Markets: Asian markets declined, reacting to better than expected US gross domestic product data that increased speculation that the US Federal Reserve will pare back its monetary stimulus before March 2014. Data released on Thursday showed that the US economy grew 2.8 per cent in the third quarter, against expectations of 2 per cent. (Financial Times)
Retail investors help drive Twitter demand: Twitter's shares closed 73 per cent higher on their first day of trading on Thursday, but many who had applied for shares complained that they did not receive large allocations of the heavily oversubscribed IPO that priced at $26 a share and closed at $44.90. A total of 117m Twitter shares changed hands on the day after retail investors flooded the market with buy orders when the stock began to trade. According to brokers at Barclays who handled the start to trading in Twitter, retail orders represented about 25 to 30 per cent of the initial 11m trades that took place. (Financial Times)
Draghi strengthened his reputation as a far bolder ECB head than his predecessor, presiding over a cut which left the central bank's benchmark main refinancing rate at 0.25 per cent and sent the euro tumbling against the dollar. Though most analysts thought the ECB would wait until December to cut, Mr Draghi said there was now a possibility that the bloc could "experience a prolonged period of low inflation". (Financial Times)
The Bank of England is set to signal unemployment will fall to its threshold level of 7 per cent earlier than thought next Wednesday, and has called in top City economists for a special briefing on its new forecasts. The bank left interest rates at 0.5 per cent on Thursday, and made no effort to damp market expectations that it will indicate next week that economic conditions are ripe for a first rate rise earlier than mid-2016. (Financial Times)
"China's exports rebounded sharply in October from a September slump, in a potentially positive sign for the global economic outlook. Exports rose 5.6% on year in October, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Friday. This was a marked improvement over September's 0.3% decline and above the median forecast of a 1.5% expansion from a Wall Street Journal poll of economists." (WSJ)
A global probe into alleged manipulation of the multibillion-dollar currencies market has widened its focus to include the US, with Barclays putting three New York-based traders on leave and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley becoming embroiled in the investigations. (Financial Times)
Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to pay $150m to settle US civil regulatory charges that it misled investors in a 2007 mortgage-backed security, but the resolution does not end the UK bank's legal troubles. (Financial Times)
"One of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded slammed into the Philippines Friday, cutting communications and blocking roads in the center of the country amid worries of serious damage and casualties.... Weather officials said that Haiyan had sustained winds at 235 kilometers (147 miles) per hour, with gusts of 275 kph (170 mph) when it made landfall at Eastern Samar province's Guiuan township." (NYT)
Indian government super angry at suggestion a change of government is positive for the economy: "Goldman is parading its ignorance about the basic facts of the Indian economy, and it also exposes its eagerness to mess around with India's domestic politics," said Anand Sharma, commerce and industry minister. (Financial Times)
Former Greek finance minister 'evaded taxes': The anti-corruption prosecutor's office said Yannos Papantoniou and his wife Roula Kourakou failed to pay about €3m of taxes due between 2000 and 2010. (Financial Times)
Iran said on Thursday it was close to reaching an interim nuclear deal with the US and other world powers, but the prospect of such an agreement was immediately criticised by Israel and faced new obstacles in the US Congress. (Financial Times) (WSJ)
Russia has slashed its long-term forecast for the economy in the first official admission that the growth model underpinning President Vladimir Putin's rule is falling apart. The economy ministry said it expected annual growth of just 2.5 per cent to 2030, down from the forecast in April of 4.3 per cent. It warned that Russian growth would lag behind the global average for the next 16 years. (Financial Times)
"The Obama administration is preparing to tap Timothy Massad, who has overseen the Treasury Department's bank-rescue program for the past three years, to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to current and former government officials familiar with the matter." He would replace Gensler. (WSJ)
Mike Sherwood, co-head of Goldman Sachs International, was given new responsibilities for the bank's EM business in a reshuffle among the top ranks brought about by the departure of Mike Evans. In the usual kremlinology that accompanies Goldman's management moves, some insiders initially said that the extra duties, which do not signal a wholesale job change for London-based Mr Sherwood, would not greatly change the odds over who succeeds Mr Blankfein when he steps down. (Financial Times)
"Trading in thousands of unlisted shares, including those of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was frozen for more than five hours Thursday after a network failure knocked out stock quotes at OTC Markets Group Inc." (WSJ)
"Elliott Management Corp., the hedge fund run by billionaire Paul Singer that owns defaulted Argentine debt, said it's only willing to negotiate a settlement with the government and has no interest in holding talks with fellow bondholders." (Bloomberg)
COMMENTS & CURIOS
The possible redundancy of the Chinese 'princeling' (Financial Times)
How Big Formula bought China (Reuters)
Scots cannot ditch England and keep its central bank (Financial Times)
UK "home secretary struggles to find evidence to support her case for imposing tighter restrictions on migrants" (Financial Times)
OGX -- and that last minute transfer to, er, OSX -- highlights flaws in Brazil's bankruptcy laws (Financial Times)
The Cooper-Apollo standoff continues (Financial Times)
No, austerity did not work (Reuters)
Treasury and Krugman Are wrong about Germany (Bloomberg)
OVERNIGHT MARKETS
Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -166.53 (-1.17%) at 14,062
Topix down -9.68 (-0.82%) at 1,175
Hang Seng down -139.47 (-0.61%) at 22,742
US markets
S&P 500 down -23.34 (-1.32%) at 1,747
DJIA down -152.90 (-0.97%) at 15,594
Nasdaq down -74.61 (-1.90%) at 3,857
European markets
Eurofirst 300 up +0.37 (+0.03%) at 1,297
FTSE100 down -44.47 (-0.66%) at 6,697
CAC 40 down -5.94 (-0.14%) at 4,281
Dax up +40.16 (+0.44%) at 9,081
Currencies
€/$ 1.34 (1.34)
$/¥ 98.16 (98.08)
£/$ 1.61 (1.61)
€/£ 0.8331 (0.8335)
Commodities ($)
Brent Crude (ICE) down -0.23 at 103.23
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.19 at 94.39
100 Oz Gold (Comex) unchanged 0.00 at 1,308
Copper (Comex) feed a little borked so here's the chart:
10-year government bond yields (%)
US 2.60%
UK 2.68%
Germany 1.68%
CDS (closing levels)
Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe -3.86bps at 64.53bp
Markit iTraxx Europe -2.16bps at 82.54bp
Markit iTraxx Xover -5.7bps at 340.99bp
Sources: FT, Bloomberg, Markit
