Frontrunning: January 18

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/18/2012 07:15 -0500

• Angelo Mozilo
• Apple
• Bank of England
• California Public Employees' Retirement System
• Capital Markets
• China
• Citigroup
• Claimant Count
• Countrywide
• Creditors
• Eurozone
• General Electric
• Gross Domestic Product
• Hungary
• International Monetary Fund
• Investment Grade
• Italy
• MF Global
• Natural Gas
• Portugal
• recovery
• Renaissance
• Reuters
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Switzerland
• Trade Balance
• Unemployment
• United Kingdom
• Wells Fargo
• World Bank

• Here we go again: IMF Said to Seek $1 Trillion Resource-Boost Amid Euro Crisis (Bloomberg)
• China said to Tell banks to Restrict Lending as Local Officials Seek Funds (Bloomberg)
• EU to Take Legal Action Against Hungary (FT)
• Portugal Yields Fall in Auction of Short-Term Debt (Reuters)
• US Natural Gas Prices at 10-Year Low as Warm Weather Weakens Demand (Reuters)
• German Yield Falls in Auction of 2-Year Bonds (Reuters)
• World Bank Slashes Global GDP Forecasts, Outlook Grim (Reuters)
• Why the Super-Marios Need Help (Martin Wolf) (FT)
• Chinese Vice Premier Stresses Government Role in Improving People's Livelihoods (Xinhua)
• Romney Says He is Taxed at Around 15 Percent Rate (Reuters)
• Indonesia Regains Investment Grade at Moody’s (Bloomberg)

Media Digest:
WSJ
* Yahoo said its co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned from its board, severing all ties with the company he founded about 17 years ago.
* Tech companies are about to unleash a splashy weapon - Internet blackout day - to block proposed antipiracy legislation.
* Calpers, the giant California pension fund, is dumping one of its last major housing investments at a big loss.
* The World Bank has revised downward its global growth forecast for 2012, acknowledging that the world is in a precarious position under threat of a Lehman-like crisis engulfing capital markets.
* Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo may have directed the lender to extend preferential treatment on a 1998 loan to Republican Rep. Howard McKeon of California, according to a letter released Tuesday by a senior House Democrat.
* General Electric is starting to adopt Apple laptops and desktops as the 120-year-old conglomerate tries to buff its technology image and attract young talent.
* Big U.S. banks are reopening the lending spigot amid signs that an improving economy is spurring companies and individuals to borrow more.
On Tuesday, Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. recorded their strongest loan-growth numbers since the financial crisis.
* The captain of a cruise ship that sank off Italy had to be ordered back to oversee the evacuation, transcripts revealed. The death toll rose to 11.
FT
WELLS EARNINGS PUT RIVAL CITI IN SHADE
Wells Fargo trounced its rival Citigroup in the fourth quarter as the biggest U.S. bank by market value defied the deep freeze affecting capital markets at the end of the year to achieve record earnings. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e88bf5d0-4128-11e1-936b-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1jYRS14J4
JOBS BOOST FUELS HOPE FOR US INDUSTRY
Manufacturing employment has grown faster in the U.S. than in any other leading developed economy since the start of the recovery, as productivity gains and subdued pay rises raise hopes for an American industrial renaissance. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad5496d2-4120-11e1-b521-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
KING HOLDS FAST ON BANK SUPERVISION
The governor of the Bank of England on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that its proposed new powers be subjected to internal checks and balances, in an often testy encounter with British MPs. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7617ba52-4100-11e1-8c33-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
HYDROGEN CELL CARS MOVE TO FAST LANE
Hydrogen-powered cars are to receive the support of ministers in an initiative, backed by industry, that aims to make the technology commercially viable by 2015. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0b9aafc2-4123-11e1-b521-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
KPMG DEFENDS EFFORTS ON MF GLOBAL CLAIMS
Winding-up collapsed U.S. brokerage MF Global has thrust the UK's Financial Services Authority's new rules under the spotlight but critics argue the new regime is not working, damaging London's reputation. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6cde9d0-411a-11e1-b521-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
COMET IN TALKS WITH TRADE CREDIT INSURERS
Comet, the struggling electrical retailer, is due to hold crucial talks with trade credit insurers next week to determine whether they will continue to offer cover to its suppliers following next month's planned sale of the business to OpCapita. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86c0c594-4112-11e1-8c33-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
ALTANA TO EXPLOIT GLOBAL MARKET 'DISLOCATIONS'
Altana Funds, the hedge fund manager set up by the outspoken former Trafalgar Asset Managers founder Lee Robinson, is launching a second fund aimed at profiting from turmoil in western markets. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d8d07aa-405a-11e1-8fcd-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
SPAIN PUSHES FOR DOMESTIC BANKIA MERGER
Spain's new government is pressing for Bankia, a group of savings banks listed last year, to seek a merger with another Spanish bank in a deal that would create the country's largest domestic lender by assets if it materialised, according to bankers in Madrid. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72779ffc-4132-11e1-936b-00144feab49a.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
RETAILERS SET FOR LOGISTICS SLIMDOWN
Large retailers across much of the developed world look set to slim down traditional distribution centres near their stores after local governments in many coastal parts of China made it easier to move sorting work close to Chinese factories. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83de252a-37c5-11e1-a5e0-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1jYRS14J4
NYT
* With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached a political coming of age.
The bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, are backed by major media companies and are mostly intended to curtail the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online.
* Citigroup reported fourth-quarter results that fell far short of what analysts were forecasting, despite a pickup in lending and a drop in losses on bad loans.
* Breaches that hit two Amazon-owned sites, Zappos.com and 6PM, show that even the biggest players on the Web cannot guarantee that their customers' personal information is safe.
* Shares of the Carnival Corp , the world's largest cruise ship operator, fell 14 percent on Tuesday as analysts and investors sought to gauge the effect of the grounding of Carnival's Costa Concordia after days of continual images and videos of the listing ship.
* The World Bank lowered its growth forecasts for high-income and low-income countries to 2.5 percent in 2012, down from about 2.7 percent in 2011.
* Jerry Yang has left Yahoo, the stumbling Internet company he co-founded 17 years ago, the company announced Tuesday.
* The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has been a thorn in the side of the agency over its fumbling of early inquiries into the Madoff and Stanford cases, will leave the commission at the end of January to join a private investigations firm.
* Taking direct aim at hedge funds and other private holders of Greece's debt, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos says he will consider legislation forcing the creditors to take losses on their holdings if no agreement can be reached in critical negotiations scheduled to resume Wednesday.
European Economic Highlights

• Italy Trade Balance (Total) for November -EUR1581M. Previous -EUR1077M.
• Italy Current Account for November –EUR3448M. Previous -2489M.
• UK Claimant Count Rate for December 5.0% - in line with expectations. Consensus 5.0%. Previous 5.0%.
• UK Jobless Claims Change for December 1.2K – lower than expected. Consensus 7.0K. Previous 3.0K. Revised 0.2K.
• UK ILO Unemployment Rate for November 8.4% - higher than expected. Consensus 8.3%. Previous 8.3%.
• UK Weekly Earning ex Bonus for November 1.9% - in line with expectations. Consensus 1.9%. Previous 1.8%.
• Eurozone Construction Output s.a. for November 0.8% m/m. Previous-1.4% m/m.
• Eurozone Construction Output w.d.a. for November 0.2% y/y. Previous -2.8% y/y. Revised -2.5% y/y.
• Switzerland ZEW Survey for January -50.1. Previous -72.0.