Markets: Asian stocks are set for a positive end to the week as data from China, Japan and the US boosted confidence in the region. (Financial Times) (Reuters)
Dimon at DoJ for $11bn JPMorgan settlement talks over mortgage securities: "JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon met US attorney general Eric Holder at the Department of Justice in Washington on Thursday, as the US bank looks to settle claims relating to mispackaged mortgage securities for $11bn." (Financial Times)
UK's Osborne acts over housing boom fears: The BoE will be able to recommend that Mr Osborne reduces the cap on properties eligible under the Help to Buy scheme, currently set at £600,000, to reduce its availability in the capital's booming property market. The Bank's Financial Policy Committee could also recommend that the Treasury increases the fees it charges lenders for mortgage guarantees, pushing up the price of loans. (Financial Times)
Obama and Republicans remain poles apart as twin crises loom: "Days from the first deadline in a series of cascading budget crises, President Barack Obama and his Republican opponents remain far apart on resolving their latest stand-off over the reach of government, symbolised by his health reforms." (Financial Times)
"Japanese consumer price inflation increased 0.9 per cent year on year in August, its biggest annual rise since November 2008." (FastFT)
Rabobank to settle over Libor: The expected settlement with US, UK and Dutch authorities is forecast to be less than the £390m paid by the Royal Bank of Scotland in February. (Financial Times)
Italy PM Letta returns to resignation threat from centre-right: Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party warned it would quit parliament if a senate committee voted to expel its leader from the upper house next month. A week ago he had assured Letta of his minister's support. (Financial Times)
Regling questions need for debt forgiveness in Greece: He "said that the targets for lowering Greece's debt that were central to its latest rescue deal were "meaningless." (WSJ)
Irish house prices rise at fastest pace since property crash: The value of Dublin homes surged 10.5 per cent in the year to the end of August, Ireland's statistics office said on Thursday. However, when Dublin sales are excluded, national prices fell by 2.6 per cent in the 12 months to the end of August. (Financial Times)
Maersk calls bottom of trade cycle: The world's biggest container shipping line by market share said it believed the downturn in trade had bottomed out and predicted demand for global containers would grow by 4-6 per cent in 2014 and 2015, up from recent forecasts of 2-3 per cent for this year. (Financial Times)
Greece's Piraeus Bank prepares to float unit Geniki within the next six months, repositioning the unit it bought less than a year ago from France's Société Générale as a bad debt workout specialist. (Financial Times)
India urged to allow greater foreign access to bond markets: "India should introduce a wholesale liberalisation of rules restricting foreign investors from participating in domestic bond markets, according to a report produced by the country's main financial markets regulator." (Financial Times)
Detailed negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme will start in Geneva next month, it was announced on Thursday, following a meeting in New York that included one of the few encounters between senior US and Iranian officials since the 1979 Islamic revolution. (Financial Times)
"J.C. Penney moved to raise as much as $1 billion by selling stock, boosting its cushion of cash ahead of what could be a hard-fought holiday season." It said it would sell up to 92.6 million shares in a public offering underwritten by Goldman. (WSJ)
"Shuanghui International intends to quickly ramp up pork exports from the U.S. as its top priority after Thursday's closing of its $4.7 billion acquisition of Smithfield Foods senior executives said." (WSJ)
BlackBerry suffers as banks switch handsets: "Wall Street investment banks and other financial services groups are reducing their reliance on BlackBerry, underscoring the Canadian smartphone company's challenge as it plans to abandon the consumer market to focus on its core business customers." (Financial Times)
US money market funds in French surge: French banks accounted for over half of all eurozone bank lending done by the 10 biggest US money market funds at the end of last month. (Financial Times)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
Multinationals beach tax bills in Spanish shells (Financial Times)
Shanghai's new zone: lots of hype, little detail (Financial Times)
Arab upheaval and European introversion leave Turkey in limbo (Financial Times)
US rules 'endanger' derivatives reforms (Financial Times)
The rise of BATS (WSJ)
John Boehner, the debt ceiling, and the shutdown (WSJ)
Where is the panic over deflation? (Bloomberg)
India's street vendors come out of the shadows (Bloomberg)
Sudan erupts in deadly protests as gas prices rise (NYT)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -24.89 (-0.17%) at 14,774
Topix up +0.48 (+0.04%) at 1,221
Hang Seng up +34.44 (+0.15%) at 23,159
US markets
S&P 500 up +5.90 (+0.35%) at 1,699
DJIA up +55.04 (+0.36%) at 15,328
Nasdaq up +26.33 (+0.70%) at 3,787
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +0.60 (+0.05%) at 1,258
FTSE100 up +14.06 (+0.21%) at 6,566
CAC 40 down -8.63 (-0.21%) at 4,187
Dax down -1.53 (-0.02%) at 8,664
Currencies
€/$ 1.35 (1.35)
$/¥ 98.81 (98.97)
£/$ 1.60 (1.60)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.13 at 109.08
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.30 at 102.73
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +0.70 at 1,324
Copper (Comex) down -0.01 at 3.30
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.66%
UK 2.79%
Germany 1.83%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe +0.33bps at 86.99bp
Markit iTraxx Europe +1.61bps at 99.5bp
Markit iTraxx Xover +5.65bps at 394.79bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
