FURTHER FURTHER READING
- The policy trilemma strikes! again.
- One of the great eurobond traders -- profiled.
- Davis Polk's very swish US Basel III tool.
- The lock-in effect, reversed?.
- Why the ECB is going to be rubbish at forward guidance.
- "Repo conduits anyone?" More on the US leverage ratio.
ROUND-UP
Fresh record high for the S&P 500. The index rose 1.36 per cent to close at 1,675.02. The Nasdaq also hit its highest level since October 2000 (Reuters).
Microsoft broke up its old divisions into four, more horizontal, groups. A management reshuffle will accompany the largest internal restructuring for the company in half a decade. Steve Ballmer told employees that the move is designed to make Microsoft into a greater "devices and services" corporation, emulating Apple and Google in getting products out to market faster (Financial Times, Reuters, Wall Street Journal).
A new swaps dealer on the block: BP. It is the first energy company to recognise that its derivative trading activities will trigger the regulatory definition, which brings rules over reporting requirements and minimum levels of margin and capital. Companies dealing $8bn or more swaps in a year are required to register as dealers (Financial Times).
Carl Icahn said he'll raise his offer for Dell by Friday morning (Bloomberg).
US senators floated legislation to restore Glass-Steagall. The draft bill, sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren and John McCain among others, would separate investment banking from commercial bank lending, and dismantle the 'financial holding company' designation which repealed the original 1933 act (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg).
AFS losses or lending gains?: 'The full percentage-point jump in long-term rates, the sharpest increase since 2010, already has eroded $31 billion in accounting gains from banks' securities portfolios through late June, according to Federal Reserve data...' (Wall Street Journal)
June's US budget surplus was the biggest since April 2008. Dividends from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and rising tax receipts helped push the surplus to $116.5bn, compared to a $59.7bn deficit a year earlier (Bloomberg).
