- ECB leaves interest rates on hold
- Goldman Raises Year-End Crude Forecast by 31% to $85
- Banks Try to Stiff-Arm New Rule
- AIG considers break-up of aircraft leasing arm
- House Lifts Lid On Its Expenses
- Temasek loses £500m on Barclays sell-off
- Dartmouth Joins Harvard, Princeton in Tapping Credit Markets
- NYSE Chief ‘More Confident’ About Strength of Stocks
- Chrysler Financial Explores Financing Options With Lenders
- Toyota Said to Face $1 Billion in Extra California Rules Costs
- Ballmer Says Tax Would Move Microsoft Jobs Offshore
- Yahoo CEO says no pressure for deal despite Bing
- Las Vegas Sands to Tap ‘Improving’ Capital Markets
ECB leaves interest rates on hold – Financial Times
Eurozone official interest rates have been left unchanged at 1 per cent by the European Central Bank as it waits to see the impact of measures taken to combat continental Europe’s worst recession since the second world war.
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, had signalled last month that eurozone borrowing cost would remain at the current historic low. Instead attention is likely to focus on the ECB’s plans to buy €60bn in “covered bonds,” which are issued by banks and backed by public sector loans or mortgages…..
Goldman Raises Year-End Crude Forecast by 31% to $85 – Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its forecast for U.S. benchmark oil by 31 percent to $85 a barrel for the end of 2009 and predicted further gains next year as demand recovers and supplies shrink.
“As the financial crisis eases, an energy shortage lies ahead,” Goldman analysts Jeffrey Currie in London and David Greely in New York said in a report e-mailed today. The bank set a 12-month price target of $90 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate crude, up from $70, and introduced a forecast of $95 for the end of 2010….
Banks Try to Stiff-Arm New Rule – Wall Street Journal
The financial-services industry is taking steps to delay an accounting rule that would force banks and others to bring some of their off-balance-sheet vehicles back onto their books next year, which could force some to raise additional capital.
A group that includes the Chamber of Commerce, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the American Council of Life Insurers and others sent a letter on June 1 to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, regarding the off-balance-sheet accounting-rule change, saying it should be adopted “cautiously and seek to minimize any chilling effect on our frozen credit markets.”….
AIG considers break-up of aircraft leasing arm – Financial Times
AIG, the stricken insurer controlled by the US government, is considering whether to break up International Lease Finance Corp if it cannot reach a deal to sell the entire aircraft leasing business.
AIG remains in talks with three private equity bidding groups over ILFC, a profitable company in spite of its parent’s collapse and a big customer to both Boeing and Airbus.
However, progress towards an agreement has slowed in recent weeks as the would-be buyers seek a more generous financing package from the New York Federal Reserve which, along with the US Treasury, owns 80 per cent of AIG, people familiar with the matter said….
House Lifts Lid On Its Expenses – Wall Street Journal
The House will begin posting representatives’ expense reports online, giving the public easy access to records of the millions of dollars lawmakers spend on staff and items such as catering, cars, computers and TVs.
Separately, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) said Wednesday he would introduce a bill requiring the expense records be posted online in the Senate, as well. Such disclosures are “something that we will take a look at,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.)…..
Temasek loses £500m on Barclays sell-off – Financial Times
Temasek, the Singapore state investment company, sold out of its shareholdings in Barclaysthis year, making an estimated £500m ($815m) loss on its investment. Temasek reduced its stake of almost 2 per cent in the UK’s third-largest bank over several weeks from the turn of the year, according to people familiar with the sale.
Barclays shares fell as low as 51p in January on fears that it would join the list of UK banks needing a government bail-out. Since early March, however, they have risen fivefold amid a broader recovery. They fell 14.5p yesterday to close at 259p…..
Dartmouth Joins Harvard, Princeton in Tapping Credit Markets - Bloomberg
Dartmouth College, alma mater of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, sold $250 million of 10-year notes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The school’s 4.75 percent debt priced at 98.357 cents on the dollar to yield 140 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, Bloomberg data show. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The sale comes 12 days after Standard & Poor’s cut the college’s credit ratings…..
NYSE Chief ‘More Confident’ About Strength of Stocks – Bloomberg
NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Officer Duncan Niederauer said he’s “a lot more confident” the three- month rally in equities is sustainable as trading volume increases.
“At the end of March I was apprehensive because I thought the market had gone up so much so quickly that it didn’t feel like a fundamentally driven rally to me.” Niederauer said in an interview in Amsterdam today. “I was nervous that the fundamentals hadn’t really changed and we hadn’t seen enough volume.”…..
Chrysler Financial Explores Financing Options With Lenders – Wall Street Journal
Chrysler Financial is exploring its financing options with lenders as it seeks to renew a credit facility that will allow the company to continue to make new loans to customers.
“We are evaluating all of our funding options,” said Chrysler Financial spokeswoman Amber Gowen. “We are still making retail loans to consumers.”
Chrysler Financial is seeking to extent $24 billion in short-term financing, which was raised last summer through a group of 22 banks including Citigroup Inc. (C), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS). The financing matures on July 31, according to several people familiar with the situation……
Toyota Said to Face $1 Billion in Extra California Rules Costs – Bloomberg
Toyota Motor Corp., ranked as the U.S. market’s most fuel-efficient automaker, may have to spend more than $1 billion to meet California’s requirement for zero- emission cars, said a person familiar with the matter.
Toyota and Honda Motor Co. have the biggest market share in the state and starting with 2012 models must sell the most vehicles that don’t pollute, according to California law. The rule requires 3 percent of unit sales over a three-year period to be non-polluting models….
Ballmer Says Tax Would Move Microsoft Jobs Offshore – Bloomberg
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.
“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”…
Yahoo CEO says no pressure for deal despite Bing – Reuters
Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) CEO Carol Bartz elaborated on her views on a potential Internet search partnership with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), even as she stressed that Yahoo was not under any pressure to do a deal and downplayed Microsoft’s newly-released search engine.
“Yahoo doesn’t have to do anything with Microsoft about anything,” Bartz said at an investor conference.
“We are a damned big, important site,” she added later speaking at the Bank of America U.S. Technology conference…..
Las Vegas Sands to Tap ‘Improving’ Capital Markets – Bloomberg
Las Vegas Sands Corp., controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, plans to raise funds to restart its $12 billion casino-resort project in Macau after the freeze in credit markets eased.
“There are obviously improving conditions in the capital and financial markets and we intend to take advantage of that as well as we can,” Las Vegas Sands’ Asia President Stephen Weaver said in an interview in Macau today. “I’m spending a lot of time talking to the capital markets and financiers.”…
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