• Labor Gains Obama Policies Rued by Companies From Cooper Tire to Walmart Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is paying tariffs on imported tires. Free-trade agreements sought by Caterpillar Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are on hold. Delta Air Lines Inc. flight attendants may join a union.


• Weak Dollar Is `Welcome Change' for McDonald's, PPG Fourth-Quarter Profit McDonald’s Corp., United Technologies Corp. and PPG Industries Inc. are among the companies whose earnings may get a boost in the fourth quarter from a weak dollar because of foreign operations and exports.


• K1's Kiener, Salesman Turned Hedge Manager, at Center of $400 Million Loss Helmut Kiener went from selling advertising for telephone books and getting paid by the ad to starting a German hedge-fund firm that would eventually make bets using millions borrowed from such banks as Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BNP Paribas SA.


• Mercedes Hands Germany Competitive Edge as Stronger Euro Divides Europe Germany is finding quality counts when it comes to the rising euro.


• Porn-Film Maker Turned Farmer Joins Japanese Movement to End Co-Op's Grip Ganari Takahashi’s first career, making pornographic movies, made him $10 million. He hopes his second, growing fruit and vegetables, will help upend a farming system that costs Japanese taxpayers $45 billion a year.


• Backpackers Party Less in Perth as Aussie Dollar Crimps Foreign Wallets A Swiss couple trudged into the deserted lobby of the 12:01 East Backpackers hostel in Perth after an eight-hour drive in Western Australia. Manager Winnie Kuwaja, sitting in a nearby office stuffed with tourism brochures, said he was pleased to see them.


• Commodities Replace Stocks as Best Asset in Global Poll: Chart of the Day Commodities have displaced stocks as the investment that will offer the best opportunity for profit during the next year, according to a global poll of Bloomberg terminal users.


• Lockheed F-35 Fighter Still Raises `Concerns' Over Costs, Pentagon Says Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter still poses a risk of cost increases, according to an independent study of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, the Defense Department spokesman said today.


• Iliad's Founder Niel Brings Promise of Lower Mobile-Phone Prices to France Iliad SA founder Xavier Niel may do for France’s mobile-phone services what his Free brand did for broadband Internet access: bring down prices in one of Europe’s most expensive markets.


• Bernanke Trails Gjedrem as `Big Boys' Delay Rate Increases Until Late 2010 The global monetary policy divide is widening as the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and major counterparts lag behind Norway and Australia in raising interest rates, a trend that’s set to continue into 2010.

Bloomberg Daily News 30th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Griffin Rebounding From 55% Loss Builds a Bank to Challenge Goldman Sachs Rohit D’Souza was on vacation with his family in India in May 2008 when he got a call from Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive officer of Citadel Investment Group LLC. Griffin wanted the banker, who had just quit his job as head of equity trading and sales at Merrill Lynch & Co., to help him do something no other hedge fund had ever tried.


• Bernanke Trails Gjedrem as `Big Boys' Delay Rate Increases Until Late 2010 The global monetary policy divide is widening as the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and major counterparts lag behind Norway and Australia in raising interest rates, a trend that’s set to continue into 2010.


• K1's Kiener, Salesman Turned Hedge Manager, at Center of $400 Million Loss Helmut Kiener went from selling advertising for telephone books and getting paid by the ad to starting a German hedge-fund firm that would eventually make bets using millions borrowed from such banks as Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BNP Paribas SA.


• Iliad's Founder Niel Bring Promise of Lower Mobile-Phone Prices to France Iliad SA founder Xavier Niel may do for France’s mobile-phone services what his Free brand did for broadband Internet access: bring down prices in one of Europe’s most expensive markets.


• Volvo Cars May Lose Supplier Contracts in Sweden If Geely's Bid Succeeds Volvo Cars, Sweden’s third-largest private employer, may lose contracts with some suppliers unless Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., the favored bidder, promises to protect their patents and not plagiarize products in China.


• Porn-Film Maker Turned Farmer Joins Japanese Movement to End Co-Op's Grip Ganari Takahashi’s first career, making pornographic movies, made him $10 million. He hopes his second, growing fruit and vegetables, will help upend a farming system that costs Japanese taxpayers $45 billion a year.


• Indictment Dogs Fiat Family Company as Heir Bets on Asian Hedge Fund Firm When John Elkann was just 29 years old, in 2005, he faced the possibility of becoming the Agnelli family leader who lost control of Fiat SpA a century after his great-great-grandfather founded the automaker.


• BP's Hayward Revives Explorer's Fortunes by Cutting Costs, Boosting Output More than two years after taking over at BP Plc, Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward is turning around Europe’s second-biggest oil company and beating its own cost-savings target by $1 billion.


• AIG Dismantled by Asian, European Buyers as Dollar Plunges to 14-Month Low American International Group Inc., once the world’s largest insurer, is being dismantled by Asian and European buyers spurred by the plunge in the dollar and a dearth of U.S. bidders.


• Vitamin Shoppe's IPO Hands Blackstone, Horowitz Cash After Dot-Com Crash Vitamin Shoppe Inc.’s initial public offering is giving investors a second chance to buy a stake in the retailer of nutritional supplements a decade after its dot- com unit sold shares at the peak of the Internet bubble.

Bloomberg Daily News 29th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Bond Weakling California Shows Perils of States' Failure to Disclose Debts California is the world’s eighth- largest economy. Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. is the largest U.S.-based deepwater oil driller.


• Indictment Dogs Fiat Family Company as Heir Bets on Asian Hedge Fund Firm When John Elkann was just 29 years old, in 2005, he faced the possibility of becoming the Agnelli family leader who lost control of Fiat SpA a century after his great-great-grandfather founded the automaker.


• AIG Dismantled by Asian, European Buyers as Dollar Plunges to 14-Month Low American International Group Inc., once the world’s largest insurer, is being dismantled by Asian and European buyers spurred by the plunge in the dollar and a dearth of U.S. bidders.


• Afghanistan's First Railroad Aims to Undermine Bandit Funding of Taliban Afghanistan is building its first rail link with the help of the Asian Development Bank in a bid to improve trade and aid and undermine highway bandits helping to fund insurgents, including the Taliban.


• Vitamin Shoppe's IPO Hands Blackstone, Horowitz Cash After Dot-Com Crash Vitamin Shoppe Inc.’s initial public offering is giving investors a second chance to buy a stake in the retailer of nutritional supplements a decade after its dot- com unit sold shares at the peak of the Internet bubble.


• Irish Pubs Cut Beer Prices After Pound Slide Leaves Economy `High and Dry' Hugh McGee is cutting the price of Guinness by about 20 percent at his bars and hotels in the Irish town of Letterkenny to keep customers coming across the border from Northern Ireland after the euro’s surge against the pound.


• How New York Fed's Secret Decision on AIG Swaps Cost Americans $13 Billion In the months leading up to the September 2008 collapse of giant insurer American International Group Inc., Elias Habayeb and his colleagues worked nights and weekends negotiating with banks that had bought $62 billion of credit-default swaps from AIG, according to a person who has worked with Habayeb.


• Electric-Car Makers Use U.S. Taxpayer Cash to Enter Market `Full of Risks' Electric-car makers ranging from Ford Motor Co. to California startups are using $11 billion in taxpayer funds to supply a market that doesn’t yet exist.


• Ford Mustang Plant in Michigan Becomes Fifth Factory to Reject Concessions Ford Motor Co.’s Mustang plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, is among six factories to reject contract concessions the automaker is seeking to match those the United Auto Workers granted its U.S. rivals.


• Deal-Breaker for Copenhagen Climate-Change Treaty May Be Obama's Congress When Barack Obama was elected president, he was heralded as a possible savior for climate- treaty talks that had dragged on for years while George W. Bush rejected limits on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.


• Pfizer Unit's Prempro Punitive Damages Verdict Remains Secret, Judge Says A Pfizer Inc. unit must pay an undisclosed amount of punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed breast cancer after taking one of the drugmaker’s menopause treatments, a Philadelphia jury said yesterday.

Bloomberg Daily News 28th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Nokia Salesman-Turned-CFO Challenges IPhone at AT&T, Seeks to Revive Stock Nokia Oyj’s Timo Ihamuotila helped convince AT&T Inc. to offer one of the Finnish company’s most expensive handsets this year, letting the device share shelf- space with the iPhone at Apple Inc.’s exclusive U.S. carrier.


• Stanford Endowment Loss Prompts Silicon Valley Chief to Suspend Smoothing John L. Hennessy, president of Stanford University, is drawing on his 32 years of experience in Silicon Valley to speed up budget cuts, ditching a formula universities use to soften the impact of endowment losses.


• Picky Pets' Purina Bolsters Nestle as Shoppers Suffer for Cats' Pleasure Muscovite Yana Repina gave up sushi dinners and cut down on salmon and brie so she could afford to give her cat Busya its preferred variety of Nestle SA pet food.


• Russian Banks Count Pigs, Lingerie as Collateral From Cash-Starved Debtors When Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev’s OAO National Reserve Bank seized collateral offered against a loan from a cash-strapped borrower, a health quarantine was slapped on the security: 40,450 pigs.


• Back-Door Taxes Hit Americans With Public Officials Financing in the Dark Salvatore Calvanese, the treasurer of Springfield, Massachusetts, for four years, had a ready defense for why he risked $14 million of taxpayer money on collateralized-debt obligations laden with subprime mortgages in 2007.


• Gold Optimism Tied to Dollar's Decline Seen as Misplaced: Chart of the Day Gold’s record-setting rally “appears stretched” and investors shouldn’t count on a falling dollar to sustain the surge, according to Brian G. Belski, Oppenheimer & Co.’s chief investment strategist.


• Islamic Bonds Are Set for Record Gains as Nakheel Rebounds, GE Plans Sukuk Islamic bonds are poised for record gains amid confidence that Nakheel PJSC, the developer of palm- tree shaped islands off the Dubai coast and the market’s biggest issuer, will avoid default.


• Sage View's Peterson Wins Decathlon, Title of Wall Street's Best Athlete While the title of Wall Street’s best athlete eluded John Withrow, the bond trader at Macquarie Group Ltd. came away a winner at the charity decathlon after raising almost $100,000 for cancer research.


• Antwerp Diamond Bankers Expect Market to Rebound in 2011 as Recession Ends Diamond traders in Antwerp may have to wait another two years for a recovery made possible in part by two of the industry’s biggest banks, which kept many of the dealers afloat during the recession.


• Pucci, Credaris Veteran, Starts $100 Million European Credit Hedge Fund Gennaro Pucci, formerly head of trading at credit manager Credaris, has started a $100 million hedge fund that will trade mostly European corporate debt, credit derivatives and asset-backed securities.

Bloomberg Daily News 27th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

Islamic Debt to Rally on Nakheel Recovery, GE Sukuk

Almost non-existent a decade ago, the Islamic bond market has grown to $130 billion, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Prices are rebounding after three defaults in the past year because investors expect Dubai’s government to prevent state-owned developer Nakheel from failing to make payments on its obligations. The company’s bonds due Dec. 14 rose to a record 108 cents on the dollar this month, up from 93.5 on Sept. 2 and 70 percent higher than a February low.

Facebook Fuels Growth With Games as Users Flock to ‘Mafia Wars’
Facebook Inc. is tapping virtual farmers, mafia dons and online pets to generate cash from the social-networking Web site’s 300 million users.
The company is testing a payment system to gain a cut each time an online-game player buys a digital tractor, weapon or hat on the site. That would give Facebook a piece of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being pulled in by Zynga Inc., creator of “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars,” and Playfish Inc., maker of “Pet Society.” The social-games market will almost triple to $2 billion by 2012, estimates ThinkEquity LLC.

Junk Bond Rally Signals Profits for Stocks as Markets Diverge
While owning debt in the riskiest companies has paid about the same as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the last 23 years, bonds are returning more than twice as much in 2009, according to data compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bloomberg. When high-yield credit beat the S&P 500 by 32 percentage points in the 12 months ending March 11, 2003, stock gains exceeded bonds by 19 percentage points for the rest of the year.
Barclays Plc and ING Groep NV are increasing share purchases on speculation that improving corporate earnings will prolong the rally in equities and shrink the gap again. Profits for S&P 500 companies are forecast to climb 53 percent over the next two years as the Federal Reserve holds interest rates close to zero to end the worst recession since the 1930s, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Source - Bloomberg 26.10.09

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Microsoft Faces Challenge Shrugging Off `PC Guy' Image With Windows 7 Microsoft Corp. began selling the Windows 7 operating system today, an effort to reverse three quarters of declining Windows sales and fend off Apple Inc.’s gains in personal computers.


• Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Benefit From Hedging on Mortgage-Servicing Rights Wells Fargo & Co. earned almost a third of its pretax quarterly profit by hedging mortgage- servicing rights, producing gains similar to those that have helped some of the biggest U.S. banks offset weaker consumer- lending businesses.


• Stanford Exploits Market Rally Auctioning Buyout Funds, Distressed Assets Stanford University’s stakes in buyout funds, energy companies and distressed securities make up the largest portion of assets the school is offering in the biggest private-equity auction since stocks rallied in March.


• Procter & Gamble Is Said to Consider Purchase of Sara Lee's Overseas Unit Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Pampers diapers and Pantene shampoo, is in talks to buy part of Sara Lee Corp.’s international household products unit, according to people familiar with the discussions.


• GM Volt, Electric BMWs May Boost South Korea Battery Makers Against Japan Electric cars developed by General Motors Co. and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG may help South Korean battery makers grab market share from Japanese rivals tying up with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.


• Oil `Too Cheap' at $80 After Dollar's Drop Against Euro: Chart of the Day Oil is “too cheap” and should rise to $88 a barrel in coming months after the dollar’s decline against the euro, a DekaBank study suggests.


• China, India Gird for Global Climate-Treaty Talks by Forging Alternatives China and India’s joint plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions gives the developing world an alternative to the climate treaty that wealthier nations want them to sign in Copenhagen, analysts said.


• Sarkozy Clan Seeks to Tighten Grip on Paris Skyline Development France’s most ambitious property development since Napoleon III built Paris’s boulevards in the 19th century may soon be overseen by President Nicolas Sarkozy’s son, a 23-year-old undergraduate and county councilor.

Bllomberg Daily News 23rd October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Google Takes On AT&T in Fight Over `Terrifying' Internet Neutrality Rules Google Inc. backs “extreme regulatory standards,” AT&T Inc.’s top Washington official says. His rival at Google calls the phone company’s campaign against new Internet rules “almost laughable.”


• Bank of America Discussed Merrill Lynch Losses in November, E-Mails Reveal Bank of America Corp. discussed losses at Merrill Lynch & Co. in early November, more than a month before telling regulators the lender needed U.S. help to complete its takeover, according to documents provided to congressional investigators.


• China's `Growth on Steroids' Risks Next Slowdown as Lending Binge Subsides China’s stimulus-induced lending binge probably propelled growth in the third quarter to its fastest pace in a year. Now, policy makers have to figure out how to wean the economy off state support.


• Ford, Geely Talks on Volvo Sale Said to Falter Over Intellectual Property Geely Holding Group Co.’s 10-month effort to buy Volvo from Ford Motor Co. may fall apart within days as the companies struggle to agree on intellectual property rights, two people familiar with the talks said.


• Switzerland's Tainted Brand Forces Unigestion of Geneva to Open Paris Fund Unigestion Holding SA, a Geneva money manager whose clients include Nestle SA’s pension fund, has registered a fund in France as attacks on bank secrecy taint the premium Swiss financial brand. Others may follow.


• Cheapest Money in Two Months Spurs U.S. Muni Bond Sellers: Chart of Day U.S. municipalities have decided it’s a good time to borrow money.


• Dubai World May Sell Bonds to Repay Maturing Nakheel Sukuk, Bankers Say Dubai World, the state-owned holding company grappling with $40 billion of debt, may be able to sell bonds to repay loans, including a $3.5 billion Islamic bond due at year-end, two bankers familiar with the group’s plans said.


• ING Real Estate Shuns `Speculative' Mideast Market, Bank's Asia Chief Says ING Groep NV’s $150 billion real estate fund has no interest in the Middle East because of overdevelopment, the head of the Dutch bank’s Asian property unit said.


• Hyundai Supplants Toyota as Japan Exports Wither With Won Undermining Yen David Beidny’s choice between a Japanese and South Korean car was easy: Hyundai Motor Co. gave him $3,500 in cash to make the purchase, a deal that money- losing Toyota Motor Corp. could ill afford to offer.

Bloomberg Daily News 22nd october 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Wall Street 40% Bonus Jump Feeds Spending on $43 Steaks, $4 Million Co-Ops A 40 percent jump in Wall Street bonuses this year may bring relief to New York City and Albany as the state and its biggest metropolis struggle with a combined $14 billion in budget deficits this fiscal year and next.


• Chiesi Faced Tax Lien as Government Says She Reaped Illegal Akamai Profit Danielle Chiesi, accused with Raj Rajaratnam in the largest insider-trading case against a hedge fund, was allegedly short-selling shares of Akamai Technologies Inc. as she faced a federal lien for $63,226 in unpaid taxes.


• Nuclear Power's Revival for GE, Areva Leaves Waste Puzzle to Grandchildren When 65 scientists met at Princeton University in 1955 to decide where to permanently store radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, their conclusion was simple: Bury it deep underground, far from earthquakes.


• Goodwin's M&A Banker Matthew Greenburgh Shows Adviser Accountability Gap Matthew Greenburgh, a banker at Merrill Lynch & Co., advised Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc on takeovers that brought them close to collapse.


• China Moves to Project Air Power in Pacific With Soviet Carrier Overhaul Welding torches flare at dusk in the coastal Chinese city of Dalian as workers mill about on the flight deck of an unfinished aircraft carrier once intended for the Soviet navy.


• Silver May Outpace Gold After Years as Bullion's Bridesmaid: Chart of Day Silver may outpace gold through mid- 2010 as a recovering global economy increases industrial demand, said Citigroup Inc.


• Stagehand Moving Props Makes $530,044 at Carnegie Hall, Director $946,581 After you practice for years and get to Carnegie Hall, it’s almost better to move music stands than actually play the piano.


• Porsche, Daimler Snub Tokyo's Show as Carmakers Make Beeline for Shanghai Porsche SE, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG all sent top executives to April’s Shanghai Motor Show as China is set to become the world’s largest car market. All three are skipping this week’s Tokyo Motor Show.

Bllomberg Daily News 21st October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Wall Street 40% Bonus Jump Feeds Spending on $43 Steaks, $4 Million Co-Ops A 40 percent jump in Wall Street bonuses this year may bring relief to New York City and Albany as the state and its biggest metropolis struggle with a combined $14 billion in budget deficits this fiscal year and next.


• Goodwin's M&A Banker Matthew Greenburgh Shows Adviser Accountability Gap Matthew Greenburgh, a banker at Merrill Lynch & Co., advised Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc on takeovers that brought them close to collapse.


• Chiesi Faced Tax Lien as Government Says She Reaped Illegal Akamai Profit Danielle Chiesi, accused with Raj Rajaratnam in the largest insider-trading case against a hedge fund, was allegedly short-selling shares of Akamai Technologies Inc. as she faced a federal lien for $63,226 in unpaid taxes.


• Nuclear Power's Revival for GE, Areva Leaves Waste Puzzle to Grandchildren When 65 scientists met at Princeton University in 1955 to decide where to permanently store radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, their conclusion was simple: Bury it deep underground, far from earthquakes.


• Raj Rajaratnam Became Billionaire Driving His Analysts, Demanding an Edge Every weekday at 8:35 a.m., Galleon Group’s 70 analysts, portfolio managers and traders pack into a conference room on the 34th floor of the IBM Building, a gray- green polished granite skyscraper on New York’s Madison Avenue. Tardy arrivals are fined $25.


• Financial Armageddon in Alabama Proving Parable for Local U.S. Governments In its 190-year history, Jefferson County, Alabama, has endured a cholera epidemic, a pounding in the Civil War, gunslingers, labor riots and terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan. Now this namesake of Thomas Jefferson, anchored by Birmingham, is staring at what one local politician calls financial “Armageddon.”


• China May Stumble in Pursuit of African Oil Assets as Exxon, Rivals Strike China’s plans to buy into oil fields in Africa may suffer a third setback in as many months if Exxon Mobil Corp. succeeds in snapping up drilling rights in Ghana, one of the continent’s newest oil nations.


• Retail Sales Rebound Into Xmas as Rising Shares Show Consumer Not Dead Yet From Intel Corp. to TJX Cos., it’s beginning to look a lot like the retail holiday season will be happier than forecast.

Bloomberg Daily News 20th October 2009

Re Gold - Part 2

Dear Anonymous,

‘We are able to purchase gold bullion etc with typical trading costs of approx. 0.5 per cent (minimum £50, maximum £100), plus custodian fee of approx.£50 per transaction. We always recommend holding your assets through a safe custody account for added protection. The costs of this and our management fee for tracking and recommending changes to your portfolio will vary depending on the amount invested.’

Mark Hollingsworth ACII, APFS
Director
Hollingsworth International Financial Services Ltd
Office 22
Regent House
Bisazza Street
Sliema SLM1641
Malta

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Harvard University Paid $500 Million to Exit Backfired Interest-Rate Swap Harvard University’s failed bet that interest rates would rise cost the world’s richest school at least $500 million in payments to escape derivatives that backfired.


• Malone Isn't in Talks for NBC Universal, Would Consider if Price Was Lower Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone said his company isn’t in talks to acquire a stake in General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.


• Lazard Board Said to Meet in Two Weeks to Consider Wasserstein Successor Lazard Ltd. directors plan to convene within two weeks to consider a permanent replacement for Bruce Wasserstein, the chief executive officer who died this week at 61, said two people with knowledge of the matter.


• Ted Turner Passed Cash `Like a Joint,' Feels `Like a Dummy' on Sale of CNN Ted Turner, the cable television pioneer who became one of the richest Americans, recalls the pain of losing his job at Time Warner Inc., his wife, the actress Jane Fonda, and $7 billion of his fortune.


• Luxury Spending Jumps 29% as Rich Shoppers Come Roaring Back, Survey Shows Spending in the U.S. on luxury goods and services spurted 29 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, as consumers with the highest incomes unleashed pent-up demand, according to Unity Marketing.


• Buyers Sue Trump in Miami Condo Glut as Values Seen Returning to '89 Level Robert Cooper says he has found a way to make money in South Florida’s real estate bust.


• Goldman Sachs-Backed, Ayn Rand-Inspired Fund Plans to Invest Record Amount Roark Capital Group, the Atlanta- based owner of brands including Carvel ice cream, plans to invest the most in its eight-year history next year as the private-equity industry thaws.


• Nokia Siemens Network Marriage May Be Unraveling as Asset Value Evaporates Nokia Oyj’s decision to slash more than $1 billion off the value of its telephone-network venture with Siemens AG may signal the partnership is unraveling.


• Twenty-Year Wait for Earthquake Protection Keeps San Franciscans on Alert Jason Henderson keeps a hatchet and crowbar stashed in a closet of his sixth-floor apartment in San Francisco, so he can pry his way out if an earthquake topples the building.


• World's Hungry Exceed 1 Billion Even as Wealth Increases: Chart of the Day The world’s undernourished and hungry will exceed 1 billion this year as governments failed to channel a decade of rising wealth into improving agriculture.

Bloomberg Daily News 19th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Goldman Sachs Bonus Stigma Etched Too Deep for Philanthropy to Wash Away Goldman Sachs Group Inc., on pace to top 2007’s record $20.12 billion in compensation, may find that acts of largess aren’t enough to mitigate a public backlash sparked by the firm’s bonuses.


• Dell's `Real Reshaping' of PC Pioneer Means Chasing Profit From Services When Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff wanted ideas about how to run his business during the technology recession of 2001, he turned to his friend Michael Dell.


• Bootle Says Bank of England Should Expand Bond Plan `as Far as It Takes' The Bank of England should expand its 175 billion-pound ($284 billion) bond-buying plan “as far as it takes” to fight off the threat of deflation, former Treasury adviser Roger Bootle said.


• Dollar May Decline to 50 Yen, Lose Reserve-Currency Status, Sumitomo Says The dollar may drop to 50 yen next year and eventually lose its role as the global reserve currency, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.’s chief strategist said, citing trading patterns and a likely double dip in the U.S. economy.


• India's Wipro Will Hire More U.S. Workers as Technology Spending Recovers Wipro Ltd., India’s third-largest software-services provider, plans to hire more workers in the U.S. to take advantage of a rebounding technology market.


• Walmart Delivered S&P 500's Only Gain During Recession: Chart of the Day Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the only Standard & Poor’s 500 Index company that has rallied during the entire 22-month recession.


• Ex-Cop Loses Bank After Dutch Consumer Advocate's TV Attack Triggers Run Dirk Scheringa, an ex-policeman turned millionaire owner of the Dutch soccer champion AZ, built a financial empire over 34 years. It took two weeks for him to lose control of DSB Bank NV after a critic sparked a bank run.


• HSBC Faces Madoff-Linked Investor Claims in Dublin Case Over Repayments HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, is facing lawsuits in Ireland by investors faulting the lender for how it performed as custodian for money lost in Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Bloomberg News 16th October 2009

Gold - Part 2

When writing this article, gold has closed at $1,060 per ounce, on the back of four consecutive weeks of gains. Many pundits have declared that gold is in a bubble that is about to burst and that because the recession has been declared ‘as over’ that there is no reason to hold such a safe-haven asset anymore. At Hollingsworth, we strongly disagree and see very strong opportunities in the years ahead for the precious metal for the following reasons.
Firstly, gold is a unique substance. It is about the only thing on the planet that is bought and stored and never consumed. Almost all the gold ever mined still exists above ground. The purpose of gold is to act as a store of wealth. This singularity of gold makes it susceptible to a scam that was first perpetrated by goldsmiths in the 16th century. The goldsmiths realized that customers would buy gold and leave it for safekeeping in their vault. This meant that they could show the same gold bar to many customers and sell it many times over.
This scam is at the centre of modern gold market manipulation. Paper substitutes for gold are sold, instead of real gold, through derivatives, futures, exchange-traded funds, gold certificates, etc. It is estimated that each ounce of gold has been effectively sold 20 times over or more. To maintain this Ponzi scheme, some real gold is required, because some investors or jewellers demand to take possession of real gold. For the scam to be sustained there must always be plentiful physical gold for those who want it.
This physical supply has been met from mine supply and central bank leasing and selling. The market is in effect a giant inverted pyramid with a huge paper gold market being supported above a small amount of physical gold at the tip of the inverted pyramid. The scam can continue until there are indications of a shortage of physical gold. If the 20 or so claimants of each ounce of real gold demand their gold, there is the potential for a squeeze such as never been seen before.
The price discovery of gold has been achieved almost exclusively through the shuffling of paper gold promises between investors and bullion banks on the New York Commodities Exchange with very little real gold ever changing hands. But the situation is changing. Some big entities are now demanding physical gold. These include countries such as China, Russia, India, Iran and the Gulf States. This demand for real gold, instead of paper substitutes, is now putting a strain on the gold market. It is suggested that Germany has asked that its sovereign gold held by the New York Federal Reserve Bank be returned to Germany. Hong Kong has requested the same of the Bank of England, which stores Hong Kong's gold.

The supply that feeds the bottom of the inverted pyramid to support the gold price suppression via a paper market is now drying up. Mine supply has been declining for almost a decade and this year, central banks became net buyers of gold for the first time in 20 years. The stress in the physical market is starting to show to those who are paying attention.
What is important is that the world's stockpile of 140,000 tonnes of gold may have been sold several times over. In all likelihood half of the supposed 30,000 tonnes of central bank stockpiles have been sold at least 20 times over. The gold short position could well be 300,000 tonnes (15,000 times 20) against a total world inventory of only 140,000 tonnes, much of which is not available to the market.
Could there be a more bullish scenario for gold? Whilst there may be a short term pull back from the $1,000 + level, it is very possible that we could see gold going above $1,500 in the next year. Regular readers of my column will recall my recommendation back in March to buy gold when it was $940 – 13 per cent below what it is today !

(Source/Research : Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee)

Mark Hollingsworth, Director, Hollingsworth International Financial Services Ltd
Telephone in Malta: +356 99842614, +356 21316298
Telephone in Cyprus: +357 99066840

e-mail: info@hollingsworth-int.com; Website: http://www.hollingsworth.eu.com/

Authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority to provide investment services, license IS/32457

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Ellerbeck Went From `Idyllic' Home Life to London Manslaughter Conviction Neil Ellerbeck, who helped manage $40 billion at HSBC Holdings Plc’s global liquidity unit, sidestepped the turmoil that wreaked havoc on London bankers last year. At home, his crumbling marriage led to tragedy.


• Women `a Nightmare' to Employ in U.K. Under Equality Laws, Executive Says Equality legislation is making it more difficult for women to get a foothold in the U.K.’s financial sector, a fund manager at JO Hambro Capital Ltd. told members of Parliament in London today.


• GMAC's Ally Lampoons Kid-Cheating Lenders, Woos Depositors With Top Rates GMAC Inc., the lender that received two U.S. bailouts, has attracted $2.9 billion of new deposits and riled its rivals by offering the highest interest rates and running advertisements that portray bankers as deceptive.


• Legg Mason's Bill Miller Helps Lure Back Fund Customers as Returns Improve Legg Mason Inc.’s stock funds, including those run by Bill Miller, are luring back clients as improved returns spur institutions to put money into equities.


• Billionaire Packer Raises Stakes in Casino Gamble That's Cost $1 Billion James Packer, Australia’s richest man, has raised the stakes in a bet that has so far lost at least $1 billion.


• Lower Energy Costs May Help Revive U.S. Consumer Spending: Chart of Day Falling energy costs may trigger a U.S. consumer-spending revival that’s faster and stronger than most people anticipate, according to James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management.


• Ghosn Fights Marginalization at AvtoVAZ as Putin Threatens Stake Dilution Renault SA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is preparing to commit more time and technology to rescue his $1 billion investment in OAO AvtoVAZ. Analysts say what he may need is more control and a bigger investment.


• Parsons Utendahl Stake Means Citigroup Chairman Is Poised for PPIP Profit Citigroup Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons, who is overseeing the lender after its $45 billion bailout, stands to profit from a bank-aid program through his investment in Utendahl Capital Management LP.

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Oxbridge-Sounding Scammers in Spain Seduce British With Investing Schemes Credit controller Linda Reay was sorting the daily pile of bills back in 2005 at the bed- manufacturing factory where she worked near Carlisle, an industrial city in northwestern England. Then she took a phone call that would destroy her retirement dreams.


• Must-Have TIPS Show Bernanke Isn't Whipping BlackRock's Inflation Concern Treasury Inflation Protected Securities are the bonds money managers can’t afford not to own.


• Michael Dell Says His Company Will Be `Reasonably Active' in Acquisitions Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell, who announced a $3.9 billion takeover of Perot Systems Corp. last month, said his company is “rapidly developing” merger expertise and will seek more deals as part of a turnaround plan.


• Schwarzenegger Fiscal-Repairman Legacy Defined by $38 Billion Budget Gap California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vowed as a candidate in 2003 to tame the most populous U.S. state’s budget deficits, is fighting a new fiscal gap testing his ability to bring squabbling lawmakers together.


• Metal Users Reduce Hedging After Orders Drop on Slump, Deutsche Bank Says Consumers of copper, aluminum and other industrial metals are hedging less of their future purchases this year after orders were decimated by the financial collapse, Deutsche Bank AG said.


• Dollar Losses Are S&P 500's Gain as Correlation Nears Record: Chart of Day U.S. stocks and the dollar are moving in the opposite direction more than ever before as a weaker currency boosts the value of sales outside America.


• Caxton Joint Venture Lucidus Is Said to Start $500 Million High-Yield Fund Lucidus Capital Partners LLP, a new joint-venture of hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LLC, has raised about $500 million for a high-yield debt hedge fund, three people familiar with the situation said.


• Enel May Delay Decision on Renewable Energy Stake to 2010 After Debt Cut Enel SpA, Italy’s biggest utility, is prepared to delay a decision on the sale of a stake in its renewable energy business until next year after taking steps to raise cash and reduce debt.

Bloomberg News 14th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Iceland Shrinks 8% as Prices Rise 11% in Deepest Recession of 33 Countries Arni Hallgrimsson lost his job as a public relations consultant when Iceland’s three biggest banks collapsed last year, putting him out of work for the first time since 1980. After a stint cleaning the docks at a whaling station during the summer hunt, he’s unemployed again.


• Writedowns on Mortgage-Collection Servicing Make Even JPMorgan Vulnerable The four biggest U.S. banks by assets may have to take writedowns on $55 billion of mortgage- collection contracts after marking them up by $11 billion in the second quarter, casting a shadow over earnings.


• El-Erian `New Normal' May Beat Summers `Rocket Ship' in Economic Reports Mohamed El-Erian, co-head of the world’s biggest bond fund, says the U.S. economy is in for a sustained period of below-normal growth. Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, disagrees.


• Mating in London Today Means 4,000 People Meeting Over the Price for Metal “Copper! Copper!” shouts a trader at 4:59 p.m. in the London Metal Exchange’s dealing ring, where frowning men in blue suits and pink ties jab fingers and scream at each other in the last 60 seconds of trading.


• Calderon Poised to Win Mexico Budget Approval, Goldman Sachs, Putnam Say Mexican legislators will back President Felipe Calderon’s plan to raise taxes and cut spending, helping the nation avert a credit-rating downgrade and extend gains in stocks, bonds and the peso, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Putnam Investments say.


• Central Banks' Shift to Euro Ignores U.S. Trade, Savings: Chart of the Day Central banks have been shifting their record reserves into the euro at the expense of the U.S. dollar. Investors may not follow, with America’s saving rate and trade balance data back at levels that prevailed when the European currency was unveiled in 1999.


• KPN, Telefonica Battling Against Long Odds in Germany's Bandwidth Auction For Royal KPN NV and Telefonica SA, failure to win the right frequencies in Germany’s largest bandwidth auction in 10 years may determine whether they can remain in the 24 billion-euro ($35.3 billion) market.


• CVS, Walgreen Have Spot Shortages of Seasonal-Flu Vaccine on Demand Surge CVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co., the two largest U.S. drugstore chains, are experiencing spot shortages of seasonal-flu vaccines because of increased demand.


• Stanford University May Sell Sequoia, Kleiner Stakes as Fund Prices Rise Stanford University is seeking to sell $1 billion in private investments, including stakes in venture capital funds run by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as prices rise in the secondary market, according to three people familiar with the matter.


• Wall Street Derivatives Lobby Links With New Democrats to Blunt Obama Plan As President Barack Obama vowed in a Sept. 14 speech in New York’s Federal Hall to correct “reckless behavior and unchecked excess” on Wall Street, Mike McMahon and Barney Frank sat in the audience discussing how to ease proposed rules for the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.


• Worst BRIC China Becomes Best Buy for Fisher, Schiff on Consumer Rebound China’s stocks, the worst performers among the largest emerging markets in the third quarter, are poised to rebound as investors say shares are too cheap to pass up with economic growth accelerating.

Bloomberg News 13th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Citi Sold Phibro to Shed Risk-Taking Tag on CEO Hall's $100 Million Plan Citigroup Inc.’s decision to sell its Phibro LLC energy-trading unit to Occidental Petroleum Corp. came after the Obama administration’s special master for compensation cautioned that a potential $100 million payout to the unit’s chief executive officer, Andrew J. Hall encouraged excessive risk-taking, people familiar with the matter said.


• CVS, Walgreen Have Spot Shortages of Seasonal-Flu Vaccine on Demand Surge CVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co., the two largest U.S. drugstore chains, are experiencing spot shortages of seasonal-flu vaccines because of increased demand.


• Stanford University May Sell Sequoia, Kleiner Stakes as Fund Prices Rise Stanford University is seeking to sell $1 billion in private investments, including stakes in venture capital funds run by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as prices rise in the secondary market, according to three people familiar with the matter.


• Wall Street Derivatives Lobby Links With New Democrats to Blunt Obama Plan As President Barack Obama vowed in a Sept. 14 speech in New York’s Federal Hall to correct “reckless behavior and unchecked excess” on Wall Street, Mike McMahon and Barney Frank sat in the audience discussing how to ease proposed rules for the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market.


• Worst BRIC China Becomes Best Buy for Fisher, Schiff on Consumer Rebound China’s stocks, the worst performers among the largest emerging markets in the third quarter, are poised to rebound as investors say shares are too cheap to pass up with economic growth accelerating.


• Fed Said to Consider Clearing Banks, Facility to Drain Reserves With Repos The Federal Reserve is considering accessing money market funds through clearing banks or creating a facility to drain the record amount of cash added to the financial system, according to people familiar with the plans.


• Cameron's Debt Fix Called `Bizarre,' `Wrong' by Ex-Central Bank Officials Conservative leader David Cameron’s suggestion that the Bank of England end its asset purchases soon was criticized by two former central bank officials, a setback to the opposition’s effort to build credibility on the economy.


• Thomson Default-Swaps Settlement May Snarl Debt Restructurings in Europe Debt restructurings in Europe may get tougher to complete after creditors that agreed to take part in the reorganization of Thomson SA were hampered in how they can settle credit-default swaps on the debt.


• Jamie Oliver Seeks $22 Million From Investors for Restaurants Across Asia Jamie Oliver and his venture partner are seeking $22 million from private investors to help fund 30 of the U.K. celebrity chef’s Italian restaurants across Asia.

Bloomberg Daily News 12th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Cocaine Survivors Find Losing London Bonus Brings Ending to Bubble's Binge Neill Junor remembers the exact moment he decided to quit snorting cocaine. On a chilly December afternoon in 2005, the former equities analyst took a stroll in London’s deer-filled Richmond Park to select the tree from which he would hang himself.


• I-Believe-in-a-Strong-Dollar Refrain Becomes Relic as China Begs Stability More than a decade after former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin made the “strong dollar” national policy, currency traders say the same words coming from the Obama administration have little meaning.


• BlackBerry's U2 Love Comes With Budget No Label Can Match as Artists Flee Irish rockers U2 will step on stage tomorrow in Tampa, Florida, helped by BlackBerry’s sponsorship of their world tour in a deal no record company could offer.


• Harvard Losing Money With External Managers Helps Mendillo Return to Roots Losing money with 86 percent of its fund managers last year is giving Jane Mendillo, chief executive officer of Harvard Management Co., a big excuse to return to the university’s investing roots by making more of its own decisions on what to buy and sell.


• Italian Makers of $100 Million Yachts Resist Rivals' `Suicide' Price Cuts Italy’s largest yacht makers are resisting the price cuts started by overseas rivals and will target wealthy consumers by offering more services and eco- friendlier vessels.


• Canada's Banks Rebound From Financial Crisis Before Rivals: Chart of Day For Canada’s banks, it’s almost as if the financial crisis never happened.


• Vivendi May Prefer to Concede Price Battle for Brazil's GVT to Telefonica Vivendi SA, whose planned acquisition of Brazilian phone operator GVT (Holding) SA was derailed by a counter-bid from Telefonica SA yesterday, may walk away from a fight that analysts say the company is bound to lose.

Bloomberg Daily News 9th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Hamas Finds Gazan Tunnel Investors' Losing $500 Million Worse Than Madoff Investment opportunities are rare in the Gaza Strip. So when Nabila Ghabin saw one last year, she pawned her car and jewelry and put $12,000 into a network of tunnels that brought in supplies smuggled from Egypt.


• Winters Shows JPMorgan Bankers a Path to Safety, Dimon Shows Him the Door William Winters told a former colleague in London six months ago that JPMorgan Chase & Co. shunned the structured products and off-balance sheet vehicles that crippled global markets because they didn’t make financial sense.


• Britain Risked `Bank Runs, Riots' as RBS, HBOS Neared Collapse Last Year A year ago today, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HBOS Plc were close to collapse, causing a chain reaction that could have ended with riots in U.K. cities, security analysts and economists said.


• RBS Faced Risk of Full Seizure by Brown at 2008 Crisis Climax, Gieve Says Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc posed such a threat to the British and global financial systems at the height of the crisis last year that Prime Minister Gordon Brown could have ended up fully seizing the bank, former Bank of England official John Gieve said.


• Jen Exits Morgan Stanley With Dollar Smile Giving BlueGold Capital Insight As a currency strategist and economist at Morgan Stanley for 13 years, Stephen Jen made market calls and forecasts. It was up to clients to decide whether to buy or sell based on his recommendations.


• EBay's Monthly Sales Increase for First Time in a Year: Chart of the Day Retailers on EBay.com Inc.’s site had sales gains in August and September, the first increases since at least July 2008, according to ChannelAdvisor Corp., which helps merchants sell on EBay, Amazon.com and other sites.


• Parisians Waiting in Rain for Uniqlo Sweaters to Spur `Astounding' Growth While celebrities watched models strut down catwalks during fashion week in Paris, dozens of people queued in the rain to buy 40-euro cashmere sweaters at the newly opened Uniqlo store in the city’s Opera district.


• Pickens Power Play Makes Al Gore Convenient Truth for No-Import Oil Policy Trim and tanned at 81, T. Boone Pickens leans forward in his swivel chair to better hear Al Gore exhort solar and wind power. It’s a scorching August day at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. Pickens, who has made and lost billions betting on energy in his boom-and-bust career, waits with Democratic Party bigwigs for his turn to speak. His topic: why the U.S. must wean itself from foreign oil.

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Ballmer Turns to 14-Year-Old Son to Be Sure Windows 7 Isn't the Next Vista Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer says the company got the wrong impression from early positive feedback on Vista and won’t make the same mistake with the software’s successor, Windows 7.


• Buffett Calls Purchase of Hog-Products Firm CTB `Lucky Day' for Berkshire Warren Buffett, who as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has overseen more than $50 billion in acquisitions, said the 2002 purchase of farm-products provider CTB Inc. was “a lucky day.”


• Wall Street Cedes to Toronto's Bay Street as Canadian Banks `Play Offense' Henry Michaels spent 25 years as an investment banker with New York-based firms such as Merrill Lynch & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Citigroup Inc.


• Harding Pleads Guilty to Taking $800,000 in New York State Pension Scheme Raymond Harding, the former chairman of New York’s Liberal Party charged with participating in a kickback scheme at the state pension fund, pleaded guilty to fraud in state court in Manhattan.


• Burned Bondholders Demand Movie, Bowling Alley Claims for Junk Financing Companies are selling more bonds secured by assets than ever, showing that even in a record year for corporate debt, investors are becoming more demanding.


• California Tries to Save Municipal Bond Market by Itself: Chart of the Day For one day, it was like old times in the municipal market. Can lightning strike twice?


• Russian Steel Writedowns Loom After Price Collapse Wrecks Global Ambitions Russian steelmakers’ plans for world domination are in tatters. A spending spree on U.S. mills meant to lift their billionaire owners into the industry’s top rank is instead forcing them to renegotiate debt and write down assets.


• China Minsheng Said to Seek Controlling Stake in California Lender UCBH China Minsheng Banking Corp. is weighing a plan to increase its stake in UCBH Holdings Inc. in what may be the first U.S. bank acquisition by a mainland Chinese firm, according to two people briefed on the matter.


• Japan Banks May Avoid Bad Loans Under Debt Moratorium as Kamei Eases Rules Japanese banks’ bad loans won’t be driven higher by a proposed moratorium on debt payments by struggling small companies, said Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei.


• Fed Should Be Forced to Release Names of Banks, Bloomberg Says in Lawsuit The Federal Reserve should be forced to identify companies that received loans from the central bank because it can’t demonstrate that borrowers would be harmed by the disclosure, according to lawyers who won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.


• Merrill Bringing Down Lewis Gives Bank of America 30% Profits as `a Steal' Merrill Lynch & Co., which helped bring down Kenneth D. Lewis, may end up saving his bank.


• Unemployment Rising to 9.8% Means More Economic Pain as Consumption Falls Mohamed El-Erian says economists are wrong to dismiss unemployment as merely a lagging indicator, a sign of where the economy has been. For the chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., the 26-year high jobless rate is also an omen of things to come.The climb in the September rate to 9.8 percent, double the level at the start of last year, leaves the U.S. saddled with about 15 million people out of work and with limited prospects. That will further hurt the housing.

Bloomberg Daily News 7th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Pellegrini 80% Return Proves Paulson Protege No Fluke at Macro Hedge Fund Paolo Pellegrini has a nose for trouble. He saw it in rising housing prices in early 2006, when he cranked through decades of home price data and concluded the bubble was poised to burst. Pellegrini then helped engineer a massive bet against subprime mortgages that catapulted Paulson & Co. hedge funds to 2007 gains of as much as 590 percent -- and firmwide profits of more than $3.5 billion.


• Vets Loving Socialized Medicine Show Government Health Care Offers Savings Rick Tanner is one American who loves his government-run health care.


• Stiglitz Deflation Threat Pushes Bernanke to Keep Rates at Zero Next Year The U.S. faces the possibility of deflation for the first time since the Eisenhower administration, a threat that may prompt the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates near zero through next year.


• CMA CGM Said to Seek Investment From Investors Including French State Fun CMA CGM SA, the third-biggest container-shipping operator, is courting equity investors, including France’s FSI sovereign-wealth fund, as it seeks to reduce $5.6 billion of debt, according to three people briefed on the company’s plan.


• Mortgage REIT Reception Shows Skepticism for Business Model of Buying Debt Real estate investors trying to leverage initial public offerings to buy distressed commercial property debt are using a flawed strategy, said James Corl, a managing director at New York-based Siguler Guff & Co.


• Pain in Spain May Linger as Banks Prop Up Property Prices to Avoid Losses Maria Jose Lozano, a civil servant from Madrid, left a recent property fair empty-handed after discovering that home prices were still out of reach in a market where sales have dropped 50 percent from their 2006 peak.


• Unemployment in U.S. Now Lasts Longer Than State Benefits: Chart of Day For the first time, the average amount of time it takes fired employees to find a new job exceeds the length of their standard unemployment benefits.


• Texas Instruments CEO Templeton Says Analog Chips Unit Can Grow 20% a Year Texas Instruments Inc. is sticking to a prediction that demand for chips used in products such as electric saws and disposable hearing aids can more than make up for revenue lost from mobile phones.

Bloomberg News 5th October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Pellegrini 80% Return Proves Paulson Protege No Fluke at Macro Hedge Fund Paolo Pellegrini has a nose for trouble. He saw it in rising housing prices in early 2006, when he cranked through decades of home price data and concluded the bubble was poised to burst. Pellegrini then helped engineer a massive bet against subprime mortgages that catapulted Paulson & Co. hedge funds to 2007 gains of as much as 590 percent -- and firmwide profits of more than $3.5 billion.


• Pain in Spain May Linger as Banks Prop Up Property Prices to Avoid Losses Maria Jose Lozano, a civil servant from Madrid, left a recent property fair empty-handed after discovering that home prices were still out of reach in a market where sales have dropped 50 percent from their 2006 peak.


• Berlusconi Sex Scandals Mean Legal Fights for Italian Newspaper Readership Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s alleged romps with prostitutes may have staunched the decline in readership at the nation’s newspapers. They’ve also landed the publications in court.


• Recession Rising Like Phoenix With Property Delinquencies Surging Fivefold Drive up to the Peaks Corporate Park in north Scottsdale, Arizona, and the only person you’ll encounter at the luxury office complex is a security guard.


• PepsiCo's Nooyi to Boost Ad Spending, Push Gatorade Products for Athletes PepsiCo Inc., the world’s largest snack-food maker, plans to increase advertising spending next year and is readying new Gatorade products to boost consumption, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi said.


• Donald Guloien, Named Manulife Chief Amid Lehman Collapse, Dials Back Risk Donald Guloien said he had “maybe a week” to enjoy his promotion to chief executive officer at Manulife Financial Corp on Sept. 8 last year. Then the financial world collapsed with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.


• Connecticut Hedge-Fund Capital Gets More Wee Weevils to Fight Killer Weed More help is on the way for the hedges in hedge-fund capital Greenwich, Connecticut: a larger army of wee black weevils.


• China's Rural Migration, Wealth Gap Strain Post-Mao Party: Chart of Day China’s communist regime, marking its 60th anniversary, faces a widening wealth gap between farmers and city dwellers that may threaten stability, even as the economy is poised to pass Japan’s as the world’s second largest.


• London Bankers Rail Against EU Oversight as Lea Invokes Secession Option In a Georgian townhouse four minutes walk from Parliament, bankers, lawyers and economists held an off-the-record evening meeting to plot how to fight European Union financial regulation that they deem a threat to London.

Bloomberg News 2nd October 2009

Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Gucci Snake Bag in China at $4,390 Makes Kebab Griller See Rich as Cheats At China’s newest Gucci store, in Shijiazhuang, snakeskin purses sell for the equivalent of $4,390, about twice the city’s per capita annual income. Next door at Brooks Brothers, button-down shirts go for $190.


• London Bankers Rail Against EU Oversight as Lea Invokes Secession Option In a Georgian townhouse four minutes walk from Parliament, bankers, lawyers and economists held an off-the-record evening meeting to plot how to fight European Union financial regulation that they deem a threat to London.


• Saving $4 Billion in Interest Comes With Fannie-Freddie Void in Borrowing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks are paying down debt at a record pace, creating a supply void in bond markets that may have saved U.S. taxpayers $3.8 billion and corporations $230 million in borrowing costs.


• AIG Said to Dismiss Advisory Firm McKinsey as Benmosche Seeks to Cut Fees American International Group Inc. dismissed McKinsey & Co. as an adviser for the bailed-out insurer’s restructuring as Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche seeks to trim consulting fees, said two people familiar with the matter.


• Connecticut Hedge-Fund Capital Gets More Wee Weevils to Fight Killer Weed More help is on the way for the hedges in hedge-fund capital Greenwich, Connecticut: a larger army of wee black weevils.


• Morgan Stanley's Mack Proposes Single Regulator to Oversee Banks Worldwide Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack, who struggled to return the bank to profitability amid the financial crisis, said a single regulator should oversee financial institutions worldwide.


• FDIC Plan May Cost Biggest Lenders Including Bank of America $10 Billion The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s plan to rebuild its reserves may cost Bank of America Corp. and three of the largest U.S. banks more than $10 billion.


• Sanofi's CEO Viehbacher to Keep Shopping for Biotechs, Vaccines, New Drugs Sanofi-Aventis SA will continue “shopping” for acquisitions to build its vaccine, biotechnology, and nonprescription medicine businesses, as well as expand in emerging markets, Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said in an interview.


• Ma Sees Want Want in China Bring Prosperity to Taiwan as Shares Return 39% In a wood-paneled boardroom in downtown Shanghai, Everett Chu pauses from his job overseeing the finances of snack food giant Want Want China Holdings Ltd. to marvel at the fickleness of history.


• China Stimulus Winners at Great Wall Motors in Hebei Get Best of Shanghai The biggest winners from China’s $586 billion economic stimulus are emerging more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Shanghai in the factories and stores of Chengdu and Xi’an.