same time, money-market rates for euros and pounds climbed to the highest since mid-January, signaling the global squeeze on short-term bank lending may be returning. The three- month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for euros advanced 1 basis point to 4.4 percent yesterday, the highest since Jan. 18, according to the British Bankers' Association.
``Market conditions are the worst anyone in this industry can remember,'' said Alain Grisay, chief executive officer of London-based F&C Asset Management Plc, on a conference call with reporters today. ``I don't think anyone has a recollection of a total disappearance in liquidity. I just cannot remember a time when for six months there are billion of dollars worth of assets out there for which there is just no market.''
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
MGIC Plans Stock Sale to Bolster Mortgage Insurance
(Bloomberg) -- MGIC Investment Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage insurer, said it will sell shares to increase capital.
Part of the money raised will be used to boost sales, the Milwaukee-based company said late yesterday in a statement. MGIC plans to decide on the size of the stock offering by ``mid to late March,'' and the company may consider other ways of raising capital, it said.
MGIC needs to raise capital to avoid a downgrade of its claims-paying ability after a record fourth-quarter loss of $1.47 billion, Fitch Ratings said Feb. 25. The insurer said Feb. 13 it hired an adviser to help raise money.
Mortgage insurers, which reimburse lenders when borrowers don't repay their debt, are facing a surge in claims amid the worst housing slump in 25 years.
Dollar Falls Against Yen on Bets Fed Will Lower Rate 0.75-Point
(Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell for a sixth straight day against the yen and traded near a record low versus the euro as traders increased bets that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by 0.75 percentage point this month.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which compares the currency with those of six trading partners, dropped as futures showed a 74 percent likelihood the Fed will reduce rates to 2.25 percent. Last week, traders saw no chance of a cut that steep. Canada's currency fell after the Bank of Canada cut rates today to help offset a slump in exports to the U.S.
``The dollar will remain under pressure,'' said Omer Esiner, an analyst at currency-trading company Ruesch International Inc. in Washington. ``The U.S. economy is looking weak.''
The dollar fell to 103.08 yen at 9:10 a.m. in New York, from 103.49 yen yesterday, when it fell to 102.62 yen, the lowest since Jan. 28, 2005. The U.S. currency traded at $1.5202 per euro, from $1.5204 yesterday, when it touched $1.5275, the weakest level since the European currency's 1999 debut.
``Don't fight the dollar weakness,'' a team of strategists at Zurich-based UBS AG, led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, wrote in a research report published today. This week's U.S. data ``will likely increasingly suggest a recession,'' they wrote.
The U.S. Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York was at 73.584 after declining to a record low of 73.354 yesterday. The slump in the U.S. currency helped push the price of oil to a record of $103.95 yesterday and gold to an all-time high of $989.54 an ounce.
`Grossly Misaligned'
The yen advanced to 156.71 per euro from 157.35.
UBS Wealth Management Research, a unit of UBS, wrote in a separate report that the world's foreign-exchange markets are ``grossly misaligned'' and Asian currencies may ``appreciate sharply.''
The Singapore dollar reached S$1.3897 against the U.S. currency, a decade-high, before trading at S$1.3904, from S$1.3910 yesterday. The Taiwan dollar advanced 0.6 percent to NT$30.922 per dollar.
The Australian dollar, also known as the Aussie, fell as the central bank governor said there is evidence consumer spending is moderating. The central bank raised the main rate to 7.25 percent today, the highest in 12 years. The Aussie was at 93.29 U.S. cents, from 93.96 cents yesterday and 94.98 on Feb. 28, the highest since March 1984.
``The Australian dollar is likely to be sold hard in the near-term,'' Hans-Guenter Redeker, head of currency strategy in London at BNP Paribas SA, one of the world's 10 biggest currency traders, wrote in a note to clients. A support level at 92.75 cents per dollar ``looks set to be broken,'' he said.
Canadian Rates
The Canadian dollar fell to 99.36 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar, from 99 cents yesterday, after the central bank cut Canada's benchmark rate by a half-point to 3.5 percent and said further ``stimulus'' will likely be required.
Japan's currency also climbed 1.3 percent to 95.97 against the Aussie and 1 percent to 82.68 per New Zealand dollar as widening credit-market losses prompted investors to reduce so- called carry trades
Japan's benchmark rate of 0.5 percent, the lowest among industrialized nations, compares with 8.25 percent in New Zealand and 4 percent in Europe. In carry trades, investors get funds in a country with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher rates, earning the difference between the two. The risk is that currency moves erase those profits.
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