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MF Global Clients May Lose in $700 Million Bankruptcy Fight - (www.bloomberg.com) MF Global (MFGLQ) Holding Ltd.’s clients may be the losers no matter who wins a $700 million dispute between bankruptcy administrators inLondon and New York that threatens the return of money locked in customer accounts. The trustee of MF Global Inc., the New York brokerage unit, is seeking the return of money used as margin for American customers trading in Europe. It wants U.K. administrators KPMG LLP to tap into $1.2 billion it had set aside for customers with segregated accounts, which are supposed to be protected. MF Global Inc. trustee James Giddens “is prepared to use all legal avenues available to him in recovering the customer funds, including litigation,” Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Giddens, said in an e-mailed statement. If successful, the trustee’s claim would significantly reduce KPMG’s client money pool and lower returns for U.K. customers, said two people with knowledge of the discussions who declined to be identified because they are confidential. Should KPMG win, U.S. customers will be treated as unsecured creditors and face a lengthy wait for any payout.
Foreclosures made up 20% of home sales in 3Q - (money.cnn.com) Sales of homes in foreclosure comprised 20% of all U.S. residential sales during the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac. That share is a significant decline from the same period in 2010, when foreclosed homes made up 30% of residential sales, but it's still a far cry from levels seen during healthier housing markets when foreclosures comprised less than 5% of sales. In total, 221,536 distressed properties were purchased during the quarter, down 11% from the previous quarter and 5% lower than the same quarter a year earlier, RealtyTrac said. One reason for the year-over-year decline is that fewer homes are making it through the foreclosure pipeline, said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.
Japan Records First Trade Gap Since 1980 - (www.bloomberg.com) Japan’s first annual trade gap since 1980, driven by an energy-import surge as nuclear plants shut down and by a shift of manufacturing overseas, threatens to undermine the nation’s status as the world’s largest creditor. A third straight monthly merchandise trade deficit in December capped an annual shortfall of 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion), the finance ministry said in Tokyo today. The data reflect the impact of the record earthquake in March, which sparked a nuclear crisis that shut most reactors, as well as longer-term shifts such as Nissan Motor Co.’s decision to move some production to lower-cost Thailand. “This is more than hollowing out -- the government hasn’t found any solutions to electricity and at this point I don’t see that we’re going to have nuclear power back again,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist in Tokyo at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. The deficit will “expand in coming years,” he said.
Merkel casts doubt on saving Greece from financial meltdown - (www.guardian.co.uk) Angela Merkel has cast doubt for the first time on Europe's chances of saving Greece from financial meltdown and sovereign default, conceding that Europe's first ever multibillion euro bailout coupled with savage austerity was not working after a two-year crisis that has brought the single currency to the brink of unravelling. In an interview with the Guardian and five other leading European newspapers, the German chancellor also insisted – against widespread resistance elsewhere in the eurozone and in the UK – that the European court of justice (ECJ) be empowered to police public spending and budget policies of the 17 countries in the euro. She also called for the eventual creation of a European political union, with many more national powers ceded to a central government, a strengthened bicameral European parliament, and the ECJ assuming the role of Europe's supreme court.
Bernanke has "finger on trigger" for new bond buys - (www.reuters.com) The Federal Reserve has moved closer to embarking on a new round of its controversial money-pumping after the central bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted a grim outlook for the U.S. economy. Bernanke on Wednesday opened the door a bit wider for the Fed to return to buying securities in the months ahead to buttress a weak recovery and keep inflation from slipping too far below its newly adopted 2-percent target. "It sounds like the finger is on the trigger," said Thomas Simons, a money market economist at Jefferies & Co. The Fed's announcement that it was unlikely to raise interest rates until at least late 2014, more than a year beyond its previous guidance, immediately pushed down Treasury bond yields and Bernanke's comments to the media raised expectations of a further round of so-called quantitative easing, or QE3.
Jobless Claims in U.S. Increase on Seasonality - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed Signals That a Full Recovery is Years Away - (www.nytimes.com)
U.K. Moves Closer to Recession as GDP Falls - (www.bloomberg.com)
Global bosses are gloomy about the economic future - (www.bbc.co.uk)
New Home Sales in U.S. Fell in December - (www.bloomberg.com)
Jobless Claims in U.S. Increase 21,000 - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Durable Goods Orders Beat Expectations - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bernanke Makes Case for Further Asset Purchases as Fed Sets Inflation Goal - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed Sees Low Rates to 2014 - (online.wsj.com)
Fed Signals That a Full Recovery Is Years Away- (www.nytimes.com)
Cooling China worries some multinationals - (www.reuters.com)
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