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:
- FREE HF 13F Report: We’re out with our 13F report, click for commentaryhttp://bit.ly/xqKEUf
- Europe Update: overall the Greek “bailout” news didn’t have a huge impact on markets Tues
- Gas Prices: Soaring oil prices in the spring of 2008 sent gasoline prices surging and accelerated the recession. Now, rising gas prices are threatening the recovery. But lower natural gas and utility costs this time around might limit some of the damage, says Deutsche Bank chief U.S. economist Joseph LaVorgna http://on.wsj.com/yApn9a
- Smith Barney Hit: Citigroup Inc. is facing a potential multibillion-dollar write-down as it begins unwinding its minority investment in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage http://on.wsj.com/wHiEof
- UBS Plans to Sell Capital: “Today’s deal marks the beginning of an issuance program as we build our loss-absorbing capital base to meet FINMA and the Basel Committee requirements for systemically important banks well in advance of the regulatory deadlines” (Reuters)
- WFC Acquisition: has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the North American reserve-based and related diversified energy lending business of BNP Paribas
- BAC Wealth Management: Merrill tweaks recruitment compensation terms in an effort to attract financial advisors from competitors. The bank is now offering bigger upfront cash payments, as well as an extra client-asset incentive, to a larger pool of top-tier brokers, according to people familiar with the situation http://on.wsj.com/wkJ4as
- Bank Overdraft Regulation: the CFPB said bank overdraft fees are its latest target and asked for data from the biggest financial institutions
- GS Morning Update: “Stocks in Asia were mixed Wednesday amidst little news. Although some positive rumblings around the Chinese property markets helped China stocks and a preliminary flash PMI for February showed an uptick from January. Japan’s Nikkei was also up almost 1% as the yen continues to weaken – now at 80.2/$. Stocks in Europe, however, are opening broadly lower as evidence of the economic slowdown surfaced again overnight and the catalyst from yesterday’s Greek debt resolution quickly fades” (GS)
- Tax Rate: Obama administration said to propose today to cut U.S. corporate tax rate to 28% from 35%
Economic Calendar:
- 10am: Revisions: Existing Home Sales
- 10am: Existing Home Sales, Jan., est. 4.66m (prior 4.61m)
- 11:30am: U.S. to sell $40b 4-week bills
- 1pm: U.S. to sell $35b 5-yr notes
- 4:30pm: API inventories
M&A Watch:
- Weekly M&A Trends: This week saw some a big jump in M&A while ECM/DCM activity declined. Announced investment banking M&A doubled from the prior week to $80.9 billion, M&A volumes are still very low for the start of the year http://bit.ly/yuWbVv
- Largest PE Deal for the year: This morning private equity firm Advent International and Goldman Sachs agreed to buy TransUnion in the largest private equity deal of 2012 to date http://bit.ly/AbNayV
