Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• The would-be Times Square bomber pleaded guilty Monday, surprising even prosecutors in a
court appearance in which he warned of more attacks and accused the United States of "terrorizing the
Muslim nations and the Muslim people." – Washington Post
• Today in the US, May existing home sales are expected to have risen from 5.77m to 6.12m. Sales
are expected to get a boost as buyers have until the end of June to close and get the first‐time
homebuyer tax credit as long as they went to contract by the end of April. The National Association of
Realtors said there were enough sales at the deadline that the mortgage pipeline is overwhelmed and
not all will close in time – FTN
• US increasingly odd man out in call for further deficit spending – Germany continues to
emphasize deficit reduction measures while the UK and Japan are both on the tape this morning
launching large consolidation initiatives. At this weekend’s G20, the US will urge those nations
w/”excess capacity” (i.e. Germany) to not tighten too aggressively, although the call prob. won’t be
backed by many other nations.
• Deepwater drilling ‐ decision on whether to lift deep water drilling ban could come today; U.S.
District Court Judge Martin Feldman has said he would decide by Wed on whether to lift the ban while a
legal challenge is heard in court (Reuters)
• As the financial regulatory reform debate comes to an end in Washington, bankers turning their
attention towards Basel – some bankers think the Washington regs will be nothing compared to what
could come from Basel. Some analysts think the proposed “Basel III” rules could weigh sharply on
economic growth and bank profits (NYT)
• White House – key personnel departure ‐ Budget Director Orszag to Step Down in Jul according
to the WSJ. Among the names being considered to replace Orszag are Gene Sperling, Robert
Greenstein, Artur Davis, and Laura Tyson. WSJ; Politico says Rahm Emanuel isn’t leaving in the
immediate future and could serve well into ’11
• SEC expands crackdown on CDO abuses (this hit during trading on Mon) – the SEC is charging
boutique investment bank ICP Asset Mgmt w/defrauding investors in CDOs (FT)
• China actually engineers a mild weakening of its yuan against the dollar, countering expectations
that its Sat announcement means a one‐way move higher (late in the overseas session on Tues, the yuan
was quoted at 6.8215, which is down ~0.3% from Mon’s close of 6.7976); Chinese official are trying to
discourage currency speculation and hot‐money inflows by signaling that the yuan can move up AND
down; The yuan rose more than 0.4 percent on Monday, its biggest rise since the landmark revaluation
in 2005. On Tuesday, the central bank set the reference rate slightly higher than Mon (up 0.43 %). The
yuan quickly rose higher on Tues before heading back down, signaling that the PBOC wants to limit the
appreciation of its currency. China state‐owned banks aggressively bought dollars today to help limit
the yuan’s appreciation. Reuters
• European financials are getting hit today (SocGen, Agricole, BNP, Aegon, etc), w/weakness
concentrated in Spanish and French institutions. The Fitch downgrade of BNP yesterday is raising some
worries (hit late in NY trading on Mon) as is the neg. S&P report published early on re Spanish banks.