SEC charges former Santander exec and judge with insider trading: "US securities regulators brought a new round of cases of alleged insider trading ahead of BHP Billiton's failed bid for PotashCorp, filing fraud charges against a former high-ranking executive at Banco Santander and a former Spanish judge. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Cedric Cañas Maillard, a Spanish citizen and former executive adviser to Santander's chief executive, and his friend Julio Marín Ugedo, a former judge in Spain, for allegedly making a total of $1m in illegal profits after trading in advance of the planned 2010 take." (Financial Times)
BoE helped sell looted Nazi gold: "The Bank of England played a vital role in one of the darkest episodes in central banking history, facilitating the sale of gold looted by the Nazis after their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. According to a hitherto unpublished history of the BoE's activities in and around the second world war, the UK's central bank sold gold on behalf of the Reichsbank – which Germany's central bank had seized from its Czech counterpart – after the UK government had frozen all Czech assets held in Britain following the Nazi invasion." (Financial Times)
Tourre trial told of 'land of make believe': "Former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre was accused by lawyers for the US Securities and Exchange Commission of lying under oath and living in a "land of make believe", as attorneys on both sides of the high-profile case made their final arguments. The 34-year-old "was willing to lie to you under oath on the witness stand to get out of trouble", Matthew Martens, the SEC's lead attorney, told the jury on Tuesday. "Mr Tourre's land of make believe is not a defence to fraud."" (Financial Times)
Global fertiliser shake-up after cartel falls apart: "One of the two big cartels controlling the potash market has fallen apart after a leading Russian producer of the vital ingredient in fertiliser announced its withdrawal from the group, sending sector share prices tumbling. In a move likened to a break-up of Opec, the oil producers' club that controls output, Uralkali pulled out of the Belarus Potash Corporation export cartel after it accused its Belarusian partner of violating an agreement and selling outside the partnership." (Financial Times)
JPMorgan to pay $410m to settle power probe: "JPMorgan Chase is to pay $410m to settle allegations from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it manipulated power markets in California and the Midwest. Ferc, which regulates gas, electricity and oil networks, announced on Tuesday that JPMorgan would pay $285m in a civil penalty to the US Treasury and give up $125m of "unjust profits", with the bulk of the latter amount going to Californian electricity consumers." (Financial Times)
COMMENT AND CURIOS
- What Larry Summers said in 1991, and Summers hedges his doubts on Fed's bond buying.
- Green shoots in Europe.
- US financial institutions are "poised to reclaim their position as the market's biggest industry for the first time since the credit crisis".
- The increasing leverage of Daniel Tarullo.
- The high cost of travel visas.
OVERNIGHT MARKETS: MIXED
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -58.70 (-0.42%) at 13,811
Topix down -2.28 (-0.20%) at 1,146
Hang Seng up +60.74 (+0.28%) at 22,015
US markets
S&P 500 up +0.63 (+0.04%) at 1,686
DJIA down -1.38 (-0.01%) at 15,521
Nasdaq up +17.33 (+0.48%) at 3,616
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +0.14 (+0.01%) at 1,206
FTSE100 up +10.70 (+0.16%) at 6,571
CAC 40 up +17.70 (+0.45%) at 3,987
Dax up +11.99 (+0.15%) at 8,271
Currencies
€/$ 1.33 (1.33)
$/¥ 98.13 (98.03)
£/$ 1.52 (1.52)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.08 at 106.83
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.24 at 103.32
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +7.40 at 1,331
Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 3.04
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.60%
UK 2.32%
Germany 1.68%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -0.32bps at 91.92bp
Markit iTraxx Europe -3.39bps at 99.92bp
Markit iTraxx Xover -12.79bps at 401.68bp
Markit CDX IG +1.12bps at 86.56bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
