Markets: Sentiment was bright across Asian markets, which mostly extended relief rallies that began late last week on bets the US Federal Reserve would continue its monetary stimulus until December or beyond. (Financial Times)
Federal Housing Finance Agency seeks $6bn from BofA, compared with the $4bn to be paid by JPMorgan, according to people familiar with the matter. The FHFA has sued 17 institutions asserting that they broke securities laws when selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie and Freddie. Bank of America has the biggest potential exposure, with a notional value of the securities of more than $57bn compared with $33bn at JPMorgan. Bank of America declined to comment on the case, which it is so far continuing to fight in court. (Financial Times)
Alcoa attacks 'short-sighted and misguided' LME: One of the world's largest aluminium producers has attacked the London Metal Exchange as "short-sighted and misguided" and called on regulators to intervene in a row about metals warehousing. In a letter sent to the UK FCA and the US CFTC on Friday, Alcoa accused the LME of "exceeding the proper role of an exchange" in its response to the controversy. (Financial Times)
The world's first bond backed by home rental income could come to market in the coming weeks, after securing a credit rating that should make the deal more palatable to debt investors. Sceptics believe the business is just a short-term bet on rising house prices. Supporters, however, say home rental cash flows can be institutionalised into a multibillion-dollar market. (Financial Times)
Germany's opposition SPD sets out demands for coalition deal, including a statutory minimum wage, a financial transaction tax, new rules to give immigrants dual citizenship and an investment drive in transport and schools to boost economic growth. But there was no mention of tax increases for top earners, a central SPD election demand. (Financial Times)
Ukraine close to signing a shale gas production-sharing agreement with Chevron, of the US, and bringing in Italy's Eni and France's EDF as partners for a Black Sea hydrocarbon exploration project. Kiev hopes production-sharing agreements with international energy groups will enable it to reduce dependency on costly imports from Russia. (Financial Times)
Japan's trade balance in deficit for 15th month: Japanese exports faltered, improving only 11.5 per cent from a year ago, versus forecasts of 15.6 per cent. The weakness signals that the weaker yen might not be helping firms as much as hoped. Imports were weaker than anticipated, too, rising 16.5 per cent from a year earlier, versus forecasts at 19.9 per cent. The figure suggests demand isn't as robust as anticipated. (FastFT) (Bloomberg)
AT&T has reached a multibillion dollar sale and leaseback agreement to lease the rights of about 9,100 of its wireless network towers to Crown Castle International and sell another 600 towers to the tower operator. The company will receive about $4.85bn in upfront cash proceeds, but the total proceeds could be more than $9bn. (Financial Times)
Gary Hands' Terra Firma to launch £1bn float of Infinis, a British wind power company, in a comeback signal to prospective new investors. (Financial Times)
Ineos is not bluffing with its plan to shut Scotland's Grangemouth oil refinery within weeks unless workers agree by a Monday deadline to accept proposed cuts in terms and conditions, the chemical company's chairman said. (Reuters)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
In Beijing, a campaign to build 36m affordable homes by 2015 is shaping up to be a failure. (Financial Times)
It is stupid to believe that the Tea Party has no brain (Financial Times)
When C.E.O.'s embrace the cccult -- a tale of extradited fortune-tellers in South Korea. (NYT)
The Nobel Laureates on equity bubbles (Financial Times)
And why economics IS a science. Touch defensive. (Financial Times)
Uncle Scam? A JPM shakedown? (Financial Times)
An interview with Caxton's Andrew Law (Financial Times)
'Mini-Wall Street' Rises in Hamptons (WSJ)
Myanmar: ""The absolute need to carry bags of cash is declining" (Bloomberg)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +73.03 (+0.50%) at 14,635
Topix down -0.73 (-0.06%) at 1,206
Hang Seng up +136.88 (+0.59%) at 23,477
US markets
S&P 500 up +11.35 (+0.65%) at 1,745
DJIA up +28.00 (+0.18%) at 15,400
Nasdaq up +51.13 (+1.32%) at 3,914
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +9.61 (+0.76%) at 1,278
FTSE100 up +46.42 (+0.71%) at 6,623
CAC 40 up +46.39 (+1.09%) at 4,286
Dax up +53.12 (+0.60%) at 8,865
Currencies
€/$ 1.37 (1.37)
$/¥ 97.94 (97.70)
£/$ 1.62 (1.62)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.02 at 109.96
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.01 at 100.80
100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,314
Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 3.29
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.59%
UK 2.75%
Germany 1.84%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe +0.31bps at 72.85bp
Markit iTraxx Europe -2.9bps at 85.06bp
Markit iTraxx Xover -10.83bps at 343.16bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
