ROUND-UP
FT markets round-up: "Wall Street managed to put aside an initial bout of nervousness over the quarterly earnings season and instead focused on the prospect of continued central bank liquidity, after the G20 waved through Japan's attempts to stimulate its economy. The endorsement of Japan's aggressive quantitative easing policy initially put the yen back on the defensive, although the dollar subsequently faltered as it neared Y100, But strategists said a breach of that level now looked almost inevitable. As US trading drew to a close, the dollar was weaker against the yen, having risen as high as Y99.88 at one point. The yen's initial bout of weakness gave fresh momentum to Japanese equities, with the Nikkei 225 Average climbing 1.9 per cent to its highest close in nearly five years. This, in turn, gave an early boost to European stocks. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose as much as 1 per cent before paring its advance to end 0.2 per cent higher. In New York, the S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent after a choppy day's trade, as US investors digested quarterly results from the likes of Caterpillar and Halliburton." (Financial Times)
Barroso says Europe near austerity limit: "Europe may have hit the political limits of how far it can go with austerity-led economic policies because of the growing opposition in the eurozone's recession-hit periphery, the European Commission's president said on Monday.José Manuel Barroso said that while he still believed in the need for sweeping economic reforms and drastic cuts in budget deficits, such policies needed to have "acceptance, politically and socially", which was now at risk." (Financial Times)
Twitter reaches biggest ad deal yet: "Twitter has taken a big step on to traditional media turf by signing its biggest advertising deal with one of the world's leading ad-buyers, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal with Publicis's Starcom MediaVest Group is worth hundreds of millions of dollars over several years and reflects both the growing importance of Twitter in media and marketing, and new thinking on its relationship with television." (Financial Times)
FT round-up: "Libor borrowing rates must be replaced soon as possible as it was "unsustainable" to continue to use them, the top US regulator overseeing a global effort to reform the benchmarks for global financial markets has urged. Gary Gensler, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told the Financial Times that Libor replacements were needed 'to restore market integrity and promote financial stability'." (Financial Times)
FURTHER FURTHER READING
- New preface to Kindleberger's book on the Great Depression.
- Investment lessons from The Walking Dead.
- How did the world's rich get that way?
- Slovenia would Spanish-Cypriot mongel.
- Don't panic about Boston or West, Texas.
- Financial Bullspit flowchart.
- The future of housing: less government, more private capital.
