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Frontrunning: December 22

  • Battered oil wins respite, lifts stocks (Reuters)
  • Oil Halts Decline as Emerging Market Stocks Climb on China (BBG)
  • Bonds Set to Beat Stocks Globally in 2015 After China Falters (BBG)
  • SpaceX Falcon rocket nails safe landing in pivotal space feat (Reuters)
  • China Leaders Flag More Stimulus After Top Economic Meeting (BBG)
  • SEC to Retrench Case Against SAC’s Steven A. Cohen (WSJ)
  • Bumpy year drags U.S. share listings back to 2009 levels (Reuters)
  • Deutsche Bank Tally of Suspect Russia Trades at $10 Billion (BBG)
  • Valeant Taking Titles to Drugs on Walgreens’ Shelves (WSJ)
  • Spain's Socialists Will Block Rajoy's First Bid for New Term (BBG)
  • Armed police raid offices of Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Moscow (Reuters)
  • Brazil Real Rises as Emerging Market Euphoria Offsets Politics (BBG)
  • Credit Suisse Claims UBS Raided Staff (WSJ)
  • The 2016 Bond Trade That BlackRock, Pimco and JPMorgan All Back (BBG)
  • Apple Says U.K. Surveillance Law Would Endanger All Customers (BBG)
  • Trinity Church Campaigns Against Some Gun Sales at Cabela’s (NYT)
  • The One Brazilian Scandal Almost No One Is Talking About (BBG)
  • Bowe Bergdahl to be arraigned on military charges (Reuters)

 

Bulletin Headline Digest

WSJ

- KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc said Monday it has fired CEO Martin Shkreli, the latest fallout from the drug executive's arrest last week on securities-fraud charges. (http://on.wsj.com/1QV9NlA)

- Credit Suisse Group AG is accusing UBS Group AG of raiding its U.S. broker ranks, even as Credit Suisse winds down the private-banking unit at which those financial advisers worked. (http://on.wsj.com/1TdFTsf)

- The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would amend its civil case against Steven A Cohen, in what is likely the last attempt to hold him liable in connection with allegations of insider trading at the firm he founded, SAC Capital Advisors LP. (http://on.wsj.com/1J2gvoT)

- A grand jury has decided no felony crime was committed by the sheriff's office or jailers in the treatment of a black woman who died in a Southeast Texas county jail last summer. (http://on.wsj.com/1PhvfiU)

- Space Exploration Technology Corp executed an impressive return to flight Monday by flawlessly launching an upgraded variant of its Falcon 9 rocket and then maneuvering a big part back to earth for a pinpoint, precedent-setting landing. (http://on.wsj.com/22m5HZk)

 

FT

JPMorgan Chase & Co has agreed to pay $150 million to resolve a securities fraud lawsuit by investors suing the bank over its "London Whale" trading scandal, which caused a $6.2 billion loss.

Peter Harf is stepping down from the board of British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser after 16 years to focus on the rapidly growing coffee and Coty cosmetics empire of the Reimann family's JAB Holding.

Online music service SoundCloud agreed a deal with PRS for Music, UK's largest copyright collective, to pay royalties to songwriters, composers and publishers for songs streamed on its service.

 

NYT

- Martin Shkreli, who was arrested last week on securities fraud charges, has been ousted from his second pharmaceutical company. KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, a California biotechnology company that Shkreli gained control of in November, announced on Monday that he had been terminated as chief executive and had resigned from his seat on the board on Thursday, the day he was arrested. (http://nyti.ms/1YsOL3J)

- After pushing Wal-Mart Stores Inc to remove high-capacity weapons from its shelves, Trinity Church on Wall Street is turning its attention to the sporting goods retailer Cabela's Inc. It wants Cabela's to stop selling weapons that can fire more than eight rounds without reloading. Trinity made the request in a shareholder proposal for the next annual meeting of Cabela's shareholders. (http://nyti.ms/1PhplOQ)

- A California judge on Monday rejected a petition to have the 92-year-old media mogul Sumner M Redstone interviewed by a geriatric psychiatrist as part of a legal battle over his mental capacity, calling the procedure "an unnecessary invasion of his privacy." (http://nyti.ms/1QDshsL)

- Federal authorities in the United States have arrested two businessmen on money-laundering and corruption charges in connection with energy contracts with Venezuela's government-operated oil company, a Justice Department official said Monday. (http://nyti.ms/1NzsYzl)

- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that five more people became sick after eating at two more Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants, dealing a further blow to the price of the company's shares. (http://nyti.ms/1JqnKlv)

 

Canada

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Canada's oil sands industry is facing one of the bleakest markets in years, hammered by plunging U.S. and global crude prices even as new pipelines have cleared logjams on key export routes. (http://bit.ly/1m63cKg)

** Canada's federal prison agency has introduced a series of re-forms to the way it handles solitary confinement, part of its response to a highly critical coroner's inquest into the death of Ashley Smith that concluded two years ago. (http://bit.ly/1NJ47Hb)

** The U.S. move to extend tax credits for the renewable energy industry could mean a dramatic boost for Canada's solar and wind equipment makers. (http://bit.ly/1OkNJly)

NATIONAL POST

** The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Goodman Group boosted their equity allocation to the Goodman China Logistics Partnership, which owns and develops logistics assets in Mainland China, by $1.25 billion. (http://bit.ly/22mVRGu)

** Although only a week has passed since some Ontario grocers were authorized to sell beer, one retailer is brewing bigger plans to devote more store space to the drink. Loblaw Companies Ltd has 19 stores locations under its umbrella selling beer including grocers Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocer and Fortinos. (http://bit.ly/1kerf7H)

 

Britain

The Times

BT Group Plc has lost a court case to hold onto a 160 million pounds ($238.24 million) public sector contract in Cornwall after a judge ruled that the local authority could back out of the deal. (http://thetim.es/1NzdH1b)

The European Banking Authority has warned thousands of banks, brokers and asset managers that they will have to abide by rules to limit bonuses, even though it backtracked yesterday on a threat to impose the limits from January. (http://thetim.es/1NzdoUl)

The Guardian

A string of retailers could face insolvency in the new year with tough trading on the high street in the run-up to Christmas leaving businesses fighting for survival, two influential industry bodies have warned. (http://bit.ly/1Nze8ZD)

The Telegraph

Martin Weale has signalled that he is unlikely to vote for higher interest rates in the near future. Weale, one of the Bank of England's most hawkish policymakers, said a surprise "pause in wage growth" and further falls in commodity prices made the need for tighter policy "slightly less immediate." (http://bit.ly/22lJWZB)

Libor fraudster Tom Hayes failed to overturn his conviction for manipulating the key interest rate benchmark at the Court of Appeal. But his prison term has been reduced from 14 years to 11 years. (http://bit.ly/1Nzd33R)

Sky News

UK's National Health Service hospital trusts have been accused of levying a "tax on sick people" after it was revealed some are making more than 3 million pounds ($4.47 million) a year from car-parking charges.

Apple Inc has attacked the UK government's proposed new legislation on surveillance. In its first specific response to the Investigatory Powers Bill - the "Snoopers' Charter" - the U.S. technology giant says "this bill will put law-abiding citizens at risk - not the criminals, hackers and terrorists." (http://bit.ly/1Nzeuza)

The Independent

SABMiller Plc, maker of Stella Artois and Fosters, is buying Kentish Town-based craft brewer Camden Town Brewery. (http://ind.pn/1Nzf7Zz)

British families are on course to spend 40 billion pounds ($59.56 billion) more than they earn this year, fuelling fears that the country's economic growth is based on soaring levels of debt and could easily collapse, according to forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility(OBR). (http://ind.pn/1NzfhjD)