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Opening Bell: 2.13.15

Greece, Shaq, Fired JP Morgan Execs, Couple who fell asleep in a dumpster, AND MORE
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Greece, EU Strike Friendlier Tone After Hopes of Quick Deal Are Dashed (WSJ)
“I think today we leave having made important steps,” Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said after a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. “We didn’t cover the full distance but we covered an important part, and proved that the EU is a field of conflicts and compromises.”

Two J. P. Morgan Executives Connected to Asia Hiring Probe Pushed Out (WSJ)
The executives haven’t been accused of wrongdoing, but the bank wanted to be cautious and freeze the options until the investigation is concluded, one of these people said...U.S. prosecutors and regulators are investigating the hiring practices in Asia of J.P. Morgan and several other banks, people briefed on the investigation have said. The J.P. Morgan investigation deals specifically with whether the bank gave jobs to Chinese government officials’ children in return for lucrative investment-banking assignments the officials could dole out.

Top China Hedge Fund Says Best Trade of 2014 Is Back On (Bloomberg)
The top-performing China hedge fund is piling back into property shares, reviving a trade that propelled it to a 46 percent gain in the second half of 2014. Marco Polo Pure Asset Management has been buying developers, including Poly Real Estate Group Co. and Beijing Capital Development Co., after the industry’s benchmark gauge in Shanghai dropped as much as 19 percent from this year’s high. That same trade helped drive the fund’s gain in 2014 as China’s interest-rate cut in November sent the Shanghai Property Index to a 60 percent surge through Jan. 5, according to Aaron Boesky, Marco Polo’s chief executive officer in Hong Kong.

Strauss-Kahn Called Women at Sex Parties ‘Equipment’ in Text (Bloomberg)
Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, admitted Thursday using the word to refer to women was “inappropriate.” The 65-year-old, who is accused of aggravated pimping, said the use of the phrase doesn’t mean he saw them as sex workers. In a text message, “it’s easy to be uninhibited,” the 65-year-old Strauss-Kahn said on his last day of testimony in Lille, France. “The word equipment was used once.”

'Family Feud' contestant says ‘a gerbil’ is an item doctors commonly remove from patients (NYDN)
In Monday's episode, the contestant, whose first name is Darci, was asked to provide one of the most common answers to the question: "What does a doctor pull out of a person?" "A gerbil!" she replied. Needless to say, it was not one of the top seven answers on the board. She immediately grimaced and shouted, "I didn't say that! I didn't say that!" Darci claimed she "read about that once."

I.M.F. Announces $17.5 Billion Package to Help Kiev Stabilize Economy (NYT)
The new plan replaces a $17 billion emergency bailout that was extended last year after mass street protests in Ukraine ousted the country’s president, Viktor F. Yanukovych; Russia annexed Crimea; and a violent separatist uprising began in the east of the country. That uprising has now stretched into a nearly yearlong battle that has devastated Ukraine’s economy.

Ackman Says Tax Inversion Rules Could Lead to U.S. Drugmakers Selling to Overseas Buyers (Bloomberg)
Instead of buying overseas targets, Ackman said, U.S. drugmakers may become sellers in order to gain similar benefits. “We have more consolidation with a foreign buyer with a more favorable structure buying U.S. companies,” he said Thursday on the sidelines of the Harbor Investment Conference in New York.

Why Shaquille O’Neal still invests in penny stocks (CNBC)
With an estimated net worth of $250 million, Shaquille O'Neal was asked Thursday on CNBC's "Closing Bell" if and why he is still investing in penny stocks. "You wanna know why ... I'll tell you why," O'Neal said happily, while calling over stock broker (and the New York Stock Exchange's most photographed person), Peter Tuchman. The 7-foot-1-inch ex-basketball player placed his arm around the tiny trader and responded: "Peter is smart. So when I'm at home and I got my suit on, I wanna feel like Peter when I'm messing with my penny stocks." O'Neal said he trades these small stocks "because it's fun," admitting that "it hasn't really been going too well." "The big stocks I let my guy handle," he said. That's when things got emotional. "I wanna be like you Peter!" Shaq exclaimed, before planting a few kisses on the top of Tuchman's head.

Ride-Hailing Service Lyft Is Said to Be in Talks to Raise $250 Million (Dealbook)
In the battle over ride-hailing services, Lyft is preparing a counterpunch against Uber, its much bigger rival. Lyft is in talks to raise about $250 million in new financing, putting a value for the three-year-old start-up at $2 billion, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday...Uber’s coffers are also much deeper. The company has raised more than $4 billion from major institutional firms, and is valued by investors at over $40 billion.

Drunk couple fell asleep in dumpster, rode in garbage truck (UPI)
Authorities in Florida said a couple who took a nap in a dumpster after a drunken night at a casino nearly met their end in the back of a garbage truck. Hillsborough County garbage truck driver Radames Valazquez called 911 early Wednesday morning to report a man and a woman were trapped in the back of his truck. Valazquez said he was about to compact his truck's load when he heard the couple shouting for help. "I got two people, I don't know how they got in the back of the truck, but they stuck in the truck. I almost killed both of them," he told the 911 dispatcher. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said they determined Donald Jordan, 37, and Lisa Sirabella, 49, had fallen asleep in a WaWa gas station dumpster after a drunken night at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. Jordan, who authorities said appeared highly intoxicated, told deputies he and Sirabella were visiting Tampa from Kissimmee and sought warmth in the dumpster after being left stranded by some friends.

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The spat revolves around a sequence of events that played out in rapid succession last December. The trouble began, the people said, when the U.K. government unexpectedly blocked a Justice Department request to interview Mr. Hayes, who is British and lives outside London. Then, without notifying the U.S., British fraud prosecutors on Dec. 11 arrested Mr. Hayes and two others in connection with their own probe—infuriating American officials, according to people familiar with the U.S. investigation. The U.S. prosecutors punched back the next day by filing sealed criminal fraud charges against Mr. Hayes. Banks Bow To New York On Clawbacks (WSJ) Three more top banks, including Citigroup, will broaden their clawback policies to cover more executives, increase disclosures or add potential triggers. The moves increase to six the number of leading financial companies that have bowed to pressure from the New York City's Comptroller's Office. Lehman Judge Allows 'London Whale' Subpoena in JP Morgan Fight (Dow Jones) A judge on Wednesday said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. creditors can subpoena Bruno Iksil in its lawsuit against J.P. Morgan, ensuring the phrase "London Whale" will stay in the lexicon for at least a bit longer. Judge James Peck of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan said Mr. Iksil, who is in France, can be questioned over the alleged mismarking of $273.3 million in derivatives when he worked at J.P. Morgan in the days leading up to Lehman's bankruptcy. "I consider it inappropriate except for in a clear case of abuse to cut off discovery of a witness that has fingerprints all over a transaction," Judge Peck said. "And in this case, Mr. Iksil's fingerprints are on the $273.3 million transaction that took on some significance in the case." Lehman U.K. Wins $1 Billion Appeal on Hedging Contracts (Bloomberg) The ruling may result in London-based Lehman Brothers International Europe and its administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP receiving an extra $1 billion, according to a written decision handed down this morning by Judge Mary Arden in the U.K. Court of Appeals. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Fall as Labor Market Improves (Bloomberg) First-time jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 332,000 in the week ended March 9, the fewest since mid January, according to data today from the Labor Department in Washington. The median forecast of 49 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for an increase to 350,000. The four-week average declined to a five- year low. JPMorgan exec sued over 'bullying' behavior (NYP) Plaintiff Walter Suarez, a former financial adviser, was banished to the company’s Delancey Street outpost when he complained about colleague Michael Quach, and the move cost Suarez an $80 million client list, $20 million of which was taken by JPMorgan, his lawyers claim. According to Suarez, Quach was a bully who resorted to physical violence to intimidate colleagues. Suarez, who is Hispanic, says Quach, an Asian-American, got away with the behavior because bosses preferred Asian employees. “Eventually, it got to the point of being ridiculous. This isn’t the corner bodega,” Suarez told The Post. “We’re investment people. This is a professional setting. That’s when I spoke up. “He just wasn’t a very professional person from the get-go, and I don’t think that I was the only person who felt that way.” Suarez told superiors that Quach had manhandled several staffers, including one woman who was “physically assaulted during working hours on the banking floor,” according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by attorneys Matthew Blit and Amanda Gudis. Suarez said Quach even threatened to punch him out in front of clients. 'Canada's Warren Buffett' Interested in Greece's Top Bank (Reuters) Greece's biggest lender, National Bank (NBG), said on Wednesday that Canadian investment fund Fairfax Holdings was interested in acquiring a stake in it by taking part in a planned recapitalization. Under the terms of cash-strapped Greece's international bailout, its top four lenders must issue new shares by the end of April to replenish their capital after the losses they suffered in the debt crisis from bad loans and bond writedowns. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have set aside 27.5 billion euros ($37 billion) in bailout funds to invest in the new bank shares. But private investors must buy at least 10 percent of them or the lenders will be nationalized. NBG said in a bourse filing that Fairfax was among other investors who had expressed an interest, without giving details. Fairfax is controlled by investment guru Prem Watsa, known as the "Warren Buffett of Canada." SandRidge Gives In, Settling Proxy Fight (WSJ) SandRidge Energy agreed to fire its chief executive or give control of its board to an activist shareholder, settling a closely watched proxy battle amid an outbreak of investor unrest in the oil patch. SandRidge, an oil-and-gas producer with a stock-market value of about $3 billion, immediately appointed four directors to its board who were nominated by hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital LP, which owns 7.3% of its shares. 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JPMorgan CIO Risk Chief Said To Have Trading-Loss History (Bloomberg) Irvin Goldman, who oversaw risks in the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) unit that suffered more than $2 billion in trading losses, was fired by another Wall Street firm in 2007 for money-losing bets that prompted a regulatory sanction at the firm, Cantor Fitzgerald LP, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said. JPMorgan appointed Goldman in February as the top risk official in its chief investment office while the unit was managing trades that later spiraled into what Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called “egregious,” self-inflicted mistakes. The bank knew when it picked Goldman that his earlier work at Cantor led regulators to penalize that company, according to a person briefed on the situation. Risk Manager's Past Scrutinized (WSJ) Mr. Goldman joined J.P. Morgan's CIO in January 2008 as a trader. 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