Every morning the Street of Walls team puts out an update on market levels, today’s top stories, and active M&A deals.
Today’s Top Stories:
- China Housing Prices:Jim Chanos’ big bet on China housing could be playing out, average property prices in 70 Chinese cities posted their first monthly decline since Beijing began a campaign to cool the red-hot property market two years agohttp://on.wsj.com/uOCd6d
- Hedge Fund Piling Into WebMD: There has been some interesting hedge fund activity in WebMD (Nasdaq:WBMD) in the last few months
- Government Supercommittee: Looks like the deal might not get voted through http://wapo.st/soWxTX
- Yelp.com Files $2bn IPO: In 2010 Yelp rejected a $500mn offer from Google, ever since they have been plotting for an IPO. This filing shows they could be valued close to $2 billion http://bit.ly/vJDB2T
- Fund Flows: “High Grade funds had inflows of $1.7bn for the week ending Wed 11/16. Last week inflows were strong as well at $1.8bn. HY had light inflows of $153mm this week down from $1.1bn last week. Leveraged loans experienced a third consecutive week of outflows. This week there was $166mm of outflows vs. $43mm of outflows last week. Equities had $2.8bn of inflows compared with $8.2bn of inflows last week. Domestic equity had $3.3bn of inflows while Non-Domestic Equity had $479mm of outflows. Money Markets had another week of inflows” (JP Morgan Research)
- HPQ Activist On Board: HPQ hires activist Ralph Whitworth to the Board
- 2012 Political Elections: political forecaster Charlie Cook predicts the GOP potentially capturing all of Congress as well as the White Househttp://bit.ly/snrayo
- Jefferies Update: Not as bad as once feared http://on.wsj.com/rH8ScR
- UBS Layoffs: UBS is going through a 5th reorganization of its business since the 2008 crash http://bit.ly/uVMcRx
- Autos Conference Takeaways: “essure on parts makers’ incremental margins means companies need defensible product positions or specific re-engineering opportunities to boost margins. With the market back to pricing in a 50% chance of a double-dip, Barclays’ thinks auto stocks look cheap across the board. Results should favor the better positioned players such as BWA and AXL, but beta plays should have more upside” (Barclays Research)
- Founders Capital Read on the Market: Founders Capital is out with its Q3 2011 investor letter and gives its perspective on the the current market environment and potential bubbles that are brewing in today’s IPOs http://bit.ly/uAfw23
- NFLX Update: Irish Times reports NFLX “faces important copyright hurdles” before entering Ireland, UK. Paramount (VIA/b), Universal (CMCSA) and 20th Century Fox (NWSA) already have deals w/ Sky Movies (BSY LN) and they may note be interested in signing on w/ NFLX (UBS Research)
M&A Watch:
- Filtrona Plc signed an agreement to acquire Richco Inc for US$110 million in cash
- Viridor Ltd, a subsidiary of Pennon Group Plc, acquired JWS Churngold Ltd for GBP14.25 million (US$22.5 million) in cash
- Bayerische Motoren Werke AG acquire a 15.2% minority stake in SGL Carbon SE for an undisclosed amount
- AHMC Central Health LLC, a subsidiary of AHMC Healthcare Inc acquired Central Health Plan of California Inc, for an undisclosed amount
Disclosure: I do not have a position in any stocks mentioned in this article, do not have a plan to initiate a position within the next 72 hours.
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