national-global

Fed to Taper in December at the Earliest; HSBC to Fight $2.5B Fine

10/18/13

Breaking News This Morning ... Earnings: First Horizon, First Niagara, General Electric, SunTrust, Morgan Stanley Receiving Wide Coverage ... Taper Timetable: December now looks like the earliest the Fed will begin to scale back its purchases of mortgage-backed and Treasury securities. It's unlikely to do so at the policy meeting at the end of this month. "Fed officials have said the decision depends on how the economic data evolve, but the data won't be very illuminating into November…

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U.S. Shutdown Ends; JPM and CFTC Make 'Whale' Settlement Official

10/17/13

Breaking News This Morning ...

Earnings: Goldman Sachs, BB&T, Fifth Third, Huntington Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Reopened: Congress Wednesday passed a bill to fund the government through January 15 and raise the debt ceiling until February 7. This ends the government shutdown, with offices re-opening today. The Washington Post reports that the deal averts catastrophe, but leaves the U.S. economy open to new threats, given its accompanying "kick-the-can-down-the-road" deadlines. More big picture coverage is here: Wall Street Journal,...

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B of A Earnings; Second Take on Citi; JPM's Latest 'Whale' Fine

10/16/13

Breaking News This Morning ...

B of A Earnings: Bank of America continued the mixed bag of big bank earnings this morning, reporting an increase in third-quarter profit due to improved credit quality, which offset weak fixed income and a decline in mortgage revenue. Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times ...

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Citi Posts Disappointing Earnings; Decrying and Defending Jamie Dimon

10/15/13

Breaking News This Morning ... Citi Earnings: Citigroup's third-quarter earnings are out and the quick take is that results are disappointing, thanks to a slump in bond trading and a decline in mortgage revenue. "Third-quarter net income, adjusted for certain items, slipped to $3.26 billion, or $1.02 per share, from $3.27 billion, or $1.06 per share a year earlier," Reuters summarizes. "We performed relatively well in this challenging, uneven macro environment," CEO Michael Corbat said in…

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Earnings Season Kicks Off; Default Fears Still Loom; The Former N.Y. Fed Examiner Who Dared Criticize Goldman (Hence 'Former,' She Says)

10/11/13

Breaking News This Morning ...

Earnings Season Kicks Off: JPMorgan and Wells Fargo reported third-quarter results this morning. A big theme this earnings season, according to the Journal's "Ahead of the Tape" column, will be the upward trajectory of long-term interest rates. That trend's bad for post-crisis profit boosters like mortgage refinancing and fixed-income trading, but generally positive in the long term for, you know, core banking. Receiving Wide Coverage ... ...

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Hints at a Deal in Congress, But Fiscal Fallout Drags On

10/10/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Deal to Be Had? Finally? All eyes remain fixed on Washington this week, as patience wears thin and lawmakers try to come up with an agreement to end the government shutdown and avert the looming debt ceiling. Democrats and Republicans have so far refused to negotiate with one another, but signs of a deal may be starting to emerge. (The game of chicken can only go on so long before the...

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Yellen's Fed Nomination May Hit Washington Gridlock

10/09/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Yellen Picked as Next Fed Leader: President Obama will formally nominate Janet Yellen today to be the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, the White House announced Tuesday. Yellen, current vice-chair of the Fed, was one of the front runners to replace Ben Bernanke, the current chairman, who is set to step down in January. She became the top candidate after Lawrence Summers withdrew his name from consideration last month. Although Yellen's nomination...

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D.C. Jitters Go Global; Wrongdoer Faces Music

10/08/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Beijing to D.C.: This Isn't Funny: America's political dysfunction has reached such heights that even foreigners are feeling compelled to speak up. China and Japan, which have stocked up on trillions of dollars of Uncle Sam's IOUs, began publicly expressing concerns that the interest payments on them could be in peril. "The clock is ticking," Beijing warned in its first official comments on the stalemate, while urging Washington pols to "ensure the...

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Shutdown Creates Forecasting Quandaries; Messaging Competition

10/07/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

All Shutdown All the Time: The ongoing government shutdown dominated news coverage this weekend. The Wall Street Journal highlighted how government officials and economists are facing forecasting quandaries as the budget impasse delays the release of key data, including the Labor Department's monthly jobs report. A separate article notes that Fed officials are monitoring the shutdown to see if the prolonged stalemate creates any drag on the private sector. Speaking of the...

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Citi Fined $30 Million for Early Apple Info Release; CFTC Chair to Step Down

10/04/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Citi Fined: Citigroup has agreed to pay a Massachusetts regulator $30 million for allowing an analyst to share unpublished research about Apple with a handful of hedge funds, including SAC Capital. The Journal calls the case "a vivid example of a problem many critics say isn't going away: sloppy controls over the market-sensitive information flowing between analysts and investors." Dealbook suggests the incident says something about SAC Capital, which was indicted on...

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