Good morning New York,
FT ALPHAVILLE
And Shibor's off again… Izzy notes another pick up in Shibor and wonders if there might be an echo of Lehman's Repo 105 in the news.
Muddled Men: Paul presents the Publicis, Omnicom merger via the magic of Face Juggler. Nauseatingly beautiful.
NEWS
Publicis and Omnicom's $35bn tie-up will create the world's largest advertising and marketing services group by revenues, and is a bold bet that size matters in a new media world that is increasingly controlled by technology. (Financial Times) Big data is making Madison Ave more like Wall St. (Wall Street Journal)
European demand for oil is on the rise for the first time in two years in a sign of increased economic activity across the continent. (Financial Times)
Haruhiko Kuroda, Bank of Japan governor, has come out in support of a politically contentious plan to raise the national sales tax, a measure that is intended to shrink the budget deficit but which some fear could imperil Japan's nascent economic recovery. Mr Kuroda said on Monday that he believed the economy would not suffer a significant setback should the tax be doubled to 10 per cent as planned, in two stages beginning next April. (Financial Times)
The SFO is set to receive around £2m in special "blockbuster" funding from the UK Treasury to back its investigation into Barclays' emergency fundraising five years ago, the FT has learnt. (Financial Times)
Siemens is preparing to remove CEO Peter Loescher, following a series of profit warnings and operational mishaps. The company said on Saturday its supervisory board would on Wednesday "decide on the early departure of the President and CEO". Two people close to the company said Joe Kaeser, chief financial officer, was set to be nominated as the new chief executive. (Financial Times)
Perrigo has agreed to buy Ireland-based Elan Corp for $8.6bn in a deal that will provide the US generic drugmaker with royalty income from the blockbuster drug Tysabri and a more tax-efficient corporate structure. The cash and shares deal was announced by both companies on Monday just weeks after Elan put itself up for sale after fighting off a hostile bid by Royalty Pharma. (Financial Times)
China will freeze investigations into European wine and polysilicon exports as part of a landmark settlement with Brussels to defuse a dispute over solar panels. The decision adds another element to the EU-China solar panels deal announced on Saturday. (Financial Times)
Rio sells copper mine stake for $820m: Rio Tinto has sold its controlling stake in the Northparkes copper-gold mine in New South Wales to China Molybdenum for $820m as part of efforts to reduce debt. The purchase is one of the biggest this year by a Chinese company of a mining asset. (Financial Times)
Grant Thornton accused of misleading SFO: The accountancy firm has been accused of maliciously misleading the UK anti-fraud prosecutor, and potentially perverting the course of justice in explosive court documents filed as part of a high-profile damages claim brought by Vincent Tchenguiz against the Serious Fraud Office. (Financial Times)
Markets: US index futures suggest the S&P 500 will lose 0.1 per cent after Tokyo's stock market had a rotten session as the yen rallied. Industrial commodities are softer and buyers of Treasuries have the upper hand, nudging yields lower. Gold is down $9 to $1,325 an ounce. European equities opened in the black, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 adding 0.6 per cent, with sentiment buoyed by the $8.6bn purchase of Elan by US drugmaker Perrigo and the proposed mega-merger between Omnicom and Publicis. But arguably the main reason the European benchmark is gaining ground is that Wall Street managed to pare all its initial losses on Friday, the S&P 500 closing at 1,692 and just 7 points shy of a fresh record writes the FT's Global Markets consigliere Jamie Chisholm.
