Opening Bell: 6.4.15

Greece still screwed; Day traders dupe bankers; Free bacon for life; and more.
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Greek Groundhog Day Continues With Talks Failing to Break Impasse (Bloomberg)
After meeting in Brussels with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tsipras stuck to his position that any basis for an accord must be a Greek proposal. Citing a draft document, German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported the plan includes extra tax for companies and higher earners. A government spokeswoman declined to comment.

Day trader, pals bagged $3.2M by conning bankers: US (NYP)
or three years, these two-faced traders duped Wall Street bankers into thinking they were big-time institutional investors — thereby unlocking a door to a treasure trove of nonpublic information on 15 biotech deals, according to Department of Justice allegations. Although the traders had promised — as a matter of everyday business on Wall Street — not to trade on the insider dope, they did and pocketed $3.2 million in fraudulent profits before they were busted, prosecutors charged on Wednesday. Steven Fishoff, 58, his brother-in-law and two friends were charged with securities fraud and conspiracy after being arrested by FBI agents at their respective homes in California, New Jersey and Florida.

HSBC to pay $43 million Geneva money laundering settlement (Reuters)
HSBC agreed on Thursday to pay Geneva authorities 40 million Swiss francs ($43 million) to settle a money laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank, one of a number of probes facing its Geneva-based wealth manager. Leaked files published earlier this year sparked allegations that HSBC's private bank may have enabled clients to conceal millions of dollars of assets and dragged Europe's largest lender into the sights of regulators including Geneva's public prosecutor.

Martha Stewart, Snoop Dogg and Jeff Ross got high together (NYP)
Jeff Ross says he got high with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart at Justin Bieber’s Comedy Central roast earlier this year, where the three served as roasters. “We get nervous, these roasts are high-pressure,” the 49-year-old comedian said on “Conan” this week. “Snoop, a lot of times during the commercial breaks, would give me the ole elbow and we’d go in the back and decompress a little bit.” “And Snoop pulled out his — whatever you smoke stuff out of — and me and Martha Stewart got a little stoned,” he added. But the 73-year-old domestic diva and ex-convict didn’t actually smoke the weed directly. “… I shotgunned one directly into her mouth,” quipped Ross. “We only had one hit left. She was a great sport.”

U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 276,000 (WSJ)
Initial claims for unemployment benefits, a measure of layoffs across the U.S., declined 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 276,000 in the week ended May 30, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 279,000 new claims.

IMF Cuts U.S. Economic Growth Forecast (WSJ)
In its annual review of the U.S. economy, the IMF said a series of negative shocks, including a strong dollar and bad weather, had sapped momentum for job creation and expansion, forcing the fund to downgrade its growth expectations to 2.5% for the year. Its last estimate in April was for a 3.1% expansion.

Deutsche Bank to Bond Investors: Wake Up and Smell the Fundamentals (Bloomberg)
In short, they figure that investors may (finally) be turning against an asset class that has been booming in recent years. Deutsche Bank notes that retail money has been pouring into intermediate and long-term investment-grade mutual funds at a rate of 20 percent or more per year. The size of the overall corporate bond market has exploded from $5.4 trillion in 2009 to $7.8 trillion currently as companies rush to take advantage of ultralow borrowing costs and investors keen to buy their debt.

Larry Ellison Is Spending a Fortune to Save American Tennis (Bloomberg)
Ellison, 70, has rebuilt a sport before. His love of sailing led him to his highly controversial domination of the America’s Cup, the capstone to decades of exploits that have included brushes with death while sailing in the Pacific, the construction of a real estate empire in Malibu and Hawaii (where he owns 98 percent of the island of Lanai), and liaisons with far younger women, including current girlfriend Nikita Kahn, a young actress and model from Ukraine.

Bacon-scented Indiana lottery scratch-off prize: 20 years of bacon (UPI)
Indiana's Hoosier Lottery is rolling out a bacon-scented scratch-off card that counts a 20-year supply of bacon among its potential prizes. The Hoosier Lottery's Bringin' Home the Bacon tickets, following in the footsteps of the New Hampshire Lottery's similarly bacon-scented I (Heart) Bacon tickets, officer instant prices of up to $10,000 and five chances to win a 20-year supply of bacon, which would be paid out in installments.

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Greece's Creditors Reach Aid Deal (WSJ) struck a deal in Brussels to cut Greece's debt to a level below 124% of gross domestic product by 2020, officials said. To satisfy IMF concerns that Greece's debt must fall even more to be considered "sustainable," euro-zone ministers agreed to bring the government's debt to under 110% of GDP in 2022. The deal will allow Greece to receive loan payments of about €44 billion ($57 billion) to be paid in three installments early 2013, tied to Greece's implementation of the continuing measures, said Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker. The deal will lower Greece's debt through a mix of interest-rate cuts on loans to Athens, a buyback of Greek debt at sharply discounted prices and the European Central Bank returning profits linked to its holdings of Greek bonds to the Greek government. London Bankers Bracing for Leaner Bonuses Than New York (Bloomberg) nvestment bankers and traders at European banks should expect at least a 15 percent cut in pay this year, while U.S. lenders may leave compensation unchanged, three consultants surveyed by Bloomberg said. 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