November 8th, 2011
Every morning the Street of Walls team puts out an update on market levels, today’s top stories, and active M&A deals.
Morning Market Levels:
- S&P futures are up 7 points to 1,264
- Europe: DJ Euro Stoxx 2.4%, FTSE 1.5%, CAC 2.2%, DAX 2.3%, Spain 1.3%, Italy 2.4%
- Asia: Japan -1.3%, Hong Kong 0.0%, India 0.0%, Australia 0.5%
- USD (DXY) down -0.09%
- Gold down -0.31% to $1,789.5
- Silver down -0.46% to $34.8
- Copper up 0.42% to $355.0
- Crude up 0.68% to $96.2
- Corn up 0.34% to 655.5
- Wheat up 0.23% to $640.3
- 10yr Treasury yields are up, trading at 2.04%
- S&P current trading at 12.73x current year P/E
Today’s Top Stories:
- CS on Italy: “The two critical dates for the survival of the government are today (parliamentary debate starts at 11am GMT, with a vote expected at 2.30pm GMT) with the Parliament voting on the 2010 budget review, and next week (before November 15, to comply with EU commitments) with the vote on the multi-year budget, which includes the pro-growth measures presented at the last EU summit. The likelihood of the government surviving both votes, and particularly the mid-November one – being today’s vote on a technical document – is small, in our view” (Credit Suisse Research)
- Wall Street Bonuses Shrinking 20-30%: Wall Street bonuses are set to shrink by an average of 20% to 30% from last year, with even steeper declines for bond traders, according to a widely watched compensation survey http://on.wsj.com/t9xi9S
- Icahn Goes Activist on OSK: On November 4th, Carl Icahn disclosed that he delivered a letter to the Board of Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE:OSK) stating his intention to nominate and seek to elect six individuals to the 13-member Board http://bit.ly/u8umRz
- RBS Cutting Fixed Income: Fox Business is reporting RBS intends on cutting 30-35% of the jobs in its fixed income unit (DJ)
- Kyle Bass’ Latest Move: Kyle Bass’ Hayman Advisors disclosed that the firm has bought 4.9% of the outstanding common stock of MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) http://bit.ly/tw0HU6
- Romney in GOP Lead: Mr. Romney has risen back into the lead for the GOP nomination with 28% support among likely primary voters, just ahead of former restaurant executive Herman Cain’s 27% (WSJ)
- 13F from Sheffield: Sheffield Asset Management is out with its latest 13F filing for the period ending Sept 30. The hedge fund’s new positions that were put on in Q3 include CONSOL Energy (CNX), Kohl’s (KSS), Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS), Signet Jewelers (SIG) and WABCO Holdings (WBC) http://bit.ly/u1ydyc
Economic Calendar:
- Tuesday: JOLTs Job Openings
- Wednesday: Wholesale Inventories
- Thursday: Import Price Index, Trade Balance, Initial Jobless Claims, Monthly Budget Statement
- Friday: U. of Mich Confidence
M&A Watch:
- Warburg Pincus and a Goldman Sachs buyout fund said to buy majority stake in Endurance for $975m (BBG)
- Yum! wins Chinese approval to buy Mongolia’s Little Sheep for $566m (BBG)
- Bank of America said to sell stake in biggest U.S. Pizza Hut franchisee for ~$775m to Olympus Partners http://bit.ly/tnwUi6
