Every morning the Street of Walls team puts out an update on market levels, today’s top stories, and active M&A deals.
Morning Market Levels:
- S&P futures are up 15 points to 1,164
- Europe: DJ Euro Stoxx 1.7%, FTSE 0.2%, CAC 1.4%, DAX 1.4%, Spain 1.4%, Italy 1.8%
- Asia: Japan 1.0%, Hong Kong -0.7%, India 1.5%, Australia -0.8%
- USD (DXY) down -0.59%
- Gold up 0.93% to $1,623.7
- Silver up 3.19% to $30.8
- Copper down -0.20% to $323.9
- Crude up 1.24% to $82.2
- Corn down 0.00% to 630.8
- Wheat up 0.74% to $643.5
- 10yr Treasury yields are up, trading at 2.01%
- S&P current trading at 11.60x current year P/E
Today’s Top Stories:
- Hedge Funds Buying Greek Bonds: After a number of investors struck gold by betting against French banks, many have turned their attention to the hot yet risky euro zone trade of the moment: buying Greek government bonds that traders say are changing hands for as little as 36 cents for each euro of face value http://bit.ly/oa4U8S
- European Crisis Update: Germany Passes the EFSF expansion
- IPO Update: IPOs are getting canceled at record levels, Bloomberg is reporting $8.9bn worth of deals have been canceled or postponed in 3Q (BBG)
- Citi cuts Global GDP: At a global level, the bank’s Citi Investment Research & Analysis unit predicted on Thursday that growth will slow to 3 percent this year and 2.9 percent in 2012 http://bit.ly/qV3nbF
- Citi Comments on GDP Cut: “Cutting 2012 Global GDP forecast from 3.2% to 2.9%. US going from 2.1% to 1.9%. Biggest change is now officially forecasting a Eurozone recession. Markets are well ahead of where our economic forecasts are. We are not expecting a catastrophe like 2008. US stock market is furthest away from post-LEH lows (45%) meanwhile Japan is ~15% away.” (Citi Research)
- Banking Industry: Real-estate developer Stephen Ross thinks it will be another 3 years before the US banking industry gets back on its feet http://bit.ly/oAfYSR
- Deficit Committee: “The congressional “super committee” that is charged with agreeing on $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction has a little over one month to reach a bipartisan deal. Although recent political developments suggest agreement will be difficult, Jan Hatzius and team believe it is fairly likely to occur” (Goldman)
- NYC News: New York’s famed Tavern on the Green restaurant, which closed after going bankrupt in 2009, will be reborn as a global chain with a charitable twist after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the restaurant’s name to Tavern International LLC for $1.3 million http://reut.rs/nFqmkP
- Nokia Job Update: Nokia will cut up to 3,500 jobs globally http://on.wsj.com/noXa13
Economic Calendar:
- Thursday: GDP, Initial Jobless Claims, Pending Home Sales, Kansas Fed Survey
- Friday: Personal Income/Spending, PCE, Chicago Purchasing Manager, U. of Mich. Confidence
M&A Watch:
- Year to Date 20,336 deals, $1.83 trillion in volume
- ING is selling its stake in Brazil’s SulAmerica in a deal that could be worth ~$1bn (FT)
- Hewlett-Packard directors said to be concerned that plummeting shrs would make co. vulnerable to bid from Oracle when they replaced Leo Apotheker with Meg Whitman (BBG)
- Google, Motorola Mobility receive request for additional information from U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division, lengthening review of search giant’s proposed takeover (BBG)