More Charges Coming In Insider Trading Probe (Reuters, related)
A year after four hedge funds were raided as part of a sweeping probe into insider trading, agents are ready to arrest as many as three people who worked at the raided funds, sources familiar with the investigation said. These arrests are expected to take place in the coming weeks, and some of the people will plead guilty to charges of insider trading, the sources said. Speculation has been mounting for weeks that the government was ready to make its next move against people who traded technology stocks at hedge funds Diamondback Capital Management and Level Global Investors, according to people at hedge funds, industry analysts, lawyers and law enforcement officials. At least one former Level Global worker is cooperating with authorities in the matter.
Charges Expected In Insider Probe (WSJ)
Investigators are focusing on an analyst at mutual-fund firm Neuberger Berman Group LLC and traders who worked at hedge funds Diamondback Capital Management LLC and Level Global Investors LP, the people say. Law-enforcement officials expect charges against the individuals to be filed by mid-December, the people say.
Jobless Claims Climb Back Over 400,000 (WSJ)
Initial jobless claims climbed by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 402,000 in the week ended Nov. 26, the highest level in more than a month, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast claims would fall by 3,000 to 390,000. For the week ended Nov. 19, claims were revised to 396,000 from an originally reported 393,000. Claims are now up two weeks in a row.
Euro-Zone Debt Is ‘System Risk’ (WSJ)
The euro zone’s debt problems will cause widespread economic damage in a way “characteristic of a systemic crisis,” Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Thursday. He said the currency bloc’s crisis is causing damage to governments and banks around the world. “We are seeing first hand the costs of financial instability,” he said. “No-one could deny the current situation is extraordinarily serious and threatening,” Mr. King said following the publication of the BOE’s twice-yearly Financial Stability Report. He added that the situation could deteriorate to the point the euro zone is forced to break up.
Goldman Analysts: Despair Will Turn To Hope In 2012 (CNBC)
“We think in the near term the market has further to fall as recession is further priced in and earnings downgrades accelerate,” Peter Oppenheimer, the chief European equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a research note on Thursday. After losses for stocks in the first quarter Oppenheimer expects a rally before the end of the first half of the year with major indices finishing the year 10 percent up on current levels. “The timing of this rebound, however, is difficult to predict as it is party dependent on policy developments,” he said. The euro zone economy will contract by 0.8 percent in 2012 according to Goldman Sachs economists, with a “sharp, albeit short-lived, recession in Germany and France and a persistent and much deeper one in the peripheral euro zone countries.” Despite the recession, some kind of resolution to the euro zone debt crisis will lead to a rally for stocks and a narrowing of bond spreads according to Oppenheimer.
SocGen Said To Cut At Least 200 Jobs In US (Bloomberg)
Naseem Haffar, who was hired as U.S. head of loan sales and trading in March 2010, and New York-based senior credit traders Joseph Finnern and Zachary Chavis were among those dismissed, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private. Cuts may amount to 10 percent to 20 percent of the firm’s 2,000 workers in its U.S. corporate and investment bank.
Dominque Strauss-Kahn says ‘uninhibited but legal’ sex life cost him the Presidency of France (DM)
The former head of the International Monetary Fund claimed today that his bid to become President of France was lost because of his ‘uninhibited’ but otherwise ‘legal’ sex life. Speaking for the first time about the two attempted rape allegations which effectively ended his career, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that having casual oral sex with a New York hotel maid was something he regretted deeply. The 62-year-old admits that his ‘flesh is weak’, but insists he has never paid for sex with any of the young women he regularly met at orgies across the world.
Raj Awaits Prison News (NYP)
A federal appeals court did not immediately rule yesterday whether hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam must report to prison next week for an 11-year sentence for insider trading or remain free while he appeals the case.
Four Hundred Dow Points Aren’t What They Used to Be Amid Record Volatility (Bloomberg)
“It feels like a good day, but whether or not it’s sustainable is another thing,” Hayes Miller, who helps oversee about $43 billion as the Boston-based head of asset allocation in North America at Baring Asset Management Inc., said in a telephone interview. “We’re not buying it. This rally isn’t going to shake us from being more cautious on risk assets for the first half of 2012.”
Austria Finance Minister: No One Wants The Euro To Collapse (CNBC)
FYI.
Weill Deal (NYP)
Sandy Weill, the former chairman and CEO of Citigroup, has found a buyer for his 15 Central Park West penthouse condo, which was recently listed for a staggering $88 million. Several sources told Gimme Shelter that an agreement has been reached with an unnamed buyer, who appears to be foreign. But a contract has not yet been signed. The beautifully renovated full-floor penthouse, the city’s highest-priced apartment, is 6,744 square feet plus a fabulous, three-sided, 2,077-square-foot terrace. Weill, once blamed by Time magazine as one of the top 25 people responsible for the 2008 economic meltdown, has pledged that money from the sale of the apartment will go to charity…Weill bought the penthouse for $43.7 million in 2007. He has not said what charity will be the recipient of the sale.
Our uninhibited but legal financial machinations lost the economy for us.
Wish I had come up with the whole "flesh is weak" excuse.
-Eliot Spitzer
Flesh is weak? DSK should just get in a quick tug like we all have too after getting busted for our inhibited, but legal sex life.
- T. Woods y'all
Hey, us too!
-AIG FP Quant
Why would you need to renovate an apartment in a building that was completed in 2008?
because that POS came with carrera marble instead of calacatta. i mean, who could live like that?
That "floating head" DSK picture always reminds me of The Wizard of Oz.
In a creepy, predatory sort of way.
Floating Heads Up to Bess/Matt: the tips@dealbreaker.com address is bouncing e-mails back to me.
–DSK's Chambermaid
Well, my friend, perhaps you should call me for some advice next time.
Ciao,
S. Berlusconi
Having to schedule your global orgy participation is the NKI.
Pussy. Uninhibited and illegal is far more fun
Jaques: I know. I'm so sorry, M. Strauss Kahn. I actually did confirm the Tanzanian orgy last night.
DSK: Details of your incompetence do not interest me. Tell Simone I'm not going to approve that girl that she sent me for the Brazilian orgy. I asked for clean, athletic, smiling. She sent me dirty, tired and paunchy. And R.S.V.P. Yes to M. Le Peus' orgy, I want the driver to drop me off at 9:30 and pick me up at 9:45 sharp. Call Natalie at Glorious Lubes and tell her no for the 40th time. No! I don't want KY. I want Adam & Eve filled with warm rhubarb compote. Then call my ex-housemaids and remind them that the Dirty Sanchez conference is at Dalton tonight. Then call my back waxer, ask him to meet me for dinner at that place I went to with Merkel. Tell Richard I saw the pictures that he sent for that feature on the female paratroopers and they're all so deeply unattractive. Is it impossible to find a lovely, slender, female paratrooper? Am I reaching for the stars here? Not really. Also, I need to see all the things that Nigel has pulled for Sarkozy's second cover try. I wonder if he's lost any of that weight yet.
@DSK,
My man, I have some jelly's than can help you with you 'weak flesh' problem. Just take them about 20min before meeting your lady, and boom, you are done. Much better than the pills.
It's a great feeling to know that we have such a lasting impression on our interns – after all, we have to cold-call most of candidates 40 or 50 times before they agree to interview.
Loving the return of circa-2006 snark
The fact that you're commenting on today's Opening Bell about a story from yesteray's Write-Offs suggests you might actually be a UBS employee.
Matt – please post more about your preparation for CFA. Any more mock results?
Matt, have you ever played hide the baguette?
-DSK
Every Oppenheimer I know is a douche.
The true crime is that no one ever reported that Oppenheimer was acquired by Goldman Sachs. Talk about vampire squids and poor journalism… Isn't it the press' job to keep us informed?
-LEH Quant
I prefer to mock Matty
That's how I picture O'Brien from 1984, but I think with spectacles.
SimonBennettRobbinsOppemheimerTaft. SimonBennettRobbinsOppemheimerTaft.
Fail it's Oppenheim
thought the problem was that the flesh ended up stiff and turgid?
GS acquiring OPY would be a sure sign that the end times have come.
apropos of nothing – best douchey comment of OWS to date: “You better not go that way,” one protester told them moments earlier. “You’re going to hit democracy.”
I never have that problem!
- UBS MD
Noon and no posts? Matt really must be studying.
Nah, he's promoting synergy in the DB office using a couple of charts. Like a Boss.
Now no one ever accused me of being a detective, but I could have sworn he was in trouble for conduct with boys, not girls
It reminds me of 'no jacket required,' only not as sweaty.
must check chanel 2011 , for special offer
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