Wednesday April 29 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Greece Moves to Seize Public-Sector Funds as IMF Payment Due - (www.bloomberg.com) Running out of options to keep his country afloat, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ordered local governments to move their funds to the central bank. With negotiations over bailout aid deadlocked, Tsipras needs the cash for salaries, pensions and a repayment to the International Monetary Fund. Greek bonds fell after the move, pushing three-year yields to the highest since the nation’s debt restructuring in 2012. The order was questioned by local officials and slammed by the leading opposition party. The decree to confiscate reserves now held in commercial banks and transfer them to the central bank could raise about 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion), according to two people familiar with the decision. It shows how time is running out for Tsipras, a point made by European officials who addressed the matter at IMF meetings in Washington in recent days.

Major Chinese Developer (Kaisa) Says It Can't Pay Dollar Debts  - (www.bloomberg.com) Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. became China’s first real estate company to default on its U.S. currency debt, capping a month of distress in bond markets amid an anti-corruption probe and fueling concern that losses will spread. The default coincides with the expiration of a 30-day grace period on $52 million of missed interest payments on two dollar-denominated bonds, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange statement Monday. Kaisa, based in the southern city of Shenzhen, is struggling to service 65 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) of debt owed to both onshore and offshore lenders while becoming embroiled in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft. The developer’s problems have rippled across the region’s debt market, where investors starved of yield elsewhere in the world have swooped in to boost returns. As the government’s anti-corruption probes widen, it’s raising concern that defaults will spread after overseas noteholders bought a record $21.3 billion of bonds issued by Chinese property companies.

Creditors Chase Consensus With Greece to Unlock More Aid - (www.bloomberg.com)  Greece and its creditors remained at loggerheads with time running out to unlock aid and avert a default. The sides haven’t even set 2015 budget targets, let alone on policies to meet them, an official representing creditors said Monday, asking not to be named as talks aren’t public. Euro-area finance ministers said in February that a list of measures must be agreed upon by the end of April. European leaders want Greece to do more to revamp its debt-burdened economy, with progress to be reviewed on April 24 in Riga, Latvia, when finance ministers from the currency bloc meet. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview in Washington that creditors might need to wait until mid-May to see what Greece can deliver.

Ukraine’s $32 Billion Eurobond Pile Means Restructure or Go Bust - (www.bloomberg.com)  With less than $10 billion of reserves to repay $32 billion of foreign-currency bonds, Ukraine is running out of time to reach a deal with creditors. Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko last week rejected a bondholder proposal to extend the maturities of its debt because it wouldn’t ease the overall burden enough without a reduction in principal, known as a haircut. The nation must repay $7.5 billion in government and corporate Eurobonds due this year and $5.3 billion in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The creditors are trying to achieve a reprofiling without a haircut,” Michael Ganske, who helps manage $6 billion as the head of emerging markets at Rogge Global Partners Plc in London, said by phone on Friday. “Frankly speaking, I can’t see how that will work because debt-sustainability is not established with that.”

Fed’s Cold-Case Files: Many Leaks But Nobody Caught Since 1980s - (www.bloomberg.com)  The leak came from the inner sanctum of Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Inside the regal board room of the New York Fed in lower Manhattan, a director quietly telephoned a brokerage with inside information on interest-rate policy. It was 1984, and the director, Robert Rough, had been tipping off the New Jersey brokerage for more than a year. His story, a tale of clandestine calls and dishonest profits, stands alone: He was the first, and so far only, official indicted for divulging confidential Fed information. Some three decades later, the Federal Reserve is once again confronting uncomfortable questions about possible leaks. So far little has come to light about who might have passed details of a 2012 Federal Open Market Committee meeting to a newsletter that caters to hedge funds.

OTHER STORIES:

Greece short-term bond yields hit another high - (www.ft.com)
Kaisa Defaults After China Developer Says Can’t Pay Dollar Debts - (www.bloomberg.com)
Emerging Stocks Fall as Chinese Shares Retreat; Ruble Advances - (www.bloomberg.com)
Spanish Bonds Gain With Italy’s as Draghi’s QE Shortens Selloffs - (www.bloomberg.com)
Grexit worries provide "momentum" for Bund yields to test zero - (www.reuters.com)

Europe Braces for Messy Greek Endgame - (online.wsj.com)
Factbox - How low can they go? Central bank policy easing in 2015 - (www.reuters.com)
Central banks prepare to flood FX markets with euros - (www.reuters.com)
What a Default on Kaisa’s Dollar Debt Could Mean for Creditors - (www.bloomberg.com)