Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
The best laid plans of miners and men: Neil notes that the miners as a 'leveraged play on global growth" is not going exactly to plan. Essentially, the 'best trade of 2013′ looks to be nothing of the sort.
A Cypriot game of chicken: After that resounding no vote, what's in the stars for Cyprus today? Kate's post takes you through proposed capital controls, the ECB, Germany and Russian, and asks: what does Anastasiades hope to achieve in Moscow, if Germany is increasingly willing to play tough — and Russia always plays tough?
NEWS
Cyprus holds crisis talks in Moscow: Cyprus's finance minister held talks in Moscow on Wednesday to try to wrest vital economic assistance from the Kremlin after his country's parliament rejected a €10bn EU-led bailout that requires €5.8bn to be seized from Cypriot bank accounts. The discussions follow President Nicos Anastasiades' half-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin, Russian president, after the vote on Tuesday night. Mr Anastasiades' spokesman said the talks were "fruitful and constructive". But Michael Sarris, finance minister, said in Moscow on Wednesday there was no breakthrough in his first meeting with Anton Siluanov, Russia's finance minister. The Cyprus government is working with European officials on measures to contain a possibly crippling deposit outflow when banks reopen, including imposing limits on daily withdrawals and capping the amount of money that can be taken out of the country. (Financial Times) (Wall Street Journal)
Osborne orders £2.5bn in Budget cuts: UK chancellor "George Osborne ordered ministers to come up with £2.5bn of extra spending cuts, as he scrambled for money in what was expected to be one of the bleakest British Budgets in years. The chancellor was expected to spend about £1bn to hit the coalition's target of raising the personal tax allowance to £10,000 in 2014, a year ahead of schedule, and to defer a planned rise in fuel duty." (Financial Times)
Visa may have to buy Visa Europe: "The European banks that own Visa Europe may soon decide to sell the card-payments organization to U.S.-based Visa Inc. and set up a rival system in Europe, people familiar with the matter said." The sources said a decision won't be made until a Visa Europe board meeting, schedule for April. (Wall Street Journal)
South Korea banks and broadcasters hit by possible cyberattack: " The police were investigating the possibility of a North Korean cyberattack on Wednesday after the computer networks of three broadcasters and three banks in South Korea were paralyzed. The government braced for more possible disruption, authorities said." (New York Times)
Anadarko finds 'potentially giant' oilfield: Anadarko Petroleum, the US independent oil company, has discovered a "potentially giant" field in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest ever discovered in the region. The Shenandoah 2 appraisal well, begun in September last year, has yielded a field that could hold 500m or more barrels of oil, and may open up a new area of the gulf for oil production. (Financial Times)
"MF Global has reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase that will result in more than $500m being returned to the bankrupt brokerage's former customers. The deal will bring to a close one protracted chapter in MF Global's complex and often contentious cross-border bankruptcy proceedings."(Financial Times)
US probes Mircosoft and partners over bribery claims: "Federal regulators are investigating Microsoft Corp.'s relationship with business partners that allegedly bribed foreign government officials in return for software contracts, according to people familiar with the matter." (Wall Street Journal)
JP Morgan downgraded in confidential regulator scorecard: The bank's rating from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "fell one notch last July to a level that signifies oversight "needs improvement," following the revelation of what are known as the "London whale" trading losses, said people familiar with the regulatory assessment." (Wall Street Journal)
Liberty media in $2.6bn cable bet: Confirms plans to buy a 27.3% stake in the 4th-largest US cable operator, Charter Communications. (Financial Times)
Sweeping ECB powers to regulate all EU banks agreed: "A deal was struck after EU member states agreed to give greater powers than the commission previously envisaged to the European Parliament over the appointment of top officials at the new single supervisor." (Financial Times)
FCC plans to offload €2bn of assets: The Spanish construction group will today announce a plan to sell more than €2bn of assets as it girds itself for a further three to four years of contraction in Spain's crisis-hit building sector. (Financial Times)
Volkswagen recalled almost 400,000 vehicles in China to replace defective gearboxes that may result in loss of power, a move that may cost the company more than $600m. "While Volkswagen was unable to immediately comment on the costs, research firm LMC Automotive estimates replacements will cost between 3,000 yuan ($483) to 10,000 yuan per vehicle." (Bloomberg)
UBS said it would leave the panel that sets the benchmark Euribor rate, following exits by follows exits by Dutch lender Rabobank, Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International, and Germany's Bayerische Landesbank. (Wall Street Journal)
Freddie Mac sues over Libor losses: More than a dozen banks and the British Bankers Association targeted in lawsuit alleging "substantial losses" as a result of Libor manipulation. The government-controlled mortgage company has already joined class action lawsuits against banks over Libor losses. (Financial Times)
Markets: The dollar index is down 0.1 per cent, 10-year Treasury yields are up 2 basis points to 1.92 per cent and copper is leading the commodity rebound with a gain of 1 per cent to $3.43 a pound. The FTSE All-World equity index, which just last week closed at a new four-year high of 238.6, is up 0.1 per cent at 235.9 as the FTSE Eurofirst 300 opens with a gain of 0.5 per cent. US index futures suggest Wall Street's S&P 500 will add six points to 1,554, leaving the benchmark less than 1 per cent shy of a record close writes the FT's Global Markets yogi Jamie Chisholm.
