Thu, May 17, 2012
Insight: Who got Facebook shares? Fairness may not come into it
By Joseph A. Giannone
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lot of loyal Facebook fans and occasional investors are discovering a hard truth this week: Money ...
Thu, May 17, 2012
NYC Comptroller opposes re-election of Chesapeake directors
(Reuters) - New York City Comptroller John Liu, the city's fiscal watchdog, on Thursday urged shareholders of Chesapeake Energy Corp to withhold support for ...
Thu, May 17, 2012
AT&T eyes lower subsidies, shared data plans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc is hoping to help its margins by lowering smartphone subsidies and the company also aims to boost revenue with a new offering that would allow consumers to share their data allowance between tablets and smartphones.
Now that growth is slowing for U.S. contract customer operators, including No. 2 U.S. mobile operator AT&T and its rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp are looking for new avenues for expansion, while they try to control costs. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc
AT&T has already said it would keep 2012 smartphone sales limited to 2011 levels to cut down on upgrade costs. Like its rivals, AT&T shoulders some of the cost of smartphones to offer discounts to customers who sign on for two years.
Ralph de la Vega, the head of the company's mobile business, also suggested he would push to reduce subsidies for the phones it does sell. He declined to give a specific estimate for subsidy levels.
"But you can take it to the bank that our thrust is to lower that in every case that we can," he said during a webcast of an investor meeting on Thursday.
AT&T customers currently have to sign on for separate data plans for every wireless device they want to connect to its network. But this could change, according to de la Vega, who discussed linking wireless data plans between tablet computers and smartphones.
"What we need to be able to do is to allow customers to connect those tablets to some of the existing data plans that they have to be able to share them in a way that will drive more revenue for us, but also give a good deal to customers," he said.
AT&T's comment follows rival Verizon Wireless, which has already said it plans to unveil shared data plans this summer.
Analysts have long said operators would need to change their data pricing structure to encourage consumers to connect their tablets to cellular networks. Most tablet users make do with Wi-Fi connections because they want to avoid signing up for a second data plan.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Jim Finkle in Boston; editing by Andre Grenon)
Thu, May 17, 2012
Gap raises profit expectations, shares rise
(Reuters) - Gap Inc
Thu, May 17, 2012
Morgan Stanley ups Facebook IPO share cap to 5,000
By Jessica Toonkel and Jennifer Hoyt Cummings
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, one of the three lead underwriters on the Facebook Inc ...
Thu, May 17, 2012
MGIC sues Freddie Mac in insurance dispute
(Reuters) - Mortgage insurer MGIC Investment Corp
Thu, May 17, 2012
Gupta trial could feature big corporate stars
By Grant McCool and Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lloyd Blankfein, Warren Buffett and other well-known chieftains of corporate America might be called to ...
Thu, May 17, 2012
Merrill, Morgan Stanley doling out Facebook shares
By Jennifer Hoyt Cummings and Ashley Lau
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Santa - or scrooge - has come early for advisers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch ...
Thu, May 17, 2012
JPMorgan's Dimon says will testify before Congress
By Dave Clarke
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has agreed to testify before Congress over the bank's recent trading losses, which have ignited a political debate over whether large U.S. banks need to be reined in by regulators or new laws.
U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson said in a statement on Thursday that his panel will invite Dimon to appear before Congress.
He did not say on what date the committee wants Dimon to testify but that it would follow a set of hearings with regulators on the trades and efforts to implement Wall Street reforms that will conclude on June 6.
"As always, we will continue to be open and transparent with our regulators and Congress," JPMorgan spokesman Kristin Lemkau said in a statement. She said Dimon will appear before the panel.
Last week JPMorgan announced that it has suffered at least $2 billion in losses due to trades that went bad.
Johnson said committee staff has been discussing the losses with regulators and the bank since they were disclosed and have determined Dimon should testify.
Critics of Wall Street have pointed to the trades as evidence that reforms called for under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law should be strictly enforced once finalized.
Two regional Federal Reserve presidents have said the losses underscore the point that banks like JPMorgan are too big to manage and should be broken up.
These reactions are being dismissed by some analysts and lawmakers as an overreaction since the bank's stability has not been put at risk.
"Even with this loss, I believe they're one of the most profitable financial institutions in the country and unless the facts are diametrically different from what we've heard, there is no risk from this loss to depositors or to tax payers," House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus said on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON WRANGLING
The JPMorgan losses have, in particular, put a renewed focus on whether regulators should tighten the so-called Volcker rule that will restrict bank trading activities. A proposed rule was released in October and a final version is expected later this year.
The restrictions will ban banks from proprietary trading, or trades that are made solely for their own profit, and greatly limit their ability to invest in hedge funds.
The crackdown is named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker who championed the idea.
Its supporters say banks that receive federal backstops, such as deposit insurance, should not make risky trades that could endanger deposits and possibly taxpayer money.
Banks have lobbied the issue heavily saying if the restrictions are too tightly drawn they will negatively impact financial markets and make it harder, for instance, for companies in a variety of businesses to raise funds.
Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Jeff Merkley, who authored the Volcker rule language in Dodd-Frank, said the October proposal creates a loophole in the crackdown because it would give banks the latitude to hedge against portfolio risk as opposed to individual positions.
They have been publicly pressuring regulators to tighten the rule since the trading losses were announced.
In a sign of the political importance surrounding the issue, Levin told reporters on Thursday that White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling called him this week to discuss the Volcker rule. Levin said he urged Sperling to have the White House speak out on the need to tighten the hedging language.
The rule is being written by the federal banking regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, all of which are independent regulators.
Under Dodd-Frank, the Treasury Department is suppose to coordinate the rule writing and Levin has previously said he believes the department pushed for the broader hedging exemption allowed under the October proposal.
On Thursday, he said Sperling had assured him that is not the case and that Treasury has only tried to coordinate discussions.
"I accepted that," he said.
One regulator has come out publicly in favor of tightening the October proposal.
CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler wants a final rule to bar portfolio hedging, his spokesman Steve Adamske said.
(Additional reporting by David Henry and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
Thu, May 17, 2012
HP mulls cutting at least 25,000 jobs: sources
By Poornima Gupta
(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co is considering cutting its workforce by 8 to 10 percent, or a minimum of 25,000 jobs, sources ...
Recent Comments