It was fun while it lasted. As Debt Boom Wanes, Firms in the U.S. have lost the luxury of being able to sell bonds at will

June 30, 2013, 7:07 p.m. ET

As Debt Boom Wanes, Firms Readjust

MATT WIRZ

It was fun while it lasted.

U.S. companies have borrowed unprecedented amounts in bond markets over the past four years, while the investors they sold the debt to have watched bond prices hit records courtesy of a wave of money from the Federal Reserve. All the while, borrowers and lenders have known this debt boom couldn’t last, and many responded with a paradoxical mix of angst and relief to the volatility triggered when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in June that the central bank could start tapering its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program by the end of 2013. Read more of this post

Defensive Stocks Won’t Shield Investors

June 30, 2013, 7:20 p.m. ET

Defensive Stocks Won’t Shield Investors

JUSTIN LAHART

A rising stock market has always been a sign investors are taking on more risk. What made the recently stalled rally odd are the types of stocks where that risk-taking was concentrated. From the start of the year to its peak on May 21—the day before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke intimated that the central bank might begin to scale back its bond buying program this fall—the S&P 500 rose 17%. But stocks that traditionally have been regarded as safe did better. A market-weighted index of defensive sectors of the S&P 500—which include consumer staples, health care, telecommunications services, utility and real-estate investment trust shares—rose 19.2% over the same period. An index of the remaining, more cyclically sensitive companies rose by just 16.4%. Read more of this post

For Investors, Emerging Debt Rethink After Biggest Decline in Five Years

June 30, 2013, 4:58 p.m. ET

For Investors, Emerging Rethink

TOMMY STUBBINGTON

Emerging-market debt has experienced its biggest decline in nearly five years. Some investors said the selloff may not be over. And once the dust settles, money managers will have to become more discerning in figuring out which countries offer the best prospects. Prices on bonds issued in emerging economies have lost 9.5% of their value since an all-time record high hit in May, according to the J.P. MorganJPM -0.68% Emerging Market Bond Index. At their lowest point last week, they were down 12% from that peak. The pace of the selloff recalls late 2008, when emerging-market bonds fell almost 30% in less than two months. Bond prices move in the opposite direction of yields.

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Money Leaves Funds as Wary Investors Turn to Cash

Updated June 30, 2013, 7:22 p.m. ET

Money Leaves Funds as Wary Investors Turn to Cash

MIKE CHERNEY

Amid the recent turmoil in financial markets, investors are finding some refuge in cash, analysts say. Bond and stock mutual and exchange-traded funds saw outflows of $19.96 billion in the week ended Wednesday, according to Thomson Reuters unit Lipper. This data covers funds that report weekly. That’s the biggest outflow since August 2011, as the euro-zone debt crisis was intensifying and worries about the U.S. debt ceiling were coming to a head.

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Oil Benchmarks Go From Trusted to Tainted as EU Missed Warning

Oil Benchmarks Go From Trusted to Tainted as EU Missed Warning

The European Union’s top energy official ignored a warning delivered in 2009 about potential manipulation of Platts oil benchmarks “because markets trusted” them.

Andris Piebalgs, who was EU energy commissioner from 2004 to 2010, cited the confidence traders had in the pricing system when a lawmaker questioned the reliability of Platts’ prices more than three years ago. The warning went unheeded until May, when EU antitrust officials raided Platts, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), BP Plc (BP/), and Statoil ASA (STL) as part of an investigation into the possible rigging of benchmark energy assessments. Read more of this post

Norway’s opposition consider oil fund split; Conservatives look at separating bonds and share funds

June 30, 2013 5:23 pm

Norway’s opposition mulls oil fund split

By Richard Milne in Oslo

The likely winner of Norway’s looming elections is floating the idea of splitting theworld’s largest sovereign wealth fund in two, as the $720bn oil fund grapples with the challenges of growing ever bigger. Such a move would be the most radical change to the oil fund since it was set up more than two decades ago to manage Norway’s oil and gas revenues. At the start, few expected the fund to receive much money but it has grown rapidly in the last few years on the back of rising oil revenues and is expected to reach $1tn by the end of the decade, making it by far the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. Read more of this post

India’s jewellers become frontline in gold battle

June 30, 2013 12:48 pm

Singapore tightens tax evasion measures

By Jeremy Grant in Singapore

Singapore will from Monday make it a money-laundering offence for banks to assist tax-evaders stash their funds in the Asian city-state, in the latest move by the region’s fastest-growing wealth management hub to join the global crackdown on tax evasion and illicit funds.

The fight against tax evasion is playing out against a backdrop of rising wealth among the world’s richest people, creating a scramble by banks to offer services in tax-efficient jurisdictions such as Singapore. Read more of this post

Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees; For many hourly workers, paper paychecks have been replaced by prepaid cards, which often involve fees that can quickly add up and take a bite out of their pay

June 30, 2013

Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

A growing number of American workers are confronting a frustrating predicament on payday: to get their wages, they must first pay a fee.

For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay. Read more of this post

HK: A syndicate led by a woman earned at least HK$10 million over a two-year period by tampering with the electricity and gas meters of 112 restaurants

Gang collects $10m in meter-tamper racket
Staff reporter
Friday, June 28, 2013
A syndicate led by a woman earned at least HK$10 million over a two-year period by tampering with the electricity and gas meters of 112 restaurants, the District Court heard.

Between the middle of 2010 and August last year, the gang helped the restaurants save between HK$6,000 and HK$70,000 in charges each month.

CLP, Hongkong Electric and Towngas are said to have lost a total of HK$30 million, nearly a third of which went to the syndicate. Read more of this post

Exhausted Brazil; Brazilians are tired of being brutalized by public transport in the country’s metropolitan areas; tired of ghastly hospitals; tired of corruption scandals; and tired, especially, of inflation

Exhausted Brazil

Luiz Felipe Lampreia, a former foreign minister of Brazil (1995-2001), is now Vice Chairman of the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI) and Chairman of the Council on International Affairs of the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN).

30 June 2013

RIO DE JANIERO – The demonstrations that are shaking Brazil’s normally laid-back society are channeling a widespread sentiment: enough is enough! But, with the exception of professional agitators, there is no hatred in the street protests. Instead, there is a kind of impatient fatigue.

Brazilians are tired of being brutalized by public transport in the country’s metropolitan areas; tired of ghastly hospitals; tired of corruption scandals; and tired, especially, of inflation, which has returned like a dreaded disease, once again eroding people’s purchasing power and threatening to return millions to the poverty from which they only recently escaped. Read more of this post

Shale oil storm blows U.S. tanker trade out of doldrums

Shale oil storm blows U.S. tanker trade out of doldrums

2:18am EDT

By Anna Louie Sussman

(Reuters) – Thanks to the U.S. shale energy boom, the once-quiet niche of U.S.-flagged oil tankers is in unprecedented flux. A half-dozen vessels that typically carried gasoline to Florida are now rushing crude oil along the Texas coast. Major investment at the port of Corpus Christi, which now exports more than half of all Eagle Ford shale oil, suggests more to come even as new pipeline projects promise further market shifts. The shale oil revolution, now in its third year, has already scrambled the inland U.S. crude market, forcing pipelines to reverse direction and fuelling a revival in railway oil trade.

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Merck KGaA’s Oschmann Sees U.S. as New Emerging Market as competitors focus on emerging economies in Asia and South America

Merck KGaA’s Oschmann Sees U.S. as New Emerging Market

Merck KGaA (MRK), the German drugmaker whose U.S. unit was expropriated almost a century ago, is turning back to that market as competitors focus on emerging economies in Asia and South America.

“For us, the U.S. is an emerging market,” Stefan Oschmann, head of pharmaceuticals, said in an interview. “We have huge growth potential in the U.S.”

Merck KGaA is focusing on one of the world’s most profitable drug markets as sales of its best-selling medicines slow and as a late-stage drug pipeline dries up. The Darmstadt-based company hasn’t had a treatment approved since the go-ahead in 2003 for the cancer drug Erbitux, which it sells under license outside North America. Its next market candidate won’t be considered by regulators until 2016. Read more of this post

Private Banks Leave Switzerland as End of Secrecy Hurts Profits

Private Banks Leave Switzerland as End of Secrecy Hurts Profits

For European lenders with private-banking aspirations, a presence in Switzerland used to be a must. Now, with bank secrecy eroding and rising compliance costs chipping away at profits, more are saying adieu.

The number of foreign-owned Swiss banks fell to 129 by the end of May from 145 at the start of 2012, according to data from the Association of Foreign Banks in Switzerland. Assets under management slid by a quarter to 870.7 billion Swiss francs ($921 billion) in the five years through 2012 as clients withdrew money or paid taxes on undeclared accounts, the data show. Read more of this post

Brazil’s Rousseff May Skip Cup Final as Her Popularity Sinks

Brazil’s Rousseff May Skip Cup Final as Her Popularity Sinks

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff may sit out today’s Confederations Cup final match after the biggest plunge in popularity since ex-President Fernando Collor confiscated savings accounts in 1990, as protesters take to the streets for a fourth week.

Rousseff’s approval rating fell to 30 percent, down from 57 percent before protests began three weeks ago and a high of 65 percent in March, according to a survey by Datafolha published yesterday in the daily newspaper Folha. Read more of this post