Markets: Asian shares, oil prices and the dollar came under pressure on Monday as politicians in Washington showed no signs of making progress to resolve the U.S. budget standoff, while safe-haven gold inched higher. (Reuters)
"House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday he wouldn't bring up bills to fully reopen the government or increase the country's borrowing limit unless Democrats agree to broader talks aimed at trimming the deficit. The speaker insisted he couldn't muster enough votes to pass either one without the concessions. "The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit, and the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us," Mr. Boehner told ABC" (WSJ) (Financial Times)
Paulson and a clutch of bullish US hedge funds are leading a charge into Greek banks, confident that Greece, long seen as the weakest economy of the eurozone periphery, is on the turn. Alpha and Piraeus have generally been seen as the most attractive bets after recapitalisation exercises earlier this year – dominated by bail-out money – still left 16 per cent and nearly 20 per cent respectively in private hands. (Financial Times)
"The World Bank lowered its 2013 and 2014 economic growth forecasts for China and most of developing East Asia on Monday... The Washington-based development bank now expects developing East Asia to expand by 7.1 percent this year and by 7.2 percent in 2014, down from its April estimate of 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively [and] expects the Chinese economy to expand by 7.5 percent this year, down from its April forecast of 8.3 percent and below the International Monetary Fund's most recent forecast of 7.75 percent." (Reuters)
George Osborne has sought clearance from Brussels to split Royal Bank of Scotland, should he decide to give the green light to the creation of a good and bad bank. The pre-emptive step aims to avoid stricter EU conditions on state support to banks and a £471,000 cap on executive pay. An alternative, less complex, option is to enlarge and rebrand RBS's existing "non core" division as an "internal bad bank". (Financial Times)
"Finmeccanica has agreed to sell its power-equipment business, Ansaldo Energia, to an Italian state-run fund, in a deal valued at more than €1 billion ($1.36 billion) to Italy's biggest defense and aerospace company and its business partner... Finmeccanica is 30% owned by the Italian state." (WSJ)
Shinzo Abe warned of delay in key labour reforms in Japan pointing to strong domestic opposition to the "sensitive" but potentially crucial plank in his structural reform programme. He conceded, in an interview with the FT, that a relaxing of Japan's stringent job protections would not be part of an forthcoming policy package. (Financial Times)
Financial services companies are thought to have hired an extra 10,000 staff in the three months to September as optimism in the sector surged to its highest level for almost 17 years. (Financial Times)
Eight investment banks embrace Markit viral messaging revolution: Markit, the UK data provider, will operate an industry-wide central directory switchboard to connect the messaging systems of Thomson Reuters, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, BofAML and GFI Group. Thw system will act as a central, vetted directory, allowing users to connect in rival banks without leaving their own secure, internal system. (Financial Times)
Shares in India's Apollo Tyres have jumped 1.5 per cent today after the company demanded a discount on the $2.5bn it had agreed for US rival Cooper Tire. Apollo wants to cut the price it is paying for Cooper because of thorny labour relations issues in the US and in China. (FastFT)
Dish again under fire over LightSquared bid: "Shareholders suing the satellite-television company over its handling of an offer for LightSquared Inc. argue that two directors appointed by Dish to a committee to evaluate the merits of that lawsuit have close ties to [Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen] and the company, according to court documents filed on Friday." (WSJ)
"Airbus appeared close on Monday to winning its first jet order from Japan Airlines, breaking into the last major aviation market dominated by rival Boeing, two sources familiar with the matter said...They gave no details on the number of planes expected to be sold, but industry analysts previously told Reuters they expected the carrier to order around 25 aircraft..." (Reuters) The order is "worth at least $7 billion based on list prices" (Bloomberg)
"Private equity firm KKR & Co is nearing a deal to acquire lifting equipment company Crosby Group LLC for around $1 billion, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday." (Reuters)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
"Mr. Liu's job is nothing less than to craft an economic vision that will guide China for the decade to come." (WSJ)
When wealth disappears. (NYT - Stephen King)
Trouble at Tepco, the "zombie" Fukushima operator. (Reuters)
"The disquieting prospect is that this crisis will continue until Mr Obama leaves office – and possibly beyond." (Financial Times)
Buffett's crisis-lending haul reaches $10bn. (WSJ)
Erdogan as shooting star, not comet (Financial Times)
A review of Andrew Smithers' book on problems with the bonuses paid to corporate executives and to traders. (Financial Times)
China's doctors not part of society's elite (Financial Times)
Who foots the capital bill after the ECB decides how big it is? (Financial Times)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -138.86 (-0.99%) at 13,885
Topix down -13.49 (-1.16%) at 1,150
Hang Seng down -169.16 (-0.73%) at 22,969
US markets
S&P 500 up +11.84 (+0.71%) at 1,691
DJIA up +76.10 (+0.51%) at 15,073
Nasdaq up +33.41 (+0.89%) at 3,808
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +1.56 (+0.13%) at 1,244
FTSE100 up +4.84 (+0.08%) at 6,454
CAC 40 up +36.27 (+0.88%) at 4,164
Dax up +25.06 (+0.29%) at 8,623
Currencies
€/$ 1.36 (1.36)
$/¥ 97.15 (97.46)
£/$ 1.60 (1.60)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.36 at 109.10
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.53 at 103.31
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +3.40 at 1,313
Copper (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 3.29
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.63%
UK 2.74%
Germany 1.83%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -2.35bps at 82.72bp
Markit iTraxx Europe -1.62bps at 97.58bp
Markit iTraxx Xover -11.75bps at 388.22bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
