Moody's cuts Hungary to junk HUF down 1.8%

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/idINIndia-60726220111125

(Reuters) - Credit rating agency Moody's cut Hungary's debt to "junk" grade late on Thursday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's unorthodox economic policies and prompting his government to denounce the move as a "financial attack".

Moody's lowered Hungary's sovereign rating by one notch to Ba1, just below investment-grade, with a negative outlook, only hours after rival Standard & Poor's held fire on a flagged downgrade after Budapest said it would seek international aid.

Germany, Euro on death watch

Investors began to fear the worst for the euro after unusually weak demand at an auction for bonds from Germany, the region’s largest economy. One analyst went so far as to put the currency on a “death watch.”

AP

Germany sold just 60 percent of the 6 billion euros in 10-year bunds it brought to auction, about the weakest demand seen for the country’s debt in the currency’s 16-year history, economists said. The rejection of debt from Europe’s safe harbor marks a new stage for the crisis.

“No bunds wanted equals no Euros wanted equals the Euro death watch,” wrote Mark Steele, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. “We have seen many poor German auctions. This is not the issue. The issue is how badly the euro is doing after the weak auction.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45418399/print/1/displaymode/1098/ 

"Disastrous" bond sale shakes confidence in Germany

(Reuters) - A "disastrous" German bond sale on Wednesday sparked fears that Europe's debt crisis was even starting to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of the euro zone's two biggest economies still firmly at odds over a longer-term structural solution.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-eurozone-idUSTRE7AM0VR20111123

Soil is the hot commodity

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/us-farmland-idUSTRE7AK0EA20111121

(Reuters) - It took just 31 minutes for Donald Ellingson's family to end an agrarian tradition that had survived more than a half-century, by auctioning off 153 acres of rich Iowa farmland.

Five years after their father's death, Ellingson's three children had grown weary of the demands of running a farm. Their tenant farmer had retired, and finding a new one was tough. The youngest of them was 60 -- too old, they agreed, to return to a life of risky finances and long work days.

EES Partner - ADVFN Free financial news & data services

GERMANS TRY TO KILL OFF POUND

BRITAIN will soon be forced to scrap the pound and join the euro, one of Germany’s most senior figures said yesterday.

In a chilling threat to UK sovereignty, German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble predicted that all Europe would one day use the single currency. “It will happen perhaps faster than some in the British Isles currently believe,” he said. 

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/284656/Germans-try-to-kill-off-pound

Stamford and the World's Largest Trading Floor

Washington Boulevard at Interstate 95 is Connecticut’s version of Wall Street at Broad.

This is where UBS, aka the Union Bank of Switzerland, sits on one side of the street, a short walk from the Stamford train station into Manhattan. On the other side is RBS, aka the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The trading capital of Connecticut is now all up in arms, it seems, because UBS is talking about moving out.

UBS' 103,000-square-foot trading floor in Stamford.

Denizens are warning that the city will “become a ghost town,” if the Swiss bank moves its operations – including its 103,000-square-foot trading floor – into New York City.

Merkel’s CDU Votes to Allow Exits From Euro Area

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party voted to offer euro states a“voluntary” means of leaving the currency area.

CDU delegates meeting in the eastern German city of Leipzig for their annual party congress today backed a motion on the euro that included a clause permitting euro exits without exclusion from the European Union. They rejected an amendment that would have sought to change voting at the European Central Bank so that it is weighted according to economic size.    

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-14/merkel-s-cdu-votes-to-allow-exits-from-euro-area.html

CIA following tweets

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day.

At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-cia-following-twitter-facebook-081055316.html

Oakland rally turns violent

CHAOS IN CALI...

'Occupy' Rallies Turn Violent...

Police Tear Gas Oakland Protesters...

Mob Runs Wild in City Streets...

Shut Down Port, Attack WHOLE FOODS, ATMs...

Cops, Protesters Clash in Seattle...

FBI interested in regulatory probe of MF Global

(Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interested in the investigation of MF Global Holdings Ltd, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

The person declined to give details. Regulators said on Monday that the company reported possible "deficiencies" in customer futures segregated accounts.

MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, is the biggest U.S. casualty of Europe's debt crisis, and the seventh-largest bankruptcy by assets in U.S. history.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/us-mfglobal-fbi-idUSTRE7A076720111102

MF Global near collapse - IB most likely suitor

MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker run by Jon Corzine, was suspended from conducting new business with the New York Federal Reserve today after posting a record loss.

The firm’s board met through the weekend in New York to consider options including a sale to avert failure, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. It was stopped from doing new business with the New York Fed until it shows it’s able to fulfill its responsibilities as a primary dealer, according to a statement on the regulator’s website. Trading in MF Global’s stock was also halted.

Pressure is mounting on Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey and U.S. senator, after MF Global declined 67 percent last week and its bonds started trading at distressed levels amid its disclosures of bets on European sovereign-debt. MF Global was in discussions with five potential buyers for all or parts of the company, including banks, private-equity firms and brokers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

“While the pieces are attractive, figuring out potential buyers is a lot harder,” Robert Rutschow, an analyst with CLSA Credit Agricole Securities in New York, said in an Oct. 28 note to clients. “In the current environment, banks can’t even go to the bathroom without permission from their regulator, let alone buy a brokerage firm that was looking to grow proprietary trading and expand risk-taking activities.”

Interactive Brokers

The most attractive part of the New York-based firm is its retail futures brokerage, which could fetch $500 million to $600 million, he said. MF Global hired Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP for a London affiliate, a person said. The law firm currently represents Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which in 2008 filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

MF Global may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as today and sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported on its website, citing a person familiar with the matter it did not identify. Interactive Brokers would likely make an initial bid of about $1 billion during a court-supervised auction after the company files for Chapter 11, the newspaper cited the person as saying.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-30/corzine-s-mf-global-faces-pivotal-days-as-firm-considers-sale-bankruptcy.html

Yen Falls Versus Dollar Amid Speculation Japan Intervened in Markets

The yen plunged against the dollar and euro amid speculation Japan intervened in markets to weaken its currency.

The yen sank 3.2 percent to 78.30 per dollar as of 10:34 a.m. in Tokyo. It lost 2.8 percent to 110.38 per euro.

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said earlier today he’s ready to take “determined” steps in the currency market if needed after the yen rose to a fresh post-World War II high against the dollar.

He told reporters in Tokyo today that speculative activity is strong in the currency market, adding that the yen’s moves don’t reflect Japan’s economic fundamentals.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-31/yen-falls-versus-dollar-amid-speculation-japan-intervened-in-markets.html

EES FX listed on CNS Latency chart

See EES FX on CNS Latency chart - 1ms to trading server

Hedge funds a super gamble

Philip Falcone grew up in the mining town of Chisholm, Minnesota, population 4976. The youngest of nine children who lived in a three-bedroom house, Falcone excelled at ice hockey and played for Harvard.

After college, a burgeoning career as a professional hockey player was cut short by injury and he then cut his teeth in the markets as a trader at Barclays Capital.

Now, Falcone is best-known as a "billionaire New York hedge fund manager". Geared to the gills like most hedge funds, his Harbinger Capital Partners made a poultice in the bull market; in Australia, too. Falcone's most notable play being a 16 per cent stake in Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals which reaped him hundreds of millions in profit when he sold down two years ago.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/hedge-funds-a-super-gamble-20111014-1lp2n.html#ixzz1c6PM4n4s


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