Top Interest Rate Headlines 01-11-2012: Treasurys Auction Goes Off at Record Low Yield Under 2%

Treasurys Auction Goes Off at Record Low Yield Under 2%
WSJ.com
A landmark was set Wednesday for U.S. Treasury bond supply: A sale of $21 billion, 10-year notes was offered at a yield below 2% for the first time ever. The auctioned yield, or the rate the U.S. government pays to borrow cash in capital markets, was 1.9%. The previous low was the 2% yield from the 10-year sale in September.
http://jlne.ws/y9Bmyu

Top 10 MF Global unsecured creditors
When MF Global declared bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011, it became the eighth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Although the bankruptcy left the futures industry with a black eye regarding customer segregated funds, the bankruptcy trustee is working to restore those customer accounts.
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Obama to Propose Tax Breaks for Job Repatriations
President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he will propose new tax breaks in the coming weeks for companies that bring jobs.
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Polish Central Bank Holds Interest Rate at 4.50%
Central Bank News
The Narodowy Bank Polski's Monetary Policy Council held the benchmark 7-day interest rate unchanged at 4.50%.  The Bank said: "In the opinion of the Council, in the medium term inflation will be curbed by gradually decelerating domestic demand amidst fiscal tightening, including reduced public investment spending, and interest rate increases implemented in the first half of 2011, as well as the expected global economic slowdown.
http://jlne.ws/zqNwLY

Swap-Conduct Rules for Pensions, Municipalities May Be Softened by CFTC
Bloomberg
U.S. regulators may soften Dodd- Frank Act rules designed to protect less-sophisticated customers in swap trades after banks, pension funds and municipalities said the original plan could damage the market.
http://jlne.ws/zfkeBa

CFTC approves more protections for customer money
Reuters
The futures regulator on Wednesday adopted new protections for customer collateral posted in swap trades, and said it plans a broader look into client safeguards, as the search continues for hundreds of millions of dollars in missing MF Global customer money.
http://jlne.ws/xo1VcS

MSRB Urges Muni Issuers to Lobby Moody's
The Bond Buyer
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board officials on Tuesday urged issuers to encourage Moody's Investors Service to post rating information on the MSRB's online Electronic Municipal Market Access system.
http://jlne.ws/x4NmKU

Jon Corzine Will Face A Day In Court
Points And Figures
38,000 ranchers in Montana are ticked off. Jon Corzine is the new Voldemort of Wall Street. He is running up and down Diagon Alley staying in the shadows until he gets strength to return again. Good thing for him, NYC has stricter laws than Montana. MF under his leadership stole $1.2 billion from their customers. Corzine is the Bernie Madoff of the futures industry and that’s hard to pull off.
http://jlne.ws/wsliWK

OTC derivatives comments from ISDA officers: Definition of “standardized” product still in question
ISDA: DerivatiViews
As we enter 2012, the OTC derivatives industry will continue to be challenged by significant regulatory requirements on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the most important was set by the G-20 at their Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009: “All standardized OTC derivative contracts should be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central counterparties by end-2012 at the latest.”
http://jlne.ws/pZFQ0O

Worst ahead for euro zone, but it will survive: Reuters poll
Reuters
The worst is yet to come in the euro zone's debt crisis but the currency union will survive 2012 intact, according to a Reuters poll of economists who say France will probably lose its top-notch credit rating.
http://jlne.ws/wuWUhO

Duffy says he's 'unaware' of any effort to break up CME Group
MarketWatch
The executive chairman of CME Group Inc. CME +0.23% said Tuesday that the futures exchange operator was "very much unaware" of any regulatory effort to "break up" the company.
http://jlne.ws/w3PsHp

France To Maintain Credit Rating
The Euro climbed to an overnight high of 1.2808 following the rise in risk-taking behavior, but the weakening outlook for the region is likely to weigh on the exchange rate as the economy faces a growing risk of a major economic downturn in 2012. The Bank of Portugal warned of a deeper contraction this year as policy makers see GDP declining another 3.1% over the next 12-months, and went onto say that the risks for the region are 'clearly on the downside' as the tough austerity measures undermines private sector activity.
http://jlne.ws/zSBvdb

EU Treaty Draft Spells out Escape Clause
International Business Times
A new EU fiscal treaty will only allow euro zone countries to incur budget deficits during severe economic downturns in the euro zone or other exceptional events, according to a draft of the document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/ww70oj

Chicago Fed's Evans calls for 'substantial' easing
MarketWatch
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, who dissented from the last two Fed decisions on the grounds that the economy needed more stimulus, on Wednesday said he was in favor of "substantial" additional accommodation as he reiterated his idea for the central bank to keep rates at low levels until unemployment falls below 7% or inflation reaches 3% over the medium term.
http://jlne.ws/xsQBl7