Despite the fact that Morgan Stanley beat expectations last quarter, things are still not yet peachy keen again at the bank. Brad Hintz fears it’s going to be years before clients put MS back on speed dial, Blackberry usage is stiflingly curtailed, Dick Bové has dropped hints he’s going to go Fatal Attraction on James Gorman’s ass, and come January John Mack will not be around protect everyone with his Tommy gun. Having said that, MS employees are all in a far better place than one of their former colleagues, who had the misfortune of getting involved with a lunatic who chose the reasonable course of framing her for armed robbery after the relationship soured. Continue reading »
Archive for July 2011
Former Morgan Stanley Analyst Framed For Armed Robbery By Boyfriend Now Being Accused Of Setting Him Up
By Bess Levin
“When I think about what is happening in Washington right now, I think of the expression that was used in Wall Street a long time ago, which is that we are up to our knees in midgets. That is what I think about when I think about Washington right now, and I guess that is a terrible thing to say, but the fact that we are one week away from a pseudo- default is a reflection of the fact that Washington is less than a place of great intellectual wisdom.” [BloombergTV]
Half Of UBS Investment Bank Is Supporting Asset Management, Other Half Might Want Consider Their Options Elsewhere
By Matt Levine
Earlier this morning, UBS announced that income fell to 1.02 billion Swiss francs ($1.27 billion) from 2.01 billion francs last year, leaving the door open for analysts to air their grievances about the investment bank and press CEO Oswald Grübel on UBS’s earnings call about the underperforming investment bank and how it will fit with the relatively strong wealth management division in the future.
JPMorgan’s Kian Abouhossein, for example, thinks that UBS’s fixed income business sucks and refused to mince words about it:
If I look over the last 4 quarters, you’re either the worst performer [in FICC] in the industry globally of the top players, or you’re the second worst. Mr. Grübel, when do you say enough is enough of underperformance, and when do you take more drastic action?
Stanford B-school prof Anat Admati has a piece in DealBook arguing that banks should have much higher equity cushions and that you should ignore banks’ complaints that those cushions will lower ROEs.
We love this article only because she says something that should be engraved on the foreheads of anyone who wants to comment on bank equity:
Continue reading »
Thirty-nine percent of Level 1 takers and forty-three percent of Level II’ers are likely feeling prettay prettay prettay good at the moment, possibly on account of celebratory morning drinks or the realization that the promise land is within reach. The rest of you are probably in not as great a place, on account of having just thrown away the last 4-6 months of your lives. Continue reading »
The other Swiss bank is mulling over the idea. Continue reading »
July performance. Continue reading »
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Posted in:
Hedge Funds
George Soros Returning All Outside Investor Money, Keeping It In The Fam
By Bess Levin
Soros And Sons said they’d rather hand back the $1 billion than be required to register with the SEC. Continue reading »
Deutsche Bank Q2 profits, revenues miss expectations, bank takes writedown on Greek bonds (WaPo)
The bank said Tuesday that its net income during the period rose by only 6 percent from a year ago to €1.23 billion ($1.79 billion). Over the previous quarter, net profit was down 42 percent from €2.13 billion. Diluted earnings per share of €1.24 cents per share were below the consensus prediction of €1.35 per share. Despite lower than expected earnings, the company’s shares rose after the earnings report as investors were relieved that the question of who will replace CEO Josef Ackermann has been resolved.
UBS Scraps Earnings Goal After Profit Falls 49% (Bloomberg)
Net income fell to 1.02 billion Swiss francs ($1.27 billion) from 2.01 billion francs in the year-earlier period, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement today. That missed the 1.29 billion-franc mean estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. UBS shares declined…The investment bank, which already cut about 6 percent of jobs in the first quarter, may slash 700 more positions, mostly in the back office, a person familiar with the situation said.
Hedge-Fund Titan Englander Preps for Future in Sale Talks (WSJ)
Hedge-fund manager Israel Englander is in discussions to sell a minority stake in his closely held firm Millennium Management LLC, showing that hedge-fund success stories continue to draw interest from deep pockets. Known for his talent in handpicking money-making traders and for swiftly shedding those who disappoint, the 62-year-old billionaire aims to expand his business by increasing its more-than-$11 billion in assets, say people familiar with the matter.
President Obama, House Speaker Boehner present dueling debt-limit plans to nation (WaPo)
As Boehner tried to rally support for his two-step plan to cut $3 trillion in spending, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) offered a strikingly similar proposal for increasing the debt limit before the Aug. 2 deadline. The two leaders, however, remained bitterly divided over Boehner’s demand to hold another vote next year to further expand the government’s borrowing authority. With financial markets warily watching the Capitol Hill drama, Obama used his 15-minute address from the White House to urge “shared sacrifice” in tackling the debt, calling for deep cuts in federal spending to be coupled with higher taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations. He slammed Boehner for calling for another vote on the issue next year, saying: “We know what we have to do to reduce our deficits; there’s no point in putting the economy at risk by kicking the can further down the road.”
Erin Burnett Tweets (EB)
Source who met w/S&P says SIZE of Boehner plan is the problem. MIGHT not be enough to avert downgrade, needs to be closer to $3TR all at once. Continue reading »
$$$ Senate and House Still Far Apart on Debt in 2 New Plans (NYT)
$$$ U.S. default could spark CDS confusion (Reuters)
$$$ U.S. agencies look for credit rating alternatives (Reuters)
$$$ IMF calls for US to raise debt ceiling and cut spending (BBC)
$$$ Hoenig – Fed should raise rates from near zero (Reuters) Continue reading »
“His team stole 9 million pages of documents. If you stacked them up, that’s 2.5 Empire State buildings…we’ve got forensic experts, people who examined the computers, people who will testify to some of this. That 9 million pages is based on our examinations of the computers, of the downloads, of the printings. And they snuck it out the building. They told secretaries, ‘sneak this out.’ They had a young woman putting it in her bra.”– TCW attorney Susan Estrich [CNBC, earlier]
