Thursday January 7 2016 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Noble Group Shares Tumble After Moody's Cuts Rating to Junk - (www.bloomberg.com) Noble Group Ltd.’s shares slumped and its bonds fell to a record after the commodity trader had its credit rating cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service on concerns about the company’s liquidity amid the rout in raw materials. The stock fell as much as 9.1 percent to 40 Singapore cents and traded at 40.5 cents at 12:22 p.m. local time. The shares have lost 64 percent this year, the most among members of the Straits Times Index. Noble Group’s dollar bonds due in 2020, its most liquid, were down 5.95 U.S. cents on the dollar at 63.57 cents, the lowest since they were issued in 2009, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices.

Puerto Rico faces key test as January 1 deadline on debt payments looms - (www.reuters.com)  Puerto Rico will skip payments on some of its debt due Jan. 4, the island's second default this year, but will remain current on its most important debt, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said on Wednesday. The Caribbean island will pay $328.7 million due in general obligation debt, the governor told reporters. Default on GO debt would have been seen as a more serious move because those bonds have the strongest legal protections of any of the island's obligations. However, it also keeps alive the drama surrounding its deteriorating finances as investors wait for the next shoe to drop. The governor said he is meeting with creditors in early January, though he did not give a specific date. When asked about the shutdown of key government services, Garcia Padilla told reporters at a press conference: "We have to do all we can to avoid that situation."

The Bail-Ins Are Back! Portugal Slaps Senior Bank Bondholders With €2 Billion Loss - (www.zerohedge.com) A little over a week ago, Portugal announced that for the second time in less than two years, Lisbon would be forced to bailout a large lender. This time around it was Banif, the country’s seventh-largest banking group which ran into trouble when it couldn’t repay a previous government cash injection (so really, this was a bailout of a bailout). Ultimately, the issue had to be resolved ahead of the new year, when new rules on bank resolutions that would have imperiled uninsured depositors go into effect across Europe. The €2.2 billion cash injection for Banif is set to add at least one percentage point to the country’s budget deficit which is already well wider than Brussels’ target thanks in part to the fact that the cost of last year's Banco Espirito Santo (BES) capital injection had to be placed on the government’s books after Portugal failed to sell Novo Banco (the “good” part of BES) in order to pay back the taxpayer money spent on the bailout.

Martin Shkreli's KaloBios files for bankruptcy - (www.marketwatch.com) KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company majority owned by controversial biotech investor Martin Shkreli, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a Delaware bankruptcy court late Tuesday. That filing came just hours after the company KBIO, -5.09% said it has been granted a Feb. 24 hearing on its appeal of the Nasdaq’s decision to delist its shares. KaloBios received the delisting notice last week, just days after Shkreli was arrested on fraud charges. Trading in the stock has been halted since Dec. 17, the day of the arrest, while Nasdaq awaited more information. The company, which is developing cancer treatments, has $8.4 million in assets and $1.9 million in liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing. It is being represented by the law firm Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP. The majority shareholders are named as Shkreli, David Moradi and Anthion Partners II LLC. Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize under the protection of the court.

Convicted ex-senator looks to collect $95K pension - (www.cnbc.com) Dean Skelos, former leader of the New York state Senate, has filed the paperwork to begin collecting a state pension of up to $95,000 per year, according to NBC New York. There's just one problem—he's a convict. Earlier this month, a jury found Skelos guilty of using his influence to arrange payments and jobs for his son Adam, who was also convicted. The ruling unseated the Long Island Republican from the legislature but it didn't expel him from eligibility for benefits due to his 35 years of public service. In fact, in 2011, lawmakers had voted to withhold pensions of corrupt or convicted officials, however, that change does not apply to state officials who entered the pension system before that year.

OTHER STORIES:

World's Worst Carry Trade Found in Brazil as 2016 Outlook Dims - (www.bloomberg.com)
Puerto Rico Debt Crisis Closes In on Jan. 1 Deadline - (www.nytimes.com)
Landlords Face Slowing Price Gains After U.S. Records Shattered - (www.bloomberg.com)

These Charts Show the Astounding Rise in Passive Management - (www.bloomberg.com)
Warren Buffett faces worst year on stock market since 2009 - (www.cnbc.com)
Massive Methane Leak Displaces Thousands in Southern California - (www.cnbc.com)