Opening Bell: 05.04.10

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UBS returns to profit on fixed-income performance‎ (MarketWatch)
The bank earned 2.2 billion francs ($2.03 billion), beating consensus estimates by around 200 million francs. UBS reported a loss of 1.98 billion francs for the first quarter of 2009 and earned 1.21 billion francs in fourth- quarter 2009.

Goldman Faces Suits Over CDOS (WSJ)
The lawsuits were filed since April 22 in federal and state courts in New York, the company said in a securities filing. Goldman, its board of directors and "certain officers and employees" are accused in the suits of "breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, abuse of control, mismanagement and unjust enrichment," according to the company.

Congress Members Bet On Fall In Stocks (WSJ)
According to The Journal's analysis of congressional disclosures, investment accounts of 13 members of Congress or their spouses show bearish bets made in 2008 via exchange-traded funds—portfolios that trade like stocks and mirror an index. These funds were leveraged; they used derivatives and other techniques to magnify the daily moves of the index they track.

Citi Proprietary Trader Quits for Nomura as Volcker Rule Looms (Bloomberg)
Citi prop trader Jay Glasser quit to join Nomura Holdings, as U.S. lawmakers pressure domestic banks to stop speculating with their own capital. Glasser told his former bosses at Citigroup, which has lost at least 10 proprietary traders this year, that he quit partly because of concern that President Barack Obama’s proposed Volcker rule may force U.S. banks to divest or close proprietary-trading units, people with knowledge of the matter said. As a Japanese securities firm, Nomura wouldn’t be subject to the rule. Citigroup is the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets.

UBS to Hire `Hundreds' at Securities Unit as Profit Hits Three-Year High (Bloomberg)
“We still want to increase our sales and distribution force, both in fixed income and to a lesser degree in equities,” Chief Financial Officer John Cryan said in a Bloomberg TV interview today. In corporate finance, the bank plans to “selectively hire into certain key sectors.”

Fortress Eyes Asia Comeback (Reuters)
Fortress recently registered a company in Singapore, a check with the city-state's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed, and lawyers and headhunters said it has sought advice on setting up shop in Singapore and maybe Hong Kong.

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Spain eyes pension reform with aid package in sight (Reuters) Spain is considering freezing pensions and speeding up a planned rise in the retirement age as it races to cut spending and meet conditions of an expected international sovereign aid package, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The measures would save at least 4 billion euros a year as well as fulfil European Union policy recommendations issued in May which senior euro zone sources said were being used as a blueprint for the terms of a sovereign aid program. Banker Breakups May Help Spur U.K. Divorce Law Changes (Bloomberg) The review of U.K. divorce law was triggered in part by the case of German heiress Katrin Radmacher and ex-JPMorgan investment banker Nicolas Granatino, lawyers said. In October 2010, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that a U.S.-style pre-nuptial agreement on asset-division, reached before marriage, should be decisive. In London, it’s common for big divorce payouts to go to partners with less money even if that spouse is relatively young, the relationship was brief and there aren’t children, Gallagher’s lawyer, Katie O’Callaghan, said. “People actively try to get divorced in this country because if they are the financially weak party, they can expect a bigger payment,” said O’Callaghan. Porsche, Daimler Indicate Europe’s Car Crisis Spreading (Bloomberg) “If a downturn lasts for longer, which this one is, premium is not immune from pricing trends,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG with an outperform recommendation on BMW, Porsche and VW, and a neutral on Daimler. “The pricing environment in Europe is the biggest problem,” with incentives spreading from Italy, Spain and France to Germany. Senate JPMorgan Probe Said to Seek Tougher Volcker Rule (Bloomberg) Staff members of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, headed by Senator Carl Levin, have interviewed JPMorgan officials as well as examiners and supervisors at the institution’s regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry isn’t public. One focus of the queries is whether JPMorgan’s wrong-way bets on derivatives would have been permitted under regulators’ initial draft of the Volcker ban on proprietary trading, the people said. Cain says he'd be leading Obama if he were nominee (TGS via DI) Cain told members of the media after the speech that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's recent “47 percent” comment was a “non-story” being blown out of proportion by the media. But Cain said he would have been doing better if he was the nominee, saying that he'd probably have a “substantial lead” on President Barack Obama at this point. “The reason is quite simple: I have some depth to my ideas,” he said. US Seeks To Patch Laundering Net (WSJ) U.S. regulators are proposing to enlist companies across the financial sector—and possibly beyond—as a front-line defense against money laundering. A sweeping proposal by the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCen, could require financial institutions to collect and verify information on all customer accounts. If adopted, the new rules would create a broad new compliance structure that banks and others say would increase costs and add to complexity for the firms and their customers. Exchanges Catch Heat On Hill Over High Speed Trading (WSJ) Sens. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) and several witnesses at the Senate Banking subcommittee hearing took aim at the complex technological tools developed and sold by exchanges to lure the high-speed traders that dominate the stock market and drive exchange profits. Greek Bailout Fight Looms (WSJ) All sides, including Athens, are determined to keep Greece in the euro, officials say—they just don't know how yet. The trio must agree to a plan by November at the latest, when the government in Athens—already in financial arrears—could run out of money altogether. Correction officers at Rikers having ‘rampant’ sex on and off job: lawsuit (NYDN) Correction officers are turning city jails into their personal playpens, engaging in “rampant” sex both on and off the job, an explosive lawsuit claims. Correction Officer Tomara Bryan charges that male guards face no repercussions for bedding their counterparts — but the frisky females become targets of abuse. Bryan should know. She was one of them, the suit says. Bryan had a stormy two-year affair with a married warden named Emmanuel Bailey — and even had his last name tattooed across her lower back. In the discrimination suit filed in Bronx Supreme Court, Bryan claims that after their kinky relationship came to light she was verbally and physically abused by female supervisors, forced to take a “bogus” random drug test and given dangerous assignments.

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Regulators Try To Beat Clock In Rate Probe (WSJ) The Justice Department recently asked several banks to sign "tolling" agreements, in which the companies promise they won't challenge any enforcement action on the grounds that the alleged wrongdoing occurred beyond the statute of limitations, people close to the investigation said. The requests were sent to all the major banks under investigation, these people said, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS. Libor-Like Manipulation Possible in Other Benchmarks, Iosco Says (Bloomberg) The same lack of oversight that enabled traders to manipulate the London interbank offered rate plagues other benchmarks around the globe, according to a group of international securities regulators. Fewer than half of the benchmark interest rates surveyed in the U.S., Europe and Asia were based on actual transactions, according to a confidential International Organization of Securities Commissions discussion paper obtained by Bloomberg News. Instead, the rates were calculated by methodologies that were unclear, not transparent and only rarely subject to specific regulatory standards or obligations, the group said. Nomura Cuts Up to 30% of Europe Investment Bank Jobs (CNBC, earlier) Nomura is making wide-ranging cuts in its European investment banking division on Thursday, according to sources, with up to 30 percent of jobs likely to go...“Today is D-day, there is a crazy atmosphere, everybody knows it is going to be big,” one source told CNBC. Citigroup Warns Irish Investors to Plan for Losses (Bloomberg) All of the optimism that Ireland can raise money in the markets and avoid a debt restructuring is premature as the nation struggles to emerge from its worst recession in modern history, said Michael Saunders, Citigroup Inc.’s head of European economics in London. “Ireland faces an almost impossible task to get back to fiscal balance,” Saunders said. Visits to the country showed “life is tough, very tough and not getting that much better anytime soon,” he said. Debt Investors Aren't Just Waiting For the Next Downgrades in Europe (WSJ) As many investors brace for possible downgrades of Spain and Italy, some are already positioning themselves for the potential fallout in the countries' €180 billion ($234.9 billion) corporate-debt markets. Even with the prospect of aid from the European Central Bank, Spain and Italy could still face credit downgrades, investors say. The main focus is on Spain and Moody's Investors Service Inc. Moody's has said it may cut Spain to "junk" status, a move that would likely be followed by lockstep cuts of its banks and several companies to junk. Such a move would likely trigger a wave of selling from investors who can only own bonds with investment-grade ratings. Some ratings-sensitive investors are selling ahead of the move. Others are getting ready to buy. Couple Accused Of Selling Neighbor's Puppy On Craigslist (NYDN) Scott and Roxanne Duff accused of calling police when a neighbor’s 6-month-old Rottweiler and a Labrador retriever showed up at their house Sept. 3. They asked what to do with the dogs and were told to contact a local shelter or reach out to the regional dog catcher, police told the Valley News Dispatch. But that didn’t happen. While the couple returned the Labrador to their neighbor, they later told police the Rottweiler puppy had run away. That neighbor didn’t believe this story, and told police the next day that he thought the Duffs still had his puppy. When police asked the couple about the puppy again, they allegedly admitted to selling it on Craigslist for $50 High-Speed Trading In The Spotlight (WSJ) Since rapid-fire trading firms now provide many of the buy and sell orders that support the market, investors are at the mercy of automated systems that can run amok during volatile times, according to Dave Lauer, who last year quit his job as a trader for an elite Chicago high-frequency trading outfit. Mr. Lauer is part of a growing chorus of industry insiders blowing the whistle on approved trading techniques that they say are designed by the traders who derive the most benefit. Mr. Lauer is now a consultant on market-structure issues for Better Markets, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group funded by a hedge fund. He plans to tell senators how he came to believe that high-speed trading has made the market less fair for many investors, according to his advance testimony for a Senate panel on computerized trading. Blankfein Admits Tougher Regulation Needed (Reuters) "You have to go out and you have to take steps. You have to have different regulation, maybe more regulation in certain respects," he said, while addressing a room full of bankers and lawyers on Bay Street — the financial hub of Toronto. Bias Suit Against Deustche (Reuters) Kelley Voelker said she learned of her firing two weeks ago, after having been told on Aug. 21 that no one in her hedge-fund group would lose their jobs in connection with the bank’s global cost-cutting plan. Deutsche Bank had in July announced 1,900 job cuts, but on Sept. 11 said that number would grow. Voelker’s last day at her New York office was Sept. 12, her lawyer said. Voelker first sued Deutsche Bank last September. She claimed to have never been promoted since joining the bank in 1998, and that the bank had tried to demote her after she took maternity leave, which she called being “mommy-tracked.” Monica Lewinsky Set To Reveal Bill Clinton's Sex Secrets In Tell-All (NYP) Lewinsky, who turns 40 next year, is out for “revenge” and ready to air bombshell details from her Oval Office trysts with the former Horndog-in-Chief in a $12 million memoir, according to friends, who say she plans to describe plans to describe Clinton's “insatiable desire for three-way sex, orgies and the use of sex toys of all kinds." In the 14 years since she became a national punch line, Lewinsky has gotten her master’s degree, worked briefly as a news correspondent and launched a failed handbag line. “No one will hire her and she can’t get a job because of Clinton,” a sympathetic friend told The Post yesterday. “She needs to make money somehow.”

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Opening Bell: 03.16.10