Daily News Roundup 2012: Friday 18 May

Good morning

The headlines:

1. Facebook IPO News! There's so much of it. See here for the summary.
2. Jamie Dimon agrees to testify to Senate on JPM trading loss. Link: Meanwhile, back at the opposition camp. Awkwardly in the face of Goldman's facebook score... And back to the Volker Rule debate. 
3. Fitch cuts Greece's credit rating again. Link: "Surprise". The surprise was the re-rating upward after the debt restructuring. Anyway - it's back to CCC.
4. US Insurer costs relating to Dog Bites increase to $479 million. Link: Bitch please. 
5. Large trades in Junk-bond ETFs attract attention. Link: Speculators are out Whale-Watching. For the record, Exchange-Traded Funds are a little like buying shares in a basket of investments rather than going through the expense of buying each of the underlying investments*. Anyway - it seems that some of the largest transactions ever recorded were made on two ETFs that compose of investments in Junk bonds; and these transactions were completed just hours before Jamie Dimon announced that hugely awkward $2 billion loss moment. For example, Invesco Ltd ETF had a one-day inflow that boosted its share price by 25%. That's not normal. In fact, it sounds a lot like a Bruno-Iksil-scare. The markets are looking for the tell-tale signs!
6. Human Genome in talks to avoid a hostile takeover. Link: GSK? I d(o)n(t)a wanna. They're trying to ward off a hostile takeover from GlaxoSmithKline. On May 9th, GSK directly offered shareholders a cash price 81% higher than the closing share price on the day before GSK's interest was made public (April 19th). Human Genome has taken advantage of a "poison pill" clause in their shareholders' agreement (is that the right term?) - which gives them a year to search for alternative investors.  

And that's all for now!

Have a great day.

*It's similar to a Unit Trust investment. However, ETFs trade constantly on an exchange, where Unit Trusts are usually priced once daily (anyone who's worked in an Asset Management firm will know that there are some people who do NOT get disturbed at repricing time - at the risk of death - so even if you're dying...).