Top Interest Rate Headlines 10-25-2011: Euro Zone Summit Likely To Give Few Numbers On Crisis Response

Euro zone summit likely to give few numbers on crisis response
By Jan Strupczewski, Reuters
Euro zone leaders are unlikely to provide many hard numbers to flesh out their debt crisis response at a summit on Wednesday because the size of banks' losses on Greek bonds is still under negotiation and the bigger firepower of the bailout fund is tough to quantify, euro zone officials said.
http://jlne.ws/uzxxGs

NY Fed's $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail
By Eamon Javers, CNBC
It has been called the largest airborne transfer of currency in the history of the world. But finding out what happened to all the money involved has become one of the biggest financial mysteries of all time.
http://jlne.ws/sALR0Q

US consumer spending: Hard times
The Economist
AMERICANS are spending less on clothes and eating out and more on household fuel bills and healthcare, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Between 2007 and 2010, average annual consumer spending per unit—defined as a family/shared household or single/financially independent person—fell by 3.1% to $48,109.
http://jlne.ws/tC8ry3

Visa, MasterCard Looking Into Online Targeted Advertising Using Credit-Card Data
BY EMILY STEEL, WSJ.com
The two largest credit-card networks, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., are pushing into a new business: using what they know about people's credit-card purchases for targeting them with ads online.
http://jlne.ws/s7YkBa

Chinese Banks’ Profits Surging 22% May Fail to Boost Valuations
By Stephanie Tong and Nathaniel Espino, Bloomberg Businessweek
China’s four biggest banks, forecast this week to report higher third-quarter earnings than the four largest U.S. lenders, may be stuck with valuations near record lows amid investor concern that bad loans will rise.
http://jlne.ws/sCJXgK

Annual Rates of Change Continue to Improve According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
Data through August 2011
Released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed increases of +0.2% for the 10- and 20-City Composites in August versus July.
http://jlne.ws/uL7Yi2

Richmond Fed manufacturing index fell for fourth consecutive month in Oct
http://jlne.ws/tUxRNn

Consumer Confidence Falls to Two-Year Low
http://jlne.ws/utDc0K

No Joke: Times Getting Tough for U.S. Bankers
BY FRANCESCO GUERRERA, WSJ
At a charity dinner in New York last week, private-equity titan Stephen Schwarzman couldn't resist drawing a parallel between Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive, and his brother, Patrick Moynihan, a deacon and missionary. "Patrick runs a Catholic boarding school in Haiti," the head of Blackstone Group L.P. told a Waldorf Astoria ballroom packed with the likes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and assorted Wall Street powerbrokers. "Their parents must be so proud to see two of their boys each running an underfunded, nonprofit, organization."
http://jlne.ws/ubWS5W

MF Global’s Quarterly Loss Widens on Tax, Restructuring Charges
By Matthew Leising, Bloomberg Businessweek
MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker that had its credit rating cut yesterday to the lowest investment grade, said its quarterly loss widened on charges tied to deferred tax assets and a restructuring.
http://jlne.ws/vC8hpH

Hard line adopted on Greek debt loss
By Peter Spiegel in Brussels, Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin and Hugh Carnegy in Paris, Financial Times
European negotiators have asked Greek debt holders to accept a 60 per cent cut in the face value of their bonds, a hardline stance that far exceeds losses agreed in a deal between private investors and eurozone authorities three months ago.
http://jlne.ws/tr7V7Q

Danish Banking Crisis Entices Buyers Seeking Cheap Targets
BusinessWeek
Denmark's banking crisis has left in its wake a number of cheap acquisition targets that may entice buyers to take advantage of an industry brought to its knees by a sequence of insolvencies.
http://jlne.ws/tralfs

In Cautious Times, Banks Flooded With Cash
By ERIC DASH and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ, NY Times
Droves of consumers and businesses unnerved by the lurching markets have been taking their money out of risky investments and socking it away in bank accounts, where it does little to stimulate the economy.
http://jlne.ws/rXilFH

Saudi Exchange, Muni Board Aids IRS, 401(k) Rules: Compliance
Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority is in discussions with international banks to open the country's stock exchange to foreign investors early next year, three bankers familiar with the matter said.
http://jlne.ws/tW2yWJ

Wall Street Protesters Turn Focus on City Halls
Bloomberg
Advocates for the poor are using the Occupy Wall Street protests in city halls to push municipalities to divest from banks blamed by demonstrators for the global financial crisis and persistent unemployment in its wake.
http://jlne.ws/vDyF8I

World chefs: Vietnamese street meets high finance
Reuters via Yahoo! News
Making and selling Vietnamese street food may seem a world away from dealing in World Bank debt, but Anh Vu does both, and says that working a stall in East London markets sharpens the skills needed to thrive in investment banking.
http://jlne.ws/uXtOhP