Reuters – Hedge fund industry assets sink as performance ebbed in second-quarter Even though investors put a net $4.1 billion into hedge funds in the second quarter of 2012, it was not enough to offset performance losses at many funds that resulted in total industry assets shrinking. Hedge fund capital dropped from $2.13 trillion in… Continue reading Hedge Funds
Bloomberg.com – William Pesek: HSBC Reminds Us Why Anger at Bankers Is the Norm You have to love the chutzpah at HSBC Holdings Plc. At the very moment it’s asking the courts to remove a ragged band of Occupy Wall Street protesters encamped under its Hong Kong headquarters, the largest European bank is also reminding… Continue reading Bankers
The Economist – Emerging markets: The great slowdown A sticky spell for the emerging world carries warnings for its long-term growth IN THE past decade emerging markets have established themselves as the world’s best sprinters. As serial crises tripped up America and then Europe, China barely broke stride. Other big developing nations paused for breath… Continue reading Slowing Emerging Markets
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MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – Ben Bernanke’s Dilemma: To QE or Not to QE? The markets has been playing this guessing game about a new Fed stimulus program since last summer, since right after QE2 ended. The general opinion has been that it’s coming, the only question is the timing. The darker things look, the more… Continue reading On The Economy, Markets and the Federal Reserve
The Financial Times – Rate probe turns to four major banks Regulators are focusing on at least four of Europe’s biggest banks as they investigate the attempted manipulation of the region’s benchmark interest rate, suspecting that Barclays’ traders were the ringleaders of a circle that included Crédit Agricole, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. Evidence… Continue reading The LIBOR Scandal
Zero Hedge (Blog) – Stone & McCarthy: Bernanke’s Libor Alternatives Chairman Bernanke was asked in testimony several times yesterday whether Libor should be dropped as a benchmark interest rate. His answer was Libor should be repaired or some market determined interest rate should be embraced as an alternative. He offered up 2 market-determined replacement possibilities… Continue reading Searching For Possible Alternatives For LIBOR
Pro Publica – Like Rate-Fixing Scandals? You’ll Love the Credit Default Swap Market The rate-manipulation scandal has demonstrated that banks will collude with one another for their own benefit. Banks didn’t report the rate at which they were borrowing from other institutions. They could report a made-up rate that, not surprisingly, turned out to serve… Continue reading CDS Price Fixing
<Click on chart for larger image> The Wall Street Journal – Demand for Spanish Debt Continues to Evaporate Spain, the euro zone’s most precarious country, raised just under €3 billion in a bond auction Thursday morning, but it paid handsomely to do so amid signs of rapidly evaporating demand for its debt. In the secondary… Continue reading …While Spain Pays A High Premium At Their Auction
The Financial Times – US regulators warn of tri-party repo risk US financial regulators have taken aim at a key bank funding market, warning of “structural vulnerabilities” that could aggravate systemic risk. The so-called tri-party repo market, in which banks pledge securities as collateral for mostly overnight loans from investors, has concerned regulators for years.… Continue reading The Repo Market Under Scrutiny
The Wall Street Journal – PASCAL SALIN: There Is No ‘Euro Crisis’ Contrary to what is claimed daily in the media by politicians and many economists, there is no “euro crisis.” The single currency doesn’t have to be “saved” or else explode. The present crisis is not a European monetary problem at all, but rather… Continue reading The Euro
<Click on chart for larger image> CNBC – Germany sells bonds at negative yield for first time Germany sold bonds at a negative yield for the first time on Wednesday as investors discomfited by the bleak economic outlook and intractable euro zone debt crisis paid up to park their cash in what is seen as… Continue reading Germany Auctions 2-Year Notes At Negative Yield…