As of Monday, I become the Opening Bell Editor at DealBreaker, a Wall Street financial blog. The Opening Bell column is the first on the site every morning, summarizing the overnight news from Asia and Europe, and looking forward towards relevant market news in the day ahead.
I've said before that The Global Perspective is the "work in progress" part of the journalistic equation - an attempt to construct the material that ultimately ends up in print in a raw, basic fashion. This post is a great example of that; a dress rehearsal, if you like, of the Opening Bell segment at DealBreaker. Sunday at around 7 pm you can check back for "Opening Bell Asia", which, if popular, I may continue on a more regular-ish basis over here at The Global Perspective.
OPENING BELL (WEEKEND EDITION)
Editor's Note: The weekend edition is somewhat more abridged than the daily version,
since, well ... it's the weekend, and apart from companies trading on
markets operating under Sharia Law, there aren't that many corporate announcements made on the weekend.
Below 11,000, Japan's Nikkei loses 8% for the week (MarketWatch)
Asian markets tumbled in the last week on fears of a pending U.S. and Japanese recession. The Nikkei is as its lowest level since May 2005, while Hong Kong is off 5.4%. The article notes that Asian bourses may see a “bounce” on the bailout’s approval. This is putting it mildly. If U.S. markets have seemed a little like a rollercoaster in recent weeks, that’s nothing on the giant swings Asian investors feel every morning.
Job Losses Pushing U.S. Economy Into `Significant' Recession (Bloomberg)
The latest Labor Department data showed that payrolls fell by 159,000 during September, which is the biggest reduction in jobs in 5 years. That apparently means we’re headed for the worst recession in 25 years. It’s probably best not to hold your breath for this one. Jobs data has been consistently volatile in the past six years, with little direct correlation (if any) to GDP data. In January, you will remember, payroll data was also the weakest in 5 years … and the economy grew that quarter by 2.8%. Still, with every release of negative economic data, journalists everywhere scramble to write the first “worst recession ever” story. Here's today's.
AIG Decides Its Too Big To Succeed (Forbes.com)
Aside from missing the apostrophe "s" in the headline [It's], Forbes.com reports that Standard & Poor’s has revised its rating on AIG to “negative” from “developing”, while the U.S.-government owned insurance giant has burnt through most of it’s bailout cash in less than a month, around $61 billion (of a total $85 billion). The latest plan is to fill the capital hole with the sale of even more assets. The question is, whose going to buy these? There have been “inquiries” into the mortgage insurance unit, though no buyers as of yet, according to AIG’s chairman Edward Liddy. What’s the betting those “inquiries” have been from either Chinese-owned Ping An (which lost a pile of money on the Dutch investment bank Fortis recently), or yes … China state-owned China Life Insurance?
Coming Week: Focus on Fundamentals (TheStreet.com)
Next week is bargain-hunting time for investors, according to TheStreet.com’s Lauren Tara LaCapra, since banks will in theory be able to do business with each other after the bailout plan was approved Friday. "In theory" is the key phrase here. While there may be some short-term momentum behind stocks, it’s worth remembering that this is still a market that is dominated by volatility, rather than upward price surges. If financials surge on the bailout plan Monday, they are just as likely to plunge Tuesday on the back of comments by some random chief executive about how the bailout wasn’t actually big enough.
CNN's Citizen Journalism Goes `Awry' With False Report on Jobs (Bloomberg)
Reports on CNN’s iReport.com by a citizen journalist that Steve Jobs had a heart attack Friday sent shares of Apple spiraling 5.4%. It’s still unclear what Apple or the SEC intends to do about the bogus report. This news may serve Apple stock well in the next quarter or so, however. In the last few months, Apple stock has taken a hit because – among other reasons – of false reports about Job’s resurging pancreatic cancer. Now, when any rumor starts circulating about Job’s health, it’s going to need to be doubly backed-up in order to have any real impact.
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