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Fed sent minutes early to staffers, top banks - (www.marketwatch.com) The Federal Reserve on Wednesday confessed to
sending out market-moving minutes from the last interest-rate-setting meeting
to Hill staffers and officials from leading Wall Street firms a day early. The
Fed moved up the release of the minutes by five hours, to 9 a.m. Eastern, as a
result of the goof. “The reason is they were inadvertently sent early to a list
of individuals who normally receive the minutes by email shortly after their
usual release time,” a Fed spokesman said in a statement. “The individuals on
the distribution list -- primarily congressional employees and employees of
trade organizations -- received the minutes shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday.”
Obama Leans on High Earners for More Taxes in 2014 Budget -
(www.bloomberg.com) President Barack
Obama wants to again rely on top-earning U.S. households for
most of the tax increases he’s proposing. Obama’s budget plan, released today,
would cap tax deductions for top earners, increase the estate tax, eliminate
private-equity managers’ ability to receive lightly taxed carried interest and
require those earning more than $1 million a year to pay a minimum tax rate. “The
wealthiest individuals and biggest corporations cannot keep taking advantage of
loopholes and deductions that most Americans don’t get,” Obama said in
Washington.
In a
break from past budgets, Obama’s fiscal 2014 proposal
reserves most business tax increases and new business breaks for a plan that
would reduce the corporate tax rate.
FBI probes trading as KPMG quits as Herbalife, Skechers auditor
- (www.reuters.com) A former KPMG LLP partner
admitted passing on stock tips about clients to a friend who gave him cash and
gifts, in a scandal that led the big accounting firm to resign as auditor for
two companies. Herbalife says KPMG has resigned as its as auditor in connection
with alleged insider trading in Herbalife involving a KPMG partner. Steven
Russolillo reports. Scott London, the partner in
charge of audits of Herbalife Ltd. and Skechers USA Inc. until KPMG fired him last
week, told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that "I regret my actions in
leaking nonpublic data to a third party." Mr. London said
his leaks "started a few years back," adding that KPMG bore "no
responsibility" for his actions. "What I
have done was wrong and against everything" he believed in, said Mr.
London, who was based in Los Angeles for the accounting firm. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into allegations of insider
trading in the shares of certain KPMG clients, said people familiar with those
probes.
Battle
Heats Up Over Fate of Troubled Energy Buyout - (www.nytimes.com) The biggest private
equity buyout ever — the $45 billion deal for the Texas energy
giant TXU in 2007 — has been steadily sliding toward becoming one of the
biggest busts. Yet even as bankruptcy is acknowledged as a possibility, the
company’s private equity owners are trying to make sure they don’t walk away
empty-handed. The company, now called Energy Future Holdings, has completed a
series of moves in recent months that analysts say could allow it to put only
part of its business — the retail energy and power-generation operations — into
bankruptcy, while holding on to the staid-but-safe utility business. And the
company recently received a favorable tax ruling that could potentially allow
it to save billions of dollars in a reorganization. Still, as much as Energy
Future Holdings may want to tie a reorganization into a neat little bow, some
creditors, including seasoned hedge fund investors in distressed debt, are
certain to make this a fight of junkyard dogs.
Mutual funds attract record amount of cash in 1Q - (www.google.com/hostednews.ap) The stock market hit a record
high during the first quarter, and so did the flow of cash into mutual funds. Stock
funds and bond funds attracted a combined $193 billion in the first three
months of 2012, industry consultant Strategic Insight said on Wednesday. That
tops the previous record of $140 billion in net deposits during the first
quarter of 2007. It also was a record when factoring in exchange-traded funds,
which hold less cash than mutual funds but are growing at a faster pace. Net
deposits into conventional mutual funds and ETFs totaled $246 billion. The
previous record of $173 billion was set in last year's first quarter. This
year's figures suggest that investors are getting comfortable with stocks again
following the financial meltdown and market plunge of 2008-2009. Withdrawals
from U.S. stock mutual funds exceeded deposits for the past six years in a row,
while bond funds attracted more than $1.3 trillion in net deposits. This year
investors have added $48 billion to U.S. stock mutual funds and $60 billion to
funds investing in foreign stocks.
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