Puerto
Rico creditors meet on growing fears of default - (www.ft.com) Investors
in Puerto Rico‘s
debt, including hedge funds, are meeting in New York on Thursday with
restructuring specialists as a moratorium on payments on the territory’s $70bn
in public sector debt and an additional $40bn of unfunded pension liabilities
appears increasingly likely, these specialists say. Puerto Rico’s government
said on Wednesday it had not been invited to participate in the meeting, to be
held at the offices of Jones Day, the law firm, adding that it would “take
every step necessary to continue honouring its obligations”. “We [have] made
significant progress in implementing our fiscal and economic development plans
in 2013, and are determined to continue that progress in 2014,” it said. Puerto
Rico’s status as an unincorporated territory makes a Chapter 9 filing for
bankruptcy protection for local governments, such as the Detroit
municipal filing last
July, impossible. That situation complicates any negotiations with creditors.
Newport
Beach’s $100,000 Lifeguards Feel Pension Squeeze - (www.bloomberg.com) Newport
Beach,
California, where four ranking lifeguards earned more than the town’s $109,677
median household income in 2012, may partially disband its
municipal ocean rescue to deal with rising pension costs. The Orange County
city of 87,000, where Zillow.com says the median home value is $1.5 million, is weighing bids from other governments and private
companies for lifeguard services at Corona del Mar State Beach, which the
municipality patrols. Newport Beach’s oceanfront, including the state park,
draws about 1.6 million visitors a year and averages 800 rescues annually,
according to bid documents. With about 14 percent of Newport Beach’s general
budget going toward employee pensions, municipal lifeguards may be a luxury the
town can’t afford forever, City Manager Dave Kiff said by e-mail. The home of
Pacific Investment Management Co. isn’t alone, said Michael
Coleman,
fiscal adviser to the League of California Cities.
Monday selloff is a warning sign - (www.marketwatch.com) Equity-only
put-call ratios are technically on sell signals now. I say “technically”
because they have been bouncing around at low levels on their charts for weeks
now. At low levels, they are considered to be overbought. This overbought state
was exacerbated, even while the broad market moved sideways for the past couple
of weeks. In fact, many of the broad market put-call ratios are trading at such
low levels that they haven’t been seen since January of 2011. At that time, the
market continued to rally for about another month before a sharp, but
short-lived correction took place in February-March, 2011. Then, of course,
there was a far more serious correction later in 2011. So the current low
levels of put-call ratios is a warning sign — but unless these put-call ratios
can actually start trending higher, rather than just wiggling around at the
bottom of their charts, they won’t be seriously bearish.
JCPenney closing 33 stores, slashing 2,000 jobs - (www.cnbc.com) Struggling
department store J.C. Penney on Wednesday said it will close 33
underperforming stores and slash 2,000 jobs, in a measure it says will generate
annual savings of approximately $65 million. Penney shares fell 0.9% to $6.95
in after-hours trading. "As we continue to progress toward long-term
profitable growth, it is necessary to reexamine the financial performance of
our store portfolio and adjust our national footprint accordingly," CEO
Myron Ullman said in a news release.
Ex-Stratton
Oakmont Broker Accused of Churning Client’s Account - (www.bloomberg.com) Christopher
Veale, a broker who started his career at boiler room Stratton Oakmont Inc.,
was accused by Massachusetts regulators of excessive trading in the
account of an 81-year-old from 2010 to 2012. The regulators said today in a
statement that they’re seeking to bar Veale from the securities business in
Massachusetts, along with a former colleague, Ali Habib Mayar, as well as
Brookville Capital Partners LLC, the brokerage where they worked at the time. “Rogue
brokers have long been a plague on the investing public,” Secretary of the
Commonwealth William Galvin said in the statement. “My office, along with other
state and federal regulators, is determined to move aggressively against them
as well as the firms that hire them.”
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