Opening Bell: 7.16.15
Goldman Sachs Profit Plunges 49% (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s profit tumbled 49 percent as fixed-income trading revenue dropped more than its rivals and litigation expenses rose fivefold. Second-quarter net income fell to $1.05 billion, or $1.98 a share, from $2.04 billion, or $4.10, a year earlier, the New York-based company said Thursday in a statement. Excluding the $1.45 billion legal cost and an accounting adjustment, earnings were $4.49 a share, beating the $3.96 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Citigroup Profit Beats Estimates (Bloomberg)
Second-quarter net income jumped to $4.85 billion, or $1.51 a share, from $181 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier, when the firm had $3.7 billion in costs from settling a mortgage-bond probe, the New York-based lender said Thursday in a statement. Excluding accounting adjustments and one-time items, profit was $1.45 a share, beating the $1.34 average estimate of 27 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Blackstone Second-Quarter Profit Falls 62% as Stocks Fall (Bloomberg)
Economic net income, a measure of earnings that reflects realized and unrealized investment gains, fell to $508.4 million, or 43 cents a share, from $1.33 billion, or $1.15 a share, a year earlier, New York-based Blackstone said Thursday in a statement. Analysts expected earnings of 44 cents a share, according to the average of 15 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
ECB Raises Emergency Lending to Greek Banks (WSJ)
The European Central Bank Thursday raised its emergency lending to Greek banks by €900 million ($989 million), a move that could pave the way for the country’s lenders to reopen. Announcing the decision in a news conference, ECB President Mario Draghi said it was a response to “several positive things that have happened” in Greece’s negotiations with creditors on a third bailout program.
Central Banks Likely to Jump Into China Bond Market (WSJ)
Right after the Chinese central bank announced the change Tuesday, Jukka Pihlman, head of central banks and sovereign-wealth funds at Standard Chartered Bank, was caught by calls from clients and had to cancel his planned day off. His clients—central banks and sovereign-wealth funds—are excited about free access to the $6.1 trillion bond market. Their demand for China bonds has long been robust, Mr. Pihlman said, but until now entering the world’s third-largest debt market has required a lengthy and cumbersome application process.
Carl Icahn: BlackRock an ‘extremely dangerous’ company (Bloomberg)
Icahn said Fink’s support of corporate CEOs — through an open letter earlier this year in which he told corporate chieftains to resist activists’ pressure to buy back shares — was an “obfuscation” meant as a sales pitch for BlackRock’s exchange-traded funds. Fink, visibly holding back his anger while Icahn warned of the dangers of the $1.5 trillion junk-bond market, finally got a word in. “Carl, you’re a good investor, but you’re wrong a lot,” he said. “Your characterization of ETFs as the issue is flat-out wrong.”
Kissing Your Pet Chicken Can Spread Salmonella, CDC Warns (HP)
A new notice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns people not to get too cuddly with their pet chickens, and the agency isn't clucking around. Apparently, affection puts owners at risk for contracting salmonella. "We do not recommend snuggling or kissing the birds or touching them to your mouth, because that is certainly one way people become infected with salmonella," Megin Nichols, a veterinarian with the CDC, told National Public Radio. "While poultry do appear clean, they do carry bacteria."