“I don’t see any reason to think we need a QE3. We’re in a soft patch today. We still have positive growth. I think expectations earlier this year were way too high, 3 percent or higher gross domestic product, I think we’re going to be in the span of 2-ish percent, 2 and a half percent for the entire year and the issues around QE2, it’s been telegraphed for months and months and we’ve seen interest rates down 60 basis points and the whole reason is investors are de-risking…they’re frightened of the world and all these issues we have in front of us.” Continue reading »
Archive for June 2011
Nothing huge but the network might “cause devastating interference” to GPS devices. Continue reading »
Earlier this week, we discussed the possibility of UBS moving out of its Stamford, CT building (which houses the largest trading floor in the world) and into New York City. The bank, which has not been doing so hot of late, seems to believe that leaving Stamford would be a panacea for all its woes which, according UBS, boil down to no one wanting to work in Connecticut (rather than no one wanting to work at a place that doesn’t pay and yells at you when you ask if this month’s check will clear). Some staff have already been transferred with plans to move more later this summer but talk of moving the whole shebang, until recently, had been very casual. Once word got out that the bank has been speaking with developer Larry Silverstein about a possible deal at 3 World Trade Center, which conveniently has 5 trading floors located in “Tower 3,” they got upgraded to one step up from casual and got the people of Stamford freaking the fuck out.
Take Danny Ryan, a bartender and waiter at Morton’s. For the past fews days he’s been struggling to answer one simple question- why?
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Danny Ryan, a bartender and server at Morton’s The Steakhouse, which is alongside the gleaming 700,000-square-foot UBS building. “Why would they build this stunning building with the biggest trading floor in the world, and then leave?”
Dino Sakakini, owner of Layla’s Falafel was less philosophical and more blunt. “Stamford will be crushed,” he told the Times. “Plain and simple. We’ll become a ghost town.”
Peter Charpentier, who “sells a whole lot of brown-bagged bottles of liquor to UBS employees every evening,” was just plain pissed, both at CT officials and whoever’s making the decisions at the bank, who apparently forgot about a little thing called 9/11. Continue reading »
David Tepper: No More Fed Easing Unless Stocks Drop More (CNBC)
Tepper said in an email to CNBC that stocks would have to fall considerably more before the Fed would start another round of quantitative easing, or QE. “If (the S&P 500 falls) a couple hundred points and financial conditions tightened maybe they would reconsider,” Tepper wrote. “But there is no logic to QE3 now and the only result might be more food and energy inflation.”
Richard Bove Does an About-Face on Goldman (DealBook)
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that a terrible wrong may have been done to Goldman Sachs,” the Rochdale Research analyst wrote in a recently released report on the big Wall Street firm. “Evidence is now mounting that the company did not have a net short position at a crucial time under study and that the Senate Committee may have misread the numbers.”
From Clinton aide, the ultimate denial: ‘The story is bogus’ (WaPo)
The queries were prompted by a Reuters news story that quoted unnamed sources as saying that Clinton was considering a job as World Bank president. Clinton’s deputies quickly denied the story, yet it persisted for hours, triggering innumerable tweets and breaking-news alerts on cable networks… Finally, just before 2 a.m. Friday, Abu Dhabi time, Philippe Reines, Clinton’s longtime aide and deputy assistant secretary of state, sat down to tap out the most sweeping denial he could muster: “Let me address this as definitively as I can, on the record,” he wrote. “The story is completely untrue. To be crystal clear…”
Germany Digs In on Greek Debt Extensions (Bloomberg)
Germany stepped up demands that investors pay some of the cost of a second Greek rescue after Jean-Claude Trichet rejected direct involvement by the European Central Bank. “Participation of private creditors in cases of insolvency is indispensable,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin today, ignoring warnings from credit- rating firms that his proposal to extend Greek debt maturities by seven years would be deemed a default.
A Bank Regulatory Logjam May Be Easing (NYT)
The Obama administration, moving to fill vacancies at several financial regulatory agencies, is considering nominating Thomas J. Curry to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees most of the nation’s large banks, according to several people with knowledge of the deliberations…The White House would like to send Mr. Curry’s name to the Senate at the same time that it moves on its widely reported plan to nominate Martin J. Gruenberg as the new chairman of the F.D.I.C., those people said.
Maiden Lane Sales Spark Stampede to Dump Risk (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve auctions of mortgage securities that the central bank assumed in the rescue of American International Group Inc. are fueling a selloff in credit markets as Wall Street rushes to hedge against losses on stockpiled debt.
Bruce Berkowitz: Just A Matter of Time for Financials (Deal Journal)
A year to a year and a half ago, said Bruce Berkowitz, manager of the $14.7 billion Fairholme Fund, he would have said it was difficult to evaluate what some financial firms were, who they owed and who owed them. But “with enough time and capital infusion, I’ve grown more comfortable,” Berkowitz told attendees at the annual Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago Thursday. For now, Berkowitz said he is holding what he has dubbed “some of the most-hated companies in the United States.” The Fairholme Fund had more than 74% of its assets invested in financial-services companies as of Feb. 28, according to investment-research firm Morningstar Inc. Among the fund’s holdings are AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Continue reading »
$$$ Clinton in talks about possible move to World Bank (Reuters)
$$$ Bill Gross Tiptoes Back Into Treasurys — Still Short, Though (MarketBeat)
$$$ Family Dollar up as Ackman’s Pershing raises stake (Reuters)
$$$ U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb (Bloomberg)
$$$ Record exports temper slowdown fears (Reuters)
$$$ Home-Price Drop of 25% Wouldn’t Shock Shiller (Bloomberg)
$$$ Traders flummoxed by natural gas ‘flash crash’ (FT) Continue reading »
John Paulson’s annual midyear investor event, held on June 7-8 in Paris, featured notable speakers, workshops on the firm’s major strategies and a dinner cruise on the Seine. Unlike the firm’s recent soiree in Las Vegas, which was held solely for investors in his advantage funds, this event was open to anyone invested in the $37.5 billion firm. [AR]
So, the performance you’re about to see is most certainly fake. But is there some truth there? Does Debbie, the graduate of Villanova business school and extreme cat enthusiast looking for love strike you as someone who’d fit in on campus, or would the character more likely be found at Wharton or HBS? Continue reading »
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