Stocks ended higher in light volume. Alcoa stock fell 1.1 per cent after-hours following its earnings, while the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.33 per cent at 14,613.48 (Reuters).
Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister and the grocer's daughter who helped launch the City's Big Bang, has died at 87. "The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," President Barack Obama said. World leaders joined in tribute, while at home politicians reflected on her uncompromising liberalisation of the UK economy and financial markets, still controversial 30 years on. Thatcher had been in ill health since 2002 (Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal).
Links to obituaries and analysis:
WSJ obit
Telegraph obit
NYT obit
The pragmatic politician who defended free markets - Martin Wolf
Thatcher's relentless focus to improve UK economy - Chris Giles
Thatcher, Liberator - Andrew Sullivan
Ron Johnson is out at JCPenney. Mike Ullman will rejoin the company as chief executive two years after Johnson, a veteran of Target and Apple, ousted him and came in to overhaul the retailer's strategy. Bill Ackman, previously one of Johnson's strongest supporters, last week described the overhaul's execution as "something very close to a disaster" (CNBC).
Revenue slipped at Alcoa. The aluminium maker posted a profit of $149m, or 13 cents per share in the first quarter, up from nine cents or $94m a year earlier, kicking off US earnings season. Revenue fell 2.9 per cent to $5.83bn, against analyst expectations of $5.88bn (Wall Street Journal).
BlackRock has called for the Fed to rein in the "large and dull hammer" of QE. Rick Rieder, who oversees $763bn in fixed income investments for the money manager said that the central bank should cut its monthly purchases of Treasuries and MBS to $40bn-$45bn from the current $85bn. "Fed policy has had a distorting effect on capital allocation decisions of all kinds at virtually every level of the economy," Rieder said (Financial Times).
The CFTC issued subpoenas to Icap and up to 15 banks as part of an interest-rate swaps probe. The investigation is focused on whether brokers helped dealers to profit from inaccurate quotes for daily ISDAfix swap rates. ISDAfix is derived from the submission of bids from a panel of 15 banks, in a Libor-like process (Bloomberg).
News Corp could turn Fox into a paid-for cable service to defend its rights against Aereo, an online TV start-up. Major broadcasters including Fox have already challenged Aereo in the courts. "If we can't have our rights properly protected through those legal and political avenues, we will pursue business solutions. One such business solution would be to take the network and turn it into a subscription service," News Corp's chief operating officer Chase Carey said (Reuters).
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- In honour of Ron Johnson getting fired: JCPonderings.
- Sumner-bomb du jour: 'There is no paradox of thrift'.
- Structured notes: "Sales surge, but understanding is in a bear market."
- Portugal, the European Commission, and unreality.
- Informal fallacies in ratings-agency lawsuits.
- How irrational is a Phoenix, Arizona house price?
- Pascal's Wager fails again.
