Markets: Wall Street cheer crossed the ocean to push Japanese stocks to a six-year peak and saw Hong Kong stocks flirt with near three-year highs. (Financial Times)
US Vice-President Biden will tell Chinese leaders next week the recent establishment of an air defence zone is "unsettling" to its neighbours and raises questions about its broader international behaviour. Mr Biden is expected to use a week-long visit to Asia starting on Sunday to press China about last weekend's announcement of a set of flight restrictions over an area including a disputed chain of islands in the East China Sea. (Financial Times)
Thai PM survives no confidence vote: Despite the anti-government protests that have gripped Bangkok for weeks, prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has survived a no confidence vote. Members of the lower house voted 297 to 134 to reject a petition to censure her. (FastFT)
US Regulators schedule dates for Volcker vote: The CFTC and the FDIC are among the regulators scheduling dates for a vote on the highly anticipated Volcker rule, according to people familiar with the matter. The FDIC plans to meet on December 10 to consider the rule aimed at banning proprietary trading, which involves banks trading from their own accounts. The CFTC has tentatively marked the same day to vote on Volcker, but that could be delayed depending on whether the rule is finalised by then. (Financial Times)
Michael Steinberg, a former portfolio manager with SAC Capital, asked his analyst to get "early, proprietary information" about companies that he could trade for profits, a key government witness testified during an insider trading trial. Jon Horvath, the former SAC analyst, said that during the summer of 2007, after a string of losing trades, Mr Steinberg pulled him aside one evening with new marching orders. "You need to talk to your contacts", at companies, banks, consulting firms and peer network, to "get me that information", Mr Horvath alleged he was told. (Financial Times) (WSJ)
"Ernst & Young agreed to pay investors $99 million to settle litigation over its auditing of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, according to a filing in federal court in Manhattan. [The deal] would resolve claims of investors who bought certain securities issued by the firm from June 12, 2007, to Sept. 15, 2008, the date Lehman filed for bankruptcy, according to the filing. It requires the approval of U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan." (Bloomberg)
"Barclays Capital has been ordered to pay $2.1 million to a New York-based trader it fired last year in connection with the alleged rigging of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, according to arbitration documents." (Reuters)
Brazil has raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 10 per cent, pushing it into double digits for the first time since March last year as the Latin American country grapples with stubbornly high inflation. The central bank hiked the Selic rate late on Wednesday for the sixth time in a row, extending what has become the world's biggest tightening cycle. (Financial Times)
"Guangdong, China's most populous province with more than 100 million people, is to launch a carbon permits market next month that will be the world's second biggest after the European Union. The scheme... will cap carbon dioxide emissions from 202 companies at 350 million tons for 2013, according to a statement on the website of the provincial Development and Reform Commission." (Reuters)
Vale has agreed to pay Brazilian authorities R$22.3bn ($9.6bn) to settle a decade-long dispute over back taxes, bringing an end to an issue that has scared away investors from the world's largest iron ore miner. The Rio de Janeiro-based company said late on Wednesday that it would accept the terms of the government's Refis tax amnesty programme, reducing an initial $14bn claim against the miner by about 30 per cent. (Financial Times)
Judge clears American-US Airways merger: The long-running effort to merge US Airways and the bankrupt parent of American Airlines looks close to success after a bankruptcy court judge threw out a last-minute private effort to block the deal and cleared it to go ahead. US Airways and AMR Corporation said they expected the two companies to merge on December 9 before markets opened. They anticipate the merged airline to be the US's largest by sales. (Financial Times)
Charter Communications has discussed a $25bn financing package that would put weight behind its increasingly public battle to acquire rival cable-TV provider Time Warner Cable. Charter, which has been circling its larger rival since the summer, has been in talks about debt financing for the deal with banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, according to people familiar with the process. (Financial Times)
"Italian fashion house Gianni Versace this week received formal offers for the minority stake it is selling, with a number of international funds submitting bids, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. The candidates bidding separately for a stake of around 20% in Versace include Blackstone, U.K.-based Permira Advisers , Italian private-equity fund Clessidra, Italian fund FSI, Qatar Holding LL and French buyout firm Ardian..." (WSJ)
"India's Gland Pharma said on Thursday U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co LP had agreed to invest about $200 million to buy a minority stake in the company. KKR will acquire the minority stake in Gland Pharma, including the entire stake held by private equity fund, Evolvence India Life science Fund, in the Hyderabad-based firm, KKR said in a statement." (Reuters)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
Why write a precis when you have an image like this? Click through for the FT piece:
Chinese bad loan manager Cinda sits on its own debt mountain (Reuters)
China may have overplayed its hand on the islands (Financial Times)
Of brittle cotton and Chinese stockpiles (Financial Times Lex)
Plight of rice farmers highlights Philippines growth dilemma (Financial Times)
Merkel refuseniks determined to head off grand coalition (Bloomberg)
Coal's decline hits hardest in the mines of Kentucky (WSJ)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 up +197.61 (+1.28%) at 15,647
Topix up +10.63 (+0.85%) at 1,258
Hang Seng up +149.80 (+0.63%) at 23,956
US markets
S&P 500 up +4.48 (+0.25%) at 1,807
DJIA up +24.53 (+0.15%) at 16,097
Nasdaq up +27.00 (+0.67%) at 4,045
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +6.48 (+0.50%) at 1,301
FTSE100 up +13.25 (+0.20%) at 6,649
CAC 40 up +15.49 (+0.36%) at 4,293
Dax up +61.06 (+0.66%) at 9,351
Currencies
€/$ 1.36 (1.36)
$/¥ 102.02 (102.15)
£/$ 1.63 (1.63)
€/£ 0.8321 (0.8335)
DXY:
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.09 at 111.40
Light Crude (Nymex) down -0.08 at 92.22
100 Oz Gold (Comex) up +1.40 at 1,239
Copper (Comex) up +0.02 at 3.22
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.74%
UK 2.77%
Germany 1.71%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -0.03bps at 62.92bp
Markit iTraxx Europe -0.83bps at 77.12bp
Markit iTraxx Xover -7.24bps at 315.25bp
Markit CDX IG +0.44bps at 68.94bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
