news11may11
COMMODITIES
Energy exports being restricted by China and Russia; emerging market economies had imposed export restrictions on food commodities but they are now spreading out to energy as well. The announcements were made in the last few days as both countries look to clamp down on domestic inflation pressures. FT
USA
The US Treasury won’t be selling any of its $400B worth of gold. Fortune.
Budgets - neither side has momentum - Both parties are flailing in their efforts to generate momentum for any of their competing budget plans - TheHill
Obama's approval rating has hit its highest point in two years - 60 percent - and more than half of Americans now say he deserves to be re-elected - Time
AIG - the Treasury will move forward w/a stock sale
but will only be doing ~$9B, far less than the $20B+ initially hoped for. AIG held a board meeting Tues night and made the decision to move forward but w/a smaller amount. A roadshow for the offering will start soon. The stock is due to be priced and sold around May 24. WSJ
NDAQ would be launching its hostile bid for NYX within a “couple of weeks” and reiterated that its offer is superior to the one from D Borse - Reuters
HSBC to scale back US presence - will unveil plans to cut costs ($2.5-3.5B over the next three years), sell businesses, and scale back its retail ambitions in certain markets. The co said it would review its US credit cards and retail businesses (analysts think the sale of its US assets could raise some $25B). HSBC said the moves will help it hit its 12-15% ROE targets. WSJ
Short Interest for the SP500 in the period ending April 29th decreased 0.32% with the most significant declines coming in the form of Consumer Staples (dn. 2.2%) Materials (dn. 2.15%) and Healthcare (dn. 1.69%). On the other hand, there was an increase in short interest for Energy (+2.58%) and Utilities (+1.3%). Largest Increases: ETFC, AKAM, TE, SYMC, UNP, EP, DV, CPWR, GR, DGX. Largest Decreases: WFM, FO, TYC, LSI, TMO, LIFE, STH, EMN, IVZ, SLE - Bloomberg
Europe
Greece - local Greek papers are reporting Wed morning that the country is close to an agreement for an extra EU50-60B in IMF/EU funding to cover funding needs in F12 and F13. Athens is apparently offering up a bold privatization plan in exchange for the extra money. Reuters
Greece - senior officials from the IMF and EU make a crucial inspection visit on Wed to Athens to assess the country’s finances. Reuters
Spanish banks - the government is considering expanding the “bad bank” concept in an effort to attract more private capital into the industry as part of the restructuring of the “cajas”. WSJ
Spanish banks - Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has purchased ~1M shares in Spain’s Criteria Caixacorp. The purchase amounts to just 0.03% of Criteria’s share capital. Reuters
ASIA
China numbers: CPI, having reached cycle-high at 5.4%oya in March, came in April at a still elevated 5.3%oya; IP rose at 13.4% oya in April, compared to 14.8%oya in March, retail sales rose 17.1%oya in April compared to 17.4%oya in March; fixed investment rised 25.4%oya, year-to-date by April, after rising 25.0%oya in the first three months; money supply - M2 rose 15.3% oya in April, compared to 16.6%oya in March. New loan creation coming in at 739.6 billion yuan in April, compared to 679.4 billion yuan in March. As such, total yuan loans rose 17.5%oya in April, compared to 17.9% in March
Use of yuan in int’l trade - an official said some ~8% of its foreign trade will be settled in yuan this year - DJ (recall last year 7% was settled)
MEA
Syria/Israel - Bashar Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf threatened Syria would go to war against Israel if the US and Europe did not back off from supporting the anti-regime uprising - Debka
Egypt's military rulers are letting Hamas' political leader Khaled Meshaal move his base out of troubled Damascus to the Gaza Strip - Debka