Monday, February 6, 2017

Tuesday February 7 2017 Housing and Economic stories


There’s a Lot More at Stake in this IPO than Just Toxic Financials - (www.wolfstreet.com) Snap Inc., the parent company of SnapChat, filed for an IPO on Thursday. The filing revealed just how toxic this deal is going to be, not just from a financial point of view – a risk IPO investors are willing to take in order to grab the next Google or Facebook – but from a corporate governance and shareholder-rights point of view. This has implications far beyond Snap: If Snap’s current owners can pull it off and get away with it, other companies will start doing the same thing, and it will forever change what it means to be a screwed stockholder.

Hedge Fund Investor Letters Show Managers Are Stumped by Trump - (www.bloomberg.com) The masters of the universe are sharpening their pencils to write about Donald Trump. The problem? Many of them aren’t sure what to say. In commentaries such as quarterly letters to clients, money managers tackling the potential impact of the new president are sometimes bullish -- and almost always hedged. They’re going to do great, they say, but it’ll be a tough time for hedge funds generally. Here are some excerpts from the commentary we’ve read.

Markets Smell a Rat as Central Banks Dither - (www.wolfstreet.com) Markets are suspecting that central banks are in the process of exiting this fabulous multi-year party quietly, and that on the way out they won’t refill the booze and dope, leaving the besotted revelers to their own devices. That thought isn’t sitting very well with these revelers. In markets where central banks have pushed  government bond prices into the stratosphere and yields, even 10-year yields, below zero, there has been a sea change. The 10-year yield of the Japanese Government Bond (JGB) jumped 2.5 basis points to 0.115% on Thursday, the highest since January 2016, after an auction for ¥2.4 trillion of 10-year JGBs flopped, as investors were losing interest in this paper at this yield, and as the Bank of Japan, rather than gobbling up every JGB in sight to help the auction along, sat on its hands and let it happen.

Deutsche Bank to Cut Equities and Fixed Income Trading Staff - (www.bloomberg.com) Deutsche Bank AG is about to eliminate staff at its trading business, according to a person familiar with the matter, a day after reporting results for the unit that missed analysts’ expectations. The bank will cut as much as 17 percent of staff globally in its equities unit and reduce fixed-income headcount by as much as 6 percent, with notices to be served to employees soon, the person said. Chief Executive Officer John Cryan is eliminating 9,000 jobs across the company to raise profitability and capital levels eroded by misconduct costs. Deutsche Bank’s market share in fourth-quarter trading fell to the lowest since the financial crisis as Cryan cut assets and clients concerned about the company’s finances pulled back.

European Bonds Post Worst January on Record Amid Political Angst - (www.bloomberg.com) Euro-region bonds handed investors the worst start to a year on record as heightened political risk across the currency bloc added to speculation the European Central Bank may bring its asset-purchase program to an abrupt halt in 2018. With general elections scheduled in France, Germany and the Netherlands this year amid an increase in support for anti-euro rhetoric, yields on French and Italian bonds climbed this week to their highest level relative to benchmark German debt since 2014. In the face of stronger growth and rising inflation, some investors aren’t listening to Mario Draghi when he says the ECB hasn’t considered tapering its bond-buying plan.



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