Ex-UBS Trader Adoboli Pleads Not Guilty To $2.3 Billion Loss (Bloomberg)
Adoboli, dressed in a grey suit and blue tie, pleaded not guilty to all charges at a hearing in London today. A trial that may last as long as eight weeks was scheduled to start in early September.
Adoboli, 31, has been in custody since Sept. 15 when UBS asked London police to arrest him for causing a $2.3 billion loss. The case led to the departures of Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel and the co-heads of the Swiss bank’s global equities business. The trial could be “really awful” for UBS, said Steven Francis, a regulatory lawyer in London.
Greek Debt Talks Risk Derailing EU Summit (Bloomberg)
EU chiefs arrived in Brussels today to put the finishing touches on a German-led deficit-control treaty and to endorse the statutes of a 500 billion-euro ($656 billion) rescue fund to be set up this year. European finance officials yesterday discussed a deal that Greece and its private creditors expect to complete in the coming days after bondholders signaled they would accept government demands for a bigger cut in their debt holdings...“The fact we’re still at the beginning of 2012 talking about Greece is a sign this problem hasn’t been dealt with,” U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Germany Warns Greece On Aid Funds (WSJ)
"Greece needs to decide," Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, when asked whether the euro zone would grant or withhold the second bailout package for the country since 2010, expected to be in excess of €130 billion ($172 billion). Europe is "prepared to support Greece" with the new loan package, Mr. Schäuble said, but he warned: "Unless Greece implements the necessary decisions and doesn't just announce them…there's no amount of money that can solve the problem."
Gingrich Label Romney "Wall Street Elite" (Bloomberg)
Newt Gingrich, accusing Republican presidential primary opponent Mitt Romney of being a “fundamentally dishonest” tool of Wall Street, pledged to stop big banking firms such as Goldman Sachs from “rigging the game.” Pressing his underdog campaign into the last full day before Florida’s primary election tomorrow, Gingrich spoke of running a White House that would “challenge the system head- on” and disrupt the “Wall Street elite.” “To the degree they survive by rigging the game,” Gingrich said in an interview with Bloomberg News, “they have a lot more to fear. To the degree that they’re willing to be in a very investment-oriented, high-tempo, entrepreneurial world, they have more to gain.”
Facebook COO: IPO Will Produce Jobs, World Change (Reuters)
The most important aspects of social networking site Facebook becoming a public company are the jobs growth and social change it represents, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of the company, told CNBC Sunday. “If this is seen as an opportunity for jobs and for people to use their work to change the world that’s what we want to be a part of,” Sandberg said at a CNBC debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Jim Rogers: "I Would Not Buy Facebook" (CNBC)
FYI: “No, that kind of stock I don’t buy. They are usually very, very expensive. A lot of people like to buy expensive stocks like that, but I do not,” said Rogers.
Citigroup Chairman Weighs Exit (WSJ)
The 63-year-old Mr. Parsons is expected to decide by early March, these people said.
eBay Auction Alert: President Obama's Chrysler Saloon For $1 Million (BuzzFeed)
Obama leased the car for three years from 2004 until 2007 before trading it in for a hybrid model. Now for a cool mil you can have POTUS’s old ride.
Missing MF Global Funds Feared Gone (WSJ)
As the sprawling probe that includes regulators, criminal and congressional investigators, and court-appointed trustees grinds on, the findings so far suggest that a "significant amount" of the money could have "vaporized" as a result of chaotic trading at MF Global during the week before the company's Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing, said a person close to the investigation.
Hedge-Fund Bulls Add to Commodity Bets (Bloomberg)
Money managers raised combined bullish positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 13 percent to 742,902 contracts in the week ended Jan. 24, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The so-called net-long position in copper jumped 53 percent to the highest since August and in silver by 22 percent to the most since September. Speculators also expanded bullish bets in sugar, soybeans, cotton, gold, gasoline and crude oil.
RBS Chief Waives Bonus (Bloomberg)
Stephen Hester decided to waive his 963,000-pound ($1.5 million) bonus after the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party said it would ask Parliament to vote on the award.
BofA Reshuffles Unit (WSJ)
Bank of America shook up its investment-banking leadership Sunday, naming Christian Meissner as the sole head of that business, said people familiar with the situation. The move, which was announced in an internal memo, is the latest executive shuffle since the bank's 2009 purchase of securities firm Merrill Lynch & Co. Appointing the Austrian-born Mr. Meissner to the top spot dismantles a structure put in place last April when he, Michael Rubinoff and Paul Donofrio were named co-heads of global corporate and investment banking...Putting Mr. Meissner in charge of the investment bank is part of an attempt by co-chief operating officer Thomas Montag to simplify his part of the company amid a wrenching period for Wall Street, these people said. Chief Executive Brian Moynihan gave Mr. Montag responsibility for all corporate and institutional clients last fall.
Woman Dumps Man Because He Has Cancer, Still Wants His Super Bowl Tickets (Deadspin)
Jason Elia, a television writer living in Nashville, went to the trouble of getting Super Bowl tickets for himself and his girlfriend...but life got in the way. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer and upon hearing the news, his girlfriend apparently dumped him on the spot. Now, she still wants the tickets because she claims they were purchased with her in mind. Rather than suffering such an injustice, Jason is auctioning the tickets off on Twitter.
