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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms has died at 86 according to media reports citing the Jesse Helms research center. The long-serving Republican from North Carolina was known for his conservative stances, including efforts to force reforms at the United Nations and opposition to the creation of the Martin Luther King holiday. Helms was first elected to the senate in 1972 and served five terms.
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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — BCE Inc. said Friday it reached a final agreement with a group of investors to amend a buyout deal with a higher breakup fee, but the price will remain at $42.75 a share. Shares of BCE closed at $34.75 a share on Thursday. An executed credit agreement for the parent company of Bell Canada and other key financing documents have been finalized; a reverse break fee payable by the purchaser has been increased to $1.2 billion and closing will take place on or before Dec. 11. Prior to closing, the company will not pay dividends on its common shares but will continue to pay dividends on its preferred shares. The board of directors of BCE has confirmed George Cope, COO of Bell Canada since 2005, as the next CEO of Bell Canada, effective July 11.
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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service on Friday downgraded its rating on UBS’ financial strength to B- from B and also cut its senior debt and deposit ratings on the bank to Aa2 from Aa1. Moody’s said the downgrade “reflects the challenges still facing the bank’s management team to return UBS to a position of stability following the losses in its investment banking division.” The rating agency said it believes UBS core wealth management franchise hasn’t been permanently affected, but the future of its fixed income, currencies and commodities business is less clear. “The bank has initiated many changes to senior management, risk management, and, more recently, corporate governance, but it is not yet clear whether these changes will be effective considering the complexity of the task,” it said. Shares in UBS traded down 1% after the downgrade.
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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Exxon Mobil Corp. said in a filing late Thursday it’ll book third-quarter after-tax earnings of $1.6 billion on the sale of interests in a natural gas transport business in northern Germany. The transaction, completed Tuesday, won’t affect the exploration, production and natural gas sale and storage activities conducted by ExxonMobil affiliates in Germany, the Irving, Texas company said.
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LONDON (MarketWatch) — The Irish Central Statistics Office said Friday that its seasonally adjusted live register showed the standardised unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in June. The number on the register increased 10,100 to hit 217,400 at the end of June. This compares with a rate of 4.6% at the end of 2007. Rossa White, economist at Davy Stockbrokers noted that the rise represented the biggest jump in claimants in any half-year since 1975.
“Unemployment claimants have spiked in the last six months, driven by housing-related layoffs - both direct and indirect,” he said. However, White also noted that the true unemployment rate is probably lower because data on how fast labour force growth is slowing isn’t yet available.
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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Oil futures turned lower Friday after Iran signaled it would soon respond to an international proposal on its nuclear program. Nymex crude oil futures for August delivery were down $1.18 to $144.11 in electronic trading. The contract closed Thursday at $145.29 a barrel — the loftiest closing level ever for the exchange — after hitting a record, intra-day high of $145.85. Iranian state radio said the country’s top nuclear negotiator told European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana by phone that Iran would present its response Friday, the Associated Press reported. The EU has offered Iran incentives to stop uranium enrichment.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Goldman Sachs said Friday that European banks could need to raise around 60 billion euros ($94 billion) in additional capital, or withhold dividend payments for a year, if recent moves by several banks to strengthen their balance sheets set a new benchmark for capital levels. The broker added that figure could rise to over 90 billion euros if a turn in the European credit cycle triggered losses in line with those seen in the early 1990s. The broker made several rating changes, including downgrading Swedbank , Carnegie and Bankinter to sell from neutral, cutting Banco Santander to neutral from buy on valuation grounds and upgrading Handelsbanken to neutral from sell. Goldman said it’s cut earnings estimates through 2010 for over 40 banks and its forecasts now stand, on average, 12% below consensus.
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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Air France is mulling a joint venture that could see it offer high-speed rail travel, the BBC reported on its Web site on Friday. The airline is studying a possible tie-up with Veolia , a French utility that also runs several rail services. Under the plans, the BBC reported, Veolia would run trains from Air France’s hub airport in Paris to other destinations.
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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Shares in British supermarket group J Sainsbury rose 1.7% in London on Friday after Qatar Holding upped its stake in the firm to 26%. Qatar Holding increased its shareholding by 12.37 million shares to 454.5 million shares.
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The USD appreciated against all of the major currencies during yesterday’s trading session. The US Dollar gained over 160 points versus the EUR and closed at a rate of 1.5702. This happened in spite of the mostly disappointing results for the economy. . The Unemployment Rate was higher than forecasted at 5.5%. The Average Hourly Earnings did not change since last published at 0.3%. The Unemployment Claims indicator rose to 404K. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Composite plummeted to 48.2 meaning the service sector is shrinking. And the Natural Gas Storage Gauge came in 4B lower than predicted at 85B. Thus to find a better explanation for this, phenomenon traders might like to look at the crucial Nonfarm Employment Change which did came in lower than expected at -62K, however most expected a larger drop as the ADP came in a with a big disappointment and the actual Nonfarm Employment Change was […]

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