Asian stocks fell, although the Nikkei rose slightly and the Topix decline was limited as the dollar strengthened to 101.3 against the yen. The Hang Seng fell as much as 2.4% in early trade and the MSCI Asia Pacific was 0.9% lower. (Bloomberg)(FastFT)
Today: US earnings season kicks off with Alcoa. Analysts expect a profit increase of just 0.7% on the previous year among the S&P 500. (Wall Street Journal)
Osborne to support sweeping bank reforms: The UK chancellor will endorse the overwhelming majority of proposals from a cross-party banking commission, including introducing criminal penalties for "reckless" bankers and tighter control of pay and bonuses, in his formal response to be published today. Key proposals from the Tyrie commission will be added to the banking reform bill in the Commons and when it passes to the House of Lords include the new "reckless misconduct" offence; stronger boards; requiring bank chairmen to work full-time; easier clawback rules and bonus deferrals of up to 10 years. (Financial Times)
Greece looks likely to get next bailout tranche: Some issues remained to be ironed out at today's meeting of eurozone finance ministers, but Greek ministers and troika members said they had overcome differences on the most vexing problem – cutting the size of the public payroll. A political standoff over the cuts had threatened the IMF's €1.8bn portion of the tranche due after the end of July. (Financial Times)
White House-Wall Street trade clash: "The Obama administration has set itself up for a fight with Wall Street after resisting European demands to include financial services regulation in transatlantic trade talks as the list of sticking points grows before negotiations begin this week." (Financial Times)
Portugal's political crisis has been smoothed over, as the prime minister promoted Paulo Portas, the minister whose resignation threatened to bring down the government last week, to deputy prime minister. Portas, who leads the junior party in the ruling coalition, will also oversee negotiations with the troika over the country's bailout. (Financial Times)
US banks have lost billions of dollars of paper profits on their securities portfolios as market interest rates rise. Data released by the Federal Reserve on Friday showed unrealised gains in these portfolios had plummeted from more than $40bn at the beginning of the year to about $6bn. (Financial Times) However the biggest Asian and European investors are keeping money in Treasuries despite the losses. (Bloomberg)
Eliot Spitzer is running for New York Office of the Comptroller. "I'm hopeful there will be forgiveness, I am asking for it," said the former state attorney-general, who resigned five years ago amid a prostitution scandal. (New York Times)
Japanese investors are fleeing foreign debt markets, selling a net Y2.958tn ($29bn) in foreign bonds and notes in June – a record amount. (WSJ Moneybeat)
About 117 ETFs closed in the first half of this year -- a record number. (Financial Times)
Carlos Slim invests $40m in Shazam: América Móvil, the telecoms operator controlled by Slim, has invested $40m in the UK developer of music recognition app Shazam. (Financial Times)
COMMENT AND CURIOS:
- Larry Summers: Taxing US businesses abroad would be good for them. (Financial Times)
- Interpretations of Dodd-Frank employee-participation rules vary widely. (Wall Street Journal)
- Detroit housing market speculation hurts locals and investors. (Reuters)
- Ed Luce: The global burden on the US middle class consumer. (Financial Times)
- Lunch with Meredith Whitney. (Financial Times)
- Whitney's research firm had 14 clients in January, down from 30. (Wall Street Journal)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS: DOWN
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +29.37 (+0.21%) at 14,339
Topix down -3.82 (-0.32%) at 1,185
Hang Seng down -389.72 (-1.87%) at 20,465
US markets
S&P 500 up +16.48 (+1.02%) at 1,632
DJIA up +147.29 (+0.98%) at 15,136
Nasdaq up +35.71 (+1.04%) at 3,479
European markets
Eurofirst 300 down -15.44 (-1.31%) at 1,164
FTSE100 down -46.15 (-0.72%) at 6,376
CAC 40 down -55.46 (-1.46%) at 3,754
Dax down -188.31 (-2.36%) at 7,806
Currencies
€/$ 1.28 (1.28)
$/¥ 101.28 (101.18)
£/$ 1.49 (1.49)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.19 at 107.91
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.37 at 103.59
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +2.50 at 1,215
Copper (Comex) up +0.01 at 3.09
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.72%
UK 2.49%
Germany 1.72%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -0.43bps at 100.2bp
Markit iTraxx Europe +1.64bps at 113.57bp
Markit iTraxx Xover +9.58bps at 455.56bp
Markit CDX IG +1.12bps at 86.56bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
