Write-Offs: 04.13.12
$$$ECB Seen Favoring Bond Buying Over Bank Loans [Bloomberg]
$$$Swiss overhaul unsettles asset managers [FT]
$$$Homeowners give boost to US banks [FT]
$$$Treasury: Taxpayers Likely to Profit From Financial Rescue Programs [WSJ]
$$$Independent traders staged a walkout in one of CME Group Inc.'s CME busiest interest-rate futures pits, protesting a large, privately negotiated trade a day earlier that they claimed was unfair. The action by several dozen floor traders, which lasted about an hour, made prices harder to come by for some contracts used by banks and hedge funds to protect against shifts in some interest rates and threatened to deplete volumes in the market. ... Thursday's trade "was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back" for the protesters, said David Stein, an independent trader who was standing outside the pit Friday and who helped organize the protest. Mr. Stein said allowing privately negotiated block trades was "anticompetitive" and "un-American." [WSJ]
$$$ A broker-dealer is looking for someone to trade equities in Dallas [DBCC]
$$$Obama likely paid higher tax rate than Romney in 2011 [Reuters]
$$$ "The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing a proposal to create the first diamond-backed exchange-traded fund." [NYT]
$$$Facebook Acquires Mobile Marketer Tagtile [CNBC]
$$$Analysts Worry Gucci Will ‘Underperform’ Luxury Peers as PPR’s Stock Falls [Fashionista]
$$$Bloomberg unveils Muppets as NYC ambassadors [AP]
$$$“Hardcore Porn” Mistakenly Interrupts “Good Morning America” Broadcast In Two Towns [The JaneDough]